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"Friedman, Walter A., 1962- author"
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American business history : a very short introduction
Economist Thorstein Veblen saw the United States as a business civilization, and President Calvin Coolidge declared, \"The chief business of the American people is business.\" How did business come to have such power and cultural centrality in the United States? Why did American businesses assume such massive scale? How have American companies competed with one another and with foreign firms? Why did business shift from a culture that prized hierarchy and long-term employment to one that celebrated entrepreneurship? Walter Friedman deftly explores the variety of business enterprise in the United States, introducing an array of entrepreneurs and business leaders (John Jacob Astor, Cyrus McCormick, Lydia Pinkham, and Thomas J. Watson) and leading firms (General Electric, Xerox, and Apple).
BOOK
Birth of a Salesman
In this entertaining and informative book, Walter Friedman
chronicles the remarkable metamorphosis of the American salesman
from itinerant amateur to trained expert. From the mid-nineteenth
century to the eve of World War II, the development of sales
management transformed an economy populated by peddlers and
canvassers to one driven by professional salesmen and executives.
From book agents flogging Ulysses S. Grant's memoirs to John H.
Patterson's famous pyramid strategy at National Cash Register to
the determined efforts by Ford and Chevrolet to craft surefire
sales pitches for their dealers, selling evolved from an art to a
science. \"Salesmanship\" as a term and a concept arose around the
turn of the century, paralleling the new science of mass
production. Managers assembled professional forces of neat
responsible salesmen who were presented as hardworking pillars of
society, no longer the butt of endless \"traveling salesmen\" jokes.
People became prospects; their homes became territories. As an NCR
representative said, the modern salesman \"let the light of reason
into dark places.\" The study of selling itself became an industry,
producing academic disciplines devoted to marketing, consumer
behavior, and industrial psychology. At Carnegie Mellon's Bureau of
Salesmanship Research, Walter Dill Scott studied the
characteristics of successful salesmen and ways to motivate
consumers to buy. Full of engaging portraits and illuminating
insights, Birth of a Salesman is a singular contribution
that offers a clear understanding of the transformation of
salesmanship in modern America.
eBook