Ready to Give Up the Ghost

Haunted by an image that appeared in newspaper ads throughout the country, the owner of the copyright to Casper the Friendly Ghost filed a suit in 1984 claiming that the logo in advertisements for Columbia Pictures’ “Ghostbusters” infringed on its rights to a Casper character called “Fatso.” A U.S. district court judge in 1986 threw out the $50-million suit--filed by New York-based Harvey Publications--ruling that there are “limited ways” to draw a cartoon ghost.

However, Columbia recently settled the suit over the logo--a cartoon ghost behind the circle and slash that signifies a prohibition--said Alan Harvey, chief editor of Harvey Publications. Harvey said the company, acquired by the Los Angeles-based HMH Communications on Aug. 2, agreed not to disclose the value of the settlement. Columbia executives declined to comment on claims that the spirited dispute was settled out of court.

Zeroing In on Competency

Old-fashioned executives may believe that all it takes to succeed in business is drive, ambition and political savvy. Well, the Hay Group’s management consulting unit thinks that it has a better way to zero in on qualities that make a successful employee.

The company says it has devised a research method to identify “competencies”--a person’s skills, attitudes, style or character--that lead to outstanding performance.

“These are things that never show up in a job description . . . so traditional modes of hiring may bypass these qualitative dimensions,” said Thomas Rollins, director of human resources, planning and development with Hay in Los Angeles. “The easy stuff--the bachelor’s plus five (years of experience)--may be totally irrelevant to job performance.”

For a fee ranging from $20,000 to $80,000, Hay will study a company’s employees, identify qualities that make for success in that firm and devise software to help assess job candidates, Rollins said.

Interestingly, about 20 qualities pop up more often than others in Hay research, Rollins said. They include initiative, a need for achievement and organizational awareness--that is, drive, ambition and political savvy.

Twice-in-a-Trillion Group

It seems that lottery lightning can strike twice in the same place.

In the past few weeks, two sets of Sacramento employees at Weinstock’s, a department store owned by Los Angeles’ Carter Hawley Hale Stores, have pooled resources, bought lottery tickets and hit the jackpot. On Aug. 12, six workers in fine jewelry won $9.38 million in the Lotto drawing. After taxes, that’s $62,561 a year for 20 years for each. A couple of weeks before, a group of nine women from the dresses department won $5.66 million.

To top that off, both groups bought their tickets from the same booth--owned by Jack Ford, son of former President Gerald Ford.

The Sacramento Bee, calling the whole thing “strange, bizarre (and) spooky,” quoted a California Lottery Commission official as saying that the odds against this were a trillion to 1.