Author’s Note: In the Spirit of Transparency

As Author of this book, I have some confessions to make and want to share some information, because this is not an ordinary corporate biography. Historians write most corporate histories, and usually they are trained at the PhD level in business history. Many other histories are written by long-serving employees of a company who are not formally trained as historians but are clearly interested in and knowledgeable about the events of their company. The historians tend to write in the third person, never using the word "I," and are distant in their presentation of the history of the firm. The employees tell more stories, are more interested in the culture of the company, and could not care less about what theoretical constructs the academics are introducing or illustrating. The first group wants to demonstrate Chandlerian historiography or some other paradigm; the second group has only read other histories of the firm they are writing about.