In the midst of this desert of corporate Darwinism, there is one oasis: the story of Donald J. Bainton, Bainton stands as living proof that even in the aggressive ranks of business leaders, there is room for a cloudy-headed dreamer with no sense of vocational direction. Career Insights has included his story n a section called "Pathways in Organizations," in which seven executives describe the job opportunities in their "functions," which is businessman's cant for the divisions of a corporation.

Bainton's function is manufacturing, and he writers, "When I came back (from the navy), I thought that my talent, education, and background would probably be more suited to sales than a manufacturing. "So far, so goal-oriented. But he continues, "After interviewing with a number of people in the industry, I became convinced that I could make a greater impact on a corporation through the manufacturing function because few people with my kind of education and skills were involved in the area."

Now a reader is perplexed: just what are Bainton's skills and education suited to, sales or manufacturing? His next recollection only adds to the mystery: "After learning what the basic process of manufacturing was all about, I transferred some years later into the marketing area for a two-year stint."

At this point, one wonders whether Bainton may not be cut out for something a little less complicated than making an impact on corporation. He himself acknowledges that those were years of confusion for him:

The skills of manufacturing management and of sales are closely attuned, except that in this manufacturing environment you rare selling yourself and your leadership abilities instead of selling yourself and your products to a customer. That surprised me...

That will also surprise anyone who grew up believing that selling yourself is quit a different function altogether. But the corporate world is full of surprises. For one, Bainton eventually sorted things out enough to become executive vice president and operating officer of the Continental Group And just the other day, a Literature concentrator it Harvard put down his copy of Career Insights and booked passage to the South American jungle.