Speechless In London? Thunderstruck In New York? - Well, I Never!

Albert Dunlap has become the poster boy for the folks who say that CEOs have gone too far. The 58-year-old former CEO of Scott Paper... cut 11,000 jobs in 1994. After merging the company with Kimberly-Clark, he walked away with about $100 million in salary, stock profits and other perks. Dunlap previously downsized seven other companies. When Newsweek asked more than 50 CEOs of large American companies to discuss corporate restructuring, only Dunlap was willing to talk.

Here's what he had to say:

When Journalists and politicians spout off about corporate downsizing, it's the AI Dunlaps of the world who tend to get the blame. We' re painted as villains; but we're not. We're more like doctors. We know it's painful to operate, but it's the only way to keep the patient from dying.

Take the restructuring at Scott. We had to fire 35 percent of the work force. It was a difficult task. Coming from a working-class family (my father was a union steward), l know what it's like when someone in the family loses a job. But while we had to cut some jobs, we were able to give 65 percent of the work force a more secure future than they might have otherwise had. And Scott's stockholders came out $ 6.5 billion to the better.

So why are shareholders so important to workers? By doing a good job for them, we're encouraging them to invest, to build new plants and create new products. At the end of the day, that will mean more and better jobs down the road. And that's the point people need to remember: the only way corporate America is going

to do right by its workers is to compete. And in order to compete, companies need to become efficient. That means if you have workers for whom you don't have a real job, you can't keep them on the payroll.

Let me put this in some historical perspective. In the '70s America lost its position as a leader in global business. Look at the industries we once had that barely exist: shoes, machine tools and consumer electronics. Don't blame today's executives who are having to face up to the tough decisions blame the executives who created bloated corporations that are non-competitive. People are always criticising companies that bring in record profits and then announce layoffs. What they don't realise is that if an organisation doesn't make record profits, it doesn't have the money to invest in new plants and new technologies.

That's not to say that 1 don't believe in CEOs being accountable to their workers. I think a CEO has an obligation to 'communicate with workers and prepare them for the inevitable. Be- 1 fore the restructuring at Scott, I personally went around the world and talked to people on the shop floors. One of the things we told them was that we weren't keeping the elitist tools of corporate America at the expense of works.

Our biggest cutback was to sell the 750,000-square-foot corporate headquarters and downsize 71 percent of the corporate staff. At one plant, the workers actually applauded me. People' are pretty intelligent if you tell them what' s going on and explain why you're doing what you're doing.

0n the other hand, the politicians don't seem to be getting the message. They pander to the public and polarise people. And they try to tell American industry how to conduct its business. The job of industry is to become competitive - not to be a social experiment.

God help us if we pass legislation to make American companies less productive and compromise our global competitiveness. Then it won't be a case of a relatively small number of people losing their jobs. It will be huge numbers losing their jobs and the death of the American free-enterprise system as we know it.

By the way -

Das Wort "pub" kommt von public house. Die Pub-Besitzer waren damals sehr geehrte und affluent -wohlhabende Persönlichkeiten. Sie waren on first-name terms - per Du mit fast jedem im Ort und den Bewohnern dankbar für ihre Besuche, denn mit den Einnahmen konnten sie meet the target - das gesetzte Ziel einhalten.

Das war nicht wie heute. Wenn man heute in Jeans und Pullover in ein schickes Lokal kommt, sagt der Wirt: "Geschlossene Gesellschaft".

Viele Namen der Pubs spiegelten Loyalität, sogar Unterwürfigkeit zu dem Besitzer. Deshalb heißen sie heute noch: The Royal George, The Prince of Wales. Manche Namen zeigen den nationalen Stolz der Eroberung, deshalb: Duke of Wellington, Waterloo.

Es gibt auch Namen, die sogar die Lieblingsbeschäftigung der Besitzer ansagen: Fox and Hounds, Coach and Horses.

Ein Pub heißt: The Chairmen. Das ist kein Platz für Vorstandsvorsitzende, die sich dort treffen to seal their deals - um ihre Geschäfte unter Dach und Fach zu bringen.

Im 18 Jahrhundert gab es die sedan chairs - Sänften, die Taxis von heute. Die chairmen waren die Sänftenträger, die sich in dem Pub namens The Chairmen trafen um ihre Müdigkeit zu beklagen.

Und jetzt sind alle chairmen - Vorstandsvorsitzende dieser Welt bewildered - verblüfft. Sie wissen nicht warum sie auch chairmen heißen. Der Vorstandsvorsitzende hat mit Sänftenträger nichts zu tun.

Ich hatte bei einem chairman - Vorstandsvorsitzenden einen Termin.

Ich musste warten bis er kommt. Ich setzte mich in den größten und schönsten Stuhl und wartete.

Als seine Sekretärin mir Tee brachte, warnte sie mich: "Unser chairman wird nicht reinkommen, solange Sie in seinem Stuhl sitzen. Sie werden überwacht".

Ich bin manchmal ungezogen und blieb im Stuhl sitzen. Da kam ein proxy - Stellvertreter nach dem anderen. Einer wollte files oder records - Akten einer Bank, der zweite sollte über das Ergebnis einer lawsuit - Klage berichten, der dritte über massive layoffs - Entlassungen. Nur der chairman kam nicht.

Spät abends kam der Gärtner, um die Fikus Blätter mit Olivenöl einzureiben. Er meinte: "Dieser Stuhl ist nur für den chairman.

In den Kolonialzeiten waren Stühle eine Rarität. Tische bestanden aus Böcken und Brettern. Nur der Kolonialherr durfte sich in the chair - in den Stuhl vor dem board - Brett hinsetzen. Andere mussten sich mit Hockern und Bänken begnügen.

Deshalb heißt der wichtigste Mann der Firma, der Vorstandsvorsitzende - the chairman of the board.