What Makes Success in Big-scale Business
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An Outline by a Railway Vice-president of the Prin. ciples of Control of Large Undertakings
THE subject of the organization of large undertakings is topical, and, as reported in "The Commercial Motor' last week, was appropriately chosen by Mr. F. A. Pope, CIE., M.Inst.T., a vice-president of the L.M.S. Railway Co., for an address to the Institute of Transport: Title of the paper was "Principles of Organization for Large Undertakings."
Mr. Pope said that although large size made evolution of a good organization difficult, it should be no deterrent. A.major point in setting up a large organization was that no fundamental changes should be made in a hurry.
Aims of Big Coneerns The objects of any large undertaking, irrespective of who were the ownerL were the following:— (1) To provide adequate and efficient facilities for the users with reasonable charges. (2) To give adequate conditions of service to the staff to provide a reasonable--standard of life and ensure real incentive. (3) To remunerate reasonably the capital on lines prescribed by Parliament or otherwise. (4) To command the respect of the Government, • the public and its own staff, so that its development is unretarded.
The first fundamental principle in any organization was that the staff 4must be happy and that supervision must be constantly helpful. Other principles were:—Knowledge of users' requirements, proper plans, current control of plans, retrospective review of the plans, proper, devolution of authority, proper instructions, and constant research.
A diagram showing an outline of a large organization was then presented, and the principles enumerated ,were considered in detail.
The diagram showed headquarters as the apex of a pyramid," With research (scientific and operational) and centralized offices (accounts, savings-bank and staff funds) as the next stages down the pyramid, on each side of H.Q. Then came area offices for ancillary services (medical and workshops), and planning offices, a stage lower and extending outwards,
At the base.there were four regions, each divided into general, personnel, maintenance, operating and commercial. Headquarters itself was divided into ancillary, :legal and secretarial, accounting, stores and purchasing, personnel, engineering, operating and commercial branches.
-H.Q. Divisions
Headquarters, Mr. Pope said,_ must be divided up functionally, with one officer in charge of each department. The work of these officers was mainly to help the regional or area officers, to think ahead and develop the organization as a whole.
As an arm of headquarters serving all departments, was the research organization, which should cater not only for scientific research, but for operational research to improve equipment and methods.
The object of centralized clerical offices was to secure efficient and economical .. clerical methods by mechanization.
The region, was the unit for manag'ng and' controlling the men and equipment employed in a given area, and for maintaining contact with the users.
There were two ways of organizing a far-flung service—departmentally or regionally. Headquarters must, in any case, be split functionally into units, but under the deparimental system each officer in charge of a function had in each outside area an officer in charge of the same functions
Regional Control System
Under the regional system, an -officer in a particular area or region was placed in charge, with control over a • number of functions... He was responsible to 'headquarters as whole. This, in a large organization was undoubtedly the right method.
With a transport organization with mobile equipment, moving through many areas and for considerable dis tances, it might not be possible to plan other than the local services in a particular region. Therefore, planning offices might hme to be formed, covering two or more regions; and even some planning of • inter-city Services might have to be done at headquarters Mr. Pope said that the note which he desired to strike was-that of a plea for study -of' organization. The principles were simple common sense. The application needed detailed examination of volume and methods; location of managerial control; telecommunications, and, above all, leadership.