Bethlehem Steel research labs - 1974 employment and 1945-cohort management failure

Tom's first industry employer. The "1945 cohort" managers who never updated their mindset from 75% world share to 25%. The $600M research facility on South Mountain. Don Blickwede (vice president, MIT MatSci alumnus). Bethlehem's exploration of nuclear steel-making.

When I went to work for Bethlehem Steel in 1974, the managers who had been hired 30 years earlier were now top managers at Bethlehem Steel. We controlled 25% of the world's steel capacity. They still thought they controlled 75%. That was their mindset when they had been hired in. In 1962, before we had the Arab oil embargo in 1972, the price of steel was what the world's commodities were based on. U.S. Steel raising the price of steel was going to create worldwide inflation, just like oil does now. President Kennedy had a big standoff in 1962 with U.S. Steel and forced them to roll back their prices. He embarrassed them in public.