Myths and Mortals

Chapter 8Me versus WeSharing the glory of the family business story

Growing up, John Tyson's life was all chicken all the time.

After becoming chairman and CEO of the company in 2000, he, like his father and grandfather, led Tyson Foods through another period of dramatic expansion. In 2001, Tyson Foods became the world's largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef, and pork.

At a young age, there was no boundary between John's private life and his public one, as Tyson Foods and the Tyson family were one and the same.

The Tyson family was blended into the family of Tyson Foods, or Tyson Feed and Hatchery, as it was called at the time. At the age of 13, when most junior high boys roam the neighborhood with a pack of peers, John labored in the chicken factory alongside Tyson employees. “It's those people who raised me, not my dad. They were a gift; they allowed me to shape my own personality.”

At an early age, John Tyson absorbed the notion that the Tyson family extended beyond his nuclear family. The people of Tyson Foods always mattered—and still matter—more than anything else. What John's father taught him was that Fridays were about making sure every employee was able to say, “Thank God, it's Friday.” They had a paycheck. They were able to take care of their families. At the same time, the Tyson family said, “Thank God, we can make payroll.”

“Monday's not hard,” says John. “It's Friday when you have to make payroll [that's hard]. The emphasis and reemphasis was always on ...