Harold Geneen

Harold "Hal" Sydney Geneen (born January 22, 1910 in Bournemouth , England , † November 21, 1997 in New York ), was an American businessman who was best known for his presidency of the ITT Corporation .

Life

youth

Geneen immigrated to the United States from England with his parents as a toddler . He spent most of his youth in boarding schools and summer camps. His first job was on the New York Stock Exchange as an errand boy. At the same time he studied at the evening school of New York University where he graduated in accounting in 1934 .

Career

Between 1956 and 1959 he was Senior Vice President of Raytheon , where he developed the structure of the company's management and, although giving the various business areas of the company a great deal of freedom, while at the same time placing great emphasis on responsible financial management.

Between 1959 and 1972 he was President of ITT. Under his leadership, ITT grew from a medium-sized company with annual sales of $ 760 million in 1961 to a multinational corporation with sales of $ 17 billion in 1970. In particular, Geneen overlooked the diversification of ITT's businesses during this period. ITT had interests in insurance, hotel management, property management and other business fields. Under Geneen's management, ITT became a role model for modern multinational corporations. ITT's growth resulted mainly from approximately 350 acquisitions and mergers with other companies in 80 countries. Among the larger firms acquired in this way were Hartford Fire Insurance Company (1970) and Sheraton Hotels .

ITT had many overseas interests, including investing $ 200 million in Chile . Under Geneen's leadership, ITT paid $ 700 million to Salvador Allende's adversary, Jorge Alessandri . After Salvador Allende won the presidential election anyway and nationalized a Chilean subsidiary of ITT, ITT gave the CIA $ 1 million to oust Salvador Allende. Thus, ITT was involved in funding the 1973 Chilean coup .

In 1972, Geneen was forced to resign as CEO and President of ITT, but remained on the board until 1977. His successors then gradually sold the businesses that Geneen had acquired.

Works

• Synergy and Other Lies: Downsizing, Bureaucracy, and Corporate Culture Debunked, Geneen, Harold and Bowers, Brent, St. Martin's Griffin, New York 1999, ISBN 0-312-20080-3
• The Synergy Myth and Other Ailments Of Business Today, Geneen, Harold and Bowers, Brent, St. Martin's Press, New York 1997. ISBN 0-312-14724-4
• Alta Dirección: Las Normas Básicas Para Triunfar en los Negocios, Geneen, Harold and Bowers, Brent, Ediciones Grijalbo, Barcelona 1986, ISBN 84-253-1871-8
• Managing, Geneen, Harold and Moscow, Alvin, Garden City, NY 1984. ISBN 0-385-17496-9

Web links

• http://www.basicfamouspeople.com/index.php?aid=6785
• http://www.hbs.edu/leadership/database/leaders/harold_s_geneen.html
• Obituary in the New York Times on November 22, 1997

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://nofie.com/harold-geneen/