Adding value for incomes and profits

Abstract

Most businessmen and managers are now aware that ‘things are not what they used to be’ and they never will be the same again. The reasons for this are many and cover rapid technological development, increased education and training, a greater social awareness, pollution of the environment, growth of markets, increasing standards of living, increased competition for the world's natural resources, inflation on international basis and Government involvement in increasing areas of our individual way of life. The latest developments are to be seen in; • the need for two of the world's industrial nations to have Economic Stabilisation Programmes or Prices and Incomes Policy, both to counter inflation • the fact that the United Kingdom has joined the EEC and is thus part of the large market created • leading businessmen and managers are becoming more aware of the need for new social contracts to cover customers, shareholders and employees • the negotiating power of certain groups of workers and their impact on the lives of all • the inequalities that still exist in our society and are of the concern of politicians, companies, unions and individuals • the growing impersonality of the larger units of business supposedly in the interest of efficiency, which do not seem to have produced the benefits that it was claimed would benefit everyone • the profit motive and market economic forces are no longer acceptable to the increasing majority of people who are now looking for more from life • the failures in communicating to people and in allowing them to be involved in decisions which affect them.

Citation

SMITH, G. (1973), "Adding value for incomes and profits", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 5 No. 10, pp. 474-477. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb003349