Word: pentagonian
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...most stultifying corporate bureaucracy, Smith's management style is already showing through. The General Motors that used to trumpet each minor fix in its operations as if it were the second Industrial Revolution is reinventing itself with little fanfare. Smith has slashed the number of bureaucrats at GM's Pentagonian headquarters from 13,000 to fewer than 2,000. "There were duplicating functions all over the place," he says. "Basically, they were just checking up on what was going on elsewhere...
Between pressure from Congressmen and admonitions from the Small Business Administration not to forget the little fellow, contracts have been given to firms that were either incompetent or underfinanced. At the Offutt Air Base launching site near Omaha, the construction contract was awarded to a builder who in one Pentagonian's words "didn't even own a wheelbarrow." His frantic efforts to subcontract the entire job produced such confusion and delay that the Air Force ruled that henceforth a contractor must be able to do at least 20% of the work with his own organization...
...Major John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower,* 35, who is the only child of the 34th President of the U.S. His new assignment: duty on the secrecy-shrouded Joint War Plans Division, in the office of the Army's Deputy Chief of Staff for Military Operations. Says one knowing old Pentagonian: "It's a training ground for people tabbed for bigger things...
...plans. Some of the admirals replied with vague generalizations. Thomas issued a stern order for precise detail. On the second round, all complied except Admiral Wallin, who, in effect, told Anderson and Thomas to content themselves with broad policy and leave the details to the admirals. Since, as every Pentagonian knows, broad policy is frequently determined by details, Anderson considered that he was getting a well-known form of Pentagon runaround. Wallin was relieved of his command and transferred to the Puget Sound Navy Yard in Bremerton, Wash...
...paper, wrote: "You look to me as though you could spit in the devil's eye." Big (6 ft. 4 in., 225 Ibs.), craggy Roger Kyes* makes a similar impression on people who encounter him face to face. After meeting him for the first time, a Pentagonian remarked: "He looks like the kind of guy who'd say, 'Lay off 40,000 men.' " Kyes has not yet said, "Lay off 40,000 men," but he did order a cut in Defense Department replacement hiring, with the result that normal outflow has reduced employment by just about...