Readers Report
How to Bring Back P&G's Glory Days
"Can Procter & Gamble clean up its act?" (The Corporation, Mar. 12) covered all the bases: pricing errors, failure to update products, advertising cutbacks, and, worst of all, letting competitors' reps take over store aisles, where P&G once was king.
As a P&G shareholder for more than CEO Alan G. Lafley's 23 years, I regard his refusal to comment for your story as an admission that he lacks answers to P&G's mounting problems.
Before the glory fades further, here's a suggestion for P&G: Make the Procter & Gamble name prominent on products and in advertising, as S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. does. Millions around the world are still dazzled by the marketing brilliance that created P&G.
Edward H. Zimmerman
New Canaan, Conn.
Your story surprised our household by making no reference to a P&G innovation that is the primary reason we buy the Bounty Select-A-Size product. These rolls allows us to use smaller sheets of towel, more than compensating for the extra cost of the roll by stretching its life much further.
David A Berman
Henderson, Nev.
You left out one example of customer discontent. Bounty paper towel rolls used to contain 100 sheets. They have stealthily reduced this to only 64 sheets. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to wonder why we feel cheated.
Morton Linder
Mount Kisco, N.Y.
IBM's Role in the Holocaust
Peter Hayes openly misstates and/or misleads the public about the facts of my book [IBM and the Holocaust] and Holocaust history ("Did IBM really cozy up to Hitler?" Books, Mar. 19). For example, Hayes wrote: "The author invokes at the outset the shock of his Holocaust survivor parents at his discoveries." The only mention of my parents is in the [book's] introduction, indicating they were with me in 1993 at the Holocaust Museum when I first noticed the Hollerith machine. They were not "shocked," they are not "shocked." Once a reviewer invents the little stuff, you must question everything that follows.
The excuse for Nazi perpetrators has long been "just following orders." To this we add Peter Hayes's new excuse for Nazi collaborators: "just following profits." It was [IBM chief Thomas] Watson's decision to invest a million dollars in a new factory and special printing facilities in 1934 and 1935, not to save assets but to capture new profits from Nazi Germany. In that same vein, Watson opened subsidiaries throughout Europe in cadence with the Nazi takeover, such as in occupied Poland in 1939.
Hayes further wrote: "The Nazis had no need for elaborate technical equipment to help them identify Jews and their property." Hayes could have read in the book that the voluminous "paper and pencil" documents filled at registration offices and elsewhere were actually punched in. Only a data processor could rapidly cross-tabulate a typical Reich census of 41 million and then authoritatively conclude, as the Nazis did, that: "the largest concentration of Jews [in Berlin] will be found in the Wilmersdorf district. Approximately 26,000 observant Jews account for 13.54 percent of the population within that district." This was the result of machine cross-tabulation.
Hayes also wrote: "The SS Race & Settlement Office did not even acquire a Hollerith machine until 1943." Hayes is profoundly misleading the readers. Historians know that the SS Race & Settlement Office was not involved directly in Jewish tracking. This was a tiny office devoted to establishing Aryan pedigrees of SS officer candidates and their families.
[Hayes is also wrong in his assertion that Hollerith machines] had little effect on the fates of the [forced labor camp] inmates. People were worked to death based on their occupational skills and geographic location, which Hollerith Departments in almost every camp tracked.
Peter Hayes owes me and Holocaust history an apology.
Edwin Black
Rockville, Md.
For more on Black's response to the review go to www.edwinblack.com
Taking Aim at Workplace Violence
Once violence has been perpetrated, there is an organizational tendency to address the short-term, acute problems but to often dismiss the long-term effects on morale and productivity ("After the shooting stops," The Workplace, Mar. 12). For an organization to recover more fully from such an incident, it is crucial that the latter be addressed.
Michael Dishon
Century City, Calif.
Make the College Guide Really Comprehensive
"College savings plans come of age" (BusinessWeek Investor, Mar. 12) says that the magazine "has compiled a comprehensive guide to the new 529s." The Montana and Arizona plans are statutory savings programs that were established subsequent to the enactment of Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Service code. To exclude such programs from your comprehensive guide simply because they offer a guaranteed investment indexed to the college inflation rate is arbitrary.
Peter A. Roberts
Chairman
College Savings Bank
Princeton, N.J.
Ask the Students Which Teachers They Want
Universities are missing out on a source of qualified faculty: business professionals with MBAs and those with substantial experience ("Brain drain at the B-schools," Management, Mar. 5). A PhD does not necessarily make someone an effective teacher. Ask business students which they would rather have--someone who has just written about it or someone who has done it.
Maria King
Chicago
You Think Being a Dad Is a Good Deal?
Let's be honest. Fatherhood does not pay, either ("Being a mother just doesn't pay," Books, Mar. 12). If you are male, getting married is the worst thing you can do. [When mothers quit work to care for babies], fathers lose the economic benefits of having a wife in the workforce contributing to the family funds. He must shoulder unbearable stress to provide for more dependents.
B.G. Alton
Peterborough, Ont.
Microsoft: Don't Make Excuses for the Government's Failings
Microsoft Corp. did not "catch a break" of any kind from the Bush Administration ("Did Microsoft catch a break?" Up Front, Mar. 12). The inability of government lawyers to field probing questions from the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals was attributable to weaknesses in the Justice Dept.'s case and the faulty underpinnings of Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's holdings.
Continuity or fresh faces make no difference. The higher court is merely moving toward taking the overdue step of applying our antitrust law and reining in its gross misapplication by those who did not understand its purpose.
Anthony Michael Sabino
Mineola, N.Y.
Hardware Is Part of the Total Package
You describe PeoplePC Inc. as a company that "gives away PCs" ("The last true believer," e.biz, Jan. 22). We don't. Our IBM computers are sold as part of a fully loaded, Internet-ready solution, complete with software, unlimited Internet access, 24/7 customer care, and other member-only benefits. The basic offer costs just $24.95 a month. But we don't give them away. They are not free. Ours is a good, honest deal that stands on its own merits.
Nick Grouf
President and CEO
PeoplePC Inc.
San Francisco
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Copyright 2001 , by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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