Page 39 - The Drucker Lectures

20 [ The Drucker Lectures

in manufacturing and in distribution. The trend toward the
HIGHLY CAPITALIZED PLANT OR STORE SHARPLY LIMITS THE ADAPT-
ability of productive facilities to short-term fluctuations in
DEMAND 3PECIlCALLY A LARGER AND LARGER PART OF THE WORK-
FORCEˆWHETHER RANK AND lLE OR MANAGERIAL TECHNICAL OR
professional—has to be kept on regardless of the volume of
PRODUCTION AS LONG AS THE FACILITY ITSELF IS BEING OPERATED AT
ALL ,ABOR COSTS IN OTHER WORDS ARE RAPIDLY MOVING FROM THE
CATEGORY OF hVARIABLEv TO THAT OF hlXED v
s &INALLYˆAND IN THE LONG RUN PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT ELE-
ment in this situation—business increasingly employs people
WHO ARE HIGHLY TRAINED AND WHO DO TECHNICAL PROFESSIONAL AND
managerial work. Rapidly the workforce is shifting from be-
ING COMPOSED PRIMARILY OF MANUAL WORKERS WHETHER SKILLED
OR UNSKILLED TO BEING LARGELY COMPOSED OF PEOPLE WHO WORK
by knowledge. This workforce represents increasingly years of
training and development within the enterprise itself. It in-
creasingly brings to bear on its work what is often literally ir-
REPLACEABLE KNOWLEDGE EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS 4HE INVESTMENT
in the training and development of these men—though hid-
den by our traditional accounting concepts—is often higher
than the capital in machines and tools invested per man. The
ENTERPRISE CANNOT EASILY ACCEPT THE DISPERSION OF THIS ITS MAJOR
CAPITAL RESOURCE /N THE CONTRARY IT MUST INCREASINGLY TRY TO
maintain this capital resource together and in its own employ-
MENT &OR ONCE LAID OFF THESE PEOPLE MAY NEVER COME BACK

)N CONCLUSION IT MIGHT BE SAID THAT WHERE TODAY THE DRIVE FOR
continuous and stable employment seems primarily to be pro-
PELLED BY SOCIAL PRESSURES AND CARRIED BY ORGANIZED LABOR UNIONS
tomorrow—and this tomorrow in a highly developed country
like the United States may only be 10 years off—the pressure for
continuous and stable employment will increasingly come from