Word: philco
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...load of clothes for $1.50 to $2, they were expected to be just as successful. The Norge division of Chicago's Borg Warner Corp. got into the market early and now has 50% of it. Soon 32 other firms followed-including G.M.'s Frigidaire, Whirlpool, Westinghouse, Philco-and the competition was on. Most of the machines were sold not to established and experienced drycleaners, but to investors who swallowed the high-powered promises of "profits while you sleep." Hard-talking salesmen urged investors to take out 90% loans on equipment worth up to $100,000. Many cities were...
...Philco got into trouble when sales of its consumer goods fell off so sharply that they were no longer enough to offset the heavy costs of developing computers and other new products. Philco's plight interested a young Ford executive named Charles E. Beck, now 41, whose assignment was to find companies for Ford to acquire. Beck saw Philco as a company without the money to capitalize on opportunities, but with an enviable record of scientific development: the first TV set that would operate without a roof aerial in 80% of U.S. homes, the first horizontal freezer compartment...
Tighter Controls. From Ford Beck brought a team of eight topflight executives, installed them in key jobs, and began to overhaul the company. Philco's research division, which had been competing with other Philco divisions for Government contracts, was given a mission to help other divisions. Two separate divisions that had been engaged in weapons and communications work were consolidated. And the almost autonomous departments within the consumer products division were eliminated to cut out overlapping activities. Beck also introduced Detroit-style cost accounting to keep close watch on production costs. His efforts produced results: manufacturing efficiency last year...
Beck's men also revitalized Philco's computer division, which had missed out on the boom in smaller business computers; this year Philco will begin leasing its new medium-sized 4100 computer. No Philco division has profited more from Ford's takeover than Western Development Laboratories in Palo Alto, Calif., one of the nation's leading experts in telemetry and ground-to-outer-space communications, which is receiving one-third of the $40 million that Ford is currently pumping into Philco. Western Development is now expanding its laboratories, is planning to help build a middle-altitude...
...World War II B-29 pilot and joined Ford in 1949 as a financial analyst, makes all day-to-day decisions on his own, deferring to Detroit only on major policy matters. He describes himself as "a road-map man," has charted a route to bring Philco to better things within the next five years. Though the figures are buried within Ford's annual report, Philco probably underwent a slight sales dip last year to about $375 million, made no profit. Wealthy Ford is obviously more interested in Philco's long-range prospects-and those are good...