American Standard Sets Standard for Good Business

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What a delight Fred Poses is! If you don't know him, you really have to get the annual report of American Standard (ASD - commentary - Cramer's Take) and read about Mr. Poses and his company.

What are they doing right? They are taking market share, cleaning up a once-levered balance sheet, cutting costs, expanding worldwide and delivering results. They are doing it in an open and candid way, with no insider directors save Mr. Poses, and no outrageous self-dealing or options or home giveaways of any sort.

In short, Poses and American Standard are what is good about corporate America. Is it any wonder that this manufacturing concern is just a point or two off its 52-week high? Is it a shocker that this company is still cheap and can still go much higher without being as expensive, say, as an Intel (INTC - commentary - Cramer's Take), a Microsoft (MSFT - commentary - Cramer's Take) or a Sun Micro (SUNW - commentary - Cramer's Take)?

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Throughout this miserable period there have been companies that have simply delivered everything we could ask for and more. They're not in tech or in telecommunications, two industries severely tainted by the bull market of the late 1990s.

Last night on CNBC's "Kudlow & Cramer," we interviewed Mr. Poses and got his take on things. He confirmed there is much more growth ahead, including a foray into China that, if his company made cell phones, we would have heard about already a gazillion times on television.

No, it makes truck engines, along with air conditioners and plumbing. I didn't get to ask him what it's like to take huge share in home air conditioners at Home Depot (HD - commentary - Cramer's Take), but he confirmed that the consumer side remained strong. He also gave a surprising answer about ethics. I was trying to get him to say that there were far more honest business people than dishonest, but he wouldn't go there. He simply said there were more good people than bad and left it at that.

Simple, smart man. Simple, clean story. American Standard. Think of it when you get sick of waiting for your WorldCom (WCOM - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Lucent (LU - commentary - Cramer's Take) to come back. It will still be there for you.

Random musings: I'm off to see my dad and spend a couple of days in my hometown of Philadelphia helping to sell Confessions of a Street Addict, my new book. I will file periodically, of course.

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James J. Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. Outside contributing columnists for TheStreet.com and RealMoney.com, including Cramer, may, from time to time, write about stocks in which they have a position. In such cases, appropriate disclosure is made. To see his personal portfolio and find out what trades Cramer will make before he makes them, sign up for Action Alerts PLUS. While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to send comments on his column to [e-mail]. Click here to get Cramer's book, "Confessions of a Street Addict."