SOMETHING EVERYBODY WANTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 October 1927, Page 4

SOMETHING EVERYBODY WANTS.

If a title can sell a hook, Air Herbert X. Caisson's ‘‘How to Alake Afore Net Profit” ought to he n “best seller,” for who does not wish to make more profit? Air Hassons strides into the business world and lays about him vigorously and fearlessly. So many businesses, he says, are mismanaged. They ought to make more net profit, •but they don’t. The Socialist is fond of denouncing flic capitalist because he makes too much profit; lie forgets t:i take into account that wicked person’s losses. Air Cassons retorts that the trouble with the average capitalist is that lie is so incompetent or lazy or ignorant that lie makes much less profit than lie and society need. Listen to this: “If one man had owned all the grocery shops in Britain last year, or all the fish shops, or all the fruiterers, lie would probably find himsell a bankrupt. He would not have made any net profit at all. “If one man owned all the gold mines in the world, he would he mined. It casts 23s for every 20s in gold that we dig. A few get profits, hut the majority get losses. “A few people in a trade make very large profits, hy skill and efficiency; and these big profits hold the whole trade up. “There is one small shop not far from my house, and in the hist eleven years there have been live failures in it.”Tho hook is written in this staccato and explosive style. It may annoy, hut it should make the business man think. Air Casson has a poor opinion of the average business man. He will not allow him to put all the blame on the " worker.” His profound conviction after having investigated seventyfour British establishments is that “ca’ canny ’’ among workers is not nearly ‘so serious a.s “ ca.’ canny ” among directors and managers. Firms are

“ putting tbe problem up to llie workers ” instead of up to tbe managers. He distinguishes between system and efficiency : “ Nearly every big firm, and many ol the small ones, have too much system and too little efficiency'. Tbe Telegraph Department lias system—it is all system. Yet it lias lost money steadily for forty years.” In business, says Mr C'nsson, the main thing is vitality. “It is better to lose business and to lose money and to lose everything else than to 1 se vitality.” In a period of depression what every company needs is not less vitality, but more. “ If a retailer wants to reduce costs, lie should not move to a back street, sack bis most costly sales people and stop advertising. No. He should, very likely, move to a better street, employ more skilled sales people and spend twice as much, on advertising.” There is cheapness here mixed with sound sense. Mr Cassou should not be so silly as to say that “wait and see” was a slogan of Mr Asquith’s. It wasn’t a “ slogan ” or anything like

it.* 1 1 was used only once, and was seized on by the Press to discredit him. There are times when “ wait and see ” is the soundest advice. Nevertheless, there are enough salutary shocks in this book to make it worth while for many a business man to read it.