DOES MORNING COFFEE LEAD TO A DIRECTORSHIP

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 19 December 1936, Page 12

DOES MORNING COFFEE LEAD TO A DIRECTORSHIP

The “morning coffee” habit caused much discussion at the Summer School of the Drapers’ Chamber of Trade at Oxford. During a lecture Mr E. W. Tozer (Southsea) remarked: — “I have asked more than one young man whether the morning coffee habit is on the straight road to the managing directorship. I think not.” At the end of the lecture Mr G. E. Daniel, a young Londoner, got up and asked: “Why is the lecturer against the coffee habit. I understood it was practically the usual business nowadays. I gather that sometimes far more deals are done round the coffee table than in the firm’s premises.” Mr Tozer replied: “It is true that a certain amount of business is done over morning coffee, but I think there is a lot more done without it. I do not think the man who cultivates the habit of wasting half-an-hour every morning drinking coffee and talking over his affairs with someone else who is drinking coffee, is ever likely to reach the managing director’s chair, because he will be doing something else equally silly at some other time. The day is not long enough for that if you are going to be a business man.” Mr B. Kemp-Gee, who works in a big London store, joined in: “I am one of I don’t know how many hundreds in the company, and when the other hundreds have their coffee I am going to have mine too. If I stand in the middle of the department and say, ‘l’m not going to coffee because I wish to be a managing director,’ I am confident the firm would think I was ‘nuts.’ ”

The relationship of firms with their customers were dealt with by Mr Tozer. “Don’t fail to see the customer’s point of view,” he said. “In 99 cases out of 100, her views over queries are worth all the atttention you can give and nearly always can be made to contribute to the goodwill of the firm. Such advertising is cheap. “It is not a wise practice to spend much time looking into your neighbour’s window. Their views of business are interesting, of course, but it is often forgotten that each business has its ov/n psychology.”