Page 15 - (DK) The Business Book

INTRODUCTION 13

a brain attached?” Output may have were able to make use of computers the means to reach a mass
increased, but so too did conflict to help solve operational problems. audience. Businesses had always
between management and staff. Human relations were not forgotten, used advertising to inform
Working conditions were poor and but in management thinking, customers about products and to
businesses ignored the sociological measurability returned to the fore. persuade them to buy, but mass
context of work—productivity media provided the platform for
mattered more than people. Global brands a new, and much broader, field—
The postwar period saw the marketing. In the 1940s US
Studying people growth of multinationals and advertising executive Rosser Reeves
In the 1920s a new influence on conglomerates—businesses with promoted the value of a Unique
business thinking emerged—the multiple and diverse interests Selling Proposition. By the 1960s,
Human Relations Movement of across the globe. The war had made marketing methods had shifted
behavioral studies. Through the the world seem smaller, and had from simply telling customers about
work of psychologists Elton Mayo paved the way for the global brand. products to listening to what
and Abraham Maslow, businesses These newly emerging global customers wanted, and adapting
began to recognize the value of brands grew as a result of a media products and services to suit that.
human relations. Workers were no revolution—television, magazines, Initially, marketing had its critics.
longer seen as simply “cogs in the and newspapers gave businesses In the early 1960s hype about the
machine,” but as individuals with product became more important
unique needs. Managers still than quality, and customers grew
focused on efficiency, but realized dissatisfied with empty claims.
that workers were more productive This, and competition from
when their social and emotional Japanese manufacturers, had
needs were taken care of. For the Entrepreneurship is about Western companies embracing a
first time, job design, workplace survival, which nurtures new form of business thinking:
environments, teamwork, Total Quality Management (TQM)
creative thinking. Business
remuneration, and nonfinancial and Zero Defects management.
is not financial science, it’s
benefits were all considered Guided by management theorists,
about trading—buying
important to staff motivation. such as W. Edwards Demming and
and selling.
In the period following World Anita Roddick Philip B. Crosby, quality was seen
War II, business practice shifted as the responsibility of the entire
UK entrepreneur (1942–2007)
again. Wartime innovation had company, not just those on the
yielded significant technological production line. Combining Human
advances that could be applied Relations thinking and the
to commerce. Managers began to customer-focused approach of
utilize quantitative analysis, and marketing, many companies ❯❯