MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS LOOK TO THE SEVENTIES
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THE shape of the modem world to an increasing extent is influenced by management consultants. Although their expertize is most needed by backward firms, of all sizes, whose management methods are simply not up to the needs of the '60s, consultants tend to be employed by thrusting, expansionist companies.
The work of management consultants in :he transport industry is not often referred :a, often coming to light almost by accident. The professional code of the Management Consultants' Association prevents the idvertising of consultancy services in the 3ress, and strictly vetoes any disclosure of :.onfidential information about any client's )usiness. Fortunately, the MCA has recently ifted the veil slightly, and it is interesting to lote that member firms up to the end of 1964 had served more than 13,000 clients n the UK and Eire.
Of this number, more than 1,400 com)anies in the vehicle-building, transport tnd communications and distribution rades were served. The distributive trades done provided nearly 800 clients—and the )rominent place of road transport in modern listributive organization needs no emphasis.
The MCA is better qualified than most )f us to forecast the future pattern of living, Ind its recent pamphlet, A Consultant iew of Britain in the '70s, deserves uention. Some of its conclusions may not e very palatable to many individuals and ■ rganizations in transport.
Transport men are no strangers to iovernment regulations and prohibitions of 11 kinds, and many would urge substantial :daxation here, yet the MCA stresses the cceptance by the business community of lore and more guidance from Governlent circles, not only in the UK but also in le USA during the last decade.
This trend, they believe, is likely to ccelerate. They quote Sir Peter Runge, 964 president of the Federation of British -iclustries, who stated: "With a policy of ill employment, the abandonment of which is not acceptable on political or social grounds, restraints on prices and incomes can no longer be imposed by the workings of a free market. Inflation must be fought with more modern weapons than laisserfaire".
The recent interventions of the Prices and Incomes Board designed to moderate increases in road haulage costs and busmen's wages were preceded in the USA. President Kennedy jumped in to prevent a rise in steel prices in 1962, and since then there have been a number of interventions by Washington to stabilize prices and improve the American balance of payments. Yet the MCA says categorically: "The amazing outcome of more Government interference in the USA is that the intense competitive drive of the American economy has grown rather than diminished".
In terms of company organization the MCA notes the trend towards more informative accounts and annual reports for submission to shareholders. "The traditional secrecy regarding profit ratios in relation to turnover and capital employed is now being abandoned. There is no doubt that companies will be compelled to show, in future, analyses of turnover and capital employed and the profits of each section of the business." And changes in sale prices for the home and export markets and average earnings per employee will also be disclosed.
The MCA has some constructive suggestions to make in the field of industrial relations, and I believe progressive transport organizations could most usefully adopt some of their ideas. For example, to help foster improved attitudes "we welcome the time when there should be employee and consumer representation on each board of directors in order that all sections of the community are convinced that corporations are being conducted to the benefit of social and national interests".
Lest any reader should feel that the MCA is talking the language of socialist orators, I hasten to point out that the sort of democratic board representation it proposes is felt to be necessary "to prove to the community that the earning of good profits is an essential corollary for an advancing and progressive society. . . . Profits will be accepted as a normal prerequisite to an improving and maintained standard of living. Thriving, progressive and profitable companies are essential to the interest of Britain".
The Transport and General Workers' Union, whose opposition to the P. and I. Board policies, is currently such an embarrassment to the Government and, indeed, to a number of less militant or more enlightened trade unions, would probably not subscribe to all the views expressed by the MCA, which says that, nationally, our slogan should be "More profit for efficient companies and more earnings for individual employees". Yet the TGWU has recently set up a work study unit to demonstrate that it is sincere in its stress on the need for productivity. Would the TGWU dissent from the statement: "Whether we like it or not, we have got to realize that the most powerful motivations for human beings are higher earnings and improved living standards"? I have heard such sentiments expressed by many trade union organizers, but this quotation is from the MCA pamphlet.
Security and status are key factors in developing sound industrial relations. The traditional three groups in industry— management, staff and workers—should be reduced to two, in the view of the MCA. Why should a craftsman employed for 30 years by a company find that his young typist daughter enjoys better conditions in the office in her first weeks of employment than her father has achieved in a lifetime?
