Rare Asset

As head of the Italian subsidiary of Worthington Pump International Inc., the world's largest pump company, Paolo A. Gamboni acquired an asset that continues to elude most Italian business men: he won credibility with labor. While other firms were crippled by strikes or outsize contract settlements, Worthington Italiana multiplied its sales fivefold in the past ten years. In 1970 Gamboni was also put in charge of Worthington companies in five other European countries, and last month he was elected president of Worthington Pump International itself--a subsidiary of Studebaker-Worthington Inc. --which operates in 14 countries and expects to have 1974 sales of $250 million. He thus becomes, at 50, the first Italian ever to head an American-owned multinational corporation.

An enthusiast for planning and new products, Gamboni gave his employees a sense of participation by asking them for new ideas and holding twice-yearly special meetings to brief labor on what the company was doing. When Worthington Italiana went public last year, each of the 750 employees was offered 100 shares of stock at a special price. Now some workers paste stock price quotations on the side of their presses, and others ask Gamboni how long will take the company to amortize the cost of their machines. As new head of Worthington International, he has informed the directors that he will continue to make his home in Monza, just outside Milan, on the ground that a multinational cannot be run properly from offices in New York.

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