Vital Speeches

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

I'd like to start with a bit of DuPont history. I've been reading the biography of Alfred I du Pont. It's hundreds of pages long. I'm getting through it on airplanes, and in rare moments when I'm not on the computer, in a meeting, or on my iPhone.

Alfred ends up something of the family rebel, but he's probably most remembered for being one of three cousins- Pierre and Coleman were the other two-who took control of DuPont in 1902 through a kind of leveraged buyout.

The company they bought in 1902 was still very much the explosives company that it had been throughout the 19th century. But they didn't look back; they looked forward. In many ways they invented the large industrial corporation of the 20th century-a business model they called simply, the "Big Company."

And one of them-Pierre-lived to see DuPont invent nylon, which changed the company forever.