Executives: Tips Toward the Top

Cosmetics and soft drinks have few things in common except that leading companies in both fields have long been headed by a couple of tough, almost legendary characters: Charles H. Revson, 59, chairman of Revlon, and Robert W. Woodruff, 76, finance-committee chairman and a major stockholder at Coca-Cola Co. They are not exactly fading away just yet, but last week both firms named two big men to top jobs:

> Revlon went outside the company to find a new president, Dan Rodgers, 46, until now vice president of the competitive American Home Products Corp. With Revlon selling well in cosmetics, Rodgers, who succeeds George H. Murphy, is likely to concentrate on some of the company's subsidiary products, such as shoe polish, dyes, plastic flowers and women's sportswear.

> Coca-Cola's president, J. Paul Austin, 51, becomes chief executive officer, a title he takes over from Board Chairman Lee Talley. Austin demonstrates the growing value of foreign experience to American corporations, for he was Coca-Cola's export chief to sub-Saharan Africa for four years. As president since 1962, he has pushed some of the measures that diversified and brightened up a company that was tending to complacency. He decided to introduce the "lift-top" cap on Coke bottles and cans, helped move the company into coffee roasting.