ABSTRACT
Corporate histories come in a variety of forms, all of which typically generate their own uncertainties and production difficulties for the subject organization. A more successful independent and 'authorized' example was a book produced on International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (ITT). In the late 1970s, Robert Sobel, Professor of Business History at New College of Hofstra and a financial columnist for Newsday, was approached by the company's public relations department to write the group's history. Corporate histories were originally undertaken by Victorian businessmen, either company founders, members of the surviving family owners or long-serving employees. The importance of corporate history can be corroborated in some unusual research in the UK. Corporate history, Sir Arthur Knight believed, was as important to the education and training of businesspeople as was the study of political history to future statesmen or military history to future generals.
