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diff --git a/39761-8.txt b/39761-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c637876 --- /dev/null +++ b/39761-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4253 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Knack of Managing, by Lewis K. Urquhart +and Herbert Watson + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Knack of Managing + + +Author: Lewis K. Urquhart and Herbert Watson + + + +Release Date: May 22, 2012 [eBook #39761] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KNACK OF MANAGING*** + + +E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 39761-h.htm or 39761-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/39761/39761-h/39761-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/39761/39761-h.zip) + + + + + +THE KNACK OF MANAGING + +by + +LEWIS K. URQUHART and HERBERT WATSON + + + + + + + +Published by +Factory Management And Maintenance +330 West 42nd Street +New York City, N. Y. + +[Illustration: A McGRAW-HILL PUBLICATION] + +330 West 42nd Street +New York City, N. Y. + + + + +I + +Analysis + + +Someone once said--probably it was Mr. Schwab--that given the right +organization it was no harder to manage the U. S. Steel Corporation than +to operate a peanut stand. + +And Mr. Schwab ought to know, although no life-sized portrait of him all +dressed up like a peanut vendor has ever been brought to our attention. + +However that may be, his statement is interesting--especially +interesting because his appraisal of the job of managing very nearly +approaches ours. In "The Knack of Managing," you see, much of the +emphasis will be on the fact that the fundamental PRINCIPLES OF +MANAGEMENT apply to every business alike. And if we may start out with +the premise that managing Mr. Schwab's Bethlehem Steel Company is not +such a far cry from operating a pretzel plant or a furniture factory, +our battle is already half won. + +THE PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT vary not at all, however different may be +the MECHANICS OF APPLICATION. + +How often the editor, how often the equipment salesman, listens to that +time-worn tale of woe: "My business is different. So-and-so can do that +sort of thing. But I make gadgets--and your conveyors, your air +conditioners or whatever it is you write about or sell, won't do me a +bit of good." + +_Of course_ his business is different--different in its individual +characteristics, its financial, sales, production, labor problems. But +they are only the CLOTHES the business wears. 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 +shop. But underneath the clothes the artist knows there is the human +body--and a study of anatomy is necessary before he can paint the +picture. Beneath the "clothes" of the business are the principles of +management--The ANATOMY OF MANAGEMENT--the framework upon which the +completed structure is built. + +Doesn't it all boil down to something like the Colonel's lady and Judy +O'Grady? One, presumably, wore a brief peignoir with a Paris label; the +other, a substantial bungalow apron from a department store basement. +But weren't they "sisters under the skin"? + +Stripped of all the furbelows--the details of operation, of tools, of +materials--the objectives of our steel master, our peanut vendor, our +pretzel maker, our furniture manufacturer, are one and the same thing. +Their every-day job, in short, is to _get something well done with +maximum dispatch and at minimum expense_. + +That's management's job. It goes for every type of enterprise; whether +it involves the use of a million dollars' capital, or only ten cents' +carfare--or a few minutes of a man's time. The "clothes" matter not at +all. Beneath them the fundamental steps in managing are identical. The +basic KNACK OF MANAGING is the same. + +Consider one of the simplest forms of business enterprise--the delivery +of a message. 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 plant, the automobile factory, the textile mill, does when +he comes face to face with _his_ problems. _In principle_, mind you. + +FIRST--this is the errand boy managing his job--he settles in his mind +exactly where he has to go. Not just over to Federal Street--but to 63 +Federal. In a word, he ANALYZES THE BUSINESS or the job to be done. +ANALYSIS, then, is the first step. + +SECOND--he figures out the shortest, most economical way to go there. In +other words, he PLANS THE DOING OF THE JOB for the least expenditure. +PLANNING is the second step. + +THIRD--shall he walk or shall he ride? Shall he do the work himself? Or +shall he hire someone else to do it for him? His third step, you see, is +ORGANIZATION. He organizes the handling of his work. The "right +organization," said Mr. Schwab---- + +FOURTH--he must get service. There are other errand boys. There are +elevator men, office boys to meet and get along with if he is to execute +his errand with the greatest dispatch. Now, you see, he's HANDLING THE +HELP. The manager of the piano plant, the agent of the cotton mill, +would call that phase of his job INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS. + +FIFTH--All the time he's planning, going and doing, he never loses sight +of the final object of his errand. He never forgets he has a message, +perhaps a bunch of securities, to deliver. He keeps his eye on the +parcel he's carrying. He gets a receipt before he lets go of it. In +other words, he SUPERVISES AND CARES for his business. The manager of +the shoe shop, of the furniture factory, never forgets the final +objective. After all, it's PROFIT. + + +---------------------------+ + | Analyzing the Job | + +---------------------------+ + /\ + / \ + / \ + / \ + +--------------+ +---------------+ + | Planning the | | Organizing | + | Operations | | the Work | + +--------------+ +---------------+ + \ / + \ / + \ / + \/ + +-------------------------+ + | Handling the Help | + +-------------------------+ + | + | + +-----------------------------+ + | Supervising and Conserving | + | the Business | + +-----------------------------+ + +Now look at the chart. It pictures THE ANATOMY OF MANAGEMENT. The +Chinese say a picture is worth ten thousand words. And it would take a +heap of writing to tell the story more completely, more simply than this +picture. + +Try hanging the "clothes" of your machine shop, your woodworking plant, +your paper mill, on it. THEY FIT, don't they? + +True, the chart is drawn from one of the most primitive tasks of +management--the simple delivery of a message. But suppose the boy +doesn't deliver the message himself, but has an assistant. Won't it be +necessary to go through exactly the same motions? Suppose, instead of +one message, there are _fifty_. Fifty assistants will be necessary. +Will the job of managing vary a jot--or even a tittle? + +Now substitute fifty _boxes_ for fifty _messages_. The boxes have to be +shipped. The same processes of thought, the same principles of +management, apply. + +If, instead of fifty boxes to be _shipped_, fifty machines are to be +_manufactured_--or if instead of fifty machines it's fifty thousand, and +a thousand men and a million dollars of capital are to be employed, +every one of the five principles shown on the chart will be used. And +every essential point in the management of the _business_ could be +covered by those five fundamentals. + +Now substitute ships or shoes or breakfast food for the machines we have +been talking about, and it becomes clearer than ever that this BUSINESS +OF MANAGING recognizes no industrial fences. Learn to manage a peanut +stand and, in principle, you are well on the road to knowing how to +handle the affairs of the U. S. Steel Corporation. + +Five steps there are: (1) Analyze; (2) Plan; (3) Organize; (4) Handle; +(5) Supervise. Tackle any job on this basis and follow through. The +chances that success will crown your efforts far outweigh the +possibilities of failure. At least, approaching a job from these five +successive angles should limit the causes of failure to circumstances +quite beyond your control. + + * * * * * + +FIVE PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT, then. Their skillful application to a +business or to a job is the KNACK OF MANAGING. + +To do a real bang-up job of managing, whether carrying a message or +directing a million-dollar business, the first step is: _Don't make a +single move until you've found out exactly what needs to be done._ + +But our first Do turned out to be a Don't. So let's restate it. _Find +out exactly what has to be done before you make a single move._ + +You've heard that before? And it doesn't mean a thing? + +Neither did it mean a thing to a bright young man who was taken on as +production manager in a shoe factory. The shoes were good. Prices were +right. Business was booming. The factory was full of orders. + +But somehow or other shoes weren't getting shipped on time--or anything +like on time. Three to four weeks late came to be the customary thing. +And customers were, needless to say, kicking like steers. + +So the bright young man was taken on to get things ironed out. + +He pitched in with vim and vigor. + +The first morning's mail brought a dozen complaints of slow deliveries. +People were practically barefoot out in Kansas and Ohio. They were +waiting for those shoes. + +"Ha!" said the new production manager, "_Nous verrons._" Which means, +even in English, "Now, for what we are about to see, make us truly +thankful." And he went away from there to see why those orders weren't +out the door. + +He was out to prove something. And Providence--Rhode Island--had +supplied him with enough ammunition to shoot a manufacturing +organization full of holes. + +Each order was traced. One was in the shipping room. + +"What's holding this up?" he asked the shipping clerk. + +"Haven't had time to ship it. And we got other shoes that have been +waiting longer than those. It's a feast or a famine down here. Some days +we just can't get 'em out." + +"You're working short-handed. Get a couple more packers. You've got to +get those shoes out. The customers are hollering like hell. Get 'em +out!" + +He found another order up in the cutting room. But why report the +conversation? It varied only in the number of cusswords used. It was +always the old story. + +"Can't be done." + +"Put more people on then. Will two be enough? Or had we better make it +three?" + +All down the line it went. More people. Costs went up. And did orders +get out? Oh, yes, some did. But they got out at the expense of others. +There was more congestion than ever. Complaints increased. + +Then the big boss called him in--and down--pointed out the increasing +costs and asked how come. So the new production manager went back over +his trail demanding retrenchment. + +"Put 'em on" was changed to "take 'em off." + +The big boss tells the rest of the story. + +"He had simply jumped in without finding out what it was he had to do. +Maybe it was my fault for giving him too much rope. + +"Anyway, he hanged himself--or rather we had to fire him. Then we +took on a quiet lad who had served his apprenticeship with a large +electrical supply house. + +"He didn't know a twelve-iron sole from a three-quarter foxing. But he +knew plenty about managing, as it turned out. + +"I watched him. Things were in a bad way, you see, and getting no better +fast. He did nothing much for several days but read his mail. Sat around +his office. Didn't make a move to boss anyone. Stuck his nose in here +and there to find out what this clerk or that clerk was up to. + +"But no action. No tearing his shirt. No nothing. And the complaints +were coming in with every mail. They never fazed him. One day I ran +across him up in the fitting room. Another time I bumped into him he was +picking lasts out of the bins. Again I saw him pushing empty racks into +the heeling room elevator. + +"Apparently I had picked another lemon. Looked like the best thing he +did was sit around and tap his teeth with a pencil. + +"He fooled me, though. One afternoon he dropped into my office with a +map. He'd drawn it between taps. It was a good map with dotted lines to +show just exactly what happened to an order--any order--every order. +That map showed when it went into the works, where it went from there. +And so on until it went out the shipping room door. That's what he'd +been up to the day I saw him picking out lasts. And I tell you I never +had any idea how many things could happen to an order. I never realized +how shoes halted and stumbled and staggered around that factory of ours. + +"There were red lines, too. They showed the changes he proposed making. +Here he would stop backtracking. Here was unnecessary travel. Here was +an old bottle neck and here was how he was going to crack it open. And +look at those lasts lying idle with shoes upstairs waiting to be made on +them! + +"That wasn't half. It was actually taking four days to get orders +through the office routine. He showed me how certain necessary records +that took time to make could be made after the shoes were in work. Other +short cuts would wipe whole days off our schedules. + +"There was nothing to it--when you saw it in red ink. In fact there's +nothing half so convincing as red ink. There's been none on our books +for the past five years--and during that time the shoe business has been +no bed of roses. + +"What he proposed was simple as pie--if only someone had stopped to +think. We'd simply got into bad habits. We were handling the work the +same way we'd handled it back in the days when grandfather started the +business. And this fellow had been smart enough to wait and wonder why. +Not wonder why either. _He went and found out how come._ + +"In thirty days we were back on earth. We were getting shoes out on +time--many many days sooner than we'd even been able to before. And all +because a smart young man, who didn't know a thing about shoes but a +whole lot about managing, sat and tapped his teeth and drew a few +pictures.--All because he had been in no hurry to act until he had found +out just what had to be done." + + * * * * * + +It is so easy to jump to conclusions! If you look about a bit, you will +see plenty of men who don't stop to find out what needs to be done +before they start trying to do it. 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 ball. An error is more often than not the +result. + +MANAGING, such men will tell you, is putting "pep" and "punch" into your +work. Pep and punch were once good words. 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 lines. And when it isn't so directed, it comes +pretty close to being the lowest form of human endeavor. Witness the +"go-getter" who really doesn't know what it's all about, but often +succeeds in covering up a world of defects under a cloak of ill-directed +energy. + +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 matter. With the best +intentions in the world, they are grasping at the first straw the wind +blows their way. Eureka! they shout when they haven't found it at all, +but are merely jumping all the way over the facts to conclusions! +Actually to know your business or your job demands ANALYSIS. + +You have a right to duck. It's another of those words that work overtime +and have suffered as a result. A certain type of superficial business +executive has done analysis no good. To him the impressiveness of the +word suffices--to the complete exclusion of the simplicity of the act +itself. And so analysis to you and _you_ and YOU has come to mean +involved, complex research--running around a lot in circles and getting +exactly nowhere. Analysis has become for you an A1 example of the +phrase-maker's art. + +REAL ANALYSIS of any problem in business can, however, be simple--in +fact, _it can be nothing else but simple_. + +Analysis, says Noah Webster, is "a resolution of anything, whether an +object of the senses or the intellect, into constituent parts or +elements; an examination of component parts, separately or in their +relation to the whole." + +Whooee! all that when he might have said "TAKING TO PIECES." For +analysis is literally that--taking a thing to pieces to see what makes +the wheels go round. Not, however, with the destructive intent of the +small boy who strews his watch all over the floor, 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 plainly. + +Analysis which befogs the issue is not analysis at all. It's--in the +vernacular--a lot of "hooey." + +But the RIGHT KIND OF ANALYSIS "breaks down" the problem into its +component parts--without losing sight of each part's relation to the +whole. There may be only two parts to a job of managing. The messenger +who analyzes his business correctly will find exactly two: where to go +and what to do after he gets there--the simplest kind of problem and the +simplest type of business analysis. But if the analysis consisted of +twenty pieces instead of two, it would be no harder; it would only be +longer. + +The production manager in the shoe factory analyzed his job correctly +when he mapped out the route of an order. All he did was take the +manufacturing process to pieces so that he could put the pieces +together again to form a more efficient whole. + +So whether there are two or twenty or two hundred pieces, the act of +ANALYZING--of TAKING TO PIECES--differs only in the amount of territory +it covers. 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 parts. But the approach is always +the same. + +And no matter how good you may be with the woods, how the approach does +affect the final score! + + * * * * * + +Consider for the moment that you have a house built of blocks and want +to take it to pieces. A quick and easy way of separating it into its +component parts would be a swift kick aimed down around the foundations. + +A quick method. But comes nothing. There are all your blocks lying on +the floor, but so far as knowing what they're all about, you're worse +off than ever you were before you kicked your house down. + +The other way of taking your house of blocks to pieces is to start with +the roof and WORK BACKWARDS. The very thought, then, of "taking to +pieces" suggests the correct way to undertake the analysis of a business +or of a job. + +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 tackle. + +Once a busy ceramic manufacturer found himself in the restaurant +business. He knew about all there was to know about dinnerware up to the +point where it left his customers' counters. What went on after that was +pretty much Greek to him if you know what we mean. + +And then he became a restaurateur. 