Page 41 - The Drucker Lectures

22 [ The Drucker Lectures

YEARS THE OTHER THREE PROBLEM AREAS ARE LIKELY TO BECOME A
good deal more important. They threaten to present greater dif-
lCULTIES AND GREATER DANGERS THAN THE DANGER TO THE SOLVENCY OF
THE ENTERPRISE AND ITS lNANCIAL INTEGRITY IMPORTANT THOUGH THIS
undoubtedly is.
By and large there have been three major approaches to the
task of providing stable and continuous employment in the
5NITED 3TATES !LL THREE FOCUS ON THE RANK AND lLE EMPLOYEE AND
ESPECIALLY ON THE UNIONIZED EMPLOYEE
4HE lRST OF THESE APPROACHES ATTEMPTS TO PROVIDE GREATER STA-
bility in the operations of a company. This can be attempted in
SEVERAL WAYS WHICH VERY OFTEN CAN BE TACKLED CONCURRENTLY /NE
of these—the easiest and most productive wherever it applies—
is to smooth out those internal operations that are largely not
affected by fluctuations in business and consumer demand. One
EXAMPLE WOULD BE THE MAINTENANCE EXPENDITURES OF A RAILROAD
which are primarily dictated by the need to maintain intact and
in good working order the railroad’s business—producing as-
SETS )N FACT IT HAS BEEN SHOWN THAT RAILROAD MAINTENANCE WORK
IS DONE MOST EFlCIENTLY AND MOST CHEAPLY IN TIMES OF SLACK BUSI-
ness. It can be said that any success in smoothing out such inter-
NAL OPERATION IS BENElCIAL ALL AROUND IN ADDITION TO BEING USUALLY
QUITE PROlTABLE FOR THE ENTERPRISE ITSELF
Another approach is to try to smooth out fluctuations in em-
ployment by using internal operations—such as maintenance—
as a counterweight to operations for market and consumer. This
WAS INCIDENTALLY THE LINE TAKEN BY THE EARLIER ATTEMPTS TO PRO-
vide “guaranteed employment” in this country. In the meatpack-
ING lRM OF (ORMEL FOR INSTANCE MAINTENANCE WORK IS DEFERRED
UNTIL THERE ARE SLACK TIMES IN FACTORY EMPLOYMENT AND FACTORY
workers are then used to do maintenance work.
The next line of attack would be one that directly tackles
such predictable short-term fluctuations and tries to maintain