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From a starkly modern office decorated with a bust of Alfried Krupp and a baroque madonna, Beitz runs the company with such breezy efficiency that some colleagues call him "der Amerikaner." A believer in brevity, he returns rambling memos with a big question mark scribbled in brown crayon. He prides himself on backslapping, call-me-Berthold relations with the proud "Kruppianer" workers and Germany's more militant labor leaders.
Many Ruhr competitors would like to see this upstart fall flat. But Beitz continues to enjoy the full confidence of Alfried Krupp, as well as a salary of more than $250,000 a year and a hilltop villa that he shares with his blonde wife. Though there are those who predict a political future for this part-time diplomat and full-time salesman, Beitz insists that he would not trade jobs with any man in Germany, because "here, I am independent."
-Except, of course, the U.S.S.R.