Engine Maker's Success with Unique Course of Instruction
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AN enterprise which. I think, is unique in Mehl try was inaugurated at the beginning of last winter by F. Perkins, Ltd., of Peterborough, the well-known maker of oil engines for road vehicles and agricultural, marine and industrial use.
Described as a " Policy Course of Instruction," it was devised as an introduction to the company's postwar planning, and it was unique both In conception and execution.
Capt. A. J. M. Richardson, sales director of the company, devised the scheme. He had already planned the post-war sales and service organization of F. Perkins, Ltd., and as an understanding of this is essential to an appreciation of the Course, it may be as well, first of all, to describe that organization. It provides for an effective linkage between the two departments—sales and service—on lines which will ensure the closest co-operation between them..
The country is divided into regions, each one of which has a resident superintendent to whom the sales and service representatives are responsible.
• The superintendent, in turn, is responsible to the sales and service directors at Peterborough.
This Policy Course provided means— particularly effective means as the results showed—for moulding that organization into shape.
Mr. L. W. J. Hancock, sales promotion adviser to the board of directors, worked out the details, and I was deputed to act as chairman. I would like to state in this preamble to the description of the Course, that I have seldom been so enamoured of a project, or so justified in my appreciation of the way in-which the objective was` achieved.
:Principle of Salesmanship
Mr. Hancock's views on salesmanship are, perhaps, well-known, but have not hitherto, so far as I am aware, been so clearly defined as in these words, "The fundamental principle of good salesmanship is the art of communicating knowledge in. a direct way with the object of satisfying a need or want, which need or want is realized and becomes, therefore, properly expressed as the result of that knowledge. The keynote is knowledge and the ability to impart it skilfully."
The Course was planned on the basis of that theorem; the art of communicating knowledge was taught in the most effective possible way by arranging for the interchange cif • knowledge. In effect, the students acquired the art of cortimunkating it. as they themselves had acquired it. The original intention was to select a group of potential sales and service representatives who appeared likely to be suitable for the key " positions In the organization, and to put them through the Course. Clearly, the first essential was to ensure that these potential representatives should have the knowledge they were expected to impart. Indeed, they must know more; they must be completely conversant with the entire inner workings of the organization, from the policy of the company as interpreted by the directors, down to the reason for the smallest and less significant of the constructional details of the engine.
Full appreciation of this brought the realization that the scope of the Course must be wider than was envisaged; the personnel, too, should be enlarged to include executives of all departments— directors, sales, service, drawing office, accounts, technical, design.
The arrangements provided for an hour's lecture each Monday evening, followed by an hour of discussion on the Tuesday morning. Homework and discussion on the lecture were set each week.
Importance of the Team Spirit The opening address was delivered by Capt. Richardson. Quite naturally, he stressed the importance of the team spirit. These three things we must do, he said, play as a team, play the game hard, and learn to take a beating cheerfully. Enlarging upon this theme, he pointed out that one of the fundamental duties of all of us after the war was to play the game hard, i.e., work hard to attain the goal of maximum production and sales, to provide work for the men returning from the Services, so that all of them could enjoy a high standard of living. In other words, we must be enthusiastic in our jobs.
The curriculum of the Course will become apparent in what follows. The first lecture was delivered by Mr. Hancock. His subject was "The Tools Of the Course!' They were, he said: (I) Attention; (2) interest; (3) the proper reception of the ideas that are given to you—that is, the mental reception of those ideas; (4) ability—peculiar to each of you—to sum up at will 'a mental picture of what you have learned; (5) how to apply that knowledge—that is, your own ability to apply that knowledge.
He dealt with his subject from the psychological aspect, with particular attenti9n to the subject of mind training.
Mr. F. Perkins, chairman of the company, in the second lecture of the series, gave an interesting résumé of the history of the concern from its beginning to the present day. His underlying theme was the wisdom of using the lessons of the past as a guide to the future.
Passing from history to the application of its lessons, he stressed the wrong-headedness of people in their adherence to two erroneous ideas: (I) That their salaries are provided by the board of directors, or the shareholders, and (2) that ths engines are bought by manufacturers or distributors.
These people are only postmen, like the Postmaster-General, who pays the interest on Post Office savings accounts. The man who supplies the money to pay everybody's wages is the customer. The customer has the money, and the only object of the company organization is to separate successfully the money from the customer, and to make the operation so pleasant that he is anxious to have it repeated as often as possible.
Mr. D. F. W. McNair, active service manager, lectured during the third period. His subject was "The Application of Power to Industry." Working on the fundamental principle that it is min's laziness which invokes his inventive faculty, he linked the twin functions of manufacture and distribution, neither of which, he pointed out, could exist without the other. Both, moreover, are dependent upon what is called "prime movers," and the Perkins engine is a primemover in both spheres.
Dealing with Technical Aspects
He was followed on the same evening by Mr. G. Guest, vehicle and industrial engine representative. His subject followed, naturally, on that of Mr. McNair's, in that he dealt with the technical aspects of the application of the Perkins oil engine.
Fundamentals, such as the interpre tation of terms, among others, a..
h.t u • , , Kilowatt, formed du principal part of his address.
The Perkins unit, he said, had Ore. types of application, encompassing th. following characteristics: (a) variabl speed and variable load; (b) constan speed and variable load; (c) constan speed and constant load.
He gave examples of these applies floes, and showed how, as a matter c fact, they overlapped, and in .wha manner the engine met the essentik requirements.
