Spencer Heath Archive

Item 2392

Letter to Donald W. Douglas, 1433 San Vicente Blvd., Santa Monica, California. Attached to the original is an item from Newsweek for September 13 about Douglas’ philosophy of executive leadership.

September 25, 1954

Dear Mr. Douglas:

 

Feeling that my letter of September 12 was perhaps a little barren of esthetic and inspirational content, I am sending the enclosed little booklet on “The Inspiration of Beauty” for your possible delectation (— not “delicatessen” as my amanuensis humorously suggests).

 

Sincerely yours,

 

 

Enc: “The Inspiration of  Beauty”

SH/m

 

___________________________­___

 

Newsweek                         September 13, 1954

 

Donald W. Douglas, president of the

Douglas Aircraft Co., Inc.:

 

“Technical competence is only one essential for top executives. I seek a warm, balanced human being. Successful leaders in business or industry need other characteristics. They must be friendly, well adjusted, with sympathetic understanding of human motives, limitations, weaknesses, and strength. They must have a lust for life, inherent enthusiasm, impersonal curiosity in things and people, and a faith in the men and women they direct. Good top executives must have judgment, self-confidence, a sense of justice tempered with kindness, an instinct for teamwork, a sense of fair play, and a talent for helping and teaching their associates.”