Management;

 

Whenever you go outside to hire a top manager, you run the risk of bringing in someone who doesn't really understand or appreciate your business or your values. William H. Wilson, of Pioneer/Eclipse Corp., in Sparta, N.C., has a technique for communicating his values to new executives and giving them an eduction in the business at the same time. He requires each of them, during the first month of employment, to spend a night working with the company's product.

That would be an inviting assignment if Wilson ran a Porsche dealership, but he makes floor-cleaning systems. So it's over to the high school the executives go for several hours of cleaning, waxing, and polishing the floors, using Pioneer/Eclipse's equipment and products, and often those of competitors as well.

Wilson says that most new executives are happy to do it. "If they think it's beneath them, they're not the kind of people we need."