Do You Think JR Was A Good Businessman?

[Billy Wall]

Me personally, I don't think so. I know he was perceived as a good, if not brilliant businessman, but it seemed like if he went up against someone his own size, he loss more than he won.

Clayton beat him when he was stockpiling his oil. Sure he made Clayton suffer, but at what expense? Miss Ellie eventually selling the oil back to Clayton.

Bobby, who was in all sense and purpose, a novice oilman, defeated him on numerous occasions, most famously, "the battle for Ewing Oil."

Jeremy Wendell assisted in taking Ewing Oil from the Ewing's.

He brings in some old coot to assist in their fight against Cliff, Jamie and Pam and because he didn't do his due diligence, he almost was able to assist Cliff, Jamie and Pam exceed in their attempt to take Ewing Oil.

Even Clifffor a stretch, gave JR fits once he became a for

Don't get me wrong, JR was still "the man", but if he wasn't going up against a weak foe that he could blackmail, just how good was he at business?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Larry said JR "was a disaster" as a businessman, doing the math while watching reruns.

 

[Toni]

Most times he wasn´t, but he always saw the outcome as "being back at the top" or something like that. I´m working on a video about the best/worst business deals of J.R., by the way. This is quite obvious in the plots...

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

Me personally, I don't think so. I know he was perceived as a good, if not brilliant businessman, but it seemed like if he went up against someone his own size, he loss more than he won.

Clayton beat him when he was stockpiling his oil. Sure he made Clayton suffer, but at what expense? Miss Ellie eventually selling the oil back to Clayton.

Bobby, who was in all sense and purpose, a novice oilman, defeated him on numerous occasions, most famously, "the battle for Ewing Oil."

Jeremy Wendell assisted in taking Ewing Oil from the Ewing's.

He brings in some old coot to assist in their fight against Cliff, Jamie and Pam and because he didn't do his due diligence, he almost was able to assist Cliff, Jamie and Pam exceed in their attempt to take Ewing Oil.

Even Clifffor a stretch, gave JR fits once he became a for

Don't get me wrong, JR was still "the man", but if he wasn't going up against a weak foe that he could blackmail, just how good was he at business?

It is a little complicated.

When Jock was there to oversee him, JR did seem to grow Ewing Oil, so it can be said that he was a good businessman then.

The Asian wells was a gamble that worked, at least for a while. It is not unusual for businessmen to take similar risks.
Sometimes it works, sometimes not.. The problem is that it could have destroyed EO if it failed.

I never cared for the battle for Ewing Oil in general, because it was too unrealistic in the real world.
Even losing to Bobby, JR did accumulate lots of profit.
Co-owning with Bobby probably prevented JR from doing something too high risk until Calhoun.
Yes there was a failure of due diligence during the Jason Ewing story, but both Bobby and JR failed that time.

JR's business acumen seemed to decline starting with Calhoun. That was not an Asian Wells calculated risk, that was just
horrible judgement.

JR did regain the Assets from Wendell (after he lost EO, granted)
That may have been his last great victory

So maybe the final result is mixed, with both success and failure, probably with more success in the earlier years.

 

[Laurie Marr]

The most egregious element in JR's business strategy was how often ventures were motivated by revenge. His approach was irrational on so many occasions. He exposed Ewing Oil to risks that were often calculated only at the level of him successfully executing the vendetta du jour. Ruthless is often the adjective associated with JR, but it's probably the least appropriate descriptor. The Machiavelli inspired model adopted by corporate strategists demands disciplined self-interest and coldly rational evaluation of outcomes — whereas revenge often led JR to damage his own position simply to satisfy resentment. In many ways it was he (and not Sue Ellen) who can lay claim to being the most emotionally incontinent character on the show.

To this extent, JR was indeed a bad businessman.

 

[Jimmy Todd]

Raises the question of who were the best and worst businesspeople in the Ewingverse:
Jock
JR
Bobby
Gary
Abby
Sue Ellen
Cliff
Clayton
Donna- (briefly but successfully in the oil business when she bought a well).

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

Raises the question of who were the best and worst businesspeople in the Ewingverse:
Jock
JR
Bobby
Gary
Abby
Sue Ellen
Cliff
Clayton
Donna- (briefly but successfully in the oil business when she bought a well).