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 profit. + +Brother-in-law knew the game. Oh, yes. He had worked for a number of +years as assistant manager in a similar enterprise. With his "knowledge +of the business," he should have made a success of this cafeteria of +his. + +He knew how to handle the help, how to buy, how to run the kitchen, and +so on. The operating details were as an open book to him. Judged from +every outward appearance, the cafeteria was up to standard. It should +have climbed out of the red in short order. + +He had been taught to buy carefully and to manage economically. "Well +bought," he announced, "is half sold." He'd read it in a book and he +thought he was being a good salesman. Still the business stayed in the +red. + +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 bad, or with getting into the +cafeteria business. + +He figured this business ought to pay. Somewhere, he knew, his +brother-in-law had gone wrong. Just where, he believed he could find +out. + +So he took over the business. Brother-in-law stayed on, leaving the new +owner free to observe. + +And he did nothing but observe for a solid week. + +Each night he made a list of the points in managing which had come up in +the course of the day's work. + +In a week's time he had an accurate list of all the actual jobs of +managing, as all bills except for gas and light and rent were paid and a +profit and loss statement was taken each week. + +Then he arranged the list in order of natural importance. + +It began with marketing and checking bills with deliveries, and ended +with counting the money and depositing it in the bank. + +"Hold on," he thought, "this isn't such a long way from running a +pottery. What am I in this business for?" + +"Because," he answered, "I want to leave as much of that money in the +bank as possible, and mark it down as profit." + +So right away he started to draw pictures. The chart on this page is the +result after he had worked it over and polished it up. + + +---------------------------------------+ + | +-----------+ | + | | 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 Profits." + +"Now," questioned his _alter ego_, "how do I determine how much of that +money stays in the bank as profit, and how much has to be checked out +right away for expenses?" + +And from his handy list of managerial functions it was plain that it +depended on three things--buying right, selling with as little waste as +possible, and keeping expenses down. + +"Now we're getting somewhere," he said to himself. "Those things lead me +right into my next job--which is to fix prices fairly. For what's the +use of buying right, handling supplies carefully and keeping expenses +right down to the bone unless my selling prices cover costs, yield a +profit, and still look reasonable to the public?" + +Yes, and the most attractive prices, backed up by careful buying and all +the rest, 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 more. + +By this time, you'll note, on taking another peek at the chart, he had +worked right back to his "Number 1" job--getting more customers in. + +Thus, by ANALYSIS, he found out definitely what had to be done--and what +had to be done first. Brother-in-law thought he knew, but he had begun +at the wrong end. He had been looking after expenditures first and +receipts last. He was trying to squeeze a little margin out of his +receipts before he did anything about getting the receipts. + +How different the new owner's viewpoint! His brother-in-law, he found, +was thoroughly competent. He'd simply got off on the wrong foot. In the +kitchen and the storeroom, he was a good operator. But the new owner's +place was "out front." + +His job was to "get more customers, get them to spend more--and to give +them such good food and service that they would come back and bring +their friends." + +He began by spending money. Took out the gas pipe at the entrance. +Replaced it with a brass rail. Provided a small lounging room where +customers could wait for their friends. Put in upholstered chairs so +they could be comfortable while waiting. Put attractive uniforms on +attractive serving girls. + +There was an air of good taste about the place when he got through. + +Then he changed the arrangement of the counters. 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 meal. +Staples which offered a small margin of profit were relegated to places +in the rear. Dishes that made the best profit got the positions up +front. Each day he offered a low-priced "special." Thus he planned to +increase customers' purchases. + +And the business began to grow. + +That's all there is. There isn't any more. Today he doesn't own a chain +of cafeterias extending into many cities and feeding many thousands of +people every day at a good profit. + +He's still a very successful ceramic manufacturer--and a cafeteria +proprietor. + +"I flew in the face of tradition," he says. "'First watch your kitchen' +is the cry of the restaurant man. But I started with what I wanted--net +profits--and WORKED BACKWARD to make conditions that would provide net +profits. + +"VOLUME OF BUSINESS had to come first. I had to get it before I could +get a margin of profit. + +"No doubt I could go out in the kitchen today and save some money. If I +went to market myself, maybe I could save a cent a pound on my meats. +But I can't give up my attention to the 'front' in order to watch the +'back.' As soon as I do that I'm going to be right back where I +started." + +It would sound like heresy, wouldn't it, if we hadn't sat in and +watched him begin with his final objective and work back through the +means which make the objective possible. Only by careful analysis would +he have had courage enough to FOLLOW HIS PLAN THROUGH to its successful +conclusion. + +And here's the amusing sequel. Today, as he still dabbles at feeding +people, he will admit that he's a better ceramic manufacturer as a +result of his cafeteria experience. His pottery had always yielded a +nice profit. When he sat down with his sheet of coordinate paper and +analyzed it, he found his job of management differed not at all in its +fundamentals. + +His first job he found was "out front" getting more customers in. A +better knowledge of markets, a better job of selling, a better +product--those were the ways to get the customers in and make them come +back for more. + +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 ware. + +But that's another story. The important thing, anyway, is not what he +found had to be done in the cafeteria and in the pottery, but HOW he +found it. + +He took his business to pieces--BACKWARDS. + +He began with the objective he wanted to get--MONEY. It was a simple +matter to find that to get money from the business he had to get +customers to come in and spend money; that to get customers to come in +he must make his place look like a good place to come to; that to make +his place look attractive he must spend money on equipment and thought +on the arrangement and display of food. + +And there he had his big job cut out for him, with the other jobs +following along in natural sequence. It altered the whole METHOD OF +MANAGEMENT. + +How this METHOD OF MANAGEMENT is applied to your job is shown in the +chart which follows. It's a skeleton of what the cafeteria man did. + +Indeed, it's more than that. For it shows what every manager--whether he +manages a steel mill, a punch-press department or a time-study job--must +do if he is to get an honest-to-goodness PERSPECTIVE OF HIS WORK. + + +----------------------+ + +------------+ +----------------------+ +-----------+ + | The Work |__| The Means |__| The Final | + | to Be Done | | for Accomplishing It | | Objective | + +------------+ +----------------------+ +-----------+ + +----------------------+ + +It can be done very simply. 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 done, will develop a true ANALYSIS of your problems +which will beat reams and reams of typewritten words. + +Remember the words of the Chinese philosopher: "A picture is worth ten +thousand words"--and reflect how clever these Chinese are! + +The MEANS FOR ACCOMPLISHING the final objective may be many or few. You +have seen the cafeteria-manager's problems on the chart on page 24. Now +turn to page 35 and see what a file clerk does beside powder her nose +from nine to five. + +A bright young lady fresh out of high school went to work in an +editorial office. There wasn't enough filing to do to keep her happy +from nine to five, so she filled in with a bit of typing here and a +trifle of routine clerical work there. Thursdays she hopped over to the +neighboring bookstore and collected _Saturday Posts_ for the +editors--now she'll have to do that on Tuesday. And Fridays she +distributed _The New Yorkers_ to avid readers. + +Filing, though, was her main job. When she first came, the managing +editor said "Here it is" or words to that effect, and she went to work. + +Those files had always been more or less of a sore point. An editor's +mail is nothing if not voluminous. And every day Flossie the fascinating +file clerk got a mass of data which she had to stick away. Her great +trouble was finding it again after she'd stuck it away. + +Often she couldn't find it. And pretty soon she discovered that she got +the blame no matter what was missing--whether an important inquiry from +Peter B. Stilb or the editor's pipe cleaners. + +She couldn't do a thing about the pipe cleaners, but she made up her +mind that since she was held responsible when a letter got lost, she +would also have the responsibility of changing the filing system. The +system, she felt sure, was to blame. + +One day when she was "on her lunch" and the editors didn't need +cigarettes from the corner drugstore, she sat down and made an ANALYSIS +of her problem. Curiously enough, she started at the end and WORKED +BACKWARDS. + +She WORKED BACKWARDS, not because someone told her that was the right +way to analyze her job, but probably because she was only a file clerk +and no one ever told her anything. + +"Why," she asked herself, "do I file these old papers anyway?" + +"So I can find them again, quickly and surely, when they're wanted," +seemed to be the only answer to that. + +"What's the right way to file these letters and papers and data so I can +find them quickly?" was her next question. + +"Arrange them like words in the dictionary--ONE PLACE, and ONLY ONE +PLACE, where each can be," was only common sense. + +In the filing system which she had inherited, there were a dozen places +for each set of data. There was a file on "Industries" with sub-files +for "Automobiles" and all the rest; a file for data on "Railroads," with +two or three sub-files. The file clerk had to use judgment and +discretion in selecting the heading under which each letter or piece of +data was filed. And she wasn't hired for judgment and discretion. +Sometimes, too, the editors erred in their descriptions of the material +they wanted. + + +-----------------+ + | 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 file, arranged alphabetically--ONE PLACE TO LOOK, regardless of the +thing looked for--was the logical conclusion, viewed from the standpoint +of _finding_. + +The managing editor was horrified. Mix "railroads" with "public +service," and "manufacturing" with "agriculture"? + +"Why," asked the file clerk, looking back at her analysis, "why care how +things are _kept_ so long as they can be _found_ quickly? When you send +me for Camels, do you care, so long as you get them quickly, whether +they're kept next to Chesterfields, or right beside the chewing gum? +When the chief asks for data on 'C.P.R.' does he care, if he gets it +right away, whether it was filed next to data on 'Coal' or beside facts +about other railroads?" + +"All right," objected the managing editor, "suppose someone asks for all +the data we have on railroads?" + +Not a bad question. It was from a _finding_ standpoint. + +"Have a separate cross-index by classes," was the answer. "That is, +under 'Railroads' have a card showing the name of every----" + +"But look at the extra work." + +Back to her ANALYSIS went the file clerk. "Why file at all, except to +make it easy to find what we file? If we were to set up a system for +_easiest filing_, we'd simply put everything in boxes just as it comes +to us. Our main objective is to make information easy to _find_, and +anything that increases the work of filing but lessens the work of +finding, is profitable." + +The result was a filing system that has made a great mass of data as +accessible as the words in the dictionary. And it has taken the human +equation out of the job. No longer does the file clerk have to stop and +use her judgment as to where she shall file Mr. Stilb's letter. There is +ONE PLACE AND JUST ONE PLACE. + +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 done. + +In hundreds of business offices--in countless industrial plants--time, +labor and money are being wasted today in outmoded methods which, like +Topsy, "just grew." The manager who started them didn't stop to reason +out first exactly what had to be done--or if he did, he failed to WORK +BACKWARD from the final objective. + +One way is as bad as the other. + +In fact, 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 +done. At least it takes less time. + +A sure way, incidentally, to avoid making mistakes in your analysis is +to do it on paper. 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 paper. "Make pencil and paper +do as much as you can, for your brain has enough to do to supervise the +work." + +Until your mind is trained to the habit of QUICK, ACCURATE ANALYSIS, +you'll find it helps to do the work on paper. Keep on hand a small +supply of blank charts like the one on page 31, on which to sketch an +analysis of new work or of important decisions. The constant performance +of this detail will of itself train your mind to look at problems more +analytically, and automatically to sift and classify them more +logically. + +Perhaps you can improve on the chart shown on page 31. Surely you can +adapt it better to your own needs. But force yourself to some such +method. It will help you to cultivate the instinct of SHREWD, RAPID +ANALYSIS--and at the same time it cannot help giving you a KEENER, SURER +INSIGHT into the particular problem, no matter how complex or how simple +it may be. + +Sometimes it is the apparently simple problems that need analysis most. +For example---- + +Did you ever hear of a sales organization that didn't have a +stenographic problem? + +The New York office of a Western factory was no exception. The manager +was broadminded--even liberal--with his salesmen. But when it came to +stenographers, he was decidedly Scotch. 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 day, but not +the rush load of the two hours a day when the salesmen were inside. + +Dictating machines seemed to be the answer. The sales manager figured +they would not only solve the dictation problem, but would further +reduce stenographic costs. + +They were installed. At the same time the stenographic force was cut to +insure keeping all the girls busy all the day. + +Good. The salesmen were able to dictate when they felt like it. But +often the letters dictated were a day or two late in being transcribed. + +Complaints increased. And the manager lost his temper: "What's the +matter with this cursed letter-writing business?" he demanded. "Why the +Sam Hill do we have typists and stenographers?" + +Well, why? He calmed down a bit, seized a sheet of paper and mapped out +his problem. + +This is what he wrote: + +1. Salesmen's letters are to save salesmen's time and to give prompt +service to customers. + +2. I don't begrudge half a day's time of a $20-a-day salesman to call on +a customer. Then it's still profitable to waste half of the time of a +$4-a-day stenographer in order to save a long trip for a salesman, or to +get a quick answer to a question. + +3. What we need is enough typists to transcribe every letter of every +salesman promptly, even if part of them have to be idle half the day. + +The increased use of sales letters, the greater freedom salesmen feel in +their dictation, 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 point. + +He's a convert to the pencil and paper method. Sales problems are part +of his daily exercise. He goes to the bottom of them instinctively. But +any problems that arise concerning office work, he settles only after +analyzing from front to back--on paper. + +His method of charting his ANALYSIS differs in appearance from the chart +on page 31, but it is identical in PRINCIPLE AND EFFECT. It works from +final objective BACKWARD. + +One more application of the same KNACK OF ANALYSIS--and we are done. It +is that of an Ohio manufacturer who recently put up a new building. + +Plans prepared by the architect called for four stories and a basement. +When it came time to discuss arrangement of space, it was found that one +department would have to go in the basement. There were objections from +all sides. + +The manufacturer ended up by taking the problem home with him to TAKE TO +PIECES and put together again. + +He began--fortunately--with the final objective. "What's this new +building for?" Obviously, to provide more space for enlarged operations. + +"How much space is needed?" + +He went over the figures and plans and found the four main floors +weren't enough. + +"Then why not a fifth floor?" + +As long as a bigger building was to be built, why not make it big +enough? Why not another full story instead of a basement? + +Why not, indeed! Come to find out, no one knew just why a basement had +been considered. The old building had one, and apparently that was the +only reason for proposing one for the new building. 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 +floors. + +And when the architect was consulted, it was found that with the extras +for excavation, waterproofing and the like, the cost of a basement was +considerably more than the cost of another full story. + +Yet, but for the manufacturer's analysis of the building problem from +the point of final objective, the basement would have gone in--simply +because NO ONE HAD STOPPED TO THINK, and think clearly and logically. + +Logical thinking is a trait that can be cultivated. Every problem +thought through by means of some such simple help as we have suggested, +makes the mind more ready to tackle the next problem. + +Some men's minds grow so keen by practising that sort of thinking that +they AUTOMATICALLY TAKE THINGS TO PIECES as they listen. Before you +finish talking to them, they have already analyzed your statement and +are planning on its execution--or are ready to reject it. Sometimes it's +intuition. But rarely. Usually, it is nothing more than cultivated +KNACK. + +Cultivate ACCURACY first. SPEED OF ANALYSIS will come of itself. + +_Don't start until you know exactly where you're going._ + +There is no task so trifling, no business so large, that its management +does not need to ANALYZE EXACTLY WHAT THERE IS TO DO. + + + + +II + +Planning + + +In the preceding chapter we have been busily engaged in taking things to +pieces. Now we've got to put them together again. Our house of blocks +has been resolved into its component parts, not by aiming a swift kick +at its midriff, but by starting at the top and working backwards. Now to +REBUILD. + +Our first care, at this stage of the game, is to remember that ANALYSIS +IS NEVER AN END but simply the MEANS TO AN END. + +The immediate end, this time, 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 effort, the most time, the most money--the way which, in your +business--and in _yours_ and YOURS--leads to NET PROFITS. + +Again it should be emphasized that NET PROFIT, in any job of managing, +is the ultimate goal. + +Our danger, then, 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 house, and rebuilding it in the simplest, most economical +way. + +In short, we must be sure we are taking things to pieces, not for the +sake of taking them to pieces, but purely and simply _to find out what +has to be done_. + +Like the golfer who played golf so much in order to keep fit for golf, +we have here a good old-fashioned beneficent circle. ANALYSIS without a +PLAN isn't worth a whoop in Hades. It's time kissed goodbye. Wasted +effort. And, in like manner, a PLAN without an ANALYSIS isn't worth the +paper it's typed on. + +Psmith in your office is a great "planner". He always has something on +the fire. But somehow or other he never quite puts things over. His +plans don't get across. Why not? Oh, 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 done. He doesn't base his plan +upon an actual need. + +Pbrown, on the other hand, is a keen analytical thinker. A student. He's +a shark at taking things to pieces and finding out what has to be done. +But when he's done that, he's all done. He lacks the initiative that +starts things moving. He hasn't that divine spark of something or other +that gets things done. A stick of dynamite wouldn't do a bit of good. He +simply hasn't the knack of building a plan. He knows what has to be +done. He doesn't know how to do it. + +Psmith and Pbrown--or Pbrown and Psmith--would make a fast team. But +Psmith without Pbrown's analytical ability, or Pbrown without Psmith's +capacity for planning how to get things done, isn't worth his weight in +gold to _any_ business enterprise. + +A manufacturer friend tells an amusing yarn about a Pbrown he hired as +sales manager. + +"He went around analyzing everything from soup to nuts--the gadgets in +our line, our markets, our competition, our salesmen. + +"He was an analyzer _de luxe_. And all I ever got out of all his +analyses was a distinct feeling that something was wrong with every +gadget we made, that our markets were saturated, that our competitors +had us backed off the map, and that our salesmen were a bunch of ribbon +clerks. + +"So," he continues, "I did a little analyzing all my own. And analyzed +him out of his job. Today he's managing a filling station where they +drive in for the most part and take it away from him. But in his place I +got a man who found out what was wrong with gadgets, markets, +salesmen--and right away he built a plan which sold goods." + +Thus the futility of ANALYSIS without PLANNING. + +There's the danger, too, of getting away from the SIMPLICITY OF TRUE +ANALYSIS. + +A job undertaken by an advertising agency for a rubber manufacturer +supplies a case in point. Stripped of all the details, 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 trailers. If names +are changed and products substituted, think nothing of it. The +principle's the thing. + +The agency began by analyzing the business to a fare-you-well. Everyone +and everything got cross-examined. + +It took three months. And when the analysis was done it told the +manufacturer everything from where the rubber grew to where the money +went to and came from. The trouble was, he knew all that before--or as +much of it as he wanted to know. The report, in the words of a Chicago +columnist, was just "64 dam pages." It didn't tell him one blessed thing +he wanted to know. Or rather it was so full of plunder that he couldn't +make head nor tail of it. + +It wasn't SIMPLE. And because it wasn't SIMPLE, it was a far, far cry +from TRUE ANALYSIS. + +Well, well, the rubber manufacturer went out in the byways and got him a +young man who was told to find out, if he could, whether or not there +was any market for hard rubber tires on gas and electric industrial +trucks, tractors and trailers, and allied equipment. + +He found, for example, that there were 40,000 trucks and tractors in +service; that annual sales were about 3,200 units. He discovered that, +of trailers and hand lift trucks, 125,000 each were in service; annual +sales were 12,000 and 10,000 units respectively. But when he came to +floor and hand trucks, conservative estimates showed 8,000,000 in use, +while annual sales were in the neighborhood of 250,000! + +Next he found out, as accurately as possible, how many hard rubber tires +were sold as original equipment. The 3,200 trucks and tractors had +12,300 wheels. But 95 per cent of them were equipped with rubber tires +at the factory. On the other hand, only 7 per cent of the floor and hand +trucks were thus equipped! + +Outside of the truck and tractor people, he found the equipment makers +opposed to hard rubber tires. Let's not go into the reasons. Yet +representative manufacturers in a dozen different lines stated, when he +asked them: "All future equipment purchased by us will be equipped with +rubber tires." + +The whole report wasn't twelve pages long. And three tables, carefully +compiled from available facts and figures, told the manufacturer +everything he wanted to know. + +In short, upon this SIMPLE ANALYSIS, he was able to build a plan for +manufacturing and merchandising solid rubber tires. Much good, though, +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 them! + + * * * * * + +So much for our "beneficent circle." 