The Change Makers: From Carnegie to Gates, How the Great Entrepreneurs Transformed Ideas into Industries

by Maury Klein

From one of America's foremost business historians, a penetrating and engaging look at the qualities that create great entrepreneursEntrepreneurs, even more than inventors, are essential to American business. While inventors produce ideas, entrepreneurs get things done, build the markets, make ideas reality. But what creative talents do the legendary American entrepreneurs share, and what can you learn from them about business success? Using lively character sketches and company stories, University of Rhode Island professor and author Maury Klein analyzes how innovators from Andrew Carnegie to Bill Gates triumphed over perennial challenges in planning and strategy, production, operations, staffing, and sales--and transformed entire industries. Comparing the retailing acumen of J.C. Penney and Wal-Mart's Sam Walton, the organizational ingenuity of Standard Oil's John D. Rockefeller and Citigroup's Sandy Weill, the imaginative marketing of General Motors' Alfred Sloan and MacDonald's Ray Kroc, Klein reveals the art and archetype of successful entrepreneurialism. Moving beyond the clichés, he describes the artistry of great businessmen who build empires and dreams as well as fortunes, in The Change Makers.

Genres: Business

335 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Maury Klein is renowned as one of the finest historians of American business and economy. He is the author of many books, including The Power Makers: Steam, Electricity, and the Men Who Invented Modern America; and Rainbow's End: The Crash of 1929. He is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Rhode Island. He lives in Saunderstown, Rhode Island.

Reviews

[Kressel Housman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m putting this aside for now, and I’m not sure if I’m going back to it. I took it out of the library because my son is doing a report on Andrew Carnegie, and the flap copy looked interesting, so I started it. Chapters 1 and 2 defined “entrepreneur” and “creativity,” but because I didn’t need convincing that entrepreneurs are can be as creative as artists, I found the chapters repetitive.

The rest of the book is supposed to cover twelve or so famous entrepreneurs and point to the traits that made them so successful. The entrepreneurs include Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Thomas Edison, F.W. Woolworth, George Eastman (of Kodak), Edwin Land (of Polaroid), Sam Walton (of Walmart), Ray Kroc (of McDonald’s), Warren Buffet, and Bill Gates. There may have been others, but I don’t remember. In any case, if the book had been structured as chapter by chapter biographies of each entrepreneur, I might have found it more readable, but instead, it tackles the issues thematically, so you get a summary of how the family life of each entrepreneur, the working styles of each entrepreneur, etc. All that jumping around made the book feel choppy to me. No doubt it has something to teach, but it hasn’t held my attention all that well. Too bad.

[Rusty · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is no "formula" in becoming successful, but as the author reveals, there are common virtues that these individuals shared. A great book on free enterprise and economics as well.

[Lori Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read book on entrepreneurial success stories for the knowledge worker or aspiring entrepreneur.