Solvay
History of a Multinational Family Firm

The authors analyze Solvay's 150-year history, showing the enormous impact geopolitical events had on the company and the recent consequences of global competition.

Kenneth Bertrams (Author), Nicolas Coupain (Author), Ernst Homburg (Author)

9781107024809, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 3 January 2013

650 pages, 48 b/w illus. 2 maps 39 tables
23.4 x 15.6 x 4 cm, 1.09 kg

'[An] outstanding book … Solvay is especially recommended to business historians, but those with an interest in the history of science and technology over the last 150 years will find much of interest.' Peter Reed, The British Journal for the History of Science

Ernest Solvay, philanthropist and organizer of the world-famous Solvay conferences on physics, discovered a profitable way of making soda ash in 1861. Together with a handful of associates, he laid the foundations of the Solvay company, which successfully branched out into other chemicals, plastics and pharmaceuticals. Since its emergence in 1863, Solvay has maintained world leadership in the production of soda ash. This is the first scholarly book on the history of the Solvay company, which was one of the earliest chemical multinationals and today is among the world's twenty largest chemical companies. It is also one of the largest companies in the field to preserve its family character. The authors analyze the company's 150-year history (1863–2013) from economic, political and social perspectives, showing the enormous impact geopolitical events had on the company and the recent consequences of global competition.

Part I. The Pioneering Years (1863–1914): The Quest for a Leadership and the First Stages of the Internationalization: 1. First steps: when vision and reality meet
2. A multinational pioneer
3. Reaching a dominant position
4. Labor organization, social policy, and societal vision
5. The consolidation of power
6. Conclusion of Part I
Part II. The Years of Crisis (1914–50): The Making and Unmaking of International Alliances: 7. The multiple fronts of World War One
8. From ashes, 1918–22
9. The making of international alliances
10. Family and finance through the crisis
11. The electrolytic industry
12. Facing war again
13. Solvay's second post-war
14. Conclusion of Part II
Part III. The Era of Diversification and Globalization (1950–2012): 15. Growth through diversification: the successful entry into plastics and peroxides
16. Enlarging scale and scope: backward and forward integration in the 1960s and 1970s
17. Solvay goes public: financial and organizational limits of a family firm
18. The long and winding road to Deer Park: Solvay's return to the United States
19. From bulk to brains: Solvay's entry into pharmacy and the life sciences
20. Solvay in the age of globalization
21. Towards sustainable product-leadership
22. Chemical and plastics of the future: major turning points at the start of a new century
23. Conclusion of Part III.

Subject Areas: History of science [PDX], Economic history [KCZ], Economics [KC], History [HB]