Men Who Make Transport-3
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Stanley Bond
SOMETHING seems to happen to the British when they spend a long time in South America. I have seen them, dwelling and working in improbable places in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Venezuela, and without exception they are a tough breed. Yet their toughness is not of the cruder sort. They are not content to do without the amenities of life. They seldom profess to despise the comforts of civilization.
So I was not surprised when Stanley Bond told me of his fairly long career in Peru. He looks the type. It is the type which for many years has kept Britain's prestige on a high plane in those vast countries stretching from the Caribbean to Cape Horn. Today commercial and industrial concerns down there would like to see a lot more such men crossing the South Atlantic.
Yet it was not to South America that Mr. Bond looked first of all when, as a youngster, he made up his mind to see something of the world. Not that he cared much where he went. His life was before him and there were no special ties here. He thought Burma would be a good idea and said so to a city firm of employment specialists. Nothing in Burma was on their books—South America, perhaps? But no: Burma was the place he'd set his mind on. Then, in the end, South America it was.
First he joined a well-known American steamship line, and after gaining some experience in New York he went down to the west coast. He stayed in Lima for some years and then joined the English-owned Southern Railway of Peru, where he had his first experience of top-grade management, and finished up as port superintendent at Mollendo. He did not come back to England until 1939. Ldge him to be a controller who really controls (one
■ be that to make a success in South America, and it t be different at Stewarts and Lloyds). And he conthat company's transport from one of the most ficent apartments I have ever seen in an industrial uarters. The floor is of mahogany. The walls are sively panelled. The marble fireplace is not only fit
for a millionaire—I understand it actually belonged to one.
It is a quiet place and a tidy one. " Tidy " is an operative word in the life of Mr. Bond. He is a man who abhors loose ends. When I asked him about his hobbies he began to speak of gardening. "But 1 can't honestly say I garden because 1 love gardening," he said. I just hate untidiness."
The way he sees it, transport fits logically (therefore tidily) into the whole production process. It is an integral part of it. Goods—be they steel tubes or potato crisps— cannot, he says, be properly said to be " produced " until they are in the hands of the consumer.
The production line may sometimes be thought to begin in the factory or works, Actually it begins long before this, especially in the iron and steel industry, where many millions of tons of raw materials have to be brought together in the course of a year before production proper starts. In this rail, sea and road transport all play their important parts. The line does not really end until the products reach their final destination, usually by road.
Transport costs are, accordingly, a tremendously important factor in the total cost of production, especially when, as in the case of Stewarts and Lloyds, they are reckoned in millions rather than thousands. Much of the science of controlling transport lies in meticulous costing and Mr. Bond keeps an eagle eye on it.
One sometimes suspects that the overlaying of talent is one of the weaknesses to which large organizations are specially prone. Is promotion too often by seniority of service? Does rigid Civil Service method continually invade modern big business? Mr. Bond believes that real talent will, given that modicum of luck upon which most men can reasonably count, come to the top or near it.
Dedicated Man
His luck was with him just after the war. For personal and economic reasons he left Peru just before the war and found an appointment with Stanton Ironworks Co., of the Stewarts and Lloyds group. Transport was, of course, his job. As usual, he dedicated himself to the task in hand, and as the years went by became recognized as something of a leader in the industrial transport field. When Stewarts and Lloyds decided that their general transport policy and direction needed the extra degree of central control which can be exercised by only one individual, their choice fell upon Stanley Bond. So up to London came Mr. Bond to Stewarts and Lloyds' headquarters.
He disclaims anything exceptional about his career. 'He is confident that openings for youth abound in this country, in transport as in other walks of life. While foreign travel is undoubtedly mind-broadening and to be recommended on this and kindred grounds to youngsters, he says it is certainly unnecessary to seek overseas posts because of any lack of opportunity in Britain.
" Outside " bodies have sought his guidance. He spends a good deal of energy on what might be termed extracurricular activities—all in the interests of road transport. Past chairman of the National Road Transport Federation, chairman of the transport standing sub-committee of the British Iron and Steel Federation, a member of the road transport committee of the British Employers' Federation and of the Traders' Co-ordinating Committee on Transport —in •these and many other federations, councils and committees, he plays a leading part. Of them all he counts as among the most important the Traders' Road Transport Association, of which he has been president for the past six years and of whose national council he is chairman.
I have said that he abhors untidiness. Using the word in a West Country sense, let us speak of Mr. Bond as a "tidy man."