Company Man is to business what Paul Kennedy’s The Rise and Fall of Great Powers was to politics. Anthony Sampson, the celebrated ‘anatomist of Britain’, traces the changing styles, habits and challenges of corporate life within the mighty ‘fortresses of capital’ across the world.

Company Man tells for the first time the story of the dominant species of the 20th century. The business corporation, from Ford and Shell to IBM and Toyota, has become both the engine of economic power and the most important social unit in the industrial world. However, new technologies and ruthless global competition have not only undermined former middle-class assumptions of job security but are calling into question the very existence of the office itself.

Since World War II, companies have been forced to rethink their relationship with their employees. With his inside view, sceptical eye for management jargon, and his vivid portraits, interviews and anecdotes, Anthony Sampson proves himself an unrivalled guide to the corporate jungle.