Word: korda
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Much of Korda's book concentrates on dress and the trappings of power, including which briefcase and footwear to buy (Gucci loafers are "power shoes"). Some of his advice reads like a mad parody. Rising executives should practice a strong "power gaze" in front of a mirror. If they can't maintain it without twitching, Xylocaine, an anesthetic ointment, should be applied to the face before important meetings. It is all reminiscent of former Adman Shepherd Mead's 1952 book, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Mead, now living in Switzerland, says, "I wonder...
Some friends see no connection between Korda's book and Korda's life. Says one: "Michael didn't get ahead by standing in power circles and wearing power shoes." But Korda does follow some of his own advice. He practices the power gaze, learned to pick out the power seat at meetings and cultivates an appropriate air of mystery about himself by hinting to visitors about his role in some still-secret cold war mission. Korda also made sure to grab a power position when his predecessor as Simon & Schuster editor in chief, Robert Gottlieb, moved...
Colleagues say Korda is fond of role playing. After the opening of the movie The Man Who Would Be King, friends found him playing the sergeant major. Once he strode into a sales convention in full fox-hunting gear, blowing a hunting horn and proceeding to present a book on the Maryland hunting set. Says one associate: "It was not humor. It was Korda's chance to display his sense of costume and class...
Screaming Ads. The theatricality may be understandable. Korda is the nephew of the famed Hungarian-born film producer Sir Alexander Korda and spent much of his youth crisscrossing Europe with his powerful and elite show-biz family. But there is another view of all the role playing. "To know Michael well is to know he doesn't have much of a center," says a colleague, "so he collects roles. He goes from being a cowboy to a pilot to a daddy...
...York publishing insider, Korda had little trouble launching his book and getting it reviewed. Ringer had a harder time. When ten publishers turned down Intimidation, Ringer published it himself and sold it by mail, with screaming ads in the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers. Ringer spent well over $100,000 on the ads and intimidated some bookstores into placing their own ads by proposing to give rivals exclusive sales rights in their territories. When Intimidation caught on, Ringer had Funk & Wagnalls take over the distribution of his book. This was O.K. with Ringer's agent Henry Rearden...