Customer Reviews

Giants of Enterprise: Seven Business Innovators and the Empires They Built

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Tedlow provides a brilliant analysis of each of his subjects in combination with a wealth of biographical information which creates an appropriate context for his discussion of Carnegie, Eastman, Ford, Watson (Sr.), Revson, Walton, and Noyce. He organizes his material within three Parts: The Rise to Global Economic Power, The Heart of the American Century, and Our Own Times. So what we have here, in a single volume, are eight mini-biographies, critical analysis of the "giants," and an equally valuable analysis of the evolution of American business history during the last 150 years. Although not always in agreement with Tedlow, I especially appreciate sharing his own opinions. He cites a wealth of primary sources and on occasion expresses his own disagreements with others such as Joseph Frazier Wall, author of arguably the definitive biography of Andrew Carnegie. Tedlow has consummate writing skills. His narrative has Snap! Crackle! and Pop! Throughout the book, he offers hundreds of revealing anecdotes, direct quotations, relevant examples to illustrate and support key points, and -- much appreciated -- a playful sense of humor. Tedlow really is an entertaining raconteur as well as a distinguished business scholar.

This is one of the most entertaining as well as most informative business books I have read in recent years. Those who share my high regard for it are urged to check out Crainer's The Management Century, Thought Leaders edited by Kurtzman, Wren and Greenwood's Management Innovators, Leibovich's The New Imperialists, and Landrum's Profiles of Genius.

In Giants of Enterprise, Harvard professor Richard Tedlow examines seven business titans: Henry Ford, Thomas Watson, Andrew Carnegie, George Eastman, Charles Revson, Robert Noyce, and Sam Walton. He analyzes their business acumen, their management style, their interpersonal style, and the business environment in which they operated.

Henry Ford and Thomas Watson, Sr., of IBM, are examples of domineering, manipulative men who built extraordinary business empires in spite of their abrasive personalities. The were not leaders in the classical definition of James MacGregor Burns because they systematically crushed individuality in their employees rather than cultivate it. They drove a lot of good people away, and stunted the growth of many more.

Still, their businesses experienced exceptional periods of prosperity, and they have lasted for several generations.
Two of the seven titans valued people. Eastman and Noyce were leaders. Eastman empowered people. He told chemist Charles Mees, "your job is the future of photography." Eastman hired women and Irish people-these were enlightened practices in the late 1800s. He questioned his own management expertise, and sought advice from professionals.

Noyce is known for his slogan, "Go off and do something wonderful." His employees had it printed on tee shirts. Noyce had an ability to create in people a "euphoric sense of possibility," and he nurtured talent when he found it.
Giants of Enterprise provides informative short biographies of each of the seven business icons. It is valuable reading for both the student of leadership and the practicing executive. For the student, it shows that organizations are often held together by forces other than leadership. The opportunity to be part of something successful will hold many people in place in spite of intense personal pain inflicted by the boss.

For the executive, it illustrates the need to install checks and balances on one's self. Ford and Watson both weakened their businesses by indulging their personal biases in public and by suffocating creativity in others. They surrounded themselves with yes-men, and they diminished their business enterprises as a result.

Studying the lives of these seven men provides useful insights into the relationship of leadership and business success. It is a fact of our times that business is increasingly turning to leadership as a source of competitive advantage, and this book is helpful in that effort.

Dr. Tedlow examines what he calls inflection points. These are moments in history that some rare people recognize as moments in history while they are happening. The book is worth reading for what it says on this topic alone. In addition, he examines the destructive effect vast money and power can have on the human spirit. He refers to this as deranging one's perspective on life. The term is a useful addition to leadership vocabulary.
There are hundreds of books about famous executives. This book is an excellent introduction to executives as a key element in business development. It is readable, interesting, and it does not require the reader to have a detailed knowledge of business or leadership principles.

It is an excellent introduction to executive leadership styles and to business history.

My reading about business is usually limited to the business section of the daily paper, but when I read that Business Week Magazine has named Giants of Enterprise as one of the top ten books about business for this year, I was intrigued enough to have a look at it. Once I began reading, I didn't want to stop! Tedlow's prose is engaging and elegant; he obviously knows his subject thoroughly. As I read about these immensely complicated men, I was amazed by the audacity, creativity, and cunning they showed in their dealings with the world of business. Equally interesting are the glimpses into the personal lives of such figures as Andrew Carnegie, George Eastman, and Henry Ford. This book is about American history as well as the history of business; it has also made me realize that there is such a thing as the psychology of business, although in this field, it is probably as tricky to analyze and try to predict outcomes as it is in the field of economics. I thank Prof. Tedlow for hours of reading pleasure, and for elucidating of many aspects of business that were previously opaque to me. Finally - I thank him for enriching my vocabulary with what he rightly refers to as an "infelicitous" phrase: Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal!
Outstanding.

