Spanking got us where we are today, say US businessmen

And they now agree that it taught them important lessons, essential on the road to success.

"I'm disciplined, detailed and organised," said David Haffner, Chief Executive Officer of Leggett & Platt, one of the largest manufacturing companies in the US.

Mr Haffner, 54, said: "I received the belt when I deserved it, which was about six times a year. The discipline influence remains for a lifetime. It was a major contributor to my success."

A new study published this week by sociologist Eve Tahmincioglu, "Lessons Learned on the Journey to the Top" reports that most company leaders had tough disciplinarians as parents.

Richard Parsons, Chief Executive Officer of Time Warner, said that he was often spanked with a stick or "switch" cut from a tree in the back garden and that it was primarily for misbehaving in school.

Fran Keeth, Executive Vice President of Shell Chemicals, said that she was hit with a stick from the family's peach tree.

All of the bosses asked by Mrs Tahmincioglu said that they were hit by their parents as children and that it did them good.

She said: "It taught them to respect authority. They feared their parents but loved them as well. Their parents would follow through with a spanking when the children misbehaved. Today there is no follow-through."

Women spanked at same rate as men

Women executives said they were spanked at about the same rate as the men.

Nick Turner, 33, the chief financial officer of executive recruiter Kaye-Bassman International, said: "You knew that if you didn't cut the grass right away or chop wood or feed horses, you were going to get a spanking.

"Corporal punishment helped with my success. I needed to learn self-discipline and to focus on a goal. I certainly wouldn't have done that if I had grown up with Mary Poppins.

"I'd say that 90 percent or more executives got spankings and these are people who have turned out to be stable, focused, and competitive guys."

In its own study on business executives and spanking, USA Today newspaper reported yesterday: "The debate over whether Chief Executive Officers are born or made remains unresolved, but there is one thing they overwhelmingly have in common.

"As children, they were paddled, belted, switched or swatted."

The newspaper interviewed 20 CEOs and while none said they were abused, neither were they spared.

University of New Hampshire sociology professor Dr Murray Straus said: "Evidence points to corporal punishment as detrimental. If some spanked children grow up to be successful, even billionaires, it's like saying, go ahead and smoke because two-thirds of smokers don't get lung cancer."

Joseph Moglia, 55, CEO of the giant Internet company Ameritrade said: "Tough love is better than soft love. You need positive reinforcement backed up by consequences. You appreciate good-weather days when you get rain."