Men and Methods

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 141, 11 March 1930, Page 15

Men and Methods

BUSINESS PLANS AND IDEAS (Conducted by *’ OBSERVER )

“The longer I live, Ihe more certain 1 am that the great differences between men, between the feeble and the powerful, the great and the insignificant, is energy —invincible determination—a purpose once fixed, then death or victory. That quality will do anything that can be done in this world, and no talents, no circumstances, no opportunities will make, a, two-legged creature a man without it.”— Fowell Buxton.

“The fact that a man has repeatedly said: ‘No’ to you is no sign that he won’t say ‘Yes’ if you go back at him once more with a little better aim and ammunition. The Japs charged 203 Metre Hill a dozen times before they finally carried it, then lost it —and regained it again. After that they held it. The Duke of Wellington remarked during the awful carnage at Waterloo, ‘Hard hammering, gentlemen! We’ll s-ee who can hammer longest!’ Almost every great thing ever doue was wrought into a success after a string of failures. It is ceaseless pounding that puts things through. It is the tired runner that forces himself to sprint at the finish who wins the race. And it is,the salesman who has the nerve to return to the charge after repeated failures who finally turns defeat into victory.”—W. C. Holman. » • • To An Anxious Young Man. A y_2ung man writes to ask whi.ch field of business will offer him the greatest ogportunitics .'or success during the next 2o years. Not knowing his inclinations we must discuss the question in general terms. One note is clear in our presentday life. A mighty contest is on to defeat Father Time. Each one of us is born with a given number of years anddays to his credit. The fateful span cannot be increased by a single minute, except by getting more done in the given span. That way only can life be lengthened. Practically everything that is going on to-day is motivated by this urge, and success lias perched on the banners of those who have devised ways of making us live longer within our allotted time. What is mass production but a battle jujainst Time? Mass selling is a shortcut over the peddler age. Instalment buying defeats Time by giving us those things we desire earlier than we would otherwise have them.

First page news it is when a train clips five hours off the schedule. We applaud aud pay tribute to the genius which brings Berlin and Stockholm and Paris to the telephone on London desks. Tile motor-car, radio, electric refrigeration, aviation, television —all are eagerly accepted because they give us a glimmer of that thing we most desire, victory over Time.

Conveniences for the office, visible index filing systems, adding and bookkeeping and accounting machines, typewriters, dictaphones^—all for what purpose? To save time, thereby making more time available for other things. Faster and faster grows the pace. Whole cities made over in a few decades, skyscrapers a matter of months; the new is made a publiq. servant before the old is outworn. Haste and yeasty ferment .everywhere. Whether for good or ill, is another story. The fact remains. “Done while you wait” is a motto on every hand, and we don’t, and won’.t wait long. ■ ' In “Pegasus” our anxious young man can get his answer:— "The cruciav problem to-day is movement in all its forms, If to-morrow you can move twice the speed you can today, you. will have twice the time at your disposal to work in. It is not gold standards and other such humbug which provides wealth; it is work; and if to-mor-row you have twice as much time to work in as you have to-day, your wealth will be doubled.”

Let the young man enter the lists organised to defeat Father Time. No matter where he is thrown, whether making harness, planting corn, building bridges, pleading cases, if he does a quicker and better job, the world will beat a path to his door.

Kipling, sage and seer, tells him: “Everything in life, from marriage to manslaughter, turns on the speed and cost at which men, things, and thoughts can be shifted- from one place to another.”

The young man’s grandfather thought in terms of hours: his father spoke in terms of minutes; our young man must gear himself up to act in terms of splitseconds. —Merle Thorpe, in “Nation’s Business.”

".Show me a house where all the employees are' educated to think kindly of the customers, so I hat in speaking of them they use courteous phrases, and I can safely predict for that house rapid and continuous success so long as that policy prevails.”—Daniel Louis Hanson. « First weight, then venture.” —Von-Moltkc. “Please Take One!” While a customer waits for the elevn tor there is a chance to advertise. Bome stores do this by posting their daily newspaper “ad” where it can be read for “specials.” But here’s another idea: Fix a small holder near the elevator bell and keep it filled with folders, cards, leaflets or other handy printed matter advertising special lines. ■ Have a neat card drawing attention to the contents of the holder. —“New Zealand Draper.” **■ * ■ Coloured Traffic Lanes. A simple but effective method of gaining more traffic circulation on their third floor has been worked out by an American store, states the “New Zealand Draper.” On this floor, fabrics and pattern departments are on the right of the elevators, draperies are in the centre at the rear and floor' coverings are at the extreme left in the rear. Furniture is shown in tiie front of both drapery and floor-covering departments. Last spring traffic “lanes” that help to bring more customers to departments at the rear of the floor were introduced. These lanes are nothing more than strips of colourful linoleum in an attractive yet not too pronounced shade of terra cotta, extending in three ways from the elevators to the back of the store. On the extreme right the first goes at an angle to the wash goods and patterns back in the right-hand corner of the floor; from the centre a second extends directly through the draperies; on the left a third extends at an angle from the elevators back to the floor coverings at the left-hand corner of the floor. With access to every department thus greatly simplified, departments at the rear of the floor which before had usually attracted only those with definite shopping errands are now getting their share of pick-up sales. Stimulus of Adversity. An advertising agency recently reprinted and asked all its account executives to read portions of a speech of Reginald; McKenna, famed British financial expert, with added comments by the agency president. In this talk the phrase ‘the stimulus of adversity” was used. The speaker indicated that the foundations for all booms and the profits which made them possible were laid in times of business let-downs. Easy profits make management self-satisfied, complacent and sometimes lazy. When profits are not so easy to secure, new ideas are studied more carefully. Management tightens up, the times call for each individual in every organisation to make his time count for more, to analyse his own work and eliminate its petty wastes.

The agency head pointed out in his comments that a period of business uncertainty always offered a stimulus to management which believes in advertising if the thought is correctly presented. He reminded his stalffi that the five larger clients of the agency are all spending more money in advertising this year than last—that it is only the smaller ones who hav_e cut down. Leaders in business have always used a time like the present to invest some of their surplus cash in more sales promotion effort, in analysis of markets to uncover profit possibilities.

The big company knows that the consumer is permanently enthroned as king, that his potential purchasing power always becomes effective demand when lie is told about new ideas for his comfort, better values for his dollar.

It is only the jieginner in advertising or the dilettante user of advertising who cuts down when sales come more slowly. The thorough advertiser, who uses it as an integral part of his marketing machinery, realises the opportunity to profit doublv by increased advertising When the newcomer or the unconvinced hold back.

There is a real stimulus in every period or near adversity a stimulus which urges the courageous forward at a time when courage is always given a high reward. —“Printer’s Ink.” l .