There were two aspects which drew me to this book. The first was my thirty year background in business and psychology, and the second was the story on Andrew Carnegie. My family roots on my father's side can be traced back, through the centuries, to the Carnegie family, although in later years the spelling of the family name was slightly altered in my country. The stories presented in this book have at least one common factor: all the entrepreneurs listed had a tremendous self-belief and were not afraid of straying from the conventional and "doing their own thing," long before doing so was the fashionable thing to do. They also possessed an extraordinary intellect for business, were highly creative and did not punch a time clock. They clearly did not believe in the philosophy which said, "I'm out of here at five o'clock."

Business is a world one generally loves with a passion or hates with the same vehement emotion. "Giants of Enterprise" takes the reader behind the scenes to the core of these fine men and presents a better understanding of "what made them tick." It is a book which touches on history, philosophy and psychology. These successful entrepreneurs were driven by amazing vigor and passion for their work. When I decided to pursue a career in business, it was predominately a "man's world." The female gender had not yet made it's mark upon the business world. Times have since changed. However, the inspiration and success of these great men laid the foundation and opened the doors for future generations. We can learn well from their determination, commitment and success. This is a fascinating book to read and certainly an inspirational one.

Richard Tedlow gives a behind the scenes view of the success of seven of the biggest business names of our times. Building on the transcendent achievements of these great men, Tedlow translates their strategies into tangible business lessons. Wrapped in entertaining and insightful prose, Tedlow shows us how these men became legends, from overcoming impossible odds to developing business strategies that forever changed industry.

In Giants of Enterprise, Dr. Tedlow presents us with analyses of seven unique individuals who utilized their curiosity, their exuberance, and even their haughty foolishness, to shape American business not only during their era, but onward into ours.

Of the seven (who are presented chronologically), Andrew Carnegie first greets us, with his robust demeanor and exquisite manner, energetically shunting from his years as a teenage telegraph boy to pot-luck investor [auspiciously, thanks to his mentor, Tom Scott (p.38)], then quickly onward to cunning business manager and, inevitably, steel mogul. He was a man who quickly outgrew his impecunious upbringing in Scotland as he realized the epitome of the American dream: Limitless wealth, earned by one's own ability. In 1901, Carnegie would be congratulated by J.P. Morgan for achieving the status of "the richest man in the world (p. 64)." (J.P. Morgan was certainly by no means a 'small-timer' himself - his purchase of Carnegie Steel in 1901 founded U.S. Steel, which is now USX [market capitalization of 1.51 billion as of 12/4/01].)

At the turn of the last century, Carnegie was at a point in his life when he could afford to buy tracts of land in New York City for the construction of vast properties, and even purchase a castle back in his homeland of Scotland (today, 'Skibo Castle' is a luxurious golfer's resort).

Nevertheless, Carnegie wished for a power greater than he had achieved. All too often he displayed his callow, unrealistic visions for the world to see throughout his legacy, and Dr. Tedlow exposes these vain dilemmas with compassion and candor, from Carnegie's dealings with labor issues (the inexplicable publication of "The Advantages of Poverty" in 1891, when it was well known that Carnegie was worth quite a hefty sum), to Carnegie's futile attempt to convince Kaiser Wilhelm II to [paraphrased] 'meet with Theodore Roosevelt and warmly embrace [Carnegie's] idea for world peace (p.67),' just before World War I.

And therein lies the crux, the power of Giants of Enterprise: each of these men - these powerful, elite, seemingly invulnerable men - were, inevitably, 'deranged' by their power.

The vigorous, yet cordial prose of Professor Tedlow's shrewd observations span the 500 pages of Giants of Enterprise, and it is delivered gracefully, as if he is across from the fireplace, seated comfortably, sharing a family chronicle (or in this case, several chronicles). Dr. Tedlow does not resort to clinical observations - i.e., the kind typically culled from industry reports - and it greatly humanizes the book, making it a fascinating read. He also seems to eschew trickled-down, corporate bias for the sake of verification of these remarkable histories; it is obvious that the material within this book was exquisitely, exhaustively compiled and examined, cross-checked and researched, in order to establish a factual, honest depiction of the seven subjects. From Andrew Carnegie's aforementioned, misguided strides toward world peace, to Kodak founder George Eastman's seeming Oedipus complex (pp.72-117); from Henry Ford's anti-Semitism (pp.119-178; p.138), to Charles Revson's alleged game-show fixing and blatant misogyny (pp.247-305; p.279; p.303); all of these men are shown to be less than perfect - and Dr. Tedlow displays them in an unerring light that, for the better of all, casts them as the fallible, and very successful, people that they were.

