file which includes the original illustrations4 ,see #cigfa-;h4htm or #cigfa-;h4zip3 7https3_/_/www4gutenberg4org_/cache_/epu b_/#cigfa_/pg#cigfa-;images4html7 or 7https3_/_/www4gutenberg4org_/files_/#ci gfa_/cigfa-;h4zip7 ,,the ,,knack ,,of ,,managing by ,,lewis ,k4 ,,urquhart and ,,herbert ,,watson ,published by ,factory ,management ,and ,maintenance #ccj ,west #dbnd ,street ,new ,york ,city1 ,n4 ,y4 ,illustration3 ,a ,mc,g,r,a,w-,,hill ,,publication #ccj ,west #dbnd ,street ,new ,york ,city1 ,n4 ,y4 ,i ,analysis ,someone once said--probably it was ,mr4 ,schwab--that given the right organization it was no harder to manage the ,u4 ,s4 ,steel ,corporation than to operate a peanut stand4 ,and ,mr4 ,schwab ought to know1 although no life-sized portrait of him all dressed up like a peanut vendor has ever been brought to our attention4 ,however that may be1 his statement is interesting--especially interesting because his appraisal of the job of managing very nearly approaches ours4 ,in ,the ,knack of ,managing1 you see1 much of the emphasis will be on the fact that the fundamental ,,principles ,,of ,,management apply to every business alike4 ,and if we may start out with the premise that managing ,mr4 ,schwab's ,bethlehem ,steel ,company is not such a far cry from operating a pretzel plant or a furniture factory1 our battle is already half won4 ,,the ,,principles ,,of ,,management vary not at all1 however different may be the ,,mechanics ,,of ,,application4 ,how often the editor1 how often the equipment salesman1 listens to that time-worn tale of woe3 ,my business is different4 ,so-and-so can do that sort of thing4 ,but ,i make gadgets--and your conveyors1 your air conditioners or whatever it is you write about or sell1 won't do me a bit of good4 ,of course his business is different--different in its individual characteristics1 its financial1 sales1 production1 labor problems4 ,but they are only the ,,clothes the business wears4 ,they may differ from the clothes of another enterprise as widely as the frilly importation from the ,rue de la ,paix differs from the sleazy issue of the ,east ,side sweat shop4 ,but underneath the clothes the artist knows there is the human body--and a study of anatomy is necessary before he can paint the picture4 ,beneath the clothes of the business are the principles of management--,the ,,anatomy ,,of ,,management--the framework upon which the completed structure is built4 ,doesn't it all boil down to something like the ,colonel's lady and ,judy ,o',grady8 ,one1 presumably1 wore a brief peignoir with a ,paris label2 the other1 a substantial bungalow apron from a department store basement4 ,but weren't they sisters under the skin8 ,stripped of all the furbelows--the details of operation1 of tools1 of materials--the objectives of our steel master1 our peanut vendor1 our pretzel maker1 our furniture manufacturer1 are one and the same thing4 ,their every-day job1 in short1 is to get something well done with maximum dispatch and at minimum expense4 ,that's management's job4 ,it goes for every type of enterprise2 whether it involves the use of a million dollars' capital1 or only ten cents' carfare--or a few minutes of a man's time4 ,the clothes matter not at all4 ,beneath them the fundamental steps in managing are identical4 ,the basic ,,knack ,,of ,,managing is the same4 ,consider one of the simplest forms of business enterprise--the delivery of a message4 ,the errand boy--if he's worth his salt and is really managing his job--does in principle exactly what the general manager of the glass plant1 the automobile factory1 the textile mill1 does when he comes face to face with his problems4 ,in principle1 mind you4 ,,first--this is the errand boy managing his job--he settles in his mind exactly where he has to go4 ,not just over to ,federal ,street--but to #fc ,federal4 ,in a word1 he ,,analyzes ,,the ,,business or the job to be done4 ,,analysis1 then1 is the first step4 ,,second--he figures out the shortest1 most economical way to go there4 ,in other words1 he ,,plans ,,the ,,doing ,,of ,,the ,,job for the least expenditure4 ,,planning is the second step4 ,,third--shall he walk or shall he ride8 ,shall he do the work himself8 ,or shall he hire someone else to do it for him8 ,his third step1 you see1 is ,,organization4 ,he organizes the handling of his work4 ,the right organization1 said ,mr4 ,schwab---- ,,fourth--he must get service4 ,there are other errand boys4 ,there are elevator men1 office boys to meet and get along with if he is to execute his errand with the greatest dispatch4 ,now1 you see1 he's ,,handling ,,the ,,help4 ,the manager of the piano plant1 the agent of the cotton mill1 would call that phase of his job ,,industrial ,,relations4 ,,fifth--,all the time he's planning1 going and doing1 he never loses sight of the final object of his errand4 ,he never forgets he has a message1 perhaps a bunch of securities1 to deliver4 ,he keeps his eye on the parcel he's carrying4 ,he gets a receipt before he lets go of it4 ,in other words1 he ,,supervises ,,and ,,cares for his business4 ,the manager of the shoe shop1 of the furniture factory1 never forgets the final objective4 ,after all1 it's ,,profit4 --------------------------- ,analyzing the ,job --------------------------- _/ _/ _/ _/ -------------- --------------- ,planning the ,organizing ,operations the ,work -------------- --------------- _/ _/ _/ _/ ------------------------- ,handling the ,help ------------------------- ----------------------------- ,supervising and ,conserving the ,business ----------------------------- ,now look at the chart4 ,it pictures ,,the ,,anatomy ,,of ,,management4 ,the ,chinese say a picture is worth ten thousand words4 ,and it would take a heap of writing to tell the story more completely1 more simply than this picture4 ,try hanging the clothes of your machine shop1 your woodworking plant1 your paper mill1 on it4 ,,they ,,fit1 don't they8 ,true1 the chart is drawn from one of the most primitive tasks of management--the simple delivery of a message4 ,but suppose the boy doesn't deliver the message himself1 but has an assistant4 ,won't it be necessary to go through exactly the same motions8 ,suppose1 instead of one message1 there are fifty4 ,fifty assistants will be necessary4 ,will the job of managing vary a jot--or even a tittle8 ,now substitute fifty boxes for fifty messages4 ,the boxes have to be shipped4 ,the same processes of thought1 the same principles of management1 apply4 ,if1 instead of fifty boxes to be shipped1 fifty machines are to be manufactured--or if instead of fifty machines it's fifty thousand1 and a thousand men and a million dollars of capital are to be employed1 every one of the five principles shown on the chart will be used4 ,and every essential point in the management of the business could be covered by those five fundamentals4 ,now substitute ships or shoes or breakfast food for the machines we have been talking about1 and it becomes clearer than ever that this ,,business ,,of ,,managing recognizes no industrial fences4 ,learn to manage a peanut stand and1 in principle1 you are well on the road to knowing how to handle the affairs of the ,u4 ,s4 ,steel ,corporation4 ,five steps there are3 7#a7 ,analyze2 7#b7 ,plan2 7#c7 ,organize2 7#d7 ,handle2 7#e7 ,supervise4 ,tackle any job on this basis and follow through4 ,the chances that success will crown your efforts far outweigh the possibilities of failure4 ,at least1 approaching a job from these five successive angles should limit the causes of failure to circumstances quite beyond your control4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,five ,,principles ,,of ,,management1 then4 ,their skillful application to a business or to a job is the ,,knack ,,of ,,managing4 ,to do a real bang-up job of managing1 whether carrying a message or directing a million-dollar business1 the first step is3 ,don't make a single move until you've found out exactly what needs to be done4 ,but our first ,do turned out to be a ,don't4 ,so let's restate it4 ,find out exactly what has to be done before you make a single move4 ,you've heard that before8 ,and it doesn't mean a thing8 ,neither did it mean a thing to a bright young man who was taken on as production manager in a shoe factory4 ,the shoes were good4 ,prices were right4 ,business was booming4 ,the factory was full of orders4 ,but somehow or other shoes weren't getting shipped on time--or anything like on time4 ,three to four weeks late came to be the customary thing4 ,and customers were1 needless to say1 kicking like steers4 ,so the bright young man was taken on to get things ironed out4 ,he pitched in with vim and vigor4 ,the first morning's mail brought a dozen complaints of slow deliveries4 ,people were practically barefoot out in ,kansas and ,ohio4 ,they were waiting for those shoes4 ,ha6 said the new production manager1 ,nous verrons4 ,which means1 even in ,english1 ,now1 for what we are about to see1 make us truly thankful4 ,and he went away from there to see why those orders weren't out the door4 ,he was out to prove something4 ,and ,providence--,rhode ,island--had supplied him with enough ammunition to shoot a manufacturing organization full of holes4 ,each order was traced4 ,one was in the shipping room4 ,what's holding this up8 he asked the shipping clerk4 ,haven't had time to ship it4 ,and we got other shoes that have been waiting longer than those4 ,it's a feast or a famine down here4 ,some days we just can't get 'em out4 ,you're working short-handed4 ,get a couple more packers4 ,you've got to get those shoes out4 ,the customers are hollering like hell4 ,get 'em out6 ,he found another order up in the cutting room4 ,but why report the conversation8 ,it varied only in the number of cusswords used4 ,it was always the old story4 ,can't be done4 ,put more people on then4 ,will two be enough8 ,or had we better make it three8 ,all down the line it went4 ,more people4 ,costs went up4 ,and did orders get out8 ,oh1 yes1 some did4 ,but they got out at the expense of others4 ,there was more congestion than ever4 ,complaints increased4 ,then the big boss called him in--and down--pointed out the increasing costs and asked how come4 ,so the new production manager went back over his trail demanding retrenchment4 ,put 'em on was changed to take 'em off4 ,the big boss tells the rest of the story4 ,he had simply jumped in without finding out what it was he had to do4 ,maybe it was my fault for giving him too much rope4 ,anyway1 he hanged himself--or rather we had to fire him4 ,then we took on a quiet lad who had served his apprenticeship with a large electrical supply house4 ,he didn't know a twelve-iron sole from a three-quarter foxing4 ,but he knew plenty about managing1 as it turned out4 ,i watched him4 ,things were in a bad way1 you see1 and getting no better fast4 ,he did nothing much for several days but read his mail4 ,sat around his office4 ,didn't make a move to boss anyone4 ,stuck his nose in here and there to find out what this clerk or that clerk was up to4 ,but no action4 ,no tearing his shirt4 ,no nothing4 ,and the complaints were coming in with every mail4 ,they never fazed him4 ,one day ,i ran across him up in the fitting room4 ,another time ,i bumped into him he was picking lasts out of the bins4 ,again ,i saw him pushing empty racks into the heeling room elevator4 ,apparently ,i had picked another lemon4 ,looked like the best thing he did was sit around and tap his teeth with a pencil4 ,he fooled me1 though4 ,one afternoon he dropped into my office with a map4 ,he'd drawn it between taps4 ,it was a good map with dotted lines to show just exactly what happened to an order--any order--every order4 ,that map showed when it went into the works1 where it went from there4 ,and so on until it went out the shipping room door4 ,that's what he'd been up to the day ,i saw him picking out lasts4 ,and ,i tell you ,i never had any idea how many things could happen to an order4 ,i never realized how shoes halted and stumbled and staggered around that factory of ours4 ,there were red lines1 too4 ,they showed the changes he proposed making4 ,here he would stop backtracking4 ,here was unnecessary travel4 ,here was an old bottle neck and here was how he was going to crack it open4 ,and look at those lasts lying idle with shoes upstairs waiting to be made on them6 ,that wasn't half4 ,it was actually taking four days to get orders through the office routine4 ,he showed me how certain necessary records that took time to make could be made after the shoes were in work4 ,other short cuts would wipe whole days off our schedules4 ,there was nothing to it--when you saw it in red ink4 ,in fact there's nothing half so convincing as red ink4 ,there's been none on our books for the past five years--and during that time the shoe business has been no bed of roses4 ,what he proposed was simple as pie--if only someone had stopped to think4 ,we'd simply got into bad habits4 ,we were handling the work the same way we'd handled it back in the days when grandfather started the business4 ,and this fellow had been smart enough to wait and wonder why4 ,not wonder why either4 ,he went and found out how come4 ,in thirty days we were back on earth4 ,we were getting shoes out on time--many many days sooner than we'd even been able to before4 ,and all because a smart young man1 who didn't know a thing about shoes but a whole lot about managing1 sat and tapped his teeth and drew a few pictures4--,all because he had been in no hurry to act until he had found out just what had to be done4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it is so easy to jump to conclusions6 ,if you look about a bit1 you will see plenty of men who don't stop to find out what needs to be done before they start trying to do it4 ,they're like the shortstop who hurries his play and tries to throw the runner out at first before he really gets his hands on the ball4 ,an error is more often than not the result4 ,,managing1 such men will tell you1 is putting pep and punch into your work4 ,pep and punch were once good words4 ,but their good qualities have been so often extolled that most of us have lost sight of the fact that all the drive in the world is so much wasted energy when it isn't directed along the right lines4 ,and when it isn't so directed1 it comes pretty close to being the lowest form of human endeavor4 ,witness the go-getter who really doesn't know what it's all about1 but often succeeds in covering up a world of defects under a cloak of ill-directed energy4 ,other men think they are finding out what needs to be done when actually they aren't even getting close to the root of the matter4 ,with the best intentions in the world1 they are grasping at the first straw the wind blows their way4 ,eureka6 they shout when they haven't found it at all1 but are merely jumping all the way over the facts to conclusions6 ,actually to know your business or your job demands ,,analysis4 ,you have a right to duck4 ,it's another of those words that work overtime and have suffered as a result4 ,a certain type of superficial business executive has done analysis no good4 ,to him the impressiveness of the word suffices--to the complete exclusion of the simplicity of the act itself4 ,and so analysis to you and you and ,,you has come to mean involved1 complex research--running around a lot in circles and getting exactly nowhere4 ,analysis has become for you an ,a#a example of the phrase-maker's art4 ,,real ,,analysis of any problem in business can1 however1 be simple--in fact1 it can be nothing else but simple4 ,analysis1 says ,noah ,webster1 is a resolution of anything1 whether an object of the senses or the intellect1 into constituent parts or elements2 an examination of component parts1 separately or in their relation to the whole4 ,whooee6 all that when he might have said ,,taking ,,to ,,pieces4 ,for analysis is literally that--taking a thing to pieces to see what makes the wheels go round4 ,not1 however1 with the destructive intent of the small boy who strews his watch all over the floor1 but with the avowed purpose of getting right down to the sort of brass tacks which make it possible to see the composition of the whole clearly and plainly4 ,analysis which befogs the issue is not analysis at all4 ,it's--in the vernacular--a lot of hooey4 ,but the ,,right ,,kind ,,of ,,analysis breaks down the problem into its component parts--without losing sight of each part's relation to the whole4 ,there may be only two parts to a job of managing4 ,the messenger who analyzes his business correctly will find exactly two3 where to go and what to do after he gets there--the simplest kind of problem and the simplest type of business analysis4 ,but if the analysis consisted of twenty pieces instead of two1 it would be no harder2 it would only be longer4 ,the production manager in the shoe factory analyzed his job correctly when he mapped out the route of an order4 ,all he did was take the manufacturing process to pieces so that he could put the pieces together again to form a more efficient whole4 ,so whether there are two or twenty or two hundred pieces1 the act of ,,analyzing--of ,,taking ,,to ,,pieces--differs only in the amount of territory it covers4 ,naturally it will be a somewhat more lengthy process to analyze the job of managing a steel mill than to separate a peanut stand and its operation into a few component parts4 ,but the approach is always the same4 ,and no matter how good you may be with the woods1 how the approach does affect the final score6 99 99 99 99 99 ,consider for the moment that you have a house built of blocks and want to take it to pieces4 ,a quick and easy way of separating it into its component parts would be a swift kick aimed down around the foundations4 ,a quick method4 ,but comes nothing4 ,there are all your blocks lying on the floor1 but so far as knowing what they're all about1 you're worse off than ever you were before you kicked your house down4 ,the other way of taking your house of blocks to pieces is to start with the roof and ,,work ,,backwards4 ,the very thought1 then1 of taking to pieces suggests the correct way to undertake the analysis of a business or of a job4 ,and a study of the methods of successful managers will convince the doubtingest ,thomas that starting at the top and working down to the cellar is the method they follow in the analysis of any business problem they have to tackle4 ,once a busy ceramic manufacturer found himself in the restaurant business4 ,he knew about all there was to know about dinnerware up to the point where it left his customers' counters4 ,what went on after that was pretty much ,greek to him if you know what we mean4 ,and then he became a restaurateur4 ,all because his brother-in-law got into him for several thousand dollars and then couldn't quite seem to make the darned thing pay a profit4 ,brother-in-law knew the game4 ,oh1 yes4 ,he had worked for a number of years as assistant manager in a similar enterprise4 ,with his knowledge of the business1 he should have made a success of this cafeteria of his4 ,he knew how to handle the help1 how to buy1 how to run the kitchen1 and so on4 ,the operating details were as an open book to him4 ,judged from every outward appearance1 the cafeteria was up to standard4 ,it should have climbed out of the red in short order4 ,he had been taught to buy carefully and to manage economically4 ,well bought1 he announced1 is half sold4 ,he'd read it in a book and he thought he was being a good salesman4 ,still the business stayed in the red4 ,our ceramic friend was faced with kissing his investment goodbye--and probably with making a job in the pottery for a good restaurant man--with throwing good money after bad1 or with getting into the cafeteria business4 ,he figured this business ought to pay4 ,somewhere1 he knew1 his brother-in-law had gone wrong4 ,just where1 he believed he could find out4 ,so he took over the business4 ,brother-in-law stayed on1 leaving the new owner free to observe4 ,and he did nothing but observe for a solid week4 ,each night he made a list of the points in managing which had come up in the course of the day's work4 ,in a week's time he had an accurate list of all the actual jobs of managing1 as all bills except for gas and light and rent were paid and a profit and loss statement was taken each week4 ,then he arranged the list in order of natural importance4 ,it began with marketing and checking bills with deliveries1 and ended with counting the money and depositing it in the bank4 ,hold on1 he thought1 this isn't such a long way from running a pottery4 ,what am ,i in this business for8 ,because1 he answered1 ,i want to leave as much of that money in the bank as possible1 and mark it down as profit4 ,so right away he started to draw pictures4 ,the chart on this page is the result after he had worked it over and polished it up4 --------------------------------------- ----------- ,making -------- the ,service ,keeping ,pleasing _/ ,down ----------- _/ ,expenses _/ _/ -------- ----------- _/ ---------- ,building up --------- ,fixing -------- ------- and ,getting ,prices ,guarding ,net ,maintaining ,more to ,be ,against ,cash the ,customers ,fair and ,waste ,profits ,run-,down ,in ,attractive -------- ------- ,cafeteria --------- ---------- _/ ----------- _/ --------- _/ _/ ,buying _/ ---------- ,supplies _/ ,making ,carefully the ,foods --------- ,attractive ---------- --------------------------------------- ,note how it works backward from his final objective--,net ,profits4 ,now1 questioned his alter ego1 how do ,i determine how much of that money stays in the bank as profit1 and how much has to be checked out right away for expenses8 ,and from his handy list of managerial functions it was plain that it depended on three things--buying right1 selling with as little waste as possible1 and keeping expenses down4 ,now we're getting somewhere1 he said to himself4 ,those things lead me right into my next job--which is to fix prices fairly4 ,for what's the use of buying right1 handling supplies carefully and keeping expenses right down to the bone unless my selling prices cover costs1 yield a profit1 and still look reasonable to the public8 ,yes1 and the most attractive prices1 backed up by careful buying and all the rest1 wouldn't keep the