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Biographies & Primers |
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The Emperors of Chocolate: Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars
written by Joël Glenn Brenner
Studio : Broadway
by Broadway
Release Date : 2000-01-04
Publisher : Broadway
Released : 2000-01-04
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780767904575
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 169 reviews)
List Price : $15.95
Our Price : $8.50
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Product Description |
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Corporate candy giants Milton Hershey and Forrest Mars built business empires out of one of the world's most magical, sought-after substances: chocolate. In The Emperors of Chocolate, Joël Glenn Brenner--the first person to ever gain access to the highly secretive companies of Hershey and Mars--spins a unique story that takes us inside a world as mysterious as Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Packed with flavorful stories and outrageous characters that give the true scoop on this real-life candyland, The Emperors of Chocolate is a delectable read for business buffs and chocoholics alike. Start reading and you'll soon be hungry for more. |
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Americancivilwar.com Review |
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The chocolate wars between industry giants Hershey and Mars are anything but sweet. In The Emperors of Chocolate, Joel Glenn Brenner reveals the bitter legal and marketing fights, palace intrigue, and personality clashes that dominate Hershey and Mars--and the candy industry as a whole. A talented writer and dogged researcher, Brenner concludes that after decades of competition between the two companies, the drama still is unfolding. Will Mars--privately held and publicity shy--be the ultimate winner with its global game plan? Or will it be Hershey--publicly traded and philanthropy-minded--with its aggressive strategy of growth by acquisition? Brenner, a former Washington Post financial reporter, tells the stories of how Forrest Mars Sr. and Milton S. Hershey turned their two companies from small mom-and-pop operations into international forces over the last century. While they may have started small, their products--Mars's Snickers and M&M's and Hershey's milk-chocolate bars and Kisses--are ubiquitous. Hershey was a benevolent philanthropist who spent hundreds of millions to create a town and orphanage to fulfill his altruistic dreams. Mars was a short-tempered perfectionist who yelled at anyone who failed to meet his standards. "What made Forrest's blood rush was the thrill of mastering new opportunities and taming uncharted worlds," the author writes. "Like Milton Hershey, he was driven by his visions; but where Milton Hershey saw utopia, Forrest Mars saw conquest." Nine years in the making, The Emperors of Chocolate is a satisfying read about the two titans of the chocolate world and how they capitalized on our love of sweets. --Dan Ring |
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The Sweet Smell of Success |
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Ms. Brenner does a fine job of laying out the history of chocolate in the U.S. and how publicly-traded Hershey and privately-owned Mars became the large corporations of today. Milton Hershey and Forrest Mars were complete opposites in terms of how they viewed and operated their respective businesses. A small portion of the writing is repetitious and clunky, but does not distract from a very interesting story. Ms. Brenner does a fine job of informing as well as entertaining the reader. It's unlikely you'll look at chocolate or candy in the same manner as before you read the book. |
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Great entreprenarial book! |
The positives:
- great description of two outstanding entrepeneurs: Milton Hershey and Forrest Mars Sr.: their personalities are very well detailed.
- a lot of business strategies to learn from their success: product oriented, delegation, paying above average to get and keep talent, leaving some degree of initiatives to employees, no-frills spending, importance of being the first on a market, cult of secrecy...
The negatives:
- at sometimes to much description on chocolat
- continuous switching from Mars, to Hershey, to Mars...
In a word, I would recommend this book for all business passionates, in particulary for the ones with an entrepreneurship interest. |
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A quick, entertaining read- and nothing more. |
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I found this to be a well-written and entertaining book, to an extent. In particular, the chapter regarding the impersonal offices and obsessive quality control at the Mars Company was a great perspective. However, the book just fell short for me. I would have rather seen the author interpret the overall picture instead of narrating a tale. The way it was written caused the book to become out of date so quickly after it was published, considering recent events of the battle between Nestle and Hershey. I was also a bit weary of the author's references- the most up to date information of the Mars Company was from a 1989 interview, which leaves an absence of information for the next 10 years. Overall, I found the book to be an easy read and bit repetitive, but informative (up to a point). |
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A Tale Of Two Cities |
...the Two Cities being the Corporations of Hershey and Mars. Hershey is like Athens, Mars is like Sparta.
This is a book chock-filled with scrumptious tidbits (sorry, couldn't help myself) about chocolate, the candy industry, and most of all the histories, families, and corporate cultures of America's two largest candy companies: Hershey and Mars.
Hershey built a Utopian town. The passion of his life was an orphanage. Mars? His kids didn't eat M&Ms growing up because their father couldn't spare any. How their corporate paths merged and clashed is a fascinating tale of opposite business styles, both of which have been successful at various times.
A very entertaining book, You'll feel like you've consumed something much more substantial than a candy bar... |
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This Book Wasn't That Bad |
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The Emperors of Chocolate was a good book. When I first got the book, I thought it would be just a bunch of graphs, scales and statistics because I got it for my economics class, but I couldn't have been more wrong. I started reading it with no idea what to expect of it and I did think it was going to be really boring. I would recommend this book for anyone who likes candy. This was a great book about Mars and Hershey and some of the history of chocolate and also gives the secret of how they put the M on the M&M. I thought I wasn't going to enjoyed reading this book but it let me find out all about the chocolate business. |
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