They tended strongly toward “fool.” Judge Ganey, by his statement that he assumed the conspiracies to have been not only condoned but approved by the top brass and the company as a whole, clearly chose “knave.” But his analysis may or may not have been the right one, and after reading the Kefauver Subcommittee testimony I have come to the melancholy conclusion that the truth will very likely never be known.
headquarters were faced with the ugly choice of representing its role in the price-fixing affair as that of either a fool or a knave. Related: Why The Fifteen Percent Is One of the Best Books for SuccessĮMBATTLED days at 570 Lexington Avenue! After years of cloaking the company in the mantle of a wise and benevolent corporate institution, the public-relations people at G.E. Brooks explores how an inability to effectively communicate paved the way for such a massive scandal, inviting the reader to reflect on what that meant for the company and industry as a whole. The biggest offender was General Electric, which conspired with other companies to secretly meet and agree upon non-competitive pricing for their goods, an unfair practice that ultimately hurt consumers. In it, Brooks discusses information he learned about the price-rigging scandal in the electrical-manufacturing industry that ultimately led to the indictment of 29 companies and various employees in 1961. The following passage is an excerpt from one of the chapters of Business Adventures, titled “The Impacted Philosophers,” which originally appeared as an essay in The New Yorker in 1962. From the rise of Xerox to the spectacular failure of the Ford Edsel, John Brooks’ book highlights some of the most unbelievable and defining moments in corporate America. As a financial journalist and longtime contributor to The New Yorker, Brooks excelled at writing insightful commentary about complicated business phenomenon in a way that was accessible to the everyday reader.īusiness Adventures showcases this-breaking down complex historical events that capture an era or exemplify certain values.
The book is a collection of stories written over John Brooks’ career. Written over half a century ago, Business Adventures remains relevant in its examination of the pitfalls and successes of the world of Wall Street.
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