We’re introducing two short zoom courses in which we explore the lessons we can learn from great business leaders and innovators. Each of the two courses consists of four successive Tuesday evening 90-minute sessions, led by me, Gary Hoover. The first course starts Tuesday evening July 12 and the second course starts Tuesday evening August 23. The live classes are limited to 12 participants, although you can also just purchase access to the audio recordings of our discussions.
The two four-week courses can also be bought as a discounted bundle and there is an early bird discount if you register by the end of the day, June 30. See the details below.
The zoom courses I’ve offered in recent months often sold out fast, so act now if you want to learn from the greats! Click here to sign up!
Why Study “The Greats?”
I have been studying business, entrepreneurship, and innovation for almost 60 years, always seeking the answer to, “What makes for success? What separates the winners from the losers?”
I’ve concluded that the best way to learn “how to succeed in business” is to study the winners (and sometimes losers) of the past, often unknown leaders. Nothing beats “getting inside their heads” to see their thought processes, how they overcame obstacles, how they learned, how they came up with new ideas. Great leaders have diverse backgrounds, personalities, and leadership styles. By studying an array of leaders can we draw conclusions that can help us in our own businesses and pursuits (including leading non-profit organizations).
In these courses, we do not study Bezos, Zuckerberg, Musk, Gates, Jobs, or the Google guys. By focusing on the leaders of the past, we can see the full arc of their lives, how things turned out, and whether they created lasting companies and technologies or not.
This course is for anyone who wants to lead, to innovate, or to understand the processes involved.
Businesspeople may know names like Heinz and Westinghouse, but do they really understand these men and women and the significance of their lives? And few even know some of the most important innovators, including Casey, Luce, Patterson, Wood, and Zukor. These people changed our lives; they made the world as we know it.
Each week, course participants will spend one to two hours reading free biographical articles on two or three of these individuals. Then the zoom group will discuss them, drawing out conclusions about each leader’s style, methods, successes, and failures.
We will cover both goods and services industries. The people we study range from media entrepreneurs to those in technology, retailing, and the manufacturing of both industrial and consumer products.
Here is a starter checklist of the questions we will ask about each person we study:
- What was their background? Rich? Poor?
- What was their education? Formal schooling or self-taught?
- What were their core areas of expertise: invention and technology, marketing, finance, operations?
- How did they find opportunities? Careful analysis, accidental stumble, solving a problem they saw?
- How did they deal with obstacles and problems, with failures?
- How did they treat their employees?
- What was their personal leadership style?
- What was their personal life like? Eccentric? Varied interests or narrow obsession? Happy or sad?
- Were their innovations bold leaps or incremental improvements? “Hard” innovation in technology or “soft” innovation in management and business methods?
- How did they promote and market their ideas?
- Did they become active in the broader world, such as in politics, or did they “stick to their knitting?”
- Are their companies or technologies still with us today?
Course Details and Pricing
We have broken the courses into one on the great leaders and another on great innovators. However, there is substantial overlap because all great leaders are innovators, and many great innovators also built and led big organizations. All these people were “agents of change.”
Sign up for one course or save money by signing up for both courses in our bundle offer, below.
Lessons of the Great Leaders
Four Tuesday evening sessions, 7:30 to 9:00 PM Central time, 8:30 Eastern, 6:30 Mountain, 5:30 Pacific, from July 12 through August 2, inclusive. Each zoom session is audio recorded for anyone who misses a class, as well as those who only buy the audio package.
The leaders on our reading list will include: Alfred Sloan, who many believe was the greatest business leader in American history; George Westinghouse, the inventor who beat Thomas Edison and built more successful companies than Edison but lost control in hard times; John Patterson who created modern sales techniques; and six other major figures in the evolution of modern life.
Full Zoom Course Participation: $399, or $299 if reserved by end of day, June 30.
Audio file access only: $199.
Lessons of the Great Innovators
Four Tuesday evening sessions, 7:30 to 9:00 PM Central time, 8:30 Eastern, 6:30 Mountain, 5:30 Pacific, from August 23 through September 13, inclusive. Each zoom session is audio recorded for anyone who misses a class, as well as those who only buy the audio package.
The leaders on our reading list will include: George Eastman, perhaps the greatest technology company leader in history; Malcom McLean who invented containerized shipping; Raymond Loewy who helped create a new industry that has affected all of us; and five other visionaries. We will even examine the life of Walt Disney, who many think they know but few know how he really thought and worked, resulting in the largest media company on earth today.
Full Zoom Course Participation: $399, or $299 if reserved by end of day, June 30.
Audio file access only: $199.
Bundle: Both Courses….Buy One, Get One Half Off!
If you sign up to participate in both zoom courses, you get the second one for half price. Instead of the regular early bird separate prices of $598, you pay just $449, if you register by June 30.
We do not offer a bundle if you sign up for audio file access only.
Gary Hoover
Executive Director
American Business History Center
