Powerplay
What Really Happened at Bendix
Mary cunningham
with fran schumer
PUBLISHED IN New York | 1984
Mary Cunningham’s story is an extraordinary, intimate and unique look into the workings of American business — as well as a business story that rivals Indecent Exposure in laying bare the power struggles, the intrigues and the corporate politics behind the facade of glossy office, the manipulation of the press, corporate jets and billion-dollar deals. She takes us into the boardrooms, the critical meetings, the strategy sessions exposing the secret agendas in which corporate history was made. No matter now much is written about the Bendix Affair, only one person knows what really happened — and that person is Mary Cunningham.
Her book tells it all — from her own rise and fall at Bendix to the eventual love affair between herself and Bill Agee that carried them both into the limelight. It is an extraordinary business document, a moving personal story and a book that reveals, as no other has, what still happens when a woman gets to the top.
“Powerplay — that was the name of the game. You go after what you want and use any piece of weaponry, any piece of ammunition you can, to get it. That I happened to be the most convenient pawn around was merely coincidental. I thought executives fought over strategies, business plans, the bottom line. But that was only part of the turmoil at Bendix. There were other motivations, deeper concerns, fueling this fight. And surprisingly, most of them had not very much to do with business. They had to do with jealousy and pride, ego and power — all the things that are rarely if ever, mentioned in any Business School text.”