AT Lever Bros., where it's in to give brief, breezy names to executives as well as products (All, Lux, Vim, Wisk, Spry), Milton C. Mumford is addressed by colleagues and referred to in company publications merely as "Milt." Along with the little names, however, go big titles: Mumford, 51, has been president and chief executive of Unilever's U.S. arm since 1959; last week he became chairman as well, succeeding retired William H. Burkhart. Illinois-born and educated (University of Illinois '35), Mumford came to soapmaking Lever Bros., ten years ago from towelmaking Fieldcrest Mills. As president, he has followed a Burkhart strategy of not knocking heads with bigger Procter & Gamble, instead pushing products that Lever has hit the market with first. From Lever's glassy Lever House in Manhattan, Mumford directs a firm cost control program. While sales increased only slightly to $415 million last year, that program raised profits 25% to $12.7 million--a far better performance than that of either P. & G. or competing Colgate-Palmolive.

WHEN bowling was burgeoning a few years ago, the Brunswick Corp.'s dazzling profits and stock splits were a financial 300-game. But the game's popularity peak has passed, the industry is vastly overbuilt--and Brunswick has lately been getting mostly gutter balls. Chairman Benjamin E. Bensinger, 58, fourth of that name to run the 119-year-old company, last week reported a 1963 loss of $10.1 million, largely because Brunswick set aside $15 million to cover defaulted payments on alleys and pinsetters. Trim Ted Bensinger is undismayed. He foresaw the drop and tried to forestall it by diversifying into school equipment, hospital beds and medical supplies, expects such sidelines to lead the way back; non-bowling products already account for 77% of Brunswick's $66 million in first-quarter sales. Bensinger also anticipates that bowling will rebound in the U.S. and grow in Europe, where Brunswick has opened 22 centers. Until it does, economy is the order; Bensinger has even cut his own salary from $210,000 to $115,000.

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