Question

What made Rockefeller an Innovative thinker? Why was he strategic? What opportunities did he find with oil? How did he identify and advance on opportunity?

Answer 1

Let us first get familiarise with the all historical backgrounds and information on Rockefeller, which is as follows,

John Davidson Rockefeller Sr. was a renowned American in all time. He was a biggest business man who had the business of oil refineries.Being the biggest oil magnate, he was also a industrialist and philanthropist. he was considered as the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person of America in modern history.

Rockefeller was born in upstate of New York. He grew among a con man as his father and a religious mother, with a elder sister and four younger siblings. Rockefeller's family shifted in many countries before finally settling in Cleveland, Ohio. He had many options in business at the early age of 16. When he was 16 years old he got his fist chance in the corporate world as a bookkeeper. At the age of 20 he got many business opportunities but he only concentrated on oil refineries from the starting.

After few years he was able to purchase the shares of an oil refinery business in his time and that was Standard Oil Company. He became the owner of the company by purchasing the largest number of  share of the company. He worked in the same company from 1870 till 1897 and remained the largest shareholder of the company.

Rockefeller increased or soared his wealth due to kerosene and gasoline came into importance and became the richest man in America. He controlled 90% of the oil being used in the country and was in his peak in United States. Oil was in peak and was demanded a lot by the people because oil was the only source of light before the invention of electricity. Also at same period of time, automobiles were introduced in the market which required petrol which again led to increase in the demand for oil as well as increase in the wealth of Rockefeller.

Rockefeller found many opportunities in oil business. His on elf the most important innovation in the field of oil was the introduction of petroleum. Rockefeller felt the increased demand for oil in other countries and thought to sell the oil in other countries. For the purpose of transportation he found railways as the best transporter for the same. Very soon, Rockefeller had the 2% of GDP of the country.

Before finding the opportunity in Standard Oil Company, he found his business in 1859 as to produce commission, with a partner Maurice B. Clark, and managed to raise the money upto $4000. With the investment of more money by both the partners in another business both, Rockefeller and Clark netted $4,000 and were able to generate a profit of $17,000 respectively, and their profits outbreak of the Civil War when the Union Army called for massive amount of food and supplies. At the end of the Civil War profits, Clark and Rockefeller looked up to the crude oil.

At that time government subsidised the prices for oil from $0.35 barrel in 1862 as high as upto13.75. Cried Oil was readily available among the people. People at that time started digging for oil. Many tried for their fortunes, but some were able to stuck in the oil refinery. They started digging holes and whosoever was able to find oil was able to get his fortune. This also not required the person to be efficient. At the same time the oil coming out of the holes led to wastage of oil. The oil flowed like rivers in place of water.

This was the greatest opportunity for John Davison Rockefeller to grab the opportunity and became the richest person of America. He was the first person who voted for Abraham Lincoln as the president of the country.