Martha Inc.: The Incredible Story of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia [Hardcover]

Christopher M. Byron (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471123005 | ISBN-13: 978-0471123002 | Publication Date: April 2002 | Edition: 1st

Martha Stewart has generated an enormous following by establishing herself as the leading authority for all things domestic and in the process created a multimillion-dollar enterprise and a personal net worth of nearly $2 billion. As one of the most successful self-made female business owners in American history, Martha Stewart is a topic of interest for fans, business professionals and would-be entrepreneurs alike.
Martha Inc. tells the compelling story of how this complex woman created an empire on domesticity and examines her business inside and out. Through an engaging narrative by popular columnist Christopher Byron, this book chronicles how the business was built, what it took to take it public, and the personal and professional transformation Martha has undergone to make it all work. To get a true portrait of the woman whose work ethic is her personal life, Byron delves into the underreported facets of Martha's past, such as the effects her challenging childhood and years on Wall Street have had on her uncompromising business acumen. From Martha Stewart Living magazine and marthastewart.com to a K-Mart line of houseware products, a line of house paints, and a television show, this book details how a former caterer from Connecticut has created a media and merchandising empire, pulling off what large media corporations with vast resources struggle to accomplish.
Martha Stewart has sold America on good taste and now readers can learn exactly how she did it and what drives her to keep conquering new vistas. A corporate biography as well as a success story worthy of Horatio Alger, Martha Inc. also delves into how a cult of personality is created and how Martha Stewart capitalized on the zeitgeist that characterized the last half of the twentieth century. This book is a must read for anyone who has been touched by Martha's marketing savvy or who dreams of making it big.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

There's probably no woman in America who is as famous--or controversial--as Martha Stewart. In Martha Inc. Christopher Byron gets past the public persona to tell how "the quiet little girl from the house on Elm Place" became the "richest self-made businesswoman in America." While Byron acknowledges that Stewart has a good side, there's not much evidence of it here; much of the book focuses on the darker aspects of Stewart's private life that were first popularized in Jerry Oppenheimer's mean-spirited Just Desserts. Unlike Oppenheimer's account, however, Byron keeps the mudslinging in check by also chronicling her amazing business success as "one of the most potent and effective brands in the history of American marketing." He details her relationships with Kmart, Group W, and Time-Warner, noting that her maneuvering to buy her company back from Time-Warner was "easily the greatest financial coup in the history of American publishing." The result is an interesting and often scandalous story of a woman who proves to be far more complicated than the image her media empire projects. --Harry C. Edwards

From The New Yorker

An irony underlies this splendid biography: although Mary Shelley revered the memory of her mother, the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, who died shortly after giving birth to her, she was dominated by men all her life, beginning with her father, the impecunious radical William Godwin. She eloped with Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was then married to another woman, and she catered to the rebellious poet's whims until his death, in 1822. As a twenty-four-year-old widow with one surviving child, she depended on her unsympathetic father-in-law, who provided scant support on the condition that she not publish Shelley's poetry or write about him. She eked out a living as a hack writer, but her notorious novel, "Frankenstein," brought in only a pittance. Her reconstruction of her husband's image proved more successful, however. By the time she died, in 1851, her son had inherited the Shelley estate, and Mary, evading her father-in-law's prohibitions, had invented a dreamy, saintlike Shelley, more acceptable to Victorians than her turbulent husband had been.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1st edition (April 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471123005
• ISBN-13: 978-0471123002
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (112 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #355,235 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #5 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( S ) > Stewart, Martha

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 90 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Just Desserts Is Better, April 13, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Martha Inc.: The Incredible Story of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (Hardcover)

Martha Inc. is a balanced biography of Martha Stewart, but short on recent details. I was hoping to read more about her life after she started Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, but most of the material is a re-hash of many events that one can read in Just Desserts. The epilogue contains information about Martha and Kmart after the tech bust and Kmart's bankruptcy, which is a nice follow-up. The author, Christopher Byron, seems a bit star-struck by Martha, too, calling her a "beautiful blonde" a few too times in the book. Martha Inc. is a good read for Martha followers like me -- subscriber to the magazine, viewer of her TV show, consumer of Martha products -- but to the reader who wants even juicier details, read Just Desserts first.

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best and the Worst in a Unique Combination, April 24, 2002

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Martha Inc.: The Incredible Story of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (Hardcover)

Byron does indeed tell an "incredible story" about one of the most successful businesswomen in the world. How much of it is credible? Is she really as brilliant and resourceful as he suggests? Is she also as spiteful and mean-spirited as he suggests? As I read this book, I sometimes had a difficult time determining what Byron makes of the material he shares. His attitude seems ambivalent as indeed do those who have worked for and with Stewart over the years. Much of the material was provided by friends, enemies, acquaintances, business associates, and employees. He and most of those interviewed seem to admire what she has achieved. However, he and many of them also seem to deplore her values, attitudes, and (especially) her mistreatment of others.