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 +managing. + +There is, we shall find, a single problem with which the planner, the +constructive manager, deals. Again, it doesn't make a particle of +difference whether it's Mr. Schwab and Bethlehem Steel or Tonio and his +peanut stand. No business is so "different" that the principles of +management fail to apply. + +All right, then. The problem of every planner is first to determine what +is the PRIMARY MOVING FORCE--the "initiative"--behind his job, 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 RESULTS. + +A long sentence. Go over it again and you will find it is divided into +four distinct parts: + +1. Deciding on the PRIMARY MOVING FORCE with which to set the wheels in +motion. + +2. Applying this FORCE at the PROPER PLACE TO GET EASIEST ACTION. + +3. Directing this action along lines which either offer LEAST RESISTANCE +or assure GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT. + +4. Bringing the activities to a focus at the place or time that will +best carry the work to a SUCCESSFUL CONCLUSION. + +The PRIMARY MOVING FORCE may be the selection of media in an advertising +plan; it may be the pushing of a button in the White House which opens a +dam in Arizona, a Century of Progress in Chicago, or the Annual +Convention of Whammit Manufacturers at Atlantic City; or it may be the +memo from the big boss which gives the research department _carte +blanche_ on a development project. + +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 Mooselookmeguntic, or of the +time the ice cubes gave out just when they shouldn't. 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 +secured. 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 attention. + +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 desirable. Again, 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 operation; 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 regime. Or it may involve the simple sweeping of a +floor in a manner which raises a minimum of dust. + +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's. Or it may be +coordinating the entire production of a factory so that the Diesel +generator set ordered by the Santa Fé can be delivered at the exact date +specified in the original order. 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 11:45--so that the rest of the day's +work is ready to sign, stamp and mail before the 5 o'clock whistle +blows. + +FOUR ELEMENTS, then, in any job which is to be PLANNED. Every plan, if +practicable, will follow them. + +There is, by way of further illustration, 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 night. +Now it can be told. + +And for two good reasons. First, because it was a practical plan which, +even on such a lowly operation, saved quite a bit of money. Second, +because in its construction the plan is, from the point of view of our +four elements, what has sometimes been called a "natural." + +One night, it seems, the manager and his wife went to the movies. The +town didn't have daylight time, so it was quite dark. They passed the +plant, a large six-story building. + +"Why, Ed!" exclaimed the wife, "you didn't tell me the factory was +working nights." + +Ed, like most husbands, was in the habit of telling friend wife 'most +everything. For once he was at a loss. Sure enough, the lights were +going full tilt on all floors. Hitting on all six, you might say. + +Then he laughed. It all came to him--"It's just the scrubwomen at +work." + +One feature picture, one newsreel and one animated cartoon later, they +walked past the plant again. + +"Look, the factory's still lit up," remarked the wife who turned off the +living room lights religiously when she went out to get supper ready. + +This time Ed didn't laugh. + +In days like these one doesn't. Not, at any rate, at the thought of +mounting electricity bills. + +The very next evening he was on the job. Time somebody found out what +was what. In came the cleaners. They switched on the office lights--all +of them--and two of the crew went to work. A couple of others went up to +the second floor, switched on all the lights and pitched in with a vim. +And so _ad infinitum_--or at least to the sixth story. + +And all the while the electric meter went round and round! + +Twenty-four hours later the janitor had a new plan of work. + +First the manager thought he'd start the whole crew at the top and work +down. On second thought, a better plan was born--like the goddess of +wisdom who sprang full grown from her papa's forehead. If I must go at +this cleaning job, he thought, I might just as well make a first-class +job of it and save not only on light, but on cleaners, too. + +We shall pass lightly over that part of his plan which had to do with +releasing scrubwomen for other productive work, for in days like +these--or in any other day--we just can't figure out that sort of thing. +But goodness gracious, sometimes it's necessary. + +The emphasis, then, shall be on the electric current saved. The plan +called for the entire crew's working together on one floor at a time--on +the well-founded theory, of course, that teamwork would accomplish more +in less time. Besides, since it was necessary to turn on all the lights +on the floor, why not get the full benefit from them by having the +entire gang at work? + +So far, so good. The surprise comes when you learn that he didn't have +them start at the top and work down. He started them at the bottom and +worked them up. + +"And I'll tell you why," explained the manager, "they have to climb six +floors anyway, so they might as well work up as walk up. Besides, by +leaving the stairs till the last, they can work their way down as well +as up." + +In other words, they went to work right where they came in. And when +they had finished, they were right back where they started--back where +they went out on their way home. + +Simple, isn't it? An immediate reduction in lighting bills was +noticeable. Even the amateur mathematician among you can figure that +with one floor out of six lighted at a time, five-sixths of the light +was saved. Besides, the work was done in less time--it wasn't long +before two cleaners were reading the want ads. But why go into that? + +We aren't, for that matter, interested so much in the savings made, +because it is exceedingly doubtful if many of us pass our factories or +our offices on the way to the movies. We may never have an opportunity +to put this particular plan to work. + +What we are interested in, though, is the fact that this cleaning plan +utilizes the four basic elements which we've said must be present in +every job of PLANNING. + +Look at the chart. It shows the movement of energy in the manager's plan +for handling his crew. Starting the scrubbers on the ground floor--they +had to begin there anyway, no matter when they began to scrub--was +nothing but applying the primary force at the best point to get the +easiest action. + +Working them up floor by floor was simply directing the activity along +both the lines of least resistance and greatest accomplishment. And +doing the stairs on the way down was just focusing the activity at the +right point for making a successful conclusion--that is, winding up the +job at the exit. + + +------------------------------------+ +---------+ + | | | Stairs | + | 6th Floor ------------- | + | /|\ | | | | + +--------------------------------|---+ | | | + | | | | + +--------------------------------|---+ | | | + | | | | | | + | 5th Floor | | | | | + | /|\ | | | | + +--------------------------------|---+ | | | + | | | | + +--------------------------------|---+ | | | + | | | | | | + | 4th Floor | | | | | + | /|\ | | | | + +--------------------------------|---+ | | | + | | | | + +--------------------------------|---+ | | | + | | | | | | + | 3rd Floor | | | | | + | /|\ | | | | + +--------------------------------|---+ | | | + | | | | + +--------------------------------|---+ | | | + | | | | | | + | 2nd Floor | | | | | + | /|\ | | | | + +--------------------------------|---+ | | | + | | | | + +--------------------------------|---+ | | | + | | | | | | + | Ground Floor | | | \|/ | + | /|\ | | | + +--------------------------------|---+ +---------+ + | + +------------------------------+ | + | Application of Primary Force |-- + +------------------------------+ + +Turn back now to the FOUR ELEMENTS OF SUCCESSFUL PLANNING as we set them +down on page 54. Try them out on any successful plan and assure yourself +that not a point has been stretched. By using them we shall learn the +constructive, creative KNACK OF PLANNING. + +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 page. + +There you see the PRIMARY FORCE--the INITIATIVE that sets the PLAN in +action. Second, the POINT OF APPLICATION--where you must hit if you're +going to win. Third, the various activities which bring about the +SUCCESSFUL CONCLUSION. And fourth, all these activities headed up at +the FOCUSING POINT. + +It's just like the sailor off the whaler who picks up the wooden mallet, +hits the plunger a resounding crack, sends the weight hurtling up the +pole, rings the bell--and gets a good 5-cent cigar. Or like the golfer +who, putter in hand, strokes the ball firmly "in the direction of least +resistance and greatest accomplishment," sees it hit the back of the cup +and drop in for a par four. + + |\ + | \ + | \ + +--------------+ Various Activities | The \ + | The "Primary | Point of Necessary to Bringing |"Focusing + | Moving Force"| Application about a Successful |Point"/ + +--------------+ Conclusion | / + | / + |/ + +Watch these four essentials. 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 business. + + * * * * * + +Remember the production manager in the shoe factory? Rather sketchy was +the story of the ANALYSIS he made. Let's go a bit more into the details +of the PLAN which was based on the ANALYSIS. And, at the same time, +examine it to see if it checks with our FOUR ELEMENTS. + +You remember he was hired to find out why the so-and-so shoes didn't +move out the door on time. And you'll remember that instead of clanking +up and down from one department to another, he was seen one day picking +out lasts from a bin in the assembly room. He had crept up quietly on +the POINT OF APPLICATION. The INITIATIVE, you see, or the PRIMARY MOVING +FORCE, was the boss's order to get shoes to moving. + +Here (in the lasting room) was his POINT OF APPLICATION. The biggest +factor in slowing up shoes, he found, was failure to have lasts ready +the instant the uppers came down cut and stitched from the fitting room. + +The shoes were entered into work with almost entire disregard of this +vital point. Oh, yes, they knew they once bought so many pairs of lasts +on this style or that in such and such sizes. 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 uppers, insoles, bottoms and +lasts met together--or should have. + +A single missing size could hold up a 36-pair lot which included a run +of sizes all the way, say, from 7-1/2 to 12. + +Today it's all so different. A running inventory is kept of every active +last. Each day the lasts which are released as shoes leave the finishing +room are added to the supply on hand; at the same time, the lasts which +are to be used that day in lasting incoming lots are subtracted. + +A job? No, a good girl of moderate intelligence simply added it to a +dozen other office chores which she finds time to do daily. + +The running inventory, you see, is one of the various activities which, +aimed at the focusing point--the moving of shoes out the door--are +necessary to bring about a successful conclusion--the successful +conclusion, in this particular instance, 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 room. + +Other activities might be mentioned. Plenty of them. An automatic +conveyor which brought back empty racks to the point where they were +needed. Semi-automatic elevators which made possible the rapid moving of +shoes from floor to floor. Twelve-pair lots which simplified the +handling problem, made the job of picking out lasts an easier one--and +all in all did much to take the weight off management's shoulders. All +these and more are the activities which were needed to bring about a +successful conclusion. They were all part of the PLAN. + +Today, in that shoe factory, 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 room. Two girls have been +moderately busy getting him the information he needs. Sales have been +brought up to date within half a day. He knows how many kid shoes he can +cut, how many calf. He knows which patterns can be cut by machine, +which must be cut by hand. He knows that certain patterns take longer to +go through the fitting room. There's extra stitching or fancy +perforations. He must lay off those. And last of all, he knows what he +can count on in the way of lasts when the shoes hit the lasting room. + +With his two girls, the young production manager does all the work of +scheduling. + +Actually, there isn't much work. Management, you see, has done an +awfully nice job of PLANNING. + + * * * * * + +Picture now the manufacturer of small electrical appliances who sought +to lay out new avenues of growth. His was pretty much a seasonal +business. Electric fans constituted most of his bread-and-butter +production. Early in the year and well on into the spring his plant ran +full blast getting out merchandise for sale during the warm, muggy days +when Sirius is in the ascendant. + +And then along in the summer and fall his production curves went into a +serious decline. + +To level them out would have meant carrying a load of finished inventory +which he could ill afford. Other appliances, such as hair curlers and +driers which might conceivably find a ready sale during the holiday +season, helped considerably--but not enough. The rough places were by no +means made plane. + +Why not, thought he, a line of toys which would enable him to utilize +his present production set-up profitably during the slack summer and +fall? Why not, indeed? + +So he set out to chart a plan of action beginning, as you will see from +the figure, with the furnishing of amusement as the PRIMARY FORCE. His +POINT OF ATTACK was through the 15,000,000 American boys who love to +build something. 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--SALES. + + +---------------------------------+ + |Wholesome Amusement and Education| + +---------------------------------+ + | + \|/ + +---------------------------------+ + | 15 Million Boys Who Want to Play| + | and Love to Build | + +---------------------------------+ + | + \|/ + +---------------------------------+ + | Bought for by 7,500,000 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 Advg. | | + |Our Advg.| | Offer | | Offer | | + +---------+ +--------------+ +--------------+ | + \ | | | + \ | | +-------------------+ + \ | | | | + \ | | +-------------+ +--------------+ + \ | | |List of Boys'| |Description of| + \ | | |Papers Advsd.| |Prize Contest | + \ | | | In | +--------------+ + \ | | +-------------+ / + \ | | | / + \ | | | / + +-------------------------------------------+ + | All Leading to | + +-------------------------------------------+ + | + \|/ + +-------------------------------------------+ + | The Store That Sells Our Toys | + +-------------------------------------------+ + +Only the bare headings on the plan are shown in the chart. Nevertheless +it shows clearly the same knack of using the FOUR ELEMENTS which we have +been at such pains to discuss. + +The chart proved helpful, not only in guiding the management in its +efforts to enlarge the scope of manufacturing activities, but also in +giving the office and the sales force a true picture of the business. So +helpful, indeed, did it prove that it was blueprinted. And today every +salesman has one pasted in his selling portfolio. It's the first thing +the dealer sees. And it has gone far in arousing the latter's interest +and confidence. + +If you were a dealer, 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 sound, well-formulated +plan? + +There, if you please, lies the answer. + + * * * * * + +It is not within the purpose of this chapter, incidentally, to play any +favorites. Time must be taken out at this point, therefore, to return to +the messenger boy who, when we left him, had just finished analyzing his +job. + +Let's see now how his plan of action is based upon what the analysis +taught him. Let's examine this elementary job of managing, not because +it may make better messengers of us, 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 same, no matter what particular paraphernalia +of business may be used to cover up its old bones. + +Did, then, the messenger boy work out his plan in accordance with our +FOUR BASIC ELEMENTS? He did, if he was really managing his job--and from +the careful analysis he made, we may assume he was. + +If his trip meant riding a street car, then going to the cashier for +carfare is his primary force. If he can walk, then the primary force is +simply getting under way. Hastening as directly as possible to the car +line is applying the force at the easiest place to get results. Perhaps +he might have to choose between a slow street car which would carry him +right to his destination for seven cents, and a fast elevated which, for +a dime, would make better time but leave several blocks to walk at the +other end. Deciding between the two is directing the activities along +lines of greatest accomplishment. And getting his transfer, leaving the +car, and going straight to the address on the message, are nothing more +nor less than focusing his activities at the POINT OF ACHIEVEMENT. + +You see? The Colonel's lady in her Parisian peignoir and Judy O'Grady in +her sleazy slip were sisters under the skin. So, if we may stretch a +physiological point, are our messenger boy and the man who made the +toys. + +The plans of both were built on the same foundation. + +Or take the plan by which the new general manager of a tap and die +concern rehabilitated his company's business. + +"Why," he said, reaching for a pad of paper and roughly sketching +something that looked like a funnel and must have been because he said +it was, "our manufacturing plan looked about like this. 