" That title covered responsibility for the distribution of
products, advertising, collections, selection of branch managers and
their corps of assistants, operation of branch houses, appointment and
direction of agents, employment and control of the entire sales force,
etc., etc. The position was much broader than that of Sales Manager, as
it included also the accounting and organizing of nearly every
department of the business.
For several years prior to that time I had sold my services as a public
accountant and organizer to many large concerns throughout the country,
including twenty-eight different automobile companies. I believed in my
ability, not only to organize a selling and distributing force for
successfully marketing a standard product, but also to extend that force
over a world field and to control it in all the details of its
operations, from opening the mail to the declaration and payment of
dividends, more efficiently than the average sales or commercial
manager. So I had no hesitancy in undertaking the Ford job, which, even
at that early date, I visualized as culminating in a big one.
Pages:
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374