Mr. Smale is no stranger to trying to make a big, stodgy company more nimble.

Singapore Telecommunications is perceived as a solid but stodgy company in a small and still-closeted telecommunications market.

Mr. O'Neill turned the stodgy company into a highly profitable one by embracing new technologies.

In 1987, it named John Gough, the former chief executive largely responsible for revamping an overcentralized, insular and stodgy company, Australian businessman of the year.

Nielsen, although the dominant player in its field, was a stodgy company, one more attuned to servicing old customers than to creating products for new ones.

Once considered a rather stodgy company, Cadbury Schweppes's recent moves have won support among beverage industry experts.

So far, investors in Britain seem to love Mrs. Scardino's attempt to propel a stodgy company into the new economy.

The Government sees bankruptcies as another disciplining tool to help rid the economy of stodgy companies that have been drains on the nation.

"We're an old, stodgy company," he said.

There will still be Internet jobs, but they are likely to be at stodgy, old-fashioned companies that don't offer stock options (or in-house ping-pong tables).