The Course, by this time, was ge ting into its stride, and achieviu results. The team spirit was manifes ing itself, and in the discussions whic followed each lecture, the interchanl of views was not only extensive at varied, but the questions put showt a high level of appreciation of ti information given during the lecture
Limitations of space preclude me from continuing to: give brief summaries of each lecture, but the following is a list of the remainder of the subjects covered, and the names of
the speakers who took part:— .
Period 4, " F. Perkins, Ltd.—Its 'Administration," by Mr. L. W. J. Hancock. " Improving the Product; How Best to Utilize the Facilities of the Drawing Office," by Mr. J. Condie (chief draughtsman).
Period 5. "F. Perkins, Ltd.—Its Post-war and ExportMarkets," by Mt, F. Perkins, Capt. A, J. M. Richardson and Mr. L. W. J. Hancock.
Period 6. "The Motor Trade— Legal Aspects," by Mr. H. Scott Hall.
Period 7. " Sales and Service," by Mr. a F. W. McNair.
Period 8. " Electrics—The Electrical Equipment of the Diesel Engine," by Mr. J. Gil.
Period 9. "Aspects of Vehicle, Industrial and' Marine Engines," by Mr. G. Guest.
Period 10. " Sales Promotion," by Mr. L. W. J. Hancock.
Period 11. " Engineering Drawings," by Mr. J. Caliche.
Period 12. "F. Perkins, Ltd.—Its Personnel," by Mr. L. W. J. Hancock. Period 13; "F. Perkins, Ltd.—Its Works," by Mr. V. R. WilkinsonUteri (works director).
Period 14. " The Motor TradeT,conomics," by Mr. H. Scott Hall.
PeriOd 15. Selling the Engine." Period 16. Ways and Means (a) Company Law," by Mr. A. J. )illingham (financial director), and b) "Balance Sheets," by Mr. G. fcReown (secretary).
Period 17. "F. Perkins, Ltd.— ta Sales Organization, As It Is and ,s It Will Be," by Mr. R. C. Allen sales Manager).
Special reference must be made to eHod 15=-Selling the Engine." E will have been ncited that no named fOrr that the reason eing that it ,was not in fact, a lecture `i
all but yet another original and aorthodox methOd. of " putting the igine over " to the whole of the Class, so that every member should have knowledge of the unit to impart to any -interested party. .
A small committee had been formed a. fortnight or so prior to the date of Period 13, A Perkins P6 vehicle engine was completely dismantled. While this was going on, and again when it was being completely. re-assembled, questions referring to the design, construction and performance of any part of the unit, and the engine as a whole, including general, theoretical and. economical aspects of its use and operation, were put by members of the committee. In all, some ,300 or so questions were put and noted; these were then sifted, and the number reduced to 156. Answers were then compiled by this same committee of experts. Finally, the questions and answers were classified, typed and duplicated, each member of the class being given a copy one week ahead of thePeriod, On the actual evening, questions were asked on the schedule and the results entirely justified the considerable trouble taken in its preparatioq.
Period 18—the Monday evening and Tuesday morning sessions—was the examination, and this, in itself, was as original in conception and execution as the Course. .
It was planned and conducted after the manner of a cricket match. A brief summary of the laws of cricket was prepared. The 14 members of the class were divided into two sides, each with its captain. There were -four innings of a maximum of half-an-hour each. The sides bowled (asked questions of the other side) and batted alternately.
Eight principal Periods were selected as subjects for the examination., two to be dealt with in each innings. Each of the bawling side asked two questions per. innings and each batsthan had to' answer two arid .tio more. The skippM of the batting Side, subject to the foregoing limitation,-Was at liberty to choose the man to answer the question put.
The match was keenly fought, and was won by a comparatively narrow margin, the winning sidescoring 77 runs, against the losers 73. Marks were awarded by two judges—Mr. L. W. J. Hancock and Mr. R. G. Allen —and final decisions were given by two umpires—Capt. A. J. M: Richardson and Mr. H. Scott Hall.
The names of the members of the teams, and their activities, are of iuterest indicating; the:way which every department of the works was represented.
The Coursewas a completesuccess; the objective–of ensuring that. every student would be in a position to impart knowledge concerning Perkins products, and to say theright thing at the right time, was, I an confident, effectively achieved. The. team spirit, so essential, was demonstrably. present inthe-attitudeof the students towards one another in the interchange of questions and views.
The .directors weremost pleased. Capt. Richardson gave a dinner to celebrate the conclusion of the Course, to which all those who took part, and several visitors, 'were invited. Mr. F Perkins, in a speech made at the dinner, said its success had surpassed his expectations, and he was
making. One of these speeches, by Mr. P. Scatting, transport and service shop manager, was a real gem., He referred to the fact that Mr. Hancock, in the preliminary lecture on " Tools of the Course," had set as homework the task ofanalysing the word " attention " on the basis of what, where, how and when. After three sleepless nights, he said, it suddenly occurred to him that there was a public library in Peterborough where he might get some help.
Making his way there and entering the library, he told us, he was, after some preliminary inquiries, taken to the librarian, to whom he put his problem. The librarian turned to his assistant and said, "Go upstairs and bring down that book again." This instruction struck Mr. Rotting as' being somewhat unusual, so he asked the librarian how the assistant would know which book to bringdown.
" Oh," said the librarian, that book has been very much in demand during the past week, and, as a matter . of faet; you are lucky' to get it.at all; a Mr. Hancock -has had it out an loan for the past six months." • S.T.R,