dollars clinking merrily over the counter unless the food was so good and the service so excellent that customers bought liberally and came back for more4 ,by this time1 you'll note1 on taking another peek at the chart1 he had worked right back to his ,number #a job--getting more customers in4 ,thus1 by ,,analysis1 he found out definitely what had to be done--and what had to be done first4 ,brother-in-law thought he knew1 but he had begun at the wrong end4 ,he had been looking after expenditures first and receipts last4 ,he was trying to squeeze a little margin out of his receipts before he did anything about getting the receipts4 ,how different the new owner's viewpoint6 ,his brother-in-law1 he found1 was thoroughly competent4 ,he'd simply got off on the wrong foot4 ,in the kitchen and the storeroom1 he was a good operator4 ,but the new owner's place was out front4 ,his job was to get more customers1 get them to spend more--and to give them such good food and service that they would come back and bring their friends4 ,he began by spending money4 ,took out the gas pipe at the entrance4 ,replaced it with a brass rail4 ,provided a small lounging room where customers could wait for their friends4 ,put in upholstered chairs so they could be comfortable while waiting4 ,put attractive uniforms on attractive serving girls4 ,there was an air of good taste about the place when he got through4 ,then he changed the arrangement of the counters4 ,but you know all about that--how the desserts came first so they would catch your eye before your tray was too heavily loaded with the heavier part of the meal4 ,staples which offered a small margin of profit were relegated to places in the rear4 ,dishes that made the best profit got the positions up front4 ,each day he offered a low-priced special4 ,thus he planned to increase customers' purchases4 ,and the business began to grow4 ,that's all there is4 ,there isn't any more4 ,today he doesn't own a chain of cafeterias extending into many cities and feeding many thousands of people every day at a good profit4 ,he's still a very successful ceramic manufacturer--and a cafeteria proprietor4 ,i flew in the face of tradition1 he says4 ',first watch your kitchen' is the cry of the restaurant man4 ,but ,i started with what ,i wanted--net profits--and ,,worked ,,backward to make conditions that would provide net profits4 ,,volume ,,of ,,business had to come first4 ,i had to get it before ,i could get a margin of profit4 ,no doubt ,i could go out in the kitchen today and save some money4 ,if ,i went to market myself1 maybe ,i could save a cent a pound on my meats4 ,but ,i can't give up my attention to the 'front' in order to watch the 'back4' ,as soon as ,i do that ,i'm going to be right back where ,i started4 ,it would sound like heresy1 wouldn't it1 if we hadn't sat in and watched him begin with his final objective and work back through the means which make the objective possible4 ,only by careful analysis would he have had courage enough to ,,follow ,,his ,,plan ,,through to its successful conclusion4 ,and here's the amusing sequel4 ,today1 as he still dabbles at feeding people1 he will admit that he's a better ceramic manufacturer as a result of his cafeteria experience4 ,his pottery had always yielded a nice profit4 ,when he sat down with his sheet of coordinate paper and analyzed it1 he found his job of management differed not at all in its fundamentals4 ,his first job he found was out front getting more customers in4 ,a better knowledge of markets1 a better job of selling1 a better product--those were the ways to get the customers in and make them come back for more4 ,and his need for a better product led him out into the plant where he found that tunnel kilns with exact temperature control would more than treble the production of the old periodic kilns--and would produce better ware4 ,but that's another story4 ,the important thing1 anyway1 is not what he found had to be done in the cafeteria and in the pottery1 but ,,how he found it4 ,he took his business to pieces--,,backwards4 ,he began with the objective he wanted to get--,,money4 ,it was a simple matter to find that to get money from the business he had to get customers to come in and spend money2 that to get customers to come in he must make his place look like a good place to come to2 that to make his place look attractive he must spend money on equipment and thought on the arrangement and display of food4 ,and there he had his big job cut out for him1 with the other jobs following along in natural sequence4 ,it altered the whole ,,method ,,of ,,management4 ,how this ,,method ,,of ,,management is applied to your job is shown in the chart which follows4 ,it's a skeleton of what the cafeteria man did4 ,indeed1 it's more than that4 ,for it shows what every manager--whether he manages a steel mill1 a punch-press department or a time-study job--must do if he is to get an honest-to-goodness ,,perspective ,,of ,,his ,,work4 ---------------------- ------------ ---------------------- ----------- ,the ,work ,the ,means ,the ,final to ,be ,done for ,accomplishing ,it ,objective ------------ ---------------------- ----------- ---------------------- ,it can be done very simply4 ,just a sheet of paper ruled in small squares--you can buy it at any stationer's--on which to fill in the steps you must take in between what you have to do and what you seek to accomplish by it--and some careful thought as to just what your job is and why it is to be done1 will develop a true ,,analysis of your problems which will beat reams and reams of typewritten words4 ,remember the words of the ,chinese philosopher3 ,a picture is worth ten thousand words--and reflect how clever these ,chinese are6 ,the ,,means ,,for ,,accomplishing the final objective may be many or few4 ,you have seen the cafeteria-manager's problems on the chart on page #bd4 ,now turn to page #ce and see what a file clerk does beside powder her nose from nine to five4 ,a bright young lady fresh out of high school went to work in an editorial office4 ,there wasn't enough filing to do to keep her happy from nine to five1 so she filled in with a bit of typing here and a trifle of routine clerical work there4 ,thursdays she hopped over to the neighboring bookstore and collected ,saturday ,posts for the editors--now she'll have to do that on ,tuesday4 ,and ,fridays she distributed ,the ,new ,yorkers to avid readers4 ,filing1 though1 was her main job4 ,when she first came1 the managing editor said ,here it is or words to that effect1 and she went to work4 ,those files had always been more or less of a sore point4 ,an editor's mail is nothing if not voluminous4 ,and every day ,flossie the fascinating file clerk got a mass of data which she had to stick away4 ,her great trouble was finding it again after she'd stuck it away4 ,often she couldn't find it4 ,and pretty soon she discovered that she got the blame no matter what was missing--whether an important inquiry from ,peter ,b4 ,stilb or the editor's pipe cleaners4 ,she couldn't do a thing about the pipe cleaners1 but she made up her mind that since she was held responsible when a letter got lost1 she would also have the responsibility of changing the filing system4 ,the system1 she felt sure1 was to blame4 ,one day when she was on her lunch and the editors didn't need cigarettes from the corner drugstore1 she sat down and made an ,,analysis of her problem4 ,curiously enough1 she started at the end and ,,worked ,,backwards4 ,she ,,worked ,,backwards1 not because someone told her that was the right way to analyze her job1 but probably because she was only a file clerk and no one ever told her anything4 ,why1 she asked herself1 do ,i file these old papers anyway8 ,so ,i can find them again1 quickly and surely1 when they're wanted1 seemed to be the only answer to that4 ,what's the right way to file these letters and papers and data so ,i can find them quickly8 was her next question4 ,arrange them like words in the dictionary--,,one ,,place1 and ,,only ,,one ,,place1 where each can be1 was only common sense4 ,in the filing system which she had inherited1 there were a dozen places for each set of data4 ,there was a file on ,industries with sub-files for ,automobiles and all the rest2 a file for data on ,railroads1 with two or three sub-files4 ,the file clerk had to use judgment and discretion in selecting the heading under which each letter or piece of data was filed4 ,and she wasn't hired for judgment and discretion4 ,sometimes1 too1 the editors erred in their descriptions of the material they wanted4 ----------------- ,arrangement of ,file ,so ,that ,title of ,data ,wanted ,will ,show ---------------- ,exact ,spot to ------------ ---------- ,only ,,one ,place _/ ,look for ,it ,to ,produce ,filing to ,file _/ ---------------- ,any ,desired ,all ,data ,regardless - ,cross-,index of ,data ,without ---------- of ,nature ,,classes ,delay of ,thing ,filed ,showing for ,each ------------ ---------------- ,class the ,title of ,each ,piece ,in ,that ,class ---------------- ,one file1 arranged alphabetically--,,one ,,place ,,to ,,look1 regardless of the thing looked for--was the logical conclusion1 viewed from the standpoint of finding4 ,the managing editor was horrified4 ,mix railroads with public service1 and manufacturing with agriculture8 ,why1 asked the file clerk1 looking back at her analysis1 why care how things are kept so long as they can be found quickly8 ,when you send me for ,camels1 do you care1 so long as you get them quickly1 whether they're kept next to ,chesterfields1 or right beside the chewing gum8 ,when the chief asks for data on ',c4,p4,r4' does he care1 if he gets it right away1 whether it was filed next to data on ',coal' or beside facts about other railroads8 ,all right1 objected the managing editor1 suppose someone asks for all the data we have on railroads8 ,not a bad question4 ,it was from a finding standpoint4 ,have a separate cross-index by classes1 was the answer4 ,that is1 under ',railroads' have a card showing the name of every---- ,but look at the extra work4 ,back to her ,,analysis went the file clerk4 ,why file at all1 except to make it easy to find what we file8 ,if we were to set up a system for easiest filing1 we'd simply put everything in boxes just as it comes to us4 ,our main objective is to make information easy to find1 and anything that increases the work of filing but lessens the work of finding1 is profitable4 ,the result was a filing system that has made a great mass of data as accessible as the words in the dictionary4 ,and it has taken the human equation out of the job4 ,no longer does the file clerk have to stop and use her judgment as to where she shall file ,mr4 ,stilb's letter4 ,there is ,,one ,,place ,,and ,,just ,,one ,,place4 ,and the basis of the plan was the simple process of ,,analyzing--of starting with the final objective and ,,working ,,backward--not forward from the work to be done4 ,in hundreds of business offices--in countless industrial plants--time1 labor and money are being wasted today in outmoded methods which1 like ,topsy1 just grew4 ,the manager who started them didn't stop to reason out first exactly what had to be done--or if he did1 he failed to ,,work ,,backward from the final objective4 ,one way is as bad as the other4 ,in fact1 it may even be better not to reason at all than fail to get to the very bottom and reason out the absolute right of what has to be done4 ,at least it takes less time4 ,a sure way1 incidentally1 to avoid making mistakes in your analysis is to do it on paper4 ,a professor of mathematics in one of the large universities always tells his students that no problem should be performed in the head that can be done on paper4 ,make pencil and paper do as much as you can1 for your brain has enough to do to supervise the work4 ,until your mind is trained to the habit of ,,quick1 ,,accurate ,,analysis1 you'll find it helps to do the work on paper4 ,keep on hand a small supply of blank charts like the one on page #ca1 on which to sketch an analysis of new work or of important decisions4 ,the constant performance of this detail will of itself train your mind to look at problems more analytically1 and automatically to sift and classify them more logically4 ,perhaps you can improve on the chart shown on page #ca4 ,surely you can adapt it better to your own needs4 ,but force yourself to some such method4 ,it will help you to cultivate the instinct of ,,shrewd1 ,,rapid ,,analysis--and at the same time it cannot help giving you a ,,keener1 ,,surer ,,insight into the particular problem1 no matter how complex or how simple it may be4 ,sometimes it is the apparently simple problems that need analysis most4 ,for example---- ,did you ever hear of a sales organization that didn't have a stenographic problem8 ,the ,new ,york office of a ,western factory was no exception4 ,the manager was broadminded--even liberal--with his salesmen4 ,but when it came to stenographers1 he was decidedly ,scotch4 ,valuable men sat around the office mornings and evenings waiting for a chance to dictate to a staff of girls which was measured to fit the average load of the day1 but not the rush load of the two hours a day when the salesmen were inside4 ,dictating machines seemed to be the answer4 ,the sales manager figured they would not only solve the dictation problem1 but would further reduce stenographic costs4 ,they were installed4 ,at the same time the stenographic force was cut to insure keeping all the girls busy all the day4 ,good4 ,the salesmen were able to dictate when they felt like it4 ,but often the letters dictated were a day or two late in being transcribed4 ,complaints increased4 ,and the manager lost his temper3 ,what's the matter with this cursed letter-writing business8 he demanded4 ,why the ,sam ,hill do we have typists and stenographers8 ,well1 why8 ,he calmed down a bit1 seized a sheet of paper and mapped out his problem4 ,this is what he wrote3 #a4 ,salesmen's letters are to save salesmen's time and to give prompt service to customers4 #b4 ,i don't begrudge half a day's time of a #bj-;a-day salesman to call on a customer4 ,then it's still profitable to waste half of the time of a #d-;a-day stenographer in order to save a long trip for a salesman1 or to get a quick answer to a question4 #c4 ,what we need is enough typists to transcribe every letter of every salesman promptly1 even if part of them have to be idle half the day4 ,the increased use of sales letters1 the greater freedom salesmen feel in their dictation1 the number of selling details now promptly handled by mail without an expensive call--all are directly traceable to the manager's ,,analysis which he made by using the final objective as a starting point4 ,he's a convert to the pencil and paper method4 ,sales problems are part of his daily exercise4 ,he goes to the bottom of them instinctively4 ,but any problems that arise concerning office work1 he settles only after analyzing from front to back--on paper4 ,his method of charting his ,,analysis differs in appearance from the chart on page #ca1 but it is identical in ,,principle ,,and ,,effect4 ,it works from final objective ,,backward4 ,one more application of the same ,,knack ,,of ,,analysis--and we are done4 ,it is that of an ,ohio manufacturer who recently put up a new building4 ,plans prepared by the architect called for four stories and a basement4 ,when it came time to discuss arrangement of space1 it was found that one department would have to go in the basement4 ,there were objections from all sides4 ,the manufacturer ended up by taking the problem home with him to ,,take ,,to ,,pieces and put together again4 ,he began--fortunately--with the final objective4 ,what's this new building for8 ,obviously1 to provide more space for enlarged operations4 ,how much space is needed8 ,he went over the figures and plans and found the four main floors weren't enough4 ,then why not a fifth floor8 ,as long as a bigger building was to be built1 why not make it big enough8 ,why not another full story instead of a basement8 ,why not1 indeed6 ,come to find out1 no one knew just why a basement had been considered4 ,the old building had one1 and apparently that was the only reason for proposing one for the new building4 ,a full story would give all the general storage space of a basement and also give regular working quarters for the department crowded out of the four upper floors4 ,and when the architect was consulted1 it was found that with the extras for excavation1 waterproofing and the like1 the cost of a basement was considerably more than the cost of another full story4 ,yet1 but for the manufacturer's analysis of the building problem from the point of final objective1 the basement would have gone in--simply because ,,no ,,one ,,had ,,stopped ,,to ,,think1 and think clearly and logically4 ,logical thinking is a trait that can be cultivated4 ,every problem thought through by means of some such simple help as we have suggested1 makes the mind more ready to tackle the next problem4 ,some men's minds grow so keen by practising that sort of thinking that they ,,automatically ,,take ,,things ,,to ,,pieces as they listen4 ,before you finish talking to them1 they have already analyzed your statement and are planning on its execution--or are ready to reject it4 ,sometimes it's intuition4 ,but rarely4 ,usually1 it is nothing more than cultivated ,,knack4 ,cultivate ,,accuracy first4 ,,speed ,,of ,,analysis will come of itself4 ,don't start until you know exactly where you're going4 ,there is no task so trifling1 no business so large1 that its management does not need to ,,analyze ,,exactly ,,what ,,there ,,is ,,to ,,do4 ,,ii ,planning ,in the preceding chapter we have been busily engaged in taking things to pieces4 ,now we've got to put them together again4 ,our house of blocks has been resolved into its component parts1 not by aiming a swift kick at its midriff1 but by starting at the top and working backwards4 ,now to ,,rebuild4 ,our first care1 at this stage of the game1 is to remember that ,,analysis ,,is ,,never ,,an ,,end but simply the ,,means ,,to ,,an ,,end4 ,the immediate end1 this time1 is to rearrange the pieces so that the job to be done can be done in the most effective way--the way that saves the most effort1 the most time1 the most money--the way which1 in your business--and in yours and ,,yours--leads to ,,net ,,profits4 ,again it should be emphasized that ,,net ,,profit1 in any job of managing1 is the ultimate goal4 ,our danger1 then1 is that we may find ourselves down on the floor surrounded by our blocks--and with never a trace of a ,,plan for rebuilding the house1 and rebuilding it in the simplest1 most economical way4 ,in short1 we must be sure we are taking things to pieces1 not for the sake of taking them to pieces1 but purely and simply to find out what has to be done4 ,like the golfer who played golf so much in order to keep fit for golf1 we have here a good old-fashioned beneficent circle4 ,,analysis without a ,,plan isn't worth a whoop in ,hades4 ,it's time kissed goodbye4 ,wasted effort4 ,and1 in like manner1 a ,,plan without an ,,analysis isn't worth the paper it's typed on4 ,psmith in your office is a great planner4 ,he always has something on the fire4 ,but somehow or other he never quite puts things over4 ,his plans don't get across4 ,why not8 ,oh1 just because he doesn't bother to analyze his problem--because he sets out to do what has to be done even before he knows what has to be done4 ,he doesn't base his plan upon an actual need4 ,pbrown1 on the other hand1 is a keen analytical thinker4 ,a student4 ,he's a shark at taking things to pieces and finding out what has to be done4 ,but when he's done that1 he's all done4 ,he lacks the initiative that starts things moving4 ,he hasn't that divine spark of something or other that gets things done4 ,a stick of dynamite wouldn't do a bit of good4 ,he simply hasn't the knack of building a plan4 ,he knows what has to be done4 ,he doesn't know how to do it4 ,psmith and ,pbrown--or ,pbrown and ,psmith--would make a fast team4 ,but ,psmith without ,pbrown's analytical ability1 or ,pbrown without ,psmith's capacity for planning how to get things done1 isn't worth his weight in gold to any business enterprise4 ,a manufacturer friend tells an amusing yarn about a ,pbrown he hired as sales manager4 ,he went around analyzing everything from soup to nuts--the gadgets in our line1 our markets1 our competition1 our salesmen4 ,he was an analyzer de luxe4 ,and all ,i ever got out of all his analyses was a distinct feeling that something was wrong with every gadget we made1 that our markets were saturated1 that our competitors had us backed off the map1 and that our salesmen were a bunch of ribbon clerks4 ,so1 he continues1 ,i did a little analyzing all my own4 ,and analyzed him out of his job4 ,today he's managing a filling station where they drive in for the most part and take it away from him4 ,but in his place ,i got a man who found out what was wrong with gadgets1 markets1 salesmen--and right away he built a plan which sold goods4 ,thus the futility of ,,analysis without ,,planning4 ,there's the danger1 too1 of getting away from the ,,simplicity ,,of ,,true ,,analysis4 ,a job undertaken by an advertising agency for a rubber manufacturer supplies a case in point4 ,stripped of all the details1 the task was to find out whether or not the manufacturer might profitably engage in the making of hard rubber tires for industrial trucks and trailers4 ,if names are changed and products substituted1 think nothing of it4 ,the principle's the thing4 ,the agency began by analyzing the business to a fare-you-well4 ,everyone and everything got cross-examined4 ,it took three months4 ,and when the analysis was done it told the manufacturer everything from where the rubber grew to where the money went to and came from4 ,the trouble was1 he knew all that before--or as much of it as he wanted to know4 ,the report1 in the words of a ,chicago columnist1 was just #fd dam pages4 ,it didn't tell him one blessed thing he wanted to know4 ,or rather it was so full of plunder that he couldn't make head nor tail of it4 ,it wasn't ,,simple4 ,and because it wasn't ,,simple1 it was a far1 far cry from ,,true ,,analysis4 ,well1 well1 the rubber