A new McEra; New McDonald's managers cruise into the '90s; Environment, health on front burner
Apr. 18, 1990
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OAK BROOK, Ill. - The next time you drive by the Golden Arches on your way to the recycling center, you might ask yourself how much longer McDonald's can keep selling high-sodium, high-cholesterol fried foods in environmentally questionable containers.
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Dark days for oil giant; Can Exxon clean up its messy image? Firm finds Valdez oil fouls image
Apr. 26, 1990
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Exxon Corp. enters the 1990s with a task even tougher than cleaning the oily shores of Alaska: undoing its image as the environment's Corporate Enemy No. 1.
Exxon's miscues have taken a heavy toll on the company's reputation. In 1988, New York-based Exxon ranked sixth on Fortune magazine's list of the USA's most admired companies. Last year, it was No. 110. Its annual meeting Wednesday was again dominated by criticism.
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The honeymoon continues; Time Warner union rosy despite debt
May 9, 1990
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Ten months after the merger, Time Warner is showing all the signs of a successful union
NEW YORK - When Time Warner Inc.'s eye-popping annual report burst from its envelope this spring, it was a sign that a new company had been born. The colorful cover, emblazoned with the word "Why?" in bold black letters, signaled the melding of Time Inc.'s tradition and Warner's Hollywood glitz. Accent on the glitz.
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EDS: Life after Perot; Now in hands of delegator, firm hits stride
Sept. 24, 1990
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DALLAS - Statues of eagles still guard every gate here at Electronic Data Systems' headquarters. But the corporate legend who put them there - EDS founder H. Ross Perot - is nowhere in sight.
That's fine with EDS, a General Motors subsidiary since 1984. The controversial Perot, who admires eagles because they fly solo, had an almost cultlike influence over the nation's leading manager of corporate computer networks. Four years after Perot's departure, the company has finally emerged from the Dallas billionaire's shadow - and adopted a game plan that competitors will find tough to match.
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Honda steers bumpy road; Long-term strategy hurts in short run
Feb. 28, 1991
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Dealers noticed a problem months ago, when their lots filled with unsold Hondas.
Consumers figured that something was up when they found an unusual feature on Hondas: discounts.
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Trouble in the cards for American Express; Retailers' resistance to fees grows
Apr. 25, 1991
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Restaurant owner D'Arcy Arpke has this advice for her customers who have American Express charge cards: Leave home without it.
Arpke's restaurant, The Euphemia Hay in Sarasota, Fla., stopped accepting American Express after she decided the commission it charged her on card charges was much too high. "It was a business decision," she says. "There just wasn't any practical reason to take the card."
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Getting GM on track; Ailing giant places big bet on new cars
Sept. 5, 1991
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DETROIT - As the 1992 model year shifts into gear, General Motors Corp. is locked in a struggle to become a lean and mean industrial tiger - and shed its image as a bloated behemoth known to employees as Generous Motors.
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PC giants outline joint plans
Oct. 3, 1991
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Apple Computer and IBM finally delivered details of their joint venture Wednesday, forming three companies that by the mid-1990s will develop a new class of personal computers and software.
The world's biggest PC companies announced two ventures in California's Silicon Valley. IBM and computer-chip maker Motorola combined for the third venture: - Taligent will have 300 to 400 people from both companies. It will develop a programming technique, object-oriented programming, that could one day make PCs as easy to program as microwave ovens.
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Compaq at a crossroads; Analysts see emphasis on bold pricing
Oct. 28, 1991
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The future of Compaq Computer Corp. is now in the hands of two people - a successful venture capitalist who can start companies and a price cutter who can sell computers.
With the departure of 46-year-old founder Joseph "Rod" Canion, the USA's third-largest personal-computer maker is in for big changes.
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Big Blue trims some of the fat; IBM takes $3B charge, cuts 20,000 jobs
Nov. 27, 1991
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IBM swallowed a bitter pill Tuesday.
