Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. was a known business history professor from Harvard Business School and John Hopkins University. Writing extensively about management structures and modern corporations, Chandler was the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for History. Here is a look at some of the most memorable Alfred D. Chandler Jr. quotes.
“All I know is that the Internet will transform the world.”
“Complete accountability is established and enforced throughout; and if there there is any error committed, it will be discovered on a comparison with the books and can be traced to its source.”
“Effective coordination of throughput required the placing of vigorous management controls over these despots.”
“Increase on productivity and decrease in unit costs (often identified with economies of scale) resulted far more from the increases in the volume and velocity of throughput then from a growth in the size of the factory and plant.”
“Men’s mind and abilities grow and expand with use of responsibilities.”
“Modern factory management (but not it must be stressed the management of large modern multi-unit enterprises) had the genesis in the United States in the Springfield Armory.”
“Multi-unit business enterprise replaced small traditional enterprise when administrative coordination permitted greater productivity, lower costs, and higher profits than coordination by market mechanisms.”
"strategy should be ennobling" … Alfred D. Chandler Jr #HarvardBizSchool #MIT #JohnsHopkinsU #PulitzerPrizeAward pic.twitter.com/UFF59aSP7I
— Cadence Consulting (@CadenceConsult) August 2, 2015
“The market remained the generator of demand for goods and services, but modern business enterprise took over the functions of coordinating flows of goods and services through existing processes of production and distribution, and of allocating funds and personnel for future production and distribution. As modern business enterprise acquired functions hitherto carried out by the market, it became the most powerful institution in the American economy and its managers the most influential group of economic decision makers. The rise of modern business enterprise in the United States, therefore, brought with it managerial capitalism.”
“The minutest details of cost of materials and labor in every department appeared from day to day and week to week in the accounts; and soon every man about the place was made to realize it. The men felt and often remarked that the eye of the company were on them through the books.”
“The modern joint stock firm is the outcome of innumerable decisions made by individual entrepreneurs, owners and managers. For these decision makers the choices among alternatives were limited and the outcomes uncertain, but almost always there were choices. Despite the variability of these individual decisions, taken cumulatively they produced clear patterns of institutional change.”
“The systems and controls developed at the armory were as critical to the development of what became known as the ‘American System of Manufacturing’ as the new metalworking machinery and machine tools.”
“To maintain and continue a high volume of flow demanded organizational innovation. It would be achieved only by creating an administrative hierarchy operated by many full-time salaried managers.”
“Unless structure follows strategy, inefficiency results.”
Strategy is important for any new or growing business. Here is a look at the top seven steps to successful strategy and implementation.
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