A DOZEN executives in business suits are seated along an oblong table. At one end is a screen on which slides showing columns of figures are being projected. At the other end is a hefty, bald man. He is the only one in the room in his shirt sleeves.

"I've been pushing you guys to spend more on research and development in this division for five years," he says. "Now it's judgment time. Where are the new products? We're not with it enough, guys. We need products to overcome competitive problems. What am I going to tell 12,000 stockholders? That the division's sales are going to be down one million-six?"

From midway along the table comes an answer: "Let me tell you something, Dick. The guts of this division is electrical hose. You had an exclusive product 12 years ago, and you still have it. That's where the R & D money has been going."

Another man adds: "And we're not going to be down one million-six."

Dick is Richard J. Jacob, chairman and chief executive officer of Dayco Corp., a manufacturer and distributor of thousands of products. The scene is the board room at Dayco's headquarters in Dayton, Ohio. The occasion: budget planning for one of Dayco's 14 divisions.

What's a researcher worth?

Mr. Jacob still isn't satisfied with the extent of research and development in the division. "What are we paying new R & D people now?" he asks. "Is it 20,000?

What would happen if we paid double that?"

The first man who had answered him before, Wilhelmus Waanders, Dayco's vice president of R & D, says he can't get new people who are worth that much. Dick Jacob expresses mild disbelief. "I wouldn't work for less than $40,000, I'11 tell you," he says. Mr. Waanders says: "I wouldn't hire you."

The room explodes in laughter.

Other subjects are explored. Dayco principally manufactures rubber and plastic components for industrial products in the transportation, agriculture, energy, printing, textile, and construction fields. The company is, for example, the world's largest manufacturer of industrial V-belts, so named because these belts, which drive parts of machinery, are tapered.

In the vast majority of its product lines, Dayco is either first or second.

Fighting the competition

Now Mr. Jacob hears that competitors are coming on strong in a line where Dayco has long been the clear leader. "Don't let those guys beat us," he tells the division head and other division executives. "If they beat us, it's your neck. You got that, loud and clear?"

The words may be gruff, but there is a glint of friendly humor in his eyes. Nobody seems intimidated. While Dick Jacob clearly is the boss, it is also clear that there is a lot of mutual respect in the room. The atmosphere, obviously, is one of camaraderie - macho camaraderie. Language is often salty.

An executive complains that it has been taking too long, after proposals for projects have been formulated, to get final approval for them. There is a lot of back and forth about how to speed up procedures.

While others talk, Mr. Jacob listens, occasionally throwing in a suggestion. Finally, he says: "Do it any way you want to. But do it."

A business lunch

Lunchtime arrives. Instead of adjourning to a restaurant or the Dayton Racquet Club, which Mr. Jacob frequents of an evening, everyone stays put. Secretaries bring in hamburgers from a nearby fast-food place. And Dick Jacob keeps the conversation going, not about sports, other forms of recreation, or politics--there's plenty of time for that over drinks in his office at the end of a long day—but about business.

While in Florida on a business trip recently, it seems, he had stopped by an apartment building he owns and chatted with the building's young maintenance man. "The kid has developed a kit for patching plasterboard," he says. "Anybody here ever try patching plasterboard? What do you think the market for a kit would be?"

A discussion of the possibility of Dayco's producing such a kit follows, a discussion that continues until lunch is over and everyone goes back to the past and predicted sales, profits, and cost data that are beamed on the screen at the end of the table. Through it all, Dick Jacob is the dominant figure--sometimes offering suggestions, sometimes pulling them from others, weighing what is said, and making decisions.

There you have him--Richard J. Jacob, 58, co-founder, with his brother, of a small plastics company whose phenomenal success led him to his present position. He now heads a company with 11,700 employees and sales that topped $570 million last year. Dayco's revenues have increased 84 percent since he became chief executive officer in 1971, and its earnings have increased 157 percent.

A driver, not a coaxer

When you talk to people who know Dick Jacob well, you realize some important facets of his business leadership were evident at the budget meeting.

"He's a leader, without any question about it," says Frank G. Anger, a retired banker who is a member of Dayco's board of directors. "He's a driver more than a coaxer. He's very, very sharp."

