Samuel Crowther's Industrialist Biographies |
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Published July 4, 2021
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Samuel Crowther: Industrialists' Biographies
The full reviews are shown under the "BOOKS/BIBLIOGRAPHY -> BIBLIOGRAPHY OVERVIEW -> INDUSTRIALIST menus. The full review of an individual work can also be found by selecting the appropriate image. Abbreviated versions of each review are repeated here for simplicity and to acknowledge on a single page the volumes of business knowledge captured and published by Samuel Crowther.
I am unaware of anyone else who worked with and interviewed so many great American industrialists of the time.
I am unaware of anyone else who worked with and interviewed so many great American industrialists of the time.
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A. B. Farquhar: An Autobiography of A. B. Farquhar (1920) |
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This biography of A. B. Farquhar, sometimes entitled The First Million the Hardest, was an absolute pleasure to read. It is the story of a late 19th Century industrialist I had never heard about in school.
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This was a book like Henry Ford's that is bookmarked everywhere with fun quotes, blunt talk and great stories from a chief executive:
- J. L. Mott at Iron and Steel Association: "If my foresight were as good as my hindsight I should be better off by a damned sight."
- "Panics do not teach logic."
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John H. Patterson: Pioneer in Industrial Welfare (1922) |
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Samuel Crowther does a fabulous job capturing the essence of Mr. Patterson in this book. This is the place to start to understand Thomas J. Watson Sr., traditional founder of IBM.
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Because Thomas J. Watson Sr. worked for Mr. Patterson before IBM, this book about John H. Patterson and the NCR Corporation that was published in 1923 adds depth to Watson Sr.'s ideas on forgiving thoughtful mistakes, sharing the wealth of a corporation with his employees, providing leading edge benefits to his workers, and his belief in the value of the individual.
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Henry Ford: My Life and Work (1922) |
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Henry Ford wasn't just the "creator of the assembly line" like I was taught in the '70s. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from this book—the initial book in this trilogy—published in 1922.
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- "When one of my cars breaks down I know I am to blame."
- "Most men can swing a job, but they are floored by a title."
- "A low wage business is always insecure."
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Harvey S. Firestone: Men and Rubber: The Story of Business (1925) |
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Reading Mr. Firestone's philosophy of business was refreshing, and his story of the building of the Firestone Tire Company exciting, encouraging and full of drama. He wrote the following:
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"The test of a business man is not whether he can make money in one or two boom years, or can make money through the luck of getting into the field first, but whether in a highly competitive field, without having any initial advantage over his competitors, he can out distance them in a perfectly honorable way and keep the respect of himself and of his community."
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Henry Ford: Today and Tomorrow (1926) |
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This is the second book in the trilogy: "My Life and Work," "Today and Tomorrow," and "Moving Forward." The best way to review Henry Ford's books is to continue with the quotes:
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- "If man is not better off for buying than he would be if he had kept his money in his pocket, there is something wrong."
- "A man who must be told his own business by someone outside of it will render his best service by quickly getting out of business."
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Henry Ford: Moving Forward (1930) |
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This is the last of the trilogy. "My Life and Work" was published in 1922, "Today and Tomorrow" in 1926, and "Moving Forward" in 1930, two years into the Great Depression.
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This book opens with a question most sane people of the day were asking, "Is it possible that this country is losing its business bearings?" Henry Ford thought not and kept "moving forward" with higher wages, shorter work days, and better benefits.