Word: stratagem
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Shifting Depreciation. An increasingly popular stratagem is for companies to reduce the rate at which they write off -that is, deduct from their taxable income-the cost of new facilities. The results can be astonishing. U.S. Steel raised last year's reported profits 59% above what they otherwise would have been, from $159 million to $253 million, largely by switching from rapid to straight-line depreciation of its huge investment in mills and other properties. The change reduced the amount that the company set aside on its books to reflect the degree by which its plant and equipment wore...
Staticmanship is the way to avoid the disastrous final promotion. It is a stratagem summed up by the classic injunction: "Cobbler, stick to your last." Peter himself, author of two serious books on disturbed children, thinks that one way he has avoided rising to final placement himself is by turning down lucrative consulting offers. This is known as Peter's Parry, and he admits that if most people employed it they would be nagged to distraction by their wives. A more practical technique is Creative Incompetence, or "creating the impression that you have already reached your level of incompetence...
...chub status, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit called the name change a "cynical canard." Said the three-judge panel: "To hold that it was an exempt club would make a mockery of the club exemption, pervert the congressional purpose, and legitimize a mere stratagem. Courts need not be so naive...
...major battle did occur at Khe Sanh-one that prevented the bloody hand-to-hand battle on the ground that many military men had anticipated. It was a battle of the air might of the U.S. against every stratagem that the besieging enemy could muster. Bombing the North Vietnamese with such precision that they were destroyed before they could ever launch their attack, the U.S. could justly claim a considerable victory at Khe Sanh without ever having committed its ground forces to the fray. Khe Sanh was, in fact, a landmark in the use of airpower in warfare-the first...
...title of Acting President, Suharto finally decided that he needed the full title to give him the authority necessary to make reforms. Once decided, he used every tactic he could to get the title-including packing the assembly by replacing 200 old members and creating 102 new ones. The stratagem worked, but not without a few hitches; assemblymen refused to give their unanimous vote until Suharto promised to call legislative elections within three years and take steps to weed out a corrupt officialdom...