L.L. Bean: The Making of an American Icon
by Leon Gorman
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List Price: $26.95
Our Price: $0.54
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Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Press
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 381.4579654
EAN: 9781578511839
ISBN: 1578511836
Label: Harvard Business School Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: 2006-10-03
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Studio: Harvard Business School Press
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Self serving, but interesting
Comment: Pretty much along the lines of Sam Walton's bio... contains some interesting bits of history, but for the most part it's a "sell job" on what a great company L.L. Bean founded. The only real significant information gleaned from the book was about Bean's "unconditional" guarantee. However, I did not need to spend the cost of a book to find out what they could easily include in the many catalogs they mail out each year. I expected to read a biography of Bean himself and instead was treated to a study of corporate growth and how it was achieved. One can easily read the entire book in less than 2 hours! In the overall, it was dull.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Honest and readable
Comment: Although the narrative sometimes gets a little disjointed, overall this is a readable and interesting account of the making of a great American outfitter and brand name. Gorman is quite frank in presenting the difficulties, conflicts, and internal growing pains that led to the company's strong market presence in the fickle retail world of the new millenium. He is honest about his own limitations and contributions, and how much he had to learn in order to grow into the job. For example, he discusses in detail how difficult it was for the company to change from being exclusively mail order to the retail store business, which just hadn't been their thing up till then, and many people were opposed to the idea. Many departments of the company, from marketing, warehousing, inventory control, product design, and management, were required to "raise the bar" and become far more systematic and professional in their approach, rather than operating like a small-town, family-owned business as it had up till then. But one of the great strengths of the company is that they managed to do this without sacrificing many of those values. Overall, a fine acount of how a great little company survived their growing pains into a much bigger enterprise without sacrificing body and soul to do it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not to be passed by....
Comment: My Grandfather was an Adirondack Hunting/Fishing guide during the 1930s and 1940s. He had many items in his inventory that came from L.L. Bean. Being curious, I went to Freeport, Maine to visit the store. I was surprised to be there at a book signing. The signing was for "The Making of and American Icon" written by Leon Gorman. I was honored to meet this unbelievable person as well as his wife. Mr. Gorman signed my copy, listened to my short story and off I went. It was a great experience! This book is written very well with a great story to tell. If you're at all interested in L.L. Bean and the business' evolution, this is a book for you. Loads of great history and personal accounts from the people who actually worked and lived the history. Very well written. I'm keeping this one as an heirloom.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Business primer
Comment: Following military service, the author, grandson of L.L. Bean, (the company's founder), was advised by the placement office at his alma mater, Bowdoin College, to seek employment at L.L. Bean in Freeport. Leon Gorman noticed that in comparison to the catalogs of the thirties, where copy was written by L.L., the catalog in 1959 was a hodgepodge.
In 1960 L.L. Bean was about ninety and responsible for decisionmaking, but not capable of conducting the business. There were no systems of manufacture or sales. Work in the core business had virtually stopped in wartime when manufacturing was devoted to turning out goods for the government. Resumption of the core business had been feeble in execution. Response to customer orders was slow. There were arguments with customers. Employees were ill-paid, but the establishment was known as a good place to work. (There was a bonus plan.) There was no pension plan. Many people filling critical positions were elderly. The author's father had worked for the company.
Interestingly, during an era of vigorous leadership by the founder, the thirties, the company did well. By the 1960's his vision of the company was failing and there was no succession planning. Two secretaries oversaw order entry and mailing list tasks, in one instance, and advertising and catalog preparation, in the other instance. They consulted the founder and his demoralized son Carl only when necessary and then pushed and cajoled the men into making decisions in order to have things run smoothly. Wid Griffin, a third key employee, was particularly useful when sales increased during the Christmas season, (twenty-five percent of the annual business was done then in one month). Leon Gorman, the author, had a favorite competing company, Abercrombie and Fitch. It had high-quality credentials. A less desirable aspect was its elitism. Leon added items to the catalog by subterfuge, using the new items first in circulars. Following the deaths of his grandfather and uncle, Leon was named President of the company in 1967.
