Page 42 - The Drucker Lectures

The Problems of Maintaining Continuous and Full Employment [ 23

production regardless of such fluctuations and in anticipation of
A STABLE hCYCLE v 4HIS IS PROBABLY FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE
INDIVIDUAL ENTERPRISE A MORE PROMISING LINE OF ATTACK THAN THE
shift of production workers to maintenance workers to mainte-
nance work and back again.
!NOTHER LINE OF ATTACK UNDER THE SAME HEADING OF SMOOTH-
ING OUT INTERNAL OPERATIONS IS TO SMOOTH OUT mUCTUATIONS IN THE
economy caused by unnecessarily fluctuating demand of the
company itself. While this does nothing to smooth out fluctua-
TIONS IN DEMAND IN THE ENTERPRISE ITSELF IT CONTRIBUTES TO THE STA-
BILITY OF EMPLOYMENT THROUGHOUT THE ECONOMY )N FACT THERE IS
little doubt that the remarkable stability of employment in the
!MERICAN ECONOMY DURING THE LAST FEW YEARS IS TO A LARGE EXTENT
the result of the adoption of long-range planning for capital ex-
penditures on the part of more and more businesses.
&INALLY A COMPANY CAN ATTEMPT TO CREATE CONDITIONS OF STABIL-
ITY IN ITS OWN MARKET BY PLANNING AND DEVELOPING THE MARKET BY
ANTICIPATING AND PREDICTING IT AND BY CREATING ORGANIZED SYSTEM-
atic innovation and a pricing policy that will encourage continu-
ous demand on the part of its own customers. This presupposes
an expanding economy. It involves entrepreneurial risk taking.
)T MUST BE BASED ON THE APPLICATION OF SYSTEMATIC AND SCIENTIlC
METHODS OF MANAGEMENT !ND lNALLY IT PRESUPPOSES CREATIVE
IMAGINATIVE AND AGGRESSIVE MARKETING
There is the danger with this last approach that results will
be sought through methods that restrict the market and create
MONOPOLISTIC AND ARTIlCIAL LIMITATIONS IN IT )T MUST THEREFORE BE
stressed that under conditions of modern technology such an at-
TEMPT TO GET THE BENElTS OF MARKET STABILITY WITHOUT THE RISKS OF
competitive and aggressive market creation simply will not work.
The second basic approach to this task of providing stable and
continuous employment in the United States is through guaran-
teeing to individuals a preference—right in their jobs. In a great