100 Events That Changed Business: 1900-2000
Editor's Note: This countdown was originally compiled by TheStreet Staff and published as a multi-part series, beginning May 1999. The original, unedited text is reproduced below.
NEW YORK (
) -- The American Century has become the Business Century.
Two World Wars reduced politics to rubble, giving rise to government-by-focus-group. Art and culture have ground to a halt. Religion and science are locked in a futile struggle. Capitalism "won." Our colleagues are our families, and we increasingly find meaning in work. Like David Mamet says, Get them to sign on the line which is dotted. Nothing else matters.
If you buy all that, take a day off. You're working too hard. Still, business has been important, if not quite a replacement for everything else Americans held dear 100 years ago. TheStreet.com decided to examine the century in U.S. business and finance. There aren't enough lists floating around out there.
Here follows
Countdown: A Century of U.S. Business
, an all-week series ranking the top 100 signal points, inventions, ideas and companies of the 20th century, from least important to most. (Apologies to the rest of the world; look for our take on the 21st century's top global business events in mid-2099.) Each of the entries wrought some major change in the way business is done, the way money is invested, the way life is lived.
A word on methodology: We have focused on when a development became commercialized, when a company came of age, when an idea rose to become a reality. The emergence rather than the beginning. George Mallory may have gotten to the top of Everest first, but Edmund Hillary got up and down. The century is riddled with brilliant inventions and wonderful entrepreneurial ideas. Few were seminal.
For instance, when Microsoft licensed MS-DOS to IBM and when IBM let the PC clones license the operating system on their own, Bill Gates' company became the Standard Oil of the latter half of the century. If it hadn't penned that deal, Mister Softee might have remained one more West Coast thought to die still in the garage. The first successful commercial airplane, Douglas Aircraft's DC-3, is on the list; the Wright brothers didn't make the cut.
Don't expect the Great Crash of 1929 to top the list. And we don't really buy into the Great Men of History theory, so there aren't too many dead white guys on the list. All those things your parents and grandparents talk about -- the Depression, the RJR Nabisco takeover fight, walking barefoot to school in the snow, uphill both ways, and on and on? They're certainly important, but as time has gone on, some events and people necessarily have receded in importance. And some things that seem so vitally significant today -- say, the electronic auction phenomenon -- seem faddish. At least for now.
Should you take this list as gospel? Rankings are always subjective. We've tried to bring our passion for and knowledge of business and finance to this list. We hope to inform and we hope to give you some laughs.
We hope you get agitated, too. You'll find some gaps and horrible omissions. There'll be plenty of space for your quibbles, protests and, if warranted, praise. Whatever it may be, we want your feedback (include your full name).
100. Hallmark gets its start: Jan. 10, 1910.
Joyce C. Hall, a teenager (and a guy, by the way) from Norfolk, Neb., arrives in Kansas City, Mo., in 1910 and starts building a picture-postcard business into a giant of doggerel and cheer that would reshape American holiday celebrations.
Hallmark
is instrumental in the commercialization of holidays, which has driven a huge amount of the growth in U.S. retailing (and the growth in bogus holidays like Sweetest Day).
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99. The Three Mile Island disaster: March 29, 1979.
So much for alternative energy. Three Mile Island's near-meltdown renders nuclear energy but a
Simpsons
joke, increasing the country's dependence on oil.
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98. Disneyland opens: July 17, 1955.
With Ronald Reagan hosting a live ABC special, Disneyland opens in Anaheim, Calif. The first major destination theme park spurs growth in travel and tourism nationwide. Today
Disney's
parks alone are a $5 billion annual business, and Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., which has more than 50,000 employees, is the largest single-site employer in the U.S.
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97. Nike's Revolution ads commodify dissent: 1987.
It's not the first time the ideals of the 1960s -- freedom, individuality, antimaterialism, dissent -- are called upon to push product. But it may stand as the biggest co-optation. Right at the height of the Summer of Love anniversary celebration,
Nike
uses the Beatles song to sell sneakers. Now it's almost impossible to escape ads that sell not just products but
breaking the rules, dude
.
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96. The University of Phoenix, a for-profit university, is accredited: 1978.
The
University of Phoenix
is accredited in 1978, and few think that without the benefit of a Final Four-bound athletic team or ivy-encrusted heritage it will amount to much. It becomes the nation's largest private university. And unlike its more traditional academic competition, it turns a profit. Phoenix's rise goes hand in hand with the boom in private prisons since 1984, when
Corrections Corp. of America
takes over the county prison in Hamilton County, Tenn.
