Judgment guiding financial statements;

              42 HASKINS & SELLS June
Judgment Guiding Financial Statements
THE executive of today is an individual
of complex functions. He plans,
directs, investigates, checks up, confers, and
weighs opinions and information. He cor­relates
the factors which comprise his or­ganization;
transforming and applying the
motive power which they generate accord­ing
to the requirements of the business.
Alone, he is limited in his observation and
output, and insignificant in his ability to
accomplish. Aided by his organization,
and with comprehensive information, his
potential ability becomes enormously en­larged
in scope and intensity.
The modern executive is essentially a
desk worker. He is a presser of buttons
and a user of automatic devices for pur­poses
of communication. But thereby he
conserves his time and energy. In this lies
one of the secrets of his enlarged capacity;
his opportunity for concentration and
application.
Fancy the president of a large corpora­tion
having to visit his power plant in order
to find out what kind, quality, and quantity
of coal is being used in the generation of
power. Consider what would happen if
the sales manager were obliged to count up
his stock before accepting a large order for
immediate delivery. Think how business
would be retarded if the treasurer of a
company should have to call up the bank
to determine the amount of his balance
before drawing each check. Yet these are
some of the absurdities which would be
stern realities if modern business methods
had not provided the individual with
artificial means of overcoming the limita­tions
of time, distance, and technical com­plexity.
Devices for providing the executive with
information are many and varied. Forms
galore have been drawn for the embodiment
of data which will assist him. Reports,