The USA's largest computer company, buffeted by fierce competition and a weak economy, said it will cut 20,000 positions from its 353,000-employee workforce next year and take a $3 billion charge against fourth-quarter earnings. And in an unprecedented step, Chairman John Akers said the company will begin telling investors whether it's making or losing money in each of its main lines of business.
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Filling the Gap with success; No-frills consumers pack stores
Dec. 13, 1991
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When Judy Zucker of Wilmington, Del., goes to the mall, she knows exactly where she's headed: The Gap.
"The clothes wash well, they wear well, and they fit my style. I like the basic things," says Zucker, 52. "When I go shopping, I know what I'm looking for, and I know The Gap will have it."
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With bold stroke, GM turns a page; Goal: Save $5 billion by mid-decade
Dec. 19, 1991
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DETROIT - General Motors Corp., brought to its knees by a brutal auto-industry recession and relentless competition from Japanese carmakers, says it will cut deep into its North American operations to prosper in the 1990s.
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Mazda paves road to profit with flexibility
Dec. 30, 1991
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HIROSHIMA, Japan - The auto industry's future isn't the cars on the assembly lines at Mazda's Ujina plant here. It's the way the cars are built.
Ujina is Japan's leading example of flexible manufacturing, an ultra-efficient production system that enables a car company to build as many as eight different models on the same assembly line.
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GM axes jobs amid huge loss
Feb. 25, 1992
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DETROIT - General Motors, hemorrhaging record red ink, applied a painful tourniquet of plant closings, layoffs and reorganization Monday.
GM said 12 plants and more than 16,000 jobs will be affected by Monday's action, which fills in some of the details of a gut-wrenching restructuring plan revealed in December.
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Michigan: 'Bad to much worse'; 'Nobody ever thought plant would close'
Feb. 25, 1992
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After decades of courtship with General Motors, Michigan is feeling like a spurned lover in the battle of the assembly lines while Texas waltzes away with the prize.
GM's announcement Monday that it will shut assembly plants in Ypsilanti, Mich., and North Tarrytown, N.Y., and boost its Texas operations underscores the industry's further shift from the Rust Belt.
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GM overhauls top management; Reins go to globally oriented
Apr. 7, 1992
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In one stunning stroke Monday, General Motors reshuffled top management in a bid to stem the hemorrhaging of its North American car and truck business.
GM Chairman Robert Stempel, coerced by an angry GM board, announced late Monday afternoon that power had been wrenched from GM's long-entrenched, sales-driven executives and given to a group of forward-thinking, internationally experienced managers.
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U.S. Steel learns from experience
Apr. 10, 1992
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GARY, Ind. - The situation was bleak as a foggy afternoon on nearby Lake Michigan.
U.S. Steel's Gary Works was all but banished from General Motors' supplier rolls. Ford Motor was threatening the same. "Find a new way of doing your business," was the blunt mandate from Ford's Pete Urchek in a 1987 ultimatum to Gary Works.
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Shareholders revolt at Sears; Mutual funds, pensions lead the charge
May 15, 1992
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ATLANTA - With their voices and their votes, Sears shareholders vigorously protested against top management Thursday in the most convincing display of dissatisfaction the company has yet witnessed.
Five anti-management shareholder proposals collected a surprisingly high percentage of votes. A proposal protecting the confidentiality of shareholder voting received 41%, as did one to force annual elections of directors. A proposal to separate the posts of chairman and chief executive officer - both held by Edward Brennan - received 27%.
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Newton's big bang; Apple hopes device forms new world
May 29, 1992
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CUPERTINO , Calif. - John Sculley is walking - pacing, actually. He's waving his hands, gesturing, intently thrilled at describing his vision of an exciting new world - a place where computing and communicating collide to form a $3.5 trillion-a-year industry by 2000.
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Call to social action; Businesses' cry: Do the right thing
June 10, 1992
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Can corporate USA be a pal to workers, a friend to the environment, a harbinger of governmental and societal change and still be profitable?
Fifty-five companies who'll announce today the formation of Washington-based Businesses for Social Responsibility think so, and they're ready to spread the gospel.
