Owners Invited

Rare is the small stockholder who bothers to go to annual stockholders' meetings or even answer proxy requests. So complacent are the stockholders of General Mills Co. ("Gold Medal Flour," "Wheaties," etc.), who have been paid $6 preferred and $3 common dividends--all earned--every year since 1929, that last summer moose-tall, chipmunk-cheeked Chairman James F. Bell arrived speech in hand at his annual meeting, to find 6,716 common stockholders absent,three present.

Chairman Bell decided that if the stockholders would not come to their company, the company should go to its stockholders. After all, corporations are often accused of being run by managements, who do not consult the owner-stockholders. After all, the good will of 9,865 stockholders (including 3,146 non-voting preferred)--who are also consumers and voters--is worth having. To lure General Mills stockholders, Mr. Bell issued invitations to regional get-togethers promising to "acquaint them with its affairs." So far he has held five such meetings, in Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Manhattan. Three more will be held soon: Buffalo, Boston, Minneapolis. Meetings were held in mid-afternoon and better than 20% of local stockholders turned up. Biggest number: 425 in Manhattan.

Instructive were these meetings of the real owners of the corporation with their management. Most of the stockholders sidled in, a little embarrassed, more than a little flattered when jovial Chairman Bell shook them by the hand. He tried to make them feel at home, showed them lantern slides of directors and executives who were not present, as well as of General Mills' mills, process, products. The company comptroller explained to them a simplified balance sheet ("Liabilities--What we owe").

All this was highly instructive for a good many stockholders but a strange commentary on the theory that a company's management should consult the will of its owners. The owners managed to ask a few simple questions (what are working conditions in the firm's mills?), a few naive questions (what can you do to change the taste of bread?), a few indiscreet questions (what do Wheaties' baseball broadcasts cost?), but seldom a question that made real business sense about the dollars-&-cents policies of the company. The management provided some discussion of generalities, including "sound economic ideas" and "costly experiments with business," but what most stockholders seemed to understand best were bowls of Wheaties and Corn Kix--dished up out of a big soup tureen and served with sugar and cream--partaken of by guests (owners) and hosts (management).

In spite of the best will in the world, Chairman Bell did not appear to have got very far in letting stockholders have an effective voice in their company. Nor did it appear that General Mills' stockholders were a whit different from those of any publicly-owned company. The experiment seemed much more likely to prove that modern stockholders, although the beneficiaries of a company, are mostly a total failure in the old-fashioned role of proprietors.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.