Jam Handy Org Talk

[Music] don't tell them show them this business is founded on that General operating idea tonight we are going to take some of our own medicine using our own means of showing our own organization what our own organization is why we have an organization how big it is why it is necessary to have a big organization and to present to the entire organization a picture of the organization itself we have grown to be a National Organization in order to assist in the purposes of our customers who are generally speaking National organizations set up on National line it has been necessary for us to parallel the structure that they have and become National in our setup and scope the business is so diverse in its many applications as well as scattered from a geographic standpoint that it is very difficult to give any of us a real comprehensive view of what the organization is as a whole ours is a very highly Diversified business making as we do everything in the way of visual material for presentations to groups assisting as we do in presentations that consist of speeches delivered orally in the making of charts in the making of slide films in the making of silent motion pictures for Technical and task instruction in the making of talking slide films for the presentation of enthusiastic messages silent slide films for a study by clerks and salesmen and servicemen carrying each project through from its Inception in the determination of the content through the form it is to take through the its production into the visual instrument which is to serve the purpose we have a highly specialized business which takes the workers away from one another and gives them very little opportunity to meet with each other other it's of great importance to this organization that we increase the understanding of the various members of the organization as to the reason why other members are in the organization and the purposes that they serve we are getting a greater and greater unity in this organization but still by improving that Unity from the stand point of mutual understanding of mutual responsibilities Mutual understanding of individual responsibilities we can get a better and better result in behalf of those people for whom our service is designed now that size however has brought us things which we otherwise could not have had because our size is made up of things which are necessary to do the job without these things we cannot perform as we should perform and we cannot discharge our responsibilities on the basis of seeing it through the size has also led to a constantly increasing specialization I suppose that many of us have heard the definition of an expert that's going around now as a man who knows more and more about less and less I certainly find myself in that position as I look around the organization that we are today I realize how fitting that definition is because we consist of men who know more and more about less and less and with that increasing specialization we get a finer and finer Collective job done with a greater and greater economy the large organization has also brought our customers the value of a big divisor it is remarkable what arithmetic will do in the way of economy and in the way of increasing what you can deliver for each dollar that is paid for you when it's applied as a divisor on cost giving as it does every customer and indeed every project the benefit of a lower unit cost on some of the most essential factors in the quality of the job that is done and the effectiveness of the instrument when it's actually used now the ability and the knowhow for special work is the first requirement that the customer has in mind when he comes to us to get a job done but this organization highly specialized as it is has a number of things in common which we feel are much more important than that specialized ability and I refer to those qualities which provide the measuring stick that we put on the men in our organization as we select them and again that we put out on them in determining what is the equitable distribution of the payroll I mean the fact that in this organization we put character before all else if a man have character that is if he have integrity with moral force and he also have intelligence by which we mean the ability to understand and to learn we feel that he can acquire almost anything else we never undertake teaching character and we never undertake trying to put intelligence into a man but if he hav intelligence and he have character then we feel he can acquire the knowhow necessary for the particular job that he is going to perform our business also requires of everybody in it an exceptional willingness to work willingness is a qualification that's demanded in almost any organization but the exactions of this business are so peculiar and the requirements are so extraordinary from the standpoint of turning from one thing to another so extraordinary from the standpoint of originating new ways to do things and originating those methods quickly and our responsibilities are so great when we undertake to assist in putting on a series of national meetings for a national manufacturer that we must look to every man and woman for an extraordinary willingness to do whatever may have to be done this organization also looks to every man for the expression of vigor it's a fast moving business our organization must gear in with with hard-hitting organizations and that calls for Vigor on the part of everybody in our organization and it calls for the Vitality for sustained effort the business also calls on everybody in it for versatility the ability to turn from one job to another with ease and quickly we are an organization of versatile people and regardless of our specialization we do not have