In the US, Kerry would be hailed as a phenomenon and managing director Denis Brosnan as the epitome of the dynamic, visionary and efficient manager beloved of all those advice and strategy books.
He should have the kudos which in the States are liberally awarded to the managers of Coca-Cola, GM, Apple et al.
In this country, with our schizophrenic attitude to business success, Denis Brosnan is little known outside of the agri-business sector and Kerry's public image is based on its butter adverts and sponsorship of the football team.
Yet in the early 1970s, Denis Brosnan and a small cohort stood in a muddy field near Listowel and embarked on an adventure that would take Kerry from being a farmer-owned co-op to a multinational with 14,000 employees in 15 countries, a presence on five continents and an acknowledged leader in the global food industry.
This is a remarkable achievement which James J. Kenelly documents exhaustively. We get a blow-by-blow account of the formation of the co-op and its relatively painless evolution into a plc which was greeted by an unnamed senior figure in the coop movement with "I would not rule out the possibility that this will be Denis Brosnan's Waterloo". Quite.
Kennelly's book is timely and represents the first serious attempt to address this success story. It is a pity that the endeavour is let down by the rather academic writing style and a rigorous adherence to the chronological format where a thematic one would have served the subject matter better.
comidheach@irish-times.ie
