Corporate Cleveland articles from October 1991

Corporate Cleveland archives from October 1991

Oil and oil don't mix. (Lubrizol, motor oil, vegetable oil)
October 1, 1991... Oil and oil don't mix Open the bag of popcorn seeds, toss the salad, chop up the vegetable stir-fry, and pour on the Lubrizol. After decades of honing its reputation as an industrial oil company, The Lubrizol Corp. of Wickliffe has...

Good money after bad. (Harry R. Horvitz Foundation)
October 1, 1991... Good money after bad After a decade of legal warfare pitting brother against brother and cousin against cousin, at least one branch of the mega-rich Horvitz publishing clan has begun beating its swords into plowshares. The Harry R. Horvitz...

Teaching an old Wolf new tricks. (Wolf Envelope Co.)
October 1, 1991... Teaching an old Wolf new tricks For 57 years, The Wolf Envelope Co. used its digest-sized Wolf Magazine of Letters as a corporate calling card for clients and friends, sending out more than 10,000 monthly copies. But in recent years, as the...

Reach out and snub someone. (Ohio Bell Telephone Co.)
October 1, 1991... Reach out and snub someone An unfortunate friend recently received a series of harassing and then obscene phone calls. When she called Ohio Bell Telephone Co. for help, she found herself not in the care of a compassionate operator but within...

Pound foolish: there's no fun anymore in using the phone. (column)
October 1, 1991... Pound foolish Like you, I hate it when computers call me. Do you know anybody who likes it? Of course not. Everybody hates it. My average phone conversation with a computer lasts one and a half seconds. My phone rings, I answer it, a...

Battle of the blues. (Blue Cross-Blue Shield Mutual of Ohio, Community Mutual Insurance Co.)
October 1, 1991... Battle of the Blues Seven years after it started, Ohio's billion-dollar Battle of the Blues has stalled in a health-care version of trench warfare. Despite lobbing scores of insults and millions of dollars worth of advertising at each other,...

Man without the ponytail. (David Roth)
October 1, 1991... Man without the ponytail With a deadpan expression and a lulling voice, he pleaded for money as he peered into the television camera. He was odd and distinctive to Middle-American Cleveland, and while his commercials were meant to publicize...

Bagging the big shots. (corporate recruiting)
October 1, 1991... Bagging the BIG shots Five years ago, Agnar Pytte was provost at New Hampshire's Dartmouth College. The Norwegian-born and Harvard-educated physicist had spent the better part of three decades at the Ivy League school. As provost, he held...

Out of school: a look at some of northeast Ohio's outstanding business graduates.
October 1, 1991... Out of school They're on a roll, these fast-talking, self-directed, high-energy granduates of local business schools, despite the fact that their academic careers spanned years of economic turnmoil. The Class of 1991 enrolled in the wake...

Paternity snit. (educational encouragement)
October 1, 1991... PATERNITY SNIT For executive parents of the late 20th century, life's greatest disappointments include the crummy grades their heirs bring home from the world's most expensive universities. Yet there is precious little information...

Raising the roof: home builders fight back against costly municipal zoning.
October 1, 1991... Raising the roof There's a new breed of home builder, and he's no longer willing to bow to the whims of local zoning and planning commissions. In the past, there was little these contractors could do when faced with rules set by ordinary...

Drug testing's demise? Those who test positive may become obligatory hires.
October 1, 1991... Drug testing's demise? Not long ago, William McDade's opinion of pre-employment drug testing was typical of many in his position. The vice president for human resources at Cleveland's Sealy Corp. promoted the tests as beneficial to...

Survival of the fattest; after Ameritrust: who's next in the urge-to-merge sweepstakes?
October 1, 1991... Survival of the fattest Cue the organ and throw the rice. At long last, after months of sly winks and coquettish eyelash-batting, Ameritrust Corp. finally took the plunge and accepted a $1.2 billion ring from Society Corp., leaving her other...

Pop quiz; for extra political credit, name your Ohio Board of Education representatives. (critigue of Ohio's educational board) (column)
October 1, 1991... Pop quiz Quick... can you name your elected representative on the state Board of Education? If the answer is no, don't feel bad. I can't name mine either, and I've interviewed her twice. The 21 members of the state Board of Education...

Corporate culture shock: success in dealing with the Japanese requires some extra care and thought. (column)
October 1, 1991... Corporate culture shock There are approximately 200 Japanese facilities in Ohio employing more than 40,000 state residents. It is evident that doing business with the Japanese is becoming commonplace. And yet, we don't always know how to go...