St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 8

8A Apr. 22, 1985 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH Keeping Posted Putting Effort Into Excellence -V I Wf i ft V) and columnist Tom Peters. The many expressions of author was welcome news. To date, almost 3 million copies of "In Search of Excellence" have been printed in English and the book has been translated into 15 languages.

Peters' latest book, "A Passion for Excellence," which he co-authored with Nancy K. Austin, is now being shipped to bookstores. The book picks up on the theme of "In Search of Excellence" and applies it to smaller companies and the public sector. In the planning stage is a third book, which Peters says will be a business equivalent of "Profiles in Courage." The two new books are being published by Random House, tent erected in the hospital's parking lot. Peters paced back and forth across a small stage, his voice rising and falling as he strung together a series of anecdotes to illustrate the best and worst in American business.

Perspiration rolled down his face despite the cool April breeze. For all his expertise in the business world Peters has master's and doctorate degrees in business from Stanford University he looked and sounded like an evangelist. It's a description that has been applied before, and Peters is not entirely flattered by it. "It's partly true and it's partly B.S.," Lambert Back On European Flight Plans Prescription For Change In Health Care The federal government's 1 -year-old prescription for paring Medicare costs already has cut hospital patient loads and reduced patient stays, fueled generic drug sales and legitimized equipment that used to be considered risky, such as reusable dialyzers. But the changes that the Prospective Payment System has made so far are just the tip of the iceberg, says L.

John Wilkerson, president of Channing, Weinberg Co. a New York health-care consulting firm. Within the next 10 years, health care will be delivered to the entire population in a dramatically different way, predicted Wilkerson, who spoke last week to about 125 financial analysts at a conference sponsored by The Financial Analysts Federation and its St. Louis chapter. will be regarded as a business whose clientele including the government, insurance carriers, employers and Individuals will be more savvy shoppers.

Helping them become more astute will be a new breed of entrepreneur who will work to provide quality care at a lower cost. Such professionals will Come from the ranks of accounting, law, software and medicine itself. Other changes predicted by Wilkerson were continuation of trends toward less invasive medicine and toward more people paying for their lifestyles. Smokers, for example, will pay higher insurance premiums. As a result, Wilkerson said, the country will need 30 percent fewer inpatient acute-care hospital beds and 40 percent more outpatient centers.

Only very small and large health-oriented companies will survive, he said. Small companies will profit from working within a narrow segment, while large companies will triumph by being integrated and diversified, he said. "i it -tr it Vince Bommarito Gets strong repeat business Ay Vince Bommarito Profiled In Restaurant Publication Vince Bommarito of Tony's Kestaurant here is among restaurateurs profiled in the feature article Independent Stars" in the April issue of "Restaurant Business," a monthly trade publication. According to the article, Bommarito has survived the competition, recessions and even the press by paying attention to details, by Offering fine food and wine and by continuing to improve the restaurant, Tony's also has prospered because of its strong repeat traffic that includes 60 percent locals and 40 percent business travelers. Other restaurateurs profiled in the article are Maude Chasen of Chasen's in Los Angeles, Herman Berghoff of The Berghoff in Chicago, Ed Dewey of Brooklyn, New York's Gage Tollner, Robert and Steve Buich of San CVontlctft'c TaHirh Hrill an1 Ipp Tp Ruth and Larry Le Ruth of New Orlean'sLe Ruth's.

it it -tr Cue Gets SEC Approval On 10K Cue Industries Inc. has filed its Form 10K with the Securities and Exchange Commission after question over accounting procedures was resolved in Cue favor, said Richard E. Lykins, vice president Earlier this month, Cue notified the commission that it would file the Form 10K late because of the question. The I OK report was due March 30, and Cue filed it April 12. I Lykins said that on March 1, the fSEC notified Cue that it was concerned about Cue's consolidation of results of its two subsidiaries, Windsor Plastics and Spielberg Manufacturing Co.

of Antonia, Mo. Guardian Industries Inc. of Chicago has warrants against the two subsidiaries that permit it to obtain an ownership Interest In them. Because of that, the SEC had said Cue should use the equity method to account for their results rather than the consolidation method. But Lykins said the SEC decided ihat Cue could use the consolidation method for its 1984 and 1983 financial statements.