manufacturer went out in the byways and got him a young man who was told to find out1 if he could1 whether or not there was any market for hard rubber tires on gas and electric industrial trucks1 tractors and trailers1 and allied equipment4 ,he found1 for example1 that there were #dj1jjj trucks and tractors in service2 that annual sales were about #c1bjj units4 ,he discovered that1 of trailers and hand lift trucks1 #abe1jjj each were in service2 annual sales were #ab1jjj and #aj1jjj units respectively4 ,but when he came to floor and hand trucks1 conservative estimates showed #h1jjj1jjj in use1 while annual sales were in the neighborhood of #bej1jjj6 ,next he found out1 as accurately as possible1 how many hard rubber tires were sold as original equipment4 ,the #c1bjj trucks and tractors had #ab1cjj wheels4 ,but #ie per cent of them were equipped with rubber tires at the factory4 ,on the other hand1 only #g per cent of the floor and hand trucks were thus equipped6 ,outside of the truck and tractor people1 he found the equipment makers opposed to hard rubber tires4 ,let's not go into the reasons4 ,yet representative manufacturers in a dozen different lines stated1 when he asked them3 ,all future equipment purchased by us will be equipped with rubber tires4 ,the whole report wasn't twelve pages long4 ,and three tables1 carefully compiled from available facts and figures1 told the manufacturer everything he wanted to know4 ,in short1 upon this ,,simple ,,analysis1 he was able to build a plan for manufacturing and merchandising solid rubber tires4 ,much good1 though1 it would have done him had he done his planning first and then found out there weren't enough wheels to wear the tires after he had made them6 99 99 99 99 99 ,so much for our beneficent circle4 ,let us look into this thing called ,,planning and find out if there isn't some way of developing a knack of planning which will help us over the second major hurdle in our road to managing4 ,there is1 we shall find1 a single problem with which the planner1 the constructive manager1 deals4 ,again1 it doesn't make a particle of difference whether it's ,mr4 ,schwab and ,bethlehem ,steel or ,tonio and his peanut stand4 ,no business is so different that the principles of management fail to apply4 ,all right1 then4 ,the problem of every planner is first to determine what is the ,,primary ,,moving ,,force--the initiative--behind his job1 and then to find the ,,easiest ,,place ,,to ,,apply ,,that ,,force in order to set up the required ,,motion or ,,activity with the ,,least ,,amount ,,of ,,effort ,,that ,,will ,,get ,,the ,,best ,,results4 ,a long sentence4 ,go over it again and you will find it is divided into four distinct parts3 #a4 ,deciding on the ,,primary ,,moving ,,force with which to set the wheels in motion4 #b4 ,applying this ,,force at the ,,proper ,,place ,,to ,,get ,,easiest ,,action4 #c4 ,directing this action along lines which either offer ,,least ,,resistance or assure ,,greatest ,,accomplishment4 #d4 ,bringing the activities to a focus at the place or time that will best carry the work to a ,,successful ,,conclusion4 ,the ,,primary ,,moving ,,force may be the selection of media in an advertising plan2 it may be the pushing of a button in the ,white ,house which opens a dam in ,arizona1 a ,century of ,progress in ,chicago1 or the ,annual ,convention of ,whammit ,manufacturers at ,atlantic ,city2 or it may be the memo from the big boss which gives the research department carte blanche on a development project4 ,to apply this initiative to a place where it will get ,,quick ,,action may be to suggest an idea in the headline of an advertisement that will set the reader to thinking of salmon fishing at ,mooselookmeguntic1 or of the time the ice cubes gave out just when they shouldn't4 ,or it may be to classify the output of a factory before shipping so that freight cars can be packed to best advantage or so that lowest freight rates may be secured4 ,or it may be a simple method of sorting mail so that subordinates get the jobs they can handle and only the important business is brought to the president's attention4 ,directing this ,,activity along the lines that ,,assure ,,greatest ,,accomplishment may be--in the advertisement--the presentation of facts or advantages which will persuade the reader that the fishing tackle you manufacture is desirable4 ,again1 it may be the dovetailing of a thousand elements in a huge project like the ,russian ,five-,year ,plan so that an adequate supply of ore will be available when the blast furnaces roar into operation2 so that the steel will be on hand when production in the ,cheliabinsk tractor works is stepped up to meet the requirements of the new agricultural regime4 ,or it may involve the simple sweeping of a floor in a manner which raises a minimum of dust4 ,and bringing the activities to a ,,successful ,,conclusion may mean working up the arguments of the advertisement to the psychological closing of a sale--to the point where the ardent member of the ,isaak ,walton ,league figures he can live no longer without your fishing tackle and sets out gaily in the general direction of ,abercrombie and ,fitch's4 ,or it may be coordinating the entire production of a factory so that the ,diesel generator set ordered by the ,santa ,fe can be delivered at the exact date specified in the original order4 ,or it may be handling the day's correspondence on the credit man's desk so that letters which must make the ,century are ready to go at #aa3de--so that the rest of the day's work is ready to sign1 stamp and mail before the #e o'clock whistle blows4 ,,four ,,elements1 then1 in any job which is to be ,,planned4 ,every plan1 if practicable1 will follow them4 ,there is1 by way of further illustration1 the story of the factory manager of a food manufacturing plant who laid out a ,,plan for an operation no more intricate than the scrubbing of the floors at night4 ,now it can be told4 ,and for two good reasons4 ,first1 because it was a practical plan which1 even on such a lowly operation1 saved quite a bit of money4 ,second1 because in its construction the plan is1 from the point of view of our four elements1 what has sometimes been called a natural4 ,one night1 it seems1 the manager and his wife went to the movies4 ,the town didn't have daylight time1 so it was quite dark4 ,they passed the plant1 a large six-story building4 ,why1 ,ed6 exclaimed the wife1 you didn't tell me the factory was working nights4 ,ed1 like most husbands1 was in the habit of telling friend wife 'most everything4 ,for once he was at a loss4 ,sure enough1 the lights were going full tilt on all floors4 ,hitting on all six1 you might say4 ,then he laughed4 ,it all came to him--,it's just the scrubwomen at work4 ,one feature picture1 one newsreel and one animated cartoon later1 they walked past the plant again4 ,look1 the factory's still lit up1 remarked the wife who turned off the living room lights religiously when she went out to get supper ready4 ,this time ,ed didn't laugh4 ,in days like these one doesn't4 ,not1 at any rate1 at the thought of mounting electricity bills4 ,the very next evening he was on the job4 ,time somebody found out what was what4 ,in came the cleaners4 ,they switched on the office lights--all of them--and two of the crew went to work4 ,a couple of others went up to the second floor1 switched on all the lights and pitched in with a vim4 ,and so ad infinitum--or at least to the sixth story4 ,and all the while the electric meter went round and round6 ,twenty-four hours later the janitor had a new plan of work4 ,first the manager thought he'd start the whole crew at the top and work down4 ,on second thought1 a better plan was born--like the goddess of wisdom who sprang full grown from her papa's forehead4 ,if ,i must go at this cleaning job1 he thought1 ,i might just as well make a first-class job of it and save not only on light1 but on cleaners1 too4 ,we shall pass lightly over that part of his plan which had to do with releasing scrubwomen for other productive work1 for in days like these--or in any other day--we just can't figure out that sort of thing4 ,but goodness gracious1 sometimes it's necessary4 ,the emphasis1 then1 shall be on the electric current saved4 ,the plan called for the entire crew's working together on one floor at a time--on the well-founded theory1 of course1 that teamwork would accomplish more in less time4 ,besides1 since it was necessary to turn on all the lights on the floor1 why not get the full benefit from them by having the entire gang at work8 ,so far1 so good4 ,the surprise comes when you learn that he didn't have them start at the top and work down4 ,he started them at the bottom and worked them up4 ,and ,i'll tell you why1 explained the manager1 they have to climb six floors anyway1 so they might as well work up as walk up4 ,besides1 by leaving the stairs till the last1 they can work their way down as well as up4 ,in other words1 they went to work right where they came in4 ,and when they had finished1 they were right back where they started--back where they went out on their way home4 ,simple1 isn't it8 ,an immediate reduction in lighting bills was noticeable4 ,even the amateur mathematician among you can figure that with one floor out of six lighted at a time1 five-sixths of the light was saved4 ,besides1 the work was done in less time--it wasn't long before two cleaners were reading the want ads4 ,but why go into that8 ,we aren't1 for that matter1 interested so much in the savings made1 because it is exceedingly doubtful if many of us pass our factories or our offices on the way to the movies4 ,we may never have an opportunity to put this particular plan to work4 ,what we are interested in1 though1 is the fact that this cleaning plan utilizes the four basic elements which we've said must be present in every job of ,,planning4 ,look at the chart4 ,it shows the movement of energy in the manager's plan for handling his crew4 ,starting the scrubbers on the ground floor--they had to begin there anyway1 no matter when they began to scrub--was nothing but applying the primary force at the best point to get the easiest action4 ,working them up floor by floor was simply directing the activity along both the lines of least resistance and greatest accomplishment4 ,and doing the stairs on the way down was just focusing the activity at the right point for making a successful conclusion--that is1 winding up the job at the exit4 ------------------------------------ --------- ,stairs #fth ,floor ------------- _/ ----------------------------------- ----------------------------------- #eth ,floor _/ ----------------------------------- ----------------------------------- #dth ,floor _/ ----------------------------------- ----------------------------------- #crd ,floor _/ ----------------------------------- ----------------------------------- #bnd ,floor _/ ----------------------------------- ----------------------------------- ,ground ,floor _/ _/ ----------------------------------- --------- ------------------------------ ,application of ,primary ,force -- ------------------------------ ,turn back now to the ,,four ,,elements ,,of ,,successful ,,planning as we set them down on page #ed4 ,try them out on any successful plan and assure yourself that not a point has been stretched4 ,by using them we shall learn the constructive1 creative ,,knack ,,of ,,planning4 ,stripped of the clothes which every plan wears--it's only in the clothing that plans differ--this ,,knack ,,of ,,planning may be quite simply visualized by some such chart as the one shown on the opposite page4 ,there you see the ,,primary ,,force--the ,,initiative that sets the ,,plan in action4 ,second1 the ,,point ,,of ,,application--where you must hit if you're going to win4 ,third1 the various activities which bring about the ,,successful ,,conclusion4 ,and fourth1 all these activities headed up at the ,,focusing ,,point4 ,it's just like the sailor off the whaler who picks up the wooden mallet1 hits the plunger a resounding crack1 sends the weight hurtling up the pole1 rings the bell--and gets a good #e-;cent cigar4 ,or like the golfer who1 putter in hand1 strokes the ball firmly in the direction of least resistance and greatest accomplishment1 sees it hit the back of the cup and drop in for a par four4 -------------- ,various ,activities ,the ,the ,primary ,point of ,necessary to ,bringing ,focusing ,moving ,force ,application about a ,successful ,point_/ -------------- ,conclusion _/ _/ _/ ,watch these four essentials4 ,knowing them and using them continually will enable you to break down every job of ,,planning into its component parts--will enable you to develop that important side of your managing faculties--whether your work is merely the carrying out of a job or shouldering the responsibilities of a huge business4 99 99 99 99 99 ,remember the production manager in the shoe factory8 ,rather sketchy was the story of the ,,analysis he made4 ,let's go a bit more into the details of the ,,plan which was based on the ,,analysis4 ,and1 at the same time1 examine it to see if it checks with our ,,four ,,elements4 ,you remember he was hired to find out why the so-and-so shoes didn't move out the door on time4 ,and you'll remember that instead of clanking up and down from one department to another1 he was seen one day picking out lasts from a bin in the assembly room4 ,he had crept up quietly on the ,,point ,,of ,,application4 ,the ,,initiative1 you see1 or the ,,primary ,,moving ,,force1 was the boss's order to get shoes to moving4 ,here 7in the lasting room7 was his ,,point ,,of ,,application4 ,the biggest factor in slowing up shoes1 he found1 was failure to have lasts ready the instant the uppers came down cut and stitched from the fitting room4 ,the shoes were entered into work with almost entire disregard of this vital point4 ,oh1 yes1 they knew they once bought so many pairs of lasts on this style or that in such and such sizes4 ,and in a vague sort of way they tried to regulate the number of pairs sent to the cutting room with the number of lasts which they thought should be available the day the shoes reached the assembly department where uppers1 insoles1 bottoms and lasts met together--or should have4 ,a single missing size could hold up a #cf-pair lot which included a run of sizes all the way1 say1 from #g-a_/b to #ab4 ,today it's all so different4 ,a running inventory is kept of every active last4 ,each day the lasts which are released as shoes leave the finishing room are added to the supply on hand2 at the same time1 the lasts which are to be used that day in lasting incoming lots are subtracted4 ,a job8 ,no1 a good girl of moderate intelligence simply added it to a dozen other office chores which she finds time to do daily4 ,the running inventory1 you see1 is one of the various activities which1 aimed at the focusing point--the moving of shoes out the door--are necessary to bring about a successful conclusion--the successful conclusion1 in this particular instance1 probably being the saving of the young man's scalp--for the boss was certainly out to get it the day he saw the young production manager pawing over the chunks of maple in the lasting room4 ,other activities might be mentioned4 ,plenty of them4 ,an automatic conveyor which brought back empty racks to the point where they were needed4 ,semi-automatic elevators which made possible the rapid moving of shoes from floor to floor4 ,twelve-pair lots which simplified the handling problem1 made the job of picking out lasts an easier one--and all in all did much to take the weight off management's shoulders4 ,all these and more are the activities which were needed to bring about a successful conclusion4 ,they were all part of the ,,plan4 ,today1 in that shoe factory1 the production manager sits down for an hour in the forenoon and an hour in the afternoon and schedules the next half-day's work which will go to the cutting room4 ,two girls have been moderately busy getting him the information he needs4 ,sales have been brought up to date within half a day4 ,he knows how many kid shoes he can cut1 how many calf4 ,he knows which patterns can be cut by machine1 which must be cut by hand4 ,he knows that certain patterns take longer to go through the fitting room4 ,there's extra stitching or fancy perforations4 ,he must lay off those4 ,and last of all1 he knows what he can count on in the way of lasts when the shoes hit the lasting room4 ,with his two girls1 the young production manager does all the work of scheduling4 ,actually1 there isn't much work4 ,management1 you see1 has done an awfully nice job of ,,planning4 99 99 99 99 99 ,picture now the manufacturer of small electrical appliances who sought to lay out new avenues of growth4 ,his was pretty much a seasonal business4 ,electric fans constituted most of his bread-and-butter production4 ,early in the year and well on into the spring his plant ran full blast getting out merchandise for sale during the warm1 muggy days when ,sirius is in the ascendant4 ,and then along in the summer and fall his production curves went into a serious decline4 ,to level them out would have meant carrying a load of finished inventory which he could ill afford4 ,other appliances1 such as hair curlers and driers which might conceivably find a ready sale during the holiday season1 helped considerably--but not enough4 ,the rough places were by no means made plane4 ,why not1 thought he1 a line of toys which would enable him to utilize his present production set-up profitably during the slack summer and fall8 ,why not1 indeed8 ,so he set out to chart a plan of action beginning1 as you will see from the figure1 with the furnishing of amusement as the ,,primary ,,force4 ,his ,,point ,,of ,,attack was through the #ae1jjj1jjj ,american boys who love to build something4 ,on he went to the various ways of getting parents interested as the ,,activities ,,which ,,should ,,lead ,,to ,a ,,successful ,,conclusion--to the linking up of those activities with the retail store as the job of ,,focusing ,,them on the final achievement--,,sales4 --------------------------------- ,wholesome ,amusement and ,education --------------------------------- _/ --------------------------------- #ae ,million ,boys ,who ,want to ,play and ,love to ,build --------------------------------- _/ --------------------------------- ,bought for by #g1ejj1jjj ,parents --------------------------------- _/ ------------------- ,can be ,reached by ------------------- _/ ---------------------------------------- ----- --------- ----------- ---------- ----------- ,magazines ,attention ,window ,they ,read ,caught in ,displays ,the ,boy --------- ,stores ---------- ,himself ----------- --------- ----------- ,list of -------------- -------------- ,magazines ,description of ,description of ,carrying ,demonstration ,window ,advg4 ,our ,advg4 ,offer ,offer --------- -------------- -------------- ------------------- ------------- -------------- ,list of ,boys' ,description of ,papers ,advsd4 ,prize ,contest ,in -------------- ------------- _/ _/ _/ ---------------------------------------- --- ,all ,leading to ---------------------------------------- --- _/ ---------------------------------------- --- ,the ,store ,that ,sells ,our ,toys ---------------------------------------- --- ,only the bare headings on the plan are shown in the chart4 ,nevertheless it shows clearly the same knack of using the ,,four ,,elements which we have been at such pains to discuss4 ,the chart proved helpful1 not only in guiding the management in its efforts to enlarge the scope of manufacturing activities1 but also in giving the office and the sales force a true picture of the business4 ,so helpful1 indeed1 did it prove that it was blueprinted4 ,and today every salesman has one pasted in his selling portfolio4 ,it's the first thing the dealer sees4 ,and it has gone far in arousing the latter's interest and confidence4 ,if you were a dealer1 would you buy from a factory that was run by guess and by gob when you could give your business to a concern which you knew was functioning in accordance with a sound1 well-formulated plan8 ,there1 if you please1 lies the answer4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it is not within the purpose of this chapter1 incidentally1 to play any favorites4 ,time must be taken out at this point1 therefore1 to return to the messenger boy who1 when we left him1 had just finished analyzing his job4 ,let's see now how his plan of action is based upon what the analysis taught him4 ,let's examine this elementary job of managing1 not because it may make better messengers of us1 but because the examination will show how universal this thing called management is--because it will afford one more proof of our general axiom that the principles of management are ever the same1 no matter what particular paraphernalia of business may be used to cover up its old bones4 ,did1 then1 the messenger boy work out his plan in accordance with our ,,four ,,basic ,,elements8 ,he did1 if he was really managing his job--and from the careful analysis he made1 we may assume he was4 ,if his trip meant riding a street car1 then going to the cashier for carfare is his primary force4 ,if he can walk1 then the primary force is simply getting under way4 ,hastening as directly as possible to the car line is applying the force at the easiest place to get results4 ,perhaps he might have to choose between a slow street car which would carry him right to his destination for seven cents1 and a fast elevated which1 for a dime1 would make better time but leave several blocks to walk at the other end4 ,deciding between the two is directing the activities along lines of greatest accomplishment4 ,and getting his transfer1 leaving the car1 and going straight to the address on the message1 are nothing more nor less than focusing his activities at the ,,point ,,of ,,achievement4 ,you see8 ,the ,colonel's lady in her ,parisian peignoir and ,judy ,o',grady in her sleazy slip were sisters under the skin4 ,so1 if we may stretch a physiological point1 are our messenger boy and the man who made the toys4 ,the plans of both were built on the same foundation4 ,or take the plan by which the new general manager of a tap and die concern rehabilitated his company's business4 ,why1 he said1 reaching for a pad of paper and roughly sketching something that looked like a funnel and must have been because he said it was1 our manufacturing plan looked about like this4 ,up here at the top we poured in a lot of orders and hoped to high heaven some of them would finally trickle through at the bottom4 ,some of them did drop through4 ,others dropped because we poked sticks up the flue4 ,that is to say1 an army of stock chasers did their level best to keep everyone happy4 ,it was bedlam around the shop4 ,it took three months on an average to complete an order4 ,i found much of the delay was due to certain ,victorian notions about set-up time4 ,the prevailing idea was to give an operator a good big job to minimize that item of expense4 ,sometimes the job was so big it took #fj days to run it through a single operation4 ,oh1 me6 oh1 my6 the inventories of finished goods that piled up4 ,the tote boxes full of work in process that cluttered up the scenery4 ,and the complaints from customers who were waiting for orders6 ,funny thing about our business1 you can't get a customer to accept a couple of #a_/d-;in4 taps in place of the #a_/b-;in4 one he's ordered4 ,so ,i had to revamp the whole shooting match4 ,first on the program was to find out what was made and what was making4 ,then we withdrew from the shop all work in process except what actually applied on orders in the house or what was needed to fill out our stock on an item on which we had no order1 but on which past experience had taught us we'd get one in the course of the next #cj days4 ,you should have seen the pile of tote boxes we stuck under the boilers4 ,well1 the next job was to figure out the most economical lots to send through the works4 ,that figure was arrived at simply by choosing such a size that no single operation could possibly take more than a day4 ,in a word1 ,i made sure that every single lot would move every single day4 ,do you get the picture8 ,a steady flow of manufacturing4 ,no funnel4 ,no poking around with sticks4 ,today there aren't any stock chasers4 ,none is needed4 ,work reaches the stockroom on time4 ,orders are filled complete the same day they come in4 ,inventories are lower4 ,oh1 heck1 need ,i go on8 ,no1 he needn't4 ,for already he has shown us how the motive force was applied at the right point to get results4 ,take this plan apart--or any other plan that really works--and you will see that it is built upon the ,,four ,,elements ,,of ,,planning4 ,they make the ,,planning wheels go round4 99 99 99 99 99 ,now it's time to take your own job of planning to pieces and see if it1 too1 does not meet the test4 ,here1 again1 as when the ,,analysis was made1 it helps to set things down on paper4 ,in charting1 you will find that by painstaking application of our four principles along the lines diagrammed in the figure on page #fe1 you can ,,lay ,,out ,a ,,working ,,plan depending for its approach to perfection only upon the amount of thought put into it1 and upon the degree of accuracy with which the analysis of the job was made4 ,the chart you make may be only a guide to the complete plan4 ,some plans require details which utterly preclude any form of expression so simple as a chart4 ,other plans can be laid out on the actual chart shown4 ,in any event1 the very attempt to put your plan into diagrammatic form will develop ,,practicability ,,and ,,accuracy ,,of ,,arrangement4 ,the very necessity of having to indicate and to select the primary force back of your job or business2 having to trace that force through the various activities necessary to completed work2 and then having visibly and physically to concentrate all these activities at one point--those very acts which making a chart compels you to perform1 enforce a mastery of the essential details of your business and a grasp of their relations which every manager should have4 ,perhaps the plan you have isn't as hot as you think it is4 ,an office manager friend of ours was pretty proud of his system until one day he charted it4 ,his company was famous for the quality of work turned out4 ,but the service it gave was wretched4 ,special instructions were often ignored4 ,delivery dates were overlooked4 ,all that sort of thing4 ,the system looked good enough4 ,the office manager said the mistakes were due to carelessness4 ,and it looked as if he were right4 ,so when something went wrong1 the nearest employee got a handsome bawling out4 ,at last the sales force jumped on him with both feet4 ,too many promises had been broken4 ,so the office manager was forced to do something about it4 ,and1 quite by accident1 made a chart of the ,,actual ,,plan ,,of ,,work4 ,hello1 what was this8 ,half a dozen responsibilities were standing around absolutely unchaperoned1 you might say4 ,someone might come along and pick them up1 or then again---- ,for example1 if a customer on the ,west ,coast ordered a bill of goods1 and then1 while the order was in work1 decided he wanted half the goods shipped by boat through the canal and the other half by fast freight1 maybe he'd get his shipments that way and maybe he wouldn't4 ,under the prevailing plan that particular sort of job didn't fall inside any one man's bailiwick4 ,no one man was responsible for seeing that such orders were executed4 ,no machinery had therefore been provided for taking care of them4 ,that's only a sample of some of the duties which landed--in his diagrammatic representation of the actual plan of work--somewhere off the map4 ,for all the action they got1 they might as well have been painted ships upon a painted ocean4 ,methods in general1 you see1 were pretty much all right4 ,but there was no recognized initiative back of the plan4 ,activities were set in motion more or less spontaneously4 ,as a result1 certain parts of the business were left without managerial supervision4 ,nothing is surer to expose such a condition than actually to chart a plan4 ,in this instance1 it was simple to recognize following customers' instructions--no matter when1 why1 or how they came--as the logical primary force4 ,then the whole trouble was taken care of by centering the responsibility upon the chief of the order department4 ,from then on1 all instructions regarding any order cleared through him4 ,thus it will be seen that the idea back of charting a plan is not to get something you can work to as an ideal in carrying on a job1 but rather to get a ,,practical ,,framework on which the work can actually be done4 ,then it is at once evident whether the clothes of the business are hanging on the right limb or whether they have been hung up somewhere on the ground where1 like as not1 nobody will bother to pick them up4 ,too often the plan turns out to be a sketch4 ,the builder waits until the architect's first sketch has become a plan4 ,in business it's like that1 too4 ,when finally you know1 from ,,analysis1 what you want to accomplish1 it is not difficult to plan the procedure if you start right and forget nothing4 ,you start right if you take time to figure out the primary initiative4 ,you forget nothing if you take the trouble to set things down in black and white4 ,and finding the motive force and figuring out where to hit with it1 is nothing more nor less than charting the moves of the game until you find a succession of activities moving along without back-tracking1 without duplication1 without wasted effort or supervision4 ,thus cultivating the ,,knack ,,of ,,planning is a long step in the direction of becoming a good manager4 ,if you were going to try to tell someone else how to cultivate the knack of planning1 the story of the two men shaving in the ,pullman washroom serves to illustrate the point4 ,both men seemed to be in a hurry4 ,the first hustled over to one of the wash basins1 scrubbed his face and hands1 dried them on a towel4 ,then he began to shave4 ,that finished1 he washed the lather from his face1 dried himself again on another towel1 and put away his razor4 ,next came his teeth4 ,he brushed them1 washed away the traces of tooth paste1 and dried himself on a third towel4 ,all this time the other fellow was going through the same motions--but in a much different order4 ,he began with his teeth4 ,after he had brushed them1 he lathered his face4 ,after he had shaved1 a single wash was enough and a single towel did the drying job4 ,he had finished his canteloupe and was well along with his eggs before his companion reached the diner4 ,number two didn't do a better job of brushing his teeth1 of shaving1 of washing4 ,but he did do a better job of ,,planning4 ,he started where each operation would lead directly and naturally into the next1 performing each at the proper time4 ,after all1 isn't that precisely what you do in planning any part of your business8 ,,iii ,organizing the ,work ,remember ,psmith and ,pbrown8 ,one could analyze1 but didn't know what to do with his analysis after he got it4 ,the other was an expert planner1 but alas6 his plans were never based upon the solid foundation of actual necessity4 ,he planned to do something before he knew what had to be done4 ,psmith and ,pbrown1 together1 looked like a grand pair when we introduced them in the chapter on ,,planning4 ,now1 after taking particular pains to give that impression1 we shall have to break right down and confess in open meeting that they are but two numbers of the ,,management ,,team4 ,probinson is the third4 ,probinson ,,organizes ,,the ,,work4 ,psmith may analyze to a fare-you-well2 ,pbrown may plan till he's blue in the face--their best efforts are as of nothing worth unless ,probinson is on hand to organize the work of the business4 ,for as surely as there is a knack of analyzing and a knack of planning1 just so surely is there a knack of organizing the work4 ,thus we approach the third phase of the job of managing4 ,so far we have seen how the successful manager starts from the top1 working backward1 to chart his job--and then1 having found out what has to be done1 builds his plan for doing it4 ,analysis and planning1 however1 will carry him just so far4 ,unless he acquires the knack of organization1 he will never make a howling success of his job--he will fall just short of being an outstanding manager4 ,the office manager for an ,eastern concern affords the needed illustration4 ,p4 ,c4--those aren't his initials--knew office management from ,a to ,izzard4 ,first to arrive in the morning1 last to leave at night1 he had a tremendous capacity for hard labor4 ,but he never seemed to make a hole in the pile of work on his desk4 ,it grew no smaller fast4 ,why8 ,because he never1 in all his years of managing1 learned to arrange the division of his work4 ,he never learned to deputize it4 ,when his mind should have been free for the more or less important decisions which crop out now and then even in an office manager's life1 it was all bound around in the necessity of performing some silly little routine job which any girl of moderate intelligence could have done4 ,his idea of organizing his job was to try to do everything himself4 ,and within his physical limitations he was a valuable man to the company4 ,but how much more he'd have been worth had he1 at some time in his career1 acquired the ,,knack ,,of ,,organization6 ,don't jump to the conclusion1 now1 that the successful organizer is one who merely divides up his work and parcels it out among a flock of assistants4 ,don't think for a moment that it is nothing but deputization4 ,effective organization is far more than that4 ,it is the distribution of work1 according to its character or urgency1 among the facilities at hand for doing it according to their capacities or cost4 ,and it makes no difference whether those facilities happen to be men1 money1 or machines--or simply your own available time4 ,you deputize work when you use an adding machine instead of your head to total last month's sales--when you turn the job of packaging breakfast food over to an automatic machine--when you jot down in your notebook information which would otherwise tax your memory--when you telephone the purchasing agent instead of making your legs take you to his office--when1 instead of using your own funds1 you do something on borrowed capital4 ,deputization may be any one of these just as easily as it may be asking your assistant to find out why ,so-and-so's order for boys' pants wasn't shipped on time1 or making him responsible for working out a new prospect list4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the office manager of a shoe concern found1 right after the war1 that much of his day was spent telling dealers in ,kalamazoo and ,keokuk to be patient1 please1 and they'd get their shoes4 ,those were the halcyon days1 you'll remember1 when salesmen went out twice a year and told their customers how many shoes or ships or sewing machines they could have--and when they could have them4 ,as a result1 this particular shoe factory was loaded to the guards with orders4 ,orders were shipped when1 as and if they struggled from cutting room to fitting room--and from then on down to the packing department4 ,complaints were numerous4 ,they weren't exactly complaints1 either4 ,queries1 rather4 ,where are my shoes8 ,can't you ship ,march #ae instead of ,april #a8 ,and so on--until1 as we started to say1 the sales manager was spending a great part of his time dictating replies to his stenographer4 ,and she didn't have time for any of her other duties4 ,analysis proved that the letters were1 in the main1 of three types4 ,three letters were therefore prepared1 and each day the sales manager went through the inquiries and indicated which letter should go to which customer4 ,in that way the latter got a prompt and courteous reply1 as well as certain vague information explaining why he'd have to wait another month for his shoes4 ,and he was moderately happy4 ,personal attention from the sales manager could have accomplished no more4 ,thus a certain part of an executive's and his stenographer's time was deputized to a system4 ,could the sales manager have gone a step further and had his letter mimeographed1 he would have been ,,deputizing ,,to ,a ,,machine the same amount of his own and a much larger part of the stenographer's time4 ,but1 while the customers accepted plausible excuses in place of shoes1 it is doubtful whether the cleverest imitation would have taken the place of a real typewritten letter4 ,with the manufacturer of a proprietary medicine1 however1 things are different4 ,women from every part of the country write in describing their ailments4 ,it is not difficult to classify these letters into a dozen groups4 ,and form letters1 done in skillful imitation of real typing1 do the trick quite nicely4 ,that is ,,deputizing--just as it is ,,deputizing when the big boss calls in his assistant and says3 ,you run this shebang from now on4 ,i've got to see if ,i can't get the ,k4 ,c4 plant out of the red4 ,and it's ,,deputizing when a manufacturer1 forced to increase the size of his plant1 goes to a real estate operator and gets him to buy a piece of land1 put up a building and rent it to him at a certain figure1 while he uses his own capital to equip and operate the new plant1 because he can make #ae per cent1 say1 on his capital himself1 whereas he has to pay out as rent only an amount equal to #h per cent of what land1 building1 insurance1 and so on1 would tie up4 ,fundamentally1 then1 ,,deputizing is taking something away from the principal of the job or business and assigning it to a deputy4 ,principal and deputy may be a manager and his stenographer1 a department head and a filing system1 or a corporation's capital and a bond issue4 ,the first stumbling step toward organization1 therefore1 is to ,,recognize and ,,define the ,,principal and the ,,deputies in a given task4 ,a good manager1 though1 can't simply go and deputize every detail of his job4 ,that might be nothing more than the trick of a lazy man4 ,yet a rising young executive 7on our list of casual acquaintances7 has done exactly that4 ,he has carried it to such a fine point that he is able to spend three afternoons a week with ,col4 ,bogie4 ,he is still rising1 although some of us have abiding faith in the old adage that what goes up must come down4 ,in other words1 he's rising to a fall4 ,no1 organizing is not deputizing in that sense of the word4 ,in ,,effective ,,organizing1 it will be noted from the examples cited1 work is deputized only when the principal is left free to do something else more important or more profitable4 ,the big boss didn't hand the plant over to his assistant until he knew his undivided attention was needed elsewhere--until he knew he could spend his time more profitably in another phase of the business4 ,analyze the conditions under which the sales manager delegated part of his dictation to a system1 and part of his stenographer's typing to a duplicating machine4 ,you will see that the work deputized fulfilled two conditions3 ,it was work the system and the machine could do to advantage-- ,and work which he and his stenographer could do only at the expense of more important work4 ,wherever there is delegation of responsibility in any true job of managing1 the same two fundamentals will be seen4 ,too often a manager says3 ,never do anything your subordinate can do for you4 ,but it is not good management when turning a job over to a subordinate leaves the manager idle and unproductive--with nothing on his mind except his hat4 ,the good manager1 whatever may be his particular job of managing1 follows two rules when he deputizes or distributes work to man1 money or machine4 ,such work1 he knows1 should be3 #a4 ,work which that other person or other thing can do to good advantage4 #b4 ,work which the manager would do himself only at the expense of something more important4 ,deputizing your work so that your days are free for golfing or yachting is far from the spirit of true organization4 ,when a ,schwab deputizes1 another job profits by the increased time he is able to give to it4 ,every time he passes on a bit more responsibility1 the whole enterprise profits through his greater freedom for the big sweep of the business4 ,and when a manager fails because he has never learned to share responsibilities1 we shudder at his folly--never stopping to think that the sole reason it was folly was because there was a bigger job for him to do4 ,deputizing his work would have left him free to exercise big1 broad judgment in a way that only leisure and calmness could afford4 99 99 99 99 99 ,a few years ago1 two young men went into business in a small ,illinois town4 ,they were honest1 industrious1 well liked4 ,austin was a born salesman2 ,black was a shrewd buyer4 ,it looked like a good combination and the local banker gave them a line of credit4 ,one year went by4 ,two years4 ,austin and ,black were just skinning by4 ,a fair living was all they were getting out of the business4 ,volume--which was what they needed--was increasing1 oh1 so slowly4 ,a salesman came along about that time and told them some things they didn't know4 ,a little more skill in watching the stock2 cutting out lines which weren't paying2 trimming purchases on slow-moving stocks2 pushing specialties before they went bad on their hands--those were some of the methods which meant added profits4 ,it certainly looked like good business to hire another clerk so that the partners' time would be free for these new phases of the business4 ,the clerk was taken on--and things began to hum4 ,soon ,austin and ,black saw other steps they ought to take4 ,more attention must be given to advertising4 ,that meant another clerk4 ,next came a bookkeeper1 an assistant bookkeeper4 ,trade was increasing1 you see1 and net profits were increasing4 ,extra clerks were needed all right1 but the proprietors went the whole hog and put on so many that they themselves no longer had to stand behind a counter4 ,they were both badly bitten by the bug of supervision4 ,finally the tide turned4 ,it usually does4 ,and when ,austin and ,black went to the bank one day to get an extension of credit1 the shrewd old retired farmer on the other side of the desk laid down the law4 ,they got the extension--but only on certain conditions4 ,the chief condition was that they do ,,less ,,managing and ,,more ,,merchandising4 ,illustration ,and that's what they are doing today4 ,there were two managers who organized their work1 increased their profits4 ,up to a certain point1 every time they deputized their work1 it was an advantage1 because it left them more time for better merchandising4 ,but they weren't ,,organizing according to our ,,two ,,fundamentals4 ,literally1 they were deputizing all the work that others could do--and not confining the work deputized to work they themselves could do only at the expense of something more important4 ,how well the chart tells the story6 ,the great big white piece of pie marked ,,idle shows exactly where ,austin and ,black went wrong4 ,the worst thing that ever happened to them was the day they went home from ,chicago and tried to run their business the way they thought ,mr4 ,james ,w4 ,simpson runs his large retail emporium4 ,somewhere along the line they tripped over the point of vanishing returns and kept right on going4 ,and thus we come to the ,scylla and ,charybdis of our job of ,,organizing4 ,remember we are not interested in the mere knack of getting someone else to take over every last responsibility that can be borne by another4 ,perhaps that may be good management for a ,schwab--in so far1 at least1 as it leaves his mind free for the exercise of the broad judgment we mentioned a while ago4 ,nor are we interested in the sheer industry and application involved in doing without assistance everything that can possibly be so done1 although doing it may be equally good management for1 say1 a file clerk4 ,rather is our interest in the ,,knack ,,of ,,sensing ,,the ,,dividing ,,line between ,,work to ,,perform and ,,work to ,,deputize4 ,it is that ability which is the mark of the successful manager4 99 99 99 99 99 ,where is this ,,dividing ,,line8 ,how shall we know where to ,,deputize and when to ,,perform8 ,what kind of work shall we turn over to subordinates8 ,what shall we reserve for ourselves8 ,again1 whatever the job or business we are engaged in organizing1 there