Brand New : How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers' Trust from Wedgwood to Dell

by Nancy F. Koehn

Koehn (business administration, Harvard Business School) explores the connections between entrepreneurs and consumers, and the exceptional abilities of certain entrepreneurs to understand and capitalize upon the effects of rapid social, economic and technological changes on consumers' needs and wants. Six leaders of brand creation, from the mid-1700s to the present day, are Josiah Wedgwood, Henry Heinz, Marshall Field, EstTe Lauder, Howard Schultz, and Michael Dell. Koehn considers the role that these six individuals have played historically in creating new markets and affecting modern consumption, and she draws on their examples to find insights for today's brand builders. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Genres: Business, Nonfiction

448 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2001

About the author

Nancy F. Koehn is a historian at the Harvard Business School where she holds the James E. Robison chair of Business Administration. Koehn's research focuses on crisis leadership and how leaders and their teams rise to the challenges of high-stakes situations. Her latest book, Forged in Crisis: The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times, spotlights how five of history’s greatest leaders managed crisis and, in doing this, accomplished extraordinary missions. She is currently working on a major study of civil rights leaders during the late 1950s and 1960s and what we can learn today from their bravery, commitment, methods and purpose.

Koehn has written numerous books and authored HBS cases on Starbucks Coffee Company, Ernest Shackleton, Oprah Winfrey, Bono and U2, Whole Foods, Wedgwood, Estée Lauder, Madam CJ Walker, Dell Computer, and other leaders and organizations. She is currently writing an HBS case on John Lewis and the Civil Rights Movement and another case on John F. Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Koehn consults with many companies and speaks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Aspen Institute Ideas Festival and the World Business Forum. She has appeared on many television shows, including, "American Experience," "Good Morning America," "The PBS NewsHour," and A&E's "Biography.” She writes for the New York Times, the Washington Post, Huffington Post, and the Harvard Business Review and is a frequent commentator on National Public Radio and the BBC. In 2012, Poets and Quants ranked Koehn as one of the World’s 50 Best Business School Professors.

Before coming to HBS, Koehn was a member of Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences for seven years, first as a graduate student in history and then as a lecturer in the History and Literature concentration and the Department of Economics. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University, Koehn earned a Master of Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government before taking her MA and PhD in History from Harvard.

Koehn lives in Concord, Massachusetts and is a dedicated equestrian.

Reviews

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent case study of how brands, and great businesses are built by entrepreneurs who strategically took advanntage of changing cultural and technological milieus that dramatically shifted the demand side of businesses.

[Adam Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly the best book for any inspiring entrepreneur!!!