The Next 1 ,000 Years

Sixty-one years ago, in a letter acknowledging a bank draft of $75, Dow Chemical Co.'s Founder Herbert H. Dow wrote: "I think this will last us quite a while." Last week, in the Wall Street offices of Smith, Barney & Co., Dow's present President Leland I. Doan received another check. The amount: $100,425,000. Doan didn't think it would last long. Dow will probably be looking for more money in four years.

Dow's fresh money was the biggest single public financing ever done by a U.S. chemical company, a 3% convertible debenture issue that investors snapped up the minute it came to market. With it, President Doan will continue the expansion program that made Dow the fastest-growing company in the fastest-growing U.S. industry. In the past six years, Dow has spent $441 million on expansion, quadrupled its sales to $410 million and its net to $36 million. Now fourth among U.S. chemical producers,* Dow plans to spend approximately $100 million a year for the next four years to carry on its expansion in such basic lines as chlorine, magnesium, ethylene, agricultural chemicals, drugs and Pharmaceuticals (Dow is the biggest U.S. bulk maker of aspirin).

Clean Sweepdown. Most of Dow's explosive postwar growth has come since 1949, when Leland Doan became president after the plane-crash death of his brother-in-law Willard Dow, son of the founder. Doan, now 57, joined the company soon after graduating from the University of Michigan (chemical engineering) in 1916. Rising through the sales department, he built a reputation as an organizer, and was made sales manager in 1929. When he took over the top spot in 1949, organization was just what the company needed. Under brilliant Willard Dow, the company had been a one-man show.

Doan ordered a clean sweepdown, fore & aft. He delegated authority to his department heads (e.g., magnesium, plastics, industrial chemicals). He trained his sales force to become market and production analysts who could help Dow's industrial customers plan their sales.

Temporary Dips. In addition to expanding basic lines, Doan has also worked to plug plastics, which he feels is the chemical field with the most promise. Among Dow's plastic consumer items: radio cases, toys, housewares. One likely new project is volume production of titanium, the new wonder metal, if Dow can bring the cost down from the present $5 to $7 a Ib.; another is a big expansion in saran fibers for use in auto seat covers, draperies, etc. In the past few months, there has been some softening in the chemical market as a whole, but President Doan does not worry about such temporary dips. Said he: "We build in good times to catch up, and in poor times for the future. We are planning for 100 years and thinking in terms of 1,000 years."

*Top three: Du Pont, Union Carbide, Allied Chemical & Dye.

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