The book offers an insider's critical look at the impact of globalization on the American furniture business, an industry that went from making 'world class' products to shutting down plants in 5 years. With tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars at stake, the industry was taught a painful lesson. The failure to learn from the experience will result in more losses for the furniture business and other industries as well, making this book particularly relevant to our times.
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
A01 Professor Dugan is currently the Chair of the Business School at Lenoir-Rhyne University. Previously he was the President and CEO of Henredon Furniture Industries, a position he held for 17 years. Widely recognized by insiders as an industry pioneer and marketing guru, he played the lead role in building the Pennsylvania House brand and co-founded his own furniture company, Jamestown Sterling. He is a contributing editor to "Home Furnishings Business" magazine and writes book reviews for the "Hickory Daily Record." A frequent guest lecturer at other colleges and universities, Dugan teaches a graduate course in Leadership and an undergraduate course in Marketing at Lenoir Rhyne. His business career involved working with many influential people including Polo chief Ralph Lauren,long time Bloomimgdale's ceo, Marvin Traub, and designer Barbara Barry. A graduate of the University of Toronto, where he majored in English Literature and Medieval Philosophy, he holds an MBA degree from Syracuse University.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book can serve as a compass to navigate the turbulent times ahead.,
By
This review is from: The Furniture Wars: How America Lost a 50 Billion Dollar Industry (Paperback)
The Furniture Wars chronicle the last ~50 years in the furniture trade. But this book will have broad appeal to those outside the industry because the analysis and "truths" he tells are universal to every business. Since furniture is so well understood, the lessons are simply clearer. It is part textbook, part biography, and part memoir wrapped into one compelling saga.
Mr. Dugan is a raconteur. He peppers his stories with interesting facts and anecdotes that bring the pioneers, tyrants and impresarios to life. No punches are pulled as he exposes both the genius as well as the warts. He puts what happened into perspective by quoting a broad range of strategists from Carl Von Clausewitz to Michael Porter, and his dry sense of humor will find you chuckling to yourself. More importantly, he makes sense of history by clearly delineating the lessons learned, replete with advice on how to avoid making the same mistakes. While this tome is meaty, (400+ pages) it is a fast read. With the US entering an era where manufacturing is outsourced, margins are thin and it is increasingly more difficult to differentiate, this book can serve as a compass to navigate the turbulent times ahead.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Furniture Wars,
By KEN MacARTNEY (York, PA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Furniture Wars: How America Lost a 50 Billion Dollar Industry (Paperback)
This book very accurately recounts the history of the main events surrounding the disappearance of the furniture manufacturing segment of our economy. Having lived the retail experience in furniture myself for over 40 years, I can vouch for the firsthand knowledge that Mike Dugan brings to this chronicle. The book clearly endorses the principle that niche businesses can succeed in America if they are just left alone to manage themselves. Outside, ego driven, corporate parental guidance and contol adds absolutely no value. There was a time when I could unequivocally state that the best furniture in the world was made in the U.S.A., at any price level. What a shame, and thanks to Mike for sharing this story.
Ken MacArtney
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Furniture Wars/Future Wars,
By
This review is from: The Furniture Wars: How America Lost a 50 Billion Dollar Industry (Paperback)
Like an Irish Bard chronicling the fortunes of his tribe, in Furniture Wars Michael K. Dugan lauds and laments the fate of the industry he fought with and in for more than thirty years. Moving between the macrocosm of the corporate world and the microcosm of manufacturing, his well-told tale is one of heroes and villains, successful strategies and flawed campaigns, inspired decisions and uninformed failures. Before the "Asian Invasion" in the 1990's, it was essentially a civil war. Domestic big business "Outsiders" thought that they had a clear advantage over the more-often-than-not family business "Insiders." As in recent wars, winning the war was much easier than winning the peace, and the "Outsiders" could not win the hearts and minds of the "Insiders" (or consumers) because they did not understand them. In other words, the more heavily armed and mechanized "Outsiders" did not appreciate the fundamental nature of the furniture industry, which was organic, built upon personal relationships in the factory and on the sales floor, and small, but worthy profit margins. It was a perfect clash of cultures, and Furniture Wars captures it in High Definition.
Dugan examines this war as more than historical witness or industry reporter; he writes as a well-informed insider, someone steeped in the daily operations of the furniture world and the canonical works on leadership, business and culture--new and old. Most importantly, Furniture Wars is not only about the history of the furniture industry, but also about the future of manufacturing in a post-industrial, post-Cowboy capitalism America. The future of America, one gleans from Furniture Wars, will depend upon thousands of niche/boutique industries with low profit margins, but highly committed and talented leadership--like those entrepreneurs and artists that built and may rebuild one of America's exemplary industries. Furniture Wars is illuminating, informative and instructive even to those who take furniture for granted and who only know that they like the look and feel of one chair and not another.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
