COMPUTERS: Burroughs' Fat Figures

When Burroughs Corp. President Ray Macdonald recently spied a Dali lithograph of a bullfight hanging on an office wall, he jokingly ordered a secretary to paste the letters IBM over the head of the vanquished bull. For the normally straitlaced Macdonald, this was an unusual act. He may not be entitled to the matador's highest accolade, the ears, but he is fighting an impressive battle. Macdonald took charge of the Detroit computer maker half a dozen years ago, when it ranked a distant eighth to IBM. Today Burroughs is up to the No. 4 position in terms of the number of computers installed, and in some respects it is higher than that.

Its salesmen last year wrote more orders for new computers than two of its larger rivals, Honeywell and Univac. It has the industry's second highest profit margin, behind IBM, and on one front Burroughs is even advancing faster than IBM. In a strong market for computer stocks, Burroughs shares last week reached a new high of 208, having climbed 30% so far this year, compared with a 17% increase in IBM's shares.

Not bad for a company that has scarcely 5% of the domestic market. In an analysis of the industry, Arthur D. Little, management consultants, forecast last January that Burroughs "very likely" can raise its market share to between 7% and 9% in the next four years. One reason is its new machines. Burroughs has brought out a series of small computers that fill a link in its product line. These machines rent for about $1,500 a month, can be run by an office clerk, and are designed for small companies, branch banks and hospitals. Burroughs already has orders for 100 new computers.

The company has long made technically advanced and easy-to-use larger computers for an impressive list of customers, including General Motors, U.S. Steel and Barclays Bank. But its growth was limited because a large part of Burroughs' marketing force was oriented to selling adding machines, the product that Accountant William Seward Burroughs started the company with in 1886 (it still makes them). Executive Vice President Paul S. Mirabito says: "Twenty years ago, this was the most stodgy company in the world. It was run by a guy who had worked his way up from the toolroom."

Macdonald, 59, is different, having climbed through marketing. He joined the company in 1935 as a salesman and later ran its international sales division. To build a savvy computer marketing force, he recruited technicians from one of the company's largest customers, the U.S. military. Today, Burroughs has 21,900 sales representatives drumming up business in 120 countries.