EDITORIAL

DAVID CUTLER publlsher

Fight Fat

lT IS VERY NICE to report that practically Ieveryone we talk to of late is still optimistic about this year's business conditions. It's exciting to hear of delayed plans being dusted off and implemented and of new programs put into motion.

But inherent in all this activity is the threat that the business bloat so painfully lost will creep back onto the corporate bones. Most companies operatingtoday are doing soonly because they thinned down when business declined and have run lean and mean since. Just as surely as any diet is painful, there is equal certainty that fat once lost can seemingly reafpear over night before its unattractive encroachment is detected.

Organizations of all kinds and sizes are susceptible. The most obvious example of organizational overweight is, of course, the federal government. It is a disgusting spectacle of spending and staffing at its most extreme.

Companies fail of their own excesses long before governments do. Yet, the problem is simply one of degree. It often starts slowly, then expansion gas mixed up with ego and pretty soon people, places and programs have acquired the profile of Fatty Arbuckle. Like sin itself, the entering phase is devilishly simple.

Balanced in all this cost consciousness must be the realization that the business demands of 1984 are far different than those of 1982. The far great' er level of business activity requires a similarly enlarged company to serve the new business and realize the full profit potential in it. It's a neat trick if you can grow just enough.

Successful companies will go forward boldly to get their share of increased volumes of business. The best of the lot will keep a sharp lookout for corporate corpulence, knowing full well that company coronaries often follow the business bloat that develops in expansionary situations.