The Secret History of America's 2nd Largest Private Company | Koch Industries

On the outskirts of Wichita, Kansas, a building looms. Dark-windowed, with walls of polished granite, it hulks above the surrounding landscape. This is the headquarters of Koch Industries. Wichita locals refer to it as “The Tower.”

Over the years, an entire campus has sprung up around it, as has a large security wall. Enticing but impenetrable, prosperous but inscrutable, this physical institution is an apt symbol for Koch Industries itself, which is as secretive as it is successful.

This video penetrate that secrecy, tracing Koch Industries’ ascent to the peak of success. They also tell the story of the man who made that success possible, Charles Koch, who’s been CEO for more than half a century.

From its early acquisition of an inordinately profitable oil refinery to its current standing as the second-largest privately held corporation in the United States, this is an in-depth tour of the corporate landscape that can only be called Kochland.

On November 17, 1967, Fred Koch – the wealthy head of a relatively humble business empire – was hunting near Bear River, Utah, accompanied by a field guide. The surrounding countryside was breathtakingly beautiful. Salt marshes and ranchland stretched before them; snow-capped mountains loomed behind.

The story goes that Fred downed a duck, indulged in a moment of self-congratulation, and then fell over, unconscious. There were no hospitals in that wilderness. He died where he fell, aged 67, far from his home in Wichita, Kansas. He was survived by his wife Mary and their four sons.

His sons – Frederick, Jr., the eldest; Charles, the second-born; and Bill and David, the twin babies of the family – weren’t surprised when Fred died. He’d been unwell for years, during which time he’d been grooming his favored heir, Charles.

Charles began working for his father’s company in 1961, after obtaining an engineering degree from MIT and working as a management consultant in Boston. Helping with the family business had never been his plan; in fact, Charles disliked the idea of answering to his imperious and bullheaded father. But Fred prevailed, threatening to sell the family business if Charles didn’t come home and set to work.

When Fred died, 32-year-old Charles was the obvious successor. Detail-oriented and mathematically gifted, he made for a much better fit than his elder brother Frederick, Jr., who, living in New York, was more interested in matinees than in math. David and Bill, junior to Charles by five years, were still too young.

And so, in 1967, Charles took command of Fred Koch’s sprawling array of assets. These included an engineering company, a network of pipelines, multiple ranches, and an oil-collection enterprise.

When Charles took the reins, he made two major moves.

First, he consolidated all his father’s loosely-connected corporate entities into a single business called Koch Industries, a name as inconspicuous as the company itself. Quickly forgotten and easily mispronounced – Koch rhymes with “coke” – the name served to deflect rather than attract attention. This was by design. As CEO, Charles would never rely on ostentatious branding or overt innovation. He preferred to fly low, below the public radar.

Koch Industries began as a disorganized conglomerate of diverse holdings with annual profits of $3.5 million. Now its annual revenue is roughly $110 billion. The engine behind this growth is Charles Koch, who assumed control of the company more than 50 years ago, expanding its assets to include multiple oil refineries and chemical plants, as well as thousands of miles of pipeline and other oil-transport routes. Today, Koch also controls a powerful political-influence apparatus and continues to benefit from the advent of fracking.

This video is based on Kochland book by Christopher Leonard.

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