anybody in this organization who cannot do more than one thing and do that second thing well when it is required because we must have alterat for every job if we are to be successful without fail in seeing through every vision which is entrusted To Us by our customers that versatility of course leads to resourcefulness the requirements of the business demand resourcefulness expediency resourcefulness the Readiness in developing experience which will get things done with new methods if new methods be required and get them done quickly it calls for a form of initiative which expresses itself in originality the entire organization is characterized by originality the very concept of the organization as a whole is an original concept and it has led us into originating one tool after another to accomplish the purposes which that organization undertakes to accomplish it has led to our development of the various tools which we use it has led to the origination of new types of portable Motion Picture equipment just as it has led to the origination Of Inventions like the explaining machine now familiarly known as a slide film projector and the slide film itself and any number of new applications of the methods in which we specialize and finally this organization has in common among all members a phenomenal loyalty which I have often heard remarked upon by loyalty I mean wholehearted allegiance to an idea for me there is never anything sound or perfect in a loyalty which is a loyalty to an individual loyalty to an individual is only a good thing when it is loyalty to principles which that individual expresses loyalty to ideas or ideals which that personality May reflect and it is the great privilege of the various members in this organization to find loyalty reflected to them from all directions we are loyal to our customers and our customers are loyal to us we do not undertake anything which will conflict with the accomplishment of the purposes of our regular customers we sometimes may make pictures for concerns which compete with each other just as a young fell may call on uh two or three girls before he gets engaged but once are engaged we deliver a wholehearted 100% loyalty in the highest sense of obligation and that loyalty expresses itself most importantly to our customers in the financial loyalty which we give them that Financial loyalty in business is a rather un ual thing and by Financial loyalty I mean putting the customers financial interest ahead of our own devoting all of our resources all of our facilities all of those qualities which are expressed in the organization all our highly specialized skill to give the customer all that it is possible to give to him for his dollar and still make a reasonable profit such Financial loyalty is hard to get we operate in a business where the purchaser has no control over how much is spent for his picture he can control absolutely how much he pays for his picture nobody can have anything final and definite to say about that except the customer but he has no control whatsoever as to how much of what he pays is spent for what he gets and very little control over how well it is spent and so this financial loyalty places upon us the obligation of giving him the benefit of what we know know that he does not know from the standpoint of professional operation in the making of the pictures as well as from the standpoint of spending the maximum proportion of the amount he pays to get the final result for which he has appropriated we have men who can put dialogue into convincing conversation that sounds real there are other talents in that department one man whose particular for is writing a running enthusiastic comment in voice over treatment March a Time or news weekly style and I could go on through the department specifying other talents but that is sufficient to give you the idea and if you could see that department work and if you could know how a scenario changes form as it goes from one man to another as it might down the assembly line of a modern production plant each man making his contribution to the script each man building it up in one way or another according to a special talent and see how a script can develop and gain Vigor gain color gain strength and vividness and entertainment value as it goes along as a result of that Cooperative method you would appreciate what the value which it delivers to our customers now I should like to present to you some of these experts who are here with us tonight whom you seldom have an opportunity to see we have with us at our speakers table certain men who are here from out of town we have others who have assumed new responsibilities and we have some others whom you have had no opportunity to meet because your work has taken you so far from theirs or vice versa and I should like to introduce some of these men and as I go along give you a word or two about some of the older members of the organization with whom you may not be entirely acquainted over on the right is Mr Christensen [Applause] Mr Christensen has been with this organization of and on for about 18 years he went away for a while and when he came back he brought a number of things that were of Great Value to us he worked as a cutter for David Griffin and learned a great deal which which has been of value to all of us in that work and other film editing work he did in the period in which he was engaged with the universal film company he also worked as the manager of a used car Department a great place to get practical business understanding and a knowledge of sales method a very tough job and a very educational next to Mr Christensen sits Bill [Applause] noes Bill noes has been in the organization a good many years he now heads a new Department which we call our Mass selling