are simple rules to follow4 ,but first an illustration which will help to make the point4 ,consider the credit man for a large concern which sold machines on a monthly payment plan4 ,he was always in a jam with the sales department4 ,it took too long1 complained the sales manager1 to get credit rulings4 ,it was no fun to put a whole lot of work into selling the customer1 only to have the order turned down by the house because of poor credit4 ,why couldn't the credit man give them a ruling before they attempted to close a sale8 ,sometimes it took so long to get an ,o4,k4 that the prospect got all cold and went somewhere else4 ,the treasurer of the company was drawn into the picture when the sales manager openly declared he'd get the credit man4 ,and it certainly looked as if the sales manager had a good case4 ,but1 protested the credit man1 ,i've made mighty few mistakes4 ,as for delays--well1 ,i don't know how ,i could work any harder4 ,maybe you work too hard1 the treasurer ventured4 ,hm1 if ,i didn't do what ,i do1 ,i don't know who would4 ,hold on1 now1 let's get this thing straight4 ,you're valuable to the company because of your long experience and good judgment on credits4 ,when you have all the dope on a man1 ,i'll bet my last dollar on your decision4 ,the only mistakes you ever make are when you hurry your decisions4 ,but--and here's the point--you aren't any better at digging out the facts than either of your two assistants4 ,yet here's what you do4 ,you divide salesmen's requests for credit rulings into two groups4 ,you take those that run over #ejj2 your assistants get the others4 ,each of you does his own investigating and digging--and except in puzzling cases1 you practically let your two men make their own decisions4 ,myself ,assistants #ejj ,up ,under #ejj ,mercantile ,reports ,bank ,references ,special ,investigations ,briefing ,data ,final ,ruling ,correspondence #ejj ,up ,under #ejj ,mercantile ,reports ,assistants ,bank ,references ,special ,investigations ,briefing ,data ,myself ,final ,ruling ,correspondence ,why1 listen4 ,you1 the best man we have on decisions1 spend more than half your time digging1 while your assistants spend much of their time making decisions4 ,what's the result8 ,delay1 the department in a jam1 some decisions made in a hurry1 some by your assistants4 ,the trouble with you is1 you haven't organized your department right4 ,and the treasurer sketched the diagram reproduced in the upper chart on page #aje4 ,why1 man1 your job is to keep all bad credits off the books--not just the big ones4 ,a bad risk--whether it's #e or #ejjj--;is a mistake4 ,you're an expert credit man--but as a ,,manager1 you're a ,,washout4 ,this1 he added1 is the way you ought to set up your department4 ,then you1 the best man on decisions1 will do all the deciding4 ,your two assistants1 who are just as good as you are at digging1 will spend all their time getting you the facts4 ,and as he spoke he sketched in the lower chart4 ,the credit man had erred in the other direction from the two retail merchants4 ,he wasn't doing enough managing4 ,he was keeping too much work for himself4 ,and he was deputizing the wrong kind of work4 ,the merchants were deputizing work they should have done themselves--the general supervision of stocks1 advertising and sales did not require their undivided attention--and the volume and profits of the business wouldn't stand so much unproductive expense4 ,our credit man1 on the other hand1 was doing work which others could very well do for him--the time he spent on such work should have been devoted to other and more important responsibilities4 ,in the story of the credit man1 however1 another fundamental of good organization comes to light4 ,remember how the treasurer classified the character of the work to be done8 ,not only was the credit man trying to do too much work1 but even when he did assign work to his assistants1 he assigned the wrong kind4 ,he deputized1 true enough--but he erred in regard to the ,,kind ,,of ,,work ,,he ,,deputized4 ,he thought he could deputize small credits4 ,it didn't take the treasurer long to show him that the amount made no difference--it was the character of the work that required consideration4 ,plenty of managers make that same mistake4 ,they judge the importance of the task by its physical bigness--or by the amount of money involved--instead of deciding according to the character of the work4 ,before work can be safely deputized1 then1 it must be ,,more ,,intelligently ,,classified4 ,and the key to better classification is found by dividing the job or business into two elements4 ,one is ,,enterprise4 ,the other is ,,routine4 ,enterprise is an arbitrary term which we shall choose to indicate those factors of work which involve the use of judgment1 initiative1 experiment or speculation4 ,routine we shall apply to those factors which follow settled precedents or rules or come within the range of known ability to perform4 ,analyze your own job with these two terms in mind4 ,the various duties you perform will fall readily into one or the other of the two classifications4 ,the things which come under the head of routine you have a right to deputize if1 when you chart both classifications--in as accurate a proportion as possible to the capacities of the principal and the deputies--you find you are not overloading the business with unproductive management4 ,a simple rule of thumb works here about as well as anything3 ,base the division of work on how much or how little of the routine the principal can afford to carry4 99 99 99 99 99 ,you may safely deputize only so long as1 by so doing1 you leave yourself free for the more important1 more profitable decisions4 ,don't forget for a moment1 then--if you would organize effectively--that there is a tremendous difference between enterprise and routine work4 ,don't waste energy on the one4 ,,don',t ,,deputize ,,the ,,other--unless you can effectively organize a deputy's capacity for doing it1 and then only if it pays4 ,don't be like the manager who got a taste of the savings to be made through the application of mechanical handling equipment4 ,he bought conveyors--and more conveyors4 ,he was ,,deputizing the handling job to machines4 ,so far1 so good4 ,but the first thing you know he had a #ej-;ft4 conveyor connecting two points in his shipping room4 ,it took one man to load it1 another to unload it4 ,previously one man with a hand truck had moved the packages very nicely1 and had a lot of time left over for other duties4 ,and here he needed an extra man--and owned a costly piece of equipment to boot4 ,under such circumstances the conveyor became very expensive scenery--not nearly so nice to look at as ,yellowstone ,park or the ,riviera--and the money invested in it would have bought a trip to either4 ,thus all savings through deputization don't pay4 ,many a machine will save time and labor1 but the interest on the investment1 and upkeep and the depreciation will more than eat up the saving--,,unless ,,the ,,time ,,and ,,labor ,,saved ,,can ,,be ,,profitably ,,turned ,,to ,,something ,,else4 99 99 99 99 99 ,no attempted exposition of the ,,knack ,,of ,,organizing can be complete without something more than passing mention of a phase which may be all too easily slid over or completed4 ,when work is deputized1 the responsibility of the manager does not end with the act of deputization4 ,it is the manager's responsibility to see that the work is done in the simplest and most effective manner4 ,a sales executive had allowed a bunch of call reports to accumulate4 ,there were several hundred of them4 ,so he called in a stenographer whose time was hanging fairly heavily on her hands1 and asked her to put them into alphabetical order preparatory to filing4 ,fifteen minutes later he happened by and was startled to see that she had covered two desks with the call reports and seemed to be making haste very slowly indeed4 ,she had made a pile for every last letter in the alphabet4 ,and every time she picked up a report1 she had to hunt for the proper pile to put it in4 ,so he showed her how to sort first in five major piles--,a1 ,b1 ,c1 ,d in one pile and so on4 ,and then to sort each pile again into five piles1 one for each letter--and finally to sort each individual pile alphabetically4 ,it sounded like more handling4 ,and perhaps it was4 ,but the job of classification was greatly simplified4 ,there was no more hunting for the missing pile4 ,the work proceeded quickly and accurately4 ,a rough illustration4 ,he might have gone a step further and deputized part of the girl's task to a machine instead of to the primitive system described4 ,that is to say1 he might have seen that she was provided with one of the preliminary filing baskets which file clerks often use4 ,then the task of sorting alphabetically could have been done in a single handling of each report4 ,but whatever the method he made available for the girl's use1 the illustration still serves to indicate that the manager's responsibility does not end when he turns a job over to a subordinate4 ,it remains his care to see that the job is done by the most effective method--not necessarily the speediest1 but the one which gets the best results for the effort involved4 ,to find this one best method1 industry has evolved a complete technique of time and motion study4 ,and merely to hint at what may be accomplished by breaking down an operation into its elementary operations and observing the time required to perform them1 becomes part of our task in setting down the ways and means of organizing4 ,first we shall find that any job1 simple or complex1 may be divided into three parts3 make ready1 do and put away4 ,shaving1 for example4 ,first we get everything ready--razor1 brush1 shaving cream1 hot water4 ,then comes the actual operation of shaving4 ,and last1 cleaning up--rinsing the brush1 wiping the razor1 and putting things back where they belong4 ,perhaps you're in the same boat as the old farmer who1 approached by the subscription salesman of an agricultural magazine1 allowed he wa'nt farmin' now half as good as he knew how4 ,or perhaps you already hold speed records at giving your face the once-over4 ,but1 you see1 the whole point in studying the job is not aimed at faster shaving1 but at simplifying the make ready and put away phases of the operation4 ,for example1 the next time you shave1 try picking up the tube of shaving cream with one hand and unscrewing the cap while you're wetting your brush with the other4 ,it will be awkward as the dickens the first time you try it4 ,but try it again and again and again4 ,it won't be long before you'll be an expert at doing the job that way4 ,finish up that part of the operation by screwing the cap back on while you are lathering your face with the right hand4 ,does it require a stop watch to point out the saving in time that you've made8 ,oh1 it won't be easy the first few times1 but before you know it1 you'll have taught yourself good work habits4 ,take a simple job like the assembly of a license bracket in an automobile factory4 ,an analysis of this operation 7see ,micromotion ,technique1 by ,f4 ,j4 ,van ,poppelen1 ,factory and ,industrial ,management1 ,nov41 #aicj7 showed that the right hand was busy all the time1 while the left did nothing most of the time except hold the piece4 ,at the risk of getting too technical--for after all we are interested1 not so much in the details1 as in certain broad principles of organizing the work--let us see how the operation was performed4 ,first the operator assembled a number of screws and leather washers by picking up a screw with the left hand1 a washer with the right1 putting them together and laying the assembly aside4 ,then he picked up a bracket with the left hand and a screw and washer assembly with the right1 placing the screw through a slot in the bracket--continuing to hold assembled pieces in his left hand while the right was picking up a flat washer and assembling it to the screw2 picking up lock washer1 assembling it to the screw2 picking up acorn nut and starting it on the screw2 and finally picking up an open-end wrench and tightening the nut4 ,then he assembled screw1 washers and nut to the other side of the bracket1 whereupon wrench and bracket were laid aside1 completing the cycle4 ,an analysis of these motions1 by right and left hands1 is given in the table on page #abj4 ,it illustrates the important point that the right hand was busy all the time1 but for a considerable part of the time the left was doing nothing but holding the piece4 ,on pages #aah and #aai are shown drawings of the old and the new assembly methods4 ,likewise1 the lower table on page #abj analyzes1 by right and left hands1 the motions required by the new method4 ,note first that fewer elements--#ag as against #bf--;are required4 ,and note that both hands are productively employed with shorter distances to travel for stock and with decreased effort4 ,illustration3 ,analysis of this assembly job shows 444 444 that the right hand was busy all the time4444 ,illustration3 ,comparison with the old method 444 shows both hands productively employed4444 ,,table #a ,,left ,,hand ,,right ,,hand #a4 ,pick up screw ,pick up leather washer #b4 ,assemble ,assemble #c4 ,idle ,lay aside #d4 ,pick up bracket ,pick up screw and washer assembled #e4 ,hold bracket ,assemble #f4 ,pick up flat washer #g4 ,assemble #h4 ,pick up lock washer #i4 ,assemble #aj4 ,pick up nut #aa4 ,start on thread #ab4 ,pick up wrench #ac4 ,tighten nut #ad4 ,lay wrench aside #ae4 ,pick up screw and washer assembled #af4 ,assemble to other side of bracket #ag4 ,pick up flat washer #ah4 ,assemble #ai4 ,pick up lock washer #bj4 ,assemble #ba4 ,pick up nut #bb4 ,start on thread #bc4 ,pick up wrench #bd4 ,tighten nut #be4 ,lay wrench aside #bf4 ,idle ,lay bracket aside ,,table #b ,,left ,,hand ,,right ,,hand #a4 ,pick up screw and transport ,same #b4 ,position on block ,same #c4 ,pick up leather washer and transport ,same #d4 ,position on screw ,same #e4 ,pick up new bracket and transport ,pick up assembled bracket2 lay aside #f4 ,position bracket on block ,same #g4 ,pick up flat washer and transport ,same #h4 ,position on screw ,same #i4 ,pick up lock washer and transport ,same #aj4 ,position on screw ,same #aa4 ,pick up nut and transport ,same #ab4 ,start nut on screw ,same #ac4 ,position driver ,same #ad4 ,tighten nut ,same #ae4 ,position driver to #bnd nut ,same #af4 ,tighten nut ,same #ag4 ,release driver and move assembled bracket #b in4 forward on block ,same ,the new set-up consists of a hardwood block1 shaped to fit one side of the bracket when assembled1 and nailed to the bench4 ,the open-end wrench was replaced by a screw-driver with a socket wrench to fit the acorn nut1 suspended on a spring in front of the operator4 ,the miscellaneous containers for holding the small parts were replaced by a supply of sheet-metal duplicate trays1 so that the various parts could be located in the most convenient position4 7,this arrangement was not used in the accompanying illustrations because it obscured the view47 ,in a word1 then1 the number of elements was decreased by one-third--and practically all of the elements in the new method require less time than the similar or corresponding element in the old method4 ,the distance of travel for stock has been shortened1 parts are grasped more easily1 better and faster tools are provided1 effort is decreased1 and both hands are productively employed4 ,need the imagination be stretched to the breaking point to see how a job involving the work not of one man1 but of several1 may be similarly organized and similarly improved8 ,a second illustration will serve to show the application to group work 7see ,motion ,study ,applied to ,group ,work1 by ,j4 ,a4 ,piacitelli1 ,factory and ,industrial ,management1 ,april1 #aica1 page #fbf74 ,the operation studied here involved cycles of approximately eleven seconds' duration1 performed by a group of seven men4 ,the material handled consisted of rolls of roofing weighing about #ej lbs4 each4 ,many of the elements in the cycle were obviously fatiguing4 ,the rolls had to be lifted1 during transfers from one worker to another1 and rolled along a horizontal runway4 ,the trucker lifted the completed roll and placed it on his truck4 ,while the rate of production was limited by process and speed of equipment1 the chance to cut cost and fatigue prompted the study4 ,examine the equipment layout before the study was made 7it is shown on page #abd71 and follow the operation4 ,a roll of roofing paper approximately #h in4 in diameter and #cf in4 long was wound about the mandrel of a winding machine by one of the workers4 ,the roll was taken off and passed to another worker who wrapped a sheet of paper about it and pasted it in place4 ,when the roll was wrapped1 he had to lift the roll1 turn and deposit it on the runway4 ,the next man inserted a bag of nails1 a can of cement and an instruction sheet into the core of the roll4 ,to do this1 he was forced to turn and bend almost to floor level to get his supplies4 ,next the roll was passed along to two men who1 from opposite sides of the runway1 placed protectors and muslin caps on the ends of the roll4 ,it was then rolled along to another man who placed gummed paper bands about the ends and pushed the roll to the end of the runway where the trucker placed it on a truck and wheeled it into storage4 ,illustration3 ,,equipment ,,layout ,,before ,,study ,illustration3 ,,equipment ,,layout ,,after ,,study ,the movie camera1 which is gradually finding wider industrial use in the search for the one best method1 was used to record the work of this group4 ,it supplied not only a photographic record of the working place and surrounding conditions1 but also a simultaneous record of time and method employed by each worker regardless of speed4 ,it was then possible to study overlapping cycles and to analyze the methods to the desired degree of accuracy--and thus to transfer parts of the cycle of one operator to that of another1 thus effecting a better distribution of work and shortening the cycle of the person on whom the production of the group depends--thereby increasing the productivity of the entire group4 ,these analyses showed immediately an unequal distribution of work4 ,again1 from the equipment layout made after the study1 let us follow through and see what changes were effected4 ,first the wrapper was freed from turning and lifting the roll from his table by the introduction of an elevator which lifted the roll to an inclined runway4 ,the roll then moved from place to place by gravity when released by foot-operated trips4 ,the pasting problem was solved by using a trough the length of the paper1 open on the bottom and equipped with squeegee lips like the mucilage bottle on your desk4 ,a pile of wrapping paper with the far edges of the sheets inserted under the trough supplied a pasted sheet every time one was drawn toward the operator4 ,the trough was covered with a hinged plate which permitted the roll to pass over it to the elevator4 ,it was found1 by eliminating the fatiguing elements in this man's work and simplifying his cycle of motions1 that the time would be so reduced that he could easily take over the work of the man who placed the cement and nails in the core of the roll4 ,the instruction sheet was placed in the roll by the winder1 who had ample time for this additional task4 ,the pile of sheets was placed at his right under a date stamp so that he could date each sheet and slip it into the roll just before it stopped4 ,simplifying the cycle of the men who placed the caps on the ends of the roll enabled them to take over with ease the work of the man who had placed the gummed-paper bands around the ends4 ,thus each man capped and banded his own end1 whereas formerly the bander had had to assume an awkward and fatiguing position to reach the far end4 ,and last1 by placing a redesigned truck at the end of the incline1 the completed rolls landed in the truck1 and the trucker was able to care for two machines4 ,the method finally established was recorded on instruction sheets1 and the existing premium was modified to provide additional incentive4 ,although1 as stated at the outset1 the rate of production was limited by the machine1 substantial savings resulted from the study4 ,production has been maintained with #d-a_/b men instead of #g2 fatigue has been greatly lessened2 cost has been reduced about #bf per cent2 average earnings of the group have increased about #ai per cent4 ,thus the search for the one best method becomes an important factor in organizing the work4 ,we might go on and show how this group work was organized in accordance with our two fundamentals1 but the purpose of introducing this illustration and the one preceding it was1 after all1 to show that the principal's responsibility1 after deputizing work1 ends only when he has shown the deputy the most effective method of doing it4 ,besides1 we must hasten on to the task of handling the help4 ,we have seen that the entire ,,fabric ,,of ,,managing rests upon the knack of ,,organizing2 that organizing the work must be preceded by ,,planning2 and that planning must be based upon ,,analysis4 ,and now1 having organized1 we must learn how to handle the help--which is a task met in every job involving managing4 ,and what job1 big or small1 does not involve ,,managing8 ,,iv ,handling the ,help ,there used to be a good old golden rule of thumb that was plenty good enough for the good old rule-of-thumb days4 ,it was3 ,if you would be fair1 treat all your men alike4 ,as a matter of fact it wasn't a bad rule in those halcyon days for man wanted then but little here below4 ,and he got it4 ,those were the days when a certain plant of a certain electrical concern was known affectionately among the employees as ,siberia4 ,with good reason1 too1 for it was the dreariest1 bleakest place in winter you can imagine4 ,and a transfer to it was like nothing so much as a sentence to ,siberia4 ,well1 well1 their plant today is as comfortable a place to work in as you'll find anywhere in the country2 that concern today sets a high standard of employer-employee relationships2 those same workers who1 thirty years ago1 shivered at the bare thought of pulling on their pants