Charles Bedaux

Charles Eugène Bedaux (10 October 1886 – 18 February 1944) was a

Bedaux was one of the leading contributors in the field of

The distinguishing feature of the Bedaux System was its use of the Bedaux Unit or B, a universal measure for all manual work.^[8][10] The "B" was defined as fractions of a minute allocated to work or rest. Productivity goals were set for so many B's per hour, and bonuses were paid for exceeding that goal. This method of standardization replaced piece work payment, increasing productivity and reducing costs.^[5]: 6–9 Bedaux also mimicked

Bedaux became associated with one of Taylor's circles, Harrington Emerson, whose management consultancy firm, The Emerson Institute,^[12][13] Bedaux emulated in engineering and other sectors of modern industrial economies.^[14][15]

In 1916 he established a consulting firm in Grand Rapids, and in 1918 moved his headquarters to

The Bedaux consultancy firm was one of the first of its kind, and within a decade its success led to the creation of a series of consultancy firms throughout the United States, Europe, and eventually Africa,^[17] India,^[18][19] Australia, and the Orient administered by the parent company, Bedaux Internationale.^[20]

Major Bedaux clients included

Bedaux Britain had several labor issues: in 1929, there was a strike over the Bedaux System at the Rover plant in Coventry.^[27] In winter 1931–2, women workers struck over the introduction of the Bedaux System at Wolsey in Leicester.^[28][29] Additionally, in 1934 the introduction of the Bedaux System at Richard Johnson and Nephew in Manchester precipitated a strike which lasted for months.^[10][30] In this case, the wiredrawers' union took their employers to court over the Bedaux System but eventually lost their case.^[9]

One of Bedaux's principal operations in Italy was at the iconic

Of Bedaux's business empire, Bedaux Britain was particularly lucrative.[2]^[10][11] Here, the Bedaux Unit was so successful that it was copied by industrial firms such as Rowntree's of York (a corporate member of the Taylor Society), Mander Brothers of Wolverhampton, and influential consultancies including Urwick, Orr & Partners.^[9]

Bedaux Britain formed the basis for all four of the 'Big Four' European consultancies in the

In focusing on factory floor and office efficiency issues, the 'Big Four' Bedauxist consultancies were successful across Western Europe until the 1960s, when they were largely overtaken by U.S. consultancies such as McKinsey & Company, whose efforts were in higher-value activities such as strategy and restructuring.^[36]

Bedaux Canadian Sub-Arctic Expedition

The

Prior to this expedition, Bedaux made an automobile journey of 9500 miles from Mombasa to Casablanca in 1929–30. Then in 1939, he and his wife, Fern, completed another such journey of 9500 miles from Cape Town to Cairo.^{[5]: 18–21}

Duke and Duchess of Windsor

In 1927, Bedaux purchased the sixteenth-century Château de Candé in Indre-et-Loire, France and lived there with his second wife, the former Fern Lombard (1892–1972), a daughter of lawyer James Lombard of Grand Rapids, Michigan.^[2] The couple renovated the château, completing the work in 1930.^[44]

On 3 June 1937, Charles and Fern Bedaux hosted the wedding of

From then on, commentators linked Bedaux and his B system with fascism, and Taylor's remaining supporters, particularly those in the Taylor Society, disowned Bedaux.^[9] The fiasco prompted many employers using the Bedaux System, and those derived from it, to change its terminology to more neutral and administrative language.^[2][9][24] This explains why historical research into the enduring influence of the Bedaux System and its Bedaux Unit has been reported as difficult to undertake.^[9][46]

Activity during the Second World War

After the surrender of France to the Germans in 1940 and the occupation of Paris, Bedaux became acquainted with leading Nazi and Vichy figures, and he was appointed as an economic advisor to the Vichy regime and the Reich.^{[5]: 75–79} Bedaux's wife, Fern, and her sister, Eve Duez (Mme Louis S Duez), were interned briefly in Paris but were soon released through their connections to the German occupation authorities.

