Ten Tenets for Better Business
in 1945
( The following, statemellt 0 11 th e business
otttlook for 194.5 is from George S. May,
head of th e George S. May Company, th e
world's largest firm of busill ess engineers.
Ma y also is chairman of th e Board of th e
Geo rge S. May Business Founda.tion, a 110 11 -
profit research organization devoted to th e
interests of private enterprise.;
COIN
MACHIN~
II~VIEW
10
FOil
ity in a dmin istration op eration a nd sa les
needs to be definitely set. Nea rly all or·
ga nizations wi ll have to be rebuilt. In
ma ny cases new poli cies must be created
a nd th e ma ny co mpetit ive conditions tha t
a rise will need to be an alyzed carefull y.
Based on de fin ed orga niza tion measures, a
grap hi c d iagram , known as a n Orga niza·
tion Cha rt. will do mu ch to elimin ate un·
certa inty, depi ct th e fl ow of auth ority tha t
e limin a tes oveJ'la ppin g responsibil iti es a nd
cross· purpose . and will guide the co m-
pa ny to direc t, strea mlin ed action in th e
a tta inm ent o f postwa r obj ecti ves.
On e hopeful f act sta nds out above
today's confusion. Tha t i th e fact th a t if
a husin ess man is prepa red fo r th e futur e
he need not fear it. And how ca n he p re-
pa re himse lf to domina te th at futur e? By
rea l i z i n ~ th e basic truth th at man agements
- not produ ct -compete, and then doin ~
th e thin gs to da y th at will ma ke him a
ma nager more th a n abl e to cope with th e
probl ems of tomorrow.
Th ere a re ten impo rtant ma nagement
co ntro ls or measurement whi ch he must
un de rsta nd a nd know how to a pply. The e
factors a re so succe sful wherever they are
app lied th at I ca ll th em the " Ten T enets
for Better Bus ines". App ly th em, put
yo ur house in order NOW, th en keep it in
ord er, and yo ur position will be more
strateg ic when th e battl e c h a n ~es from
th e war front to th e ma rket front. Th ese
tenet a re-
Pe rso nn el evalu ati on w ill become of in·
cr eas in g im po rtance durin g the reconve r-
sion period, no t onl y beca use of the a nti c i·
pated cha nge in numb er of workers but
also beca use of new pro ducts requirin g
new jobs with n w skills, a nd th e return
of service men to th eir old job . Case hi s·
tor ies of all wo rkers will be nece sa ry. A
so un d pro~ra m o f emp loy me nt·ma nagemen t
relations needs to be built up. Basic im·
prove ments and mode rn sc ientific pro-
ced ure mus t be ca refully stu d ied a nd in·
corporated into th e pe rso nn e l p rog ra m.
TENET 1: " Build a Soun d
Organ ization"
TENET 3: " Eliminate W astes
Through Cost Finding"
Every fun cti on of management should b e
clea rl y and co mpletely spec ifie d. The
a uthority and respo nsi bili ty of eac h activo
Substan ti al wastes remain h idde n In
many fi rms beca use of th e a bsence of ac·
cura te co. t find in g. W he n th ere is no
TENET 2 : " Ca re f u lly Appraise
Employees"
bas is for asce rtallllll g wh e re costs a re
excessive and no mecha nics for keep ing
them und er co nsta nt observation, the re is
no a dequate means of controlli ng costs and
fixin g th e b lam e for those wh ich are ex-
cess ive. A modern cost findin g system is
tremendou sly importa nt at any time-the
lac k of it may mean busin ess su icide in
th e postwar era.
T ENET 4: "Es tablish a Co mple te
EXlle n.se COl/trol"
Lac k of adequ a te expe nse control reo
suits in " half·ba ked" dec isions based on
guesses, snap judgments, or blind follow ·
ing of p recedent. These supe rfi cial de-
cisions a re often res ponsibl e for grev ious
wa, te. How ca n management hope to
pla n intelli gently without kn owin g wh a t
co n titutes a reaso nabl e potenti al a nd
with out esta blis hin g a measure of accom-
pl ishm ent ? Com plete ex pense co ntrol sub·
~ t i tut es
ce rtainty for un certa inty.
It
provid es a basis for monthly and quarte rly
reports by whi ch the executive can co m-
( See BETTER B USI NESS, Page 12)
for
Bally THOROBREDS
Keeney SUPER BELLS
Etc.
- - SEE-
PAUL A. LAYMON
DISTRIBUTOR
FEBRUARY
1945
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