Going back to DuPont

“You can’t go home again,” wrote Thomas Wolfe. In the next several weeks I will be blogging on my memories of starting out - my first position out of college - and how I chanced to be hired by E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Inc., of Wilmington Delaware. I hope this will be more than a “remember when” story. I hope to make it relevant. Why is this a remarkable story?...

27 August 2005 · Katherine M. Lawrence

Empowering people

Robert Townsend headed American Express and later Avis Rent-a-car and told the world that at Avis, “We Try Harder.” In the late 1980’s, Townsend was interviewed - conversation style - by Tom Peters who is best known for co-authoring the best selling book on business, “In Search of Excellence.” Townsend told the story of a study of similar-sized firms, competing with similar products, in similar industries. In successful firms, the managers (at equivalent levels of responsibility) had five times the signing authority that those in unsuccessful firms had....

5 May 2005 · Katherine M. Lawrence