Quite Early One Morning

A breakfast brigade is wheeling and dealing over eggs Benedict

For this year's executive, a coveted symbol of upward mobility is not the pocket pager or even the in-car telephone but a high-visibility confab over coffee and croissants. The business breakfast has arrived. Whether it is an attempt to keep ahead of the competition, catch up with the Japanese or just get away from the office telephone, more and more corporate chieftains are gathering at ordinarily uncivilized hours like 7:30 a.m. to make deals.

In Los Angeles, movie studio heads pass film scripts along with English muffins at the Bel Air Hotel and the Polo Lounge. Executives from Pillsbury and Control Data help keep the wood-paneled, chandeliered rooms of the Minneapolis Club filled to near capacity on weekday mornings. At New York City's Regency Hotel, Publisher Rupert Murdoch, Labor Lawyer Theodore Kheel and Investment Banker Felix Rohatyn frequently occupy adjacent tables. Bob Tisch, chairman of Loews Hotels, which owns the Regency, and a habitual breakfaster, says, "The transactions are very gentlemanlike, but there is big money negotiated here."

For breakfast clubbers like Movie Producer Alan Silverman, a meal of scrambled eggs, toast and coffee at the Polo Lounge is also a chance to catch up on industry gossip. Others say the meal adds an important new extension to the workday. Says Seagram Vice President Mary Cunningham, who had breakfast with Bendix Chairman William Agee at the Helmsley Palace in New York shortly before they announced their engagement: "You are always looking for social situations where you can do business, and breakfast increases those times."

Wherever they eat, executives claim that the business breakfast is more productive than a long, and often liquid, lunch. While traditional brunch beverages like Bloody Marys and screwdrivers are rare, the corporate breakfast need not be spartan. Some executives prefer such healthy dishes as wheat germ and yogurt, but others indulge in eggs Benedict or Viennese crepes. In Minneapolis kippered herring and whitefish are favorites.

Early in the morning, executives are all business. Chitchat is kept to a minimum, and participants go right to work. Notes Rob Cornell, marketing director of Chicago's Ritz-Carlton hotel, where breakfast meetings have doubled in the past few years: "People are fresher in the morning."

Waiters are usually instructed to clear dishes promptly so that adding machines and balance sheets can be displayed across the damask. With office appointments looming, discussions move briskly to their conclusion. Says Ed Meyer, chairman of Grey Advertising: "Breakfast is self-limiting; it's shorter, quicker and more efficient." Meyer likes to be finished eating and off to his office by 9:15 a.m.

Many executives are convinced that early-morning meetings save time and money. By substituting a brief break fast for a lengthy lunch, they can get more work done. Out-of-town trips can be shortened by beginning the working day at 7 a.m. Says John Schulman, a Los Angeles attorney: "A breakfast meeting indicates a degree of seriousness in what you're doing because to start working at 7:30 or 8 a.m. shows you're really interested."