Managing a Business in War Time; PT. III. Ways for American Business to Meet War-Time Conditions. PT. IV. Some Problems to Think about After We've Won the War (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1918 Excerpt: ...as of inviting a labor member. John Hodge Great Britain's Minister for Labor CHAPTER XXIX FINANCING DURING THE WAR By Johnson Heywood of the Editorial Staff of Factory, the Magazine of Management Many business men have heretofore looked upon finance as a function apart from their business, as something that had to do with Wall Street, safety deposit vaults, and bronze grills. They felt that as long as they made a good product, or were wise traders, they would be independent of finance. But the war has brought new conditions, sudden demands for ready cash to meet war taxes, and so on. These demands mean that basic financial principles must be considered closely. What these fundamentals are, and how they affect the business man, is indicated in this chapter.. A GREAT many people who did not think they were living extravagantly are learning, under the pressure of war-time conditions, what thrift really is. Many of them will retain their new habits of careful living when peace comes and prices start down again. In the same way business men today admit that conditions have forced them to learn and to use better methods or go to the wall. A grocer tells me that he pays one clerk $22 and another $30 a week, nearly double what he paid three or four years ago. ' In the face of costs that have risen all along the line, ' he said, "my customers have stopped buying the most profitable goods. They have cut out the non-essentials, what we call 'fancies, ' and now confine their purchases to the plain, staple foods that carry a small margin of profit for me. "And yet," he continued, "my profits from the business as a whole are as good as ever. I've had to learn to conduct my business better; to "finance" it, I call it. In other words, I manage i...