W. C. Holman Article: The Dream Behind the Business
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Date Published: July 30, 2024
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Worthington C. Holman wrote several articles for System: The Magazine of Business. He was a former officer of the National Cash Register Company (NCR) who worked across the various departments within the organization. In addition to this article, he wrote a series of articles on NCR in 1904 discussing its business methods and principles of organization. NCR at the time was "one of the most striking examples of industrial success in the country."
His articles included discussion of the following topics as he experienced them at the NCR Company:
His articles included discussion of the following topics as he experienced them at the NCR Company:
- How to Build an Organization/Company
- How to Stimulate Individual Effort within Your Company
- How to Encourage and Coordinate Teamwork Within Your Company
Peter E. Greulich
"The Dream Behind the Business" by W. C. Holman
- What is the Point of this Article?
- What Type of Individual Is Most Important to the Business?
- Imagination: The Greatest Power in the Business World
What is the Point of this Article?
It is that the imaginative individual—the dreamer, is often the most practical individual in business.
Any employer can hire thousands of individuals who can bring him hands and eyes. But they can't afford to pay such employees highly. It is not that they are not valuable, but as you have read, there are those who are invaluable.
Any employer can hire thousands of individuals who can bring him hands and eyes. But they can't afford to pay such employees highly. It is not that they are not valuable, but as you have read, there are those who are invaluable.
What Type of Individual Is Most Important to the Business?
The individual who is worth most to a business is not the employee who can walk steadily on the treadmill of its already established routine. They are not the individuals who remember what the business has done. They are the individuals who can suggest what the business should do, they can conceive plans not yet in operation, they can see possibilities not yet discovered by anyone else, they can think out methods never before invented.
To be able to see and appreciate only what has already been done means death to progress. To be able to look into the future and see with the mind's eye the processes, the methods, and the plans not yet existent means the infusion of fresh blood and new life into any business.
To be able to see and appreciate only what has already been done means death to progress. To be able to look into the future and see with the mind's eye the processes, the methods, and the plans not yet existent means the infusion of fresh blood and new life into any business.
Imagination: The Greatest Power in the Business World
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Imagination is the greatest power in the business world—as in all others.
Cultivate and exercise it for yourself. Encourage it in your employees. Don't use them merely as machines. Stimulate them to think. Don't be content with an organization that is all body and no brain. Make every individual employee feel that their quickest road to promotion and greatest earning power lies in their ability to suggest a new way of doing their work—a way that will bring greater results with fewer motions. Put a premium upon imagination in your employees, and put an enormous premium upon imagination in yourself. "The Dream Behind the Business," W. C. Holman,
System: The Magazine of Business, March 1913 |
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