BETTER ORGANISATION

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 10, 11 July 1930, Page 8

BETTER ORGANISATION

We commented recently upon the campaign to apply rationalisation to industry in Great Britan and suggested that there was scope for similar application here. Dr. Marsden gave point to tliis suggestion in his remarks to the Rotary Club on the organisation of secondary industries in New Zealand. He referred to transportation, mining, and factory production and the lack of economy associated with many of these industries here. "A multitude of factories each with a multitude of products (he said) cannot be said to be rationally organised." There are two main difficulties to be overcome in the application of the system. One arises from the business man's indifference to something which he is inclined to dismiss as fanciful and not practical. The term "rationalisation" is not sufficiently understood in its everyday application to business management. So far from being fanciful, it is eminently practical. It means commonsense economy. If two factories can effect great economies by working together, saving machinery, capital, supervision, and labour, it is sound commonsense to combine—and this is rationalisation. It has other forms applied to other needs. Indeed, its whole basis is to get away from rule-of-thumb and do what sound business consideration shows is the busi-ness-like practice. The other difficulty lies in persuading individuals to exchange unrestricted competition for reasonable co-operation. Competition is sound and necessary, but it can be carried so far as to become wasteful and duplicative. It is not to be remedied by/combination to exploit the public, but by co-operation to serve the public better and extend the market.