Leadership is receiving more and more attention these days. It is becoming a more frequent topic at professional meetings, and more articles are being published on the subject in professional journals. Major new leadership initiatives by national professional organizations have recently spawned the Academy of Radiology Leadership and Management and the Radiology Leadership Institute. Many of these leadership education initiatives focus on principles of leadership, providing a “how-to” guide for leaders and aspiring leaders. But a key part of any complete leadership education curriculum is the study of real leaders. Some leadership lessons are best learned as abstract principles, but others come through most clearly through narratives of the life and work of real people. Such stories help to show how principles can be put into practice in everyday life also tend to do a better job of engaging the attention and imagination of learners.
If wealth is an indicator of success, then John Davison Rockefeller may have been the most successful of American leaders. He was the first person in history to amass a nominal personal fortune in excess of $1 billion. At its peak, Rockefeller’s net worth in today’s dollars was approximately $700 billion, which exceeds the fortunes of today’s richest Americans by a factor of more than 10, and in his time represented approximately 1.5% of the annual gross domestic product of the United States . Yet he not only made money. He also gave it away. He founded the University of Chicago and Rockefeller University, and established foundations that made major contributions to education, medicine, and biomedical science. In total, Rockefeller probably gave away approximately one-third to one-half of the fortune he amassed during his life.
In this article, we provide a biographical sketch of this remarkable American and consider some of the important leadership education insights, both positive and negative, offered by his career. Where did John D. Rockefeller come from and how did he become so rich? What characteristics distinguished him as a leader? Finally, what lessons can today’s radiology leaders learn from the example of Rockefeller’s leadership?
Rockefeller
Rockefeller was born in 1839 in Richford, NY, the second of his parents’ six children. His mother was a devout Baptist. His father was an itinerant patent medicine salesman who frequently practiced medicine under an assumed name. The Rockefellers lived in humble circumstances, and while still a boy John made money selling candy and making small loans to neighbors. His father claimed that he taught his children to be sharp by cheating his boys at every opportunity . Though poor, John received a good education, first in New York and then in Cleveland, where the family had moved. At age 16, Rockefeller obtained his first job as a bookkeeper, earning 50 cents a day. He displayed a remarkably good head for figures, and also began his lifelong practice of charitable giving, donating 10% of his income to his church.
Rockefeller and a partner later launched a successful wholesale food business, then built an oil refinery. Growing demand was driving the price of whale oil ever higher, and a substitute needed to be found . In the years after the Civil War, driven in part by the rapidly expanding railroads, demand for oil exploded. Rockefeller borrowed money and bought out his refinery partners. He then began borrowing heavily to build and buy other refineries, including the world’s largest; in 1870, he formed the Standard Oil Company. His business practices enabled him to drive other refiners out of business, then buy their assets at auction. By 1880, Standard was refining 90% of US oil . Standard Oil effectively controlled oil refining and marketing throughout the United States, improving the quality and efficiency of operations. Over the life of the company, the cost of kerosene dropped 80%.
In the late 1890s, while the company was still expanding at a rapid rate, Rockefeller retired from its management, devoting more time to his philanthropic activities and leisure pursuits such as golf. Rockefeller and his firm were the subject of attacks by journalist Ida Tarbell, who documented the company’s questionable business practices, generating considerable public animosity. When Theodore Roosevelt became president, he initiated a variety of antitrust actions, which eventually led to the breakup of Standard Oil into companies familiar today. The dividing up of the company caused Rockefeller’s personal fortune to grow by more than five times .
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Positive leadership insights
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Negative leadership insights
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Conclusion
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References
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