Stephen B. Adam’s

"*Whenever the others say something or other can't be done, Kaiser says: ''We'll attend to that for you,'' and the others have to go along. *M"

"Kaiser's enterprises offer a view of the changing opportunities in this environment for government entrepreneurs during the first half of the century. Kaiser was one of many successful road builders during the "good roads" movement of the 1920s, a major dam builder during the West's golden age of public works in the 1930s, and America's most widely publicized shipbuilder during the war years. Finally, he was the most prominent western industrialist in primary metals after World War II."

"Kaiser's appetite for enterprise was legendary: he attempted ventures in any and all sectors of the economy. "Find a need and fill it" was his motto, and he launched more than a hundred businesses in a host of fields, ranging from construction to basic metals to health care to consumer products to broadcasting. Apparently, when Kaiser was in doubt, he started another company rather than wait for proper alignment of the economic heavens."

"Kaiser fostered the belief that natural and engineering laws did not apply to his organization either. Some of the most often told Kaiser stories involve dicey work on dams where "the boys" triumphed not only over nature but over skeptical engineering "experts." Kaiser described much of his success as "we didn't know enough to know we were licked." 21 This was the success of an innocent. After all, if you do not know what the rules are, they cannot hold you back."

"."28 Kaiser demonstrated the dramatic success government entrepreneurs could achieve by being nimble enough to seize the opportunities presented by an activist government. His enterprises represented a confluence of administration policy and entrepreneurial zeal."

"Kaiser embraced a style of business operation "personal" capitalism that preceded the modern bureaucratic organization. He was comfortable operating in organizations with permeable boundaries, allowing him to enlist anyone for any task."

"Kaiser's most evident gift was his promotional ability so most of his early jobs were in the field of sales including working for a retailer of photography supplies, then a photography studio."

"Henry Kaiser was said to have once remarked: "Contractors are all alike. . . . They start out broke, with a wheelbarrow and a piece of hose. Then, suddenly, they find themselves in the money. Everything's fine. Ten years later they are back where they started from with one wheelbarrow, a piece of hose, and broke." Kaiser later denied making the comment, but it was an apt description of the industry's early days."

"Kaiser's perception of the possibilities afforded by job breakdown transcended industrial boundaries. Kaiser applied assembly-line principles to road building, then to dam building. Later, as a shipbuilder, Kaiser suc- Page 21 cessfully executed others' ideas of breaking up shipbuilding crafts into multiple lower-skilled jobs. In so doing, Kaiser both opened wartime production to a large segment of the nation's workforce and employed a prefabrication strategy based on assembly-line principles. Kaiser followed a similar path in auto construction and, some would argue, in health care."

"In early 1921, A.B. Ordway took his first vacation since Kaiser hired him in 1912 (vacations, or the lack thereof, are a common theme in many Kaiser stories)."

"Kaiser's abilities in self-promotion would later intertwine with an image of innocence. Part of this image came from the East Coast media, as a way of patronizing a westerner. Part of it had to do with the nature of the contracting business. Not all of the risks were immediately obvious even to an experienced contractor bidding on a job. The unforeseen seemed to be the rule rather than the exception, to the extent that unexpected risks resulted in one of the industry's rules of thumb, as related by a Kaiser associate: "It is an axiom among contractors that you never can get a second job next to the one you are doing. Another and a new man always wins. This is probably due to the original contractor knowing too much of the bad conditions of which the new man knows nothing.""

"Kaiser both opened wartime production to a large segment of the nation's workforce and employed a prefabrication strategy based on assembly-line principles. Kaiser followed a similar path in auto construction and, some would argue, in health care."

"The industry's self-image suggested, then, that many of the greatest construction feats were accomplished because the contractors did not know what they were up against. Most contractors including Kaiser had many stories of success in the face of stiff odds. It is not surprising that one of the principal characteristics associated with Kaiser the man, from his road-building days onward, was innocence the idea that he succeeded because he never realized the odds against him."