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 bottom. + +"Some of them did drop through. Others dropped because we poked sticks +up the flue. That is to say, an army of stock chasers did their level +best to keep everyone happy. + +"It was bedlam around the shop. It took three months on an average to +complete an order. + +"I found much of the delay was due to certain Victorian notions about +set-up time. The prevailing idea was to give an operator a good big job +to minimize that item of expense. + +"Sometimes the job was so big it took 60 days to run it through a single +operation. + +"Oh, me! oh, my! the inventories of finished goods that piled up. The +tote boxes full of work in process that cluttered up the scenery. + +"And the complaints from customers who were waiting for orders! + +"Funny thing about our business, you can't get a customer to accept a +couple of 1/4-in. taps in place of the 1/2-in. one he's ordered. + +"So I had to revamp the whole shooting match. First on the program was +to find out what was made and what was making. 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 order, but on which past experience had taught us we'd get one in +the course of the next 30 days. + +"You should have seen the pile of tote boxes we stuck under the boilers. + +"Well, the next job was to figure out the most economical lots to send +through the works. That figure was arrived at simply by choosing such a +size that no single operation could possibly take more than a day. In a +word, I made sure that every single lot would move every single day. + +"Do you get the picture? A steady flow of manufacturing. No funnel. No +poking around with sticks. Today there aren't any stock chasers. None is +needed. Work reaches the stockroom on time. Orders are filled complete +the same day they come in. Inventories are lower. Oh, heck, need I go +on?" + +No, he needn't. For already he has shown us how the motive force was +applied at the right point to get results. Take this plan apart--or any +other plan that really works--and you will see that it is built upon the +FOUR ELEMENTS OF PLANNING. + +They make the PLANNING wheels go round. + + * * * * * + +Now it's time to take your own job of planning to pieces and see if it, +too, does not meet the test. + +Here, again, as when the ANALYSIS was made, it helps to set things down +on paper. In charting, you will find that by painstaking application of +our four principles along the lines diagrammed in the figure on page 65, +you can LAY OUT A WORKING PLAN depending for its approach to perfection +only upon the amount of thought put into it, and upon the degree of +accuracy with which the analysis of the job was made. + +The chart you make may be only a guide to the complete plan. Some plans +require details which utterly preclude any form of expression so simple +as a chart. Other plans can be laid out on the actual chart shown. + +In any event, the very attempt to put your plan into diagrammatic form +will develop PRACTICABILITY AND ACCURACY OF ARRANGEMENT. The very +necessity of having to indicate and to select the primary force back of +your job or business; having to trace that force through the various +activities necessary to completed work; and then having visibly and +physically to concentrate all these activities at one point--those very +acts which making a chart compels you to perform, enforce a mastery of +the essential details of your business and a grasp of their relations +which every manager should have. + +Perhaps the plan you have isn't as hot as you think it is. + +An office manager friend of ours was pretty proud of his system until +one day he charted it. + +His company was famous for the quality of work turned out. But the +service it gave was wretched. Special instructions were often ignored. +Delivery dates were overlooked. All that sort of thing. + +The system looked good enough. The office manager said the mistakes were +due to carelessness. And it looked as if he were right. So when +something went wrong, the nearest employee got a handsome bawling out. + +At last the sales force jumped on him with both feet. Too many promises +had been broken. + +So the office manager was forced to do something about it. And, quite by +accident, made a chart of the ACTUAL PLAN OF WORK. + +Hello, what was this? Half a dozen responsibilities were standing +around absolutely unchaperoned, you might say. Someone might come along +and pick them up, or then again---- + +For example, if a customer on the West Coast ordered a bill of goods, +and then, while the order was in work, decided he wanted half the goods +shipped by boat through the canal and the other half by fast freight, +maybe he'd get his shipments that way and maybe he wouldn't. Under the +prevailing "plan" that particular sort of job didn't fall inside any one +man's bailiwick. No one man was responsible for seeing that such orders +were executed. No "machinery" had therefore been provided for taking +care of them. + +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 map. For all the action they got, they might as well have been +painted ships upon a painted ocean. + +Methods in general, you see, were pretty much all right. But there was +no recognized initiative back of the plan. Activities were set in motion +more or less spontaneously. As a result, certain parts of the business +were left without managerial supervision. + +Nothing is surer to expose such a condition than actually to chart a +plan. In this instance, it was simple to recognize "following customers' +instructions"--no matter when, why, or how they came--as the logical +primary force. Then the whole trouble was taken care of by centering the +responsibility upon the chief of the order department. From then on, all +instructions regarding any order cleared through him. + +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 job, but rather +to get a PRACTICAL FRAMEWORK on which the work can actually be done. +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 where, like as not, nobody will bother to pick them up. + +Too often the plan turns out to be a "sketch." + +The builder waits until the architect's first sketch has become a plan. + +In business it's like that, too. + +When finally you know, from ANALYSIS, _what you want to accomplish_, it +is not difficult to plan the procedure if you start right and forget +nothing. You start right if you take time to figure out the primary +initiative. You forget nothing if you take the trouble to set things +down in black and white. + +And finding the motive force and figuring out where to hit with it, is +nothing more nor less than charting the moves of the game until you find +a succession of activities moving along without back-tracking, without +duplication, without wasted effort or supervision. + +Thus cultivating the KNACK OF PLANNING is a long step in the direction +of becoming a good manager. If you were going to try to tell someone +else how to cultivate the knack of planning, the story of the two men +shaving in the Pullman washroom serves to illustrate the point. + +Both men seemed to be in a hurry. The first hustled over to one of the +wash basins, scrubbed his face and hands, dried them on a towel. Then he +began to shave. That finished, he washed the lather from his face, dried +himself again on another towel, and put away his razor. Next came his +teeth. He brushed them, washed away the traces of tooth paste, and dried +himself on a third towel. + +All this time the other fellow was going through the same motions--but +in a much different order. + +He began with his teeth. After he had brushed them, he lathered his +face. After he had shaved, a single wash was enough and a single towel +did the drying job. He had finished his canteloupe and was well along +with his eggs before his companion reached the diner. Number two didn't +do a better job of brushing his teeth, of shaving, of washing. But he +_did_ do a better job of PLANNING. + +He started where each operation would lead directly and naturally into +the next, performing each at the proper time. + +After all, isn't that precisely what you do in planning any part of your +business? + + + + +III + +Organizing the Work + + +Remember Psmith and Pbrown? One could analyze, but didn't know what to +do with his analysis after he got it. The other was an expert planner, +but alas! his plans were never based upon the solid foundation of actual +necessity. He planned to do something before he knew what had to be +done. + +Psmith and Pbrown, together, looked like a grand pair when we introduced +them in the chapter on PLANNING. Now, after taking particular pains to +give that impression, we shall have to break right down and confess in +open meeting that they are but two numbers of the MANAGEMENT TEAM. +Probinson is the third. + +Probinson ORGANIZES THE WORK. Psmith may analyze to a fare-you-well; +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 +business. For as surely as there is a knack of analyzing and a knack of +planning, just so surely is there a knack of organizing the work. + +Thus we approach the third phase of the job of managing. + +So far we have seen how the successful manager starts from the top, +working backward, to chart his job--and then, having found out what has +to be done, builds his plan for doing it. Analysis and planning, +however, will carry him just so far. Unless he acquires the knack of +organization, he will never make a howling success of his job--he will +fall just short of being an outstanding manager. + +The office manager for an Eastern concern affords the needed +illustration. + +P. C.--those aren't his initials--knew office management from A to +Izzard. First to arrive in the morning, last to leave at night, he had +a tremendous capacity for hard labor. But he never seemed to make a hole +in the pile of work on his desk. It grew no smaller fast. Why? Because +he never, in all his years of managing, learned to arrange the division +of his work. He never learned to deputize it. 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 life, it was all bound around in +the necessity of performing some silly little routine job which any girl +of moderate intelligence could have done. + +His idea of organizing his job was to try to do everything himself. And +within his physical limitations he was a valuable man to the company. +But how much more he'd have been worth had he, at some time in his +career, acquired the KNACK OF ORGANIZATION! + +Don't jump to the conclusion, now, that the successful organizer is one +who merely divides up his work and parcels it out among a flock of +assistants. Don't think for a moment that it is nothing but +deputization. + +Effective organization is far more than that. + +It is the distribution of work, according to its character or urgency, +among the facilities at hand for doing it according to their capacities +or cost. And it makes no difference whether those facilities happen to +be men, money, or machines--or simply your own available time. + +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--when, instead of using your own funds, you do something on +borrowed capital. + +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 time, or making him responsible for working out a new +prospect list. + + * * * * * + +The office manager of a shoe concern found, right after the war, that +much of his day was spent telling dealers in Kalamazoo and Keokuk to be +patient, please, and they'd get their shoes. + +Those were the halcyon days, you'll remember, 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 them. + +As a result, this particular shoe factory was loaded to the guards with +orders. Orders were shipped when, as and if they struggled from cutting +room to fitting room--and from then on down to the packing department. + +Complaints were numerous. They weren't exactly complaints, either. +Queries, rather. Where are my shoes? Can't you ship March 15 instead of +April 1? And so on--until, as we started to say, the sales manager was +spending a great part of his time dictating replies to his stenographer. +And she didn't have time for any of her other duties. + +Analysis proved that the letters were, in the main, of three types. +Three letters were therefore prepared, and each day the sales manager +went through the inquiries and indicated which letter should go to which +customer. In that way the latter got a prompt and courteous reply, as +well as certain vague information explaining why he'd have to wait +another month for his shoes. + +And he was moderately happy. Personal attention from the sales manager +could have accomplished no more. Thus a certain part of an executive's +and his stenographer's time was deputized to a system. + +Could the sales manager have gone a step further and had his letter +mimeographed, he would have been DEPUTIZING TO A MACHINE the same amount +of his own and a much larger part of the stenographer's time. But, while +the customers accepted plausible excuses in place of shoes, it is +doubtful whether the cleverest imitation would have taken the place of a +real typewritten letter. + +With the manufacturer of a proprietary medicine, however, things are +different. Women from every part of the country write in describing +their ailments. It is not difficult to classify these letters into a +dozen groups. And form letters, done in skillful imitation of real +typing, do the trick quite nicely. + +That is DEPUTIZING--just as it is DEPUTIZING when the "big boss" calls +in his assistant and says: "You run this shebang from now on. I've got +to see if I can't get the K. C. plant out of the red." + +And it's DEPUTIZING when a manufacturer, forced to increase the size of +his plant, goes to a real estate operator and gets him to buy a piece of +land, put up a building and rent it to him at a certain figure, while he +uses his own capital to equip and operate the new plant, because he can +make 15 per cent, say, on his capital himself, whereas he has to pay out +as rent only an amount equal to 8 per cent of what land, building, +insurance, and so on, would tie up. + +Fundamentally, then, DEPUTIZING is taking something away from the +"principal" of the job or business and assigning it to a "deputy." +Principal and deputy may be a manager and his stenographer, a department +head and a filing system, or a corporation's capital and a bond issue. + +The first stumbling step toward organization, therefore, is to RECOGNIZE +and DEFINE the PRINCIPAL and the DEPUTIES in a given task. + +A good manager, though, can't simply go and deputize every detail of his +job. That might be nothing more than the trick of a lazy man. + +Yet a rising young executive (on our list of casual acquaintances) has +done exactly that. He has carried it to such a fine point that he is +able to spend three afternoons a week with Col. Bogie. He is still +rising, although some of us have abiding faith in the old adage that +what goes up must come down. In other words, he's rising to a fall. + +No, organizing is not deputizing in that sense of the word. + +In EFFECTIVE ORGANIZING, it will be noted from the examples cited, work +is deputized _only when the "principal" is left free to do something +else more important or more profitable_. + +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 business. + +Analyze the conditions under which the sales manager delegated part of +his dictation to a system, and part of his stenographer's typing to a +duplicating machine. You will see that the work deputized fulfilled two +conditions: + +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 work. + +Wherever there is delegation of responsibility in any true job of +managing, the same two fundamentals will be seen. + +Too often a manager says: "Never do anything your subordinate can do for +you." 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 hat. + +The good manager, whatever may be his particular job of managing, +follows two rules when he deputizes or distributes work to man, money +or machine. Such work, he knows, should be: + +1. Work which that other person or other thing can do to good advantage. + +2. Work which the manager would do himself only at the expense of +something more important. + +Deputizing your work so that your days are free for golfing or yachting +is far from the spirit of true organization. When a Schwab deputizes, +another job profits by the increased time he is able to give to it. +Every time he passes on a bit more responsibility, the whole enterprise +profits through his greater freedom for the big sweep of the business. +And when a manager fails because he has never learned to share +responsibilities, 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 do. Deputizing his work would have left him free to exercise big, +broad judgment in a way that only leisure and calmness could afford. + + * * * * * + +A few years ago, two young men went into business in a small Illinois +town. They were honest, industrious, well liked. Austin was a born +salesman; Black was a shrewd buyer. It looked like a good combination +and the local banker gave them a line of credit. + +One year went by. Two years. Austin and Black were just skinning by. A +fair living was all they were getting out of the business. Volume--which +was what they needed--was increasing, oh, so slowly. + +A salesman came along about that time and told them some things they +didn't know. A little more skill in watching the stock; cutting out +lines which weren't paying; trimming purchases on slow-moving stocks; +pushing specialties before they went bad on their hands--those were some +of the methods which meant added profits. + +It certainly looked like good business to hire another clerk so that the +partners' time would be free for these new phases of the business. + +The clerk was taken on--and things began to hum. Soon Austin and Black +saw other steps they ought to take. More attention must be given to +advertising. That meant another clerk. Next came a bookkeeper, an +assistant bookkeeper. + +Trade was increasing, you see, and net profits were increasing. Extra +clerks were needed all right, but the proprietors went the whole hog and +put on so many that they themselves no longer had to stand behind a +counter. They were both badly bitten by the bug of supervision. + +Finally the tide turned. It usually does. + +And when Austin and Black went to the bank one day to get an extension +of credit, the shrewd old retired farmer on the other side of the desk +laid down the law. + +They got the extension--but only on certain conditions. + +The chief condition was that they do LESS MANAGING and MORE +MERCHANDISING. + +[Illustration] + +And that's what they are doing today. + +There were two managers who organized their work, increased their +profits. Up to a certain point, every time they deputized their work, +it was an advantage, because it left them more time for better +merchandising. + +But they weren't ORGANIZING according to our TWO FUNDAMENTALS. +Literally, 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 important_. + +How well the chart tells the story! The great big white piece of pie +marked "IDLE" shows exactly where Austin and Black went wrong. 