The Form 10K was then filed. Copies of the report were not Immediately available. 1 rf By Claudia MacLachlan Ot the Post-Dispatch Staff Between writing, a weekly newspaper column, giving hundreds of speeches a year, running five companies and writing a new book, best-selling business author Tom Peters doesn't have much time for play. What little time he does eke out is sandwiched between speaking engagements and seminars that take him all over the world, from Australia to Ireland, from Switzerland to Little Rock. But the 42-year-old co-author of "In Search of Excellence" is not complaining.

He loves his work and he's making money lots and lots of money. St. Anthony's Medical Center paid him $15,000 to talk for an hour and a half last week. Multiply that (give or take a few thousand) by the 275 speeches he made last year, and you get some idea just how lucrative his message is. "My life is not gruesome, Peters said during an interview last week in his rented limousine as he rode from Lambert Field to St.

Anthony's. "I like the pace. The material is fun it's an upbeat message." Peters message is deceptively simple, and its common sense appeal helped rocket "In Search of Excellence" to the top of the best seller lists, a first for a book about management. The book, written with Robert H. Waterman was published in late 1982, and quickly turned the business establishment on its ear.

What Peters and Waterman preached, in profiling 43 successful companies, was that people counted more than numbers. And for a generation of business school graduates nurtured on earnings reports, spread sheets and the bottom line, this was radical news indeed. Peters and Waterman outlined eight basic principles for success that sound so self-evident it's hard to believe they made a best-seller out of them. They are, a bias for action, not memos; catering to the customer; autonomy and entrepreneurship; a motivated workforce; hands-on executives; a simple form and lean staff; sticking to what a company knows and does best; and fostering a climate that promotes dedication to the company's central values. Part of the reason for the book's success is that it came out on the heels of the recession, when American industry was being told it would have to pattern itself after Japanese industry or perish.

To be told that there were success stories next door TWA Puts By Paul Wagman Of the Post-Dispatch Staff Lambert-St. Louis International Airport will again live up to its name Sunday as Trans World Airlines initiates nonstop service from Lambert to London, Paris and Frankfurt. TWA will provide the first scheduled international service out of St. Louis since last October, when British Caledonian Airways cancelled its thrice-weekly flights to London. The cancellation left Lambert with only military flights abroad.

TWA is clearly undeterred by the fact that British Caledonian couldn't muster enough business even for its limited schedule. Besides offering more destinations, TWA's flights will be daily. A Boeing 747 with 430 seats will take off for London each evening at a Boeing 767, which seats 187, will take off for Paris at 8:10 p.m.; another Boeing 767 will leave for Frankfurt at 8:45 p.m. TWA is promoting the new service aggressively. The airline is spending more than $200,000 here on a newspaper and billboard campaign, said Dann Oldani, a spokesman.

And it's spending many times that amount nationally. The hoopla will also include local officials. Mayor Vincent C. Schoemehl Jr. and St.

Louis County Executive Gene McNary are scheduled to be aboard the maiden flight to Paris, where the mayor will present a model of the Gateway Arch to the mayor of Paris. Gov. John D. Ashcroft and Tom Zych, president of the St Louis Board of Aldermen, will take the first flight to Frankfurt. And Thomas Mangogna, the mayor's chief of staff, will make the initial trip to London.

Promotion notwithstanding, industry observers say TWA has something much more important on its side: timing. With the American economy still strong and the dollar even stronger, Europe is the preferred destination this traveling season, said Tom Tenholder, president of the Tenholder Travel agencies here. "I think those flights are going to be full," Tenholder said. TWA executives say bookings are indeed strong. For the month of May, a spokesman said, flights to London are already 60 percent booked; to Frankfurt, 65 percent; and to Paris, 50 percent That means the London and Frankfurt flights are already profitable; they have break-even load factors of 58 prcent and 60 percent respectively.

