Word: perots
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Stempel's ouster is a landmark in the growing shift of power from U.S. managers to corporate directors, who had traditionally been viewed more as rubber-stampers than real decision makers. As recently as the mid-1980s, not even the bellicose presence of Ross Perot on GM's board could persuade the firm to shift gears or change direction. "I did everything I could to get General Motors to face its problems," Perot said in the presidential debates. "They just wouldn't do it." Rather than heed Perot's exhortations to cut executive perquisites and streamline the bureaucracy, GM spent...
...moved boldly under Roger B. Smith, chairman in the 1980s, but often in the wrong direction. Smith's stated aim was to gear up the company for the 21st century. Along the way, GM spent $70 billion on everything from industrial robots to the purchase of Hughes Aircraft and Perot's Electronic Data Systems. But despite the spending spree, GM's market share fell from 46% to 35% during the decade as consumers turned away from its unattractive products. Nor did GM have much success in transferring Hughes' electronic wizardry to auto assembly lines, or in using EDS to standardize...
From the merely eccentric to the downright bizarre seems to be only half a step for Ross Perot. The populist billionaire last week came up with a new explanation for why he had abandoned his initial presidential campaign on July 16: he wanted to save his daughter Carolyn from a smear. Seems he got wind from three sources -- two unnamed, one a frequent promoter of conspiracy theories -- of a Republican plot to portray his daughter as a lesbian by circulating a doctored photograph, then to "disrupt" her Aug. 23 wedding by means unspecified. By Oct. 1, with Carolyn married, Perot...
...seemed most unlikely. Noting the army of guards Perot employs, a skeptical former business associate remarked, "The guy's got more security around his family than the Kremlin. And he can't protect a wedding?" Perot in fact admitted he had no proof, and White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater quickly compared him to someone who had "latched on to UFO theories." Perot does have a history of scenting conspiracies everywhere, and one of his suspicions seems to have inspired a questionable FBI sting. After Perot complained to Dallas police about an alleged Republican plot to wiretap him, Jim Oberwetter, head...
...Perot's vagaries stopped but did not reverse his meteoric rise in the polls. Several tracking surveys showed his support at 16%, down a bit from around 20% but still more than enough to make Perot's wild-card effect on the campaign both important and unpredictable. The Texan is putting on a last-gasp TV advertising blitz like none ever seen before. His campaign has spent just under $60 million so far, and that figure will grow sharply in the final week...