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Although Fairchild is chairman of all his companies, he prefers his role of technical adviser. "If things are going well," he says, "I do not butt in. My forte is not management. But when things don't go well, I butt in." Fairchild Camera was showing few signs of growth in 1957 when Fairchild himself stepped in to run the company, "to the consternation of a good many people." But Fairchild brought in hard-driving President John Carter, 40 (with the lure of an option deal that could net him, at current prices, about $8,000,000), now gives him free rein. The company meets Fairchild's definition of growth—25% a year—will gross $80 million this year, earned about $1.60 in the first half compared to 79¢ in the same period last year. Carter is outspokenly independent about Fairchild's role: "He used to make all sorts of suggestions, but no one ever had the nerve to tell him when they wouldn't work out. Now he still makes all sorts of suggestions. The stuff that's no good we screen the hell out. The stuff that's good we do something about."
Fairchild relishes such independence—so long as it gets results. He also thinks that "every growth situation has two elements of leverage—not only the growth of the company itself, but the ability to pick up other companies that have not realized their possibilities." Last month Fairchild Camera gave final approval to a merger with DuMont Laboratories (1959 sales: $19 million), which makes TV tubes and products in other fields where Fairchild wants to expand.
Fairchild realizes that not every company can be a growth company. One of his own, Fairchild Engine & Airplane (1959 sales: $114 million), is in an industry "without growth possibilities." Fairchild Engine suffered from the cancellation of the Goose missile, and its F-27 turboprop transports have not sold well to feeder lines. Fairchild hopes to branch out into new products, feels that "every business has something in it that has growth, even if the business as a whole does not." One new development that could help his company: the USD-5, an unmanned electric-eye drone capable of flying over enemy territory to take pictures and send back data electronically.
The products of Fairchild Recording Equipment Corp. have so far been too expensive to be a commercial success, but Fairchild is confident that it "will make back every nickel eventually." An early backer of Dr. Gabriel Giannini, the noted physicist, Fairchild in 1946 bought into Giannini Controls of California, a manufacturer of transducers and other sensitive flight instruments. He now owns 9% of the company, which is growing at a 25% yearly rate under Fairchild-picked President Donald Putnam, 35.