And when Austin and Black went to the bank one day to get an extension of credit, the shrewd old retired farmer on the other side of the desk laid down the law.
They got the extension—but only on certain conditions.
The chief condition was that they do LESS MANAGING and MORE MERCHANDISING.
And that's what they are doing today.
There were two managers who organized their work, increased their profits. Up to a certain point, every time they deputized their work, it was an advantage, because it left them more time for better merchandising.
But they weren't ORGANIZING according to our TWO FUNDAMENTALS. Literally, they were deputizing all the work that others could do—and not confining the work deputized to work they themselves could do only at the expense of something more important.
How well the chart tells the story! The great big white piece of pie marked "IDLE" shows exactly where Austin and Black went wrong. The worst thing that ever happened to them was the day they went home from Chicago and tried to run their business the way they thought Mr. James W. Simpson runs his large retail emporium.
Somewhere along the line they tripped over the point of vanishing returns and kept right on going.
And thus we come to the Scylla and Charybdis of our job of ORGANIZING. Remember we are not interested in the mere knack of getting someone else to take over every last responsibility that can be borne by another. Perhaps that may be good management for a Schwab—in so far, at least, as it leaves his mind free for the exercise of the broad judgment we mentioned a while ago. Nor are we interested in the sheer industry and application involved in doing without assistance everything that can possibly be so done, although doing it may be equally good management for, say, a file clerk. Rather is our interest in the KNACK OF SENSING THE DIVIDING LINE between WORK to PERFORM and WORK to DEPUTIZE. It is that ability which is the mark of the successful manager.