Description
Book SynopsisTells the story of how America's biggest companies began, operated, and prospered post-World War I
This book takes the vantage point of people working within companies as they responded to constant change created by consumers and technology. It focuses on the entrepreneur, the firm, and the industry, by showingfrom the insidehow businesses operated after 1920, while offering a good deal of Modern American social and cultural history. The case studies and contextual chapters provide an in-depth understanding of the evolution of American management over nearly 100 years.
American Business Since 1920: How It Worked presents historical struggles with decision making and the trend towards relative decentralization through stories of extraordinarily capable entrepreneurs and the organizations they led. It covers: Henry Ford and his competitor Alfred Sloan at General Motors during the 1920s; Neil McElroy at Procter & Gamble in the 1930s; Ferdinand Eberstadt at t
Trade Review
In this third edition of Thomas C. McCraw’s expansive work, William R. Childs has taken on the challenge of extending its reach into the first years of the 21st Century. The volatile events and issues of these years have made the task a daunting one, but Childs has risen to the occasion. Seamlessly folding new information into old, he has addressed the financial crisis of 2008, the accelerated growth of income inequality, the contentious debates surrounding globalization and financialization, the evolving roles of women and minorities in business, and innumerable other subjects of equal urgency. - Mary A. Yeager, PhD, Professor at UCLA
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Past and Present 1
The Story Told Here 2
Trends 3
A Matter of Size 6
The Key Internal Problem 7
Broader Contexts 8
American Business and the World 11
The American Business Achievement 12
Chapter One: Modern Management in the 1920s: GM Defeats Ford 15
Cars, Trucks, and Freedom 15
Henry Ford, Mass Production, and Centralized Management 17
Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. and Decentralized Management 20
General Motors Versus the Ford Motor Company: The Triumph of Decentralized Management 22
Lessons Learned 26
Chapter Two: Overview: Business Welfare Capitalism, the Financial System, and the Great Depression 29
Responding to the Dark Side – Business Welfare Capitalism in the 1920s 29
Functions of Finance 31
Historical Context of American Finance to 1920 33
Wall Street and the Stock Market in the 1920s 34
The Great Depression 36
Successful Firms During the Great Depression 40
Chapter Three: Brand Management at Procter & Gamble 43
Procter & Gamble: Multiple Products and Marketing 43
Firm Culture 45
Building the Market 47
Neil McElroy and Brands 49
Doc Smelser and the Market Research Department 51
Lessons of Brands 53
Changes at P&G in the Early Twenty]first Century 55
People as Brands 56
Chapter Four: The New Deal and World War II: Regulation and Mobilization, 1933–1945 59
Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal 60
The Extension and Decentralization of Regulation 63
The World at War 66
The Marvel of American War Production 68
The Problem of Mobilization 69
The Solution: Decentralization through the Controlled Materials Plan 71
World War II as a Transformative Event 75
Aviation Matures: Boeing 81
Postscript: Scandals 85
Photo Group 1 87
Chapter Five: Overview: Postwar Prosperity and Social Revolution, 1945–1970s 95
The Cold War and Business 95
Economic Trends 97
The Place of Business in Society 100
Boomers, Social Movements, and the Government 102
Environmentalism 104
Chapter Six: Overview: The Empowerment of Women and Minorities in Business 107
Women 108
Women in the Workforce 111
Women in Top Management 112
African Americans 117
African Americans in Top Management 122
Hispanics 125
Hispanics in Top Management 129
Foreign]born CEOs of American Firms 133
Photo Group 2 135
Chapter Seven: Science and R&D: From TV to Biotechnology 145
R&D During the Cold War 145
David Sarnoff and RCA 146
Sarnoff and Television 152
Lessons from RCA’s Mismanagement 158
The Perils of High]Tech Markets 160
Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, and Biotechnology 162
Chapter Eight: Franchising and McDonald’s 173
The Economic and Social Context of Franchising 174
The McDonald Brothers 178
Ray Kroc 180
Financial Wizardry at McDonald’s 184
How McDonald’s Worked 187
Internationalization 190
Marketing, Labor, Nutrition, and the Environment: The Positives and Negatives of Franchising 191
Past and Future 197
Chapter Nine: The IT Revolution and Silicon Valley: Relentless Change 199
Early Days 200
IBM 202
Silicon Valley and a New Business Culture 206
The Internet and the World Wide Web 209
Companies and Personalities: Amazon, eBay, and Google 211
Expansion of the Internet: Cloud Computing, the Sharing Economy, and the Internet of Things 223
Chapter Ten: Overview: Financialization of Capitalism, 1980s to 2000s 229
“Deindustrialization” 231
Neoliberalism and the Extension of the Economists’ Hour 233
Surge in Globalization 236
Negatives of Neoliberalism and Globalization 238
Financialization 240
Excessive Pay for Executives and Fund Managers 255
The Problem of Opacity 258
Chapter Eleven: Business and the Great Recession 261
The Mortgage Mess 263
The Government Tries to Catch Up to a Financial Industry Under Duress 266
Reforms 276
Failures of Government Catch]up 279
Photo Group 3 283
Epilogue 297
Bibliographical Essay 307
Acknowledgments 365
Index 367
