Oneida (Community) Limited
A Goodly Heritage Gone Wrong
-
-
5.0 • 1 Rating
-
-
- $3.99
-
- $3.99
Publisher Description
Oneida Ltd. grew out of the commercial remains of the Oneida Community, which was a religious/social experiment founded in Oneida, New York. It was active from 1848 to 1881.
John P. L. Hatcher, a great-grandson of one of the original community members and himself a longtime employee of Oneida Ltd., explores the history of the community and subsequent company in this robust history.
The community and the company achieved great things—and neither should be forgotten. Upon the break up of the religious community, many of its members remained to continue businesses, including animal traps and the table flatware that would make Oneida Ltd. a household name.
By the middle of the twentieth century, the company, then called Oneida Community Ltd., commanded twenty-five percent of the silver plated flatware market. The company kept true to the community’s social and wealth sharing ideals.
But the dominant success of Oneida Ltd in the manufacturing of stainless steel flatware brought low cost foreign competition and the company was bankrupt in 2006. It was a textbook case of insufficient management, poor judgement, and extravagance. Find out what happened and why in A Goodly Heritage Gone Wrong.
Customer Reviews
A Wonderful Read
I grew up in Sherrill, NY. It was a wonderful, idyllic setting made up of wonderful people. Sherrill exists because of the vision, investment and donation of land made by the founders of Oneida Ltd. to ensure a comfortable setting and lifestyle for he workers.
"Oneida (Community) Limited" provides a concise chronological explanation of the management styles and philosophies of the CEOs and their management teams.
What began as an altruistic management philosophy established by Pierrepont Noyes, no one rich no one poor, Oneida Ltd. remained this way through 2.5 subsequent managements spanning close to 80 years. I say 2.5 because during Pete Noyes' late tenure this philosophy began to shift towards a more selfish philosophy. As new non-family managers were brought in so were non-Oneida Ltd. behaviors. After Pete Noyes the whole concept deteriorated during the selfish "Me" oriented 1980s.
Mr. Hatcher does a great job explaining the actual financial ups and downs of the company throughout its existence using documentation from company annual reports and other financial disclosures. Many times the company faced tough times but conservatively managed by being fiscally conservative and for many years remained extremely loyal and fair to its workforce.
It's both a history book and a business book. For a Sherrill boy who lived through the good times and through the eventual undoing it was a wonderful read that brought back the many great memories of my childhood.
There's a lot to learn from "Oneida (Community) Limited" that would make a great case study for any business school. It would be amazing if new businesses began to behave like the early days of this company. Probably too much to ask of the greedy CEOs of today.