WALTHAM, Mass., April 24, 2006 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- In response to today's New York Times story regarding "Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management", Raytheon Company Chairman and CEO William H. Swanson has issued the following statement:
"The lessons that lie at the heart of the 'Unwritten Rules' were gathered over a lifetime of experience, reading and listening. The result is an unpublished work that is available free of charge to any interested reader. I sought to provide credit at the front of the 'Unwritten Rules' to all those unnamed sources who had, over the course of my life, contributed a thought or an idea relevant to the compiled work. While many of those sources remain anonymous, clearly, the similarity of the language between Professor King's 1944 book and some of the rules within the 'Unwritten Rules' is beyond dispute.
"For me, the originality of the material was never the rules themselves, but my expression of them in terms of my experience over the years. I hope, in this regard, they continue to be helpful. I regret that over the course of the years and in the process of compiling the 'Unwritten Rules', any reference to Professor King's work was not properly credited.
"This experience has taught me a valuable lesson - new Rule #34: 'Regarding the truisms of human behavior, there are no original rules.'"
Raytheon Company, with 2005 sales of $21.9 billion, is an industry leader in defense and government electronics, space, information technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 80,000 people worldwide.
Contact:
Pam Wickham
781.522.5125
