The company created a History Advisory Committee made up of company representatives and outsiders, including historians from Harvard Business School and Case Western Reserve University. This committee reviewed and critiqued the research plan, book outline and the finished manuscript. In addition, The Winthrop Group, as researchers and authors, are very sensitive to any attempted manipulation of corporate histories. We have a very strong policy. The companies that I respect understand that there is an important place for the real story.
People know that mistakes are made and that no one's infallible.
It's important to address past mistakes in a balanced way. The effort that TRW made to create an objective history attracted a top-notch publisher, the Harvard Business School Press, which published the company history last August. Harvard also insisted on accuracy, subjecting the book to its usual review process before publishing it. Keeping the archive Ask most managers where to learn about the corporate past and you are likely to be directed to some form of archive. From file rooms to corporate libraries to cutting-edge groupware and expert systems, archives are used to preserve and maintain corporate memory.