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 Mr. James W. +Simpson runs his large retail emporium. + +Somewhere along the line they tripped over the point of vanishing +returns and kept right on going. + +And thus we come to the Scylla and Charybdis of our job of ORGANIZING. +Remember we are not interested in the mere knack of getting someone else +to take over every last responsibility that can be borne by another. +Perhaps that may be good management for a Schwab--in so far, at least, +as it leaves his mind free for the exercise of the broad judgment we +mentioned a while ago. Nor are we interested in the sheer industry and +application involved in doing without assistance everything that can +possibly be so done, although doing it may be equally good management +for, say, a file clerk. Rather is our interest in the KNACK OF SENSING +THE DIVIDING LINE between WORK to PERFORM and WORK to DEPUTIZE. It is +that ability which is the mark of the successful manager. + + * * * * * + +Where is this DIVIDING LINE? How shall we know where to DEPUTIZE and +when to PERFORM? What kind of work shall we turn over to subordinates? +What shall we reserve for ourselves? + +Again, whatever the job or business we are engaged in organizing, there +are simple rules to follow. + +But first an illustration which will help to make the point. + +Consider the credit man for a large concern which sold machines on a +monthly payment plan. + +He was always in a jam with the sales department. It took too long, +complained the sales manager, to get credit rulings. It was no fun to +put a whole lot of work into selling the customer, only to have the +order turned down by the house because of poor credit. Why couldn't the +credit man give them a ruling before they attempted to close a sale? +Sometimes it took so long to get an O.K. that the prospect got all cold +and went somewhere else. + +The treasurer of the company was drawn into the picture when the sales +manager openly declared he'd "get" the credit man. + +And it certainly looked as if the sales manager had a good case. + +"But," protested the credit man, "I've made mighty few mistakes. As for +delays--well, I don't know how I could work any harder." + +"Maybe you work too hard," the treasurer ventured. + +"Hm, if I didn't do what I do, I don't know who would." + +"Hold on, now, let's get this thing straight. You're valuable to the +company because of your long experience and good judgment on credits. +When you have all the dope on a man, I'll bet my last dollar on your +decision. The only mistakes you ever make are when you hurry your +decisions. + +"But--and here's the point--you aren't any better at digging out the +facts than either of your two assistants. Yet here's what you do. You +divide salesmen's requests for credit rulings into two groups. You take +those that run over $500; your assistants get the others. Each of you +does his own investigating and digging--and except in puzzling cases, +you practically let your two men make their own decisions. + + Myself Assistants + $500 Up Under $500 + Mercantile Reports + Bank References + Special Investigations + "Briefing" Data + Final Ruling + Correspondence + + $500 Up Under $500 + { Mercantile Reports + Assistants { Bank References + { Special Investigations + { "Briefing" Data + + Myself { Final Ruling + { Correspondence + +"Why, listen. You, the best man we have on _decisions_, spend more than +half your time _digging_, while your assistants spend much of their +time making decisions. What's the result? Delay, the department in a +jam, some decisions made in a hurry, some by your assistants. + +"The trouble with you is, you haven't organized your department right." +And the treasurer sketched the diagram reproduced in the upper chart on +page 105. + +"Why, man, your job is to keep _all_ bad credits off the books--not just +the big ones. A bad risk--whether it's $5 or $5000--is a mistake. You're +an expert credit man--but as a MANAGER, you're a WASHOUT. + +"This," he added, "is the way you ought to set up your department. Then +you, the best man on decisions, will do all the deciding. Your two +assistants, who are just as good as you are at digging, will spend all +their time getting you the facts." And as he spoke he sketched in the +lower chart. + +The credit man had erred in the other direction from the two retail +merchants. He wasn't doing _enough_ managing. He was keeping too much +work for himself. And he was _deputizing the wrong kind of work_. + +The merchants were deputizing work they should have done themselves--the +general supervision of stocks, advertising and sales did not require +their undivided attention--and the volume and profits of the business +wouldn't stand so much unproductive expense. + +Our credit man, on the other hand, 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 responsibilities. + +In the story of the credit man, however, another fundamental of good +organization comes to light. Remember how the treasurer classified the +character of the work to be done? Not only was the credit man trying to +do too much work, but even when he _did_ assign work to his assistants, +he assigned the wrong kind. He deputized, true enough--but he erred in +regard to the KIND OF WORK HE DEPUTIZED. He thought he could deputize +small credits. 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 consideration. + +Plenty of managers make that same mistake. 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 work. + +Before work can be safely deputized, then, it must be MORE INTELLIGENTLY +CLASSIFIED. And the key to better classification is found by dividing +the job or business into two elements. + +One is ENTERPRISE. The other is ROUTINE. + +_Enterprise_ is an arbitrary term which we shall choose to indicate +those factors of work which involve the use of judgment, initiative, +experiment or speculation. + +_Routine_ we shall apply to those factors which follow settled +precedents or rules or come within the range of known ability to +perform. + +Analyze your own job with these two terms in mind. The various duties +you perform will fall readily into one or the other of the two +classifications. + +The things which come under the head of routine you have a right to +deputize if, 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 management. A simple rule of thumb works here about as well +as anything: Base the division of work on how much or how little of the +routine the _principal_ can afford to carry. + + * * * * * + +You may safely deputize only so long as, by so doing, you leave yourself +free for the more important, more profitable decisions. + +Don't forget for a moment, then--if you would organize +effectively--that there is a tremendous difference between enterprise +and routine work. Don't waste energy on the one. DON'T DEPUTIZE THE +OTHER--unless you can effectively organize a deputy's capacity for doing +it, and then only if it pays. + +Don't be like the manager who got a taste of the savings to be made +through the application of mechanical handling equipment. He bought +conveyors--and more conveyors. He was DEPUTIZING the handling job to +machines. So far, so good. But the first thing you know he had a 50-ft. +conveyor connecting two points in his shipping room. It took one man to +load it, another to unload it. Previously one man with a hand truck had +moved the packages very nicely, and had a lot of time left over for +other duties. And here he needed an extra man--and owned a costly piece +of equipment to boot. 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 +either. + +Thus all savings through deputization don't pay. Many a machine will +save time and labor, but the interest on the investment, and upkeep and +the depreciation will more than eat up the saving--UNLESS THE TIME AND +LABOR SAVED CAN BE PROFITABLY TURNED TO SOMETHING ELSE. + + * * * * * + +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 completed. + +When work is deputized, the responsibility of the manager does not end +with the act of deputization. It is the manager's responsibility to see +that the work is done in the simplest and most effective manner. + +A sales executive had allowed a bunch of call reports to accumulate. +There were several hundred of them. So he called in a stenographer whose +time was hanging fairly heavily on her hands, and asked her to put them +into alphabetical order preparatory to filing. + +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 indeed. + +She had made a pile for every last letter in the alphabet. And every +time she picked up a report, she had to hunt for the proper pile to put +it in. + +So he showed her how to sort first in five major piles--A, B, C, D in +one pile and so on. And then to sort each pile again into five piles, +one for each letter--and finally to sort each individual pile +alphabetically. + +It sounded like more handling. And perhaps it was. But the job of +classification was greatly simplified. There was no more hunting for +the missing pile. The work proceeded quickly and accurately. + +A rough illustration. He might have gone a step further and deputized +part of the girl's task to a machine instead of to the primitive system +described. That is to say, he might have seen that she was provided with +one of the preliminary filing baskets which file clerks often use. Then +the task of sorting alphabetically could have been done in a single +handling of each report. + +But whatever the method he made available for the girl's use, the +illustration still serves to indicate that the manager's responsibility +does not end when he turns a job over to a subordinate. It remains his +care to see that the job is done by the most effective method--not +necessarily the speediest, but the one which gets the best results for +the effort involved. + +To find this "one best" method, industry has evolved a complete +technique of time and motion study. 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 them, becomes part +of our task in setting down the ways and means of organizing. + +First we shall find that any job, simple or complex, may be divided into +three parts: make ready, do and put away. + +Shaving, for example. First we get everything ready--razor, brush, +shaving cream, hot water. Then comes the actual operation of shaving. +And last, cleaning up--rinsing the brush, wiping the razor, and putting +things back where they belong. + +Perhaps you're in the same boat as the old farmer who, approached by the +subscription salesman of an agricultural magazine, allowed he wa'nt +farmin' now half as good as he knew how. + +Or perhaps you already hold speed records at giving your face the +once-over. But, you see, the whole point in studying the job is not +aimed at faster shaving, but at simplifying the "make ready" and "put +away" phases of the operation. + +For example, the next time you shave, try picking up the tube of shaving +cream with one hand and unscrewing the cap while you're wetting your +brush with the other. It will be awkward as the dickens the first time +you try it. But try it again and again and again. It won't be long +before you'll be an expert at doing the job that way. Finish up that +part of the operation by screwing the cap back on while you are +lathering your face with the right hand. Does it require a stop watch to +point out the saving in time that you've made? Oh, it won't be easy the +first few times, but before you know it, you'll have taught yourself +good work habits. + +Take a simple job like the assembly of a license bracket in an +automobile factory. An analysis of this operation (see "Micromotion +Technique," by F. J. Van Poppelen, _Factory and Industrial Management_, +Nov., 1930) showed that the right hand was busy all the time, while the +left did nothing most of the time except hold the piece. + +At the risk of getting too technical--for after all we are interested, +not so much in the details, as in certain broad principles of organizing +the work--let us see how the operation was performed. + +First the operator assembled a number of screws and leather washers by +picking up a screw with the left hand, a washer with the right, putting +them together and laying the assembly aside. Then he picked up a bracket +with the left hand and a screw and washer assembly with the right, +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 screw; picking up lock washer, +assembling it to the screw; picking up acorn nut and starting it on the +screw; and finally picking up an open-end wrench and tightening the nut. +Then he assembled screw, washers and nut to the other side of the +bracket, whereupon wrench and bracket were laid aside, completing the +cycle. + +An analysis of these motions, by right and left hands, is given in the +table on page 120. It illustrates the important point that the right +hand was busy all the time, but for a considerable part of the time the +left was doing nothing but holding the piece. + +On pages 118 and 119 are shown drawings of the old and the new assembly +methods. Likewise, the lower table on page 120 analyzes, by right and +left hands, the motions required by the new method. Note first that +fewer elements--17 as against 26--are required. And note that both hands +are productively employed with shorter distances to travel for stock and +with decreased effort. + + +[Illustration: + + Analysis of this assembly job shows ... + + ... that the right hand was busy all the time....] + + +[Illustration: + + Comparison with the old method + + ... shows both hands productively employed....] + + +TABLE 1 + + LEFT HAND RIGHT HAND + + 1. Pick up screw Pick up leather washer + 2. Assemble Assemble + 3. Idle Lay aside + 4. Pick up bracket Pick up screw and washer assembled + 5. Hold bracket Assemble + 6. " " Pick up flat washer + 7. " " Assemble + 8. " " Pick up lock washer + 9. " " Assemble + 10. " " Pick up nut + 11. " " Start on thread + 12. " " Pick up wrench + 13. " " Tighten nut + 14. " " Lay wrench aside + 15. " " Pick up screw and washer assembled + 16. " " Assemble to other side of bracket + 17. " " Pick up flat washer + 18. " " Assemble + 19. " " Pick up lock washer + 20. " " Assemble + 21. " " Pick up nut + 22. " " Start on thread + 23. " " Pick up wrench + 24. " " Tighten nut + 25. " " Lay wrench aside + 26. Idle Lay bracket aside + + +TABLE 2 + + LEFT HAND RIGHT HAND + + 1. Pick up screw and transport Same + 2. Position on block Same + 3. Pick up leather washer and transport Same + 4. Position on screw Same + 5. Pick up new bracket and transport Pick up assembled + bracket; lay aside + 6. Position bracket on block Same + 7. Pick up flat washer and transport Same + 8. Position on screw Same + 9. Pick up lock washer and transport Same + 10. Position on screw Same + 11. Pick up nut and transport Same + 12. Start nut on screw Same + 13. Position driver Same + 14. Tighten nut Same + 15. Position driver to 2nd nut Same + 16. Tighten nut Same + 17. Release driver and move assembled + bracket 2 in. forward on block Same + +The new set-up consists of a hardwood block, shaped to fit one side of +the bracket when assembled, and nailed to the bench. The open-end wrench +was replaced by a screw-driver with a socket wrench to fit the acorn +nut, suspended on a spring in front of the operator. The miscellaneous +containers for holding the small parts were replaced by a supply of +sheet-metal duplicate trays, so that the various parts could be located +in the most convenient position. (This arrangement was not used in the +accompanying illustrations because it obscured the view.) + +In a word, then, 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 method. The distance of +travel for stock has been shortened, parts are grasped more easily, +better and faster tools are provided, effort is decreased, and both +hands are productively employed. + +Need the imagination be stretched to the breaking point to see how a job +involving the work not of one man, but of several, may be similarly +organized and similarly improved? + +A second illustration will serve to show the application to group work +(see "Motion Study Applied to Group Work," by J. A. Piacitelli, _Factory +and Industrial Management_, April, 1931, page 626). + +The operation studied here involved cycles of approximately eleven +seconds' duration, performed by a group of seven men. The material +handled consisted of rolls of roofing weighing about 50 lbs. each. Many +of the elements in the cycle were obviously fatiguing. The rolls had to +be lifted, during transfers from one worker to another, and rolled along +a horizontal runway. The trucker lifted the completed roll and placed it +on his truck. While the rate of production was limited by process and +speed of equipment, the chance to cut cost and fatigue prompted the +study. + +Examine the equipment layout before the study was made (it is shown on +page 124), and follow the operation. A roll of roofing paper +approximately 8 in. in diameter and 36 in. long was wound about the +mandrel of a winding machine by one of the workers. The roll was taken +off and passed to another worker who wrapped a sheet of paper about it +and pasted it in place. When the roll was wrapped, he had to lift the +roll, turn and deposit it on the runway. The next man inserted a bag of +nails, a can of cement and an instruction sheet into the core of the +roll. To do this, he was forced to turn and bend almost to floor level +to get his supplies. + +Next the roll was passed along to two men who, from opposite sides of +the runway, placed protectors and muslin caps on the ends of the roll. +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 storage. + +[Illustration: EQUIPMENT LAYOUT BEFORE STUDY] + +[Illustration: EQUIPMENT LAYOUT AFTER STUDY] + +The movie camera, which is gradually finding wider industrial use in the +search for the "one best" method, was used to record the work of this +group. It supplied not only a photographic record of the working place +and surrounding conditions, but also a simultaneous record of time and +method employed by each worker regardless of speed. 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 another, 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 +group. + +These analyses showed immediately an unequal distribution of work. +Again, from the equipment layout made after the study, let us follow +through and see what changes were effected. + +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 runway. The roll then moved from place to place by gravity +when released by foot-operated trips. The pasting problem was solved by +using a trough the length of the paper, open on the bottom and equipped +with squeegee lips like the mucilage bottle on your desk. 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 +operator. The trough was covered with a hinged plate which permitted the +roll to pass over it to the elevator. It was found, by eliminating the +fatiguing elements in this man's work and simplifying his cycle of +motions, 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 roll. The instruction sheet was placed in the roll by the winder, +who had ample time for this additional task. 