Success Story
A
Management Develops
One acquisition, however, was the Cudahy
Refining Company, developed by the Chicago meat
packer family. Its technological organization
was exceptional, and it had retail distribution
chiefly in Kansas. From Cudahy, Sinclair
acquired the nucleus of a management which would
lead the corporation for a generation.
Cudahy was the keystone, for it brought in a
refining genius in W. H. Isom and a sagacious
director in Joseph M. Cudahy. To these, Harry
Sinclair added an independent oil operator, A.
E. Watts, his own assistant, W. L. Connelly, a
pipeline engineer, John E. Manion, and as
Financial manager his brother Earl W. Sinclair.
But the founder was monarch of his domain; his
leadership was absolute, and would continue to
be so for thirty-three years. The Cudahy sales
organization gave Sinclair a famous trademark:
Opaline, long a hallmark for superior
lubricating oils and greases.
The refinery
companies also owned 8,000 barrels of daily
crude oil production. Sinclair controlled about
7,000 barrels himself, most of it in the south
end of the Cushing Field. Together they balanced
the 15,300-barrel daily needs of the primitive
refineries.
[ Previous |
Index
| Next
] |
