HIS early career as a laborer in the rolling mills has made Alfred S. Glossbrenner, 62, the president of Youngstown Sheet & Tube, an unusually knowledgeable executive--but it has also left a habit that exasperates his subordinates. He arrives at his office at 7:45 a.m., forcing anyone who hopes to beat him there to rise with the sun. Glossbrenner likes to be first in other ways: Sheet & Tube last month was the first of the majors to act in steel's latest round of price increases, and last week it became the first to report third-quarter earnings, which are so good (up 100%) that they may herald high profits for the entire industry. Glossbrenner is no deskman but a roamer who pops into offices, huddles on the run with his young and fanatically loyal staff, often takes off in one of the company's private planes to close a sales deal if he thinks his presence will help. He has led a civic-reform drive in Youngstown, is an opera buff who collects old Caruso records and prefers Tristan and Isolde above all other operas.

HE keeps his own horses, and rides to the hounds when he has time, but Donald P. Kircher, 48, president of Singer Co., has recently been fully occupied guiding his company over the hurdles of diversification and expansion. Last week he took Singer a big jump closer to the billion-dollar club with the acquisition of Friden, Inc., a maker of office automation equipment that should fit in nicely with the 112-year-old sewing-machine maker and bring its annual sales to more than $750 million. Kircher has a firm rule that, within the U.S., his acquisitions must be in the high-growth area of fairly advanced technological fields. His close associates find him reserved but approachable, unruffled but forceful when he needs to be. He is a firm believer in individual responsibility, hates meetings and committees and expects the 13 Singer vice presidents to whom he freely delegates authority to make quick and clear decisions. A onetime lawyer (Columbia '39) who was twice wounded in World War II, Kircher lives with his family in an unpretentious ranch house in exurban New Jersey, where he keeps his stable.

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