May 15, 2006   link to syllabus   Link to handout on paper topics!       

History 363: American Business History

Note: I'll keep my regular Tuesday office hour this week (10:30-12:00) but I have to cancel my Wednesday afternoon office hours.

I. Who Controls Big Business?

    A. Strategy, Structure and Power: From U-Form (Functional-Departmental) to M-Form (Multidivisional) Corporate Structures Simplified multidivisional organization chart        General Motors History Website

    B. Ownership and Management: A "Managerial Revolution"?

    C. "Stakeholders" and Corporate Responsibilities
Free market economist Milton Friedman on corporate social responsibility: "[T]here is one and only one social responsibility of business-to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud."

II. Big Business and American Values

    A. Who were the tycoons?
        1. Rags to Riches?
        2. Up the Organization
        3. "Pull"--Networking, Mentoring, Coaching and Success

    B. Changing Success Values
        1. From Character to Personality
        2. From Work to Well-Roundedness
        3. From Truth to Credibility

               
        Dale Carnegie--Author of Best                                Babbitt--Sinclair Lewis's Novel
        Selling Success Advice Book                                    about a Small Town Businessman