Articles
James J. Hill: Empire Builder Without Peer
This article first appeared on May 2, 2019 in The Archbridge Institute’s ‘American Originals’ series. The American railroad system played a critical role in the growth and development of the United States, especially the opening of the western frontier. The...
read more
George Westinghouse: Servant Leader, Inventor, Captain of Industry
This article first appeared on February 27, 2019 in The Archbridge Institute’s ‘American Originals’ series. His father owned a machine shop, but young George Westinghouse had no interest in doing what he was told. Obsessed with his own inventions and ideas, George...
read more
Adolph Ochs—The Unsung Entrepreneur Who Transformed Journalism
This article first appeared on January 2, 2019 in The Archbridge Institute’s ‘American Originals’ series. Along with five younger siblings, Adolph Ochs was raised in poverty in Knoxville, Tennessee, by his scholarly but financially unsuccessful father and...
read more
Kirk Kerkorian: The Risk Taker Who Rose from Poverty to Change Las Vegas and Armenia
This article first appeared on December 14, 2018 in The Archbridge Institute’s ‘American Originals’ series. One of the myths about great entrepreneurs is that they love risk and are big gamblers. In fact, they usually do everything they can to reduce risk and are...
read more
Arthur G. Gaston: Entrepreneur Against All Odds
Originally published on ArchbridgeInstitute.org on October 29, 2018 This article first appeared on October 29, 2018 in The Archbridge Institute’s ‘American Originals’ series. The grandson of slaves, Arthur George Gaston was born in 1892 in Demopolis, Alabama, to Rosie...
read more
Malcolm McLean: Unsung Innovator Who Changed the World
Originally published on Hooversworld.com on May 30, 2015 In 1937, 24-year old Malcolm McLean (later changed to Malcom) delivered a load from the south to the New Jersey docks for export. He had been in the trucking business for two years. The rural North...
read more
Can Companies Really Reinvent Themselves? The Lessons of Target
Originally published on Hooversworld.com on Aug 2, 2016. Much has been written about the idea of "reinventing" your company. However, in my 50+ years of studying big business, I have rarely seen it happen -- successfully. Here, from the treasure trove that is...
read more
Built to Last — or not? Beware of what you read!
Originally published on Hooversworld.com on July 28, 2016 I was working on a newsletter about Melville Shoe, a retailer I covered as a securities analyst at Citibank in the mid-70s. It was a great company with some unique approaches to opportunity discovery,...
read more
The Most Important Person in History Without a Wikipedia Page?
Originally published on Hooversworld.com on September 30, 2015 Now that’s an interesting question. I look forward to your candidates. I was recently stunned when I went to look up the fellow, whose story follows below, on Wikipedia, only to find no one had...
read more
The Corporate Giant Whose History Almost Nobody Knows
Originally Published on Hooversworld.com on May 22, 2018 Who would have guessed that a medium-sized retailer which never put its name on a store would evolve to become the 7th largest company in America, a place where millions of Americans shop every day? My first job...
read more
Estée Lauder: From One Woman’s Passion to Cosmetics Empire
This article first appeared on February 12, 2018 in The Archbridge Institute's 'American Originals' series. Today, the Estée Lauder Companies have become among the most important cosmetics companies in the world—against huge odds and well-established competitors....
read more
J. C. Penney, the Man: A Life of Perpetual Sharing
This article first appeared on December 7, 2017 in The Archbridge Institute's 'American Originals' series. From inauspicious beginnings rose one of the great entrepreneurs in American history, a man with unusual dedication and exceptionally high ideals. James Cash...
read more
Olive Ann Beech: Queen of the Aircraft Industry
This article first appeared on May 15, 2018 in The Archbridge Institute's 'American Originals' series. There are stories that take tragedy to unearth. When the world bears witness to great ability, new awareness changes the narrative of today and rewrites the...
read more
Madam C. J. Walker: The Ultimate Self-Made Woman
This article first appeared on October 31, 2017 in The Archbridge Institute's 'American Originals' series. Her Westchester County neighborhood was the home of Vanderbilts, Morgans, and Astors. Jay Gould and John D. Rockefeller had assembled estates nearby. Sitting...
read more
The Outsider Whose Vision Changed the Way We See
This article first appeared on August 14, 2017 in The Archbridge Institute’s ‘American Originals’ series. It was 1912. The wiry, soft-spoken, short (five-foot five-inch) immigrant with the thick Hungarian accent waited for hours to see the powerful Jeremiah Kennedy,...
read more
Robert Brooker: Unsung Warrior in One of the Greatest Battles in Business
This article first appeared on October 11, 2017 on Hooversworld.com. "Far greater it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered with failure…than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a...
read more
George Eastman: The Greatest Technology Entrepreneur in U.S. History?
This article first appeared on January 24, 2018 in The Archbridge Institute's 'American Originals' series. The technologies of today are built upon those of the past, and the superstars of our era would be nothing without the great leaders of the past. We often...
read more
Conrad Hilton: The Dreamer Who Conquered an Industry
This article first appeared on April 24, 2018 in The Archbridge Institute's 'American Originals' series. Conrad Nicholson Hilton was born to wealth. His father, “Colonel” A. H. “Gus” Hilton, was the leading merchant and trader in the tiny sun-baked mining village of...
read more
Who is the Greatest Active American Entrepreneur?
This article first appeared on May 31, 2017 on Hooversworld.com. Who is the greatest active American Entrepreneur? My students usually suggest the names of the founders of the new generation of Internet companies, names that are continuously in the news. But I...
read more
The Three Greatest American Companies of All Time
This article first appeared on January 16, 2015 on Hooversworld.com. For the last 52 years, I have been obsessed with understanding what makes a company great. What leads to success; what leads away. This led me to ruminate on which might be the greatest US companies...
read more
General Robert Wood: The Forgotten Man Who Changed Sears and the World
This article first appeared on August 22, 2018 in The Archbridge Institute's 'American Originals' series. Before there was Amazon, there was Sears, Roebuck, using the mail-order catalog where the Internet is used today. Before Walmart was the world’s largest retailer...
read more
Brand Man: The HJ Heinz Story
This article first appeared on July 5, 2018 in The Archbridge Institute's 'American Originals' series. It’s December 1875. Thirty-one-year-old Henry John “HJ” Heinz is bedridden the entire month with deep depression. On some days, he cannot even get out...
read more
Jim Casey: The Unknown Entrepreneur Who Built The Great UPS
These days the news and chatter on the Internet are filled with stories of Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook. In this environment, it can be easy to forget or take for granted the other great enterprises that make the world go ’round.
read more