ONE reason that Westinghouse earnings have remained low despite rising sales (now past $2 billion) is the top-heavy number of white collars on the electronics giant's payroll. No one saw the situation more clearly than sharp-eyed Donald C. Burnham, 49, a "productivity engineer" who was lured away from General Motors to overhaul Westinghouse production lines--and did his job so well that he was named president last July. To symbolize his economy-minded approach, he refused a presidential Cadillac in favor of his own Corvair; more significantly, Burnham centralized such operations as marketing, planning and styling, and eliminated more than 3,000 jobs. Last week, after stockholders at the annual meeting complained again about the management oversupply, Westinghouse announced the most dramatic fat-trim so far. Both Chairman Gwilym A. Price, 68, and Vice Chairman John K. Hodnette, 62, will retire. Taking over their duties--at a salary saving to the company of $288,-100 annually--will be Donald Burnham.

UNLIKE larger Hilton and Sheraton, third-ranking Western International Hotels Corp. carefully avoids the look and name of a chain in its 42 hotels; it prefers to let such homey hospices as San Francisco's St. Francis, Seattle's Olympic and the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs breathe with individual atmosphere. But to make sure that efficiency and profits stay up while the chain concept is played down, Seattle-based President Edward E. Carlson, 52, works mostly on the road, usually as his own guest. Carlson started 35 years ago as a pageboy, worked his way from front desk to executive office. He took time out as president to run the successful Seattle World's Fair, but now is busier than ever inspecting new sites and blueprints for his growing network. Last week he was in Detroit to check out with Architect Minoru Yamasaki the designs for the 800-room Century Plaza that Western will open in Los Angeles next year. Carlson is also moving Western into Mexico and Canada, has just ordered a study for developing 1,000 acres of estate lands on Hawaii, later plans other hotels in Japan.

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