Robert Laidlaw Man for Our Time : the Founder of Farmers By Ian Hunter

SOFTBACK, minor tanning, minor marks. 360 pages Published by Hunter Publishing, 2011 ISBN: 1927181003 b/w photographs Dimensions 15.2 x 3.1 x 22.9 centimetres (0.36 kg)

Auckland 1909: 24-year-old businessman Robert Laidlaw launches a mail-order business that will become the adventure of a lifetime. In a few years it grows to become the largest store in the country and sets new standards for what it means to be in business. Free buses to his store every seven minutes, a free carpark, a Christmas parade, in-store giveaways, prizes worth a year's income, the highest-quality goods at the lowest possible prices - few have seen a business like it. Nor does he stop there. His launch into chain stores pre-dates his American counterparts. He is the author of one of the finest mission statements ever written, an early exponent of welfare work, and an efficiency expert before F.W. Taylor's classic Scientific Management was even published. Behind it all lay a carefully planned strategy for business success. Man For Our Time is an incredible blend of business genius and faith. From the Highlands of Scotland to the shores of New Zealand, from Henry Ford's moving assembly line in Detroit to the beaches of Normandy during World War II, this panoramic biography of one of the 20th century's greatest businessmen is a story that will capture your heart and inspire you to action.

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