1. On the Adequacy of Technical Knowedge. Business is being conducted on definite and scientific principles today, and as these principles are extended more generally, the man with technical knowledge will have a correspondingly greater advantage over the man who has only a foundation of meagre dimentions, a technical training picked up by hard knocks during active service. (first paragraph of the Preface to the Twentieth Century Manual of Railway Station Service, 1911) This could be written about many industries today, including the prized ‘High Tech’ industries, and yet what has happened to our railway service in the last 90 years? The latest business techniques and technical knowledge are not enough! |