Part 27

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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.

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.