Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
REVIEW
flUJIC TIRADE
VOL.
LXXVI. No. 2
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 373 4th Ave., New York, N. Y.
Jan. 13, 1923
8in
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Working Along Organization Lines
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HIS is the season when many representative concerns in the trade call together members of their sales
staffs for more or less lengthy conferences with a view to considering the developments of the year
recently closed and particularly for the purpose of discussing plans for the coming twelve months.
The business conference idea, which has developed very substantially during the past few years
in trade circles generally, is an excellent one and, even although the easy excuse of being "in conference" is
used altogether too much by some business men in an effort to avoid callers, that fact does not serve to detract
from the value of the real serious business discussions in themselves.
The conference idea has grown out of a more general understanding by those at the head of business
concerns that several heads are better than one in determining plans and in deciding upon moves most likely to
be effective.
Not so many years ago the head of a growing concern frequently prided himself upon the fact that he
took care personally of all of the details of mapping out sales and advertising campaigns and relegated to
himself the full power of deciding on all the various problems that came up during the business year. In
short, his word was final and he was proud of the fact. Then came the new school of business men—men of
the Carnegie type for instance—who appreciated that business success and development could not be realized to
their greatest limits under one-man direction and therefore gathered about them executives, who, by training
and experience, were capable of offering suggestions that were practical and helpful. The business conference
of today is the outgrowth of this policy, and the fact that it has found its way into the music trade is a pleas-
.ing commentary upon the progressiveness of certain factors in the industry.
Although the last few months of 1922 saw business returning to its own in a measure, those business
men in a position to speak with authority are agreed that, although the next few months at least are full of
promise from a trade standpoint, the opportunities offered can be realized only by those who take up their
merchandising problems with unusual energy. In short, the individual merchant who is content to ride on the
wave of prosperity without exerting efforts in his own behalf is liable to get only such crumbs of business
as are left by his more active competitors.
In the face of the condition that exists, and promises to continue, there is need for earnest merchan-
dising conferences—conferences of executives and salesmen—that may be expected to develop new, although
not perhaps radical, plans for getting more business out of established fields, and opening up new channels
for the distribution of musical instruments. The executive at his desk or the executive who goes out into the
field occasionally cannot be expected to have at his finger tips all the information that is gathered by the
salesman through his actual contact with purchasers and prospective purchasers. Nor can the salesman oft-
times realize to the fullest extent on his experiences, for the reason that they are too close to him and he
cannot give them the proper perspective. When the executives and sales staff get together, however, there
develops a combination of thought that accomplishes two results—one to give the executive the latest experi-
ences in actual selling, and secondly to give to the salesfnan the confidence that comes with the feeling that he
is recognized as a factor in the direction of the organization. Those concerns in the trade which have been
holding conferences for several years past have proven the wisdom of the course, for each conference shows
a broadening of vision and an improvement in program brought about by experience.
What the business conference does above all things is to bring about a feeling of solidity through-
out the organization, and to make each individual therein feel that he is part of a whole, working towards a
given end, thus creating a real organization. This esprit de corps is an essential to efficient functioning and
brings results in profits that otherwise cannot be obtained.