Rarely do outsiders glimpse the personal lives and journeys of America's top corporate leaders, but on April 12 members of the Cornell community can do just that. Samuel Curtis Johnson, Cornell alumnus, trustee emeritus and longtime benefactor of the university, who headed his family's enterprises for more than three decades, will present a film about the relationship between his life and life's work.
The film will be screened Thursday, April 12, at 5:30 p.m. in Call Alumni Auditorium of Kennedy Hall, on campus. Johnson will introduce the hourlong film and take questions from the audience afterward. The program, sponsored by the Johnson Graduate School of Management, is free and open to the Cornell community.
The film, "Carnauba, A Son's Memoir," was a gift for future generations of the Johnson family and employees of their family enterprises, which include:
While more than 4,000 people have shared in this intriguing, intimate portrait of one of America's great corporate leaders, the Cornell audience will be among the first outside the company family to view it.
"What I liked about the film is how it illustrated the tight connection between who you are as a person and how you lead other people," said Randall Peterson, Cornell associate professor of organizational behavior at the Johnson School. Peterson, whose research focuses on characteristics of effective leaders, recently traveled to Racine, Wisc., to view the film at SC Johnson's historic, landmark Frank Lloyd Wright-designed headquarters. "Sam Johnson manages his business in an open, honest, straightforward way, which is how he runs his life," Peterson said.
Peterson added that "Carnauba, A Son's Memoir" is not a travelogue or a chronicle of Johnson's life. "It's a really compelling and personal story, not a documentary about a chief executive," he said. "And the cinematography is breathtaking."
The story revolves around Johnson's recreation of an historic trip to Brazil made by his father, Herbert F. Johnson Jr., in 1935 to study the carnauba palm, the plant-based ingredient for the Johnson company's wax products. Forty years after that trip, Sam Johnson discovered a story written by his father urging him to make the same trip. Johnson always thought the trip was about high adventure on the Amazon, but his experience unfolded itself entirely differently.
Throughout the telling of the story, Johnson shares intensely personal reflections on his life and of his relationship with his father.
For those embarking on business or other careers, the film holds an important message: "Sam Johnson didn't have a flawless life; he had personal problems, was able to deal with them and was still extremely successful," said Peterson. "Success comes from being clear on what your 'true north' is and fundamentally who you are as a person."
Johnson graduated from Cornell in 1950 and in 1954 joined the then-named Johnson Wax Co., founded by his great-grandfather, Samuel Curtis Johnson, in 1886. He became president in 1966 and oversaw the businesses' growth and globalization until his retirement in 2000. The Johnson family enterprises employ about 16,000 people worldwide (a Johnson flag is planted in over 70 countries) and have combined estimated sales of nearly $6 billion annually. He now is chairman emeritus of the company's board of directors.
At Cornell, Johnson is a trustee emeritus and a member of the University Council. In 1984, he and his wife, Imogene Powers Johnson, gave $20 million to the university's Graduate School of Management, then the largest gift ever made to a business school, in honor of his great-grandfather. The Johnsons also have endowed a scholarship for minority students and a professorship in the Johnson School.
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