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division manager was made accountable for the costs of
manufacture and sales. began his career the company as
a cost clerk 1913, and 1914 was assistant Charles
Edison. 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. 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. "We never knew whether were making
19
or losing money," remembered one executive. During the balmy days the phonograph boom, TAE
Inc. All his transactions
were filtered through the Financial Executive which was the
central organ cost control. Although was being groomed take over from his
father, the twenty-four-year-old Charles found many
. Under the
old system TAE Inc.
The division manager was made responsible for the
identification costs his division. This situation
could not tolerated the tight financial situation after
the fire. The divisional structure put
more power into the hands the accountants and chief among
them was Stephen Mambert. The divisional structure was intended identify and
record costs for every business within TAE Inc. was hoped that the division managers'
concern with keeping costs down would prevent the
administration from becoming large and inefficient
