WHAT THE BUSINESS WORLD IS LOOKING FOR

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1749, 13 September 1905, Page 10

WHAT THE BUSINESS WORLD IS LOOKING FOR

Three types of ability are in constant demand for the more important positions in the business world—the ability to organise, direct, and manage; tbe ability to create new markets, either by advertising or personal arguments; and the ability to supervise detail work and devise labour and time-saving devices. For these abilities employers are willing to pay salaries that formerly would have been considered fabulous. It is the possession or lack of one or all of these types which divides men into three great classes. At one extreme are the extraordinary, capable executives, salesmen, and detail men ; at the other extreme men who possess none of these qualifications, but are fitted to do manual labour or automatically perform routine clerical duties. [Between them comes a large class—the mediocre man, too proud to work with bis hands. . Conscientious, faithful, and hardworking, but not executive, inventive, or brilliant. He lives more luxuriously than ever before, but because of his limitations cannot rise to power or accumulate wealth. He supports himself and family comfortably during life, but lays aside little or nothing for old age and death. If he had lived between the ’fifties and ’eighties he could have perhaps become the head of a

business world. The public dees not realise the great scarcity and universal demand for men who the calibre to fill responsible positions. The mechanic or bookkeeper of to-day may bo general superintendent or general manager to-anerrow. He rises on his merits, and employers are watching eagerly for others who can follow in his footsteps. . . The business world; is looking for men who can achieve result —H. J. Hapgood in “Harper's Magazine.”