Executives: Goodbye to Bunkie’s Boys

One way to get ahead in business is to become the protege of a big executive, but the trick is to pick the right one. C. Richard Johnston and Lawrence K. Shinoda thought that they had done so last year when they followed their boss, Semon E. (“Bunkie”) Knudsen, from General Motors to Ford, where Knudsen had become president. Three weeks ago, Chairman Henry Ford II fired Knudsen, telling him that “things just didn’t work out.” Last week Johnston, 44, a top salesman whom Knud sen had made marketing manager of the Lincoln-Mercury division, resigned in protest over the dismissal of his chief.

Shinoda, 39, was fired outright as Ford’s director of special-projects design. In dismissing him, says Shinoda, Styling Chief Gene Bordinat explained: “Things just didn’t work out.”