[PEN-L:30032] Re: Consolidated Freightways

[Eugene Coyle <eugenecoyle@xxxxxxx>]

Why did you leave?  You might be president right now!

Gene

Michael Perelman wrote:

> In the early 1960s, I was manager of Market Research for Consolidated
> Freightways.  Since the business was regulated, I actually had nothing to
> do, which was fine.  At 3:00 my secretary would give me a piece of paper
> that added up the telex reports from each of the terminals, to give the a
> daily summary of the "sales".  Sales would be driven by petty bribes that
> the salesmen would give the shipping managers -- $, whisky, women, ...
>
> My boss, the sales manager, would congratulate me or ask me what we should
> do, depending on the results.  I never met any of the sales managers nor
> had the slightest inkling, but I would say something that he could not
> understand, and everone would be happy.  I had a beautiful office with a
> patio.  I could read most of the day, but I would have to look busy at
> times.
>
> The higher up you went in the company, the more incompetant people seemed
> to be.  The person who became president was a complete boob, but probably
> less so than the president at the time.
>
> It wasn't Enron, but still ....
>  --
> Michael Perelman
> Economics Department
> California State University
> Chico, CA 95929
>
> Tel. 530-898-5321
> E-Mail michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx