The Engine That Could: 75 Years of Values-Driven Change at Cummins Engine Company

by David B. Sicilia and Jeffrey L. Cruikshank

Book Overview

The history of Cummins Engine Company, the world's largest diesel engine manufacturer. This book analyzes the key characteristic of the company and its leaders, underscoring what has accounted for Cummins' longevity and success in its competitive environment.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0875846130
• ISBN13: 9780875846132
• Release Date: November 1997
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
• Length: 589 Pages
• Weight: 3.47 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 7.3" x 10.3"

Customer Reviews

A wonderful book about an amazing history of an amazing company.

This is a really good book. In particular, I enjoyed the mix of the technical history of the Cummins engine innovations coupled with the battle the business had to fight to stay alive at different points in the history of the company. If you want to know more about Cummins the company or just want to read about a business that persevered, this is a good choice.

History of an Unusual Company

It can be quite difficult to know how a company got where it is. That is certainly the case with Cummins, Inc. Cummins is a successful manufacturer of diesel engines, supplying customers in trucking, power generation, marine, and many other industries. If large, heavy-duty diesels are required, Cummins is a premier supplier. However, a company such as Cummins does not become a premier supplier overnight; it had to have a beginning, growth, successes and failures. This book chronicles the founding of Cummins, its growth, and the company's high points and low points to the mid-1990's. There are several ways to look at this book. It is a history book. It is a case study. It is literature. Let us examine how this book behaves in each of its aspects. As literature, this book succeeds. The writing is clear and coherent. The authors organized the chapters well, though I had to get used to the overlapping of years in the later chapters. I also found the story captivating. Though I knew that Cummins was successful, the early decades of the company were uncertain. How would W.G. Irwin and Clessie Cummins turn an invention into a successful business? Though I knew the end of the story, in a manner of speaking, the story pulled me onward. The authors researched this book well. More than forty pages provide acknowledgements, interviews and references cited in the chapters. This book is an excellent reference book that describes in detail a small portion of our industrial history. There are many features to this history. It provides a lot of detail regarding several of the key figures involved in the creation in development of Cummins, thus to some extent it is biographical. This book also describes aspects of Columbus and conditions throughout the United States during the formation of Cummins, so it also contains cultural information. This book also provides an overview of some of the key technologies that helped Cummins succeed. The value of patents to Cummins also fascinated me. Indeed, had patents not existed, it is likely that Cummins would never have existed in the first place. If Cummins had been created, it would have failed without patents. How could this be? Clessie Cummins thought he could build a better diesel engine, and was doing his best to avoid or get out from under the patents of others. His solution: develop a completely new design. Clessie had a vision of a mechanism that took him years to develop, while Cummins, Inc. continued to lose money. Once Clessie developed a workable solution, patents enabled Cummins to start earning money after two decades of losses. Here is a lesson regarding the value of intellectual property. Intellectual property gave Cummins time to experiment and create and then permitted the company to become competitive. Those looking for the benefit of intellectual property need look no further than Cummins. Yet another aspect of this book is its value as a case study. Cummins did all

Well written, interesting book

Yes, I have also read Diesel's Engine by Lyle Cummins, the youngest son of Clessie Cummins, the co-founder of Cummins Engine. If, in reading DE, I am a proven crazy person, then I am, so discount what I say next. If one is fascinated by diesel engines, then this is a "must read." I have not completed the book yet, but having read 300 or so pages and I must say there is much beyond the engines. If you are a Harvard Business Review type, this will have much for you about entrepreneurism, the family business, enterprise capitalization, growth, corporate strategy, the inventor and his role in a technology driven business, timliness, single business small town employers, transportation trends, product quality, employee relations and more. I like reading about successes, but feel like this book portrays an almost charmed life of something impossible to duplicate. If every corporation were as successful as Cummins is portrayed, then we would reach corporate nirvana. Can what has been written here be true? Buy the book, write your own review, and we'll see what you think.