ABSTRACT
Robert R. Young–financial promoter and speculator–recently decided to displace William White, chief executive of the New York Central Railroad and a lifetime career executive in railroad operation. To make the corporation self-perpetuating, the chief executives feel that they must perpetuate themselves, or men like themselves–future men not only trained but also indoctrinated. The executive career is almost entirely a career within the corporate world, less than one out of ten of the top men over the last three generations having entered top position from independent professional or from outside hierarchies. The criteria for executive advancement that prevail are revealingly displayed in the great corporations' recruitment and training programs, which reflect rather clearly the criteria and judgments prevailing among those who have already succeeded. The sensibilities and loyalties and character, not merely the skills, of the trainee must be developed in such a way as to transform the American boy into the American executive.