In the 1970's L.L. Bean mailed more catalogs than its competitors. Heavy inventories were maintained to support service levels. It was becoming a clothing-driven company. Leon's leadership training had been acquired from the Boy Scouts and the Navy. The challenge was to maintain old-fashioned values in a rapid growth environment. Leon Gorman's professional managers at Bean included John Findlay, Bill End, Norm Poole. L.L. Bean became fashionable for a time. The fashion wave crested in 1983. Growth stalled. Then the company grew by twenty percent in 1985! Specialty catalogs were added. In 1989 there was a fall-off in sales. The company was following a 'best' strategy which was costly in terms of return on investment. It was ringed by competitors copying its successes. There was a dichotomy between the active outdoor sphere, the area of the brand, and casual apparel, place of the greater number of sales. The managers sought to meet the conflicting demands articulated by the directors.
In the early 1990's some of the leaders resigned to be replaced by people up from the ranks or drawn from the outside. A scheme termed Total Quality was pursued for more than six years. In 1995 the L.L. Bean Japanese business collapsed, suddenly, and there was an actual over-all decline experienced from 1996 to 1998. Consultants discovered that within the company at the higher levels of management there existed self-censorship and conflict-avoidance behaviors. Chris McCormick became President of L.L. Bean in 2001.
This is a wonderful book, particularly for readers who would love to learn about a business compelled to be both traditional, unchanging, and up-to-date to maintain the interest of its loyal customers.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fan of the L.L. Bean Store, but not this book
Comment: I bought this book during one of the several trips my family and I take each year to the the flagship store in Freeport, ME. We love the store, their products and the shopping experience at L.L. Bean so I was excited to read this book. I am disappointed to say the least and struggled to get through it. It is a book written by Leon Gorman about himself, which is fine had it been labeled an autobiography, but all I got out of it was him constantly telling me how smart he is and how he alienated several members of his senior management. It wasn't at all what I was expecting and am disappointed.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Self serving, but interesting
Comment: Pretty much along the lines of Sam Walton's bio... contains some interesting bits of history, but for the most part it's a "sell job" on what a great company L.L. Bean founded. The only real significant information gleaned from the book was about Bean's "unconditional" guarantee. However, I did not need to spend the cost of a book to find out what they could easily include in the many catalogs they mail out each year. I expected to read a biography of Bean himself and instead was treated to a study of corporate growth and how it was achieved. One can easily read the entire book in less than 2 hours! In the overall, it was dull.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Honest and readable
Comment: Although the narrative sometimes gets a little disjointed, overall this is a readable and interesting account of the making of a great American outfitter and brand name. Gorman is quite frank in presenting the difficulties, conflicts, and internal growing pains that led to the company's strong market presence in the fickle retail world of the new millenium. He is honest about his own limitations and contributions, and how much he had to learn in order to grow into the job. For example, he discusses in detail how difficult it was for the company to change from being exclusively mail order to the retail store business, which just hadn't been their thing up till then, and many people were opposed to the idea. Many departments of the company, from marketing, warehousing, inventory control, product design, and management, were required to "raise the bar" and become far more systematic and professional in their approach, rather than operating like a small-town, family-owned business as it had up till then. But one of the great strengths of the company is that they managed to do this without sacrificing many of those values. Overall, a fine acount of how a great little company survived their growing pains into a much bigger enterprise without sacrificing body and soul to do it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not to be passed by....
Comment: My Grandfather was an Adirondack Hunting/Fishing guide during the 1930s and 1940s. He had many items in his inventory that came from L.L. Bean. Being curious, I went to Freeport, Maine to visit the store. I was surprised to be there at a book signing. The signing was for "The Making of and American Icon" written by Leon Gorman. I was honored to meet this unbelievable person as well as his wife. Mr. Gorman signed my copy, listened to my short story and off I went. It was a great experience! This book is written very well with a great story to tell. If you're at all interested in L.L. Bean and the business' evolution, this is a book for you. Loads of great history and personal accounts from the people who actually worked and lived the history. Very well written. I'm keeping this one as an heirloom.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Business primer
Comment: Following military service, the author, grandson of L.L. Bean, (the company's founder), was advised by the placement office at his alma mater, Bowdoin College, to seek employment at L.L. Bean in Freeport. Leon Gorman noticed that in comparison to the catalogs of the thirties, where copy was written by L.L., the catalog in 1959 was a hodgepodge.