Says Ernest F. Dourlet, Dayco's president and chief operating officer: "Dick has more ideas in any one day than an average guy does in a month. He doesn't expect them all to be good. I've heard him come up with ideas that I thought couldn't possibly be right. Then it turned out there was a lot to them."

Louise (Pat) Jacob, Mr. Jacob's wife, says that "Dick is very enthusiastic. He talks to people everywhere, with an eye to business. One time he was in the hospital for a physical, and he got to talking with the man in the next bed. He thought the man was smart, and he wound up hiring him."

Mr. Jacob himself is fond of recalling such hirings: "There is a fellow who was a waiter at one of the eating spots here. He really served a dinner-- there were no errors whatsoever. I said: 'Listen, I'11 bet you can even take an order for an industrial belt.' He said:'You bet I can.' He's working for us now.

Most of the hirings have turned out well. Mr. Jacob's interest in talking to people is linked to perceptiveness about them. He is celebrated for going through one or another of the company's dozens of plants, chatting with foremen, and then telling managers that such and such a foreman is a good candidate for promotion, demotion, being shifted horizontally, or staying where he is. "Usually," Mr. Dourlet reports, "Dick's judgment in these cases is good."

Emphasis on inventiveness

Mr. Jacob has long emphasized research and development in his company, as evidenced by his sponsorship of the Dayco Inventor's Club. Members, company employees ranging from production line workers to Mr. Jacob himself, have invented hundreds of patentable products or techniques. Each member is ceremoniously presented with a plaque in addition to other rewards.

Another aspect of management by Dick Jacob is stringent cost control. At a time of rising profits, Dayco cut its dividend in order to reduce borrowing expenses. Though executives are well paid, their offices, including Mr. Ja cob's, are not lavish. Executives, again including Mr. Jacob, ride economy class on airliners.

Expenses are cut in other ways, too. Dayco people tell of the time that Dick Jacob and a couple of other executives had to charter a plane when bad winter weather grounded a commercial airliner. There were seats to spare in the chartered craft. They were filled after Mr. Jacob's associates went around the terminal looking for passengers. Contributions from the other passengers helped defray the cost of the flight.

Two apartments in one

Dick Jacob, who frequently travels around the U. S. and abroad, lives in a comfortable Dayton apartment that was created by combining two apartments. The Jacobs feel no need for a house any longer--their daughter is married, and their son is away at school getting a law degree. Besides, the apartment is near Dayco headquarters.

The apartment contains treasured collections of guns, antique watches, and framed autographs of such personages as G. Washington, A. Lincoln, and R. E. Lee. But Mr. Jacob's mind is never far from his work.

In the following interview with NATION’S BUSINESS, he talks about that attribute and about other things in his life that have helped him grow big in the business world from small beginnings.

You have been described as a workaholic? Do you really sometimes work 12 to 15 hours a day, seven days a week?

That's true. It's probably because of my inability to get the work done in less time.

Do you expect those around you to put in hours like that, too?

Not necessarily. I think if a man has a job to do, he should do it regardless of the time it takes. But if his desk is pretty clean, he can let go and have some fun.

How do you feel about people who have more time for leisure? Do you envy them?

I don't really envy anybody — other than thin people, because I'm so heavy. I like my work. It's fun. It's exciting.

Do you take vacations?

Yes, but seldom without a customer or a business associate. I feel more comfortable about a vacation if I combine business and pleasure. An example: I am taking two trips to Florida soon, and in both cases I'm taking customers along.

So you never really leave the business behind you?

No. I really don't want to.

Will you retire someday?

I can't say I won't ever retire, but I really don't have plans to.

Do you have other interests aside from business--and your family, of course, and the various educational and civic institutions on whose boards you serve?

Well, for one thing, I repair watches. I'm pretty good at it. I haven't seen one yet that I haven't been able to fix, unless it's a real antique. Then I have

problems. My wife, Pat, had a little sign made which we hang outside our apartment. It says: "Watchmaker to the neighborhood. No charge." I must have 40 watches to repair. It keeps me busy.

I like anything mechanical, and watches are kind of fascinating. I have a number of other interests, too. I collect guns, and I hunt and fish when I have an opportunity.

