How business is gearing for the anticipated change

Business is conscious of the fact that North American industry is capable of producing more than the market will absorb today. The emphasis of management must, therefore, be on finding new ways of stimulating demand and of creating greater markets. Of necessity, business starts its preparation in terms of management because business cannot run itself.
But where production management was more important between 1910 and 1955, marketing management is now receiving greater attention. It will assume even greater importance in the immediate years ahead. Thus, we find that in 1955 only 20 per cent of the top executives of the leading corporations in the United States had come up through marketing. By 1960, fully 40 per cent of all such top executives had come up through marketing.
Business is also anticipating the demands of market changes at the operating level-in sales, advertising, product planning, marketing research, physical handling, marketing administration and market planning. Most of these topics have already been studied separately. Certain areas offer greater challenge and greater opportunity than others. We shall look briefly into each of these as we consider the steps business is taking and plans to take in order to meet the challenge of tomorrow.
Business today no longer plans for next year, but for five, ten, fifteen, and twenty years hence. Many studies have been made of what the market will look like twenty years from now. This is translated into concrete terms of operating capital, plant and equipment, new products, new advertising programs, new sales effort, and above all, personnel requirements. There are five areas of marketing causing management the greatest concern today as it gears for the changes anticipated in the next decade.
Heading the list is the problem of personnel. A large number of trained marketing people will be needed. One typical, large corporation anticipates that it will need almost 100 per cent more trained marketing people five years from now-fifty per cent more to meet the greater demands of the increasing market and fifty per cent to take care of replacements due to resignations, promotions, transfers and other losses. This particular company has an extensive in-company training program. It supplements this with an active recruitment program.