In 1960 L.L. Bean was about ninety and responsible for decisionmaking, but not capable of conducting the business. There were no systems of manufacture or sales. Work in the core business had virtually stopped in wartime when manufacturing was devoted to turning out goods for the government. Resumption of the core business had been feeble in execution. Response to customer orders was slow. There were arguments with customers. Employees were ill-paid, but the establishment was known as a good place to work. (There was a bonus plan.) There was no pension plan. Many people filling critical positions were elderly. The author's father had worked for the company.
Interestingly, during an era of vigorous leadership by the founder, the thirties, the company did well. By the 1960's his vision of the company was failing and there was no succession planning. Two secretaries oversaw order entry and mailing list tasks, in one instance, and advertising and catalog preparation, in the other instance. They consulted the founder and his demoralized son Carl only when necessary and then pushed and cajoled the men into making decisions in order to have things run smoothly. Wid Griffin, a third key employee, was particularly useful when sales increased during the Christmas season, (twenty-five percent of the annual business was done then in one month). Leon Gorman, the author, had a favorite competing company, Abercrombie and Fitch. It had high-quality credentials. A less desirable aspect was its elitism. Leon added items to the catalog by subterfuge, using the new items first in circulars. Following the deaths of his grandfather and uncle, Leon was named President of the company in 1967.
In the 1970's L.L. Bean mailed more catalogs than its competitors. Heavy inventories were maintained to support service levels. It was becoming a clothing-driven company. Leon's leadership training had been acquired from the Boy Scouts and the Navy. The challenge was to maintain old-fashioned values in a rapid growth environment. Leon Gorman's professional managers at Bean included John Findlay, Bill End, Norm Poole. L.L. Bean became fashionable for a time. The fashion wave crested in 1983. Growth stalled. Then the company grew by twenty percent in 1985! Specialty catalogs were added. In 1989 there was a fall-off in sales. The company was following a 'best' strategy which was costly in terms of return on investment. It was ringed by competitors copying its successes. There was a dichotomy between the active outdoor sphere, the area of the brand, and casual apparel, place of the greater number of sales. The managers sought to meet the conflicting demands articulated by the directors.
In the early 1990's some of the leaders resigned to be replaced by people up from the ranks or drawn from the outside. A scheme termed Total Quality was pursued for more than six years. In 1995 the L.L. Bean Japanese business collapsed, suddenly, and there was an actual over-all decline experienced from 1996 to 1998. Consultants discovered that within the company at the higher levels of management there existed self-censorship and conflict-avoidance behaviors. Chris McCormick became President of L.L. Bean in 2001.
This is a wonderful book, particularly for readers who would love to learn about a business compelled to be both traditional, unchanging, and up-to-date to maintain the interest of its loyal customers.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fan of the L.L. Bean Store, but not this book
Comment: I bought this book during one of the several trips my family and I take each year to the the flagship store in Freeport, ME. We love the store, their products and the shopping experience at L.L. Bean so I was excited to read this book. I am disappointed to say the least and struggled to get through it. It is a book written by Leon Gorman about himself, which is fine had it been labeled an autobiography, but all I got out of it was him constantly telling me how smart he is and how he alienated several members of his senior management. It wasn't at all what I was expecting and am disappointed.
L.L.Bean is one of only a handful of American companies to have attained almost legendary status in the minds of its consumers. Thanks to the integrity of its product line, consistently strong brand association, and the ability to change with customers’ needs, L.L.Bean embodies the best qualities long associated with traditional American living: rugged individualism, stubborn determination, and simple ingenuity. Written by Leon Gorman, grandson of founder L.L., this is the first authoritative, true-to-life account of the iconic retailer and its quirky history and culture. This engaging account candidly reveals Gorman’s behind-the-scenes struggles to preserve the identity that built Bean as he also opened the door to needed change. Woven throughout the narrative are themes that will resonate with managers and general readers alike: how to shape a powerhouse brand around bedrock beliefs and values, how to balance growth and tradition, and how to craft and preserve an authentic corporate identity. Far from a tranquil journey, the story reveals the funny, poignant, and often engrossing details of managing the L.L.Bean legacy—during the best and worst of times.
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