'The wishes of the electorate are not hard to discover'

25th September 1964, Page 142

25th September 1964

Page 142

Page 146

Page 142, 25th September 1964 — 'The wishes of the electorate are not hard to discover'

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Father Brown laid down his cigar and said carefully: "it isn't that they can't see the solution. It is that they can th 't see e problem." solution. It is that they can th 't see e problem."

NOBODY can say that Britain's commercial vehicle manufacturers have not been looking at the right problems_ The display which begins today at Earls Court shows that they have also found many of the right solutions. They have aimed to provide among other things, more power for commercial vehicles, better braking standards, increased driver comfort and easier access for the mechanics. On the whole they have scored a notable

success.

Their ultimate aim no doubt is to consolidate and widen their markets both in this country and overseas. In attracting foreign currency they expect the co-operation of the Government. There is an export problem plainly visible and it has been helped by the new Construction and Use concessions which reduce the necessity for making an entirely different range of models for Britain and for Europe. On this point at least the Minister of Transport is keeping in step with manufacturers in their endeavour to find satisfactory answers to appropriate questions.

Not everybody would agree with this. There have been accusations that wider and longer vehicles increase the risk of road accidents. It has even been said that the new regulations should not have been made until the Minister had provided better roads and driven the cowboys off them. Vehicles have been found defective at roadside checks, the argument runs, and until this no longer happens no operator can be trusted with larger vehicles than were previously permitted.

Obviously the question posed here shows an outlook similar to that which in the earlier days of motoring produced the man with the red flag and the speed limit to match. On examination the main objection turns out to be that cars have difficulty in overtaking vehicles with a width of 7 ft. 6 in. and that the difficulty would be increased if the width were 8 ft. 2+ in. The problem apparently is how to make it as easy as possible for the car to overtake the lorry.

However plausible this may sound to the motorist, does it really make sense? The true problem is how to improve road safety, If so many accidents occur when one vehicle is overtaking another, the right answer might be to reduce the incidence of overtaking rather than to encourage it. Manufacturers are making a valuable contribution towards this end by providing the extra power which will enable heavy lorries to maintain a steady speed in all road condi tions, even when climbing hills. Once this has been achieved the motorist will have less inducement to overtake and may not even notice that some of the lorries are wider than they used to be.

The complexity of the road accident problem encourages the snap answer. The correct solution will come only after a systematic examination of the problem point by point and a good deal of experiment. Sometimes the circurnstances or the statistics throw up the answer almost automatically. A notorious black spot indicates the need for

E26 improving the stretch of road concerned. The connectiot between drinking and bad driving at Christmas is to obvious to be missed. Other sectors of the problem an less amenable to a quick diagnosis, often because of th relative infrequency of accidents. Many a driver who it the popular phrase 'ought never to be allowed on thi road" manages to get through his motoring career with out so much as a scratch on his car.

Apart from road accidents, the subject of transport one where an unusually large proportion of answers an being sought or given to the wrong questions. The curren controversy on track costs provides a good example. Tht railways have put in their own estimates, ostensibly as stimulus to discussion. The Ministry of Transport havt arrived at a completely different set of figures. There wit be one or two other attempts from interested parties befell the hapless Geddes Committee are expected to come uj with the right answer. In the meantime the Ministry art proceeding with their road programme and the Conser vatives have hinted that they may double it if they art returned to power. The proper question therefore appear: to be what tracks are needed in the interests of tin economy. Once they are provided the problem of cost: May well have been found to have settled itself.

The Father Brown test might well be applied to thi election manifestoes of the political parties. Each docu rnent contains a proposed solution to the transport problen and at first glance the solutions might seem equally attrac tive. To what extent is the problem the correct one? Fo the commercial vehicle operator this question may be mon significant than the paper promises. There is little to la said in favour of wrecking the existing system or part of i and starting again from scratch. There must be evidenct first that the system is not what the public require, or not working properly and secondly that the propose( changes will in fact be an improvement.

The wishes of the electorate are not hard to discover although they may also be contradictory. The public wan more roads and lower taxation. They want as much free dorn as possible te drive themselves about or to carry thei. own goods when this suits them, but on other occasion: they want public transport to be available. They wan that transport to be efficient, but they also demand that i should be cheap. At the same time there is a feeling tha transport should be less dangerous and that somethim should be done to preserve civilized amenities.

Some of these requests are already being met reasonabll satisfactorily. The trader is free to run his own vehicle: and he has few complaints about the service he receive: from hauliers. On many other points action has been a is being taken. More roads are on the way. The Beechim plan, discreetly applied, should help to discover what rail way services are really needed. The Buchanan and Since( reports are concerned with amenities and priorities. Tht multiple problems of road safety are being tackled in man different ways. A simple guide for the elector is to asl how far this state of affairs suits him before he consider! how far any proposed changes will be to his advantage "Management's next generation" was the title of the second paper given by Mr. B. X. lessop, director of management development, British Railways Board. Provision of the next generation of managers was basically a simple problem of organization and administration "horribly complicated " by the raw material being animate rather than inanimate. The subject could be considered under three main headings— recruitment, training and management development. For recruitment into British Railways there were three main channels: for the clerical wages section; for the school leaver with good examination qualifications, and via British Railways' management training scheme, which was new last year. Aimed at existing staff and university graduates, it was from this entry that B.R. hoped to find the bulk of their management material. This scheme normally recruited 50 trainees a year and it had three stages. The first lasted two years for the non-technical man and was predominantly of a traffic " flavour ", though with an outline of the work done by technical and financial departments.