The Paris flight remains below the break-even load factor of 70 percent but new bookings continue to come in, the spokesman noted. The break-even load factor is the percentage of seats that have to be Tilled with paying customers to keep the flight from losing money. Nevertheless, TWA faces plenty of tsvTl vjjffi If t-m fin' r-j Robert C. Holt Jr.Post-Dispatch he said. "It does mean a whole lot of people are rethinking what's going on for the first time in 40 years, and there are usually people who end up as spokesmen." A spokesman is probably the last thing Peters thought he would be when he was growing up in Severna Park, outside Baltimore.

He was an only child. His father, now dead, was a credit manager with the Baltimore Gas Electric his mother taught fifth grade. "I refuse to buy into this thing of having a vision at age three," says See PETERS, Page 12 Odell Mitchell Jr.Post-Dispatch officials say. TWA's new service will have an economic impact on the airport and the area, noted Col. Leonard Griggs, the airport's director.

In addition to increased demands for fuel and catering, the new service will result in more business for airport concessionaires. Should there be a demand, a duty-free shop will be set up, possibly by mid-summer, he said. And seven to nine jobs will be created in the new Customs facility, he said. How long all of this will last however, remains an open question. Once winter comes, "it'll be tough to fill all those seats," Tenholder observed.

But one TWA official said he thought there was no question that TWA would continue its foreign flights here through the winter. The only possible reduction, he said, would be in flight frequency. Next year, TWA may even expand the service. Possible new destinations, according to airline executives, include the Iberian peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and Rome. which paid more than $1 million in advance for the privilege.

Peters also writes his column, which appears in the Post-Dispatch on Saturdays. So why does Peters push himself so hard when he could easily live on the royalties of his first book plus a couple of speeches a year? The answer is clear to anyone who has witnessed one of his speeches: He's in his element in a crowd and he loves to talk. At St. Anthony's last Tuesday morning, he spoke to more than 1,000 hospital employees and guests seated in folding chairs under a vast canvas flights will wait in this isolation area through Lambert the domestic hub of TWA's so-called "hub and spoke-flight pattern. American fired one salvo in the competition for these travelers last week.

It offered travel agents a bonus "of $75 for each customer from St Louis routed through Dallas, Kreith said. TWA may reply in kind later, he said. Already, TWA is making a limited offer of extra bonus miles on its frequent flight bonus program for European travelers using the St Louis "gateway." The program allows passengers to earn credits for discounts on future flights. TWA also stresses its "Getaway" vacations, which combine flight hotel and tour in one. The airline says its Getaway trips are the world's most popular tour packages.

TWA is also emphasizing the convenience of its new St Louis International gateway. To demonstate that convenience, airline officials gave a reporter a tour of the facilities, which aren't yet completed, last week. Under the new set-up, travelers returning from Europe, for example. at Lambert Field until they are cleared through Customs. Passengers from international competition, says George J.

Kreith, general sales manager here. Although it is the only carrier providing nonstop service out of St Louis, other carriers already offer such service out of two relatively nearby cities Chicago and DallasFort Worth. Several European airlines, including British Airways and Air France, serve O'Hare Field in Chicago; American Airlines and others fly out of DallasFort Worth. Thus the traveler from Wichita, for example, has a choice of all three airports. -And the airlines serving the three are making the nation's midsection a battleground in their effort to lure him, Kreith said.

The hypothetical traveler from Wichita is critical to the success of TWA's new service here because the airline is counting on travelers from the St Louis area to fill only about 30 percent of its seats. The remaining seats, it calculates, will be filled by travelers from its "feed" cities. These are the roughly two dozen cities in the Midwest South, and West that TWA serves through St Louis. All TWA flights from these cities go will debark at a gate near the end ot Concourse C. They will then walk down two short flights of stairs to a new Customs facility, which TWA is building at a cost of $1 million.

After passing through a combined customs, immigration and public health checkpoint travelers will pick up their bags on a conveyor ramp. They'll then walk less than 50 yards to a baggage inspection point Just 40 yards or so past that is a ramp for checking baggage for the connecting flight home, if needed. The gate for that connecting flight is very likely just upstairs, because most of TWA's flights use gates on Concourse C. A few are on Concourse B. In short TWA officials stress, most travellers here even those needing connecting flights will never have to leave the concourse.

That's quite different from the situation at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport or Chicago's O'Hare, where travelers must go to entirely different different buildings to make connections. The airport here is also much less congested than those facilities, TWA.