Department direct Mass selling which we are using to Short Circuit the sales and take away from him that part of the job which can be done most economically and most effectively by Machine methods It's a Wonderful development and I could tell you A lot of it it is a successful development and I could tell you a very interesting story of the success that we are having with it but at this time I merely want to tell you that it is an important and fast developing operation in our business which has opened new opportunities for service next to Bill nolles sits Bradford AJ Bradford carries a tremendous responsibility he heads up our projection Department in the field he has a large Department it consists of between 60 and 70 operators permanently on his payroll in addition to others who operate with us from time to time some 30 odd Advanced men nine technical supervisors who are responsible for the condition of our equipment in the field and responsible for the condition of our customers equipment in the field that is responsible for the condition and effectiveness of reproducing equipment projectors he's doing a splendid job and this organization is indebted to him for the fine way in which he is carrying off one of our greatest and most difficult responsibilities next to Mr Bradford is always [Applause] Pearson Ford Pearson is the head of our slide film department during the last year or two in which our expansion has been most largely in the motion picture department and during which the management has been confronted with many problems of organization and training Pearson has carried with with remarkably little attention from the rest of us the responsibility of keeping in good operating fedal one of the most important Departments of our business the department of the business which makes reading slide films and talking slide films next to Mr Pearson sits Mr Calhoun [Applause] Tom Calhoun heads our New York operation and back of that New York organization is the full strength of Our National Organization which is drawn upon for fast economical highly Specialized Service of whatever kind may be required there next I want to introduce Mr strickler [Applause] John strickler has done a splendid job in consolidating the nine departments which we had scattered in various points growing up as they did one at a time they have developed to the point where it became a problem to keep them coordinated when separate I know you all appreciate the fine job that has been done by Mr strickler in equipping our new building which is to house our laboratory our animated cartoon Department our animated technical drawings Department as well as the slide film department uh or slide film stage and the creative Department in that building and an Annex is also our projection Department our Central Technical service which is maintained for the purpose of conditioning reconditioning inspecting and servicing projection equipment of our customers as well as our own equipment which we rent to them from time to time next Mr Barnes [Applause] Rocky Barnes is a remarkably versatile individual the time has come when it probably can no longer be said of him that he can do everything that is done in this organization but when you consider that Rocky Barnes is an animator is a scenario writer is an artist can operate a camera is a film editor can cut film and to do a number of other things you'll appreciate that he surely is a jack of all trade but he has become a little at a time the outstanding master of one and I have never heard anyone question the fact that Rocky Barnes does a finer job with his Department in the field of realistic technical animation than is ever done elsewhere by any anybody no one has ever contradicted that so far as I know next is olly horn who coordinates all these diverse departments I never have envied him his job I have always kept as far from it as he would let me stay but as my executive assistant he has done a wonderful job of coordinating and harmonizing and wherever a new Department starts or wherever Department gets into trouble there is olly getting things done and getting them done on time at the other end of the table is Frank Herman Frank Herman assists Mr horn in coordinating our sales section with our contact Department our creative department and with any other department that needs a little extra coordinat he's doing a fine job and if it weren't that sales is the thing to which we P Le attention in our business making it last on the priority list for attention you would have a large number of salesmen here giving a big hand to Frank Herman for the help that he is to as it is our salesmen are very few and in the minority but they've always been shoemakers children we've always been so busy helping our customer organization train their sales helping them that we have unable to give our own men the assistance that they really are entitled to next Mr Kenny Mr Kenny is our Treasurer and has the tough job of keeping a quality organization economical all of us try to cooperate with him but the responsibility is primarily his next Craig Davidson Craig Davidson represents us at Cincinnati contacting the Kroger company contacting Proctor and Gamble and also Brown and Williams to express Craig Davidson briefly from a working standpoint I have to resort to the vernacular he knows his onion he spent many years making a study of grocery retail he is primarily interested in improving what happens at the point of purchase in a grocery store now this organization until we entered so largely into group selling was concerned almost exclusively with improving what happens at the point of purchase what happens when a Salesman or clerk in the Dealer's place of business or outside contact with a prospective customer most of our work in