Chapters In The History Of The American Industrial Enterprise Chapter Summary

The book “Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the American Industrial Enterprise” is written by Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. and this book is about the changing strategies and administrative structures of U.S. industrial companies after World War II. The book also describes similarities between beginning organizational structure and the basic organizational structure used by enterprises in today’s capital intensive, technologically advanced industries. The largest section of the book is made up of four case studies and among them the author takes care to note differences in enterprise, market, and style. Author begins with the earliest corporation to become decentralized and multi-divisional, du Pont Chemical, and ends with the last, Sears,

Author begins with the earliest corporation to become decentralized and multi-divisional, du Pont Chemical, and ends with the last, Sears, Roebuck and Co. In the introduction, the author defines structure as the design of organization through which the enterprise is administered. Likewise, strategy is defined by the book as the determination of the basic long term goals and objectives of an enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out these goals. The book has 7 different chapters with different subjects matter and they are as follows: Chapter 1- Historical Setting: The first chapter gives a summary explanation of the development of administrative structure in American business history. In the American industrial history, before 1850 very few businesses required a clearly defined administrative structure or full-time administrators. Business usually involved an owner doing both planning and working within the business on daily operations. Industrial enterprises were very small in comparison with those of