One of the great business stories of the twentieth century was how one entrepreneur, Charles R. Schwab (b. 1937), foresaw the opportunity presented by the end of fixed commissions in the stock brokerage business and created the wildly successful discount brokerage firm that today bears his name. That’s the Charles Schwab that most of us have heard of.
“But almost no one remembers the unrelated Charles M. Schwab (1862-1939), one of the most important business leaders in American history” according to a recent article on the American Business History Website.
Andrew Carnegie, the father of the American steel industry, saw great potential in the young Schwab and groomed him for success. By the time he was forty Schwab was president of the world’s first billion-dollar corporation, US Steel. He later built another that became the third largest industrial company in the nation, that eventually was the size of two other industrial giants, Ford and General Electric combined. His fortune allowed him to build the largest private residence in the United State.
The earlier Schwab’s personal life, and remarkable end, was almost as interesting as his business career. He had an ability to communicate with nearly everyone one in a positive and productive way that every manager should cultivate. Every senior executive should be familiar with the story of a Forgotten Business Giant: Charles M. Schwab”….the “other” Charles Schwab.