Both developments indicate the increased willingness of Americans and their elected representatives to hand over to the private sector functions previously reserved to government. But the move to market incentives hasn't unfolded like a libertarian's dream. Many educators criticize Phoenix and other for-profit education providers, saying they lack comprehensive library and lab facilities and a full-time, dedicated faculty. Prisons, meantime, face new regulations in the wake of violence and inmate escapes at CCA's prison in Youngstown, Ohio.
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95. Jaws ushers in the blockbuster era in Hollywood: June 20, 1975.
Before Steven Spielberg's little flick, starring a gape-mawed contraption named Bruce and co-starring Roy Scheider, movies almost invariably opened gradually and tried to build an audience through word-of-mouth and limited advertising.
Jaws
, which goes on to gross $260 million in the U.S., introduces the concepts of heavy preopening marketing and wide releases -- sound familiar?
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94. Frederick Taylor's 'scientific management' theory gains legitimacy: 1910.
Frederick Taylor forms his theory of "scientific management," a patchwork of efficiency and cost-cutting ideas, in the 19th century. But it doesn't gain wide currency until Boston lawyer and future Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis argues on behalf of consumers that a $27 million rate increase sought by the nation's Eastern railroads should not be approved by the Interstate Commerce Commission. Brandeis contends that the railroads cannot justify their costs. Citing Taylor's ideas, Brandeis maintains that the railroads could save $300 million a year through improved productivity.
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93. The U.S. is a giant creditor nation: 1918-1982.
Following World War I, the winners (Allies) and losers (Central Powers) have something in common: They owe lots of money to the U.S., making it the world's biggest creditor nation. The tables turn by 1985, however, as the U.S. becomes a net debtor. And because we like to be No. 1 in everything, we quickly become the world's largest.
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92. Harley-Davidson adopts Japanese management techniques: October 1981.
Having just bought the company in a leveraged buyout,
Harley-Davidson
Chairman Vaughn L. Beals Jr. and his management team realize that Japanese motorcycle makers are kicking their butts. To beat them, they join them, adopting such Japanese techniques as "just-in-time" inventory control. Just-in-time eliminates the high and costly inventory levels that require elaborate handling systems. Other U.S. major manufacturers, like
General Motors
, soon follow, lemminglike.
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91. Southwest Airlines begins flying: June 18, 1971.
Southwest Airlines
begins flying between Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. With its cheeky attitude, wink-and-a-nudge ads and low prices, the new carrier is an immediate success.
In 1978, the U.S. begins deregulating interstate airfares and schedules, enabling Southwest to fly outside Texas. While other discount airlines rush to grow, often destroying themselves in the process, Southwest expands more cautiously, becoming the nation's dominant low-fare carrier by avoiding expensive mistakes.
Today, the company's everyday low fares give millions of Americans the chance to enjoy the speed and convenience of flying, and its good relations with employees and simple but superior customer service make it the most feared competitor in the airline business. Last year, the company earned more than $400 million on revenue of almost $4.2 billion. Not bad for a company that flies only 737s.
90. Lou Gerstner turns IBM around: April 1993 to present.
Big Blue is still big in early 1993, but not big like Mark McGwire -- powerful, potent, popular. Big, instead, like Babe Ruth in the '40s -- unhealthy, and with its best days sadly receding. Along comes Louis V. Gerstner Jr., who replaces Chairman and CEO John F. Akers on April Fools' Day.
Gerstner, a former
McKinsey
consultant coming off stints at
American Express
and
RJR Nabisco
, joins an
IBM
hobbled by bloat and bereft of focus.
Gerstner bluntly declares, "The last thing IBM needs now is a vision" and instead quickly seeks to slash costs by more than $8 billion. The skeptical market keeps IBM on a downward course at first. But Gerstner winnows the workforce to 215,000 by mid-1995 from about 300,000, consolidates facilities and otherwise flenses the fat. Wall Street cheers.
A ghoulish management style is born. Gerstner's success is the most dramatic example, with hired-gun CEOs jettisoning staid traditions -- along with thousands of workers -- to upsize the stock price. Of course, it doesn't always work -- see "Chainsaw(ed) Al" Dunlap, late of
Sunbeam
.
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89. John Bogle launches the First Index Investment Trust: August 1976.
The fund that becomes the mighty
Vanguard Index 500
starts with just $11 million in assets under management and can't even buy all of the S&P 500 stocks until 1977. But it starts a revolution in investing, luring billions from investors concerned about the risks and costs of actively managed funds.
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88. Thomas Watson becomes president of IBM's predecessor: 1914.
Thomas J. Watson is fired from
National Cash Register
in 1913, after having been framed for a scheme to create a dummy competitor to the monopolistic NCR. He joins