Word: leschly
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This bizarre collection of hard-selling creatures all work for-and owe their existence to-a rather harmless-looking fellow named George Lesch, Colgate's president. While not exactly a white knight, Lesch, 55, has certainly proved to be something of a whirling tornado at the U.S.'s second largest soap company (first: Procter & Gamble...
Search for Food. Since Lesch became president in 1960, Colgate has introduced such successful new products as Baggies plastic bags, Halo hair spray, Ajax detergent powder, and half a dozen others th#t now account for 15% of its annual sales of $800 million. Colgate is testing freeze-dry foods with a view to jumping into the food field, is searching to acquire a food company. This week, battling to regain the top of the U.S. toothpaste market that it lost to Procter & Gamble's Crest, it began national marketing of a white-colored, mint-tasting, fluoridated toothpaste called...
...burst of activity in a company whose U.S. sales had been stagnant for years until Lesch took over, is what might be expected of Mr. Hard Sell. An accountant who rose through the international division, which rings up 53% of the company's sales, Lesch has personally rung doorbells to interview housewives from Bangkok to San Diego, has sold Colgate's Fab to Mexican villagers by rolling up his sleeves to show them that they could even use it to wash clothes in streams. His first act as Colgate president was to drop out of sight for three...
Executives Out. Lesch set up a number of "invention groups," increased the annual product-development budget from $8,000,000 to $28 million-and helped to pay the bill by cutting the salaried force by 10% to 15%. Some critical ex-executives complain that under Lesch, Colgate's middle managers are overworked and insecure, and that the company's profits have yet to top the 1959 record of $25 million. At the same time, Lesch gets credit from the trade for having brought out so many new products with catchy names and clever promotions-two of the essentials...
...prospect as new chairman: austere, brainy Ford Vice President Robert Strange McNamara, 44. ¶Edward Herman Little, 79, retired as chief executive officer of Colgate-Palmolive Co., a post he has held since 1938. He will remain chairman of the board. Succeeding Little as chief executive is George Henry Lesch, 50, who was elected Colgate president last April. Little joined Colgate 58 years ago as a salesman, made his reputation by selling overseas. Today the company's 42 foreign branches account for half its sales of $600 million, more than half its last year's profits...