Operations Due Diligence: An M&A Guide for Investors and Business

CHAPTER 9

Assessment of the Personnel Infrastructure

In the mid-nineteenth century, the Endicott-Johnson Corporation (EJ) became the model for benevolent businesses. EJ was an employee-centric business that manufactured shoes in the boom of the industrial revolution. EJ’s use of evolving technology (by nineteenth-century standards) and automation of its factories revolutionized both the methods used for manufacturing shoes and the lifestyle of its workforce.

EJ was a paternalistic business formed by Horace N. Lester,* and it was originally known as the Lester Boot and Shoe Company. Lester built his business following what became known as the Lester Plan. The Lester Plan included the development of Lester-Shire, which was a company-planned community ...