the early years was done with special selling organization but the economic Effectiveness the economy of our methods is now making its way into other lines of retailing and we look for a great advance in that regard as soon as large manufacturers come to the appreciation come to appreciate that it really is possible to control the delivery of information and instruction the KN how that one man gains in one store to all the men in all the other stores where his product is retailed without evaporation or without law next meded long Ned Long Heads our creative Department he's a bone specialist he has a remarkable ability to pick up a subject at the Viewpoint of the man who knows least about it and carry it over to the Viewpoint of the man who knows most or putting it the other way around picking up a subject at the point of the man who knows most about it and carrying it through to the point of the man who knows least about it keeping the bones of a script the concept of a picture in such form that it will stand up and carry the dress of entertainment that we put on it as well as the freight that we pack on its back next Mr EG H heads our Chicago operation he has a good organization in Chicago and Chicago is the place where we started in business and it is the place which has always given us our best patronage accepting so far as the automobile business is concerned in recent years tune is set up to do a fine job but one of the best things about him is that he knows how to draw on the organization as a whole for the help that the organization as a whole can give it and to use that help economically to accomplish the purposes of our clients next John fre [Applause] John freze is our supervising director and his outstanding Talent is his ability to keep things running smoothly in the department in which Nothing by Nature seems to be smooth tonight we have here on this stage a of our Detroit Studios all of the working members of our organization who are here in the city naturally since we operate on a basis of seeing through whatever we undertake in the customers's behalf it has not been possible to let any man leave work that he has in hand that is important or encourage him to be with us when he knows that he should be somewhere else doing a job for our customers our organization is producing on a national basis as well as delivering Mass Impressions on a national basis wherever our customers requirements make it necessary because of that we have in the Field tonight 64 projection Crews reproducing pictures that we have made those 64 crews are scattered over all parts of the United States they are working in all of the principal cities tonight while we are at this meeting they are showing pictures which we have made to to somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000 people they are seeing those pictures through to the delivery point in pursuance of our operating principle of seeing everything through and never leaving the customer with a picture in his hand without going far enough to assist him in every manner in which he will permit us to assist him to safeguard the delivery of the ideas information or instruction the impression which those pictures are made to deliver we also have out in the field 31 Advanced men who are working to build up attendance for the shows that will be held in the next few days professional advanc men skilled in the technique of getting people to see the pictures we have made to have a successful use of pictures it's not sufficient merely to make pictures that will carry the freight of the information or instruction entrusted to them not merely sufficient to make those pictures interesting to the people who will see them it's also necessary to get people to see them either by taking them to audiences which are brought together by others for the purpose already organized or by doing such advanced work so these Advanced men must stay out and on the job we have in the field at Five Points production crew who are producing pictures we have at this time as usual some uh 12 14 or 16 Motion Picture Productions those Productions are broken down according to the requirements of location light and of the topography required for the particular purpose for which they're designed so tonight we have production Crews at Hollywood at Los Angeles at Miami in Atlanta and I believe at one other point that does not come to my mind producing pictures each of these Crews consists of director uh assistant director and cameraman I should like very much if those men could be with you tonight I should like you to see them I should like to introduce them to you but they must be on the job the same situation that exists on a national basis with regard to production and projection exists in another form here in Detroit and in New York and in Chicago as a result of our departmentation I find for example that tonight here at the speaker's table that we have men who have never been introduced to each other we have men who are members of our organization cooperating in our customers behalf who are unacquainted personally in addition to being unacquainted as to their particular duties tonight I want to call to your attention just one or two examples of that specialization in a business which is highly specialized you can't specify all of them even though you do want every member of the organization to know just what they are but we have made important progress in that field along certain lines which have not come to the attention of all of you recently and we have a constantly Sharper Edge and a finer ability in the specialization of some of the members of our organization who have been with us longer sitting right down here under me for instance is Bill Walsh Bill Walsh for about 14 years has been devoting