BUSINESS LIFE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 377, 30 April 1910, Page 9

BUSINESS LIFE

TRAINING BUSINESS MEN IN THE SCHOOLROOM. No one will deny the fact that Germans are amongst the keenest business men in the world. And undoubtedly one of the secrets of their success lies in the fact that in German schools they teach boys the practical details of business at a time when English boys are kept busy over theories. The writer recently returned from Hamburg after a year's course of education, and an outline of the system of training boys in business may be interesting. On my first day's attendance I was handed a time-table on which appeared, set out in formidable array, such subjects as commercial correspondence, laws of bills of exchange, currency, political economy, and commercial law, none of which at the time conveyed much to me, and raised serious doubts in my mind as to whether I should be able to understand and appreciate what appeared 10 he most abstruse subjects. At nine a.m. sharp on the following day the course began, prefaced by a couple of hours' hard study, for the Germans are gluttons for work, and think nothing of a twelve-hour day. The first course was called "Business training." We worked in two spacious rooms furnished as offices, each room representing a different business house. These two firms carried on imaginary trade with each other, and the routine adhered to was modelled exactly on the lines of a first-class business establishment.

Each firm had a director, and these two were the most eminent students in the academy. They had subject to their management and control a complete staff of correspondents, shorthand writers, typists, book-keepers, etc. The whole I was supervised by a master, to whom reference was made in case of dispute or difficulty. :'.< On making my appearance I was informed that my services were in request as an office-boy. I was somewhat taken aback, not to say a little humiliated, by the lowly position assigned to me, and I gave the master to understand that 1 considered I was qualified to occupy a much better post than that which he had chosen for me. He did not seem in the least perturbed by my remarks, but said: "You have already made a mistake—a mistake of diplomacy. One of the c;reat maxims of business as taught here is to do what you are told, to do it at once, and to do it well. This is a business house, of which I am the head,

and it is vour business to follow out my orders and to conciliate me to your utmost.''

V\"ith that hu Handed mo a pile of envelopes and a long list of addresses, and told me to set to work addressing them. [ did so, but not with a very good grace, the master coming round from time to time, to inspect my work. For two solid hours I plodded on until 11 a.m., when the course came to an end. Then I took the opportunity of going up to the master again and asking him if he did not really think I had been wasting my time in what I had been doing.

'"Not in the least," said he. "In everything, no matter how simple or how difficult, there is always a good deal to learn. If you have paid attention while you wore working you will have learnt something about the geography of the German Empire, for each address contains the name of some important town and the province in which it is situated, and the name of some firm celebrated for some particular class of goods." This gave me food for reflection. As a matter of fact, I had not paid the least attention to what I had been writing; consequently I had failed to derive the benefit which it was the master's intention I should obtain from wnat .seemed to me at the outset a most senseless task. On the following day I resolved to follow out the master's instructions to the letter, and I was surprised to find how interesting the work became.

I continued addressing envelopes for two hours a day for a whole week, and the next week I received promotion. In this 'way I went through the whole routine, from office boy to director, ana the experience which I obtained in the" various capacities has proved invaluable to me in business.

As director I had to sign cheques, dictate letters, enter into agreements with other firms with reference to the sale and purchase of goods, keep an eye on the money market, work out abitrage calculations, draw up and endorse bills of exchange and bills of lading, make out periodical statements of affairs, allow of dispute amounts placed to the debit of the firm on account of general average losses, and generally supervise everything. While we were thus drilled in practical work, the theoretical side of the business was not neglected. Lectures were given at fixed hours by professors on banking, currency, book-keeping, and mercantile law. Thus we enjoyed the inestimable advantage of acquiring the theory and practice of business at the same time.