Indianapolis Times, Volume 39, Number 112, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 September 1927 — Page 9

,'■*'. I * t • t are about to appear in business • t ( * % , I defy any man to tell me TONIGHT what the sunrise looked like this morning, or who were the ten higgeSt men of 1926 * * * Each year, \ ‘ * each day, each hour brings forth its own new set of LINDBERGHS. Truly, America is the land where men FORGET,

TIWENTY YEARS AGO tastes were simple. Every farmer had hip Studebaker wagon. Men shaved once a week with Wade and Butcher razors and said grace over red damask tablecloths. Their women washed sheets and pillow slips made of “Hope” muslin in rainwater out of a barrel, sudded with “Star” or “Town Talk” soap. The proudest man in town drove a span of spanking grays hitched to a Brewster carriage. Today, farmers drive Fords, and Chevrolets, and Studebaker sedans. Men shave each morning with Autostrops, Gillettes, and Barbasol. The linens go to the laundry. Ivory and Palmolive are the soaps. And men of wealth ride Cadillacs, Marmons, Lincolns, and Packards with chauffeurs up in front—some even preferring monoplanes and pilots. * * * Yes, we are getting on—“making progress,” they call it —growing wiser and wiser and harder \o please. * * * Incidentally planning and building things to please these hard buyers of 1927 and holding our own with them year after year is a man’s size job. It is a game that only active minds can win at. It involves consummate engineering, masterful finance, sales strategy amounting almost to genius and now, on top of all this, a high new sense of market allocation akin to the eagle instinct which brings a keen flyer out of an all-day fcg at exactly the right landing spot. * * * Nothing fires an American like the dare of the impossible. The very difficulty and thrill of the game allure us. We must —therefore we can. Every new motor car, every new cake of soap, every new phonograph, magazine, silk stocking, cotter-pin, or what not is an altitude attempt calling for oxygen tanks and calculating heroism. , 4. * * ♦ ✓ By repeatedly attempting the impossible we have occasionally attained it. For example: —we have made little automobiles run

TkE Homer McKee Company, Incorporated TELEPHONE, LINCOLN 6376 ADVERTISING 320 N. MERIDIAN ST., INDIANAPOLIS \

easier and faster and develop more power than big automobiles .—we have paid more for our material and more for our labor and in spite of it managed somehow to sell at a lower price without losing our profits —we have sold magazines that cost us over twenty-five apiece for fi\e cents and still made money. \ i We know how to make ice with heat —how to cook with the gas turned off —how to make better shafts for our golf clubs out of steel tubing —and how to make salesmen, orators, and brilliant conversationalists out of stammerers. * * * ’ 4 It would be surprising if in this heartless process toward betterment , we did not find at least a few new faces for our Hall of Fame and, in the same gesture, turn a few old ones to the wall. Which is exactly what is taking place at this very moment everywhere. 1927 is doing a good job of shuffling the cards. We are fast finding out that there is no such thing these days as permanent business stabilization —for business is' practically all based on selling —and selling is based on people —and people are based on whim. The whole game has resolved itself into the science of dealing with the public and when you are dealing with the public, you are dealing with a khown uncertainty. Consequently, it never pays to take any success for granted. Without the slightest warning, your set-up can change overnight and during the approaching period this tendency will be more acute than ever before. . * * * No one can tell you how to nin your business but in laying your plans for 1928 it is well to bear in mind these few sound fundamentals

—a little better product than your competitor can produce, a little more beautiful, perhaps, and if possible a little less expensive —a little better knowledge of your market and a closer relationship with it, if possible, than your competitor enjoys —greater accord and cooperation your own organization, taking care that no one department or no one executive pulls in a selfish direction or plays to the grandstand. Most important of all, I should say, an almost monomaniacal support of and belief in your sales department and your sales manager, for they now virtually hold the destiny of the business in their hands. Incidentally, impress on everyone, from the errand boy to the chairman of the Board and your banker himself, that —nobody ever gets good enough to stop getting better. * * * • Add to this economy and thrift in all your expenditures, realizing that in a thing, for example, like your advertising, there is no sense in shooting a canary bird with a cannon or blindly budgeting millions where a fifth the amount will do the job, providing you fill the space with copy five times as strong. * * * By sticking to these fundamentals and allying themselves with the right kind of selling and advertising counsel, large institutions will protect theii. eadership, and small enter- 1 prises will become larger and more successful. Our function is to assist manufacturers in consolidating sales and converting inventory at a profit. And we are proud to point to a number of great prominent national successes to which we have materially contributed.