How, why a blogger calls CEO a plagiarist

[question everything]

How, why a blogger calls CEO a plagiarist

Media ethicist cites power of cyberspace

By Keith Darcé
STAFF WRITER
San Diego Union Tribune

May 14, 2006

The world separating Carl Durrenberger and William Swanson couldn't be wider. Durrenberger, 29, is a chemical engineer and market developer for Hewlett-Packard's ink jet printer division in San Diego. Swanson, 57, is chief executive of Raytheon Co., a defense contractor based in the Boston suburb of Waltham with annual sales of $22 billion.

But their paths collided in a burst of national headlines last month after Durrenberger revealed on his Web log, or blog, that a collection of commonsensical business rules that Swanson had long claimed as his own creation actually was penned by someone else 62 years ago. Raytheon's board punished Swanson for the apparent plagiarism by freezing his salary this year and cutting his stock award, a slap worth about $1 million.

The slip was particularly troubling because it came from the head of one of the country's most powerful corporations, one that is responsible for manufacturing highly secretive defense products for the military. Questions about Swanson's integrity and honesty could damage the credibility of his employer.

(snip)

While cleaning out his desk for a move to a new office, Durrenberger came across a copy of “The Unwritten Laws of Engineering,” written by California engineering professor W.J. King and published by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1944. As he thumbed through the book, he chuckled at its corny, outdated language, just as he had several years earlier when he received the tome from one of his bosses at Hewlett-Packard.

A few days later, Durrenberger stumbled upon some of the same rules again, but this time they were part of a news article about Swanson that had been posted on an Internet blog written by Jason Kottke, whose popular Web site is part of the engineer's weekly Internet-surfing routine. The article, which originally appeared in USA Today, described another publication, “Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management,” a collection of maxims that the Raytheon CEO claimed to have devised and gathered over the years. By the time Swanson's company printed the rules in booklet form several years ago and started giving them away, the CEO's sayings had gained something of a cult following among corporate executive circles.

(snip)

Here are some of the parallels that he found:

Swanson: “Cultivate the habit of boiling matters down to the simplest terms: the proverbial 'elevator speech' is the best way.”

King: “Cultivate the habit of 'boiling matters down' to their simplest terms.”

Swanson: “Don't get excited in engineering emergencies: Keep your feet on the ground.”

King: “Do not get excited in engineering emergencies – keep your feet on the ground.”

(snip)

Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060514/news_1b14raytheon.html