Gateway Loses The Folksy Shtick

At Gateway's North Sioux City, S.D., offices, Chief Executive Theodore W. Waitt meets often and easily with everyone from the chief financial officer to rank-and-file workers. Even after building his personal-computer business from a two-person shop in his parents' barn to a sprawling $6 billion company, Waitt does much of his managing by strolling the hallways. In early June, he popped in on a team designing new self-help software called "Help Spot" and peppered it with questions. The 35-year-old CEO's verdict? "Cool. Keep it up," according to one of the team members.

But impromptu face time with the boss is about to become a Prairieville relic. Come August, Waitt and a team of 20 executives and assistants will move from the cornfields of South Dakota to the beaches of San Diego, Gateway Inc.'s new administrative headquarters. Manufacturing operations and its 5,500 workers will remain in North Sioux City. As for the group out west, it could expand to 200 within a year and, later, swell to 1,000 employees.