Adventurous 99 year old Pete Scotese | American Businessman | Vance Crowe Podcast Episode 34

About this episode

This is a mentorship-tribute episode: Vance interviews his own 99-year-old mentor, Pete Scott (called "Pete Scotus" in the transcript), a WWII paratrooper-turned-decorated-war-hero who rose from a Philadelphia orphanage to become CEO of Springs Industries, the world's largest textile manufacturer, and later ran Milwaukee's Boston Store. Vance opens with an unusually long, personal framing segment explaining why he's platforming Pete and thanking sponsor St. Louis Bank. The interview itself ranges widely: Pete's uncertain, philosophically humble musings on death and an afterlife (invoking Einstein and a personal "tunnel of light" near-death-like experience); his theory of friendship as a chosen, categorized commitment; his account of being a troubled orphanage teenager saved from expulsion by one teacher's advocacy, and the "indenture" legal structure that stripped his mother's ability to intervene in his upbringing; his career turning around Springs Industries through decisive plant closures and capital reallocation while capping his own compensation relative to employees below him; his pioneering corporate arts patronage (funding Ansel Adams, sponsoring MoMA photography, licensing Metropolitan Museum textile designs); his blunt critique of modern CEO overcompensation (citing the Monsanto-Bayer executive payout as "egregious"); his combat experience and firm anti-war, pro-diplomacy stance; and his closing legacy statement about treating everyone — from the mailroom to the boardroom — with equal respect.

“I almost go back to the Bible to treat, treat others the way you'd like to be treated... managing from the bottom up is maybe try to imbue in them the importance of the guy running the elevator or the mail room... treat everybody with the same degree of respect and reverence.”

“Closed down plants in Indonesia... closed down a carpet plant in Georgia... took the money from the closed plant into those businesses that were doing well and expanded those... within six months I think, you know, we, things started to change around.”

“I looked at a General Electric or American Express annual report, once 17 pages of the annual report were devoted to executive compensation... I could explain my compensation in one paragraph... they're paying much too much for CEOs... more and more spread between middle class and the richer, getting richer.”

Notable quotes

“17 pages of the annual report were devoted to executive compensation... I could explain my compensation in one paragraph... they're paying much too much for CEOs.”

“I was a pretty bad boy. I went over the wall for 10 days. I was caught smoking in the shower room. I punched a counselor... this teacher... said, I'm taking Peter. I think he has a lot of good quality.”

“So it's love, love, love is powerful. It's great. It's bigger than war.”

“If they're well run, the emphasis the board members make is to make sure that they have the best possible chief executive officer... make sure that the CEO has integrity.”