From the desk of John W. Queenan: Steps to greater responsibility;

              "I follow up on me progress
of any accountant...whose
work comes to my attention."
Much of my time is spent in measuring the progress of
the men and women of our Firm and seeing that ad­vancement
and greater responsibility come to them as
soon as they show they are ready for it. If I had to say
which of my duties is the most critical and the one that
gives me greatest satisfaction, this would be it. For if
the Firm is to continue to grow and render quality ser­vice
to its clients, we must have the right people in re­sponsible
positions now, and we must be bringing along
the people who will step into those positions later. Only
if we do so can we look the future in the eye.
My direct efforts are of necessity more concentrated
on advancements at higher levels in our organization,
from principal or manager to partner or director—and
within this management group to assignments of greater
responsibility. For staff advancement, I must rely heavily
on the judgment of others, but I will not hesitate to fol­low
up on the progress of any accountant at any level
whose work comes to my attention.
The designations we use—assistant accountant, senior
accountant, consultant, principal, manager, etc.—are ad­ministrative
necessities. It is true that when a man moves
from senior accountant to principal, for example, he will
have established his qualifications at this higher level,
and he takes on stated responsibilities in an official way.
But as any senior assistant who has found himself run­ning
an engagement knows, there are many things you
do before you get the title to go with them. This serves,
I think, to make the point that progress is a continuing
thing, so that when one reaches any of these adminis­trative
signposts he has scarcely any time to look at the
view before he must go back to the climb.