himself to the specialty of making pictures for task instruction and for the instruction of servicemen and mechanics it began with the work that we started doing for the United States Navy training gobs on the intricacies of some of the complicated Machinery that they had it developed into work that we did for specialty selling organizations instructing servicemen in construction and care and repair of mechanical devices and Walsh year after year has become more and more capable in making complicated things simple applying the visual methods of the animated drawing the slide film and of regular photography to making such things clear on the other end we have recently developed a more and more specialized treatment among our directors there was a time when we like our followers might use one director for all sorts of job and in an organization composed as it is of versatile men that was a practical and a feasible way to work however specializing our directors as we are beginning to do now we are getting a better and better production by breaking down a job and giving one sequence to a man who is particularly good in making actors behave like human beings by which we mean like dealers and salesmen and Men whom people are accustomed to seeing in the operations of the type we make pictures for other sequences require other technique some of them require the talent of a Chase and action specialist and recently we brought into the organization a man who has made a special of Chase and action sequences in Hollywood we have men who direct most expertly dialogue we have other men who are most effective in going into a factory and directing Factory sequences skilled in getting into the factor and getting out with the least possible annoyance to the people in the factory the least possible interference with the work just so in the case of our cameramen we have one cameraman whom we feel excels any other cameraman in the organization from the standpoint of making beautiful pictures out of the dust and the Grays and the grease that you find in the ordinary Factory a technique in itself and again we have another man whose particular Talent is working on the studio floor with the facilities that a studio offers I could carry that through our entire camera staff and although they're all versatile men and each of them is fast teaching the other something of his special knowledge and they're largely interchangeable nonetheless we get a finer job from that technical standpoint by specializing them in so far as possible we have a similar specialization in our new creative Department I say new creative Department because three or four years ago our creative Department consisted of three or four brilliant fellows who had ideas could make them into scenarios who were quick at understanding what the customer had in mind who were meticulous in in gathering their facts and verifying their accuracy and had some talent for expressing them but today we have a new creative Department which consists of some 21 Men of whom we consider one a bone specialist who works particularly on the structure of every writing job that comes out of the department in the way of specifications we have three or four men whose ability is particularly that of reporters to gather facts we have other men who are talented from the standpoint of taking technical information and simplifying it making it intelligible to other people the de Greers we call [Music] now I want to make on behalf of all of us an acknowledgement of obligation which I feel we must make I want to make an acknowledgement of an obligation which this organization has to men who are not here with us who are not actually members of the organization but who have made important contributions to this organization and the spirit which it expresses you will see up on the wall to the right the portraits of six men who have contributed largely to this organization in ways that some of us do not realize these men have by their precepts and by the reflection of their ideas a great influence Upon Our operation the first of these men is John Wanamaker to John W maker we owe the fundamental idea of giving the customer all that it is possible to give by the use of the facilities at your disposal John Wanamaker was the Pioneer in selling everything to everybody on a one price basis he put his price cards on the table and changed retail business by his example and Leadership from a business in which every customer paid according the same price that everybody else paid instead of paying in proportion to his bargaining ability next George m Pullman George m Pullman was the first man in this country to set up on a national basis the idea of giving everybody something better for just a little more money it was my fortune as a small boy to hear these men tell of their early experiences of the difficulties they had in putting across their Vision in carrying their new ideas into operation under circumstances in which their ideas were entirely new and unrecognized their success has always been an inspiration to me and I have reflected it to many members of the organization and from the next man Andrew carnegi we have learned the idea of putting all our eggs in one basket and watching the basket that was Carnegie's Maxim and that governing idea the and the inspiration in that idea has helped to hold us to our policy of taking on no more than we could do well and resisting all the many temptations that there are to get off on the innumerable bypasss which open up from our business next I want to introduce to you madil mccor personally I have a great obligation to medil McCormick and I feel that this organization reflecting as it does some of madil McCormick's ideas has a great obligation to madil McCormick of which it should know