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 stopped. + +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 ends. Thus each man capped and +banded his own end, whereas formerly the bander had had to assume an +awkward and fatiguing position to reach the far end. And last, by +placing a redesigned truck at the end of the incline, the completed +rolls landed in the truck, and the trucker was able to care for two +machines. + +The method finally established was recorded on instruction sheets, and +the existing premium was modified to provide additional incentive. +Although, as stated at the outset, the rate of production was limited by +the machine, substantial savings resulted from the study. Production has +been maintained with 4-1/2 men instead of 7; fatigue has been greatly +lessened; cost has been reduced about 26 per cent; average earnings of +the group have increased about 19 per cent. + +Thus the search for the "one best" method becomes an important factor in +organizing the work. + +We might go on and show how this group work was organized in accordance +with our two fundamentals, but the purpose of introducing this +illustration and the one preceding it was, after all, to show that the +_principal's_ responsibility, after deputizing work, ends only when he +has shown the _deputy_ the most effective method of doing it. + +Besides, we must hasten on to the task of handling the "help." We have +seen that the entire FABRIC OF MANAGING rests upon the knack of +ORGANIZING; that organizing the work must be preceded by PLANNING; and +that planning must be based upon ANALYSIS. And now, having organized, we +must learn how to handle the "help"--which is a task met in every job +involving managing. + +And what job, big or small, does not involve MANAGING? + + + + +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 days. It was: _If you would be +fair, treat all your men alike_. + +As a matter of fact it wasn't a bad rule in those halcyon days for man +wanted then but little here below. + +And he got it. + +Those were the days when a certain plant of a certain electrical concern +was known affectionately among the employees as "Siberia." + +With good reason, too, for it was the dreariest, bleakest place in +winter you can imagine. And a transfer to it was like nothing so much as +a sentence to Siberia. + +Well, well, their plant today is as comfortable a place to work in as +you'll find anywhere in the country; that concern today sets a high +standard of employer-employee relationships; those same workers who, +thirty years ago, shivered at the bare thought of pulling on their pants +and trekking over the barren wastes to "Siberia," are today comfortably +retired on modest pensions which don't do a thing but help keep the wolf +from the door. + +Yet the management, in those days beyond recall, would have shown you +that _all men were treated alike_. + +Perhaps that was the trouble. Anyway, if you asked the management today +how to handle "help," dollars to doughnuts the answer would come closer +to being: To be fair, TREAT EVERY MAN DIFFERENTLY. + +A suggestive statement--significant because it is indicative of +tremendous change in the relationships of capital and labor, of employer +and employee. + +Fifteen years ago a lad graduated from an Eastern university. His folks +were poor but proud--as Mr. Alger used to say--but managed to see Phil +through. Phil had made a good record in school--and some good friends. +Through one of them he got a letter to Mr. H--, the head of an old +established firm of stockbrokers--and the letter got him a job. + +The job paid $5 a week. Even in those days there wasn't much left over +after carfare and lunches had been deducted. + +But Phil was "learning the bond business." He wouldn't be worth even $5 +a week the first six months. After that, maybe. + +He stuck. Graduated from "running the street" to a stool in the stock +clerk's cage. Came the New Year and Phil found an extra dollar in his +pay envelope. He asked the cashier if there wasn't some mistake. There +wasn't. + +Two days later he got a job in a factory near his home at $12 a week. +Told Mr. H-- he was leaving. Was offered $15 to stay. Wouldn't. + +Mr. H-- confessed later that he had let the most promising prospect in +years slip through his fingers. All--if you ask us--because it was a +fixed policy of the house to treat all alike. + +For years it had been doing just exactly that. Each June it took on a +new crop of young men to "learn the business." Each young man got $5 a +week. No favorites. But nine out of every ten came from prosperous, even +wealthy families. That $5 bill was nothing in their young lives. Their +families were glad to have them work for nothing, for they were getting +an insight into the investment business--and some day, whether they +became bond salesmen or just plain manufacturers and solid bankers, that +knowledge would be worth its weight in gold. + +Phil was the tenth man. Mr. H-- knew well enough that he couldn't get by +on $5 a week. _But there was the rule._ It couldn't be broken. + +No, we can't wind up by telling how Phil did well in the pants factory, +married the boss's daughter and owns the business today. That would be +wandering far from the truth. He couldn't "see" the boss' daughter for +one thing--and besides the pants factory wasn't such a much. + +No, you'll find Phil today doing a bang-up job in an Ohio plant. It says +"General Manager" on his door. And as far as he is concerned, it was the +best thing that ever happened when Mr. H-- treated him like all the +rest. + +Mr. H--, though, is still taking them on, still paying them $5 a +week--or maybe it's $10--still treating them all alike. He gets a lot of +bright young fellows into the business. But every so often he passes up +a chance to get an exceptionally promising boy--because he is fair and +treats them all alike. What's a rule for, anyway, except to break? +Mr. H-- will never know that it's the _exception_ that proves the +rule--particularly when you are dealing with human values. + + * * * * * + +But more later of the newer viewpoint. For the moment we are talking +about handling the "help"--and making it sound as though it were solely +the problem of the big employer. + +Not so. 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 five, five +days--we hope--a week. + +The editor who wants a manuscript typed; the salesman who must get long +distance; the man at the machine who has to get tools from the toolroom; +the errand boy with his bundle to carry--all have the same problem. 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 employees. It is the eternal problem of GETTING OTHERS TO +COOPERATE. + +Some men are good at it; others are total failures. + +Many a man on the bench or at the machine has the ability, knowledge +and experience which qualify him for a job as foreman or even +superintendent. But he can't hold down a foreman's job because he hasn't +the knack of getting hearty, whole-souled cooperation from others. + +Foremen, too, have changed, you see. Today the successful foreman is +less often the hard-boiled driver, more often the student of his job, of +his men, of himself. He has learned that, _to be fair, he must treat +every man differently_. + +Often we hear of Bill's losing his job as a mechanic, not because he +didn't know his job, not because he couldn't run every lathe in the +shop, but because he "couldn't get along" with the other men. And we +think, Poor Bill! it's too bad he's so quick-tempered. + +Generally we blame it on "temperament." Yet some of the very best +handlers of men are the crabbiest, crankiest gents in seven states. +Others are as cold as steel. And like as not the warm-hearted, generous +man is a monumental failure at handling his "help." + +No, when you check specific methods of handling people--methods which +are successful for the most part--something much more fundamental than +temperament will be found. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Thompson was in charge of the information desk and switchboard in a +medium-sized New England factory. A well-bred Englishwoman in her late +thirties, the boss liked her for her pleasant voice over the phone, for +her unfailingly courteous treatment of visitors. + +But if the boss liked her, almost no one else did. Salesmen particularly +complained of her crankiness and of the unsatisfactory service they +got. Young Bacon was an exception, though. He always got what he wanted. + +One day the office manager asked him how on earth he did it. + +Bacon thought he was being taken for a ride, but finally answered: "Why, +that's a cinch. I take Mrs. Thompson's job seriously." + +Pressed for details, he supplied them. + +"I never try to kid her. I never bawl her out. When I want a number I +treat her as though the switchboard were her own particular business and +I a customer. Just as if she had something to sell, and I something to +buy. When I ask for some special service, she gives it to me. Or she +tells me why she can't." + +Afterwards the office manager took the trouble to look into the +situation. The switchboard job was a life saver to that woman of 38. She +needed the money in the first place. And besides the job gave her a +sense of responsibility. She was proud of her job, proud to know that +the men in the business depended upon her for certain important +services. She couldn't understand, then, when a salesman picked up his +telephone and barked a command at her as though she were a piece of +office furniture, or patronized her as if she were a child, or kidded +her as if she were a 20-year-old flapper. It made her cranky to be +treated like that. And when someone like Bacon came along with his +method of treating her work as a responsible piece of business, it put +her on her mettle. + +The solution was obvious. The office manager talked Mrs. Thompson and +Mrs. Thompson's job over with the salesmen. It wasn't long before they +changed their tactics, with resultant improvement in the quality of the +telephone service they got. + +Sounds like a case of knowing the foibles of the person involved, +doesn't it? + +It's more than that. + +Edna is a switchboard operator, too. She is pretty and agreeable. And +you couldn't blame the boys for liking to hang around. + +No one thought much about that until some of the more serious-minded men +discovered they couldn't get a thing out of Edna. She was too busy +listening to Joe's latest exploit with one hand, and plugging Jack in +with the other. She played favorites in putting through long distance +calls, took advantage of the friendly feeling everyone had toward her. +The telephone service in that office just folded up and died. There +wasn't any. + +The obvious remedy was to fire Edna. But the manager was a cagey old +codger. Beneath a rough exterior beat a heart of gold, and somehow he +felt that maybe it wasn't all Edna's fault. Why, blast it, she'd been +treated like a pretty, petulant girl. Why shouldn't she act like one? + +A memo was the result. It announced the creation of a new department. +"Telephone Service" was its name--and Edna Blank was its head. It was +just as much a part of the business as the accounting department, or +any other. + +He had sense enough to PUT DEFINITE RESPONSIBILITIES UPON EDNA'S +SHOULDERS. He did it not only to instill in her a sense of duty, but +also to impress her with his confidence in her ability to perform those +duties. Then, under the rose, he instructed the men to treat her just as +they treated the capable woman in charge of the accounting end of the +business. They did. And Edna rose to the occasion, took pride in her +work, discouraged the hangers-on, played no favorites in putting through +calls, and became as good an operator as ever you'd hope to see. + +Now, then, scratch the surface and what do you find? Not that it was +simply a case of understanding Mrs. Thompson's and Edna's foibles. Not +at all. Mrs. Thompson stopped being cranky and became accommodating, +Edna dropped her irresponsible ways and became an alert, attentive +operator WHEN THEY GOT THE FEELING OUT OF THEIR WORK THAT THEY WERE +TRANSACTING BUSINESS FOR THEMSELVES. + +And need we look for further proof of our postulate that TO BE FAIR, YOU +MUST TREAT ALL YOUR ASSISTANTS DIFFERENTLY? You must know them, know +yourself, if you would get whole-hearted cooperation. That is +fundamental in any attempt to acquire the KNACK OF HANDLING THE "HELP." + + * * * * * + +For there _is_ a KNACK of handling the help. It _can_ be acquired. This +we say despite the difficulty of analyzing the relations of one person +to another, despite the seeming impossibility of setting down a rule +which will work universally. + +Take a man running a peanut stand, a hosiery mill, or a steel plant. +There are three things he wants for himself: (1) to build up and hold a +good trade; (2) to please his customers; (3) to get a fair profit. + +Remember these three wants when you're dealing with your help. + +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 +things. The help's job is his "trade," you are his customer; and his +compensation is his profit. + +When you do that, 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 customer, and his compensation for helping you is a fair profit. + +Next time you go into a store, try to keep that thought fixed in your +mind. Everyone working in a business, you see, is selling his +services--and when you use those services you are the buyer. Perhaps you +pay in money for the services rendered--perhaps you simply repay him by +making his day's work easier. In either event, treat your requests for +service as though you and he were transacting a business that is +mutually, but individually, profitable, and the cooperation which is +otherwise usually begrudged will be automatically forthcoming. + +But that, you say, is PERSONALITY. Then how do you account for this? + +A. is a big, breezy salesman. He busts into a hotel, calls the "greeter" +behind the desk by name, asks for 1209 "same as last time"--and gets all +kinds of real service from porters, bell-hops and waiters. + +It looks as though it might be personality. + +Yet right behind him walks B. He's a horse-faced bird who never +smiles--wiry, monosyllabic--asks brusquely for a $4 room--gets it. And +gets everything else he asks for--just as promptly as A. does. + +No, it can't be personality. For there's C. and there's D. C. is A's +twin--and B. and D. were cast in the same mold. Their tips are no +smaller; their demands no more unreasonable. Yet C. gets the poorest +sample room in the house. And D's trunk is always the last one the +porter brings up. + +These aren't exaggerated cases. Hotel men will tell you they happen +every day. + +Why, then, did A. and B. rate such good service while their fellow +knights of the road got none? Because when A. and B. asked for +something, 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 +trade?" Whereas, when C. and D. came along, regardless of the personal +manners involved, there was created the atmosphere of a one-sided +business deal. C's breeziness had in it a touch of condescension, or D's +brusqueness was the brusqueness of assumed superiority. + +Thus is it seen, when we forget all about personality and study effects, +that cooperation is gained by trading with the "help" according to the +"help's" business. + +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 it. + +Under this fixed policy--or rule--the proper attitude to take towards +this or that class of "help" becomes a matter of automatic selection. + +And that is how we begin to acquire the KNACK OF HANDLING THE HELP. Thus +do we step high, wide and handsome on our road to the KNACK OF MANAGING. + + * * * * * + +Now enters the business of COMPENSATION. There must be compensation in a +trade if all hands are to be satisfied. + +Everyone is in business because he wants something. Everything that +will help him to get what he wants, he will like to do; everything that +hinders him, he will dislike to do. + +When you get ready to "trade" with someone, therefore, consider what the +other man wants--that is, if you want to get the most help or +cooperation out of the transaction. Then consider what you can give in +return--balancing his wants. + + +----------------------------------------------------------+ + | +-------------+ +--------------+ | + | |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 deal. + +Examine the chart on this page. 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 "help". + +A word or two by way of interpretation may serve to show how it works +out. + +When the "help" is in your employ, the compensation--what you can give +and he can take, leaving both parties satisfied--is his monthly pay +check or his weekly envelope. Or it is the rate of commission. And +bearing upon it are such things as local living conditions, and so on. +When the "help" is someone not in your direct employ, then the +compensation is regulated by the effect which performing the service you +require, has on the success of the "help's" regular day's work. + +For the moment, let's us return to the messenger boy whom we left in +Chapter III just as he was about to deliver a message. + +Or, at least, let's talk about another messenger boy whose task of +managing his job differs in no wise from the first's--or, for that +matter, from any other job of management. + +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'. There were a dozen other boys, and most of them +complained of having trouble getting up and down in the elevators. 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 others. + +But this particular boy--an impudent youngster with a "fresh" way about +him--had no trouble at all. So the office manager was anxious to know +"how come." + +He posted himself where he could observe without being seen. And sure +enough, in came the fresh messenger boy with a bundle almost as big as +himself. Down he set it, favored the starter with an impudent military +salute and leaned nonchalantly up against the wall--well out of the +way. + +"Hello, feller," said he breezily; "lemme know when there's room. And +don't keep me waiting too long, or I'll be out on my ear." + +Picture the manager's astonishment when the starter replied: + +"Git in here, then, and git in quick," and let him in the first car +going up. + +Somewhere, somehow, that impudent youngster had struck a responsive +chord. Instinctively--or else because of past experience with elevator +starters--he had put the problem of that particular starter's service on +a business basis. He had put it in the starter's power to perform his +own work without trouble, and to feel at the same time that he was "a +man of affairs." + +He was able to show his authority without taking it out on the boy. + +Analyze this "trade" with the "compensation" chart in mind. Do you not +see the "balance" of interests? Do you not see the starter's feeling +that the service he rendered was his own business, that the boy was one +of his customers, that the avoidance of trouble was his compensation or +profit? + +Is there not in this very unimportant transaction the BALANCE OF +INTERESTS suggested by our little chart? + + +At this stage of our approach to the KNACK OF MANAGEMENT, a ready +objection comes to mind. We are now dealing in human values and +relationships--and you can't chart them. Analysis, planning, +organization--certain rules may be set down which will enable one to +attain some degree of effectiveness in carrying them out. + +But human nature? You can't deal with it by rule. + +The objection is well founded. You can't chart human nature--but you +_can_ study the approaches to it and chart the laws that appeal to it. + +Our chart on page 146 is based upon what successful managers have +learned about finding the wants of the human element when it works, and +is constructed to supply a method of supplying those wants with as much +productiveness and as little friction as possible. + +When you buy a new car and "put it to work," 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 on. + +So, IF YOU WANT TO GET WORK OUT OF A HUMAN BEING, 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 gives. + +Some men seem to be born with an instinct for finding this out. But if +you aren't built that way, there is no reason why you can't drill +yourself to the same end by deliberately studying each case. + + * * * * * + +See, for example, 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 things. + +This concern was confronted with the very serious problem of maintaining +a steady flow of product from one manufacturing department to another. +Because of the nature of the product, skids and power trucks had been +chosen as the equipment best suited for the job. + +Skids and lift trucks are effective handling units. No argument about +that. Their introduction into any factory which has been using more +primitive handling methods should automatically cut costs. But they save +precious little time and money when they aren't working, or when they +are being worked uneconomically. + +The problem, then, as this concern saw it, 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 pay. + +In other words, to get 100 per cent efficiency out of very efficient +handling equipment, 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 day. + +The best insurance seemed to be a central dispatching system. No need to +go into the details of its operation. Suffice it to say that it went a +long way toward directing the efforts of the truckers along gainful +lines. There came to be an orderliness which had never existed before. +When a foreman put in a call for a trucker, he knew that the move would +be made without unnecessary delay. In fact, orders were placed into the +truckers' hands within three minutes of the time the foreman picked up +his telephone to call the central dispatching department. + +BUT--no attempt had been made to sell this system to the truckers. It +met with some little resistance, just as anything new does. And there +are ways, as who does not know, of beating any "game" designed to get +more work out of human beings. + +So the management--after many a huddle over this particular +situation--decided upon a bonus plan. + +And they set about selling it to the truckers--somewhat in the fashion +about to be narrated. + +"See here, men," said the manager in effect, "I'm going to put this plan +right up to you and let you decide for yourselves. We've looked into it +carefully. You men average 30 moves a day. So we've chosen 40 moves as +the starting point. We're sure you can make 40 moves a day without +tearing your shirts--and from there on, you begin to collect. For the +next five trips you get a bonus of a nickel over and above your day +rate; for the next five trips your bonus is 6 cents; and so on. + +"So, if a man makes 50 trips, his day's pay is not $4.50, but $5.05 +because he has earned 55 cents in bonus. Do you get it?" + +"Yeah, we get it all right, all right. We do twice as much work for 50 +or 60 cents more a day. How come? Why don't we get paid extra for _all_ +the moves we make over 30?" + +"Because we're just like you. The company wants to make more money. +We've shown you how it can be done and we'll split pretty much 50-50. +But we won't give you all the extra profit any more than we'd think of +keeping it ourselves. Now think it over tonight and if you want to make +$5 or $5.50 a day instead of $4.50, come 'round in the morning and we'll +talk some more about it." + +Came only the dawn. + +The truckers were pretty sure that they were being had, although they +couldn't figure out just how. 