Mister Boston
Let me tell you, I am relieved -- relieved! -- to know that Gillette boss Jim Kilts is going to stay on for a full year after the sale of his company to Procter & Gamble is completed. (At $29 million, what he made last year, why wouldn't he?) It is comforting to know he will be there for us, too.
''Let me assure you, Gillette will maintain a strong presence in Boston," Kilts said last week, and as if to underline that, he said Gillette will be increasing its giving to local charities by nearly $2 million in coming years. That's $2 million for Boston, and $173 million -- what Kilts will earn in the megadeal with P&G -- for him. It's what we call a win-win situation in the business world, though some are bigger winners than others, of course.
In that first year, at least -- as long as Kilts is in the saddle, anyway -- the way Gillette operates will change very little. Kilts, for instance, will still fly into Boston from his home in Rye, N.Y., as his schedule allows. The man is going to earn every last dollar of that $173 million (plus salary, bonus, options, housing allowance, use of the corporate jet, etc.) in the next year: Do you really think he is going to enjoy laying off thousands of Gillette people to pay for this deal any more than he enjoyed laying off the thousands who came before them? (And let me say this right now: I admired him for passing on the Coca-Cola job; those crazy Coke people were expecting him to actually live in Atlanta and be part of the community. Can you imagine that for Heaven's sakes? Family first, I say. Family first.)
There should have never been any doubt that Gillette was going to maintain its presence in Boston. My sources tell me Gillette will continue to offer its razors -- both for men and for women -- at Stop & Shop and CVS, too. Ditto for the batteries and the full line of Gillette products -- without exception. ''Boston should be reassured that nothing will change in this regard. Nothing," a senior Gillette executive, who asked not to be identified, told me. And while it is too early for any final decisions, these same sources say P&G is considering renting a doublewide post office box at the South Boston Postal Annex that it will use to continue its Gillette operations in Boston without interruption after the Prudential Center headquarters is cleaned out.
There was an actual Kilts sighting in Boston a week ago, when he and P&G executives ''rededicated" the South Boston manufacturing plant, and promised $200 million in new investment as a demonstration that the World Shaving Headquarters is going nowhere. Think of it as the Galvin Tax.
Massachusetts' feisty secretary of state, Bill Galvin, is tilting at windmills with his investigation of the Gillette sale, but with a couple of subpoenas he saved more jobs in a few weeks than our venture capital governor has created in two years.
Neither Kilts nor the Proctoids had much to say about the 1,100 Gillette employees in the Prudential Center. They didn't have to; those people can see the future. All they have to do is look out the window at the Hancock Tower. By the fall, the Hancock Tower will practically be a see-through building, with hardly a Hancock employee to be found.
But I am told the Other D'Alessandro is very committed to Boston, too. So is Bank of America's Ken Lewis. Both can be found in their Boston headquarters, the Four Seasons, from time to time, particularly when the New York Yankees are in town.
''P&G has really reached out privately and publicly," said Paul Guzzi, the president of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. ''I'm very optimistic that their commitment is real." If you were the president of the chamber, what would you say? And Guzzi has had a chance to say stuff like that so often lately, he's gotten darn good at it
Steve Bailey is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at bailey@globe.com or at 617-929-2902. 