Who Will Run Harman Now? Who Else?

Sidney Harman never gave up running the company he founded, so the sudden departure of his chief executive Monday after just four months on the job won't cause any disruption at District-based Harman International Industries Inc., analysts said this week.

Harman, the 88-year-old executive chairman of the high-end audio manufacturer, would hardly disagree. "It could readily be argued that we don't need a CEO except for one thing," Harman said yesterday. "Although he is enormously active and very bright, the chairman is, by chronological matters, a very old man. So the need for a CEO is an insurance policy."

He needs a successor, not a replacement, he suggested, because of course he's going to retire eventually -- "within the next 25 years."

Douglas A. Pertz, who came to Harman in May after several years as chairman and chief executive of IMC Global Inc., a producer and marketer of phosphate and potash nutrients for the agriculture industry, left this week with a $3.8 million severance package.

Analysts said his job would be tough to fill. "They need to find someone with strategic vision and strong operational skills, but one that can work closely with, and still be willing to answer to, Dr. Sidney Harman, whose name is on the door and still Chairman of the firm," wrote Scot Ciccarelli, an RBC Capital Markets analyst. "We believe it will be difficult to find the 'perfect suitor' for such a job."

Harmon is likely not to dispute that analysis.

"The only concern that was expressed in those reports was that the chair continues to be very active in the company and that might discourage an otherwise very qualified candidate who really wants to run the show all by himself. That's not unreasonable," Harman said.

"On the other hand, in this company we have had executives who worked for a long time with me and found it both constructive and rewarding. So we need to find one very qualified candidate."

The company, which also makes high-end video and electronic systems, was founded by Harman in 1953.

Harman said Pertz's departure wasn't caused by one event and that it wasn't a particular failing on Pertz's side or a failure by the company to meet his expectations.

"There are aspects of judgments and leadership that are impossible to assess, or at least I find it impossible to assess those matters . . . through interviews," Harman said. They "can only be determined through experience."

Harman called himself demanding and "someone who seeks excellence and tries to provide it."