12. Preparation of statements for executives.—Un doubtedly the best use for financial statements is to have them interpreted ,by the financial or accounting officer who is best fitted to take up that work. He will prepare a general summary of the condition of the business as a whole, in which he will call attention to the favorable and unfavorable conditions, as re flected in the statements themselves, and endeavor to trace these statements back to the departments where they originated.
This summary will give a detailed analysis of the business showing just what changes, if any, favor able or unfavorable, have taken place. As a rule, the attention of the board of directors will be called to the features which the interpreting officer thinks require attention, and to those departments which have made a relatively poor showing. Commendation will be given to the departments which have done especially well.
Because of his greater knowledge of accounting and his familiarity with the financial conditions of the business, the treasurer, or his assistant, is in a better position to analyze the condition of each de partment, as shown by the records, with perhaps greater success than any other officer.
Even at the present time, it is doubtful whether the great majority of business executives fully ap preciate the importance of the accounting and statis tical departments. To quote from Mr. James Logan, Chairman of the Executive Board of the United States Envelope Company: The processes of modern business are like the functions of a complicated machine and the executive must organize every part of his establishment as carefully as an inventor. Or ganization means running the machine with all its parts in harmony. The management of the large corporation is or ganized thought, exactly as a machine is the organized thought of the inventor. The executive must be a specialist along the lines which make for efficiency in administration. He must have the God-given quality—capacity for inven tion or organization. There is real invention in the field of organization and administration the same as in the field of mechanics. Efficient organization is an asset which counts for commercial and industrial success more now than ever before.'