Employee Benefits: Croquet on Company Time

Some bosses think they can elicit brainstorms from their workers simply by plying them with coffee and doughnuts. But Bruce Katz, president of Rockport Co., a shoe manufacturer in Marlboro, Mass., thinks a little sun and wind surfing are a much better inducement. This summer he is spending a reported $15,000 a month to rent Plaisance, a 20-room chateau by the sea in Newport, R.I., that he has dubbed Camp Rockport. In groups of a dozen, each of his 220 employees takes a car pool to the mansion for two days of sports and shoptalk with the boss. Rockport, a thriving maker of walking shoes (estimated 1985 sales: $68 million), has been growing so fast that Katz feared he was falling out of touch with employees. Says Katz: "We're trying to be a democratic company, one where people are just as important as the profits they make."

Rockport campers begin their days at the ocean with morning calisthenics, followed by seminars on nutrition, stress control, communications and other topics. In the afternoon they can get a tan, swim or play croquet. The program has been so popular that Katz hopes next year to give employees three days at camp instead of two.