Kenneth Hopper - Issues and Publications

Issues and Publications

A grant from the Foundation for Management Education allowed Hopper to carry out research on college graduate foremen at the Harvard Business School from 1965 to 1966, some of which was published by the University of Michigan. Entering consulting practice in the US, he provided seminars for Industrial Education International in the US, Canada and the UK and continued publishing articles on the strategy of placing college graduates in strategic manufacturing positions as foremen to get “on the ground” experience . This practice was still rare outside of American industry in the Sixties, and with the rise of a certain business school curriculum that promoted financial management over most other skills, it became rarer even in US industry in subsequent decades. His seminal article, “Can the US Stay Competitive?” raised his profile among industrialists for a time. From 1970 onwards. However, illness restricted Mr. Hopper from active consulting but allowed him to pursue research into comparative factory management from his base in New Jersey, and he developed a considerable collection of primary and secondary documents as background for a major publication. This research effort revived the interest of some academic scholars (such as Myron Tribus, emeritus Dean of the Tuck Business School at Dartmouth) in lesser known members of the US Occupation team which sparked the Japanese Miracle after World War II:

• Frank A. Polkinghorn • Charles W. Protzman • Homer M. Sarasohn • Joseph M. Juran and, of course, • W. Edwards Deming

In 1979, with his health much improved, Hopper took his studies to the Japanese, making a five-week tour of Japanese industry, sponsored by Mr. Bunzaemon Inoue, former chairman of the Sumitomo Group. He subsequently publishing several articles about his findings. He continued to publish occasionally while working with his brother, William Hopper, on a major book, The Puritan Gift. Hopper, Kenneth and William Hopper, The Puritan Gift. NY: IB Taurus/Macmillan, 2007. He also developed an interest in American colonial history and lectured on various subjects at Waterloo Village, a restored canal museum (now defunct) in western New Jersey. Kenneth also provided a background seminar on sailing ships for NBC news announcers, John Chancellor and David Brinkley, during the 1975 New York Bi-Centennial Tall Ships festival.

In 1995, the brothers held a major seminar on the work of MacArthur’s Civil Communications Section at the Japanese Embassy, London, chaired by Lord Howe, former British Foreign Secretary and attended by manufacturing, governmental and financial leaders from the European Union as well as Asian and East European nations.

The Hoppers' book was ranked by the Financial Times of December 8, 2007 as one of Top Hundred (and Top Ten Business) Books of the Year.