The MCA believes that all employees should be given staff conditions to free the worker "from his traditional inhibitions of lack of security and fear of losing his job", and sees no reason why all employees should not be given an annual contract guaranteeing them a minimum annual rate, payable weekly or monthly.
The annual negotiations for higher wages, with or without productivity strings, which are so much a feature of the transport scene, are condemned by the MCA. It praises a productivity agreement made by the General Motors Corporation and the United Automobile Workers in 1948, which included two notable innovations. A costof-living escalator clause protected real wages, and an annual improvement factor increased wages by a certain amount each year. The agreement recognized that productivity was the key to progress and that this implied the use of better tools, methods, processes and equipment and, most important of all, a co-operative attitude on the part of all those concerned.
This agreement, now 18 years old, has relieved General Motors of annual wage bargaining and strikes in support of pay claims. The Corporation has gained the continued right to determine production schedules and standards. Clearly, this agreement provided the genesis for some of the more recent productivity bargains negotiated in the transport and other industries in this country.
In future, the MCA anticipates there should be a considerable saving of time on pay disputes, but this implies that time must be spent now in many industries in setting up improved machinery for handling disputes. It is also necessary, the MCA believes, for management to spend time putting over the general philosophy of the enterprise "and activity directed to promoting good relationships between all grades of staff and the development of co-operative attitudes to promote team work".
With all the stress laid by MCA on new roles for management in the computer age the human element takes precedence in importance to technology, and it is quite evident to me that no large-scale enterprises in the future are likely to flourish if human factors are neglected. Andrew Carnegie, the great industrialist and philanthropist, said over 50 years ago that he didn't mind if he lost his millions tomorrow; so long as he had his staff he would make another fortune in 5-10 years.
Sir Reginald Wilson, whose recent Transport Holding Company report so admirably exemplifies some of the points made by MCA, said to me recently— advice, I surmise, he will have proffered to Mrs. Castle—"Any fool can buy a lot of vehicles. What you need to buy is the management and staff to run them efficiently and profitably. If you don't acquire that know-how, your revenueproducing traffic will soon disappear".
THANKS to the enterprise of a Norwich coach proprietor, Mr. L. 0. Votier, of Mascot Coaches, many physically handicapped people in the Norwich area can now be carried in comfort to their works centre and also on coach outings and attendance at places of entertainment. This has been made possible by the provision of a specially built coach designed by Mr. Votier and built by Bonallack Refrigerated Vehicles Ltd., Norwich, on a Bedford SB petrol-engined chassis.
Although not the first vehicle to be built for handicapped people, the St. Christopher Coach is probably unique in being built by a firm not normally engaged in the production of such vehicles. It is fitted with a forward entrance and has double doors at the rear where a full-width US Industries battery/ hydraulic tail-lift is fitted. The coach has normal accommodation for 12 wheelchair patients and 12 seated passengers, although this can be varied.
A flight of five shallow steps leads to the main floor of the vehicle, which is of sufficient height to clear the rear wheelarches. The steps are 3 ft. 3 in. wide to allow a helper to assist handicapped people; rails are also fitted on each side for further assistance.
The seats in this forward part of the body were donated by the Eastern Counties Omnibus Co. Ltd. as the vehicle is operated by a purely voluntary organization. This is the St. Christopher's Coach Fund, of which Mr. Votier is chairman. The seating capacity can be varied, according to requirements.
Towards the rear of the coach, four 11 in. by 11 in. alloy angles with timber fillers are carried across the body and are secured by yacht hooks to angles along the side of the body. The wheelchairs are strapped to these bars, each bar accommodating three chairs across the vehicle.
Overall dimensions are 27 ft. 6 in. by 7 ft. 6 in., the width being determined by the -need to pass through very narrow gateways. Equipment includes two recirculatory heaters and an Elpico transistor radio with three speakers. All maintenance apart from the steering can be done from inside the vehicle.
Total cost of the coach was £3,500, which was raised by voluntary subscriptions, including £2,000 from Norwich City football supporters' clubs. Demand for the vehicle, which is available for any organization, is so large that the coach is employed seven days a week, and Mr. Votier's aim is to add one or more similar coaches to the fleet as and when donations permit. At the moment he is trying to establish a reserve fund to pay for the maintenance of the existing vehicle.