Executive Remade Westinghouse as CBS

A former Navy nuclear engineer, Michael Jordan set new courses for two of the largest companies in the country. Mr. Jordan, who died Tuesday at age 73, was a top PepsiCo Inc. executive before he transformed Westinghouse Electric Corp. in the mid-1990s from a foundering industrial giant into a leading media company. He renamed it CBS Corp. after acquiring the Tiffany network. And coaxed from retirement in 2003, Mr. Jordan led a turnaround at Electronic Data Systems Inc., an information-technology giant. In each case, the company he had led was sold once he had reshaped it. CBS Corp. went to Viacom in a 2000 deal valued at $44 billion, and EDS to Hewlett-Packard Co. in 2008 for $13.9 billion.

"What I like about a crisis situation is you don't have to pussyfoot around," he told the Dallas Morning News in 2007, shortly before retiring from EDS. "When you step into a mess like this, you just start kicking a—, taking names, and changing things."

That's leadership; we could use some of it now, indeed.

The changes at Westinghouse were profound. When Mr. Jordan was brought in as chief executive in 1993, the venerable manufacturer of consumer goods and defense and nuclear-power equipment was experiencing record losses, largely weighed down by its financial-services subsidiary. Mr. Jordan sold off large parts of the company, then in 1995 surprised analysts when he doubled down on the company's media holdings by acquiring CBS for $5.4 billion in cash. A year later, he acquired Infinity Broadcasting, a national radio giant known for its shock jocks. The transformation of Westinghouse became complete in 1997. He changed its name to CBS and moved the headquarters to New York, ensconcing himself in the office last occupied by the network's builder, William Paley. It had sat empty since Mr. Paley's death in 1990. The office choice was a dramatic gesture for a man whom Fortune had once declared charisma-challenged.

Born in Kansas City, Mo., Mr. Jordan attended Yale and studied chemical engineering at Princeton. He left before finishing his doctorate to run a soap factory for Procter & Gamble Co. Drafted into the Navy in 1959, he studied nuclear engineering and joined the staff of Adm. Hyman Rickover, father of the nuclear submarine program.

In 1964, Mr. Jordan joined McKinsey & Co., where his clients included Westinghouse. He joined PepsiCo in the mid-1970s and became CEO of the company's Frito-Lay division. After serving as chief of PepsiCo's overseas operations, Mr. Jordan seemed a possible candidate for chairman of the company, but retired in 1992 to run a private-equity firm, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. He was lured to run Westinghouse a year later. After stabilizing the company and changing its name to CBS, he declared he would continue as CEO until 2001, when he would be 65. He changed his mind and retired in 1998, amid talk of fights between Mr. Jordan and Mel Karmazin, his deputy and the former CEO of Infinity.

Could use some of this refreshing candor, as well.

"We were not dancing the tango in my office every day," Mr. Jordan told The Wall Street Journal of the two executives' relationship. But he supported Mr. Karmazin for CEO when he told the CBS board of his decision to resign.

Mr. Jordan was renowned for a photographic memory, and liked to write mystery and historical novels in his spare time. None were published. He served on numerous corporate boards, and was chairman of the United Negro College Fund for a decade starting in 1994.

He once appeared in a public service announcement for the fund, alongside another Michael Jordan. The CEO missed shot after shot while the basketball star caught nothing but net.



MAY 27, 2010 - By STEPHEN MILLER
Executive Remade Westinghouse as CBS
picture: Electronic Data Systems