and trekking over the barren wastes to ,siberia1 are today comfortably retired on modest pensions which don't do a thing but help keep the wolf from the door4 ,yet the management1 in those days beyond recall1 would have shown you that all men were treated alike4 ,perhaps that was the trouble4 ,anyway1 if you asked the management today how to handle help1 dollars to doughnuts the answer would come closer to being3 ,to be fair1 ,,treat ,,every ,,man ,,differently4 ,a suggestive statement--significant because it is indicative of tremendous change in the relationships of capital and labor1 of employer and employee4 ,fifteen years ago a lad graduated from an ,eastern university4 ,his folks were poor but proud--as ,mr4 ,alger used to say--but managed to see ,phil through4 ,phil had made a good record in school--and some good friends4 ,through one of them he got a letter to ,mr4 ,h--1 the head of an old established firm of stockbrokers--and the letter got him a job4 ,the job paid #e a week4 ,even in those days there wasn't much left over after carfare and lunches had been deducted4 ,but ,phil was learning the bond business4 ,he wouldn't be worth even #e a week the first six months4 ,after that1 maybe4 ,he stuck4 ,graduated from running the street to a stool in the stock clerk's cage4 ,came the ,new ,year and ,phil found an extra dollar in his pay envelope4 ,he asked the cashier if there wasn't some mistake4 ,there wasn't4 ,two days later he got a job in a factory near his home at #ab a week4 ,told ,mr4 ,h-- he was leaving4 ,was offered #ae to stay4 ,wouldn't4 ,mr4 ,h-- confessed later that he had let the most promising prospect in years slip through his fingers4 ,all--if you ask us--because it was a fixed policy of the house to treat all alike4 ,for years it had been doing just exactly that4 ,each ,june it took on a new crop of young men to learn the business4 ,each young man got #e a week4 ,no favorites4 ,but nine out of every ten came from prosperous1 even wealthy families4 ,that #e bill was nothing in their young lives4 ,their families were glad to have them work for nothing1 for they were getting an insight into the investment business--and some day1 whether they became bond salesmen or just plain manufacturers and solid bankers1 that knowledge would be worth its weight in gold4 ,phil was the tenth man4 ,mr4 ,h-- knew well enough that he couldn't get by on #e a week4 ,but there was the rule4 ,it couldn't be broken4 ,no1 we can't wind up by telling how ,phil did well in the pants factory1 married the boss's daughter and owns the business today4 ,that would be wandering far from the truth4 ,he couldn't see the boss' daughter for one thing--and besides the pants factory wasn't such a much4 ,no1 you'll find ,phil today doing a bang-up job in an ,ohio plant4 ,it says ,general ,manager on his door4 ,and as far as he is concerned1 it was the best thing that ever happened when ,mr4 ,h-- treated him like all the rest4 ,mr4 ,h--1 though1 is still taking them on1 still paying them #e a week--or maybe it's #aj--still treating them all alike4 ,he gets a lot of bright young fellows into the business4 ,but every so often he passes up a chance to get an exceptionally promising boy--because he is fair and treats them all alike4 ,what's a rule for1 anyway1 except to break8 ,mr4 ,h-- will never know that it's the exception that proves the rule--particularly when you are dealing with human values4 99 99 99 99 99 ,but more later of the newer viewpoint4 ,for the moment we are talking about handling the help--and making it sound as though it were solely the problem of the big employer4 ,not so4 ,it is a problem with every one of you in business--unless you do nothing but sit in one spot and do one job from nine to five1 five days--we hope--a week4 ,the editor who wants a manuscript typed2 the salesman who must get long distance2 the man at the machine who has to get tools from the toolroom2 the errand boy with his bundle to carry--all have the same problem4 ,to all of them it is just as important in relation to their own scale of things as it is to the manager of a business with ten or a hundred or a thousand employees4 ,it is the eternal problem of ,,getting ,,others ,,to ,,cooperate4 ,some men are good at it2 others are total failures4 ,many a man on the bench or at the machine has the ability1 knowledge and experience which qualify him for a job as foreman or even superintendent4 ,but he can't hold down a foreman's job because he hasn't the knack of getting hearty1 whole-souled cooperation from others4 ,foremen1 too1 have changed1 you see4 ,today the successful foreman is less often the hard-boiled driver1 more often the student of his job1 of his men1 of himself4 ,he has learned that1 to be fair1 he must treat every man differently4 ,often we hear of ,bill's losing his job as a mechanic1 not because he didn't know his job1 not because he couldn't run every lathe in the shop1 but because he couldn't get along with the other men4 ,and we think1 ,poor ,bill6 it's too bad he's so quick-tempered4 ,generally we blame it on temperament4 ,yet some of the very best handlers of men are the crabbiest1 crankiest gents in seven states4 ,others are as cold as steel4 ,and like as not the warm-hearted1 generous man is a monumental failure at handling his help4 ,no1 when you check specific methods of handling people--methods which are successful for the most part--something much more fundamental than temperament will be found4 99 99 99 99 99 ,mrs4 ,thompson was in charge of the information desk and switchboard in a medium-sized ,new ,england factory4 ,a well-bred ,englishwoman in her late thirties1 the boss liked her for her pleasant voice over the phone1 for her unfailingly courteous treatment of visitors4 ,but if the boss liked her1 almost no one else did4 ,salesmen particularly complained of her crankiness and of the unsatisfactory service they got4 ,young ,bacon was an exception1 though4 ,he always got what he wanted4 ,one day the office manager asked him how on earth he did it4 ,bacon thought he was being taken for a ride1 but finally answered3 ,why1 that's a cinch4 ,i take ,mrs4 ,thompson's job seriously4 ,pressed for details1 he supplied them4 ,i never try to kid her4 ,i never bawl her out4 ,when ,i want a number ,i treat her as though the switchboard were her own particular business and ,i a customer4 ,just as if she had something to sell1 and ,i something to buy4 ,when ,i ask for some special service1 she gives it to me4 ,or she tells me why she can't4 ,afterwards the office manager took the trouble to look into the situation4 ,the switchboard job was a life saver to that woman of #ch4 ,she needed the money in the first place4 ,and besides the job gave her a sense of responsibility4 ,she was proud of her job1 proud to know that the men in the business depended upon her for certain important services4 ,she couldn't understand1 then1 when a salesman picked up his telephone and barked a command at her as though she were a piece of office furniture1 or patronized her as if she were a child1 or kidded her as if she were a #bj-year-old flapper4 ,it made her cranky to be treated like that4 ,and when someone like ,bacon came along with his method of treating her work as a responsible piece of business1 it put her on her mettle4 ,the solution was obvious4 ,the office manager talked ,mrs4 ,thompson and ,mrs4 ,thompson's job over with the salesmen4 ,it wasn't long before they changed their tactics1 with resultant improvement in the quality of the telephone service they got4 ,sounds like a case of knowing the foibles of the person involved1 doesn't it8 ,it's more than that4 ,edna is a switchboard operator1 too4 ,she is pretty and agreeable4 ,and you couldn't blame the boys for liking to hang around4 ,no one thought much about that until some of the more serious-minded men discovered they couldn't get a thing out of ,edna4 ,she was too busy listening to ,joe's latest exploit with one hand1 and plugging ,jack in with the other4 ,she played favorites in putting through long distance calls1 took advantage of the friendly feeling everyone had toward her4 ,the telephone service in that office just folded up and died4 ,there wasn't any4 ,the obvious remedy was to fire ,edna4 ,but the manager was a cagey old codger4 ,beneath a rough exterior beat a heart of gold1 and somehow he felt that maybe it wasn't all ,edna's fault4 ,why1 blast it1 she'd been treated like a pretty1 petulant girl4 ,why shouldn't she act like one8 ,a memo was the result4 ,it announced the creation of a new department4 ,telephone ,service was its name--and ,edna ,blank was its head4 ,it was just as much a part of the business as the accounting department1 or any other4 ,he had sense enough to ,,put ,,definite ,,responsibilities ,,upon ,,edna',s ,,shoulders4 ,he did it not only to instill in her a sense of duty1 but also to impress her with his confidence in her ability to perform those duties4 ,then1 under the rose1 he instructed the men to treat her just as they treated the capable woman in charge of the accounting end of the business4 ,they did4 ,and ,edna rose to the occasion1 took pride in her work1 discouraged the hangers-on1 played no favorites in putting through calls1 and became as good an operator as ever you'd hope to see4 ,now1 then1 scratch the surface and what do you find8 ,not that it was simply a case of understanding ,mrs4 ,thompson's and ,edna's foibles4 ,not at all4 ,mrs4 ,thompson stopped being cranky and became accommodating1 ,edna dropped her irresponsible ways and became an alert1 attentive operator ,,when ,,they ,,got ,,the ,,feeling ,,out ,,of ,,their ,,work ,,that ,,they ,,were ,,transacting ,,business ,,for ,,themselves4 ,and need we look for further proof of our postulate that ,,to ,,be ,,fair1 ,,you ,,must ,,treat ,,all ,,your ,,assistants ,,differently8 ,you must know them1 know yourself1 if you would get whole-hearted cooperation4 ,that is fundamental in any attempt to acquire the ,,knack ,,of ,,handling ,,the ,,help4 99 99 99 99 99 ,for there is a ,,knack of handling the help4 ,it can be acquired4 ,this we say despite the difficulty of analyzing the relations of one person to another1 despite the seeming impossibility of setting down a rule which will work universally4 ,take a man running a peanut stand1 a hosiery mill1 or a steel plant4 ,there are three things he wants for himself3 7#a7 to build up and hold a good trade2 7#b7 to please his customers2 7#c7 to get a fair profit4 ,remember these three wants when you're dealing with your help4 ,get your help--it may be the switchboard operator or it may be a thousand automobile workmen--in the position of wanting those same three things4 ,the help's job is his trade1 you are his customer2 and his compensation is his profit4 ,when you do that1 you have an employee or helper who is going to give you the hearty cooperation you're looking for--just so long as you are a good customer1 and his compensation for helping you is a fair profit4 ,next time you go into a store1 try to keep that thought fixed in your mind4 ,everyone working in a business1 you see1 is selling his services--and when you use those services you are the buyer4 ,perhaps you pay in money for the services rendered--perhaps you simply repay him by making his day's work easier4 ,in either event1 treat your requests for service as though you and he were transacting a business that is mutually1 but individually1 profitable1 and the cooperation which is otherwise usually begrudged will be automatically forthcoming4 ,but that1 you say1 is ,,personality4 ,then how do you account for this8 ,a4 is a big1 breezy salesman4 ,he busts into a hotel1 calls the greeter behind the desk by name1 asks for #abji same as last time--and gets all kinds of real service from porters1 bell-hops and waiters4 ,it looks as though it might be personality4 ,yet right behind him walks ,b4 ,he's a horse-faced bird who never smiles--wiry1 monosyllabic--asks brusquely for a #d room--gets it4 ,and gets everything else he asks for--just as promptly as ,a4 does4 ,no1 it can't be personality4 ,for there's ,c4 and there's ,d4 ,c4 is ,a's twin--and ,b4 and ,d4 were cast in the same mold4 ,their tips are no smaller2 their demands no more unreasonable4 ,yet ,c4 gets the poorest sample room in the house4 ,and ,d's trunk is always the last one the porter brings up4 ,these aren't exaggerated cases4 ,hotel men will tell you they happen every day4 ,why1 then1 did ,a4 and ,b4 rate such good service while their fellow knights of the road got none8 ,because when ,a4 and ,b4 asked for something1 there was about the transaction a well-defined air of you've something you can do for me--,i've something ,i want done--what say we trade8 ,whereas1 when ,c4 and ,d4 came along1 regardless of the personal manners involved1 there was created the atmosphere of a one-sided business deal4 ,c's breeziness had in it a touch of condescension1 or ,d's brusqueness was the brusqueness of assumed superiority4 ,thus is it seen1 when we forget all about personality and study effects1 that cooperation is gained by trading with the help according to the help's business4 ,trade with an elevator man as though running an elevator were his own business--trade with the chief chemist as though the laboratory were his store--and they'll trade with you and be eager to make a satisfactory deal of it4 ,under this fixed policy--or rule--the proper attitude to take towards this or that class of help becomes a matter of automatic selection4 ,and that is how we begin to acquire the ,,knack ,,of ,,handling ,,the ,,help4 ,thus do we step high1 wide and handsome on our road to the ,,knack ,,of ,,managing4 99 99 99 99 99 ,now enters the business of ,,compensation4 ,there must be compensation in a trade if all hands are to be satisfied4 ,everyone is in business because he wants something4 ,everything that will help him to get what he wants1 he will like to do2 everything that hinders him1 he will dislike to do4 ,when you get ready to trade with someone1 therefore1 consider what the other man wants--that is1 if you want to get the most help or cooperation out of the transaction4 ,then consider what you can give in return--balancing his wants4 ---------------------------------------- ------------------ ------------- -------------- ,what ,,you ,want ,what ,,your ------------- ,,help ,wants _/-------------- --------------------- ,what ,you ,can ,give and ,he ,can ,take ,that ,will ,leave ,both ,parties ,satisfied --------------------- ---------------------------------------- ------------------ ,there must be that balance in every satisfactory deal4 ,examine the chart on this page4 ,it will save a lot of paper and ink because it shows diagrammatically what must happen if there are to be satisfactory arrangements between you and your help4 ,a word or two by way of interpretation may serve to show how it works out4 ,when the help is in your employ1 the compensation--what you can give and he can take1 leaving both parties satisfied--is his monthly pay check or his weekly envelope4 ,or it is the rate of commission4 ,and bearing upon it are such things as local living conditions1 and so on4 ,when the help is someone not in your direct employ1 then the compensation is regulated by the effect which performing the service you require1 has on the success of the help's regular day's work4 ,for the moment1 let's us return to the messenger boy whom we left in ,chapter ,,iii just as he was about to deliver a message4 ,or1 at least1 let's talk about another messenger boy whose task of managing his job differs in no wise from the first's--or1 for that matter1 from any other job of management4 ,this boy worked in a large ,chicago building and his job was carting light but bulky packages back and forth between his company's quarters and its customers'4 ,there were a dozen other boys1 and most of them complained of having trouble getting up and down in the elevators4 ,it seemed that the starter took delight in making the boys wait for the freight elevator--even when there was plenty of room in the others4 ,but this particular boy--an impudent youngster with a fresh way about him--had no trouble at all4 ,so the office manager was anxious to know how come4 ,he posted himself where he could observe without being seen4 ,and sure enough1 in came the fresh messenger boy with a bundle almost as big as himself4 ,down he set it1 favored the starter with an impudent military salute and leaned nonchalantly up against the wall--well out of the way4 ,hello1 feller1 said he breezily2 lemme know when there's room4 ,and don't keep me waiting too long1 or ,i'll be out on my ear4 ,picture the manager's astonishment when the starter replied3 ,git in here1 then1 and git in quick1 and let him in the first car going up4 ,somewhere1 somehow1 that impudent youngster had struck a responsive chord4 ,instinctively--or else because of past experience with elevator starters--he had put the problem of that particular starter's service on a business basis4 ,he had put it in the starter's power to perform his own work without trouble1 and to feel at the same time that he was a man of affairs4 ,he was able to show his authority without taking it out on the boy4 ,analyze this trade with the compensation chart in mind4 ,do you not see the balance of interests8 ,do you not see the starter's feeling that the service he rendered was his own business1 that the boy was one of his customers1 that the avoidance of trouble was his compensation or profit8 ,is there not in this very unimportant transaction the ,,balance ,,of ,,interests suggested by our little chart8 ,at this stage of our approach to the ,,knack ,,of ,,management1 a ready objection comes to mind4 ,we are now dealing in human values and relationships--and you can't chart them4 ,analysis1 planning1 organization--certain rules may be set down which will enable one to attain some degree of effectiveness in carrying them out4 ,but human nature8 ,you can't deal with it by rule4 ,the objection is well founded4 ,you can't chart human nature--but you can study the approaches to it and chart the laws that appeal to it4 ,our chart on page #adf is based upon what successful managers have learned about finding the wants of the human element when it works1 and is constructed to supply a method of supplying those wants with as much productiveness and as little friction as possible4 ,when you buy a new car and put it to work1 your first care is to find out its wants--how much you must give to get what it has to sell--what parts need oil and grease and so on4 ,so1 ,,if ,,you ,,want ,,to ,,get ,,work ,,out ,,of ,a ,,human ,,being1 your best bet is to find out what that human being needs and must get in return for the work he performs or the service he gives4 ,some men seem to be born with an instinct for finding this out4 ,but if you aren't built that way1 there is no reason why you can't drill yourself to the same end by deliberately studying each case4 99 99 99 99 99 ,see1 for example1 how a study of this sort gets the most out of men in a large ,new ,england plant where modern management methods are making serious inroads into the old rule-of-thumb ways of doing things4 ,this concern was confronted with the very serious problem of maintaining a steady flow of product from one manufacturing department to another4 ,because of the nature of the product1 skids and power trucks had been chosen as the equipment best suited for the job4 ,skids and lift trucks are effective handling units4 ,no argument about that4 ,their introduction into any factory which has been using more primitive handling methods should automatically cut costs4 ,but they save precious little time and money when they aren't working1 or when they are being worked uneconomically4 ,the problem1 then1 as this concern saw it1 was how to be sure that ,big ,ed hadn't shipped off for a quiet smoke far from the maddening crowd--or that ,little ,joe wasn't arranging his work so that there'd be a handful of skids left over at closing time--moves that called for overtime pay4 ,in other words1 to get #ajj per cent efficiency out of very efficient handling equipment1 the management realized that it must take out some sort of insurance which would guarantee ,little ,joe's and ,big ,ed's and all the other truckers' being engaged in gainful occupation eight hours--count 'em--each and every day4 ,the best insurance seemed to be a central dispatching system4 ,no need to go into the details of its operation4 ,suffice it to say that it went a long way toward directing the efforts of the truckers along gainful lines4 ,there came to be an orderliness which had never existed before4 ,when a foreman put in a call for a trucker1 he knew that the move would be made without unnecessary delay4 ,in fact1 orders were placed into the truckers' hands within three minutes of the time the foreman picked up his telephone to call the central dispatching department4 ,,but--no attempt had been made to sell this system to the truckers4 ,it met with some little resistance1 just as anything new does4 ,and there are ways1 as who does not know1 of beating any game designed to get more work out of human beings4 ,so the management--after many a huddle over this particular situation--decided upon a bonus plan4 ,and they set about selling it to the truckers--somewhat in the fashion about to be narrated4 ,see here1 men1 said the manager in effect1 ,i'm going to put this plan right up to you and let you decide for yourselves4 ,we've looked into it carefully4 ,you men average #cj moves a day4 ,so we've chosen #dj moves as the starting point4 ,we're sure you can make #dj moves a day without tearing your shirts--and from there on1 you begin to collect4 ,for the next five trips you get a bonus of a nickel over and above your day rate2 for the next five trips your bonus is #f cents2 and so on4 ,so1 if a man makes #ej trips1 his day's pay is not #d4ej1 but #e4je because he has earned #ee cents in bonus4 ,do you get it8 ,yeah1 we get it all right1 all right4 ,we do twice as much work for #ej or #fj cents more a day4 ,how come8 ,why don't we get paid extra for all the moves we make over #cj8 ,because we're just like you4 ,the company wants to make more money4 ,we've shown you how it can be done and we'll split pretty much #ej-ej4 ,but we won't