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Show Page The National Enterprise, August 10, 1977 twenty-tw- o On being the boss A study of the top executives of 238 leading U.S. corporations by The Gallagher President's Report, a private group, shows that today's corporate chief executive spends an average of 53 hours a week on the job, with office hours from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Like Benjamin Franklin, who said the early bird catches the worm, most of the executives report their most productive hours were in the morning before 11 a.m. The average salary of these C.E.O.s is $99,154. The typical corporate president takes work home, is 50 years old and has been in the top job nine years. He runs a $183.3 million company which is expected to earn $8.8 million after taxes this year. Asked how long they think a chief executive should remain in the top spots, 1,1 percent responded five years; 27.4 percent five to 10 years; 18.7 percent said up to age 65; but the majority, 52.9 percent said there should be no age limit for retirement; 38.5 percent and 1.4 percent thought top through age executives should retire between the ages of 60-6- 50-5- 5; 5. The top executives tend not to be smokers, with 68.3 percent noiwsmokers, although 65.4 percent once smoked and gave it up on the average of 12 years ago. However, 86.6 percent drink alcoholic beverages while 14.5 percent said they do not. (Alcoholism, it is claimed, is supposed to be one of the main occupational" hazards for top bosses.) Like all other people, health is a major concern and most of them have a complete physical every year, and over half, 58.7 percent, engage in regular exercise programs. Golf and tennis are their favorite means of exercise as 78.7 percent said they participate in these sports regularly. Another 23 percent do calisthenics, while 13.9 percent are joggers. This group is among one of the higher brackets of incidence for hypertension, cerewhich bral hemmorhage, and heart attack may have something to do with giving up smoking as they approach the top. Whats your chances of making it all the way up that corporate ladder? By training 38.9. percent come from management fields; 32.2 percent from marketing; 23.1 percent from finance; 20.2 percent from sales; 19.7 percent from engineering; 7.7 percent from law; 3.5 percent academic; and 2.4 percent have their main training in some field of science. To those who think the top guys just "laze" around in the sun a lot, the reports no overtime" show they are hard workers week. But also, the average for that duration of each vacation," according to Gallagher, is just one week. During that week, 78.8 percent reported they keep "in touch" with their office. And what do they consider a chief executives primary responsibility? The majority listed profits as No. 1 . That is understandable, for it is profits that turn the wheels of the economy. There was one concern not reflected in the Gallagher report, and that is that taxes from all sources now claim 59 percent of the corporate dollar after expenses. As things stand now, there is every indication that the taxgrab will continue to increase, further jeopardizing the solvency of all business, from the top cats to the grocer who runs the corner store. The cycle goes this way: No profits, no No business, no meeting of business. needs. When that happens, we're all Out of Business. 53-ho- buyer-consum- er Tol ano Warning from his bankship by Ralph de Toledano Copley News Service ur Robert Strange McNamara, president of the World bank, is up in arms. Though he pays no income taxes on his whopping salary, McNamara is strongly opposing efforts by Congress to bar the use of American taxpayers' money for loans to such countries as Uganda, Mozambique and the as well as those Communist dictatorships of Indochina U.S. to harmful which are loans agriculture. His Bankship has warned Treasury Secretary W. Michael Blumenthal, known to Washington newspaper readers as His Mintship, that if Congress persists in its folly, the World Bank will refuse to accept the U.S. contribution, which makes up the lion's share of the bank's funding. This should bring hot tears to the eyes of the American taxpayer and shake the Capitol to its very foundations. You can also expect a sob or two from this country's farmers. One man who is not weeping is Representative C.W. Bill Young, the ranking Republican on the House Appropriations subcommittee of Foreign Operations. Young has introduced amendments to appropriations bills which bar use of American funds as loans to a number of countries of demonstrated enmity to the United States. Young, however, is not a dogmatic man. He feels, reasonably, that if he had a firsthand view of the World Banks operations, he might be in a better position to judge McNamaras objections to a ban on indirect aid to countries. But his request for permission to attend a meeting of the bank's board of directors was flatly rejected. In his refusal to permit Young to attend a meeting. McNamara stated that only board members and staff could be present. To admit an outsider would compromise the confidentiality of these proceedings. Which leads me to some interesting thoughts. Here is a member of an important congressional committee entrusted with handing the World Bank billions of dollars of the taxpayers' money. But he is told that the deliberations on how that money will be used are secret to the Congress and to a representative of the American people. What do these international civil servants do that is so confidential? Do they toss a coin to see how big the loans are to be and to whom they will go? Are they dealing with state secrets? McNamara, in his letter to Young, says that an alien presence would inhibit free and frank discussion with the board." What would they hold back that they are not d to tell the Congress when they ask for their turn at the public trough? If Youngs suspicions are aroused, you can hardly blame him. Congress has poked its nose into the most secret operations of the Central Intelligence Agency and the FBI. The Freedom of Information Act opens government files to interested citizens. But the World Bank, while grabbing at the Yankee dollar, insists that its deliberations remain sacrosanct. If I were a member of the House Appropriations subcommittee, I would say to the World Bank and to Robert Strange McNamara, Let your meetings be as secret as you wish but on your nickel, not the American anti-Americ- an duty-boun- taxpayers." And, I would add, "The House has voted against direct aid to Uganda, Mozambique and the Communists of Southeast Asia. If our efforts to block indirect aid get you hot under the collar so hot that you wont take our we will just have to grin and bear it. money |