The Master Builder: A Structure of Steel Summary and Analysis

Beginning in 1872, Carnegie focuses on the single project of his steel-rail rolling mill that is completed in 1873. He follows a policy of putting all his eggs in the same basket and watching it. The entrepreneurial Carnegie establishes staffs, organizes, operates and secures orders for the firm he leads into an industrial world with the tool of cost-based management. He organizes a partnership with business associates and colleagues that are confident of his success to raise capital. William Coleman also shares Carnegie's interest and enthusiasm in steel. In addition to his stalwarts, Tom Scott and J. Edgar Thomson, Carnegie's partners include wealthy executives and merchants he shares other ventures with. Carnegie contributes $250,000 of the partnership total $741,000 in original capital to the firm he names "Carnegie, McCandless and Company" and names...