Pioneers and Plodders: The American Entrepreneurial Spirit

By Robert C. Baron

Why are some companies able to embrace innovation and grow in employment, their leaders strongly influencing the development of American business: At the same time, why do some companies, having established themselves, disappear without a trace?

Since the middle of the nineteenth century, the United States, led by visionary entrepreneurs, has become the most dominant industrial power in the world. Starting with the first entrepreneurs in colonial America, noted business leader and historian Robert C. Baron discusses the history of four major industries: steel, automobiles, electronics, and computers; the changes these industries made on American life; and the people who created and built major companies.

Through close examinations of the history of American businesses and the people who have built America, Baron reveals the leadership qualities and tools necessary to succeed in today's business climate.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1555915183
• ISBN13: 9781555915186
• Release Date: August 2004
• Publisher: Fulcrum Publishing
• Length: 346 Pages
• Weight: 1.51 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A book for every business person's library

Using Henry Ford's comment--"There are two kinds of people in the world, those who pioneer and those who plod"--as the basis of his title, Bob Baron goes on to describe four pioneers in motivating detail. He shows how pioneers move with the time and take their busineses to ever-increasing heights. In contrast, he reveals a few who didn't know how to do that and plodded to their ruinations. This is not a book about greedy, anything-for-a-buck tactics, but the true qualities of leadership. History, the events with which these industries and their leaders had to cope, plays a large role in Baron's book. I believe this is must reading for everyone starting a business major in college, working on an MBA degree, contemplating founding a company, or working within a company that ultimately will depend upon excellent leadership. All will benefit from the wisdom of this finely researched, extradorinarily well written book. It should be part of every business person's library. You'll find yourself going back to it over and over again.