The Generations of Corning: The Life and Times of a Global Corporation

Rating:
Summary: Easy informative reading covering a very technical company
Review: I approached the Generations of Corning with the same trepidation I approach most "business" books, only to be pleasantly surprised by the attention to detail, the historical perspective and the technical accuracy the book offers. A great history of the Houghton family and their beginnings in and around the Chemung Valley (Corning, NY) area and their strengths in the glassmaking / R&D community coupled with detailed business / labor / process information makes this an excellent corporate biography. Particularly the detailed explanation of partnerships that led to Owens-Corning, Dow-Corning, Ciba-Corning and Siecor will be of interest to business builders. Additionally the very detailed technical info on the evolution of manufacturing and marketing of dark fiber (my personal interest when purchasing the book) proves to be just enough without being so technical as to alienate the average reader.

I would recommend this book for those reasons, great business evolution info, just enough history to validate it and enough detail in current technical areas to make it timely to the fiberoptic community.