Raytheon CEO Regrets Not Citing Older Book

Raytheon Co. Chief Executive William Swanson acknowledged a similarity of language between his book on management principles and a 62-year-old text, and said he regretted not citing the earlier work.

The similarity between “Swanson’s Unwritten Rules of Management” and a 1944 text by W.J. King called “The Unwritten Laws of Engineering” is “beyond dispute,” Swanson said.

Carl Durrenberger, a 29-year-old who writes a weblog in San Diego, posted his discovery of the similarity between Swanson’s book and King’s book on his blog April 20.

The New York Times, which reported Durrenberger’s posting this week, said 17 of Swanson’s rules are similar to advice in the older book.