BFGoodrich

the long version

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, BFGoodrich made rubber goods ranging from fire hoses to automobile tires and, in so doing, became one of the largest and most important rubber manufacturers in the world. The history of the BFGoodrich Company has been a complex blend of transformations and traditions, as this study of the company's history from the firm's founding in 1870 through its 125th anniversary in 1995 reveals. Mansel G. Blackford and K. Austin Kerr, two leading business historians, place the BFGoodrich story in the full context of the industries and the economic environments in which the firm operated. In what is more than an internal study, Blackford and Kerr examine BFGoodrich's strategies for growth in light of technological developments, changes in labor relations, and modifications in government-business relations that constantly reshaped how the firm and its competitors conducted business. Granted full access to corporate records and given full cooperation in interviews, with no restrictions placed on their writing, the authors provide an almost unprecedented look at how a major American institution evolved over more than a century.