Business: Personal File: Jun. 2, 1961

· To protect its lion's slice of the British gasoline market from hard-driving competitors, Shell-Mex & B. P. Ltd., jointly owned marketing arm of the Shell group and British Petroleum, turned to an articulate advocate of the hard sell. In as the company's managing director went John Emerson Harding Davies, 45, youngest man ever to hold the post. A World War II major who credits the British Army with "giving me an opportunity to develop initiative," ex-Accountant Davies likes to spend his time with salesmen in the field, argues that many decisions that used to consume management's time can now be...