BATA: SHOEMAKER TO THE WORLD. by Bata, Thomas J. With Sonja Sinclair - 1990

Toronto: Stoddart, 1990. 341 pp, 9 1/2" H. B&w photographs. "In 1932, when young Tom Bata watched his father's coffin being lowered into his grave, he silently promised to abide by the wishes expressed in his father's 'moral testament': that the Bata Shoe Company was to be treated not as a source of private wealth, but as a public trust, a means of improving the liviing standards within the community and providing customers with good value for their money. At the time, Tom had no idea of the challenges he would face in fulfilling that promise. Not only was he ill-equipped, at age eighteen, to step into the shoes of an acknowledged business genius, creator of the largest shoe manufacturing and retailing organization in the world. Worse than that, fate was about to deal him a series of painful blows. The subjugation of his homeland, Czechoslovakia, by the Nazis was followed by an acrimonious family rift, the expropriation by Communist regimes of all his holdings in Eastern and Central Europe and, in other parts of the world, economic and political upheavals that threatened the survival of the newly resuscitated Bata organization. Yet Bata actually thrived on the sudden change and adversity. From his new home base in Canada he built, this side of the Iron Curtain, a global empire that employs 70,000 people and plays an important part in the economies of many developing countries. (This) is the story of the man, his family and their business." Remainder mark (dot) on bottom of text block, light wrinkling at top/bottom of spine. Dust jacket has light edge wrinkling - mainly at top/bottom of spine and at top of rear flap, very light rubbing.. Not Signed. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good.