Six to eight months ago, when Ernie Miller first talked to me about meeting with you this afternoon, he mentioned that the Management and General Interest Committee was concerned with the problems of organization. As a result of these discussions and my substantial interest in the subject, I found myself agreeing to be here today. Little did I think that simple conversation with Ernie would cause so much introspection on my part.
I determined early in the game that just another talk or discussion on the principles of organization would be redundant to most of you and not very helpful in this complex world in which we live. Accordingly, I took the license of retitling my discussion today, "Making the Organization Plan Work", and it is to this portion of the topic that I would like to address myself.
Let me draw a picture for you that indicates why I feel it is important that we consider this aspect of the organizational problem.
Recently, a large transportation company with which I am familiar attracted substantial headlines in that, for the first time in several years, it recorded an attractive operating profit. Indeed, it went to its customers and proposed a rate reduction. This is something almost unheard of in this day of rising prices. And yet, this is a company that for the last 10 or so years has seen an increasingly difficult operating circumstance accompanied by unattractive return on its substantial investment.
What is the secret ingredient of this success? The turning point here is in the personality of the new chief executive. This chief executive, with a small corps of devoted subordinates, literally single-handedly turned this large organization around. True, there was a sense of crisis, but the important thing here was that there was felt a sense of desire, a real motivation.