Byron met Stewart in Westport (CT) and knew her only casually as a neighbor whom he encountered infrequently. At that time, he was advancing his career as a journalist, writing for the Wall Street Journal. He became intrigued by the rapid development of her own career and decided to write a book about her. Initially Stewart agreed to cooperate with him but later reconsidered. At no point in the narrative does Byron express any animosity toward her (or about anything else, for that matter) but many others do, notably Kathy Tatlock and Norma Collier. Along the way, Byron also examines Stewart as wife and mother. He observes: "As Martha's fame grew, and she became increasingly absorbed in making it grow still more, she seemed to have less and less time for her personal relationships -- not just with [husband] Andy and [daughter] Alexis, but with her employees, her neighbors, and anyone else she might encounter day to day. A brusque efficiency began to take over her conversations." Eventually her husband left her and other personal relationships deteriorated further as she continued to pursue and achieve her various business objectives. Today, she owns Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. (How she regained control should guarantee her immediate induction into the "Business Hall of Fame.") She is among the wealthiest and most influential people (male or female) in the United States and, if consumer markets continue to expand in underdeveloped countries, it seems certain that both her wealth and her influence will increase exponentially.

Throughout his book, Byron shares lots of opinions and evaluations of Stewart (his and others') as he attempts to understand her character and personality, her life and career. He seems to try very hard to be circumspect. The Stewart who emerges by the end of the book reminds me of what Walt Whitman once said of himself: "Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes." For whatever they may be worth, here are a few of my own reactions to the material in this page-turner of a book. First, I wonder how much criticism of Stewart there would be if she were a male. Is she held accountable to the same standards as, for example, Jack ("Neutron") Welch? Also, often mentioned in the same context as Oprah Winfrey, Stewart seems much more interested in lifestyle; Winfrey in quality of life. Big difference. Most people love Oprah; few seem to love Martha. How to explain that? Also, at a time when "branding" is an especially hot business topic, Stewart seems to be among the very few celebrities who IS the brand...rather than any merchandise (magazines, books, videos, television programs, etc.) associated with her.

Finally, I am intrigued by the number of high-powered male corporate executives who underestimated her, who (in Byron's word) made the mistake of "chick-ing" Stewart. How else to explain the fact that she was able to regain total control of a variety of media assets (e.g. Martha Stewart Living magazine and a series of spin-off books called "The Best of Martha Stewart Living") from Time Inc. in 1997 for $2 million out of her own pocket, about three days worth of the assets' revenue. She then created a new company (Martha Stewart Living Multimedia LLC), took it public in October 1999, and saw the company's stock price nearly triple during its first day of trading. That gave "the one-time Connecticut caterer a personal net worth of more than $1 billion." Hers indeed is one of the most extraordinary business careers in American history, one which accelerates with increasing impact and profitability. As presented by Byron, Martha Stewart the businesswomen and Martha Stewart the person eventually became essentially the same person, and will continue to be the same person, for better or worse.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a more balanced look at Ms. Martha., April 22, 2002

By 

David J. Gannon (San Antonio, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Martha Inc.: The Incredible Story of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (Hardcover)

Unlike the more recent "biography" books about Martha Stewart (see Jerry Oppenheimar's Just Deserts), this isn't simple an exploitative, mean spirited hatchet job. In Martha Inc.: The Incredible Story of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Christopher M. Byron makes an effort to be at least somewhat balanced about the lady. True, he does dwell on the negatives, but at least some positives are considered.

What seems clear is that Ms. Stewart is no longer a pleasant middle class housewife-is this really so surprising? The woman leads the largest Woman run media empire in America. When would she have time to be average anything?

And, since when are corporate titans nice guys? Michael Eisner at Disney may project warm fuzzies out the wazzou on camera-it's clear from what's been writtten it's s different story when the camera is pointed elsewhere. Is that OK for a man nut unacceptable for a woman? Puh-leeeeease!

Of course, it's starting to become clear that Ms. Martha may never have been pleasant, even when she undeniably was a middle class house wife. There appears to be a mean streak there that is congenital-maybe that's what you need to be like to make it to the top, but it's not necessarily a hatchet job when you point out the truth.

And what is the truth according to Byron? That Martha is a very successful gal-bydint of very hard and ceaseless work. That such hard work took a major toll on her private life (Gee, another surprise, eh?) and some of those left behind don't remember her fondly.

The truth also is that Martha saw-and exploited-the available synergies between print, media and internet well before anyone else did-and has done so at a level few others have approached(Looked at the value-using that word loosely-of AOL/Time Warner stock lately? Where has integrated media gotten them?) In other words, the woman was a visionary, something Byron makes clear.

The writing is OK-nothing special. And the balance-while better then most-still is lacking. But this is probably the best look at Martha out there, and is probably more honest and balalced than her own planned memoir will be.

If you're interested in Martha, this is the book to read.