If you want some easy summer reading, here is a book I have been reading and can recommend. It’s the Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie. He was born in Scotland but emigrated to the USA at the age of 12. Starting at the bottom as a poor immigrant he became one of the richest men in the world – emulating John D. Rockefeller in the same era.
He developed the US steel industry but effectively retired at a young age and devoted himself to philanthropic works. In particular the establishment of libraries of which there are several thousand in the USA and UK. He also endowed many educational institutions.
His management style is particularly interesting and he believed in giving way to the demands of workers for higher pay. Better to have well-paid and well-motivated employees than disgruntled ones he believed. By this approach he avoided union disputes and strikes that disrupted production – an essential aspect of running blast furnaces and steel rolling mills at the time.
The only negative episode that affected his reputation was the Homestead Strike where 10 men were killed after the State Militia were called out to break a strike at a Carnegie owned plant. Carnegie was out of the country at the critical time so can hardly be blamed for what happened.
The book is an easy read and very enlightening on how to manage employees.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/RogerWLawson )
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