Robert Wood Johnson, the former chairman of Johnson & Johnson, was known to be a terror when he inspected his plants. On one such unannounced visit, the plant manager had a fortunate 30-minute tip prior to his arrival. Hastily he had things spruced up by ordering several large rolls of paper transported to the roof of the building. When Johnson arrived, he was furious.
“What in the heck is all that junk on the roof?” were his first words.
How were they to know that he would arrive in his personal helicopter?
Edward Buxton, Promise Them Anything (Stein & Day), in Reader’s Digest, March 1980