MEN AND METHODS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 221, 19 June 1928, Page 13

MEN AND METHODS

BUSINESS PLANS AND IDEAS Suggestions for Reducing Costs and Increasing Sales. (Conducted, by Obsebveb) A SALESMAN’S CORRESPONDENCE. There are many business men who expcriencc difficulty in attending to their correspondence on account of the great amount of time they have to devote to outside calls. This applies particularly to laud agents. One prominent real estate man in Wellington has successfully overcome the problem by installing a dictating machine of popular make. He devotes most of his day to outside work aud in the evening dictates the replies to letters which have arrived that day. The following morning his stenographer slips on the earphones of the machine aud types the replies. At odd intervals during the day . the employer calls a at his office and signs the letters awaiting him. In the evening be again goes through the current mail and dictates his replies. This system isnow a matter of routine in this particular office, aud works very satisfactorily. Ihis estate agent thus keeps his correspondence up to date aud still has time to inspect sites, look' up prospects and interview clients. The same method might be applied in many offices where the principal is an active salesman. « >:« * BUSINESS LIBRARY. While a business cannot be conducted by the mere use of text-books, its development can be advanced by the judicious use of authoritative works bearing on the conduct of modern commercial enterprises. More and more industrial concerns are'equipping libraries for the use of their staff, as it has been found m actual practice that the enterprising employee will increase his usefulness it he is given the opportunity of studying ways and means of doing so. In one manufacturing and distributing concern, where the business library has worked out exceedingly well, the principals make a point of only buying those books for the staff library that they have read and approved of. By this means, the library has become a connecting link between the employers and their assistants. On studying these books, the staff feels that the ideas contained therein have met with the approval of their chief executive officers, and that by applying the knowlede gained from such books, they are working on lines with which the management.is in full agreement. Business is constantly changing and expanding to meet the needs of an advancing civilisation, and in a growing country such as New Zealand is, much valuable information can be gleaned from the pages of books written by men who have solved the problems with which our own enterprises arc confronted. The value of such a library can be enhanced by inviting the staff to submit suggestions which are the outcome of a close study of these selected business books. # * * ON GAINING PROMOTION. The appointment of outside men to. fill important positions in business organisations is invariably resented by the staff, who generally consider that some member of their own ranks should have been chosen to fill the vacancy. Members of most business concerns have a right, generally speaking, to expect promotion when the opportunity offers, but few realise that their principals arc generally just as anxious to draw upon members of thenown staff ■ to fill important positions as the employees are to accept them. Tew indeed are the modern executives who will purposely go outside their own organisation when talent is offering within. That they do seek outside brains is due to the 1 fact that they do not consider that a num with the necessary qualifications is at present in their' employ. It is frequently admitted that there is latent ability to be found in every commercial office, but the trouble is to unearth it. In this respect employees often have themselves to blame, as they are afraid to prepare themselves for promotion. In many offices there is an unfortunate tendency on the part of employees, be they clerks, salesmen, or specialists, to withhold from the man below them the details of their own work, while I hey, in turn once they have mastered i heir own tasks do not seek enlightenment from their immediate superior regarding the details of his work. One overseas organisation developing a rapidly-growing business found it necessary to keep supplementing its staff at frequent intervals, and to seek qualified men to fill new executive posts. The heads of the organisation decided to offer every inducement to. members of the staff to qualify for the more important positions. Its method of. advancing men is described as follows in “Printers’ Ink”: “It was suggested to the men that they so organise their department that they were practically out of a job. A man who could accomplish this was felt to be ready fertile job ahead. Such a policy, this companx has found, removed one of the worst handicaps to individual progress, namely, the fear on the part of any employee that the men under him would learn too much about the job. In many an organisation this fear still prevents men from taking their immediate subordinates entirely into their confidence, and teaching them as much as they can about the business of which they are a part. The slogan, ‘Organise yourself out of a job if you want advancement/ has worked out well with this company. It could undoubtedly be adopted with profit by many another concern which is operating on the old basis in which fear of the man next below plays such an important part.”

SELECTION OF BUSINESS SITES. In the bigger cities of the world, the selection of business sites has become a highly-skilled occupation which calls for unusual qualities of analysis and observation. This is particularly so in larger countries, but even in New Zealand the development of new shopping districts in our larger cities has brought with it new problems for retailers who are anxious to locate their stores in the most suitable, trading areas. Many have found to their cost that a busy thoroughfare which might be well suited for one class of business is worthless for another. That fact, has brought about the establishment of streets, which are known to the general public as shopping centres for a particular class of goods. Retailers no longer fear the establishment of a similar business within a lew doors, but on the contrary in many of the larger Old World cities it has been proved that the small man of business often does best when located near a much bigger competitor. . In the United States of America the selection of business sites has de\ eloped into one of the most important problems of retailers. When it is considered that annual rentals of £BOOO for an eighteenfoot frontage arc fairly common, it can be seen that a few mistakes on the part of an organisation running a chain of stores would be disastrous. The methods by which business sites are decided upon in America are'therefore not without interest to readers of this column. In surveying (lie possibilities of a suggested site a census is seldom taken ot the traffic in the shops or in Ibe section. At one time this was regarded as a good indication as to the business possibilities of the site, but experience has proved that it is not a faithful barometer of retail activity. The number of sales clerks in the existing establishments is regarded as an infinitely more reliable gauge, states a writer in an American .lournal. If there are only two employees in. of the stores in the section under consideration. it is hardly likely that any action will be taken. If, however, the staffs (otal three in the afternoon ami four or live nt rush hours, ue&otuitions with the owner will probably be commenced. Further suggestions on site sclection will appear in this column from time to time.

'’Style,” remarks a famous merchant, “is just an attempt to avoid competition.” That is to say, a manufacturer who is anxious to bring out a new style practically says: “We can’t longer compete profitably with other manufacturers bv offering the same thing more cheaply* or bettor, (hen they do, but here is something new that they aren’t yet making at all.”