Rockefeller
RockefellerJohn Davison Rockefeller
John Davison Rockefeller is part of the family of American Industrialists, bankers, and philanthropists. Corporate development during the Industrial Revolution was made in part by entrepreneurs who were the people who took responsibility for the organization and operation of a new business venture.
Rockefeller was born in 1839 and died in 1937. He established an oil refinery with partners in 1863, and in 1970 he organized the Standard Oil Co. of Ohio. By strict economy, mergers with competitors, and ruthless elimination of opponents he soon dominated the U.S. oil-refining industry. His numerous companies were consolidated under the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey but the U. S. Supreme Court ordered this holding company dissolved on antitrust grounds, and the subsidiaries became independent corporations. He retired in 1911 with a fabulous fortune.
Rockefeller was an entrepreneur or better known as a "Robber Baron", and was also called the "oil baron," exercised his genius in devising ways to circumvent competition. Rockefeller came to dominate the oil industry by brining a new energy and overwhelming strategy into his business. With one upward stride after another he organized the Standard Oil Company, which was the nucleus of the great trust that was formed. Rockefeller showed little mercy in his business dealings. He believe primitive savagery prevailed in the jungle world of business, where only the fittest survived or as you taught us (Social Darwinism) :-). Anyway, he pursued the policy of "ruin or rule." His oil monopoly did turn out a superior product at a relatively cheap price.
Rockefeller's philanthropies, amounting to some $500 million dollars. He founded things such as the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, and the Univ. of Chicago. His vast resources built up the National City Bank of New York. Basically he contributed quite a lot to American society so lets leave it at that.
To sum this all up Rockefeller created extremely successful companies, he used unscrupulous (or in our uneducated tongue "corrupt") methods in some aspect of his corporation building to get to the top. The success of the Standard Oil Company and U.S. Steel was credited to the fact that their owners ran them with great authority. In this very competitive time period, many new businesses were being formed. It took talented businessmen such as Rockefeller to get ahead and keep the companies running and make the fortunes that were made during this period.