Citizen Coors: An American Dynasty

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Citizen Coors: An American Dynasty

Coors Family's Personal and BusinessTraumas

Insightful

Amazingly Compelling

Concise, relevant historical background

Citizen Coors: An American Dynasty
Dan Baum
Manufacturer: Diane Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0756758114

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The Coors Brewing Company in Golden, Colorado, is one of those prototypical American businesses that sprang from the efforts of a single-minded individual to become a dominant force in its industry. The elements that led to its ascension make quite a story, too: a destitute but hard-driving immigrant founder; kidnapping, suicides, and murder; secretive, right-wing politics and boisterous consumer boycotts; and, to top it off, an aristocratic ruling family that never dealt well with outsiders. To make sense of it all, former Wall Street Journal reporter Dan Baum interviewed more than 150 people, excluding, unfortunately, the primary family members, who still routinely refuse to talk to outsiders. Nevertheless, Baum tells this colorful Hollywood-esque tale in a comprehensive and compelling manner. He shows with considerable insight how the corporate and familial tone was set early by patriarch Adolph, a figure so domineering he "was still effectively running the company more than 60 years" after his death. And he shows with equal clarity why Peter, the heir, ultimately turned to an outsider to help the company address its competition in a way befitting a prototypical American business. An interesting tale, well told. --Howard Rothman

Book Description

Citizen Coors is the riveting saga of an American dynasty. From the moment the destitute Prussian Adolph Coors stows away on a Baltimore-bound ship in 1868 to the worldwide expansion of the billion-dollar Coors Brewing Company, Citizen Coors is a headlong American tale of triumph over bare-knuckle competition. The Coors family does it the old-fashioned way, through fearsome devotion to product, rejection of modern marketing, and refusing to borrow so much as a nickel.

But the family almost rides its principles into the ground. "Nobody will ever choose a beer on the basis of a thirty-second ad," Bill Coors is fond of saying at a time when his two main competitors, Anheuser-Busch and Miller, are spending upward of a billion dollars a year on ads. He won't even allow a ring-pull can. The brewery's decline and recovery are dizzying.

But Citizen Coors is more than a business story. Here is Adolph, the founder,in 1929, distraught over Prohibition, hurling himself to his death from a hotel balcony. Here is Bill,ten years later, yearning for the wider world but forced back to the brewery by a single glance from his father. Here is Joe, Jr., raised to rule yet suddenly banished for marrying without permission. Here is Peter, prevented from rescuing the company precisely because he has been trained to do so. Here is kidnapping and murder. Here are generations of Coors men broken against the iron will of their fathers. Here is a second suicide, eerily similar to the first.

Citizen Coors is finally a chronicle of how America was shaped politically in the last three decades of the twentieth century. For along with the Coors family's adherence to handshake integrity and old-world craft came some less roseate ideals from the nineteenth century: that disparity of wealth is proper, that government efforts to achieve social equality are illegitimate, that the Bible is the rule book for intimate conduct, and that capital must never bow to labor. The Coors family forever changed the American political landscape by creating the Heritage Foundation and a right-wing TV network, by financing the conservative shift in Congress, and by being early backers of a politically ambitious B-movie actor named Ronald Reagan.

In retaliation, blacks, feminists, unions, gays, and environmentalists came together to bash Coors in perhaps the most effective consumer boycott of modern times--a boycott that continues to hobble the company.

Based on more than 150 interviews, Citizen Coors serves up a powerful cocktail of beer and politics. Dan Baum, a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal, captures in this rollicking narrative the genius, eccentricity, and tragic weaknesses of the remarkable Coors family.With enough private dramas to put them on par with the Ewings of Dallas, and enough business crises to keep them constantly in the business hot-seat, the ultra-right-wing Coors of Golden, Colorado, represent one of the more riveting family sagas of our time. Their billion-dollar empire grew out of a single brewery begun in 1873, but it wasn't long before the family became known as much for their right-wing politics as their beer.

The third generation of Coors men financed the birth of the Heritage Foundation, which jump-started the Reagan revolution. Old-fashioned about business and equally dubious of new ideas, they consistently ignored the importance of marketing until they were forced to, finally introducing the "Silver Bullet," and improved their image with unions and minorities only after they were compelled to do so by years of boycotts. Former Wall Street Journal reporter Dan Baum captures the eccentricity and foibles of this family and company in this fast-paced tale of vivid characters in business and politics.