If you've ever taken a picture, or ridden the Amtrak rails; if you've ever watched a game show, worn make-up, or wondered how Wal-Mart keeps their prices so darned low; if you have ever used a computer - to shop online, or even to read a quick book review - Giants of Enterprise will rivet you, be thee an historian; an analyst; a programmer; an MBA; or an inquisitive layman, comfortable at home, sitting by the fire, curious to read several well-written, satisfying tales of some visionaries and their visions, and how America got to where it is today.

This book was suggested to me by a man who is surrounded by succesful business people. Harvard, Yale, blah blah blah. Anyways, I value his business advice. Very good read.

It has been almost a year since I first read Richard Tedlow's "Giants of Enterprise" and I still haven't got over the hangover. Several times I revisited the book for some specific incident or information like to check George Eastman's early experiments and I ended up spending the next half an hour reading much more. It is a kind of stuff I had never read before. The book opened a door of a totally new discipline for me - that of "business history".

What is "Giants of Enterprise" about? The book contains biographies of seven innovators who built large enterprises in America from railroads to microprocessors: Andrew Carnegie (Steel), George Eastman (Kodak), Henry Ford, Thomas Watson Sr (IBM), Charles Revson (Revlon), Sam Walton (WalMart), Robert Noyce (Intel). In my opinion to say that the book is a bunch of biographies doesn't do justice to it.

Here are three things that I find unique about this book:

* Role of influencers: For each of the innovators, Tedlow identifies one or two key influencers in their life and shows how a few individuals influence formative minds. If your boss fires you, chances are high you will hate him. And if you don't, it is almost certain you won't continue to adore him. Well, even after John Patterson fired Thomas Watson Sr. from National Cash Register, Watson continued to adore his ex-boss. Watson's son wrote, "Oddly, dad never complained of this treatment and revered Mr. Patterson until the day he died." Watson told his son one day, "Nearly everything I know about building a business comes from Mr. Patterson". As Tedlow writes - "Both men dominated their organizations. Both were big spenders on themselves and on the others. Both demanded, explicitly or implicitly, complete allegiance to their views. Both were, in a sense, totalitarians." Tedlow shows how Tom Scott played a similar role for Andrew Carnegie.

* Psychology of turning points: One of the specialties of Tedlow is to identify one or two key turning points in one's life and analyze them psychologically. For example, one such point Tedlow presents is the day Henry Ford announced on January 5, 1914, "The smallest amount to be received by a man 22 years old and upwards will $5 per day..." According to Tedlow, this was the point where Ford's modesty became a thing of the past. He developed an insatiable appetite for headlines. To borrow Warren Buffett's terminology, Henry Ford forgot about his "circle of competence". And Tedlow concludes that from this point onwards it was all downhill for Ford. You may or may not agree with Tedlow. But I enjoyed his analysis.

* Anatomy of innovation: If a general reading about an innovation, say through wikipedia, can be compared to watching a dressed up man, then reading this book is like seeing the man in an operating theatre and a surgeon showing you the details from inside. Not everybody may like it. But for me, it is a like having a "flight simulator" to play with. If you want to know exactly at what point Eastman might have got curious about photography or how much money was he already making from his photography business before he quit his banking job or when did he realize that patents are not enough and he needed to create a brand (like Kodak) you can find it in the book with all the gory details.

"Chance favors prepared mind" is my favorite law of innovation. I found this book to be the best so far that gives a glimpse of what "chance", "a prepared mind" and "favors" mean. Tedlow shows again and again that "success" is like any other addiction. One doesn't know where to stop.

Personally "History" had lost to "Science" as a cool subject by a wide margin when I was in school. After reading Tedlow, it rekindled my interest in history. Thanks to Tedlow I entered the world of Alfred Chandler (Scale & Scope), Thomas McCraw (Prophet of innovation), Gita Piramal (Business Legends) and Ramchandra Guha (India after Gandhi).

The stories in this book were so amazing and motivational. The author of this book is excellent. I loved the commentary throughout the book, filling in speculations when there was no information. You can definitely tell that Tedlow did a lot of research. This book is great for anyone who is insterested in building a business in any area. The men profiled in this book built businesses that ranged from retail to developing makeup to manufacturing computers/microprocessors. This is an excellent read that brings out thre great points - leadership, dedication and passion are the foundation of a successful business!

Tedlow's finest book to date, topping even his excellent "New and Improved." Highly recommended.