Customer Reviews

The Engine That Could: Seventy-Five Years of Values-Driven Change at Cummins Engine Company

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Yes, I have also read Diesel's Engine by Lyle Cummins, the youngest son of Clessie Cummins, the co-founder of Cummins Engine. If, in reading DE, I am a proven crazy person, then I am, so discount what I say next. If one is fascinated by diesel engines, then this is a "must read." I have not completed the book yet, but having read 300 or so pages and I must say there is much beyond the engines. If you are a Harvard Business Review type, this will have much for you about entrepreneurism, the family business, enterprise capitalization, growth, corporate strategy, the inventor and his role in a technology driven business, timliness, single business small town employers, transportation trends, product quality, employee relations and more. I like reading about successes, but feel like this book portrays an almost charmed life of something impossible to duplicate. If every corporation were as successful as Cummins is portrayed, then we would reach corporate nirvana. Can what has been written here be true? Buy the book, write your own review, and we'll see what you think.

It can be quite difficult to know how a company got where it is. That is certainly the case with Cummins, Inc. Cummins is a successful manufacturer of diesel engines, supplying customers in trucking, power generation, marine, and many other industries. If large, heavy-duty diesels are required, Cummins is a premier supplier. However, a company such as Cummins does not become a premier supplier overnight; it had to have a beginning, growth, successes and failures. This book chronicles the founding of Cummins, its growth, and the company's high points and low points to the mid-1990's.

There are several ways to look at this book. It is a history book. It is a case study. It is literature. Let us examine how this book behaves in each of its aspects.

As literature, this book succeeds. The writing is clear and coherent. The authors organized the chapters well, though I had to get used to the overlapping of years in the later chapters. I also found the story captivating. Though I knew that Cummins was successful, the early decades of the company were uncertain. How would W.G. Irwin and Clessie Cummins turn an invention into a successful business? Though I knew the end of the story, in a manner of speaking, the story pulled me onward.

The authors researched this book well. More than forty pages provide acknowledgements, interviews and references cited in the chapters. This book is an excellent reference book that describes in detail a small portion of our industrial history. There are many features to this history. It provides a lot of detail regarding several of the key figures involved in the creation in development of Cummins, thus to some extent it is biographical. This book also describes aspects of Columbus and conditions throughout the United States during the formation of Cummins, so it also contains cultural information. This book also provides an overview of some of the key technologies that helped Cummins succeed.

The value of patents to Cummins also fascinated me. Indeed, had patents not existed, it is likely that Cummins would never have existed in the first place. If Cummins had been created, it would have failed without patents. How could this be? Clessie Cummins thought he could build a better diesel engine, and was doing his best to avoid or get out from under the patents of others. His solution: develop a completely new design. Clessie had a vision of a mechanism that took him years to develop, while Cummins, Inc. continued to lose money. Once Clessie developed a workable solution, patents enabled Cummins to start earning money after two decades of losses. Here is a lesson regarding the value of intellectual property. Intellectual property gave Cummins time to experiment and create and then permitted the company to become competitive. Those looking for the benefit of intellectual property need look no further than Cummins.

Yet another aspect of this book is its value as a case study. Cummins did all the wrong things. It lost money for two decades. It relied on technology that conventional wisdom said would not work. It made corporate responsibility an integral part of the company from the beginning, long before corporate responsibility became fashionable. Yet, Cummins learned from its mistakes, as well as its successes. In fact, the management team at Cummins supported the authors of this book by providing them with almost unlimited access to company documents and personnel. Cummins has always valued integrity and honesty, and laying out the company's path merely acknowledges the facts of the road Cummins travelled to success, even when that road took wrong turns and hit dead ends.

Business managers have a lot to learn from this book. The lessons are not easy ones because the lessons sometimes require managers to do things that seem counterintuitive. Sometimes the lessons are obscure. Following the lessons of this book will hardly guarantee success for a business, but it may give hope to a patient and clever entrepreneur that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Jeffrey L. Cruikshank and David B. Sicilia have written a book that should appeal to many. Fans of history, particularly industrial history will find this book fascinating. Researchers into American culture may find some things of interest as well. This book also provides interesting insights into the history of Indiana and Columbus. Business managers will find this book to be an intriguing case study. On the other hand, if you are just looking for a well-written non-fiction book, this one is enjoyable.

Enjoy!

This is a really good book.
In particular, I enjoyed the mix of the technical history of the Cummins engine innovations coupled with the battle the business had to fight to stay alive at different points in the history of the company.

If you want to know more about Cummins the company or just want to read about a business that persevered, this is a good choice.

Amazon delivered this book without a dust jacket in spite of the dust jacket shown on Amazon's web site for this book.

Book itself is very informative, however there is a problem with representation of it being passed off as "new". First copy came without a dust jacket, hard cover had corner bumps and scuffs. Replacement copy came the exact same way, in the same condition and without the DJ. Cost of book is $50.00 NEW, had we wanted the book in used condition without the original DJ, we would have ordered it as such. The minimal refund Amazon offered was not to our satisfaction and the reps and/or management are too busy to make personal contact with their business customers. There appears to be an internal problem with receiving/quality inspection of their supplier's goods.