Wright's Winning Fight

As chairman of Zenith Radio Corp., Joseph Wright has long been his industry's Jeremiah, warning congressional committees and many other audiences that U.S. electronics companies could not meet Japanese competition. Other domestic television manufacturers began to buy components from Japan or move their plants to the Far East. Wright, too, shifted most of Zenith's black-and-white set production from Chicago to Taiwan, and in mid-1971 he sadly announced that he would transfer color-set production as well. But he saw a much brighter picture as soon as the U.S. devalued the dollar, pressured Japan into revaluing its yen and took a sterner stand against Japanese dumping.

Encouraged, Wright decided to stay in the U.S. To reduce costs, Wright trimmed Zenith's payroll in the past year by nearly 8%. He also got much help from John Nevin, an innovative cost cutter who left a Ford Motor vice-presidency to become Zenith's president last May. Together, Wright and Nevin sold off marginally profitable lines in order to concentrate on consumer electronics. Last-week Wright added to that line by acquiring the U.S. distributor of electronic watches made by Switzerland's Movado, a firm that Zenith already controls.

Most important, Zenith lowered its unit profit margin on color-TV sets, enabling it to cut the retail prices of color sets by $30; now a medium-sized set costs about $300. That greatly increased sales--the company has again inched ahead of RCA as the nation's largest seller of color-TV sets. Last month Wright announced that first-quarter sales had risen 22% and net profits had jumped 28%, to $10 million.

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