Evening star., 1960-07-08
TALKING OF BUSINESS
Once-Shoky C-E-I-R Rises to Top
Of Computing Service Industry
By WILLIAM MacDOUGALL
Star Stan Writer

II
Some Is executives of the
Pillsbury Co. gathered around
the tables of a swank suburban
Minneapolis country club as if
preparing for a game of poker.
Theirs, however, was a deadly
serious affair: a business
strategy game" which would
continue at intervals for three
days.
Divided into teams Of five
each, the executives pored
rapidly through basic informa-
ton about such things as mar
kets, prices and the availability
of capital. At the end of 20
minutes, each team decides how
much it would invest in a hypo-
thetical product, what amount
it should borrow for capitaliza-
ton of the company and the
price at which the product
would sell.
The answers were telephoned
to the Arlington Offices of
C-E-I-R, Inc, and fed into an
electronic brain. In so seconds
the results were compiled, ana
lyZed and returned to Mime
apolis-a process which would
have taken three days if calcu-
lated by a human being.
At the beginning of each 90
minute round Stimulating a
quarter Of a year,, the execu-
tives studied the results of
their previous decisions and
built their hypothetical busi-
ness on that foundation. At
the end of five years" (ac-
tually three days., the final
results, compiled by C-E-I-R,
were studied for such matters as
profits. sales and Indebtedness.
No one team was the winner,
and each submission was
Judged on its own merits.
| Joint Invention
The game - designed to
train top Pillsbury executives
in improved business manage
ment techniques-was a Joint
invention of the food products
firm, and C-E-I-R, one of the
Washington areas fastest
growing research and develop
ing companies.
Fro ma shaky start in 1852,
C-E-I-R formally the Council
for Economic and Industry Re-
search) has matured and ex-
panded to become the Nations
largest independent CONNER
cial computing service.
In 1859 the corporation
crossed $2,675,115, compared to
1,373,820 in 1858, and re-
ported a net income of $83,623.
In the first half of the current
fiscal year, sales totaled So mil
lion-more than 2.5 times
greater than in the same period
the year before.
Recently plans were an
nounced to absorb the General
Analysis Corp. of California
through an exchange of stock,
an arrangement which would
give C-E-I-R a strong West
Coast outlet, since GAO oper-
ates a similar business.
on to Shaky Start
A service firm which sells
brainpower-human and elec-
tronic-to more than Is Gov
ernment agencies and dozens of
civilian companies, C-E-I-R al
most foundered in its infancy.
It was formed as non-profit
organization by a group of uni
versity professors to perform
Government and inter-industry
research. No sooner had it won
a Government contract, how
ever, than its hackers discov-
cred they couldn't deliver with
out losing money.
Six months passed with moth
ing accomplished, and the De-
fense Department threatened
to cancel. That might we'll have
been the end of C-E-I-R.
"At that point" according to
DR.. Herbert w. Robinson, pres
ident Of the company since
1854, Il and some of my as
sociates were contacted and
asked if we would step in and
take over the management. We
raised $4,000, fantaStically
small by today's standards, and
C-E-I-R's present management
took over"
DR.. Robinson, an English
born NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.,
says he was just enough of "a
stubborn YorkShireman" to
make a go of it.
Stress Performance
within six months" he re-
called, I'VE had assembled a
competent staff of some 80
economists, StatiSticians and
mathematicians, and by con-
centrating on perform n e
rather than selling, we COM
pleted the two-year project in
Y years. AS a result, we re-
ceived substantial follow-on re-
, search contracts from the De-
fense Department"
After two years of steadily
} losing money, the company was
overdue for a change. 1t came
in 1855 when the firm was Of
f1cially converted from nom
! profit status to that of a profit