Globetrotting for Ross
Once, Harry Durity got a call to come to Ross’ London office near Harrod’s. (It is Interesting that Ross used this private office and stayed away from the Tobacco International by Green Park. An extra suite of offices in London was no big deal to him). Harry flew over on the Concorde, arrived at ten in the morning, checked into his hotel, and went directly to Ross’ office. The topic was the sale of Canada Dry and Sunkist to Cadbury Schweppes. Ross and he briefed each other and then Ross went to lunch with Dominic Cadbury. He came back in a couple of hours and said, “We have an agreement. Here are the parameters. You get to New York and negotiate a final deal with the head of Cadbury U.S. Take the Concorde. Harry checked out of the hotel, without having spent more than a few minutes there, and flew back to New York.
This indicated how fast Ross moved, and how he moved people around. Presumably, Harry’s part could have been handled with a few phone calls. (In the old days, RJR would have taken three weeks to get to this point.)