Thursday, April 20, 2006
Bill Swanson of Raytheon is a Plagiarist!
The following is a letter I submitted this morning to USA Today in response to THIS ARTICLE they ran a few days ago.
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In your article entitled "CEOs say how you treat a waiter can predict a lot about character" by Del Jones, you list 33 "Unwritten Rules" of Raytheon CEO Bill Swanson.
However, it should be mentioned to your readers that nearly all of these "unwritten rules" have indeed been written -- by another author in fact, sixty years ago. Mr. Swanson has plagiarized from the little-known book "The Unwritten Laws of Engineering" by W.J. King (1944, American Society of Mechanical Engineers), trying to pass off others’ work as his own. Perhaps there is a new rule he needs to swallow about taking credit for other people's work. Or perhaps this sort of thing has been his recipe for success in corporate America and, for him, stepping on the genius of others is business as usual.
Here’s just a partial list of the rules that were lifted verbatim from the text of “The Unwritten Laws of Engineering”:
- "Cultivate the habit of 'boiling matters down' to their simplest terms."
- "Do not get excited in engineering emergencies -- keep your feet on the ground."
- "Cultivate the habit of making brisk, clean-cut decisions."
- "Promises, schedules, and estimates are necessary and important instruments in a well-ordered business"
- "Be careful about whom you mark for copies of letters, memos, etc. when the interests of other departments are involved."
- "In dealing with customers and outsiders remember that you represent the company ... be careful of you commitments."
- "Be extremely careful of the accuracy of your statements."
- "Don't overlook the fact that you're working for your boss."
- "Be as particular as you can in the selection of your boss."
- "Strive for conciseness and clarity in oral and written reports."
- "Don't be timid -- speak up -- express yourself and promote your ideas."
- "Confirm your instructions and the other fellow's commitments in writing. Do not assume that the job will be done..."
- "However menial and trivial your early assignments may appear give them your best efforts."
- "In carrying out a project do not wait for foremen, vendors, and others to deliver the goods; go after them and keep everlastingly after them."
The list of similarities and exact quotations goes on and on. This is a particularly serious infraction that deserves the attention and correction of your editorial department.
Sincerely,
Carl Durrenberger, San Diego
Chemical Engineer
posted 3:48 PM
Comments:
Nicanor
:)
Oh yeah, and was that tongue in cheek, or was the pp serious when he suggested (asserted) that calling it something else
makes it something other than plagiarism?
--
twigmonkey posted 9:43 AM
Simon
K.R.Srivarahan
Also, hey Carl, front page of today's NYT business section!
:) posted 9:52 PM
These are the words of a man who has spoken with a lawyer versed in copyright law. Copyright protects expression of an idea. posted 10:10 PM
Grade school children get suspended for copying their homework, yet according to Forbes magazine, Swanson was paid over $5.9 mil last year. This book is widely circulated throughout the company--even within it's own Leadership Development Programs! Would this be the type of behavior you would want passed along to future leaders in your company?
Come on. Mr. Swanson’s attempt to save face through his PR department’s public statement is a joke to the business community and the over 85,000 employees who work for Raytheon. Furthermore, tying distribution of the ‘Rules’ booklet to acceptance of donations to MathCounts (a charity encouraging math education within elementary and high schools) as being done on the corporate website is a shameful and appalling act of self-promotion. Perhaps a donation towards ethics awareness education would be more in order.
More needs to be said about this. The public should not sit idle and let this action slide under the rug as it appears will be done. A public example needs to be set of Mr. Swanson showing that this type of conduct is unacceptable in the business world—indeed anywhere—and that no matter how much you make or what your stature, you still are responsible for your own actions or lack there of. posted 10:39 PM
http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2005-12-18-raytheon-advice_x.htm posted 8:00 AM
jonathan
So this guy had no incentive for plagiarizing; he never made a dime off of it, nor did he even realize that his little book would become so popular.
It is entirely possible that Swanson read, collected, and internalized all of these aphorisms throughout the years, and then put them down on paper, without intending any sort of plagiarism. I mean, the book that Swanson plagiarized is from 1944, not exactly a recent release!
But the bottom line is still the bottom line: he never sold the book, never made any money off of the book. posted 7:31 AM
It's still plagiarism.
Actually, he probably did intend to make money off these aphorisms. He was trying to enhance his future value as a fee-charging after dinner speaker
-- david.davenport.1@netzero.com posted 12:55 PM
Swanson is a Cal Poly Grad, which one, Pomona or SLO? (Cal Poly SLO goes by California Polytechnic State University, Cal Poly Pomona goes by California State Polytechnic University, so if the CEO bio at the Raytheon site is literally precise, he would be an SLO grad.) Many Cal Poly Pomona engineering students ended up working at GD Pomona division, which made missiles, later bought by Hughes Aircraft, then later became part of Raytheon. Did he rise up through GD or start originally at Raytheon?
Could be that Swanson obtained the King book from a variety of places. Maybe Raytheon made a habit of distributing the book to its engineers also. Maybe he acquired it along with the missile division originally part of GD. Swanson was at one time manager of the missile systems division, likely came across the King book there if not before.
I still have the copy of the book on my shelf. Always thought that was an interesting collection of thoughts. Glad I saved it all these years.
The new version of the King book, with revisions and additions, was published by ASME in 2001 (the one available at Amazon). Check out copyright registration number TX-5-405-700.
I'm glad to see that a Cal Poly grad rose to the top, sorry to see our school name in the mess.
There is no way this was an accidental memory, the rules that Swanson used must have been written down from the original King book. The probability of coming up with same words on his own is just too slim. They laws are even in a similar order as in the King work.
The law of copyright infringement is well settled: access to the original work coupled with substantial similarity of the works equals infringement. Good chance he had access to the original work, the similarity seems clear also.
Swanson either lifted these laws from King directly, or lifted them from someone else that lifted them from King. In either case, Swanson did not give attribution to the source and claimed them as his own. posted 11:28 AM
Mark Graban
http://kanban.blogspot.com/2006/06/postcards-from-raytheon.html posted 8:29 PM
Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897), 1.18 Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar
It is still an important rule in life. posted 4:06 AM
Whoever wants media to highlight it widely is living a hopeful dream. Media is paid by the likes of Swanson. You may, however, write widely and decide to not consume the ads produced by the offending media. Use $$$ and not words to convince media. posted 9:59 AM Post a Comment
