CHAPTER II A DEFINITE PROGRAM Only by a system-that is, by something that will work automatically, precisely, accurately-can one secure the fullest returns from his striving.-WALTER H. COTTINGHAM, President, Sherwin-Williams Company. The Coherent Program Which Gets Results The statements explaining the success of individuals, cited in the preceding chapter, are all filled with human interest. Yet the man anxious to advance does not find in such statements the coherent program he seeks. They are isolated comments, while it is the well-laid campaign which yields victory in personal management as elsewhere. Systematic planning of such a campaign means long and careful study. It involves: 1. Learning and comparing the views of notable business men concerning their own careers, their methods of work, the lessons experience has taught them. These statements may be gleaned from many sources: interviews, biographies and autobiographies, magazines and newspapers, legal testimony, conversations, correspondence. They should be supplemented and corrected by the comments of competent observers. 2. Observing men for oneself, analyzing with care every salient item about them. Of supreme value are the truly great business executives, those pioneers in personal efficiency whose achievements and methods bring joy to the discriminating observer. Yet in this study the failures, and the mediocre, are not to be ignored, for, while their experience is negative, it has been costly to these persons and its charge should not be re-levied. In discovering what to do a knowledge of what not to do has its value. The man who has made any progress whatever in business has of course been making such observations for himself already. He is now to do it more systematically and to apply scientific principles. 3. Drawing freely upon a number of related sciences. Physiology, psychology, education, ethics, economics, and business administration particularly, contain material invaluable to the study of personal management. Organizing this material into a coherent system, that is to say, analyzing and classifying its details and deducing general principles. This part of the work a busy man can hardly find time to do for himself. Nor could he trust fully his own perspective. He needs the help of a good book which will present essentials in compact and reliable form. 4. Finally, most important of all, making this system one's own, its superior effectiveness so woven into the personality as to appear a heritage from nature. This, of course, must be the contribution of the reader, the student, himself. The fit of the book depends on how well it is shaped by the individual to his own needs. Standardization the Key Principle The development of first-class practice in the management of oneself, can be completed at a very great saving in time and effort provided we utilize consistently a certain key principle-standardization. There is always a one best way of doing everything. In the yards of the Bethlehem Steel Company this one best way was introduced into shoveling. Without longer hours or harder work, output was increased from sixteen tons to fifty-nine, wages from $1.15 to $1.88, and ton cost to the company, all expenses included, was reduced from seven and one-fifth cents to three and one-third. In the stenographic department of a large office standardi zation resulted in wage increases averaging twenty-two per cent, a cost reduction from $7.69 per thousand square inches of typed matter to $2.58, a lessened overhead and a marked. gain in accuracy. In a sales organization rule-of-thumb was attaining an average business per salesman of $18,000; standardization with regard to personnel, territory, sales canvasses, and supervision brought this average up to $39,000. Practically every forward-looking man in business is an adherent of this principle as regards the operation of machinery and the direction of the labor of subordinates. As the head of a personal enterprise in which production, sales, accounts, and finance are necessary activities, the executive can gain as much from standardization as in the operation of his factory's machinery. The situation which confronts men in business, consequently, can be summarized in the form of two proportions: 1. Opportunity in the form of increased need for executive ability is today general, with prospects for the future distinctly encouraging; and 2. Standardization affords the method by which to "cash in" on these opportunities because it means seeking out and putting into operation the one best way of doing things. A Policy of Preparedness, Whatever the Present Position A certain persistent error cuts short the career of many a junior executive and chains numberless clerks to their routine tasks, namely, the view that while the heads of big organizations must of course be highly skilled it does not matter a great deal how men lower in the ranks do their own work. Once we have been promoted to those positions, the lower rank person possibly adds to the observation, it will be time to train our powers. The man who puts off developing his capacity until high. rank has been attained thereby locks the door against himself and throws away the key. By his own act, he condemns himself to sweat under routine burdens like a stupid packhorse, to spend his days as a mere drudge, and to let die unrealized his inherent impulse toward high achievement. The department head in a big corporation, the man at the head of a small organization, have in today's activities, no matter how limited their scope may seem, a complete training course in management, if they care to make it so. Rockefeller, Carnegie, Harriman, Marshall Field, and the other builders of American business had made their careers long before they were operating on a large scale, before they were in the world's eye, because they had already fashioned and matured the use of their methods The matters most important for executive training as they will be taken up in the chapters which follow, have been grouped under these headings: 1. The Basis of Personal System 5. Personal Finance 6. A Man Among Men Where can be discovered a position which does not require in some measure the exercise of the powers here analyzed and described, which leading executives possess in high degree? The proprietor of a tiny factory or the junior executive who feels himself still far from the centers of business power can so ground himself today in the principles of management that the present position, because the man who holds it has grown in capacity, becomes a stepping stone to better things. This, the correct point of view, transforms clerkships into training places for managerships, managerships into training places for corporation headships. The business career itself becomes, or it should be, a continuous apprenticeship. The policy of preparedness is the policy of foresight and vision. Its goal is "The Beyond" but it sees in "Today's Work" the essential steps to take now. EXERCISES How to Study In order to become personally efficient in business, mere longings or even high ambitions will not suffice; you must move forward according to a definite program. "Usually when a man falls short of success," says C. D. Peacock, President of the C. D. Peacock Company, "the trouble lies in some specific direction. Whatever the fault, I believe that men could educate themselves out of it, if they really resolved to do so and went about it intelligently." Let us take up here the problem of how to study. The right method will not only greatly increase your mental output in pursuing the subject now under consideration, but prove of much benefit in studying the annual reports of your company, articles in business magazines, lectures delivered before your club, and the like. Set up a Specific Purpose for Your Study. With a sheet of paper before you, jot down answers to these questions: What is my chief purpose in studying this subject? What minor purposes have I in studying it? What benefits am I to derive? Do not destroy this memo, but keep it at hand so that in passing from chapter to chapter you may see the gradual achievement of your purpose. Supplement the Author's Statements with Your Own Thoughts. What you seek is not knowledge, mere facts, but a science of achievement which applies to your own work. In reading these chapters you must be an active partner. "When you come to a good book," says John Ruskin, "you must ask yourself, 'Am I inclined to work as an Australian miner would? Are my pickaxes and shovels in good order, and am I in good trim myself, my sleeves well up to the elbow, and my breath good, and my temper?' Your pickaxes are your own care, wit, and learning; your smelting furnace is your own thoughtful soul. Do not hope to get at any good author's meaning without these tools, and that fire." Turn to a page that you have just read, page 14, for example. |