Perhaps it will be well to state first what does not constitute an industry. Power, transportation facilities, fine buildings, fine machinery and a group of skilled workmen, a complete office staff and an elaborate system of fad management do not constitute an industry. Such an aggregation might be likened to a cargo ship all ready for service excepting that it lacks a captain and navigating officer and some one to determine what kind of a cargo to take, where to go and how to get there.

The greatest value of an industrial plant that has everything but a work to do and a leader to determine its major policies, lies in the skilled workers and able executives in work and office. The buildings and machinery come next in value, but the whole thing is worthless without the idea and the vision.

“Dead” Organizations.

In all cities we can see “dead” organizations. Many of these companies that are actually “dead” seem to have life in them because they continue to move, but in many instances the motion is only due to the momentum of a push that was given years ago.

A “dead” organization may show signs of life in its gradual growth in size, but its real character is to be seen in the extent to which it is departing from specialization or by the continued use of antiquated methods and buildings.

The departure from specialization is generally due to either lack of courage to discard obsolete designs or to an inclination to consider the business from the selling end only.

It takes courage to discard an old model and it also takes courage to refuse to build some new invention.

The indifferent management carries the old and takes on the new. This policy covering many years creates a condition that is far removed from the specialization plan.

The management that views everything from the selling side of the business is also inclined to go on indefinitely increasing the line of goods manufactured.

The drift away from specialization may not be disasters today or tomorrow, especially, if there are no competitors who are specialists, but the inevitable result will be the burial of the “dead” organization when a real competitor comes into the field.

The calamity of the existence of “dead” industrial organizations is something more than the ultimate loss to the stockholders, it is the deplorable stagnation in which the workers find themselves with their progress blocked by lifeless management.