Stories of success: Charles Koch

Yesterday I opened Forbes website and clapped my eyes on number 6 of the world’s billionaires – Mr Charles Koch and I was wondered why did not I hear about him anything before? So I decided to get more informed about this guy.

First at all I want emphasize lineage of Charles Koch that played a crucial role in further career of our character. His grandfather was a shareholder of freight railroad with length of almost 200km. Moreover, his father was a founder of an oil company which will be named later as Koch Industries. It was he who developed an innovative crude oil refining process. So our hero, who in 1967 became president of Koch Industries, is just a heir. We can say that Charles Koch is not the one who was born in poor family and was growing in poverty. Because of this I think he does not deserve my respect and I am not going to tell about his career anymore. However, if he managed to save father’s business and moreover he expanded it, his life deserves to be discussed in other aspects.

Koch has been described as an autodidact, and uses his vast knowledge of wide-ranging topics such as history, politics, government, economics, psychology, human action and technology by demonstrating the ways that each affects business management, decision making, and profitability. Charles Koch had written a book named The Science of Success. In this book he lists the five dimensions of Market-Based Management:

1.    Vision – Determining where and how the organization can create the greatest long-term value

2.    Virtue and Talents – Helping ensure that people with the right values, skills and capabilities are hired, retained and developed

3.    Knowledge Processes – Creating, acquiring, sharing and applying relevant knowledge, and measuring and tracking profitability

4.    Decision Rights – Ensuring the right people are in the right roles with the right authority to make decisions and holding them accountable

5.    Incentives – Rewarding people according to the value they create for the organization

 

I had not much time to investigate this personality deeper but if you ask me describe Charles Koch in few words I would say
“nothing to write home about.”