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maker is a man of discrimination, that he possesses perspective. It may be worth while adding that Mr. Chalmers, the founder of the Chalmers Motor Car Company, once entered the National Cash Register Company in a very minor position, but was advanced by President Patterson until he drew annually a salary of $72,000.

It is worthy of note here that this habit of concentrating upon the more vital matters is characteristic of most of our successful executives. It largely accounts for the fact that they are successful executives.

It is important to keep a proper prospective, to recognize the essentials.

Why Write Out the Plan?

The plan is the product of hard thinking, and hard thinking should not be done twice. Its first results must be preserved and utilized and this becomes feasible only when they are recorded.

"Five years of planned, attained, and recorded progress," says Harrington Emerson, “will accomplish more than twenty years of rule-of-thumb tucked away under the hats of shifting employees." The record, Mr. Emerson points out, is a ratchet, which holds on to every gain made and allows no slips backward. Time-tables, blue-prints, office manuals, rule books, purchasing specifications, chemical formulae, geodetic maps, legal codes, what are all these but rachets for past thoughts and guides to present effort?

Moreover, the writing down of the plan increases the likelihood that it will be carried out successfully. If his routine plan is always at hand in the form, say, of a printed memo, a man has a regular time-table to which he will keep trying more or less consciously to accommodate the tasks of the individual day. In Chapter IV the day's work file was

described. The arrangement of this file, the headings of the folders, cards, etc., should be those of the routine plan.

How Far Ahead to Plan

While the schedules which have been shown refer in the main to one day's activities only, it is equally certain that written instructions with time limits may cover months and years. The question accordingly is pertinent, How far ahead shall the business man plan his tasks?

It is evident from a study of his schedule shown on page 115, that William H. Ingersoll believes daily, weekly, and monthly planning to be practicable.

It is well to note, however, from a study of this schedule sheet, Mr. Ingersoll's recognition of the fact that the more remote the task the less detailed and rigid may be its written directions and time limits. Today's schedule may be specific in its statement of tasks and allotments of time, but who can now be perfectly definite about a plan for next month, or next year?

"Unhappy the general," declared Napoleon, "who comes on the field of battle with a system."

"When I have tried to plan out ahead, some duty previously unforeseen has upset everything," observed William T. Stead, late editor of the English Review of Reviews. "Speaking only for myself and on the strength of my own personal experiences, I should say that I have come to believe that the best way to get the best results out of yourself for the benefit of the world is to frame your schemes as wisely and as carefully as you can with all the information and counsel you can command today, but never to cling to them tomorrow if you should be confronted by some plain, unavoidable duty which speaks to you with the imperious authority of a divine call."

What Mr. Stead rightly insists upon here is sufficient. flexibility in plans so that first things may be put first.

Making the Plan Fit Your Needs

When it comes to putting into practice this principle of first things first, much will depend upon the nature of the position held. As a rule, the executive owing to the way he functions within the organization must to a certain extent always hold himself in readiness, perhaps to initiate a policy required by certain changed conditions or to sweep down upon some spot where a tangle has developed.

"I handle things as they come," says W. A. Field of the Illinois Steel Company; "I am simply one cog in a big machine. If I am the cog that should finish a particular piece of work, I finish it at once. If I am expected simply to give it a turn and pass it on to some one else, perhaps higher up, I do that just as promptly."

In positions which involve unexpected and emergency duties in large proportion, the day's plan must be kept flexible. The hard and fast time-table sort, with its numerous and narrow time limits, would be apt to hinder more than help. In order to work best here perhaps the plan ought to be shorn of its time limits entirely and become merely an order of busi(See Figure 16.)

ness.

The Matter of Personality

The personality of the man as well as the nature of his duties calls for consideration when the plans are prepared.

Some men are like sturdy machines, able to attack any task at any time, but more of us have our fluctuations in working power-moods, "off days," tired hours, and best parts of the day. Everyone is freshest in the early morning, but some men are slow starters, and do their best work toward the middle of the day. The plan should take such things into

I. Attend to mail

2. Dictate

3. Decide Thompson contract
4. Decide Van North extension

5. Take up belting contracts

6. Conferences

7. Plant inspection

8. Office routine

9. Tomorrow's work

Figure 16. A General Manager's Daily Order of Business
A general manager draws up daily what he calls his order of
business. This is written on a small card and kept on his desk.

consideration. Those who must work for a time before getting "warmed up" may begin on the morning mail, perhaps, and schedule no important things before ten or immediately after luncheon. The halves of the half-day periods, moreover, affect men differently. Some work better just after eating, others do not. The man who tires quickly should do his creative work in his fresh hours, whenever they may be, and use his fatigue hours for "hack work."

When to Prepare the Plan

With respect to the most feasible time for preparing the day's plan, Carroll D. Murphy submitted a questionnaire to two hundred and fifty business men and found that thirty-eight per cent preferred to prepare it in the morning, usually before opening the mail. Thirty per cent chose to plan their work the night before, so as to have clearly in mind what they must deal with the next day. On the whole, perhaps, the best re

sults come through getting a general idea of tomorrow's work before quitting the office but leaving all definite plans to be drawn up the next morning.

Wide Applicability of Planning.

The foregoing discussion of the means for securing greater effectiveness from planning should not obscure in any way the simple main principle, that plans are of wide applicability and will secure for a man greatly increased results. The planner in business

-sets for himself a central purpose;

-analyzes this general purpose into its various ramifications, such as methods, equipment and materials; -prepares definite plans, with written instructions; and -devises standard tests with which to check his progress. Under such systematic treatment, the most troublesome day's work is handled with comparative ease.

EXERCISES

Is Planning Practicable?

You may be one of those men hard to convince that planning is practicable. "Of course," you admit, "it is perhaps all right for theorists, but it will not apply to my case." Let us see.

Not long since you carried out some special project-built a house, managed a picnic, handled a sales convention, ordered some machinery, bought some merchandise, or what not. Use Test Chart 6 for the purpose of investigation in the case of this particular project.

"If only I could do that over again!" is something we hear frequently reiterated; it is the wail of Hindsight. Its real antidote is Foresight.

Note especially those last two columns. Of the various reductions in money and time which you now see might have been made, how much would have been made had you taken the trouble to draw up an intelligent plan in advance? Write your estimate in the proper place.

Look at the figures. Is planning practical?

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