John D Rockefeller as a captain of Industry Essay

John D Rockefeller, founder of standard oil was a captain of industry, he was led to the path of efficiency through his mother and father when he was younger; this helped him grow into one of the biggest companies of the time. He soon started Standard Oil and became a billionaire. Despite the robber barren ways he got to the top, he got there and set a way for American corporations of the future. His father started him on the road to business, when John D Rockefeller was seven his father loaned him five dollars at high interest rates. However harsh this may seem this paved the way for John. He soon made the correct business choice to lead him to the top. He started doing small job around the neighborhood such as digging up potatoes and saved every cent. He soon learned the harsh ways of his father such as buying pound candy and selling it by the piece and by age, thirteen he was lending fifty dollars at compound interests. His mother led him on a path of efficiency, which would prove to be key to his career. His mother taught him the proverb that willful waste makes woeful want. Soon John was efficient on everything, how quickly he ate and hiring people to do the task, which he thought time consuming. One instant he saved 1.54 per oil barrel by just putting one less drop of sealant on each barrel. John D Rockefeller was a genius businessman. He had a natural knack for it. He reduced the competition by inventing new ideas such as quantity discount, where he would charge less if the customer bought more. This way he could make people buy his oil instead of competitors because it seemed cheaper, and he was making the customer buy more because it seemed like a good deal. Rockefeller also saved money by demanding lower transportation costs, which he could do because he was dominating the business and without him, there would be no business. Soon his competitors were paying five times as much in transportation costs. Rockefeller at one point just eliminated the competition. He purchased his competitors to ensure he would undercut his competitors’ prices. It helped kerosene drop from 58 cents to 26 from 1865 to 1870. Rockefeller also started the Standard Oil Trust. A trust is a business combination in which a single board of trustees controlled a group of member corporations. He came up with it to efficiently control the  companies he had acquired. However soon this practice was seen as illegal and unfair because he dominated the market and could subject the customers to any price he decided, yet it was still ingenious. Not only did John D Rockefeller come up with creative new ideas that helped him to become more efficient and eliminated his competitors, which made him the largest and richest company but he also adjusted to the times. When a Dartmouth professor found a way to refine the oil he quickly jumped on the market. Soon the internal combustion engine was invented and Rockefeller ordered the production of gasoline and machine oils immediately and they were ready for mass production by the time the first car was reveled in 1887 John D Rockefeller was a captain of industry and he deserves the title. He was an ingenious man who set up the way for big American cooperations of the future. Standard Oil was used all over the world from India to Africa. By 1878 alone, he had control ninety percent of he held ninety percent of the oil refining capacity in the United States alone. No man had ever been able to reach Rockefellers fortune at his peak. Clearly, John D Rockefeller is the ultimate captain of industry.