Despite Bedaux's cultivation of relationships with various Abwehr and Nazi Party officials, declassified National Archives and Records Administration records indicate that Bedaux did not have connections to the upper echelons of the Party or with officials of the Sicherheitsdienst (SS Security Service).^[9][51]

Bedaux's arrest and suicide

In December, 1942, shortly after the Allied military landings in North Africa in Operation Torch, Bedaux was in Algeria promoting the construction of water and peanut oil pipelines between West Africa and the Mediterranean coast for the benefit of Allied forces (he had been in contact with various U.S. consular officials about this for some time, hence the U.S. had a thick file on him). He and his son were arrested by the French on behalf of the OSS and transferred to the Americans. He was kept in custody without charge for a year.^[2]

Bedaux was eventually flown to the

The circumstances of Bedaux's death and his posthumous influence remain subjects of research inquiry.

A street in Tours, the Avenue Charles Bedaux, was named after Bedaux from 1966 to 2018.[58]^[59][60]

The Château de Candé is open to public visitors, and the main theme of the tour is the Duke and Duchess' wedding there in 1937. Many of Bedaux's possessions are on display at the chateau.^[44][61]

Bedaux in popular culture

Bedaux's most famous depiction in interwar culture was as a crackpot inventor in Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times who presents a 'Beddoes' or 'Billowes' 'Feeding Machine' to Chaplin's employer. The malfunctioning contraption was then demonstrated on a restrained and tormented Chaplin.^[62]

In addition, the 'Bedaux belt' featured in

Following his death in 1944, Bedaux features as a character in Upton Sinclair's 1945 novel Dragon Harvest.^[63]

Bedaux also appears as a thwarted

According to Edwin A. Lahey:

"Bedaux submitted a list of names of people who he said would testify favorably as to his character, his integrity and his complete loyalty to the United States. Many of these names are in 'Who's Who in America.' Some are the names of executives of large corporations which either have German holdings or have been named defendants in government suits against international cartels whose machinations with the Nazis did so much to stymie our own preparedness for war. At least one person is widely known in politics. Another is an important financier. Another is a big steel producer, with mills in Germany.^[72]

One editorial, which was titled Dead Men Don't Blab, explicitly suggested this:

"It will be too bad if the late Charles E. Bedaux is allowed to sink into limbo without causing more than a one-day ripple in the headlines." "Charles Bedaux not only had many influential friends, but also a vast host of enemies – all the democrats of the world. It is, however, his enemies who should mourn his death for if he had lived until he had told all, they might have learned much to their advantage. Many of his friends, on the other hand, probably hear the news cheerfully. If they sighed at all, it was a sigh of relief."

Third Reich. As part of the police investigation into the presence of the documents, Allen denied knowledge of the forgeries and 'suggested he was the victim of a conspiracy'.^[79]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Charles Bedaux.

Archives

There is a Charles Eugène Bedaux fonds at Library and Archives Canada.^[80] Archival reference number is R7591.

