{"product_id":"big-steel-the-first-century-of-the-united-states-steel-corporation-1901-2001-paperback","title":"Big Steel: The First Century of the United States Steel Corporation 1901-2001 - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eKenneth Warren\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt its formation in 1901, the United States Steel Corporation was the earth's biggest industrial corporation, a wonder of the manufacturing world. Immediately it produced two thirds of America's raw steel and thirty percent of the steel made worldwide. The behemoth company would go on to support the manufacturing superstructure of practically every other industry in America. It would create and sustain the economies of many industrial communities, especially Pittsburgh, employing more than a million people over the course of the century.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA hundred years later, the U.S. Steel Group of USX makes scarcely ten percent of the steel in the United States and just over one and a half percent of global output. Far from the biggest, the company is now considered the most efficient steel producer in the world. What happened between then and now, and why, is the subject of \u003ci\u003eBig Steel, \u003c\/i\u003e the first comprehensive history of the company at the center of America's twentieth-century industrial life.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eGranted privileged and unprecedented access to the U.S. Steel archives, Kenneth Warren has sifted through a long, complex business history to tell a compelling story. Its preeminent size was supposed to confer many advantages to U.S. Steel-economies of scale, monopolies of talent, etc. Yet in practice, many of those advantages proved illusory. Warren shows how, even in its early years, the company was out-maneuvered by smaller competitors and how, over the century, U.S. Steel's share of the industry, by every measure, steadily declined.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWarren's subtle analysis of years of internal decision making reveals that the company's size and clumsy hierarchical structure made it uniquely difficult to direct and manage. He profiles the chairmen who grappled with this \"lumbering giant,\" paying particular attention to those who long ago created its enduring corporate culture-Charles M. Schwab, Elbert H. Gary, and Myron C. Taylor.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWarren points to the way U.S. Steel's dominating size exposed it to public scrutiny and government oversight-a cautionary force. He analyzes the ways that labor relations affected company management and strategy. And he demonstrates how U.S. Steel suffered gradually, steadily, from its paradoxical ability to make high profits while failing to keep pace with the best practices. Only after the drastic pruning late in the century-when U.S. Steel reduced its capacity by two-thirds-did the company become a world leader in steel-making efficiency, rather than merely in size.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThese lessons, drawn from the history of an extraordinary company, will enrich the scholarship of industry and inform the practice of business in the twenty-first century.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eKenneth Warren\u003c\/b\u003e is Emeritus Fellow of Jesus College, University of Oxford. He is the author of numerous books, including \u003ci\u003eWealth, Waste and Alienation: Growth and Decline in the Connellsville Coke Industry\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eIndustrial Genius: The Working Life of Charles Michael Schwab.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 424\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.21 x 8.95 x 6.02 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e February 01, 2008\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52338382242066,"sku":"9780822960027","price":105.3,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0941\/2211\/5346\/files\/MDlMamVFMWxJdS92cUNxbkdKWjVVZz09.webp?v=1780473179","url":"https:\/\/ckbookstore.net\/products\/big-steel-the-first-century-of-the-united-states-steel-corporation-1901-2001-paperback","provider":"CK BOOKSTORE","version":"1.0","type":"link"}