The Most Influential Business Man by Payte

The Most Influential Business Man by Payte - February 2016 Scholarship Essay

Out all of the famous people and leaders in U.S. history, I would enjoy to have dinner with John D. Rockefeller. It would be interesting to hear his business outlooks and his productivity on his company, Standard Oil. He is considered one of the most successful businessmen in United States history. Rockefeller was the start of all the business policies that we have into effect today. He mastered the ways of growing his business through horizontal and vertical integration.

John D. Rockefeller broke the political world and caused new policies to be in place through his business actions. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act was taken into effect in 1890. This broke his company up into thirty individual companies where different investors controlled them. This act caused the decline of monopolies in the U.S. and has been the birthmark of new business policies.

Horizontal and vertical integration strengthened his company and made it very successful. The policy of horizontal integration is where the business increases its supply by making more factories to fill the demand. Vertical integration is where the company has more stages of production than just their final product. In Rockefeller’s case, he now produces the well sites, refining of the oil, and the shipping through the trains. He used these to his benefit where he could keep everything in-house. This also allowed the prices of his product to drop which closed other competing businesses. These policies allowed Rockefeller to almost a monopoly in the oil business.

John D. Rockefeller is widely known for his business policies and his impact that he had on today’s business world. He is definitely someone that I would like to have dinner with to learn about how he would conduct business today. From his ideas, I could incorporate these into today’s world and have a successful company that employs a vast number of people. I would be able to bring jobs to the American society and benefit the economy through a successful company.