Household Size for the sake of size is not a characteristic which appeals to this still intensely individualistic community. The mergers which are going on in many industrial undertakings today may often be prompted by urgent commercial considerations, but they may also bring a considerable reaction in their wake. One thing is clear. British export trade will only expand successfully when manufacturing and selling costs are substantially reduced; and it is inevitable that the size of the unit thus becomes a vital factor. There are no quick answers to the question of finding export markets and going for them, but it is largely a matter of having faith in your product and going to tell people about it again, of will. These considerations dominate such longerterm aspects as design and quality, for, sad to say, there is an immense amount of shoddy British merchandise to be found in the shops, the markets, and the bazaars of the world. The urgent lesson for the manufacturer who has already achieved some export trade is that design and quality are now catching up in importance as the hitherto often unsophisticated customer develops taste and judgement. Market research can teach much, but there is a melancholy lesson to be learnt from the life and death of the British Export Trade Research Organization (BETRO) which started in 1945 and fizzled out in 1952 after seven precarious years of existence. Perhaps the chief lesson was that facts, however accurate and compelling on paper, are no substitute for the vision and personal experience of men whose pockets are going to be directly affected by the success or failure of an export project. But some facts are better than no facts at all and the almost purblind optimism with which managements enter on an export programme, sublimely unaware of what a market requires, confident that what sells at home cannot fail to sell abroad, arrogantly convinced that instructions for use and sales promotion material produced in English will be enough, is proof enough that export market research is an essential first step. Do the Export Manager and members of his department get the necessary recognition and status? In companies where there is a reasonably long history of export endeavour it is fair to say that the Export Manager sometimes even translated to the height of Export Director gets efficient collaboration from the rest of the management. But this is the exception which proves no rule. In far too many companies the Export Department is a poor relation strung on to a sales organization with an underpaid, overworked executive in charge, who has to stake his claim for finance for market research, travel, promotion, special packaging for overseas, and all the rest in the teeth of considerable scepticism from the Board and top management. Furthermore, he is often a man who gets little opportunity to travel and who has got to his present position through a series of accidents. Is this changing? It is doubtful whether it is. personal finance