Household This search may have unfortunate effects for their subordinates: the business whose chairman or managing director is kept waiting for a public honour, which he feels has been too long delayed, is likely to suffer from a rapid turnover of top executives. Sir John, unless he now wishes to become Lord, is often a much more relaxed and easy man to work for. 'Gongs' have in the past not been awarded for business success as such; only for the good which a man has done with the money he has made, or the influence he has secured. This is tending to change, and many business men wish the change could be speeded up, arguing that to do the necessary outside committee work, like the vigil before knighthood in medieval times, is rather meaningless and distracts a man from his proper job. They say that now there is so little to be made out of business, it should, in the matter of honours, be put on more of an equality with the civil service. They argue that their productive record may be as good as, or better than, that of many civil servants, and probably worth far more to the nation than the running of a few philanthropic works. 'Just because Bill runs the Homes for Khaki British Babies,' they growl, 'he gets his K. What about those two power stations lgoj for British industry in ByeloRussia this year? A cool ten millions. Don't they think that's worth anything?' In the export field there is much scope for management to do its duty by the State. A truism which cannot be written down too often is that Britain's export trade and her survival are indivisible. A recent unpublished Survey reveals that approximately thirty per cent of Britain's exports of manufactured goods depend on the efforts of only forty large companies. This is indication enough of the urgent need for more and more business managements to examine export possibilities with an end which might be described as truly enlightened selfinterest. This is no place to discuss the problems and possibilities of export. It is merely to suggest that a great deal of new thinking by both management and the Govern 92 The Business of Management ment needs to be done if Britain is not to slip behind in the race for world trade. The question of Britain's export trade leads into some brief remarks on the responsibility of management towards the community at large in the matter of pricing. The operation of price agreements and in particular of resale price maintenance has been considerably reduced in recent years and possibly without the economic benefits anticipated. r Nevertheless in today's conditions of full employment in a free society it is incumbent on management to shun arrangements in the sphere of price fixing. Such arrangements originated in times when there was a genuine need to prevent prices slumping to levels which were unquestionably uneconomic. If it is accepted that inflationary tendencies are now a more permanent characteristic of our economy then not only is the justification for price agreemeAts removed but they may well encourage a high cost altitude. personal finance