The Age of Heretics
Subtitle: Heroes, Outlaws, and the Forerunners of Corporate Change
Publisher: Currency
Published: March 1, 1988
Language: eng
Number of pages: 414
ISBN-13: 9780385415767
First sentence: The historian John P. Davis tells us that the great-great-grandfathers of today's large, mainstream corporations were the monasteries of the early Christian church.
Description: While protesters stormed through Haight-Ashbury and Greenwich Village, an equally radical group of "corporate heretics" was fighting for change within major corporations such as Shell Oil, General Foods, and Procter & Gamble. These heretics recognized that, to truly change society, they would have to attack the dominant institutions of their time.

In this magisterial cultural history that offers new insight into the recreation of institutions, journalist Art Kleiner shows how the heretics' struggle for truth paved the way for the ideals of democracy in key Fortune 100 companies.

Take the story of Lyman Ketchum, a plant manager for General Foods. Ketchum's experience with the encounter groups so popular in the sixties led him to devise a revolutionary structure for his new dog food plant. He ignored traditional assembly lines, staffed by bored and disgruntled workers, in favor of teams of technicians who had to understand and take responsibility for their work - a radical concept then, and radical even by today's standards.

Although these heretics were underappreciated in their time - and often fired or demoted for their radical ideas - the ideals they fought for live on in the ever-changing American corporation. Only by understanding their struggle can today's corporate leaders succeed in changing business for the better.