Word: controller
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Dates: during 1990-1990
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Jovanovich, the son of a poor immigrant coal miner, never owned more than 2% of HBJ's stock. This lack of control came to haunt him after he expanded the firm too rapidly in the 1980s. When the company's stock sank in early 1987, British publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell launched a hostile takeover bid. In a long and bitter fight, Jovanovich prevailed by recapitalizing HBJ with nearly $3 billion in debt, a large chunk of it in junk bonds. Maxwell, who called Jovanovich "a dumb Croat coal miner" who "killed" the company, has offered to buy some assets. "Maxwell...
...MacCready's fascination with flight, aircraft account for only a small fraction of the total business of AeroVironment Inc. The company, which he founded in 1971 with fellow Caltech aeronautical engineers Tombach and Peter Lissaman, derives most of its annual $17 million revenue from the monitoring and control of air pollution and hazardous wastes. One current contract, for example, involves determining the contribution of Arizona's giant coal-fired Navajo power plant to the haze that sometimes hampers visibility around the nearby Grand Canyon...
...firms. "What makes anyone think that managements want more creativity?" asks Audrey Freedman, management counselor for the Conference Board, a business research group. "It's uncontrollable. It's rather unsettling to foster creativity and might even be self-defeating for a manager. The job of management is to control." The adjustment isn't easy. "A lot of managers are in role shock. They're still fearful, apprehensive and unwilling to give up power," says Jack Grayson, chairman of the American Productivity and Quality Center...
...absence of direct control and deliberate structure, however, that moved W.L. Gore & Associates, the 32-year-old outfit that introduced Teflon products, from a glorified mom-and-pop operation to a company with 37 plants worldwide. Gore's 5,000 workers ("associates" in company parlance) turn out everything from electronics to a new dental product for gum regeneration. Associates are urged to take long chances. "At Gore," says Jeanne Ambruster- Sherry, a biologist who works in the company's sales-and-marketing division, "if you're not making mistakes, you're doing something wrong." Vieve Gore, 77, who co-founded...
...over business suits, "is making teenagers feel good about themselves." The key to doing that, Wyman believes, is horses. "A horse is big, strong, timid and stupid," explains % Jack Huyler, 69, a retired director of the horse program. "A kid has a constant crisis until he learns that you control the horse by controlling yourself...