Customer Reviews:

Citizen Coors: An American Dynasty.......2005-01-02

I thought the book was outstanding. It was historical, personal, tragic, economic, political and ideological. It also included incredible lessons for the business world. I have been and will continue to recommend this book to others.

Coors Family's Personal and BusinessTraumas.......2003-07-23

"Citizen Coors" is a book written about the ups and downs of the Coors family, in both the business and personal arenas. Founded by Adolph Coors, a Prussian stowaway to America, the Coors Company has been in existance now for more than 100 years and during that time, it has often found itself thrust into the spotlight over problems with employees, political involvement, and family crises and disputes.

Author Dan Baum spends a little bit of time talking about the foundation of the company, then he heads directly into the 20th century, discussing at length the Coor's family members (Bill, Joe, Adolph II, Adolph III, Peter, Joe, and others) and their various business philosophies and personal lives. As most people know, the Coors family has always had problems with organized labor, and the company has been the target of strikes and boycotts by various pro- labor and ethnic groups. Accused of being anti- labor, anti- gay, sexist, and racist, the Coors Company has been forced to face a never- ending onslaught of criticism from various civil and political groups. Author Dan Baum covers many of these important issues thoroughly, while managing to leave out his own opinions, allowing the reader to digest the information and make his/her own decision.

Reading a book like will make some people a little bit annoyed at the Coors family and its beliefs. The labor problems are one thing, but there are other issues that the author covers which are just as controversial. For example, it is known that Coors was very slow to accept the changes in the marketplace in the 1970's, when the other big brewers, Miller and Anheuser- Busch, were both switching to a brand marketing emphasis. Coors could visibly see the changes, but refused to make any moves until it was almost too late. Bill Coors, in particular, is incredibly rigid, refusing to even consider producing and selling a light beer, even though other family members and marketing experts all warn him that change is necessary if the Coors Company has any hope to survive.

The book ends by talking about the modern era. Coors is still around, but the boycotts and other problems have taken a toll. The company is no longer family run, like it was in the past. Now, Coors is directed by professionals who have managed to expand the product line, allocate more money toward marketing and sales, and have rescued the company from bankruptcy.

"Citizen Coors" is a very good read. It has its share of tragedy (Adolph Coors I and great- granddaughter Missy both committed suicide and Adolph III was murdered) but it also has its share of success. Coors is credited for inventing the aluminum can and for encouraging recycling on a massive scale. Above all, though, "Citizen Coors" shows the importance of accepting change. If Coors had acted more quickly, it could possibly be a much larger brewer than it is today, rivaling A-B for the top spot in the industry. A little more flexibility and open- mindedness could have worked wonders.

Insightful.......2001-09-23

Baum does not go easy on the Coors family, but I also found Citizen Coors sympathetic and very touching, with frank discussion of the family culture and their very human conflicts, weaknesses, and strengths. Stubbornly, and honorably, they stuck to their belief that if they made excellent beer, people would buy it with or without advertising. They finally succumbed to the need for expensive advertising campaigns in the face of market share wars that erupted when Phillip Morris bought Miller Brewing Company and applied sophisticated tobacco marketing strategies to beer.

At times, the book portrays some Coors as very much bewildered, as when Bill Coors innocently suggested at an employee meeting that citizen's votes should count in proportion to how much each person pays in taxes. But when it came to engineering, in which most of the family members were trained, Bill Coors was creative and determined in the successful effort to develop the aluminum can, and an aluminum can recycling program.

The Coors, and the companies they control, have expended enormous resources for the causes in which they believe, which included development of the aluminum can, and a tab that did not leave a separated ring, so prone to becoming a separate piece of litter. They also were willing to spend millions and suffer economic and public relations losses to fight for their conservative political and religious ideals. Many (but not all) of the family members have a born-again or fundamentalist Christian faith, and there is an uncomfortable conflict between their morals and the manufacture and marketing of beer.

