Milford chronicle., 1930-02-28
SERVICE, NOT SIZE,
WILL GOVERN
By R, M. Hotter in Manufacturer

BY X. M. H0Ier In manufacturer
Volumes have been written on the
subject of mergers and consolida-
tions Of various lines Of industry in
the United States. Consolidated
properties, intelligently managed
should furnish a more efficient SER
vice, or product at a reduced rate to
4 the consumer, or prevent an in
crease in rates or price Of a product
which might be necessary If many
small units were furnishing the
same service or commodity.
In considering this topic mere size
is not the issue. The problem is, can
great consolidated industries or
mergers find sufficient executive
ability to carry out the ideals Of the
merged properties? Or will the hu-
man interest or contact side Of the
smaller company with its custom
ers, be eventually swallowed up and
lost in the mechanical operation of
a billion, two-billion or three-billion
dollar corporation?
Executives who have had the
brains, the vision and a feeling for
the public interest at heart, as they
have been building large properties,
will gradually have to turn their re-
sponsibilities over to aids, who in
many instances did not come in as
close contact with the public as the
founders Of the enlarged industry.
Will they be able to maintain the
human relationship between their
organization and their consumers?
Inability to get executives with
vision who can maintain a manage
ment which translates itself into a
close and intimate relationship with
! consumers served is a real danger
to the success Of super organization.
Many younger executives Of COM
panies which expand rapidly become
obsessed with the idea that their
main function isto produce on a
quantity basis. Old ideals Of pride in
a name, pride in workmanship, pride
in old employees, pride in service
rendered, appreciation of old con-
facts, go into the discard. A feeling
of speed, speed and more speed be-
comes a mania. The morale Of an
organization is broken down by
causing individual workers to feel
that their own personal efforts in
behalf Of the company are no long
er noticed.
This is not an argument against
consultations; it is an expression
of opinion on dangers which are in
herent in larger properties and must
be met. The sooner they are recog-
nized the sooner will they be con-
sidered.
If great size and mechanical man
agement develop rubber stamp"
types of executives who become
mere cogs in a wheel with no origi-
nality and inability to maintain that
indefinable element of human con-
tact with their customers, industry,
the consuming public and the spirit
Of the nation itself will suffer a loss
which cannot be measured in dol
lars and cents.
It is not the size Of organizations
Or their probable ability to render a
cheap and efficient service to their
customers that is most to be feared,
but rather the separation of the GUS
,omer and the employee from the
actual management, the building up
If a feeling of distance between
:hese three parties to the transac-
ion, the destruction of the feeling Of
pride on the part of good employee
Is to his part in the operation Of
lis company. Here is a real prob
EN- which does not involve a ques-
ion of law, legislation or taxation.
The public relations end Of super
in the future will become
more important than the production
md for in the long run production is
dependent on sentiment which is the
esult Of an intangible feeling to-
yard an individual or a product.
Size, alone, may carry an industry
long for a period of time. Capital
will carry it along. A cheap price
will carry it along. But the founda-
ion of the smallest or the largest
which hopes to succeed
'ver period of years, must be
luality in the product, pride in pro-
lucing the product by employees,
,ride in owning the product on the
Iart of the public and character in
management which considers the
,ublic interest in every process Of
production and sale.