Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America by Christopher Leonard

Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America

by Christopher Leonard

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Business & Finance

The Koch name is best known for its politics. That said, Leonard's case is that the business came first and paid for all of it. Charles Koch spent fifty years building one of the largest private companies in the world, a management system to run it, and an influence network to protect it.

Core ideas
  • The business first: Refining, chemicals, paper and finance. Genuinely sophisticated, and the source of the political money.
  • Market-Based Management: Decision rights, incentives and constant pressure on managers, which in Leonard's telling made for a cut-throat culture.
  • The corollary: AFP, the lobbying operation and the donor network work to keep regulation, climate rules above all, off the business.
Published2019
ISBN9781508296874
ReadApr 2026

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