From the Pen of our President....
Dear fellow Rotarians,
It is sad to say goodbye to friends. As we all remember Hector this week, I would like to start a series of remembering and learning.
So this week it will be – the beginning of the 4 Way Test. (thank you PDG Peter Margolius)
In 1932, during the depths of the great depression, a businessman named Herbert J Taylor was urged by the creditors of the Club Aluminium Company of Chicago to take over the management of the company and save it from bankruptcy. The cookware manufacturer was already insolvent, owing its creditors some $400,000 more than its total assets. Despite holding a secure job with the Jewel Tea Company, and being in line to becoming its president, Taylor was persuaded to risk everything, taking an eighty percent cut in pay and loaning $6,100 of his own money to the new enterprise to give it some operating capital.
Realizing that one false move could be fatal, Taylor began to search for some ways to survive. His competitors had equally fine products and personnel and could easily compete and could easily compete with him on price because they had much less debt to repay. Taylor concluded that his company would have to develop higher standards of corporate character, dependability, and service in order to secure any competitive advantage. A deeply religious man, he prayed earnestly for a way to challenge his troubled staff to new resolve. In July 1932, after meditating about the matter at his desk, he began to compose a hundred word guideline which he first reduced to seven tests and then to fours tests, putting the results on a card that he kept under the glass top of his desk for sixty days.
As business decisions flowed across his desk daily. Taylor began to examine the extent to which his company was measuring up to the ideals which he had captured on the card. He was shocked to see how often his business failed to meet the four tests which he had conceived. After sharing the guidelines with his department heads and gaining their support, the Test was accepted by the company, memorized by every employee, and soon began to function as the criteria for building a new corporate culture. Taylor literally turned the company around by making everyone in it, including himself, accountable to these four accepted standards.
The result was a great success story. By 1937, the entire indebtedness of Club Aluminium was paid in full and, the next fifteen years, the firm distributed more than a million dollars in dividends to its stockholders. The net worth steadily rose to more than two million dollars, all from $6,100 borrowed money and The Four Test. In the worst climate that American business had ever known. Taylor proved that these simple guidelines could provide new energy and direction in the arena of practical commerce.
In 1942, a director of Rotary International suggested that it adopt Taylor’s test, which was approved by the board in January 1943, making the Four-Way Test a component of the Vocational Service Program, Although today it has become a vital part of all four Avenues of Service. In 1954-55, its golden anniversary year, Taylor served Rotary International as President, during which time he transferred the copyright for the Four-Way Test to the organisation where it continues to provide an effective summary of the movement’s ideals.
Enjoy a wonderful week.
Yours in Rotary,
Ann
Last Friday....
Momo reports back.....
Rotary Regalia...
The Cost of shirts this year are as follows:-
Men’s Long Sleeve:
R372.75
Men’s Short Sleeve
R365.75
Ladies Short sleeve
Blouses. R344.40
Rotary Face Masks.
R29.95
Lapel Pin. R51.67.
Car Stickers.
R6.72. Proud to be a
Rotarian.
R25.18. Decal External.
All prices exclude VAT.
Please contact David if you are interested in any of the
above.
In Preparation of our first live meeting in a year....
