Top-Management Organization and Control [antikvár]

FOREWORD By Ralph K. Davies Consulting Professor, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, and Vice-President and Director, Standard Oil Company of California American industry is today, in many ways, facing the most critical period in all of its history. The competitive system of free enterprise is under severe attack. Abroad it has already suffered defeat in many lands, submerged by the force of totalitarian principles of economics. At home its right to survive is challenged by rapidly changing conditions and new economic and political forces. What the future holds none can foretell, but certain it is that the character of American industrial life for generations will be determined in large measure by its ability to withstand the pressures of today. In the industrial field, large-scale organization especially is now put to the test. How well prepared it is to meet the great strain of the times remains to be seen. Whether the successes of the past have undermined its vigor and efficiency and left it unfit for the contest, or whether it is possessed of sufficient competence to meet the challenge of the times with further successes, must be made clear in the relatively near future. While confident as to the outcome, farsighted leadership in industry today does not minimize the seriousness of the difficulties ahead. This survey of corporate organization and practice prepared by the Graduate School of Business of Stanford University represents a most timely contribution. The material here presented, making available to industry the best thought and experience of a representative group of the large corporations throughout the United States, is a decidedly significant work. It will answer an obvious need for enlightened and dependable information as a basis for objective planning of management, free from personal influences and traditional habits of thought. To those who are actively concerned with the problem of the organization of management, this book will be of inestimable value. Beyond this let us hope it may prove generally stimulating