Really good question. I would say Jock, on the basis that he started the company.
We don't seem to know enough about Clayton's beginnings to make an informed opinion
Cliff and JR were more alike than not, in the sense that sometimes personal agendas influenced their decisions.
Donna was also a successful author

 

[Jimmy Todd]

Abby wasn't born into wealth nor did she have a mentor the way JR did, but she made a fortune in business. Yes, she got her start from Gary's inheritance, but she basically took control of it and increased it.
I would agree Jock is the best businessperson overall, though.

 

[Chase Gioberti]

Raises the question of who were the best and worst businesspeople in the Ewingverse:
Jock
JR
Bobby
Gary
Abby
Sue Ellen
Cliff
Clayton
Donna- (briefly but successfully in the oil business when she bought a well).

What about Gregory Sumner if we are including Knots Landing. He didn’t seem to have many problems except for Empire Valley. And Mrs. Richfield.

 

[Jimmy Todd]

I thought about Sumner but omitted him because while technically part of the Ewingverse, he's not as close to the Ewings Abby. You are right about his business skills. It would be interesting to compare him to JR. Sumner didn't seem to let emotions such as the need for revenge get in the way of his business deals in the same way JR did. If JR could be called immoral, Sumner would be amoral.

 

[Mustard]

In a Thatcherite/Reaganite sense and when it came to his company Ewing Oil, yes. J.R. would also happily see other bourgeois wither on the vine if it enriched Ewing Oil, and he was perfectly prepared to ship oil illegally to Fidel Castro's Cuba if it meant beating Bobby in the Battle for Ewing Oil.

J.R. is similar in some ways to Donald Trump, but far more intelligent in a business sense.

J.R. is different from his dad Jock in the sense that Jock grew up working class and became rich with the wildcatting boom. Jock has also had to work at his marriage with Miss Ellie, the latter of whom has a very confident long-term landed privilege. J.R. sees family and Southfork as merely an extension of his business outlook and image.

 

[Mustard]

The most egregious element in JR's business strategy was how often ventures were motivated by revenge. His approach was irrational on so many occasions. He exposed Ewing Oil to risks that were often calculated only at the level of him successfully executing the vendetta du jour. Ruthless is often the adjective associated with JR, but it's probably the least appropriate descriptor. The Machiavelli inspired model adopted by corporate strategists demands disciplined self-interest and coldly rational evaluation of outcomes — whereas revenge often led JR to damage his own position simply to satisfy resentment. In many ways it was he (and not Sue Ellen) who can lay claim to being the most emotionally incontinent character on the show.

To this extent, JR was indeed a bad businessman.

Cliff Barnes aside, it was all about business. Even against Cliff it was sometimes business.

For example, what J.R. did to Edgar Randolph was business to J.R. He had something on Randolph, and was going to use it to get the winning bid. It wasn't personal. When Randolph started getting hysterical, J.R. was like "Calm down will you? Just play along and it will all be fine", but Randolph couldn't deal with that because in Randolph's mind he was now a clean man and had moved on from that stuff from his past, and J.R. was just twisting the knife. Randolph tried to resign, but J.R. was like "Don't you dare resign!".

It was Vaughn Leland who insisted that Southfork be used as collateral in a business deal. J.R. asked for something else, but Vaughn insisted it be Southfork. J.R. then signed the deal rather than back out.

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

At least at the beginning of the series, we have to acknowledge JR as a good businessman.
Ewing Oil was doing quite well. Jock wanted JR to teach Bobby the business, so we have to infer
that Jock had confidence in JR's ability.
Of course having Jock present prevented JR from doing anything too drastic,
at least until the Asian wells. Having said that, the Asian wells represented a huge opportunity,
and JR took a risk, and it worked out.
Was it a wise risk?
It is an old story - when a business person takes a risk and it works, that person is a genius
When the risk fails, the person is... not

Bobby won the Battle for Ewing Oil but JR still made a huge profit

Much like Jock, Bobby had the effect of stopping JR from making a major error,
at least until the Calhoun fiasco.


In season 11, JR comes close to taking over Westar, that had to require business acumen.
JR does eventually regain the Ewing Assets from Wendell

I don't know what to say about seasons 13-14. Those seasons seem to be another show, not Dallas,
and JR seems mostly absent from leading Ewing Oil.

If" JR Returns" is any indicator, Westar named him as President. Presumably, they thought he was a good businessman.

So there is a somewhat complicated history about JR as a businessman.
Maybe it depends on what season is being discussed