LOOKING FOR LOSSES

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 59, Issue 4221, 8 December 1939, Page 6

LOOKING FOR LOSSES

A LARGE COMPANY NEEDS A FACT-FINDER.

Every company with more than 1000 employees needs a Fact-Finder. Such a man is in England sometimes called a statistical clerk. In America he is called a comptroller. He reports directly to the Managing Director. He has nothing to do with the routine work of the company.

His work is to gather all the statistics of the company’s work and to prepare Reports and Graphs that are sent in to the Managing Director daily or weekly or monthly. He gathers and sends in all facts and figures that will help the Managing Director to manage the company efficiently. He works out the figures into percentages. He makes it easy of the Managing Director to see at a glance what is going on. He is a sort of extension of the Managing Director, but he has no authority over anyone except the clerks in his own office.

He supplies the data necessary for good management. He provides the figures and he provides them quickly. He shows comparative figures. He shows the results of last week as compared with the same week in previous years.

He does not merely accept the figures that are sent in to him. He can ask for any other figures. He can send one of his clerks into any department to dig for figures. If he does his work completely, he makes many special investigations. His business to find out the gains and losses—-to find out whatever he can that the Managing Director ought to know. In a way, he acts like a detective, following up clues. And in a way, he is the “Watchdog of the Treasury,” keeping track of expenses. He studies sales and territories. Every now and then he sends in to the Managing Director a Report of the gains or losses of every selling unit.

If the sales begin to fall off in a certain territory, he lets the Managing Director know as soon as possible. He keeps his Chief in touch with all that is going on throughout the whole company. He equips him with facts and figures. As you can see, when a company has a comptroller, a Fact-Finder, it is not run in the dark. The light is turned on.

The competent people in a company have nothing to fear from a comptroller. They soon discover that he is one of their best friends.

His figures mean promotion for those who deserve it. Any departmental heads stands self-condemned if he does not co-operate pleasantly with the comptroller.

As far as I have seen, the one thing that many a company needs most is a competent fact-finder.