'Tis ever thus when the old order yields +place to new. + +There was nothing left to do but try a new tack. So the manager talked +to his fifteen or eighteen truckers again. And this time he proposed +taking two of them and putting them on the new plan. After a little +conversation to assure themselves that there was no skullduggery afoot, +the truckers consented. And Little Ed and Big Joe (sic!) were nominated. + +Little Ed made 62 moves the very first day and was as fresh as a daisy +when the 5 o'clock whistle blew. Big Joe made 56 trips and looked none +the worse for it. Ed's bonus was $1.98; Joe's was $1.28. If you check +up, we're sure you'll find those figures are wrong. But cheer up, 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 +involved. + +We may pass quickly over the former. Of course the men were convinced. +And Big Ed would have beaten any trucker to a gentle pulp who wouldn't +have been convinced. In a week's time, those truckers were making nearly +twice as many trips a day--and their earnings had increased by something +like 35 per cent. + +If you don't believe it, look at the figure on page 158. See what +happened to production? Yes, that pretty dotted line--the one with the +big dip in it--marks labor costs per trip. + +The manager, 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 +WANTED. And of course, that was more pay. At the same time it got the +company what it wanted--more production. + +[Illustration: CHART OF RECORDS OF DISPATCHING ELECTRIC TRUCKS +1922-1929] + +Fundamentally, the manager's system was precisely like the messenger +boy's. And you can prove that in a trice by charting it on the same old +basis. + +Try it. It won't take you more than a couple of minutes. + + * * * * * + +This might go on for a long, long time. 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 fellow." + +There is, in a word, method back of this "KNACK OF HANDLING THE HELP." + +The method is this. Ask yourself each time this simple question: What +does your "helper" want? + +Does your stenographer want to leave promptly at five so she can get +ready for an evening of whoopee? Or does she have to catch a particular +train in order not to find a cold supper waiting for her at home? 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 stops? + +Can your truckers live in the style to which they are accustomed on +$4.50 a day? Or will $5.50 enable them to put away a bit for a rainy +season? Then why not arrange a wage payment method which will help them +to do it? + +And above all, tell them WHY. + +To do such things is not philanthropy. Successful managers will tell you +IT IS NOTHING MORE NOR LESS THAN GOOD BUSINESS. Strip from their methods +the individual characteristics required by the individual conditions +involved. What do you find? EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM IS BASED ON OUR +PRIMARY RULE. That, you remember, is to find out what you want from your +"help" and what your "help" wants from you; 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 WANT. + +Don't you see, to grasp the real KNACK OF HANDLING "HELP," the necessity +for making what you want from them balance with what they want from you? +If there isn't that balance, there won't be whole-souled COOPERATION. To +paraphrase what Henry Ford once said--or what one of his collaborators +made him say: "See that each man in doing the best he can for you is +also doing the best he can for himself." + +Thus, by digging in and finding out what everybody involved in the +situation wants, it is possible to get the utmost in cooperation and +loyalty. Where one man does so instinctively, another gets equally good +results by making a deliberate study along the lines we have pointed +out. + +Hundreds of jobs don't get done promptly and enthusiastically for no +other reason than that they aren't interesting. They can be made +interesting if you get the right line on what your work requires, what +your "help" wants, and then make a common meeting ground. + +Mark Twain knew all about the KNACK OF MAKING WORK INTERESTING AND +ATTRACTIVE. + +Remember his description of Tom Sawyer's whitewashing the fence? Even if +you do, it won't hurt to read it again. + +Poor Tom. It was on a summer's morn just made for swimming or +fishing--and he had to work. + +Along comes Ben, one of his cronies. Tom begins to do some tall +thinking. But let's not try to improve the original: + +"He took up his brush and went tranquilly to work.... + +"Ben said: 'Hello, old chap, you got to work, hey?' + +"Tom wheeled suddenly and said: 'Why, it's you, Ben! I warn't +noticing.' + +"'Say--I'm going in a-swimming, I am. Don't you wish you could? But of +course you'd ruther _work_--wouldn't you? Course you would!' + +"Tom contemplated the boy a bit, and said: 'What do you call work?' + +"'Why, ain't that work?' + +"Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly: 'Well, maybe it +is, and maybe it ain't. All I know is, it suits Tom Sawyer.' + +"'Oh come, now, you don't mean to let on you like it?' + +"The brush continued to move. + +"'Like it? Well, I don't see why I oughtn't to like it. Does a boy get a +chance to whitewash a fence every day?' + +"That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. 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 interested, more and more +absorbed. + +"Presently he said: 'Say, Tom, let _me_ whitewash a little.' + +"Tom considered, was about to consent; but he altered his mind. 'No, +no--I reckon it wouldn't hardly do, Ben. You see, 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't. Yes, she's awful +particular about this fence; it's got to be done very careful; I reckon +there ain't one boy in a thousand, mebbe two thousand, that can do it +the way it's got to be done.' + +"'No--is that so? Oh, come now--lemme just try. Only just a little--I'd +let you, if you was me, Tom.' + +"'Ben, I'd like to, honest Injun; but Aunt Polly--well, Jim wanted to do +it, but she wouldn't let him; Sid wanted to do it, and she wouldn't let +Sid. Now don't you see how I'm fixed? If you was to tackle this fence +and anything was to happen to it----' + +"'Oh, shucks, I'll be just as careful. Now lemme try. Say--I'll give +you the core of my apple.' + +"'Well, here--no, Ben, now don't. I'm afeard----' + +"'I'll give you all of it!' + +"Tom gave up the brush with reluctance in his face, but alacrity in his +heart. And while the late Steamer Big Missouri worked and sweated in the +sun, the retired artist sat on a barrel in the shade close by, dangled +his legs, munched his apple, and planned the slaughter of more +innocents. There was no lack of material; boys happened along every +little while; they came to jeer, but remained to whitewash. By the time +Ben was fagged out, Tom had traded the next chance to Billy Fisher for a +kite, in good repair; and when he played out, Johnny Miller bought in +for a dead rat and a string to swing it with--and so on, and so on, hour +after hour. And when the middle of the afternoon came, from being a poor +poverty-stricken boy in the morning, Tom was literally rolling in +wealth. He had, besides the things before mentioned, twelve marbles, +part of a jew's-harp, a piece of blue bottle glass to look through, a +spool cannon, a key that wouldn't unlock anything, a fragment of chalk, +a glass stopper of a decanter, a tin soldier, a couple of tadpoles, six +firecrackers, a kitten with only one eye, a brass doorknob, a dog +collar--but no dog--the handle of a knife, four pieces of orange peel +and a dilapidated old window sash. + +"He had a nice, good, idle time all the while--plenty of company--and +the fence had three coats of whitewash on it! If he hadn't run out of +whitewash, he would have bankrupted every boy in the village." + +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 it. +Find out what's wanted to make your work attractive, then find out what +you can give that will meet those wants. Then you get not only good +work, but loyalty in it and enthusiasm for it. + +But you can't fool your "help"--at least not for long. If you play upon +the desire for responsibility, you must give it up to capacity. If it is +promotion you hold out as a reward, you must give it when it is +deserved. If you play upon the desire for good pay, you must give it as +far as the job will allow. + +And the nearer you come to giving all you can afford for the service +received, in as nearly as possible the form that is wanted, whether in +courtesy or in coin, in reasonable hours or in rapid advancement, in +self-respect or in reciprocal service, THE MORE COOPERATION YOU MAY +EXPECT. + + + + +V + +Safeguarding the Business + + +Now for the last lap. Our journey has run four-fifths of its course. We +have passed through the successive stages of analysis, planning, +organization and handling the "help." 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 JOB. All other managerial cares +fade into insignificance before the necessity of conserving the general +good of the business. + +A business rises. A business falls. Its life must be protected. And, as +has been said so often, "the bigger they are, the harder they fall." + +A certain concern in New York State had been enjoying prosperity for lo! +these many years. Established 'way back in the "Roaring Forties," it +had passed through three generations of the same family. + +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 assistant. + +It was unfortunate, of course, that no orders reached the stockroom +until ten o'clock. But a president must earn his salt. Besides, is there +a better way to keep one's finger on the pulse of the business than to +know what's in the mail? + +Let's take a look at those three piles, though. 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 heap. + +Reverently the president carries the receipts to his head bookkeeper. +With slow and majestic tread, almost. + +And over here are the orders. + +It's a fat pile, too. + +The president casts one last lingering glance at the 1/2 doz. of +something or other ordered by a famous name--and, secure in the +knowledge that Fifth Avenue shoppers are still clamoring for his +product, 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 +express. + +Ho, hum! It's a busy life, this being the president of a successful +concern doing over a million a year. Why, when grandfather started in, +he didn't have a---- + +But that's another story, and there's that third pile. + +A slim little pile scarcely demanding a president's attention--or a +sales manager's. A few complaints. A retailer out in Butte. That San +Antonio jobber Winchester had such a hard time landing. What's this? +Didn't get the buttons he ordered? Stuff and nonsense--well, Henry will +write nice, consoling letters and those will be those. + +Now Henry is a good kid. Just out of school. Learning the business. +Writes a bang-up letter. + +But the San Antonio jobber doesn't want nice, consoling letters. He +wants to know how come his pants came without the special buttons he +ordered. 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 know. + +"Come, come," the president would have said to him, had he walked into +the inner sanctum, "you know I can't give my time to such petty +details--I've got department heads who attend to such matters. When you +want an extra thirty days--or want to talk over handling our goods +exclusively in the Southwest--why, those are the things for you and me +to spend our time on." + +But the San Antonio jobber, had he been there, and had he been asked, +would have rejoined: + +"I, too, have my department heads. I, too, leave many of the trivial +details to them. But if a customer came to me with a complaint, I +wouldn't care a rap what it was about. It wouldn't be that particular +complaint which would interest me. It would be the mere fact that he had +a complaint at all. A dissatisfied customer is a dissatisfied customer, +and there isn't anything in my business that would get quicker and more +personal attention from me." + +Well, well, businesses come and businesses go. Our imaginary +conversation will never take place between the president and the San +Antonio jobber. The San Antonio jobber took his business elsewhere some +five years ago. The president still comes in at nine and opens the mail. +He never drops a check in the wastebasket. There are still three piles +in front of him. Three slim piles. Even the pile of complaints is slim. +There isn't enough business left to produce many complaints. + +Henry? Oh, he got to writing letters to an heiress who was wintering on +the Riviera. And when her daddy died, he wrote such a nice, consoling +letter---- + +But we wander far afield. We're out in the rough somewhere, and it's +going to take a real recovery to get us back on the fairway if we don't +watch out. + +For one thing and for instance: _Is_ the customer always right? + +A one-time shoe salesman reports the following incident in a Chicago +department store. 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 behind. + +"These shoes," she pointed to a pair of satin pumps in the adjuster's +hands, "are too small." + +"And she wants a new pair after having worn them half a dozen times," +added the adjuster. + +"Who sold them?" asked the buyer. + +"Jones." + +"Go get him." + +Came Jones. "But, madam," he protested, "don't you remember I warned you +that you needed a 5-1/2? And don't you remember that I also suggested an +A instead of a double A? And when you felt certain you wanted the 5AA, +didn't I suggest that you try them again at home before having the +cut-steel buckles sewn on?" + +Well, yes, that was all quite true. But it didn't offset the fact that +the shoes were too small and she couldn't wear them. + +Two guesses as to what she got. And if each guess is a satin pump you +may step quickly and quietly to the head of the class. She got a new +pair of shoes. + +"Well," sighed the buyer, when peace and quiet had been once more +restored, "they tell me upstairs the customer is always right. Certainly +it's true that one dissatisfied woman has more effect on our business +than four or five satisfied customers. Oh, no, she won't go and tell +her friends about the fair treatment she got here, but oh, man, if we'd +let her get away! What a story that would have been--in spite of +admitting she was wrong!" + +Innumerable examples of that sort of thing might be introduced. There is +the story of the North Shore matron who had an expensive rug sent out, +kept it three months and then decided she didn't like the color. In its +place she wanted a certain oriental, but oh, dear, it was just a bit too +big for her purpose. + +Of course the rug was cut to fit. And when she decided a week later that +it, too, wouldn't do and went and bought another rug somewhere else, the +management thanked her kindly and credited her account with the full +amount. It knew that the life of the business had to be protected, and +every now and then found it distinctly worth while to take time out to +LOOK AFTER THE WELFARE OF THE ENTERPRISE. + +And here we face another question: "Must the manager occupy his time +with every minor complaint, just because it happens to be one which +comes from a good customer?" + +To answer it, we must go back to our New York State manufacturer and +strip the scenery from his particular enterprise. + +His is a business of few customers. Except for a half-dozen famous +retailers whose accounts cost more than they earn, but to whose stores +he may point the finger of gesticulating pride as being among his +outlets (it would be better for him if they were among his souvenirs), +his business is handled through thirty or forty jobbers. Naturally each +of his customers is a very important unit in the business. + +The loss of one account is serious. + +So a customer to him is an outlet for business greater than the trade a +big department store gets from a hundred good customers. One customer to +him is as a score of customers to the manufacturer who sells to the +retail trade. + +To him, then, a complaint from a San Antonio jobber that the buttons on +his pants aren't right has all the importance that the same complaint, +echoed by a hundred different customers, would have to the retail +merchant. Looked at in this light, is it not logical that any +complaint--no matter how trifling its nature--should have his prompt, +personal attention? Had he but known it, the letters he turned over to +Henry were danger signals. They warned of the need for GUARDING THE +WELFARE OF THE BUSINESS--LOOKING AFTER ITS GENERAL GOOD HEALTH. + +And that task, as we have said, overshadows in importance every other +task which the successful manager, in his daily business of managing, +may have to perform. + +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 said: + +"Something's got to be done about that freight elevator over in Building +C, Mr. Dearle. I've monkeyed with it and monkeyed with it. It's just +worn out, and one of these fine days, it's going to drop a couple of +floors and pile up in the basement." + +And one fine day it did. You see, the manager was all tied up in a labor +controversy. Labor squabbles aren't any fun. 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 days. + +So Frank the maintenance man had to run along and sell his papers. And +the elevator kept on working. + +The day it quit, Henry Fitts was aboard. And when the elevator man +picked himself up off the cellar floor, Henry couldn't. + +But why go into that? Henry's broken leg and Henry's lost time cost the +company more than a new elevator. And Henry was one of the company's +best technical men. Lots of bum sheets and pillow cases got made and +shipped and returned while Henry was laid up. The damage done by that +falling elevator could hardly be measured in dollars. + +Now, then, settling the differences of capital and labor was a big job +to the mill agent. Saying "No" to Frank was merely postponing a trifling +detail. Yet what a heap of difference a "Yes" would have made. That +defective elevator, because it endangered lives, overshadowed all else +in importance, had the agent viewed his job from the standpoint of +CARING FOR THE BUSINESS. THE KNACK OF SAFEGUARDING ITS WELFARE lies not +merely in doing tasks that preserve the safety of the business or job, +but also in the ability to discern when such tasks are really mere +trifles, and when, because of their potential effect, they are details +vital to the life of the business. + +How is a manager to know when he shall devote his entire attention to +settling wage rates, and when listen to the maintenance man's song? 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 right? + +How, on the other hand, are you to know when to lay off such tasks? + +Some few men--seventh sons of seventh sons--may be born with that +instinct or knowledge. 