Notes and references

1. ISSN 0362-4331
   . Retrieved 2023-04-06.
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Steven Kreis, 'Charles E. Bedaux' in American National Biography online
3. ^ ^{a b} Gaston Bedaux, La Vie Ardente de Charles Bedaux (1959)
4. ^ 'Duke's Guide Here had Vivid Rise; Industrialist Began as Laborer' New York Times, 24 October 1937. New York Times online archive
5. ^
   ISBN 9781475926361
   .
6. ISBN 9780772660602
   .
7. ^ See F. W. Taylor, Shop Management (Harper & Brothers, 1911). Online at Archive.org
8. ^ ^{a b} Edward Francis Leopold Brech, Productivity in Perspective, 1914–1974 (Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 2002).
9. ^
   hdl:10044/1/25296. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help
   )
10. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Craig R. Littler, Development of the Labour Process in Capitalist Societies: a Comparative Study of the Transformation of Work Organization in Britain, Japan and the USA (London: Heinemann, 1982) entry on Google Books
11. ^ ^{a b c} Steven Kreis, The Diffusion of an Idea: A History of Scientific Management in Britain, 1890–1945 (PhD thesis, University of Missouri-Columbia, 1990) entry on WorldCat
12. ^ William F. Muhs, 'The Emerson Engineers: A Look at One of the First Management Consulting Firms in the U.S' Academy of Management Proceedings Vol. 1986, No. 1 (1986). Academy of Management Proceedings Archived 2017-12-31 at the Wayback Machine
13. ^ James Quigel, 'The Business of Selling Efficiency: Harrington Emerson and the Emerson Efficiency Engineers, 1900–1930 (PhD thesis, Pennsylvania State University, 1992). entry on WorldCat
14. ^ ^{a b} Steven Kreis, 'The Diffusion of Scientific Management: the Bedaux Company in America and Britain, 1926–1945' in A Mental Revolution: Scientific Management Since Taylor (1992) "Link" (PDF).
15. ^ Kenneth Hopper and William Hopper, The Puritan Gift: Reclaiming the American Dream Amidst Global Financial Chaos (I B Tauris, 2009) IB Tauris link Archived 2016-08-26 at the Wayback Machine
16. ^ www.grcmc.org, Grand Rapids Community Media Center- (10 April 2013). "F. Stuart Foote Brings Bedaux to Grand Rapids". History Grand Rapids.
17. ^ Jon Lewis, Industrialisation and Trade Union Organisation in South Africa, 1924–55: the Rise and Fall of the South African Trades and Labour Council (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984)
18. ^ Rajnarayan Chandavarkar, 'Workers' Resistance and the Rationalization of Work in Bombay Between the Wars' in Douglas E. Haynes and Gyan Prakash (eds), Contesting Power: Resistance and Everyday Social Relations in India (Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1992)
19. ^ Anthony Cox, Empire, Industry and Class: The Imperial Nexus of Jute, 1840–1940 (London: Routledge, 2013).
20. ^ Bedaux. "Charles Bedaux". Archived from the original on 2012-06-14. Retrieved 2007-07-10.
21. ^ John C. Rumm, 'Scientific Management and Industrial Engineering at Du Pont' in A Mental Revolution: Scientific Management Since Taylor (1992). "Link" (PDF).
22. ^ Matthias Kipping, 'Consultancy and Conflicts: Bedaux at Lukens Steel and the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company' Entreprises et Histoire Vol. 25 (2000), pp.9–25.
23. ^ ^{a b} Stefano Musso, 'Production Methods and Industrial Relations at Fiat (1930– 90)' in Haruhito Shiomi and Kazuo Wada (eds.), Fordism Transformed: The Development of Production Methods in the Automobile Industry (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995). Google Books online
24. ^ ^{a b c} Daniel Sidorick, Condensed Capitalism Campbell Soup and the Pursuit of Cheap Production in the Twentieth Century (2009)
25. ^ Milton Nadworny, Scientific Management and the Unions: 1900– 1932. A Historical Analysis (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1955)
26. doi:10.14288/1.0094679
    .
27. ^ Laura Lee Downs, 'Industrial Decline, Rationalization and Equal Pay: The Bedaux Strike at Rover Automobile Company' Social History Vol. 15, No. 1 (1990)
28. ^ ''The Bedaux strike': Oral history study from BBC
29. ^ Selina Todd, The People: The Rise and Fall of the Working Class (London: John Murray, 2014)
30. ^ Mick Jenkins, 'Time and Motion Strike: Manchester 1934-7' Our History Vol. 60 (Autumn 1974)
31. ^ Maria Stella Rollandi, ʻIl sistema Bedaux nelle miniere sarde della "Pertusola" (1927–1935)' Studi Storici, No. 26, Vol. 1, (1985), pp. 69–106.
32. ^ http://www.minesofsardinia.com/StoriaMiniereIng.php?IdS=12&IdCSM=9&PHPSESSID=^{[permanent dead link]}
33. ^ Patricia Tisdall, Agents of Change: The Development and Practice of Management Consultancy (London: Heinemann, 1982).
34. ^ Matthias Kipping, 'Consultancies, Institutions and the Diffusion of Taylorism in Britain, Germany and France, 1920s to 1950s', Business History (1997) PDF from Taylor & Francis online
35. ^ Michael Ferguson, The Rise of Management Consulting in Britain (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002)
36. ^ ^{a b c d} 'Christopher D. McKenna, The World's Newest Profession: Management Consulting in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: CUP, 2010). Cambridge University Press
37. ^ Saskatoon Sun. "Rumours surround legendary Bedaux trek". Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-07-10.
38. ^ www.grcmc.org, Grand Rapids Community Media Center- (9 April 2013). "Bedaux Canadian Sub-Arctic Expedition". History Grand Rapids.
39. ^ Jay Sherwood, Bannock and Beans: A Cowboy's Account of the Bedaux Expedition (2009) summary
40. ^ Bob Dyke. "Bedaux Expedition". Archived from the original on December 14, 2005. Retrieved 2007-07-10.
41. ^ George Ungar on IMDb
42. ^ 'The Champagne Safari (1995) on IMDb entry
43. Grand Rapids, Michigan
    , US: Grand Rapids Community Media Center. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
44. ^ ^{a b} "Chateau de Cande". www.experienceloire.com.
45. ^ Dean Palmer: Tea with Hitler: The Secret History of the Royal Family and the Third Reich. History Press Limited, 2021
