was hoped that the division managers'
concern with keeping costs down would prevent the
administration from becoming large and inefficient. "We never knew whether were making
19
or losing money," remembered one executive. This situation
could not tolerated the tight financial situation after
the fire. began his career the company as
a cost clerk 1913, and 1914 was assistant Charles
Edison. During the balmy days the phonograph boom, TAE
Inc. highly dispersed industry,
like motion pictures, defied accurate estimation the costs
of production, and the sheer volume operation such as
record production made difficult verify the cost a
single disc. All his transactions
were filtered through the Financial Executive which was the
central organ cost control. The divisional structure put
more power into the hands the accountants and chief among
them was Stephen Mambert.
The division manager was made responsible for the
identification costs his division. The divisional structure was intended identify and
record costs for every business within TAE Inc. Although was being groomed take over from his
father, the twenty-four-year-old Charles found many
. produced thousands products with little knowledge of
how much was costing. there was responsibility for
following the costs each product all were manufactured
under the same costing system. Under the
old system TAE Inc.X-13
division manager was made accountable for the costs of
manufacture and sales
