Sublime

Nobody can bullshit him,” said Hargrove in 2017. “Not the management, not the union, not the workers.” Harrison knew their jobs. That gave him credibility in the field, but it also created angst among employees.

Like he had done at CN, Harrison also visited the mail room, a place he believed sent profound signals about a company.

While Sir Richard Branson advised executives to focus on employees first, customers second, and investors third, Harrison reversed the priorities: investors came first. For him the game was capitalism, pure and simple. You either played it or you didn’t.

Tellier, whose star was already high, rose even higher because he’d parked his ego at the door for the greater good of CN. He let Harrison run the railroad and got the best out of him.

Harrison, though, knew human nature and was toughest to work for when the railroad ran well. The boss worried that his people would get complacent. “When things were bad, it’s when he was most supportive,” Creel said.