Ted Jones
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I agree with you. However, I think Jones as a firm is concerned about the culture dying. I think once most of the veterans that have worked with Ted begin to retire, we will continue to hear a lot about it.
I agree though. To be honest, I never read those "Culture and Kudos" articles anymore.I agree with you to a point. I never met Ted. I only personally know a few people who did. B24 is right that Jones is concerned with losing the culture. It’s bound to happen the more generations we get away from Ted, Jack Phelan, John Bachmann, et al. BTW, I met Jack on my first div trip. Walked up to me in the hallway after I checked in, looked at my name tag and said “Spaceman Spiff. I’m Jack Phelan. I think you and I are having dinner tomorrow night.” Then walked away. My wife was incredibly confused. But I was thrilled. Ended up having dinner with him and his wife and a few other new FAs on their first trip at a little Italian restaurant. In Italy. For 4 hours. It was a pretty cool night.
Personally, I think the only way to retain the culture is to continue to revisit the past, which is what created the culture. It will certainly be the only way when firm legends like Jim McKenzie, Frank Finnegan, and some of the other old timers are gone. I like the culture. I like many of the changes that Weddle has put into place. My fear is that the culture will change so drastically that it no longer resembles the company I started working for. I would hate for Jones to end up looking like just another wirehouse.I’ve been here over a decade, and the culture already HAS changed a great deal. We are treated more like children than adults, and I definitely feel more like an “employee” than I used to.
And I know this may be petty, but I am getting tired of having to "toast" Ted Jones at our regional dinners now. Maybe 5% of the people in the room ever met him, and aren't toasts supposed to be spontaneous - not ordered from the home office?[quote=voltmoie]
Everyday I check out the Edward Jones intranet site for any new information, ideas, or just to burn a few minutes before I get on the phone. All I see is Ted Jones did this, Ted Jones did that, Ted Ted Ted. At some point EDJ is going to have to realize what Wal-Mart did in the '90s - culture lives with the present, not the past. Just as Wal-Mart gave up on slamming Sam Walton down peoples throats that never met and never could Jones will have to make the leap as well.For the EDJ vets and folks that where there for awhile, has the culture evolved? Has it grown at all? I’m not sure I can take another Ted Jones chauffeur story. [/quote]
I think that is a great comparison. I am kind of pissed I never thought of it myself.
Nice guy, great story and all. I little like Santa … you begin to wonder if he really existed.
But insofar as the culture goes, I mean really - how can you treat 4000 national reps like you would have treated 400 regional guys? And how can you treat our goal of 20000 international reps (? is that much?) like 4000 national reps? Growth comes at a cost. Culture needs to be developed locally, not pushed down from national levels. We aren't a Jones "family" anymore.[quote=LockEDJ]Nice guy, great story and all. I little like Santa … you begin to wonder if he really existed.
But insofar as the culture goes, I mean really - how can you treat 4000 national reps like you would have treated 400 regional guys? And how can you treat our goal of 20000 international reps (? is that much?) like 4000 national reps? Growth comes at a cost. Culture needs to be developed locally, not pushed down from national levels. We aren't a Jones "family" anymore.[/quote] Perfectly said, LockEDJ. When I started, the percentage of the firm that had been out less than 3 years was MUCH less than it is today. That practically mandates a change in culture. And you are exactly right - each region seems to have its own culture. And depending on the regional leadership, it is either a "Ted" culture or a "Doug" or "Jim" cultureTo be quite honest, JOnes would have been much better off staying under 5000 FA’s, and focusing heavily on increasing production. I would bet that the cost of the bottom 3000 FA’s, plus the HDQRT overhead and training/recruiting to support them, is a HUGE drain on the firm, as well as a drain on the culture. Jones could have been a rock-star through the past 18 months, but the whole growth-at-all costs mantra (and half the company being new) creates this H&R Block atmosphere. Our size seems to over-shadow our partnership structure.
I bet the top 7000 FA's could absorb the production if we lost the bottom 3000 FA's (the other 2000 are really not producing yet). And think of the overhead we could shed. The firm just needs to focus on increasing production.Jones thinks the clock stopped the day Ted died, when if Ted were still around he would have them light years ahead of where they are now. Ted looked forward, and when he died, Jones started looking backward.
Love the comment about being treated like children…it’s very true.
Don’t you think they treat you more as morons, not children. Don’t think for a second the GP’s think any higher of you than they do the paint on the wall. You’re a number which needs to produce a number.
I can handle being a number that needs to produce a number but cultures grow and develop. They don’t stand still and they are not about one man.
Jones is in trouble of losing itself because they can’t seem to find TED!
[quote=voltmoie]
Everyday I check out the Edward Jones intranet site for any new information, ideas, or just to burn a few minutes before I get on the phone. All I see is Ted Jones did this, Ted Jones did that, Ted Ted Ted. At some point EDJ is going to have to realize what Wal-Mart did in the '90s - culture lives with the present, not the past. Just as Wal-Mart gave up on slamming Sam Walton down peoples throats that never met and never could Jones will have to make the leap as well. For the EDJ vets and folks that where there for awhile, has the culture evolved? Has it grown at all? I'm not sure I can take another Ted Jones chauffeur story. [/quote] I do think their is a difference between sharing Ted Jones stories with people that work here and shoving it down clients/customers throats. We might have a picture on the wall, but I doubt FAs are out telling clients the Ted Jones story. It's not in our commercials. It is used to increase morale for the employees. Maybe I have too much koolaid in my veins, but I kind of like it.i went to site
jd powers
100 best places
i know nothing about EDJ is it that good?
with ted jones?
or ted ginn
or teddy ballgame?
Ted Jones is the only thing left about Jones that I still believe – please don’t tell me anything bad about him.
There is nothing bad to be said about Ted Jones.
I'm raising my glass to Ted, and to ManOnTheCouch. I swore before I got in this business that I would never be the guy whose day was ruined because of something that happened in the stock market. I'm proud to say I've kept that oath, and Ted is a big part of my inspiration. "...money has never been my God"“Did I ever tell you about the time Ted Jones took me out
to go get a drink with him? We go off looking for a bar and we can’t
find one. Finally Ted Jones takes me to a vacant lot and says, ‘Here we
are.’ We sat there for a year and a half and sure enough someone
constructs a bar around us. The day they opened we ordered a shot,
drank it, and then burned the place to the ground. Ted Jones yelled over
the roar of the flames, ‘Always leave things the way you found em!’”
“Ted Jones was a 10 foot monster who slept with all our wives! And punched us all in the face! And we loved him for it!”
Ted Jones may have been a man’s man, a hard worker, and could obviously could sell an LP to a farmer in BFE. Bachman was a prick. Doug was the fat kid on the basketball team that got put on the court to force a technical foul and did so willingly to have his day to bask in the glory. Seriously, his first “job” was to clean chalk erasers. Tool?