give you all the extra profit any more than we'd think of keeping it ourselves4 ,now think it over tonight and if you want to make #e or #e4ej a day instead of #d4ej1 come 'round in the morning and we'll talk some more about it4 ,came only the dawn4 ,the truckers were pretty sure that they were being had1 although they couldn't figure out just how4 ',tis ever thus when the old order yields place to new4 ,there was nothing left to do but try a new tack4 ,so the manager talked to his fifteen or eighteen truckers again4 ,and this time he proposed taking two of them and putting them on the new plan4 ,after a little conversation to assure themselves that there was no skullduggery afoot1 the truckers consented4 ,and ,little ,ed and ,big ,joe 7sic67 were nominated4 ,little ,ed made #fb moves the very first day and was as fresh as a daisy when the #e o'clock whistle blew4 ,big ,joe made #ef trips and looked none the worse for it4 ,ed's bonus was #a4ih2 ,joe's was #a4bh4 ,if you check up1 we're sure you'll find those figures are wrong4 ,but cheer up1 we aren't nearly so much interested in the exact amounts of ,ed's and ,joe's earning as we are in the ultimate results and in the principles involved4 ,we may pass quickly over the former4 ,of course the men were convinced4 ,and ,big ,ed would have beaten any trucker to a gentle pulp who wouldn't have been convinced4 ,in a week's time1 those truckers were making nearly twice as many trips a day--and their earnings had increased by something like #ce per cent4 ,if you don't believe it1 look at the figure on page #aeh4 ,see what happened to production8 ,yes1 that pretty dotted line--the one with the big dip in it--marks labor costs per trip4 ,the manager1 you see--and now we come to the principle involved--had ,,made ,,his ,,help ,,see ,,that ,,the ,,bonus ,,plan ,,amounted ,,to ,,giving ,,them ,,what ,,they ,,wanted4 ,and of course1 that was more pay4 ,at the same time it got the company what it wanted--more production4 ,illustration3 ,,chart ,,of ,,records ,,of ,,dispatching ,,electric ,,trucks #aibb-aibi ,fundamentally1 the manager's system was precisely like the messenger boy's4 ,and you can prove that in a trice by charting it on the same old basis4 ,try it4 ,it won't take you more than a couple of minutes4 99 99 99 99 99 ,this might go on for a long1 long time4 ,innumerable examples might be introduced into this text to illustrate this balancing of wants and its importance to the successful conduct of this business of ,,managing--to illustrate that your own personal method of seeking cooperation or service is more a matter of reason than innate ability to size up the other fellow4 ,there is1 in a word1 method back of this ,,knack ,,of ,,handling ,,the ,,help4 ,the method is this4 ,ask yourself each time this simple question3 ,what does your helper want8 ,does your stenographer want to leave promptly at five so she can get ready for an evening of whoopee8 ,or does she have to catch a particular train in order not to find a cold supper waiting for her at home8 ,then why not fix things so she can work during the hours she is paid to work--and so she can leave at the hour when pay stops8 ,can your truckers live in the style to which they are accustomed on #d4ej a day8 ,or will #e4ej enable them to put away a bit for a rainy season8 ,then why not arrange a wage payment method which will help them to do it8 ,and above all1 tell them ,,why4 ,to do such things is not philanthropy4 ,successful managers will tell you ,,it ,,is ,,nothing ,,more ,,nor ,,less ,,than ,,good ,,business4 ,strip from their methods the individual characteristics required by the individual conditions involved4 ,what do you find8 ,,every ,,last ,,one ,,of ,,them ,,is ,,based ,,on ,,our ,,primary ,,rule4 ,that1 you remember1 is to find out what you want from your help and what your help wants from you2 then a way to make the two meet on a ground of mutual satisfaction--the compensation you can give and the compensation they can take--and ,,both ,,of ,,you ,,get ,,what ,,you ,,want4 ,don't you see1 to grasp the real ,,knack ,,of ,,handling ,,help1 the necessity for making what you want from them balance with what they want from you8 ,if there isn't that balance1 there won't be whole-souled ,,cooperation4 ,to paraphrase what ,henry ,ford once said--or what one of his collaborators made him say3 ,see that each man in doing the best he can for you is also doing the best he can for himself4 ,thus1 by digging in and finding out what everybody involved in the situation wants1 it is possible to get the utmost in cooperation and loyalty4 ,where one man does so instinctively1 another gets equally good results by making a deliberate study along the lines we have pointed out4 ,hundreds of jobs don't get done promptly and enthusiastically for no other reason than that they aren't interesting4 ,they can be made interesting if you get the right line on what your work requires1 what your help wants1 and then make a common meeting ground4 ,mark ,twain knew all about the ,,knack ,,of ,,making ,,work ,,interesting ,,and ,,attractive4 ,remember his description of ,tom ,sawyer's whitewashing the fence8 ,even if you do1 it won't hurt to read it again4 ,poor ,tom4 ,it was on a summer's morn just made for swimming or fishing--and he had to work4 ,along comes ,ben1 one of his cronies4 ,tom begins to do some tall thinking4 ,but let's not try to improve the original3 ,he took up his brush and went tranquilly to work4444 ,ben said3 ',hello1 old chap1 you got to work1 hey8' ,tom wheeled suddenly and said3 ',why1 it's you1 ,ben6 ,i warn't noticing4' ',say--,i'm going in a-swimming1 ,i am4 ,don't you wish you could8 ,but of course you'd ruther work--wouldn't you8 ,course you would6' ,tom contemplated the boy a bit1 and said3 ',what do you call work8' ',why1 ain't that work8' ,tom resumed his whitewashing1 and answered carelessly3 ',well1 maybe it is1 and maybe it ain't4 ,all ,i know is1 it suits ,tom ,sawyer4' ',oh come1 now1 you don't mean to let on you like it8' ,the brush continued to move4 ',like it8 ,well1 ,i don't see why ,i oughtn't to like it4 ,does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day8' ,that put the thing in a new light4 ,ben stopped nibbling his apple4 ,tom swept his brush daintily back and forth--stepped back to note the effect--added a touch here and there--criticized the effect again--,ben watching every move and getting more and more interested1 more and more absorbed4 ,presently he said3 ',say1 ,tom1 let me whitewash a little4' ,tom considered1 was about to consent2 but he altered his mind4 ',no1 no--,i reckon it wouldn't hardly do1 ,ben4 ,you see1 ,aunt ,polly's awful particular about this fence--right here on the street--you know--but if it was the back fence ,i wouldn't mind and she wouldn't4 ,yes1 she's awful particular about this fence2 it's got to be done very careful2 ,i reckon there ain't one boy in a thousand1 mebbe two thousand1 that can do it the way it's got to be done4' ',no--is that so8 ,oh1 come now--lemme just try4 ,only just a little--,i'd let you1 if you was me1 ,tom4' ',ben1 ,i'd like to1 honest ,injun2 but ,aunt ,polly--well1 ,jim wanted to do it1 but she wouldn't let him2 ,sid wanted to do it1 and she wouldn't let ,sid4 ,now don't you see how ,i'm fixed8 ,if you was to tackle this fence and anything was to happen to it----' ',oh1 shucks1 ,i'll be just as careful4 ,now lemme try4 ,say--,i'll give you the core of my apple4' ',well1 here--no1 ,ben1 now don't4 ,i'm afeard----' ',i'll give you all of it6' ,tom gave up the brush with reluctance in his face1 but alacrity in his heart4 ,and while the late ,steamer ,big ,missouri worked and sweated in the sun1 the retired artist sat on a barrel in the shade close by1 dangled his legs1 munched his apple1 and planned the slaughter of more innocents4 ,there was no lack of material2 boys happened along every little while2 they came to jeer1 but remained to whitewash4 ,by the time ,ben was fagged out1 ,tom had traded the next chance to ,billy ,fisher for a kite1 in good repair2 and when he played out1 ,johnny ,miller bought in for a dead rat and a string to swing it with--and so on1 and so on1 hour after hour4 ,and when the middle of the afternoon came1 from being a poor poverty-stricken boy in the morning1 ,tom was literally rolling in wealth4 ,he had1 besides the things before mentioned1 twelve marbles1 part of a jew's-harp1 a piece of blue bottle glass to look through1 a spool cannon1 a key that wouldn't unlock anything1 a fragment of chalk1 a glass stopper of a decanter1 a tin soldier1 a couple of tadpoles1 six firecrackers1 a kitten with only one eye1 a brass doorknob1 a dog collar--but no dog--the handle of a knife1 four pieces of orange peel and a dilapidated old window sash4 ,he had a nice1 good1 idle time all the while--plenty of company--and the fence had three coats of whitewash on it6 ,if he hadn't run out of whitewash1 he would have bankrupted every boy in the village4 ,mark ,twain didn't have the worker on the modern assembly line in mind--nor the stenographer tapping her typewriter--but he did see that ,,the ,,work ,,men ,,can ,,do ,,best ,,is ,,the ,,work ,,that ,,is ,,made ,,attractive ,,to ,,them--either through the money in it or the sheer success in doing it4 ,find out what's wanted to make your work attractive1 then find out what you can give that will meet those wants4 ,then you get not only good work1 but loyalty in it and enthusiasm for it4 ,but you can't fool your help--at least not for long4 ,if you play upon the desire for responsibility1 you must give it up to capacity4 ,if it is promotion you hold out as a reward1 you must give it when it is deserved4 ,if you play upon the desire for good pay1 you must give it as far as the job will allow4 ,and the nearer you come to giving all you can afford for the service received1 in as nearly as possible the form that is wanted1 whether in courtesy or in coin1 in reasonable hours or in rapid advancement1 in self-respect or in reciprocal service1 ,,the ,,more ,,cooperation ,,you ,,may ,,expect4 ,v ,safeguarding the ,business ,now for the last lap4 ,our journey has run four-fifths of its course4 ,we have passed through the successive stages of analysis1 planning1 organization and handling the help4 ,they have all been child's play compared with the most important part of the manager's work--the task of ,,guarding ,,the ,,welfare ,,of ,a ,,business ,,or ,a ,,job4 ,all other managerial cares fade into insignificance before the necessity of conserving the general good of the business4 ,a business rises4 ,a business falls4 ,its life must be protected4 ,and1 as has been said so often1 the bigger they are1 the harder they fall4 ,a certain concern in ,new ,york ,state had been enjoying prosperity for lo6 these many years4 ,established 'way back in the ,roaring ,forties1 it had passed through three generations of the same family4 ,each morning at nine the president was at his desk opening the mail into three piles--taking great care that no checks fell into the waste basket--as might easily have happened had the task been delegated to the office manager or to his assistant4 ,it was unfortunate1 of course1 that no orders reached the stockroom until ten o'clock4 ,but a president must earn his salt4 ,besides1 is there a better way to keep one's finger on the pulse of the business than to know what's in the mail8 ,let's take a look at those three piles1 though4 ,here is the daily take--a fat pile of checks--with the big one from ,san ,francisco laid carefully aside so that it can be admired a couple of extra times before being placed on the top of the heap4 ,reverently the president carries the receipts to his head bookkeeper4 ,with slow and majestic tread1 almost4 ,and over here are the orders4 ,it's a fat pile1 too4 ,the president casts one last lingering glance at the #a_/b doz4 of something or other ordered by a famous name--and1 secure in the knowledge that ,fifth ,avenue shoppers are still clamoring for his product1 hands the sheaf to his office manager who has been pretty fidgety for the past hour and a half because he knows the stock department is going to have a heck of a time making the afternoon express4 ,ho1 hum6 ,it's a busy life1 this being the president of a successful concern doing over a million a year4 ,why1 when grandfather started in1 he didn't have a---- ,but that's another story1 and there's that third pile4 ,a slim little pile scarcely demanding a president's attention--or a sales manager's4 ,a few complaints4 ,a retailer out in ,butte4 ,that ,san ,antonio jobber ,winchester had such a hard time landing4 ,what's this8 ,didn't get the buttons he ordered8 ,stuff and nonsense--well1 ,henry will write nice1 consoling letters and those will be those4 ,now ,henry is a good kid4 ,just out of school4 ,learning the business4 ,writes a bang-up letter4 ,but the ,san ,antonio jobber doesn't want nice1 consoling letters4 ,he wants to know how come his pants came without the special buttons he ordered4 ,and those special buttons are so important in his life that he has written to the head of the firm--whom he'd met at the ,atlantic ,city convention--and he expects the head of the firm to tell him what he wants to know4 ,come1 come1 the president would have said to him1 had he walked into the inner sanctum1 you know ,i can't give my time to such petty details--,i've got department heads who attend to such matters4 ,when you want an extra thirty days--or want to talk over handling our goods exclusively in the ,southwest--why1 those are the things for you and me to spend our time on4 ,but the ,san ,antonio jobber1 had he been there1 and had he been asked1 would have rejoined3 ,i1 too1 have my department heads4 ,i1 too1 leave many of the trivial details to them4 ,but if a customer came to me with a complaint1 ,i wouldn't care a rap what it was about4 ,it wouldn't be that particular complaint which would interest me4 ,it would be the mere fact that he had a complaint at all4 ,a dissatisfied customer is a dissatisfied customer1 and there isn't anything in my business that would get quicker and more personal attention from me4 ,well1 well1 businesses come and businesses go4 ,our imaginary conversation will never take place between the president and the ,san ,antonio jobber4 ,the ,san ,antonio jobber took his business elsewhere some five years ago4 ,the president still comes in at nine and opens the mail4 ,he never drops a check in the wastebasket4 ,there are still three piles in front of him4 ,three slim piles4 ,even the pile of complaints is slim4 ,there isn't enough business left to produce many complaints4 ,henry8 ,oh1 he got to writing letters to an heiress who was wintering on the ,riviera4 ,and when her daddy died1 he wrote such a nice1 consoling letter---- ,but we wander far afield4 ,we're out in the rough somewhere1 and it's going to take a real recovery to get us back on the fairway if we don't watch out4 ,for one thing and for instance3 ,is the customer always right8 ,a one-time shoe salesman reports the following incident in a ,chicago department store4 ,he was talking with the head buyer in the middle of the sales floor when up marched a thoroughly angry woman with the shoe adjuster tagging on behind4 ,these shoes1 she pointed to a pair of satin pumps in the adjuster's hands1 are too small4 ,and she wants a new pair after having worn them half a dozen times1 added the adjuster4 ,who sold them8 asked the buyer4 ,jones4 ,go get him4 ,came ,jones4 ,but1 madam1 he protested1 don't you remember ,i warned you that you needed a #e-a_/b8 ,and don't you remember that ,i also suggested an ,a instead of a double ,a8 ,and when you felt certain you wanted the #e;,,aa1 didn't ,i suggest that you try them again at home before having the cut-steel buckles sewn on8 ,well1 yes1 that was all quite true4 ,but it didn't offset the fact that the shoes were too small and she couldn't wear them4 ,two guesses as to what she got4 ,and if each guess is a satin pump you may step quickly and quietly to the head of the class4 ,she got a new pair of shoes4 ,well1 sighed the buyer1 when peace and quiet had been once more restored1 they tell me upstairs the customer is always right4 ,certainly it's true that one dissatisfied woman has more effect on our business than four or five satisfied customers4 ,oh1 no1 she won't go and tell her friends about the fair treatment she got here1 but oh1 man1 if we'd let her get away6 ,what a story that would have been--in spite of admitting she was wrong6 ,innumerable examples of that sort of thing might be introduced4 ,there is the story of the ,north ,shore matron who had an expensive rug sent out1 kept it three months and then decided she didn't like the color4 ,in its place she wanted a certain oriental1 but oh1 dear1 it was just a bit too big for her purpose4 ,of course the rug was cut to fit4 ,and when she decided a week later that it1 too1 wouldn't do and went and bought another rug somewhere else1 the management thanked her kindly and credited her account with the full amount4 ,it knew that the life of the business had to be protected1 and every now and then found it distinctly worth while to take time out to ,,look ,,after ,,the ,,welfare ,,of ,,the ,,enterprise4 ,and here we face another question3 ,must the manager occupy his time with every minor complaint1 just because it happens to be one which comes from a good customer8 ,to answer it1 we must go back to our ,new ,york ,state manufacturer and strip the scenery from his particular enterprise4 ,his is a business of few customers4 ,except for a half-dozen famous retailers whose accounts cost more than they earn1 but to whose stores he may point the finger of gesticulating pride as being among his outlets 7it would be better for him if they were among his souvenirs71 his business is handled through thirty or forty jobbers4 ,naturally each of his customers is a very important unit in the business4 ,the loss of one account is serious4 ,so a customer to him is an outlet for business greater than the trade a big department store gets from a hundred good customers4 ,one customer to him is as a score of customers to the manufacturer who sells to the retail trade4 ,to him1 then1 a complaint from a ,san ,antonio jobber that the buttons on his pants aren't right has all the importance that the same complaint1 echoed by a hundred different customers1 would have to the retail merchant4 ,looked at in this light1 is it not logical that any complaint--no matter how trifling its nature--should have his prompt1 personal attention8 ,had he but known it1 the letters he turned over to ,henry were danger signals4 ,they warned of the need for ,,guarding ,,the ,,welfare ,,of ,,the ,,business--,,looking ,,after ,,its ,,general ,,good ,,health4 ,and that task1 as we have said1 overshadows in importance every other task which the successful manager1 in his daily business of managing1 may have to perform4 ,the maintenance foreman in a ,new ,england mill walked into the agent's office one day--why the manager of a mill is called an agent is just one of those things--and said3 ,something's got to be done about that freight elevator over in ,building ,c1 ,mr4 ,dearle4 ,i've monkeyed with it and monkeyed with it4 ,it's just worn out1 and one of these fine days1 it's going to drop a couple of floors and pile up in the basement4 ,and one fine day it did4 ,you see1 the manager was all tied up in a labor controversy4 ,labor squabbles aren't any fun4 ,and presumably their speedy settlement is far more important to the business than the matter of what to do about a tired freight elevator which has seen far better days4 ,so ,frank the maintenance man had to run along and sell his papers4 ,and the elevator kept on working4 ,the day it quit1 ,henry ,fitts was aboard4 ,and when the elevator man picked himself up off the cellar floor1 ,henry couldn't4 ,but why go into that8 ,henry's broken leg and ,henry's lost time cost the company more than a new elevator4 ,and ,henry was one of the company's best technical men4 ,lots of bum sheets and pillow cases got made and shipped and returned while ,henry was laid up4 ,the damage done by that falling elevator could hardly be measured in dollars4 ,now1 then1 settling the differences of capital and labor was a big job to the mill agent4 ,saying ,no to ,frank was merely postponing a trifling detail4 ,yet what a heap of difference a ,yes would have made4 ,that defective elevator1 because it endangered lives1 overshadowed all else in importance1 had the agent viewed his job from the standpoint of ,,caring ,,for ,,the ,,business4 ,,the ,,knack ,,of ,,safeguarding ,,its ,,welfare lies not merely in doing tasks that preserve the safety of the business or job1 but also in the ability to discern when such tasks are really mere trifles1 and when1 because of their potential effect1 they are details vital to the life of the business4 ,how is a manager to know when he shall devote his entire attention to settling wage rates1 and when listen to the maintenance man's song8 ,how can the president of a million-dollar concern tell when it is good business to drop a tremendously important managerial task and listen to a customer's tale of woe about pants buttons--and personally set the complaint right8 ,how1 on the other hand1 are you to know when to lay off such tasks8 ,some few men--seventh sons of seventh sons--may be born with that instinct or knowledge4 ,the rest of us must cultivate a true knack of conserving the business--a knack which carries with it the finest sense of discrimination and the best of business judgment4 ,and not until we have acquired this important knack and added to it all the other knacks we've been talking about1 can we consider ourselves successful managers4 ,not until then shall we have acquired ,,the ,,true ,,knack ,,of ,,managing4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i've learned how to pick out the tasks that are vital to the business and make them my own special responsibilities1 a successful newspaper publisher once said1 by setting up a sort of yardstick to judge every job that comes along4 ,my paper was in the 'red' when ,i bought it4 ,it was a weak sister4 ,it carried the least advertising1 had the least circulation and exercised the least influence4 ,today its lineage is