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Understanding The "Beatrice Way"
Let's look at this difference
-- Our senior and corporate executives have no
special privileges.
-- They work as many hours as other manage-
ment people in the company.
-- An open door policy applies at all levels of
management. Any employee has the oppor-
tunity for direct communication with executive
officers and others on down the line.
-- In keeping with the open door policy, we
listen to everybody concerned in a situation.
We don't make shoot-from-the-hip decisions.
After we have listened and done our research,
then we try to make the right decisions and
move quickly on them.
-- We stress management productivity. We ask
how do our managers spend their time? Too
much time in needless meetings? Too much
time on insignificant projects? Do our people
-- individually -- have a built-in routine or
checking system to assure that we are working
on the important tasks?
-- We ask: Do we begin the day with a plan,
starting with the most difficult and productive
work, or do we take on the endless detail of
the job and find ourselves with no time left for
making any headway on the innovative work
or work we subconsciously view as "extra"?
Often, it's this extra work that has the true re-
wards in value to Beatrice and, consequently,
in the individual's satisfaction in a job well
done.
-- We ask our people to watch company expend-
itures as they do their own.
-- We never accept anything as gospel, but con-
tinually re-examine assumptions since every
thing changes.
-- We avoid "pie in the sky" or over-elaborate
planning. We develop plans for sales, earn-
ings and cash needs for one year, two years,
three years -- yes, even five years out. We
keep plans simple and on target with the real
job, and avoid planning for appearance's
-- The phrase "think big, think small" applies to
all functional areas of work at Beatrice.
"Think big" means that all management people
must have broad overall plans and objectives.
But they should not set themselves up
as super executives who consider detail too
mundane to follow.
"Think small" means keeping a balance between
detail and broader management aspects
without becoming detail-oriented.
Decentralization, a word common to many cor-
porations, is more than a word at Beatrice.
It's 14 divisions, 54 groups and 400 profit centers.
It's management productivity -- or the work ethic.
It's aggressiveness in pursuing profits.
It's giving away enough of your job to subordinates
to enable them to share in the "fun" of work.
It's maintaining a climate that encourages people
to work to their fullest capacity without undue
interference and it's continually guarding against
inroads that threaten this keystone of Beatrice's
success.
Decentralization is permitting the profit center
manager to be the "president" of his "company."
Of allowing him to make all operating decisions
other than how the profits will be spent. He develops
his own successor. He decides what products
to produce, how they should be merchandised,
how they should be marketed and how they should
be priced. The result is that we have 400 managers
who are equipped through operating experience to
"run" a company rather than just carry out directives
from a higher authority.
Finally, the most critical and characteristic
attribute of the Beatrice Way:
Maintain an atmosphere that
allows -- in fact,
encourages -- individuals to
commit themselves to
job responsibility.
Two words we use constantly.
First, balance. Maintain
balance in your own life,
your job, your product mix and
the people in your
organization.
Second, responsibility.
At Beatrice, everyone
has the responsibility to do his
own job. This
climate is not an accident.
Top management continually
evaluates how its
Actions and those of the
corporate office affect the
company. Each of us makes
critical self-evaluations
of how our actions or lack
of actions affect
the attitudes of the people on
our teams.
A critical area of
responsibility shared by each
Beatrice manager is the bottom
line -- profit. In
being responsible for keeping
the balance between
people and expenditures, he
watches cash flow to
insure his operation justifies
capital expenditures.
He also takes responsibility for
improved dollar
sales and dollar units of
productivity per employee.
Social responsibility in the
communities in
which we operate is a long-term
Beatrice tradition.
Managers and other employees are
urged to help
build stronger and better
communities. We must, if
we are to survive in business,
take on more social
responsibilities -- not
to the detriment of the company,
but in order to perpetuate
the communities
in which Beatrice markets its
products.
We must face up to the
responsibility for our free
market system. We must increase
our efforts to
convince people that American
business is critical
to the nation's growth. him in
the Beatrice Way.
My intention has been to try to
outline what I see
as the "secrets" of Beatrice.
Call it what you want:
A Beatrice tradition or
philosophy, or just good
management. It's something
special, something
we don't want to lose and
something I hope each
and every one of our management
people strives to
pass on and fights to prevent
losing.
It's the Beatrice difference.
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