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Eli and the Octopus: The CEO Who Tried to Reform One of the World’s Most Notorious Corporations
The poignant rise and fall of an idealistic immigrant who, as CEO of a major conglomerate, tried to change the way America did business before he himself was swallowed up by corporate corruption.
At 8 a.m. on February 3, 1975, Eli Black leapt to his death from the 44th floor of Manhattan’s Pan Am building. The immigrant-turned-CEO of United Brands―formerly United Fruit, now Chiquita―Black seemed an embodiment of the American dream. United Brands was transformed under his leadership―from the “octopus,” a nickname that captured the corrupt power the company had held over Latin American governments, to “the most socially conscious company in the hemisphere,” according to a well-placed commentator. How did it all go wrong?
Eli and the Octopus traces the rise and fall of an enigmatic business leader and his influence on the nascent project of corporate social responsibility. Born Menashe Elihu Blachowitz in Lublin, Poland, Black arrived in New York at the age of three and became a rabbi before entering the business world. Driven by the moral tenets of his faith, he charted a new course in industries known for poor treatment of workers, partnering with labor leaders like Cesar Chavez to improve conditions. But risky investments, economic recession, and a costly wave of natural disasters led Black away from the path of reform and toward corrupt backroom dealing.
Now, two decades after Google’s embrace of “Don’t be evil” as its unofficial motto, debates about “ethical capitalism” are more heated than ever. Matt Garcia presents an unvarnished portrait of Black’s complicated legacy. Exploring the limits of corporate social responsibility on American life, Eli and the Octopus offers pointed lessons for those who hope to do good while doing business.
At 8 a.m. on February 3, 1975, Eli Black leapt to his death from the 44th floor of Manhattan’s Pan Am building. The immigrant-turned-CEO of United Brands―formerly United Fruit, now Chiquita―Black seemed an embodiment of the American dream. United Brands was transformed under his leadership―from the “octopus,” a nickname that captured the corrupt power the company had held over Latin American governments, to “the most socially conscious company in the hemisphere,” according to a well-placed commentator. How did it all go wrong?
Eli and the Octopus traces the rise and fall of an enigmatic business leader and his influence on the nascent project of corporate social responsibility. Born Menashe Elihu Blachowitz in Lublin, Poland, Black arrived in New York at the age of three and became a rabbi before entering the business world. Driven by the moral tenets of his faith, he charted a new course in industries known for poor treatment of workers, partnering with labor leaders like Cesar Chavez to improve conditions. But risky investments, economic recession, and a costly wave of natural disasters led Black away from the path of reform and toward corrupt backroom dealing.
Now, two decades after Google’s embrace of “Don’t be evil” as its unofficial motto, debates about “ethical capitalism” are more heated than ever. Matt Garcia presents an unvarnished portrait of Black’s complicated legacy. Exploring the limits of corporate social responsibility on American life, Eli and the Octopus offers pointed lessons for those who hope to do good while doing business.
280 pages, Hardcover
Published April 18, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 20, 2023
Matt Garcia has written the book "Eli and the Octopus: The CEO Who Tried to Reform One of the World's Most Notorious Corporations". I was drawn to the book because I wanted to know what this corporation was and why it was so notorious. In short, the book is a business biography of a man named Eli Black, who was the CEO of the company "United Brands" in the late 1960's and early 1970's. The book traces the story of his rise and fall, but I didn't feel like it was done in any noteworthy way.
Indeed, most biographies refer to their subject throughout the book by the last name. However, Garcia uses first names, for a reason that is never explained. The CEO Black had an interesting story in that he was trained and was ordained as a rabbi, but then heard the siren call of the business world, left the rabbinate, and worked his way up to CEO. His CEO tenure coincides with the biggest business issues of the era, including negotiating with unions, and navigating the oil embargo of the 1970's. He sought to inject social responsibility into the business world, but fell short. The stormy seas of leading a business through multiple mergers and acquisitions finally got the best of him, and in February 1975, he took his own life.
Most of the research for the book seems to come from what was written in the newspaper, or what was published in the financial reports of the company. I didn't get the sense that much was done beyond that. Garcia has written a very matter-of-fact biography, which is fine, but I was looking for him to tell a deeper, more well-rounded narrative.
Indeed, most biographies refer to their subject throughout the book by the last name. However, Garcia uses first names, for a reason that is never explained. The CEO Black had an interesting story in that he was trained and was ordained as a rabbi, but then heard the siren call of the business world, left the rabbinate, and worked his way up to CEO. His CEO tenure coincides with the biggest business issues of the era, including negotiating with unions, and navigating the oil embargo of the 1970's. He sought to inject social responsibility into the business world, but fell short. The stormy seas of leading a business through multiple mergers and acquisitions finally got the best of him, and in February 1975, he took his own life.