nearly one-third more than its nearest competitor's--and circulation has more than doubled in four years1 so now it tops all the rest4 ,i analyzed my job something like this3 ,i bought the paper because ,i thought ,i could make money with it4 ,to make money1 ,i must carry a large volume of advertising4 ,to get advertising1 ,i must show results to advertisers4 ,to show results1 ,i must make my paper a real home paper--a paper really read and appreciated--not merely a paper with which people are only satisfied4 ,to get that kind of circulation1 ,i must put into the paper what people who read a paper at home wouldn't 'miss for anything4' ,what did this analysis show me8 ,simply this3 ,that while more advertising and more circulation meant more profits1 the attitude of my readers toward their paper meant even more--it meant business life or death4 ,so my yardstick is never to let anything get by me that might change our standing with our readers4 ,the toughest business problem is shoved aside when something comes up that means loss of respect among our public4 ,i made it my first business to get to know our type of reader4 ,never was a good hand at guessing4 ,so had to learn about human nature4 ,after a lot of hiring and firing1 picking and sorting1 coaching and drilling1 ,i got me four women who could go out and get exactly the kind of information ,i had to have4 ,each of the four took a section of the city4 ,each section represented a distinct type of home-dweller--and it takes all kinds of people to run a world1 you know--or to buy a newspaper4 ,every week those four women canvassed close to a thousand homes between them4 ,their method was to tell the housewife that we were going to deliver our paper free for a week--and hoped they'd take it in and read it4 ,a week later they went back over the same ground1 soliciting subscriptions1 of course1 but also gathering information for me4 ,more important than getting a subscription was finding out why a woman subscribed--or why she wouldn't subscribe4 ,they asked what the women thought about certain special features4 ,i got a lot of good pointers4 ,for instance1 ,i'd been a bitter opponent of the 'funnies4' ,but ,i put them back when ,i learned that people really wanted them4 ,you see1 ,i was getting a good cross section of the likes and dislikes of all my customers and my prospects4 ,after the 'funnies' were in--and after various other changes had been made--,i sent my four scouts back once more to tell of the improvements4 ,then we checked the new reports with the old ones4 ,there was plenty of deadwood4 ,i knew there would be4 ,but there was enough good live stuff to furnish food for thought4 ,some needed changes couldn't be made right away4 ,many people preferred a competing paper because it carried more department store ads4 ,well1 ,i couldn't do anything about that for the moment4 ,but ,i could and did improve the sports page1 put in more home-stuff for the women1 more society news1 funnier 'funnies' and so on4 ,those were things our readers wanted which ,i could gradually give them4 ,then it was time to tackle the advertising problem4 ,i had my ammunition4 ,carried a bunch of reports around with me4 ,told the merchants frankly what ,i was up to4 ,showed them the reports from women who said they'd subscribe if we had more advertising as well as the reports from those who did subscribe for certain good reasons4 ,and ,i quoted a rate on what we were worth at the time1 not on what ,i knew we could do in the future4 ,i didn't begrudge a full day spent in one small store1 if that small store advertised the stuff ,i felt was wanted by the people ,i wanted for readers4 ,well1 they came 'round one by one--the stores and the people4 ,and ,i think the results prove that ,i was keeping busy on the right tasks--the tasks on which the welfare of my business depends--and not on the tasks that mean only increased volume4 ,how does it affect my readers8 ,that is my yardstick for measuring everything about my business4 ,that is my guide to whether or not ,i should worry4 ,if a little error in last night's paper has the power to affect my readers' opinion of the paper1 then it's my job to run it down to earth1 find out how it happened--and see that it never happens again4 ,but if there's a big advertising contract in the offing which won't affect the permanent standing of the paper in any way whatsoever--except to increase the number of dollars that come clinking into the coffers--,i don't give thirty seconds of my time to it4 ,i hire a sales manager to do that4 ,that's his job4 ,the other's mine4 ,i'll spend a week with my managing editor trying to figure out a way to get our afternoon editions on the street a few minutes earlier4 ,it may involve some minor change in the pressroom running into only a few hundred dollars--but it does affect our permanent place in the sun4 ,on the other hand1 the managing editor can go ahead and spend #ejjj of my good money on something that has nothing to do with our readers' interest1 and all ,i'll do is okay the expenditure4 ,he'll do the worrying this time4 99 99 99 99 99 ,you and ,i aren't interested in the way this publisher went about building up his newspaper4 ,that is to say1 we don't care anything about his female quartette who went around and sang the paper's praises4 ,his methods were sound1 of course1 and merit attention4 ,but our interest right now is in his division between the tasks he watched personally and the tasks he left his business manager or his managing editor to work out for themselves4 ,strip off the publishing scenery--just as a moment ago we stripped off the individual characteristics of a totally different business--and you find that ,,his ,,division ,,is ,,applicable ,,not ,,only ,,to ,,any ,,business1 ,,but ,,to ,,any ,,single ,,job4 ,which means once more that that's the way the successful manager of a steel mill or of a peanut stand will divide the tasks which confront him from nine to five every day4 ,who are your readers8 ,every business1 every job has its readers--some element which1 once injured or neglected1 affects the welfare1 the health1 the profits1 or the ultimate success of the business or job4 ,a file clerk may acquire tremendous speed in putting letters away in drawers1 but if she can't get you the correspondence you need at a moment's notice1 what good is all her speed8 ,your stenographer may keep up with you in your best and fastest moments of dictation1 but if her finished letters don't say what you said1 her facility isn't worth the proverbial thin dime4 ,an accountant may work out a cost system that reflects conditions like a mirror1 but what of it if his reports come out so late that they're ancient history by the time the plant manager gets them8 ,a miller may produce a flour that contains more vitamins than any other flour on the market1 but if the dough won't rise properly1 it isn't much use4 ,a small-town banker may have splendid reserves and a strong cash position1 but he's going to lose your business if he asks #f-a_/b per cent interest and #c per cent commission to extend your mortgage when the big-city bank offers you the same loan at #f per cent interest and #b-a_/b per cent commission4 ,that messenger boy of ours--no chapter is complete without him--may run all the way from the ,tribune ,tower to ,state and ,madison1 but what if in his haste he loses the message8 ,there is1 then1 in every business or job a ,,vital ,,element4 ,and no one can do a good job of managing unless he finds out definitely what that element is1 and then proceeds to guard it through all the hustle and bustle of cost cutting1 labor saving and so on4 ,one manager put it pretty plainly to his billing clerk4 ,the latter tried out some short cuts4 ,they were splendid from the billers' point of view4 ,saved time and money4 ,but the customers weren't used to any of this new-fangled stuff and kicked like steers4 ,they couldn't check the invoices4 ,or wouldn't4 ,they just won't use their heads4 ,it's all as simple as ,,abc1 protested the billing clerk when the manager called him in on the carpet4 ,all they've got to do is check the numbers on the cartons against the numbers on the invoices4 ,there's no need of all the description we've been giving them4 ,right you are1 ,johnson1 replied the manager4 ,but sometimes you bump up against a stone wall when you try to educate the trade4 ,oftentimes life's too short4 ,your system saves us money4 ,it's good up to a certain point4 ,that point is where your labor saving and cost cutting begin to have an adverse effect on sales or sales satisfaction4 ,i've seen you playing bridge at noon1 he went on4 ,you score honors above the line1 don't you8 ,below the line you keep your game score4 ,if you hold #hj or #ij honors in your hand1 it affects your play4 ,but you can't give your entire attention to scoring above the line1 for after all it's the score below which determines who wins games and rubbers4 ,you can score your job in pretty much the same way4 ,all this work you're doing along cost-cutting lines is fine4 ,those things determine the size of your department's profits4 ,sketch them out on a card and check them over and add to them4 ,but below the line put down the main object of your work--to have your invoices correct and to have them so plain that no customer can fail to understand them4 ,keep plugging away above the line4 ,don't let me discourage any effort that will reduce costs4 ,they're all-important4 ,but at the same time keep your eye below the line and make sure your game score is piling up4 ,that sort of thinking and playing wins in business just as it does in bridge4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it's a long time since we've drawn any charts4 ,let's study the newspaper publisher's policy and see if he wasn't doing mentally just what the manager recommended that his billing clerk do on paper4 ,you remember he made it his business to find out all about the error in last night's paper and to prevent its occurring again4 ,that was something which1 to his way of thinking1 affected the permanent standing of his paper4 ,when the department store stood ready to start a big institutional campaign which meant nothing more to his business than a big increase in volume1 he left the job of closing the contract to his hired help4 ,but when1 in another newspaper1 the same department store advertised a new type of radio which he thought his readers ought to know about1 once more he made it his own business to go out and get a few lines for his own paper and his own readers4 ,then1 if we keep tally--and consider whether they score above the line as increased profits1 or below the line as permanent success1 our card will look something like the chart on this page4 ,illustration ,the handling of the error in last night's paper is something that will score down where the success of the business lies--and to lose on it means losing a vital point4 ,in short1 it affects the permanent standing of the business enterprise4 ,so does the securing of the radio advertisement4 ,it's business news and something his readers must know about4 ,so after it he goes4 ,on the other hand1 the institutional advertising will add only to the revenue of the newspaper4 ,don't mistake the point4 ,he wants that contract1 too4 ,it will add materially to his profits4 ,but getting it or not getting it will in no way affect the standing of the paper with its customers4 ,school will keep just the same4 ,so that particular job is on the other side of the line4 ,that's why he has a sales manager4 ,to illustrate once more1 let's attempt to score the work of a credit man4 ,what is the vital element in his work8 ,what determines whether his work is worth doing1 or whether it's worthless8 ,offhand1 you might say3 ,preventing losses on bad debts4 ,but is it that8 ,surely not1 when we analyze the job4 ,the final objective of the credit department is to enable the house to sell more goods by extending credit wherever it is justified4 ,on that basis it is easy to see that the vital element in the credit man's job is to not lose a good sale--and we know we're splitting an infinitive to say it4 ,if it weren't1 why have a credit man at all8 ,it would be far simpler not to extend credit to anyone who could not prove his worth4 ,illustration ,now look at the credit man's score card4 ,such a chart might not help an old1 experienced hand1 but would it not help a beginner to get a grip on what his job is all about8 ,would it not enable him to see his job from the angle of ,,conserving ,,the ,,business8 ,hold on1 though4 ,lining up the various jobs according to whether they score above or below the line--that is1 whether they affect the essential well-being of the business or simply swell its profit--does not mean that he shall neglect all tasks above the line any more than give his constant attention to those that score below the line4 ,the chief value of such an outline of your job or business is to ,,keep ,,actively ,,in ,,mind ,a ,,sense ,,of ,,the ,,vital ,,spots ,,to ,,guard--the spots to keep an eye on--the tasks for which you are always ready to plunge in and defend1 once they are threatened4 ,wherever you find a successful manager1 whether running a big business or just handling a small job1 you will see that he has a clear understanding of the elements that mean the life of his work4 ,and further observation will show that he is always protecting them4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the head miller in a small flour mill was smart and aggressive--a bit on the go-getter order1 to be sure1 but very1 very competent none the less4 ,it seems he had worked out some method of increasing the nutritive value of the mill's best grade of flour by adding something or other--it doesn't matter what4 ,naturally he was enthusiastic4 ,why not8 ,he had persuaded the manager to have this new product analyzed by experts--and the analyses had proved extremely favorable4 ,he wanted to go ahead4 ,but the manager moved slowly4 ,it may make a good flour and the bread made from it may be good for the digestion1 said he1 but will the bread taste as good8 ,finally1 after trying out the flour in his own home1 he refused to go ahead with the project4 ,the miller1 knowing how good the bread would be for people1 fired up his job1 went into business for himself and put his trick flour on the market4 ,illustration ,it never sold4 ,the bread baked from it didn't taste good4 ,the mill owner1 you see1 had kept his eye on what the miller had neglected--the big1 vital element of the business--that people bought flour to make bread1 and that anything affecting the quality and taste of the bread must therefore be handled very carefully4 ,what the miller needed1 to take the place of the boss's years of experience1 was a chart like the one on the opposite page--a graphic outline in skeleton form of his work's vital element4 ,what a different aspect could be put on many an employee's work if the employer1 instead of depending on the man's own-farsightedness in seeing the main items of value in his work1 would graphically put them before him by some such chart as this one6 ,right here1 however1 we must guard against one important characteristic of this vital element4 ,it ,,changes--or at least it may change as the business develops4 ,ask the manager of the circularizing department of a certain mail-order house4 ,he will tell you it's ,,volume4 ,all his other problems have been stabilized except the single job of getting out enough circulars every day to keep the required volume of orders flowing in4 ,again1 go to the circularizing room of an ,eastern financial house and the manager will tell you that the vital element in his work is ,,quality--quality addressing1 quality folding and so on4 ,here the whole success of the department depends upon reflecting the dignity and prestige of the house4 ,the danger point with this manager is therefore touched by anything that might affect the quality of the work4 ,many a manufacturer starts with limited capital4 ,for the first year or two the vital element in his business is finance4 ,he may have to sacrifice attention to production and sales problems in order to guard the slender balance in the bank4 ,sometimes he may have to pay higher prices for materials because he must buy in small quantities2 he may even have to check sales because he hasn't the capital with which to finance them4 ,later1 though1 as a reserve is built up1 or when better credit is established1 he will find the vital element has shifted to manufacturing1 buying1 or maybe sales4 ,a certain shoe manufacturer--we seem to gravitate toward shoes every so often--found manufacturing the vital element of his business a scant dozen years ago4 ,his big job was to see that shoes went out the door4 ,he doubled the size of his plant4 ,in the short space of three years his problem had shifted to one of sales--he was no longer getting enough volume to fill his plants4 ,and today his greatest concern is his shrinking bank balance4 ,the same tendency toward change will be found in individual jobs4 ,the traffic manager of an electrical supply house deposes that the vital element in his department's work changed completely in less than two years4 ,when ,i first came here1 he declares1 the business had grown faster than our manufacturing facilities4 ,we were always working close up to the contract date for delivery4 ,i was hired simply because ,i had a reputation for being able to speed up shipping1 pick the shortest routes and rush things through at the last minute4 ,later on1 we got in better shape in the factory4 ,the goods began to come through to us further in advance of the promised delivery dates4 ,i noticed this and changed my methods4 ,where ,i had previously watched after speed alone1 slapping things into any old case to get them packed1 hustling them out by any route which would save a day1 regardless of rates1 ,i now began to pack more carefully1 to sort mixed shipments in order to get the lowest classification in freight rates1 to pick the cheapest routes1 and so on4 ,one day the chief called me in and gave me a raise4 ',warren1' said he1 ',i thought ,i'd have to fire you when we got past the rush stage4 ,i had you down as just a speed demon4 ,but you have been wise enough to change your methods as conditions changed4 ,and ,i want you to know we appreciate it4' ,a similar shift is noted by the managing editor of a well-known business paper4 ,when ,i took hold five years ago1 it was a constant fight against time4 ,we never had quite enough material on hand4 ,there was always a mad scramble at the last moment to put the book to bed4 ,night after night ,i stuck around writing fillers--a column here1 half a column there4 ,today it's quite a different story4 ,we have a carefully selected inventory from which we make up our schedules at least #fj days ahead of publication4 ,we have figured out close production dates--and we stick to 'em4 ,there's no longer the problem of digging up enough eleventh-hour material to get out an issue4 ,the job is one of selection4 ,my biggest care is to find room for all the things ,i know our readers are interested in4 ,a constant check is the safest way to note in time the conditions that govern the conservation of the welfare of your job or business4 ,check the ,,points ,,above ,,the ,,line and watch the ,,points ,,below ,,the ,,line4 ,that constant effort to measure the importance of all the things that come up before him by their effects above and below ,,the ,,danger ,,line will do much to keep a manager practical4 ,for summed up1 the practical man is the one who combines with his progressiveness and vision the knack of never letting his progressive ideas puncture the vital element of his business and bleed it to death4 99 99 99 99 99 ,make your score in any form that fits your needs or your tastes1 but ,,make ,,it--,,watch ,,it--,,act ,,on ,,it4 ,some men can do the scoring in their heads4 ,most of us1 even in so simple a procedure as keeping our golf scores1 find it's better to carry it on paper4 ,on paper8 ,can a man with real work to do1 spend his time plotting curves and making pie charts8 ,does the ,knack of ,managing depend upon a man's ability to draw pictures8 ,not at all4 ,if that's the impression you have gained from reading this little book1 go back to the beginning and start all over again4 ,if1 from time to time1 charts and diagrams have been suggested1 it is only because the successful manager has somehow or other to go through precisely those same motions4 ,his job--if he is to understand it and manage it successfully--must be analyzed somehow1 sometime4 ,we have merely suggested ways in which the ,,analysis can be made more easily and intelligently by means of charts4 ,his operations must be planned--in his head or on paper--if he is to perform them with the least lost motion1 lost time and lost money4 ,the ,knack of ,managing has simply gathered from other men's methods a form of chart by which ,,planning can be done more accurately4 ,again1 his work must be organized--if it is to be done in the simplest and best way4 ,an attempt1 then1 has been made to sift the organization methods of successful managers and firms to develop a chart which at least indicates how to go about ,,organizing ,,the ,,work4 ,,help ,,must ,,be ,,handled4 ,so1 from the experiences of shrewd managers1 we have dug out the gist of their ideas and put it in the form of a chart that gives a basis on which to work4 ,above all1 a business or job must be ,,conserved ,,and ,,cared ,,for4 ,the charting method suggested is but the method used by every successful manager--though he does not take the time to reduce his plans to paper4 ,and last1 in our search to acquire ,,the ,,knack ,,of ,,managing1 have we not learned that the fundamental principles of management are universally applicable8 ,more than anything else we have seen why the manager who has made a success in one business can step right into another and make the same brilliant record4 ,his business1 after all1 is not ships or shoes or sewing machines4 ,it's ,,managing4 ,and that job1 in its fundamental principles1 is the same1 whether it's running the ,u4 ,s4 ,steel ,corporation or operating a peanut stand4 ,that's our story--and we'll stick to it4