Category: Corporate Biography

Few consumer brands are more iconic and deeply woven into American culture than the Hershey Bar and M&Ms. For most Americans, these candies are more than just sweet treats—they are childhood staples, lifelong companions, and comfort foods that evoke nostalgia. Personally, my confectionery loyalty lies with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, but the story behind these…

McDonald’s will always have a special place in my heart, even though I rarely eat there these days. A happy meal was a treasured treat when I was a kid and my first real job was working the drive-in window at a local McDonald’s. “McDonald’s: Behind the Arches” by John Love is an absorbing and…

What a difference a few years make! When “Private Empire” was first published in 2013, ExxonMobil was the largest company in the world by market capitalization, a quarter-trillion-dollar behemoth, delivering jaw-dropping quarterly profit statements that late night talk show hosts found as monologue fodder. By the dawn of 2020, however, the world had changed whereas…

Originally published in 1964, “The Arms of Krupp” has earned the title of a non-fiction classic. Highly readable, the tale William Manchester tells is fascinating and all the more enjoyable for his mordant wit. At over 800 pages in length, however, it is a daunting read and at times can feel overwhelming. The Krupp steel…

General Electric is one of the most iconic companies in American history. When I was going to college in the 1990s entry level positions at GE were coveted by the best and brightest students. CEO Jack Welch was a bona fide celebrity. Other leading corporations aggressively sought executive GE talent in the hopes of capturing…

The Reagan ‘80s were a giddy time for investment bankers. There were tens of millions of dollars in fees to be made in orchestrating corporate mergers (never mind if the end result benefited shareholders, let alone employees). The most innovative and potentially lucrative transaction was the leveraged buyout (LBO), an operation where a company’s management…

Today, Goldman Sachs sits unrivaled atop the world of international investment banking. That hasn’t always been the case. In fact, for much of the firm’s 150-year existence Goldman Sachs has been a relatively small and inconsequential second-tier player on Wall Street. So what happened? That is what I was hoping to find out when I…

“Merchant Princes” is one of Malcolm Gladwell’s all-time favorite books. During an appearance on the Tim Ferriss podcast, Gladwell noted that he loves this 1977 bestseller so much he often gives away copies to people he meets, especially if they’re Jewish. That is pretty high praise coming from one of my favorite non-fiction authors. I…