Do you have trouble finding enough time for these outside interests?

Let me ask you this: If you get home at seven and it takes you an hour to have dinner, what do you do between eight and 11? And if you come home Saturday at one o'clock, what do you do between one and five? There really is a lot of time in your life if you put it to use.

You used to live a ten-minute drive from your office, I understand, but you moved closer. Why?

I think you ought to make commuting time as short as possible. You get more work in.

Even though there might be some cost in the quality of the surroundings of your home?

I don't think that way, okay? I'm sure a lot of people do, but that kind of thinking never enters my mind.

How much effect did your early life have on your life as a businessman?

My father was in the mortgage business in Detroit. I came from a household that had all the advantages. There were five children, and I guess I was the dumbest. I never did much work in school and finally ended up in private schools because that was the only way I could graduate. I'm not sure I know why--maybe it was because I didn't like books and reading.

It wasn't that I was lazy. I did a lot of things that kept me busy. I had a perfume route, I had a magazine route, and I packed Christmas baskets. I made a fair amount of money, and I put it away, too.

But I did so poorly in school--I had some college, but never came close to Graduating - that there didn't seem to be many long-term career opportunities open to me. So my dear father suggested that I join the Army, which I did. That was in 1940. I spent a little less than six years in the Army, getting out at the end of World War II.

I found myself while I was in the Army. I started as a private and ended up a chief warrant officer. I had responsibilities, and I took them seriously. I loved our nation, and I felt the cause was great. I think I developed in the Army.

Did your dad teach you much about the business world?

As we kids became 16, we were given authority to sign checks. I really never tested my father by signing a check, but all the kids knew where the checkbook was, and we all had a sense of what the family was worth, etc.

The family financial condition was discussed. We heard the planning and the ambitions. I followed the same procedure with my own kids.

Did the fact that your father was a businessman have a bearing on your going into business yourself?

It was a matter of not knowing what else to do, in reality. My older brother, Bob, and I went into business together. He was an attorney who never practiced. He was in the war, too, and when we got out, we thought there was an opportunity to do well in business. We were young and didn't know much. If you know too much, you don't do things.

We each put up $5,000 in capital and founded Cadillac Plastic and Chemical Co. We started buying surplus rubber hose and plastic and selling it in the marketplace. For example, we bought plastic sheet that had been used for the domes of airplanes. We would heat it, make it flat, and sell it.

Then we started manufacturing from the scrap. Then we started industry. We felt our stockholders, in the long run, would benefit a lot more by the reinvestment of those funds than they would be getting the money in dividends.

I look at it this way: We work for these people, so let's give them the best judgment we can muster.

Did you sweat out your stockholders' reaction?

I sweat all the time, anyway, so it really wasn't a big deal. As it turned out, we got very little negative reaction. To an extent, I was surprised.

Employees own a big proportion of Dayco's stock, don't they?

About 40 percent. Executives, former executives, and their families own another 15 percent.

Some of that employee ownership is through pension funding, but mostly, it's through our stock purchase plan. We have approximately 2,900 salaried, white-collar employees, and I would say 2,650 of them participate in the stock purchase plan. The proportion of blue-collar workers who are stockholders is smaller.

What effect has all this employee stock ownership had on Dayco?

It gives us a lot more push. Hey, you know, everybody is an owner. They have an attitude of come on, let's really do it. Stock ownership is an important factor with the salaried employees.

However, while our labor relations have been more than satisfactory, I'm not going to say that's because an hourly worker has a stock interest in the company through the pension fund.

How does a hardworking executive like yourself feel about unions that press for shorter hours?

If they can do the same amount of work or more in fewer hours, I don't give a damn. If they can't, forget it. A 40-hour week is a pretty practical approach for a working man's life. I think our nation's productivity would drop off considerably if a 38-hour or 36-hour week became customary.

I don't know that for certain. I'm not an expert in this area. But I do know that you can improve productivity through innovative methods of talking to your personnel--telling your hourly people what productivity is, what it does for them, and what it does for the company they work for. We do a lot of that at Dayco.

How would you characterize your management style? Are you a delegator?

If you don't delegate in a company like this, you will never get things done. There is too much to do. I delegate and check. That's the best way I can describe my management style.

