Customer Reviews

The Wildcatter: A Portrait of Robert O. Anderson

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Harris capture's the success, levity, and struggle Robert O. Anderson needed to cluge together a global oil conglomerate masterfully--this book is a winner and needs to be studied by students of business interested in learning how to assemble a successful business team. Anderson is rightly portrayed as both a child of privilege and a blue-collar go-getter determined to make his mark in the oil industry. Though Anderson could have obtained admirable results solely invested in the stock market during the corresponding period, he seemed uninterested in a sedimentary lifestyle that inherently was his for the taking. Rather Harris makes it quite clear that Robert O. Anderson was a dynamic hands-on leader far more passionate about creating and unifying a splintered industry. Perfect for reading during a flight from NY to LA to comprehend the effort required to consolidate the same geographical area under a single oil company. Well done indeed, 5-Star rating!

More than ten years ago, I read a quote from Robert O. Anderson, "There is practically nothing they can teach you in a university which you can't learn out of books in the public library if you have the will to learn." I thought about that quote every day since I had first read it. I knew little about him other than he was Chairman of ARCO, that he was part of the downtown L.A. business elite, and a patron of the arts.

In the process of trying to retrace the printed source of the quote, I came across this biography by the gifted Kenneth Harris. Anderson was a rare combination from having had an outstanding college education, having a father who was both a banker and an immigrant to America, and having worked during the summers in the oil fields to learn the business from the ground up. At each step of his life, he thought about who he needed to become and prepared himself accordingly.

Harris does really well in explaining in plain English all the elements that can go right or wrong for a company in the oil business. He shows how Anderson, although self taught, was essentially his own geologist. Much of the credit for bringing the Alaska North Slope oil field and the Alaska pipeline belongs to Anderson. Anderson retired from ARCO in 1986 and the book was published in 1987. It would be nice if had been updated after Anderson's death, but, as is, it stands well the test of time.