Word: kappel
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...travel farthest in this obstacle course are tough, well briefed and able. At the very top, A.T.&T. is run by a 2 3-man group that is led by Kappel and President Eugene J. Mc-Neely, 63, a stern taskmaster who supervises operations and personnel and has followed Kappel into three executive positions since 1949. This top team is known to company insiders as "the Cabinet." It is made up of an extremely close-knit and like-minded group of men (median age: 57) with strikingly similar backgrounds. They feel most comfortable with their own kind, even...
...rates. But the Cabinet seldom wastes time on detail or minor decisions. All down the line, A.T.&T.'s middle executives try to solve all problems long before they reach the vice-presidential level, leaving only the knottiest ones to the Cabinet. If there is then a dispute, Kappel has the last word...
Though such a sprawling company is beyond the power of any one man to change it substantially, Kappel has made his mark on A.T.&T. Perhaps his signal contribution has been to increase earnings nicely by pushing through local rate increases and introducing myriad new efficiencies. Long-distance operators are now taught by programmed-instruction textbooks, which are much cheaper than human teachers; speed-reading courses have cut the average time that information operators need to look up a number from 37.6 seconds to 33.3 seconds, at an annual saving of $8,000,000. During Kappel's eight years...
Keeping the Reins On. Fred Kappel contends that A.T.&T. needs still higher profits to grow on, but he runs into opposition in Washington, where Government officials insist that his company is already too profitable and too powerful. In terms of return on net cost of plant, the usual gauge of profitability in utilities, A.T.&T. earns somewhat more than the average: 7.2%. The General Services Administration, representing the Government as a user in regulatory hearings, has recommended that Bell's return should be limited to 6.6%, and the staff of the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the Bell...
...Fred Kappel himself gives about a dozen public speeches a year, and in one of them, delivered four years ago at Columbia University, he said that "low tolerance for criticism" is a sign of loss of business vitality. A.T.&T. certainly has plenty of business vitality-and plenty of sensitivity to criticism. Kappel calls A.T.&T.'s Washington