Pierre S. Du Pont and the Making of the Modern Corporation

by Alfred Dupont DuPont Chandler, Stephen Salsbury

Overview

This meticulously researched biography of Pierre S. du Pont, head of the Du Pont Company and later General Motors, describes how the Delaware scion took a loosely run, family gunpowder factory and turned it into a giant corporation. Moreover, by astute business management he transformed a faltering General Motors into one of the world's most profitable enterprises. Chandler and Salsbury, who had access to business and personal records rarely available to historians, made the most of them. It is truly one of the finest business histories ever written.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781587980237
Publisher:	Beard Group Inc.
Publication date:	12/28/2000
Pages:	740
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.63(d)

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	xvii
	Introduction	xix
I.	The Years of Preparation
1.	The Family and the Firm	3
2.	The Apprenticeship	23
3.	The New Company	47
4.	The Big Company	77
II.	Managing the Powder Company
5.	The Treasurer	123
6.	Formulating Financial Policy	149
7.	Investment Overseas?	169
8.	Maintaining Financial Control	201
9.	Toward Vertical Integration	227
III.	The New Challenges
10.	The Powder Company Assailed	259
11.	The Problem of Succession	301
12.	The Cousins Split	322
13.	Supplying the Allies	359
14.	The American War Effort: Negotiations Begun	390
15.	The American War Effort: Negotiations Completed	410
IV.	The General Motors Story
16.	Initial Involvement, 1915-1917	433
17.	Du Pont "Control" at General Motors, 1918-1920	457
18.	The Crisis, 1920	475
19.	Reorganization and Regeneration, 1921	492
20.	Product Policy and Technological Innovation, 1921-1923	511
21.	General Motors Rebuilt, 1923-1924	537
22.	Last Years at General Motors and Du Pont	560
23.	The Family and the Enterprise	592
	Appendix	605
	Sources of Information	615
	Notes	617
	Index	709