Unemployed And Loving It

You're 54 years old, heading a $61 billion food and tobacco conglomerate, and it's been a dog of a year. Profits are wobbly, the stock is in the tank, and restive shareholders are urging you to break up the company. You'd like to oblige, but your predecessor, who still wields clout, fights the plan. The board sides with him. What do you do now?

Michael A. Miles, CEO of Philip Morris Cos., called it quits. On June 17, facing near-unanimous antagonism from his directors and from former Chairman Hamish Maxwell--who had voted against splitting Philip Morris into food and tobacco units three weeks before--Miles delivered his resignation. He ditched New York, and has spent the days since immersed in David McCullough's Truman and H.R. Haldeman's diaries.