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And he got away with such conduct! In any company with a modern
management approach, such as Aramco, a manager who refused to
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anticipation had been that I would be tried out on one or more jobs for
a year or so to assess my abilities. Instead, month after month for four
years I did my assigned job to the company’s apparent satisfaction, but
the few promotional opportunities that appeared within the corporate
family were given to other Chevron employees who lacked both the
breadth and level experience I had. It was terribly hard to take.

My sister June had been a great success as a residential real es-
tate broker in Berkeley. She urged me to go into real estate work, but to
specialize in commercial real estate. She felt my background in industry
would be especially appreciated there. She would “teach me the ropes”
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ligations to my wife and family would be at risk, so I declined her kind
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In October 1963, representatives of Industrial Relations Coun-
selors Inc. visited Chevron’s headquarters as part of a regular consulting
agreement. They expressed interest in me to be a part of a two-person
team that would conduct a study of how a group of U.S. companies
organized and directed their international industrial relations activities
from their U.S. headquarters. I was interviewed and invited to join IRC
for a four to six month assignment from Chevron. I accepted. It ap-
peared to be an opportunity to break out.
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hotel across the street north of the Waldorf Astoria between 6 and 7
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My partner in the study was Jane Dustan, a very bright analyst on the
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We readily secured the participation of about a dozen companies in a
variety of industries. These companies included General Motors, Sears,
Proctor and Gamble, U.S. Steel, DuPont, etc. In January and February,
we visited companies in Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati, Wilmington, as

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