Dayco makes or distributes 30,000 products. How do you keep tabs on them a11?

I don't try. That's not my job. My job is to push and motivate people. It requires motivation to keep new products in development and in the marketplace.

You have a reputation around the company of being quite an idea man. How do you get all these ideas?

I just keep my eyes open. Not many of my ideas are acceptable, but coming up with them is a method of getting people to think. Maybe the thought of using a new type of steel on a product will end up with our using a new polyethylene.

Just thinking about an idea might lead somebody to think of something else that's valuable.

Are your executives paid well?

We pay our executives probably 15 to 25 percent more than the average company of our size and type.

Why is that?

Because I think our people are the best in the industry and are worth it. Too, we don't have anybody leaving us. Our competition can't touch them because, apparently, it doesn't want to meet the pay scales.

We work on a bonus plan. I'11 try to give you a quick shot at it. Salaries of divisional managers, for example, are in the neighborhood of $45,000 to $60,000 a year. The managers can make at least 100 percent of their salaries in addition, based on the following formula: Forty percent depends on improvement in their own operations, 30 percent is based on how well the parent company Dayco does, and 30 percent is based on the judgment of our president, Emie Dourlet, and myself.

The judgment factor goes like this: Do they cooperate? Are they willing to sit and listen and discuss? Will they keep their expense accounts in line? For example, rules are that everybody rides tourist, including me. It's no big deal. But if I get on an airplane and see one of our guys riding in first class, he loses two percent of his 30 percent.

Has that ever happened?

You're damned right that has happened.

There is another part of the judgment factor. What do you do when divisions continually go ahead in sales and earnings, but you know in your heart that they could be doing much better?

I don't have all the answers to that, but I know what I do. I knock a little something off the managers' bonus each year, hoping they will get the message.

You mentioned that executives must ride economy class on airplanes, and I notice that, although your offices are not exactly grubby, they are not palatial, either. Is there a basic company philosophy involved?

Customers are not won by a fancy office. They are more impressed by a balance sheet and by service and quality. Hey, everybody has his own viewpoint in this area. I find no fault with the man who wants to build a fancy office.

You answer your telephone yourself. Is that an economic use of your time?

A lot of people say no; a lot say yes. I know it makes me comfortable, and I can hang up the phone as quickly as I can pick it up.

Do you ever get calls from customers complaining about a product?

I have. And one day about six months ago, I took an order. I had called on a customer with the head of one of our divisions on a Saturday. It involved a plane trip of a couple of hours. There were some problems that had to be straightened out.

Well, we got things straightened out, and as I left I said: "If you still have a problem, give me a buzz." It was just an offhand comment.

A week later, the guy called me on the telephone and gave me an order that lasted about 45 minutes. The remarkable thing was that I didn't make an error, even though I never had written an order for that product before.

How big an order was it?

A couple of hundred thousand bucks. It took a lot of writing.

I understand you don't write memos. Why is that?

I have a telephone, and I have a loud voice. One or the other handles it. What would I want to write a memo for? If I want a new policy written down, somebody else writes it. You know, opening your mail and getting a thousand directives signed by the boss is a lot of hay. When you use the phone, it's done, or at least you hope it's done.

Oh, if it's something complicated, it will be on paper. But I don't write it.

What is the toughest decision you have had to make in business?

That's a good question, but I can't answer it specifically. I think the toughest decisions involve requests for projects requiring capital expenditures. It's tough to say no to people who work for the company-people who are very aggressive and do a good job when the no or the yes is somewhat marginal.

Have events sometimes proved that you made the wrong decision?

Hell, if I hadn't made bad decisions, the company would be ten times larger. Nobody makes all the right decisions. You hope you minimize the wrong ones.

What is the best decision you have made in business?

Well, again, I can't answer that specifically. The best decisions probably have been choosing fine guys to run the company. Very talented people are working here.

If you had it to do over again, is there anything in your career or your life that you would do differently?

Sure. I would have ten kids instead of two, because they are the greatest thing in the world for a family. There isn't anything else I would want other than to be thinner and not talk so much.

What advice would you give to a young person who wants to succeed in business today?