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Paths to Power: How Insiders and Outsiders Shaped American Business Leadership
'Paths to Power' sheds light into the changing demographic composition of American business leadership and reveals why these subtle changes are in fact quite groundbreaking.
292 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
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July 27, 2008
Paths to Power: How Insiders and Outsiders Shaped American Business Leadership
Anthony J. Mayo, Nitin Nohria, and Laura G. Singleton
Harvard Business School Press
Rather than limiting their attention to a set number of exemplary leaders – in chronological order -- and then devoting a separate chapter to each, Mayo, Nohria, and Singleton take a linear approach to the material as they examine the evolution of 20th century business leadership in terms of the ten decades, assigning to each following the first chapter an appropriate component (birthplace, nationality, religion, education, class, gender and race, etc.) while frequently cross-referencing throughout the entire century. For example, they juxtapose comparable individuals such as James Stillman’s presidency of National City Bank (1891–1909) and Sanford “Sandy” Weill’s of Citigroup (that National City Bank eventually became) a century later. Here is a brief excerpt from the material that Mayo, Nohria, and Singleton provide.
“As a starting point in our examination of twentieth-century leader backgrounds, we thus come away with the decisive conclusion that even in the United States, the great land of opportunity, not every birthplace was created equal…While mobility between regions tended to increase later in the century, people with more prosperous family origins – origins that typically stemmed from birth in a similarly prosperous region of the country –retained an advantage when entering business in a new area. The distinguishing features of each of the country’s major regions, both as sources of and sites for leaders, will constitute an important backdrop for further discussions about leader characteristics.” (Page 54)
In the Foreword, Michael Useem explains this book’s unique importance. “Studies of the social origins of America’s business elite have been a long-standing research tradition, dating to such classics as W. Lloyd Warner and James Abegglen’s Big Business Leaders in America and Mabel Newcomer’s The Big Business Executive, both published in 1955. We have not had the benefit of a truly comprehensive portrait since those works of more than fifty years ago; now Mayo, Nohria, and Singleton have not only updated the picture but also produced the definitive portrait of our time.”
Anthony J. Mayo, Nitin Nohria, and Laura G. Singleton
Harvard Business School Press
Rather than limiting their attention to a set number of exemplary leaders – in chronological order -- and then devoting a separate chapter to each, Mayo, Nohria, and Singleton take a linear approach to the material as they examine the evolution of 20th century business leadership in terms of the ten decades, assigning to each following the first chapter an appropriate component (birthplace, nationality, religion, education, class, gender and race, etc.) while frequently cross-referencing throughout the entire century. For example, they juxtapose comparable individuals such as James Stillman’s presidency of National City Bank (1891–1909) and Sanford “Sandy” Weill’s of Citigroup (that National City Bank eventually became) a century later. Here is a brief excerpt from the material that Mayo, Nohria, and Singleton provide.
“As a starting point in our examination of twentieth-century leader backgrounds, we thus come away with the decisive conclusion that even in the United States, the great land of opportunity, not every birthplace was created equal…While mobility between regions tended to increase later in the century, people with more prosperous family origins – origins that typically stemmed from birth in a similarly prosperous region of the country –retained an advantage when entering business in a new area. The distinguishing features of each of the country’s major regions, both as sources of and sites for leaders, will constitute an important backdrop for further discussions about leader characteristics.” (Page 54)
In the Foreword, Michael Useem explains this book’s unique importance. “Studies of the social origins of America’s business elite have been a long-standing research tradition, dating to such classics as W. Lloyd Warner and James Abegglen’s Big Business Leaders in America and Mabel Newcomer’s The Big Business Executive, both published in 1955. We have not had the benefit of a truly comprehensive portrait since those works of more than fifty years ago; now Mayo, Nohria, and Singleton have not only updated the picture but also produced the definitive portrait of our time.”
Displaying 1 of 1 review