Author | Charles G. Koch |
---|---|
Language | English |
Genre | Management |
Publisher | John Wiley & Sons |
Publication date | 2 March 2007 |
Pages | 208 |
ISBN | 978-0-470-13988-2 |
OCLC | 85821632 |
658.4/09 22 | |
LC Class | HD31 .K598214 2007 |
The Science of Success: How Market-Based Management Built the World's Largest Private Company is a book written by Charles Koch in which he delineates his philosophy of Market Based Management (MBM). Koch, the CEO of Koch Industries, Inc., [1] wrote it in 2007. [2] While many similarly-titled books by other authors exist, T. Boone Pickens argues that Koch's immense personal business success lends credibility to the book's concept. [3]
Koch has said that he initially wrote the book after the 2004 acquisition of Invista with the intent of using it as a sort of training manual to give a comprehensive picture of Koch Industries' business philosophy and to explain the principles of MBM to the new employees; Koch had initially conducted much of the training of new employees, but as the company grew, it soon became an impossible task, and necessitated the implementation of some other training method. [4] He was later convinced to expand the "training manual" to share his philosophies with a wider audience. [5]
Koch credits much of the success of Koch Industries to effective implementation of Market Based Management (MBM), [6] but indicates that it still has not been fully implemented throughout all of the conglomerate's subsidiaries. [5] The book, however, will continue to serve as a means of spreading his philosophy within the company, and Koch's hope is that it will continue to improve business practices and create value for his companies, as well as for society at large. [4]
The principles of Koch's MBM are taught to students, educators, community leaders and government officials by the Market-Based Management Institute, an educational non-profit, through their partnership with the Wichita State University (WSU).
Koch credits two books with helping his intellectual formation: F.A. Harper's Why Wages Rise and Ludwig von Mises' Human Action . [7] He also credits several thinkers in his book with influencing his own thinking; most notably: W. Edwards Deming, Michael Polanyi, and his father, Fred C. Koch.
After being unable to find contracts in the U.S., his father had spent time developing petroleum cracking plants in the Soviet Union in the 1920s under the communist regime of Joseph Stalin. He came back from his experience with great contempt for the totalitarian regime, having found the USSR to be "a land of hunger, misery, and terror." [8]
Koch describes himself as a scientist [9] and uses his self-proclaimed vast knowledge of wide-ranging topics such as history, politics, government, economics, psychology, human action and technology by demonstrating the ways that each affects business management, decision making, and profitability.
The publisher lists the five dimensions of MBM, each rooted in what it calls "the Science of Human Action": [10]
In addition to describing the principles of MBM, Koch also gives an inside look into some of the important decisions that Koch Industries has made, and analysis of its successes and failures.
The book itself is not so much a how-to on running a business, but rather a philosophical treatise on effective management practices; "a way of thinking—of looking at the world and making decisions based on specific principles." [5] One Forbes magazine reviewer noted that, "Readers expecting a recipe book for business success will be disappointed, but those of a more philosophical bent will find Koch's observations fascinating." [11] [12]
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Koch, Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate corporation based in Wichita, Kansas, and is the second-largest privately held company in the United States, after Cargill. Its subsidiaries are involved in the manufacturing, refining, and distribution of petroleum, chemicals, energy, fiber, intermediates and polymers, minerals, fertilizer, pulp and paper, chemical technology equipment, cloud computing, finance, raw materials trading, and investments. Koch owns Flint Hills Resources, Georgia-Pacific, Guardian Industries, Infor, Invista, KBX, Koch Ag & Energy Solutions, Koch Engineered Solutions, Koch Investments Group, Koch Minerals & Trading, and Molex. The firm employs 122,000 people in 60 countries, with about half of its business in the United States.
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Fred Chase Koch was an American chemical engineer and entrepreneur who founded the oil refinery firm that later became Koch Industries, a privately held company which—under the principal ownership and leadership of Koch's sons Charles and David—would be listed by Forbes as the second-largest privately held company in the United States in 2015.
Charles de Ganahl Koch is an American billionaire businessman. As of February 2024, he was ranked as the 23rd richest man in the world on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with an estimated net worth of $64.9 billion. Koch has been co-owner, chairman, and chief executive officer of Koch Industries since 1967, while his late brother David Koch served as executive vice president. Charles and David each owned 42% of the conglomerate. The brothers inherited the business from their father, Fred C. Koch, then expanded the business. Koch Industries is the largest privately held company by revenue in the United States, according to Forbes.
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Based in Wichita, Kansas, Youth Entrepreneurs (YE) is a 501(c)(3) official non-profit educational organization. They state that their goal is to provide entrepreneurship education to students in middle school and high school.
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Good Profit: How Creating Value for Others Built One of the World's Most Successful Companies is a 2015 book by Charles G. Koch. It was published in the United States by Crown Business, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. It was published in the United Kingdom by Piatkus.
Charles Chase Koch, is an American businessman and the son of Charles Koch, the co-owner, CEO, and chairman of Koch Industries. Koch directs the venture capital company Koch Disruptive Technologies, and is a leading figure in Koch Industries and the family's philanthropic activities.
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