Word: diebold
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...John Diebold, the noted computer consultant, who was asked by IBM to be a witness, gave the TIME conference "a peasant's view of what it is like to have the Justice Department's B-52s drop napalm on me." First, at Government request, he turned over 300,000 pages of documents from his company, the Diebold Group, relating to the computer industry. Said Diebold: "That is a minor ripple in the ocean of paper that has been delivered by IBM, but I wasn't even a party to the case!" Then he was tied up full...
...that point, Diebold withdrew as a witness rather than disclose reports to clients "on things genuinely unconnected with the case for the sake of a fishing expedition on the part of the Justice Department." As he told the TIME conference:"Gradually, I realized that the Government lawyers don't understand what they're doing." For example, according to the Government's definition of the "general purpose" computer market, there were only eight competitors in 1969, said Diebold. "Since that date, we have clocked something on the order of 300 new players in thegame- Japanese, French, American. During...
Beyond that, Diebold's group is also examining ways of reshuffling top man agement to free up high executives to concentrate on public issues, many of which have a tremendous influence on profits. One way may be to separate the roles of chairman and chief executive. The chairman-Mr. Outside-would concentrate on anticipating the demands of society and Government. He (or she) would head a board with fewer corporate officers and more independent directors than is common today. The chief executive-Mr. Inside-would run the company. Already Mead Corp. and Connecticut General Insurance have moved in this...
Tomorrow's major challenge for U.S. corporations, says Diebold, will be to meet employee desires for a greater voice in decision making. In Europe some unionists sit on boards, and Diebold observes: "A lot of American businessmen are saying, 'Thank God, it's not going to happen here.' " Indeed American work ers do not want to be directors, but, Diebold argues, "their desires to have some participation are just as real here as in Europe. We could get genuine increases in productivity by involving employees in decision making much closer to their levels of work...
With that in mind, Diebold likes to cite a sculpture he once saw of two bronze figures in angry confrontation. Its title: Impossible. Diebold is convinced that the prime challenge facing U.S. enterprise is to head off the threat of impossible confrontations between the company and its employees, and between business and society...