Well, why? He calmed down a bit, seized a sheet of paper and mapped out his problem.
This is what he wrote:
1. Salesmen's letters are to save salesmen's time and to give prompt service to customers.
2. I don't begrudge half a day's time of a $20-a-day salesman to call on a customer. Then it's still profitable to waste half of the time of a $4-a-day stenographer in order to save a long trip for a salesman, or to get a quick answer to a question.
3. What we need is enough typists to transcribe every letter of every salesman promptly, even if part of them have to be idle half the day.
The increased use of sales letters, the greater freedom salesmen feel in their dictation, the number of selling details now promptly handled by mail without an expensive call—all are directly traceable to the manager's ANALYSIS which he made by using the final objective as a starting point.
He's a convert to the pencil and paper method. Sales problems are part of his daily exercise. He goes to the bottom of them instinctively. But any problems that arise concerning office work, he settles only after analyzing from front to back—on paper.
His method of charting his ANALYSIS differs in appearance from the chart on [page 31], but it is identical in PRINCIPLE AND EFFECT. It works from final objective BACKWARD.
One more application of the same KNACK OF ANALYSIS—and we are done. It is that of an Ohio manufacturer who recently put up a new building.
Plans prepared by the architect called for four stories and a basement. When it came time to discuss arrangement of space, it was found that one department would have to go in the basement. There were objections from all sides.