46. ^ Craig R. Littler, 'The Bureaucratization of the Shop-Floor: the Development of Modern Work Systems' (PhD thesis, London School of Economics, 1980), Vol. 2.
47. ^ "My attention was drawn to a woman who was sitting on the edge of a cot with an ermine wrap around her feet. She was passing around a five-pound box of chocolates to her friends. I learned that she was Mrs. Charles Bedaux, at whose chateau the Duke of Windsor married Mrs. Simpson. Mrs. Bedaux said in a very loud voice that she did not expect to be with us long, and that she was waiting for Otto Abetz, Nazi fifth columnist in France before the war and the new Nazi Ambassador to France, to come and get her and her sister released. Next morning a group of French collaborationists, obviously personages high in treachery, arrived with an important German in uniform. They were very respectful to Mrs. Bedaux, helped her pack her things, and out she swept, while the rest of us were enraged at this exhibition of the power of social and political influence." From The House Near Paris: An American Woman's Story of Traffic in Patriots by Drue Tartière and M R Werner, Simon & Schuster, 1946, page 105.
48. ^ ^{a b} Yves Levant & Marc Nikitin, 'Charles Eugène Bedaux (1886–1944): ‘cost killer’ or Utopian Socialist?' Accounting, Business & Financial History (2009) Taylor & Francis online
49. ^ Richard Vinen, 'The French Coal Industry during the Occupation' The Historical Journal Vol. 33, No. 1 (1990)
50. ^ The sheer scale of such an operation would have been enormous, especially since Bedaux contemplated the “sanding-up” (and subsequent “de-sanding”) of not only the Abadan refinery, but also the Mosul oilfield, as well as the 483 km of pipeline between them, not to mention other infrastructure in southwestern Persia. The proposal was indeed first regarded by the Abwehr planners as a “fantastic” plan, and it looked as if it would not gain acceptance. However, Bedaux persisted and succeeded in getting the plan submitted to a panel of experts who, after meticulous examination, pronounced it technically feasible. The scheme was ultimately cancelled by the Abwehr for various reasons. Those that concerned Bedaux himself were: (1) his expertise was confined strictly to his 1938 survey of the refinery, and he knew even less about Persia than the Persians knew about him; (2) Bedaux's age, poor health, lack of military training and experience, lack of petroleum-engineering qualifications, and inability to speak either Persian or German made him a poor choice as commander; (3) Bedaux's inappropriate, grandiose demands, such as being given the full rank of general.
51. ^ ^{a b c d} O'Sullivan, Adrian (2013). German Covert Initiatives and British Intelligence in Persia (Iran), 1939–1945 (DLitt et Phil dissertation). Pretoria: UNISA.
52. ^ ^{a b c} 'Bedaux Legendary as Mystery Man' New York Times, 20 February 1944 New York Times online archive
53. ^ Brenda Wineapple, Genêt: A Biography of Janet Flanner (1992) in New Yorker University of Nebraska Press
54. ^ "About the Author: Part 2 – MAs, ABDs, and PHDS".
55. ^ Lyndall Urwick and E.F.L. Brech, The Making of Scientific Management II: Management in British Industry (London: Management Publications Trust, 1949) available at Archive.org
56. ^ Lyndall Urwick, The Golden Book of Management: A Historical Record of the Life and Work of Seventy Pioneers (1956)
57. ISBN 978-0-297-85896-6
    .
58. ^ "Avenue Charles Bedaux". Avenue Charles Bedaux.
59. ^ "Tours : l'Avenue Thérèse Voisin honore désormais une résistante à la place du collabo". 11 November 2018.
60. ^ "Avenue Thérèse Voisin_10 novembre 2018". YouTube.
61. ^ Thornton, Gillian (14 February 2017). "Château de Candé, Wedding Venue of Wallis Simpson & Former British King Edward VIII".
62. ^ Mauro F. Guillén, Models of Management: Work, Authority, and Organization in a Comparative Perspective (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1994).
63. ISBN 9781504026505
    .
64. ^ http://www.prrb.ca/issues/prrb-issue06.pdf ^{[bare URL PDF]}
65. ^ Martin Allen, Hidden Agenda: How the Duke of Windsor Betrayed the Allies (London: Macmillan, 2000)
66. ^ Martin Allen, The Hitler/Hess Deception: British Intelligence's Best-Kept Secret of the Second World War (London: HarperCollins, 2003)
67. ^ Martin Allen, Himmler's Secret War: the Covert Peace Negotiations of Heinrich Himmler (London: Robson, 2005)
68. ^ Peter Allen, The Crown and the Swastika: Hitler, Hess, and the Duke of Windsor (London: Hale, 1983) Google Books
69. ^ Charles Higham, Trading with the Enemy: an Exposé of the Nazi-American Money Plot 1933–1949 (London: Hale, 1983) Goodreads
70. ^ Ernst Haiger, 'Fiction, Facts, and Forgeries: the “Revelations” of Peter and Martin Allen about the History of the Second World War' Journal of Intelligence History Vol. 6 (2006) Journal of Intelligence History
71. ^ "The National Archives: Investigation into Forged Documents discovered amongst Authentic Public Records: Documents purporting to have been created by members of the British Government and members of the British Armed Services relating to leading Nazis figures and Axis Power governments" – via National Archive of the UK.
72. ISBN 978-0-14-311866-4
    .
73. ISBN 978-1-4616-6303-4
    .
74. ^ Ben Fenton, 'Lies And Secrets' Financial Times, 3 May 2008 Financial Times online^{[permanent dead link]}
75. ^ 'The 29 Fakes Behind a Rewriting of History' The Guardian, 5 May 2008 The Guardian online
76. ^ 'Forgeries revealed in the National Archives' The Sunday Times, 4 May 2008 The Sunday Times online
77. ^ "The National Archives: Investigation into Forged Documents discovered amongst Authentic Public Records: Documents purporting to have been created by members of the British Government and members of the British Armed Services relating to leading Nazis figures and Axis Power governments".
78. ^ "BBC – Radio 4 – Today Programme Listen Again".
79. ^ Ben Fenton, 'Himmler Forgeries in National Archives Case will Stay Unsolved' Financial Times 3 May 2008 Financial Times online
80. ^ "Finding aid to Charles Eugène Bedaux fonds, Library and Archives Canada". 20 July 2017.