Sometimes they implemented their ideals about private sector action, in place of government programs. As Business Week pointed out in its review of the book, Coors "recruited urban unemployables right out of prison", because they wanted to give them a chance to become productive members of society. In another situation they did not act so responsibly. When they discovered that chlorinated organic solvents from aluminum can manufacturing had gotten into the groundwater, they decided not to report it as required by law, and secretly pumped the water into Clear Creek for ten years, before finally getting caught.

To maintain their absolutist view of property rights, including the right to run their brewery any way they saw fit; they waged battles with labor unions, hurting Coors' image with some of its consumers. Property rights also seemed to be the basis of their 1960's opposition to civil rights laws. Baum asserts that it was the Coors' repugnance about having government inspectors coming onto their property and reviewing their records, more than the cleanup costs, that motivated them to not report the groundwater contamination.

The history of the Coors family and Golden are very much entwined, so those interested in local Golden history will enjoy the book. Many Golden residents personally know various people in the book. Ruben Hartmeister's work with Bill Coors to develop the aluminum can is excitingly recounted. There is an astonishing story about Leo Bradley and Coors setting up private drug stings, and expanding the operations to downtown Golden to Shotgun Annie's (now The Buffalo Rose). Meanwhile its owner, whose business was put at considerable risk, was also a client of the Bradley law firm, and was therefor owed a duty of loyalty by the firm. But he was kept in the dark about the drug sting operations, set up on his property.

With Thanks to historian Rick Gardner regarding the new name for Shotgun Annie's

Hint: As I read the book, I found it very helpful to sketch a family tree.

Amazingly Compelling.......2001-08-01

Two of my neighbors read this book and told me, repeatedly, that I'd love it. They said they'd both finished it in two days. Finally they gave it to me for my birthday--and I spent my birthday (and most of the following night) reading it. I finished it in even less time than they did--and me, a fiction reader!

The Coors family saga is fascinating. It's a classic American success story, with elements straight out of a Greek tragedy. The very qualities that made the family succeed so well for the first hundred years--attention to product quality and family concepts of integrity--nearly destroyed them in the last twenty-five.

I can't agree with the earlier reviewer, who commented that the book was poorly organized. I thought the author did a great job of interweaving story lines, so I understood what all of the players were doing during a given period of time.

I thought the author also did a good job of remaining unbiased. He may have had "Eastern Establishment" leanings, as one of the other reviewers commented, but I thought he painted the Coors family members in a reasonably sympathetic light. He certainly helps you understand how people with their family background--immigrant founder who built the business from scratch--would have developed some of the attitudes they hold (or held).

My only problem with the book was that the anecdotes were so fascinating that I was compelled to read long sections to my husband--even though he fully intended to read the book himself as soon as I finished it.

I highly recommend this book!

Concise, relevant historical background.......2001-06-24

This book is particularly fascinating for those of us living in Colorado. As someone who enjoys regularly visiting Golden, (and taking Coors brewery tours), it's interesting to look at the town from a different perspective; The Coors' family's.

While tragic in some respects, I do think that this tome paints a real and unflinching picture of the life of one immigrant family which has made in America.

Product Description

Through visions and ancient memories, a sailor and a mystic transcend mortality to re-live a modern life together as lovers...while preparing for another lifetime together past the "great beyond."

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One thinking fan explains to other sports fans and non-fans alike just what it is that draws us to America's most popular sports.

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Mandelbaum's work teaches us all.
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Very interesting reading. A book explores some real opportunities of the future of the advertising industry. Should be treated as the surviving guide of every agency head before they walk into their next new business pitch or when they are seriously thinking about the wayout of their declining profits every year.

A Window Into the Future of our Economy and Your Money.......2003-07-13

This is one of the first books published which gives you a real look through the window of the future of our economy. The author, with years of experience in reporting how advertising effects our purchasing choices, offers an expert's point of view of advertising, which drives our economy. It effects everyone. It deals with how people will respond to advertising in this century (i.e. television, print media, the Internet) and how it will effect us. My broker said this book was more important than the ones he recommended about investing. We are all consumers experiencing an incredible transition from t.v. to cable, from cable to satellite, from magazine and newspaper ads to e-mail and Internet ads? If you want security what could be more important than to know what's going to happen to commercials on t.v., the web, or ads that inform you of sales and discounts in your local newspaper?

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