"Hold on, now, let's get this thing straight. You're valuable to the company because of your long experience and good judgment on credits. When you have all the dope on a man, I'll bet my last dollar on your decision. The only mistakes you ever make are when you hurry your decisions.
"But—and here's the point—you aren't any better at digging out the facts than either of your two assistants. Yet here's what you do. You divide salesmen's requests for credit rulings into two groups. You take those that run over $500; your assistants get the others. Each of you does his own investigating and digging—and except in puzzling cases, you practically let your two men make their own decisions.
"Why, listen. You, the best man we have on decisions, spend more than half your time digging, while your assistants spend much of their time making decisions. What's the result? Delay, the department in a jam, some decisions made in a hurry, some by your assistants.
"The trouble with you is, you haven't organized your department right." And the treasurer sketched the diagram reproduced in the upper chart on [page 105].
"Why, man, your job is to keep all bad credits off the books—not just the big ones. A bad risk—whether it's $5 or $5000—is a mistake. You're an expert credit man—but as a MANAGER, you're a WASHOUT.
"This," he added, "is the way you ought to set up your department. Then you, the best man on decisions, will do all the deciding. Your two assistants, who are just as good as you are at digging, will spend all their time getting you the facts." And as he spoke he sketched in the lower chart.
The credit man had erred in the other direction from the two retail merchants. He wasn't doing enough managing. He was keeping too much work for himself. And he was deputizing the wrong kind of work.
The merchants were deputizing work they should have done themselves—the general supervision of stocks, advertising and sales did not require their undivided attention—and the volume and profits of the business wouldn't stand so much unproductive expense.
Our credit man, on the other hand, was doing work which others could very well do for him—the time he spent on such work should have been devoted to other and more important responsibilities.