Psychology for business efficiency
The businessman must have knowledge of the material factors and processes with which his business is concerned, and skill in dealing with them. But notable success can be obtained in no line of business, unless one knows men, and has skill in influencing them. Skill in influencing men comes from knowledge of the mental processes and factors which determine the behaviour of the men. Psychology furnishes this knowledge.
To become efficient in business one must first determine clearly and wisely the end be gained by the business activity. He must rightly apprehend the best available means for attaining the end. He must acquire skill in employing the means. He must devote himself resolutely and unswervingly to the attainment of the end. Business is concerned with rendering service to meet the needs and satisfy the interests of men.
What is involved in rendering such service and the nature and function of needs and interests, will appear later on. The final end, or aim, of business activities, is to bring about a mutually advantageous exchange of services, or of serviceable things. In this exchange, a fair amount of money, or pf some other means of securing service, or some form of service is received in return for the service, or the serviceable thing offered in the exchange. After one has clearly grasped the end of business activities the next essential is to master the means of attaining it.
One must gain a clear understanding of the character and interrelations of the various factors which must be dealt with in rendering service. Efficiency demands that one have the knowledge and skill which enable him to deal with these factors in the most advantageous way. The most advantageous or efficient way is the way that involves the least expenditure of time, effort, and material resources. Business is concerned largely with the properties of material things, with mechanical, industrial, and financial problems. This book has nothing to do with these matters, except insofar as they are involved in correlations with mental processes.
This discussion has to do only with the human element in business. It has to do with this element only as mental predispositions and processes become factors in business affairs. The activities, or behaviour, of men, enter directly or indirectly into every step of the processes which promote or hinder the attainment of business success. Mental processes determine human behaviour, which is ever-present as a factor making for the success or failure of business activities.
George Eastman (July 12, 1854 РMarch 14, 1932) was an American entrepreneur who founded the Eastman Kodak Company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream. Roll film was also the basis for the invention of motion picture film stock in 1888 by the world's first filmmakers Eadweard Muybridge and Louis Le Prince, and a few years later by their followers L̩on Bouly, William Kennedy Dickson, Thomas Edison, the Lumi̬re Brothers, and Georges M̩li̬s.
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