Ross Johnson’s rise to the helm of RJR Nabisco had proceeded with blinding speed: CEO of Nabisco in 1984, the Reynolds—Nabisco merger in 1985, CEO of RJR Nabisco in 1986. If he had stopped there, kicked back, and assumed the life of North Carolina gentry, history might have looked very differently on his career. But Johnson, a man who devoted his life to shaking things up, had no intention of changing his ways. Reynolds Tobacco churned out $1 billion a year in cash, enough to fund the wildest schemes and cover the worst mistakes. “A billion dollars,” Johnson sometimes said reverentially. “You
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