Most of the research for the book seems to come from what was written in the newspaper, or what was published in the financial reports of the company. I didn't get the sense that much was done beyond that. Garcia has written a very matter-of-fact biography, which is fine, but I was looking for him to tell a deeper, more well-rounded narrative.
September 5, 2023
Some interesting moments, but the narrative was pretty disjointed throughout the book.
February 2, 2025
Explores the journey of Eli Black across his ascent and difficulties in business.
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November 10, 2023Is it possible for an exploitative multinational corporation to be run in an ethical way? Today, the question might seem hopelessly naïve. But in 1968, when Eli Black sought to take control of the United Fruit Company, he did so thinking it possible to create a socially responsible international conglomerate. According to Matt García’s Eli and the Octopus, Black believed this so strongly that, when it became apparent that it was impossible, he ‘knocked a hole through the quarter-inch-thick glass of his office window in a midtown Manhattan skyscraper and jumped’. García’s rendering of Black’s early life, social ethics and business trajectory begins with this tragic ending, a human story that kept me engaged with the book even when details of mergers, sales, profits and losses threatened to dampen my curiosity.
Eli Black (born Eliasz Menasze Blachowicz) migrated to the US from Poland as a child, arriving in New York with his mother and two sisters. They joined Eli’s father, an Orthodox poultry slaughterer. Black studied at Yeshiva College, intending to become a rabbi. Yet as he was finishing his studies at Yeshiva he had already begun night classes at Columbia University Business School. In 1945, as the war ended, Black proposed to Shirley Lubell and resigned as rabbi, taking a position in sales at Lehman Brothers on Wall Street. As the Black family grew, he passed from one position and company to another, eventually becoming CEO of American Seal-Kap (AMK, a producer of milk bottle caps), where he streamlined production and took risks that recognised the changing consumption habits of American families. Black repeated this formula after acquiring the meatpacking firm John Morrell and Company.
Black’s confidence that he could simply replicate his previous successes (streamline, focus on efficiency, negotiate with unions, identify changes in consumption, repeat)led him, in 1970, to acquire United Fruit, its merger with AMK forming United Brands (the ‘octopus’ of the title). Various other companies (from lettuce growers to sunglass makers) were brought under the United Brands umbrella. Black promoted a socially conscious model, arguing that a corporation is responsible not only to its shareholders, but also to its workers and their communities. Black took over United Fruit just as its crops were hit by a hurricane in Honduras. Despite this setback he quickly negotiated with local unions, offering a better pay and benefits package than union leaders had expected. The losses United Brands suffered in bananas, Black hoped, would be made up for by improved sales of lettuce through its subsidiary Inter Harvest. But here, too, Black’s previously successful business tactics faltered. A poor choice of lettuce transportation led to rotten vegetables and a union dispute in California with the Cesar Chavez-led United Farm Workers.
Read the rest of the review at HistoryToday.com.
Courtney J. Campbell is the author of Region Out of Place: The Brazilian Northeast and the World
Eli Black (born Eliasz Menasze Blachowicz) migrated to the US from Poland as a child, arriving in New York with his mother and two sisters. They joined Eli’s father, an Orthodox poultry slaughterer. Black studied at Yeshiva College, intending to become a rabbi. Yet as he was finishing his studies at Yeshiva he had already begun night classes at Columbia University Business School. In 1945, as the war ended, Black proposed to Shirley Lubell and resigned as rabbi, taking a position in sales at Lehman Brothers on Wall Street. As the Black family grew, he passed from one position and company to another, eventually becoming CEO of American Seal-Kap (AMK, a producer of milk bottle caps), where he streamlined production and took risks that recognised the changing consumption habits of American families. Black repeated this formula after acquiring the meatpacking firm John Morrell and Company.
Black’s confidence that he could simply replicate his previous successes (streamline, focus on efficiency, negotiate with unions, identify changes in consumption, repeat)led him, in 1970, to acquire United Fruit, its merger with AMK forming United Brands (the ‘octopus’ of the title). Various other companies (from lettuce growers to sunglass makers) were brought under the United Brands umbrella. Black promoted a socially conscious model, arguing that a corporation is responsible not only to its shareholders, but also to its workers and their communities. Black took over United Fruit just as its crops were hit by a hurricane in Honduras. Despite this setback he quickly negotiated with local unions, offering a better pay and benefits package than union leaders had expected. The losses United Brands suffered in bananas, Black hoped, would be made up for by improved sales of lettuce through its subsidiary Inter Harvest. But here, too, Black’s previously successful business tactics faltered. A poor choice of lettuce transportation led to rotten vegetables and a union dispute in California with the Cesar Chavez-led United Farm Workers.
Read the rest of the review at HistoryToday.com.
Courtney J. Campbell is the author of Region Out of Place: The Brazilian Northeast and the World
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews