Miller: Nice Guy in a Hard Job

Textron's chief is a sharp manager--but what else?

Handsome, disciplined, modest and humorous, G. William Miller, 52, is proof that nice guys sometimes do finish first. After President Carter last week named him to succeed Arthur Burns as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, about the only negative things that acquaintances could find to tell reporters about him were that he loves to sing but has no voice, and that he delights in telling jokes but usually laughs so hard at them that he botches the punch lines. Otherwise, Miller sounds like a business version of a Boy Scout: frugal, industrious, a sharp manager, something of a social activist--and a man whose likely moves as the nation's supreme money manager are impossible to predict from his career so far.

Miller was an early success. Born in Sapulpa, Okla., he received a degree in marine engineering from the Coast Guard Academy in 1945 and was stationed in Shanghai. There, in 1946, he met and married his wife Ariadna, of Russian parentage, who had lived in Harbin, Manchuria. In 1952, he received a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley and settled in as an attorney at Cravath, Swaine and Moore, the prestigious Wall Street law firm. While there he became friendly with Royal Little, the New England businessman who was putting together Textron, one of the first conglomerates--those companies that sweep together the most wildly diverse businesses. Joining Textron at the invitation of Little, who warned him that he would be fired in a year if he did not prove his abilities, Miller became president in 1960 at the age of 35, chief executive in 1968 and chairman in 1974.

Since Little's day, conglomerates have become a dirty word on Wall Street; many hastily concocted ones fell apart. Textron is different: under Miller's management, it has combined Bell helicopters, Homelite chain saws, Talon zippers, Speidel watch bands and dozens of other products into a business that now grosses $2.6 billion a year and is increasing profits at an average of about 10% annually--just about meeting Miller's target.

But what kind of man runs this conglomerate? He is in the least a hopeless workaholic. He arrives at the office at 7:30 a.m., an hour before his staff, and usually stays until 6:30 p.m. Says a longtime Textron colleague: "It would be safe to say that he works seven days and seven nights a week. It's his hobby, his life; he thrives on it."

Frugality is one of the keystones of his personal lifestyle. Though he owns $1.8 million worth of Textron stock and collects $400,000 in annual salary and bonuses, Miller lives in an unpretentious three-bedroom house in Providence's east side and often takes a bus to work. He normally lunches at his desk on crackers and Campbell's soup. About the only luxuries the Millers allow themselves are a regular winter vacation in the Bahamas, a summer place near Cape Cod and a weekly seat at New York's Metropolitan Opera.

That same frugality has kept Textron remarkably free of borrowing. At the beginning of last year, its long-term debt totaled only $227 million, minuscule for a company of Textron's size, and especially for a conglomerate. Some of Miller's ideas for managing the economy are equally conservative. For example, he believes that the Government should increase capital investment by giving business higher depreciation allowances and increased investment tax credits.

For all that, Miller is nonetheless a registered Democrat, was an early supporter of the Humphrey-Muskie ticket in 1968 and has long been a friend and admirer of Vice President Walter Mondale. He has expressed sympathy for the unemployed by his actions as well as his words: he is a director of both the National Alliance of Businessmen, a group that tries to encourage hiring of the hard-core unemployed, and of a special business committee formed last summer to promote the training and hiring of Viet Nam veterans. In a speech to Pittsburgh businessmen last January, he not only advocated more capital investment but also called for "selective economic actions or controls ... not popular with business."

Many associates are frankly at a loss where to place Miller. At the Boston Federal Reserve Bank, where Miller is a director, staff members last week held a meeting to brainstorm what he might do at the Fed. Says one who attended: "None of us was able to categorize Miller. Some thought he would encourage investment spending and support tax incentives to encourage productivity, but we are not sure how aggressive he will be."

Perhaps most of all, Miller is simply a manager, interested in results rather than doctrine. He has said that it is a mistake to focus only on management of total supply and demand in the economy; policymakers also need to develop programs for specific trouble spots. Though Miller was quickly criticized by Senate Banking Chairman William Proxmire for lacking sufficient banking experience to run the nation's money supply, those who know Miller say the charges are foolish. Says New York Investment Banker Felix Rohatyn, who knows Miller well: "I think that he knows more about finance than most bankers I know. He has run a very big company, and run it exceedingly well. He does not get impressed by all this theoretical academic stuff. It's refreshing."

On one subject, Miller's views are not only clear but almost fanatic: he is an aggressive nonsmoker. He has peppered Textron's office with NO SMOKING signs and banned tobacco at management meetings and aboard the company's aircraft. After eight years of Arthur Burns' perpetually puffing pipe, the change may come as something of a shock to Federal Reserve staffers accustomed to lighting up in front of the boss. Says a Providence banker who is close to Miller: "When he gets down to Washington, he will probably fumigate the building."

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