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ISM: Difference between revisions
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ISM is one of the world's largest employers, with over 650,000 employees as of 2022. | ISM is one of the world's largest employers, with over 650,000 employees as of 2022. | ||
== History == | == History == | ||
Late 1800s | |||
ISM had its humble beginnings in the south of what is now designated as Scarborough, Ontario. Ernest Higgins started the company in 1884 after building a small storefront for his newly founded company, Higgins Mechanisms, which mainly sold handmade farming equipment. Ernest also operated a side business of making and selling niche home baked foods, such as his famous Higgo Wiggo Potato Delicacies. | |||
=== Early 1900s === | |||
As his business grew throughout the late 1800s and in 1907, Higgins bought a small storefront in Whitchurch, Ontario where he continued to grow his business. Just 5 years later, in 1912, Ernest sold the shop as customers were beginning to draw towards the many inner-city opportunities of Toronto. He bought a single story building to work out of, and continued operations as normal. As of 1913, The business still wasn’t earning much of a profit selling farming equipment so in a desperate scramble for money, he turned to primarily the snack food industry. This new business practice did not come to fruition on Ernest’s hand, however, as in August of 1914 World War One began and Ernest enlisted with the British/Canadian army as a high ranking officer. Three weeks into serving in the war, Earnest’s 20 year old grandson Elliot Higgins was discharged from the military after being shot through the arm by a German soldier. It is unknown whether this act was intentional cowardice. He returned to his grandfather’s failing shop and took command of all operations. The store outside of Toronto was promptly closed in 1915, and with the money Elliot had stockpiled since he was 17 from unknown sources, an entire office was bought in the heart of downtown Toronto’s financial district for the now renamed New Higgins Mechanisms Company. Elliot switched his grandfather’s company focus from farming to advanced technology. Ernest returned from the war in 1918 following Germany’s defeat, apparently “outraged” at what his grandson had done to his company. He was presumed to have gone and confronted Elliot, but he was curiously never heard from again. | |||
=== 1920s === | |||
Elliot ran the now renamed New Higgins Company for 10 years in their Toronto office block, employing over 60 people to create, test, and sell experimental technological gadgets, including the extremely profitable ''AutoSorting File Cabinet™'' and the first prototype for the now popular ''“Round the Corner” Gun™'' . The company, however, needed to expand. Higgins Mechanisms bought a plot of land in what is now downtown Greenfield for development due to it’s very profitable location and began working on their first company built skyscraper. The 20 storey Art Deco tower started construction in 1926 and completed in 1929 behind schedule. The now CEO Elliot Higgins stated that this new tower would be deemed the headquarters of the company. | |||
=== 1930s === | |||
The New Higgins Company, now facing ruin from the great depression, started to once again scramble for ideas of how to make a bigger profit. They started to dabble in the growing business of computers and military equipment. In the spring of 1938 they completely rebranded their company into the Industrial Scientific Machines Corporation. | |||
=== 1940s === | |||
ISM was a massive player in World War 2, being the one of the biggest weapons exporters in the entire allied forces second only to the White Peak Company. (NOT FINISHED) | |||
== Controversies == | == Controversies == | ||