The second stage in management training comprised courses held for junior to middle managers, normally aged between 30 and 40, and with evidence of potential development for promotion. The curriculum included railway organization operating and commercial practice, industrial and investment relations, whilst training was also given in public speaking and interviewing.

The third stage in the scheme took place at the British Transport Staff College at Woking, where courses lasted approximately four months. These were intended for those who had shown potential for promotion to the highest managerial position or equivalent profession or specialists posts. Great stress was laid on the development of the individual and those qualities which would fit him for the highest post.

After recruitment and a degree of training, Mr. Jessop maintained that management development then started when the potential manager emerged from his training. The first cog in the machinery of management development was the appraisals system. Every year a corporate assessment of each individual was made by a minimum of three assessors as to personal qualities relevant to railway management, present performance and potentiality. The assessment was in a quantitative basis and so susceptible to analysis, both individually and collectively.

This appraisal system was first introduced in 1961 and B.R. were now assessing 9,000 of their staff earning £900 a year up to and including general, managers. Thus there was being built up a valuable record of soundly based opinion on the quality of management. An interesting side effect was that both assessors and some senior officers had added to their own experience by having regularly to assess their staff in a more systematic way than would otherwise have been done.

After three years of appraisal the next step was to supplement the information obtained by other information so that positive plans for these men's future careers could be made.

The Main Object

Commenting on what he considered the main object of the exercise, Mr. Jessop said that this was to resolve management succession problems. In a small concern this was a fairly straightforward problem, but with B.R. there were 500-600 senior management posts. Succession lists were% prepared— obviously highly confidential documents seen only by those concerned with making serious appointments—and after only a year Mr. Jessop claimed they had a much wider field of consideration for management succession.

As to the qualities required by the management development officer himself, Mr. Jessop claimed that he must be capable of advising on, though not making, appointments. Whilst he must be tactful, he must also be persistent. Above all he must be vitally interested in people. He must have freedom of access to, and support from, top management.

In subsequent replies to questions posed by discussion groups, Mr. Jessop enumerated the seven qualities B.R. used to measure ability and potentiality, They were: knowledge and experience; ability to apply them; judgment; initiative; leadership; organizing ability; and co-operation. Note was also taken of performance in a man's present position and his potentiality, Due E30 allowance Was made when assessing men engaged on jobs i which there was little or no opportunity for, say, initiative.

As to whether it was a good thing to introduce manager from other industries, Mr. Jessop considered self-sufficiency i this respect could be a disability. There was real value i introducing people with fresh minds. He personally disapprove of a suggestion that there was room for a university degre devoted solely to transport. But there was a growing realiza tion of the combined importance of economics, geography an sociology linked with transport.

The third and final paper was given on Sunday by Mi G. M. Logic, manager, methods services training, British °vet seas Airways Corporation, on the subject of " Modern tool of management ".

At the outset Mr. Logie admitted that this field of manage ment involved the employment of terminology which was nel to some, and he suggested that the term "discipline" migh be a better expression of the underlying concept than the wor " tools " in the title of his paper. Moreover, many of thes " new" methods, and the terminology describing them, wer based on established principles, although modern methods ma be more scientific.

The most important of these disciplines fell into five group! These were: work study; organization and method; operations research; ergonomics; and electronic data processing, Thes groups had within themselves different techniques which migh appear unrelated, but in fact formed part of the general patter of applying to problems the scientific method. This consiste of _five simple steps: defining the problem; recording the facts examining the facts critically; developing and testing a solution and applying these solutions.

The Scientific Method This application of scientific methods to managerial problem was the crystallization of yet another specialist field of manage ment—the efficiency aspect—or more precisely the minimur use of real resources of industry—materials, capital equipmen and human work.

Mr. Logic then examined the five steps enumerated as corn prising the scientific method. Regarding the fifth step—th application and solution—communication was most importan because "none of us like change". An analysis of manage ment problems referred to his department had shown that 9, per cent were human problems and only 10 per cent technica. Of the human problems the greater proportion concerned th work of top management as compared with problems arising a shop floor level.

Traditionally the concept of management was one self sufficient individual. But of recent years some of his respon sibilities had been hived off: for example, those relating ti accountancy, personnel, research and development. Mr. Logi suggested that it was now opportune to hive off the aspect o efficiency and productivity so that the manager could then ge on with his basic job of managing people.

Replying to subsequent questions as to the opportunity fo applying these methods, Mr. Logic agreed that many present day decisions in transport had to be made quickly and withou resource to these techniques.' But for policy making they cola be usefully applied. Nevertheless, techniques were no suE stitute for good management, which took into consideration al the disciplines enumerated.

The conference concluded with a general discussion at whicl the three speakers formed a panel with Mr. Amos presiding Commenting on future trends, Mr. Amos emphasized there wa a need "to educate our political friends and enemies" as the importance of the transport industry. "We live in democracy, however much we may dislike it at times. It wa right and proper that transport should pay its way—or be a nearly viable as possible."

The penalties of change were commented on forcibly by M A. F. R. Carling, executive, British Electric Traction Co. LI< One could have too much of a good thing, he said. Even : a change was abundantly right it could be imposed at the wron time. Change disturbed the relationship and confidence betwee customers, staff and trade onions both externally and intemall when a key figure was moved. Transport operators do no exist to create administrative tidiness, but to provide ; continuing service to the public,