Agee, Bill: Bendix
Another leader in the movement toward maximizing value of shareholders investments as primary duty of company—the foremost objective of ''responsible management'' is ''improving the value of the shareholder's investment.''
Here is the classic ethical rebuttal to such an idea: https://www.nytimes.com/1982/10/27/opinion/l-what-a-corporation-owes-its-shareholders-248016.html
“Short term, ruthless management style,” “Lee A. Iacocca, chairman of the Chrysler Corporation, complained that Mr. Agee, by celebrating short-term returns, cast aspersions on the business of manufacturing.”
Agee, Bill: Morrison—Knudsen
Akers, John: IBM
Akers a “product” of IBMs outdated system—had trouble refocusing IBMs attention to center on the shareholders as opposed to the customers; “required” servility to superiors causes willful ignorance of red flags
While Akers did try to decentralize and revitalize IBM, giving its businesses much more autonomy, he couldn’t save its rapid decline.
Allaire, Paul: Xerox
Andersen, Roger: Continental Illinois
CI invested in developing country, took on over $1 billion in risky loans.
https://www.nytimes.com/1986/12/07/magazine/no-headline-812186.html
This is a fascinating article on how the fallout of business malpractice affects everyone involved, but also of how the Greatest Generation formed the American corporate world, in a sense, and vice versa—“the organization man,” the heart of American business ethics and manners.
''At some point,'' Myers says, ''I read or heard that there is no end to how successful somebody can be as long as they give the credit to someone else. I adopted that as my credo.''
A look into the people who make companies what they are, but are ultimately discarded by them--the downfall of the Organization Man.
Roger Anderson is the one who initiates the failure of this company and transitively, the downfall of Myers, with his new aggressive loan policy, beginning in 1976.
Waters down the internal deliberations on signing off on loans, ends up signing off on penn square, and the rest is history
“For a while, the new ethos worked wonders. American companies became pre-eminent in such fields as autos, aircraft, energy and electronics and, in the process, gave the United States the highest standard of living ever known. But within the last decade, in industry after industry, the nation has fallen behind in innovation, productivity and market share. Many commentators believe that the very organization-man revolution that helped create America's robust economic health has contributed to its decline.”
“The rash of mergers and leveraged buyouts has also taken its toll as conquered companies have been shrunk by their new owners.”
What happened to GM in 60s an example of this bureaucracy's downside in managing companies.
Anderson, Warren: Union Carbide
How could the CEO of such a large company feel a direct connection to something so remote from his own cares, his own life, that he could take responsibility for it? Indeed, how could someone so averse to oversight of his business all of a sudden be responsible for the disaster it creates? If this was politics, there’d be reparations. But not in business.
Antioco, John: Blockbuster
Arnall, Roland: Ameriquest
This is an ongoing list; names will be filled in due time.
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