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 judgment. + +And not until we have acquired this important knack and added to it all +the other knacks we've been talking about, can we consider ourselves +successful managers. Not until then shall we have acquired THE TRUE +KNACK OF MANAGING. + + * * * * * + +"I've learned how to pick out the tasks that are vital to the business +and make them my own special responsibilities," a successful newspaper +publisher once said, "by setting up a sort of yardstick to judge every +job that comes along. + +"My paper was in the 'red' when I bought it. It was a weak sister. It +carried the least advertising, had the least circulation and exercised +the least influence. Today its lineage is nearly one-third more than its +nearest competitor's--and circulation has more than doubled in four +years, so now it tops all the rest. + +"I analyzed my job something like this: I bought the paper because I +thought I could make money with it. To make money, I must carry a large +volume of advertising. To get advertising, I must show results to +advertisers. To show results, I must make my paper a real "home" +paper--a paper really read and appreciated--not merely a paper with +which people are only satisfied. To get that kind of circulation, I must +put into the paper what people who read a paper at home wouldn't 'miss +for anything.' + +"What did this analysis show me? Simply this: That while more +advertising and more circulation meant more profits, the attitude of +_my_ readers toward _their_ paper meant even more--it meant business +life or death. + +"So my yardstick is never to let anything get by me that might change +our standing with our readers. The toughest business problem is shoved +aside when something comes up that means loss of respect among our +public. + +"I made it my first business to get to know our type of reader. Never +was a good hand at guessing. So had to learn about human nature. + +"After a lot of hiring and firing, picking and sorting, coaching and +drilling, I got me four women who could go out and get exactly the kind +of information I had to have. + +"Each of the four took a section of the city. Each section represented a +distinct type of home-dweller--and it takes all kinds of people to run a +world, you know--or to buy a newspaper. + +"Every week those four women canvassed close to a thousand homes between +them. 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 +it. A week later they went back over the same ground, soliciting +subscriptions, of course, but also gathering information for me. + +"More important than getting a subscription was finding out why a woman +subscribed--or why she wouldn't subscribe. They asked what the women +thought about certain special features. + +"I got a lot of good pointers. For instance, I'd been a bitter opponent +of the 'funnies.' But I put them back when I learned that people really +wanted them. You see, I was getting a good cross section of the likes +and dislikes of all my customers and my prospects. + +"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 improvements. +Then we checked the new reports with the old ones. There was plenty of +deadwood. I knew there would be. But there was enough good live stuff to +furnish food for thought. + +"Some needed changes couldn't be made right away. Many people preferred +a competing paper because it carried more department store ads. Well, I +couldn't do anything about that for the moment. But I could and did +improve the sports page, put in more home-stuff for the women, more +society news, funnier 'funnies' and so on. Those were things our readers +wanted which I could gradually give them. + +"Then it was time to tackle the advertising problem. I had my +ammunition. Carried a bunch of reports around with me. Told the +merchants frankly what I was up to. 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 reasons. + +"And I quoted a rate on what we were worth at the time, not on what I +knew we could do in the future. I didn't begrudge a full day spent in +one small store, if that small store advertised the stuff I felt was +wanted by the people I wanted for readers. + +"Well, they came 'round one by one--the stores and the people. 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 _volume_. + +"How does it affect my readers? That is my yardstick for measuring +everything about my business. That is my guide to whether or not I +should worry. If a little error in last night's paper has the power to +affect my readers' opinion of the paper, then it's my job to run it down +to earth, find out how it happened--and see that it never happens again. +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 it. I hire a sales manager to do +that. That's his job. The other's mine. + +"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 earlier. 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 sun. On +the other hand, the managing editor can go ahead and spend $5000 of my +good money on something that has nothing to do with our readers' +interest, and all I'll do is okay the expenditure. He'll do the worrying +this time." + + * * * * * + +You and I aren't interested in the way this publisher went about +building up his newspaper. That is to say, we don't care anything about +his female quartette who went around and sang the paper's praises. His +methods were sound, of course, and merit attention. 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 themselves. + +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 BUSINESS, BUT TO +ANY SINGLE JOB. 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 day. + +Who are your "readers"? + +Every business, every job has its "readers"--some element which, once +injured or neglected, affects the welfare, the health, the profits, or +the ultimate success of the business or job. + +A file clerk may acquire tremendous speed in putting letters away in +drawers, but if she can't get you the correspondence you need at a +moment's notice, what good is all her speed? Your stenographer may keep +up with you in your best and fastest moments of dictation, but if her +finished letters don't say what you said, her facility isn't worth the +proverbial thin dime. An accountant may work out a cost system that +reflects conditions like a mirror, but what of it if his reports come +out so late that they're ancient history by the time the plant manager +gets them? A miller may produce a flour that contains more vitamins than +any other flour on the market, but if the dough won't rise properly, it +isn't much use. A small-town banker may have splendid reserves and a +strong cash position, but he's going to lose your business if he asks +6-1/2 per cent interest and 3 per cent commission to extend your +mortgage when the big-city bank offers you the same loan at 6 per cent +interest and 2-1/2 per cent commission. That messenger boy of ours--no +chapter is complete without him--may run all the way from the Tribune +Tower to State and Madison, but what if in his haste he loses the +message? + +There is, then, in every business or job a VITAL ELEMENT. And no one can +do a good job of managing unless he finds out definitely what that +element is, and then proceeds to guard it through all the hustle and +bustle of cost cutting, labor saving and so on. + +One manager put it pretty plainly to his billing clerk. The latter tried +out some short cuts. They were splendid from the billers' point of +view. Saved time and money. But the customers weren't used to any of +this new-fangled stuff and kicked like steers. They couldn't check the +invoices. Or wouldn't. + +"They just won't use their heads. It's all as simple as ABC," protested +the billing clerk when the manager called him in on the carpet. "All +they've got to do is check the numbers on the cartons against the +numbers on the invoices. There's no need of all the description we've +been giving them." + +"Right you are, Johnson," replied the manager. "But sometimes you bump +up against a stone wall when you try to educate the trade. Oftentimes +life's too short. Your system saves us money. It's good up to a certain +point. That point is where your labor saving and cost cutting begin to +have an adverse effect on sales or sales satisfaction. + +"I've seen you playing bridge at noon," he went on. "You score honors +above the line, don't you? Below the line you keep your game score. If +you hold 80 or 90 honors in your hand, it affects your play. But you +can't give your entire attention to scoring above the line, for after +all it's the score below which determines who wins games and rubbers. + +"You can score your job in pretty much the same way. All this work +you're doing along cost-cutting lines is fine. Those things determine +the size of your department's profits. Sketch them out on a card and +check them over and add to them. 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 them. Keep plugging away +above the line. Don't let me discourage any effort that will reduce +costs. They're all-important. But at the same time keep your eye below +the line and make sure your game score is piling up. That sort of +thinking and playing wins in business just as it does in bridge." + + * * * * * + +It's a long time since we've drawn any charts. 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 paper. + +You remember he made it his business to find out all about the error in +last night's paper and to prevent its occurring again. That was +something which, to his way of thinking, affected the permanent standing +of his paper. When the department store stood ready to start a big +institutional campaign which meant nothing more to his business than a +big increase in volume, he left the job of closing the contract to his +hired help. But when, in another newspaper, the same department store +advertised a new type of radio which he thought his readers ought to +know about, once more he made it his own business to go out and get a +few lines for his own paper and his own readers. + +Then, if we keep tally--and consider whether they "score" above the line +as increased profits, or below the line as permanent success, our card +will look something like the chart on this page. + +[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 point. In short, it affects the permanent standing +of the business enterprise. So does the securing of the radio +advertisement. It's business news and something his readers must know +about. So after it he goes. On the other hand, the institutional +advertising will add only to the revenue of the newspaper. Don't mistake +the point. He wants that contract, too. It will add materially to his +profits. But getting it or not getting it will in no way affect the +standing of the paper with its customers. School will keep just the +same. So that particular job is on the other side of the line. That's +why he has a sales manager. + +To illustrate once more, let's attempt to "score" the work of a credit +man. What is the "vital element" in his work? What determines whether +his work is worth doing, or whether it's worthless? Offhand, you might +say: "Preventing losses on bad debts." But is it that? Surely not, when +we analyze the job. The final objective of the credit department is to +enable the house to sell more goods by extending credit wherever it is +justified. 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 it. If it weren't, why have a credit man +at all? It would be far simpler not to extend credit to anyone who could +not prove his worth. + +[Illustration] + +Now look at the credit man's score card. Such a chart might not help an +old, experienced hand, but would it not help a beginner to get a grip +on what his job is all about? Would it not enable him to see his job +from the angle of CONSERVING THE BUSINESS? + +Hold on, though. Lining up the various jobs according to whether they +score "above or below the line"--that is, 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 line. 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 +defend, once they are threatened. + +Wherever you find a successful manager, whether running a big business +or just handling a small job, you will see that he has a clear +understanding of the elements that mean the life of his work. And +further observation will show that he is always protecting them. + + * * * * * + +The head miller in a small flour mill was smart and aggressive--a bit on +the "go-getter" order, to be sure, but very, very competent none the +less. 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 what. + +Naturally he was enthusiastic. + +Why not? He had persuaded the manager to have this new product analyzed +by experts--and the analyses had proved extremely favorable. + +He wanted to go ahead. + +But the manager moved slowly. "It may make a good flour and the bread +made from it may be good for the digestion," said he, "but will the +bread taste as good?" + +Finally, after trying out the flour in his own home, he refused to go +ahead with the project. The miller, knowing how good the bread would be +for people, fired up his job, went into business for himself and put his +trick flour on the market. + +[Illustration] + +It never sold. + +The bread baked from it didn't taste good. + +The mill owner, you see, had kept his eye on what the miller had +neglected--the big, vital element of the business--that people bought +flour to make bread, and that anything affecting the quality and taste +of the bread must therefore be handled very carefully. + +What the miller needed, to take the place of the boss's years of +experience, was a chart like the one on the opposite page--a graphic +outline in skeleton form of his work's vital element. + +What a different aspect could be put on many an employee's work if the +employer, instead of depending on the man's own-farsightedness in seeing +the main items of value in his work, would graphically put them before +him by some such chart as this one! + +Right here, however, we must guard against one important characteristic +of this vital element. + +It CHANGES--or at least it _may_ change as the business develops. + +Ask the manager of the circularizing department of a certain mail-order +house. He will tell you it's VOLUME. 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 in. Again, 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 +addressing, quality folding and so on. Here the whole success of the +department depends upon reflecting the dignity and prestige of the +house. The danger point with this manager is therefore touched by +anything that might affect the quality of the work. + +Many a manufacturer starts with limited capital. For the first year or +two the vital element in his business is finance. He may have to +sacrifice attention to production and sales problems in order to guard +the slender balance in the bank. Sometimes he may have to pay higher +prices for materials because he must buy in small quantities; he may +even have to check sales because he hasn't the capital with which to +finance them. Later, though, as a reserve is built up, or when better +credit is established, he will find the vital element has shifted to +manufacturing, buying, or maybe sales. + +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 ago. His big job was to see that shoes went out the door. He +doubled the size of his plant. 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 plants. And today his greatest concern is his +shrinking bank balance. + +The same tendency toward change will be found in individual jobs. + +The traffic manager of an electrical supply house deposes that the vital +element in his department's work changed completely in less than two +years. + +"When I first came here," he declares, "the business had grown faster +than our manufacturing facilities. We were always working close up to +the contract date for delivery. I was hired simply because I had a +reputation for being able to speed up shipping, pick the shortest routes +and rush things through at the last minute. + +"Later on, we got in better shape in the factory. The goods began to +come through to us further in advance of the promised delivery dates. I +noticed this and changed my methods. Where I had previously watched +after speed alone, slapping things into any old case to get them packed, +hustling them out by any route which would save a day, regardless of +rates, I now began to pack more carefully, to sort mixed shipments in +order to get the lowest classification in freight rates, to pick the +cheapest routes, and so on. + +"One day the chief called me in and gave me a raise. + +"'Warren,' said he, 'I thought I'd have to fire you when we got past the +rush stage. I had you down as just a speed demon. But you have been +wise enough to change your methods as conditions changed. And I want you +to know we appreciate it.'" + +A similar shift is noted by the managing editor of a well-known business +paper. + +"When I took hold five years ago, it was a constant fight against time. +We never had quite enough material on hand. There was always a mad +scramble at the last moment to put the book to bed. Night after night I +stuck around writing fillers--a column here, half a column there. + +"Today it's quite a different story. We have a carefully selected +inventory from which we make up our schedules at least 60 days ahead of +publication. We have figured out close production dates--and we stick to +'em. There's no longer the problem of digging up enough eleventh-hour +material to get out an issue. The job is one of selection. My biggest +care is to find room for all the things I know our readers are +interested in." + +A constant check is the safest way to note in time the conditions that +govern the conservation of the welfare of your job or business. Check +the POINTS ABOVE THE LINE and watch the POINTS BELOW THE LINE. + +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 practical. For summed up, 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 death. + + * * * * * + +Make your score in any form that fits your needs or your tastes, but +MAKE IT--WATCH IT--ACT ON IT. Some men can do the scoring in their +heads. Most of us, even in so simple a procedure as keeping our golf +scores, find it's better to carry it on paper. + +On paper? Can a man with real work to do, spend his time plotting curves +and making pie charts? Does the Knack of Managing depend upon a man's +ability to draw pictures? + +Not at all. If that's the impression you have gained from reading this +little book, go back to the beginning and start all over again. + +If, from time to time, charts and diagrams have been suggested, it is +only because the successful manager has somehow or other to go through +precisely those same motions. His job--if he is to understand it and +manage it successfully--must be analyzed somehow, sometime. We have +merely suggested ways in which the ANALYSIS can be made more easily and +intelligently by means of charts. + +His operations must be planned--in his head or on paper--if he is to +perform them with the least lost motion, lost time and lost money. The +Knack of Managing has simply gathered from other men's methods a form +of chart by which PLANNING can be done more accurately. + +Again, his work must be organized--if it is to be done in the simplest +and best way. An attempt, then, 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 WORK. + +"HELP" MUST BE HANDLED. So, from the experiences of shrewd managers, 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 work. + +Above all, a business or job must be CONSERVED AND CARED FOR. 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 paper. + +And last, in our search to acquire THE KNACK OF MANAGING, have we not +learned that the fundamental principles of management are universally +applicable? + +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 record. His business, after all, is not ships or shoes or +sewing machines. It's MANAGING. And that job, in its fundamental +principles, is the same, whether it's running the U. S. Steel +Corporation or operating a peanut stand. + +That's our story--and we'll stick to it. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KNACK OF MANAGING*** + + +******* This file should be named 39761-8.txt or 39761-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/9/7/6/39761 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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