Further reading

• Gaston Bedaux, La Vie Ardente de Charles Bedaux (1959).
• Pierre Berton, My Country: The Remarkable Past (2002).
• E.F.L. Brech, Productivity in Perspective, 1914–1974 (Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 2002).
• Jim Christy, The Price of Power: A Biography of Charles Eugene Bedaux (1984).
• Michael Ferguson, The Rise of Management Consulting in Britain (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002).
• ISBN 978-0-00-722853-9
  .
• Kenneth Hopper and William Hopper, The Puritan Gift: Reclaiming the American Dream Amidst Global Financial Chaos (IB Tauris, 2009).
• Steven Kreis, 'Charles E. Bedaux' in American National Biography online.
• Steven Kreis, 'The Diffusion of Scientific Management: the Bedaux Company in America and Britain, 1926–1945' in A Mental Revolution: Scientific Management Since Taylor (1992) "Link" (PDF).
• Jay Sherwood, Bannock and Beans: A Cowboy's Account of the Bedaux Expedition (2009) summary.
• Adrian O'Sullivan German Covert Initiatives and British Intelligence in Persia (Iran), 1939–1945 (2014).
• Patricia Tisdall, Agents of Change: The Development and Practice of Management Consultancy (London: Heinemann, 1982).

External links

• Newspaper clippings about Charles Bedaux in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW