The present executives are extremely fortunate in that they had an opportunity to develop themselves at the same time that their jobs grew bigger. What are we going to do ten years hence, when executives who have had such thorough training have all retired or have been killed off by the strain of the job? Where shall we find men with broad enough knowledge and experience to decide, instantly and correctly, each problem placed before them?
The answer is that the executive of the future will be forced to depend on the analysis of facts which have been collected and arranged for his instantaneous and continuous use. The executive of the future will decide quickly, and he will be more than "sometimes" right, because he will base his decisions on the analysis of actual facts. His value as an executive will depend chiefly upon his powers of accurate analysis.
Corporation directors are changing rapidly these days. Suppose a new director were to come into your corporation, what could you show him of the history and present standing of your business that would permit him to give an intelligent director's vote within a year of his election to the board?
It is perfectly feasible to focus a whole business into records so simple that a trained man could see, in half a day, all the important tendencies well enough to give an intelligent director's vote. This, too, without a spoken word of explanation from anyone. The records themselves could tell the complete story in every detail if placed in proper graphic form. It is the purpose of this chapter to show how such a thing may be done.
Fig. 217 shows a standard 4-by-6-inch filing case used to file curve cards and information cards. The right-hand drawer shows the 4-by-6-inch cards filed with appropriate guide cards. In this particular case, the guides give the names of branch houses by cities. The left-hand drawer shows the 4-by-12-inch cards filed according to the location of factories. As factory payrolls must be watched closely, weekly records of the payrolls were kept for this corporation, though monthly curves were found to be sufficient for the sales. There is no difficulty in filing the 4-by-12-inch cards in a standard 4-by-6-inch filing cabinet. The follow-up block in the drawer is placed 12 inches from the end of the drawer, then the cards are filed lengthwise with a sufficient quantity of blank cards at the back to keep all the cards in an upright position. Of course a special filing cabinet 12 inches wide can be made if desired,
