siness world. Nothing could escape him. All of this knowledge seemed to be building up in to something immense; "Big Business". Even though Carnegie was destined for greatness, he lied at times, concealed information, and misrepresented facts to get to the top of his game. In November of 1872, Carnegie went from capitalist to entrepreneur by forming a company to manufacture Bessemer steel. This company was set up to use the money that he obtained while working for the railroad as well as his knowledge about new cost-based management techniques. Carnegie's philosophy was to cut costs as much as possible and the rest would take care of itself. He did this by carefully tracking where every penny was spent and was able to "scoop the market". The two ways to cut costs were to speed up production and cut labor costs while maintaining those production levels. He also believed in the cannibalization of his equipment which meant that he would produce as much as possible even if it meant sacrificing his machines. Machines cost less than men. His hunch paid off and prices were kept down and production was high. Carnegie was driven on returning profits form his company back in to his company to expand growth. He was the master at this technique and he knew it. This process was great for expansion and for profits, but for the people that had shares invested, a waiting game of when they would get a return had started. Andrew was also on the cutting edge of updating his machinery and the use of different techniques to improve production and to lower costs. He even hired a full time chemist on his staff to be on top of the scientific aspect of steel production. Carnegie proved that he would stop at no lengths to cut labor costs even going as far as tying steel prices to wages on Jan. 1st, 1888. At one point though, he may have gone a little too far. With wages dependent upon steel prices, wages rose if prices did. There was a bottom for the reversal...
