Chandler was the first to formulate the axiom `structure follows strategy' — that decisions on organisational structure must arise from and facilitate the execution of a chosen strategy.

Alfred du Pont Chandler, the world's foremost business historian, died on May 9, at the age of 88. Chandler, Isidor Straus Professor of Business History, Emeritus at Harvard Business School, also graduated from there.

He later took his PhD, studying under the legendary sociology teacher Talcott Parsons, from whom he learnt a method of sociological enquiry and a systemic appreciation of the place of the business enterprise within society.

Chandler was so identified with the new discipline of business history that it has been sometimes said that all historical study of the evolution of American business and strategy can be neatly divided into two periods, BC and AC.

The middle name does not reflect a direct relationship to the Du Pont family; apparently Chandler's great-grandmother was brought up by one of the du Ponts.

Interestingly, they were also partly responsible for the promotion of what became General Motors later.

These two, coincidentally, along with Sears Roebuck and Standard Oil Company, formed the focus of Chandler's landmark study, which became Strategy and Structure (1962).

Until then, the study of business in its social role was coloured by ideology, a hangover from the age of the robber barons and exploitative capitalism.

Academics in any case did not consider the study of organisations to be worthwhile work for a serious scholar. Yet, Chandler decided to break new ground. His approach was rigorous and scientific.

He never fought shy of elevating the businessman and the manager as an object worth research. Instead he saw the American style of competitive capitalism as one of the contributions of twentieth century society.

He was the first to formulate the now accepted axiom `structure follows strategy' — that managerial decisions on organisational structure must arise from and facilitate the execution of a chosen strategy.

This has now become a commonplace among every student of management and organisations around the world. When one considers how to this day the first step that change-artist CEOs take upon taking over a company is to replace people and restructure, it is worth remembering Chandler's caution about sequencing the two.

An article in appreciation of his legendary contribution on the Harvard Business School Web site recalls how in the 1950s he helped Alfred P. Sloan, the creator of the modern General Motors when it was an industrial colossus, write his famous autobiography My Years with General Motors.

The important drivers of the rise of the American economy as a worldwide force to reckon with, and the reasons for its businesses to succeed were the rise of the "railroad, concentrated urban markets, mass production techniques, electrification, the internal combustion engine, and research and development".

Although he emphasised the importance of size and the transition from entrepreneurial enterprises to multidivisional, vertically integrated companies, he also said: "What counts are people — their skills, knowledge and experience."

The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business, won the Pulitzer Prize in history in 1977. Chandler saw management as the visible hand of economics under free market conditions, just as Adam Smith and others had felt an invisible hand guided the enlightened self-interest towards the common good.

He continued working and writing right till the end. His biographer, Professor Mc Craw, speaks of an obsessive interest in meticulous scholarship and a youthful excitability, an infectious enthusiasm, coupled with an utter lack of pretentiousness that endeared him to all.

Truly, he merits ranking with Peter F. Drucker and John K. Galbraith as intellectual giants who bestrode the world of economics and business academia during the past century.

S. Ramachander

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