Word: generaldirektor
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...taking over the reins of West German industry in positions formerly reserved for age and long experience, bypassing tradition in favor of aggressive, hard-driving methods. Beitz alienated many an old Kruppianer with just such methods (he shocked workers by asking to be called Beitz instead of Herr Generaldirektor), earned the nickname "the American" for his breezy ways and love of jazz. But he fired up the conservative management, tightened up the firm's operations, soon had Krupp humming with new energy. "I am a circus manager," says Beitz, "and I must crack the whip. Action-action right...
Because of his years of American training in G.M.'s Opel, Nordhoff did not wear the pompous, punctilious air of German industry's traditional Herr Generaldirektor. He spent hours on the production line, talking to workers and explaining what he was trying to do. When he arrived, only 700 cars a month were being built, and nobody had the faintest idea how much they actually cost. Nordhoff installed a rigid cost-accounting system...
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