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Management for Engineers,
Scientists and Technologists
Second Edition
John V. Chelsom
Andrew C. Payne
Lawrence R. P. Reavill

Management for Engineers,
Scientists and Technologists
Second Edition

Copyright  2005 John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester,
West Sussex PO19 8SQ, England
Telephone (+44) 1243 779777
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chelsom, John V.
Management for engineers, scientists, and technologists / John V. Chelsom,
Andrew C. Payne, Lawrence R. P. Reavill. – 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Rev. ed. of: Management for engineers / Andrew C. Payne, John V. Chelsom,
Lawrence R. P. Reavill. c1996.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-470-02126-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Engineering – Management. I. Chelsom, John V. II. Reavill, Lawrence R. P.
III. Payne, Andrew C. Management for engineers. IV. Title.
TA190.C485 2004
658
.002
462 – dc22
2004013224
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0-470-02126-8
Typeset in 10/12pt Photina by Laserwords Private Limited, Chennai, India
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire
This book is printed on acid-free paper responsibly manufactured from sustainable forestry
in which at least two trees are planted for each one used for paper production.

With thanks to Jo for all she gave me, especially our family, Joanna and Tim with
their Sophie and Robert John, and John J and Angela with their Jay Harold, and
our friends.
J. V. C. . . . . . . . . . 2004
To the memory of Dorothy, her love, forbearance and courage.
A. C. P. . . . . . . . . . 2004
To Anne, for her continuing patience and help, especially in periods of overload
and stress.
L. R. P. R. . . . . . . . . . 2004

Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction to the second edition xi
Preface xiii
PART I BUSINESS BASICS 1
1 Business basics 3
2 The business environment 14
3 Management styles: From Taylorism to McKinsey’s 7Ss 32
4 Management of quality 43
5 Materials management 63
6 Managing design and new product development 76
7 Organizations 103
8 Managing to succeed 122
PART II MANAGING ENGINEERING RESOURCES 147
9 Human resource management – the individual 149
10 Groups of people 173
11 Communication 204
12 Work study 235
13 Costing and pricing 250
14 Measuring ﬁnancial performance 268
15 Project investment decisions 296
16 Maintenance management 324
17 Project management 335
18 Networks for projects 364
19 Project management – managing construction procurement 376
20 Inventory management 388
21 Management of the supply system 410
22 Marketing 433
23 A case study in starting an SME 466
Appendix 1 A guide to writing a business plan 487
Appendix 2 Quality management tools 496
Appendix 3 Case study: Developing a network 512
Appendix 4 DCF tables 522
Index 535

Acknowledgements
This edition owes a considerable debt to all those involved in the development
and writing of the first edition of Management for Engineers published in 1996.
We especially wish to thank those who have made a further contribution to this
edition: Tony Curtis of the Plymouth Business School, assisted by Elly Sample
of the Peninsular Medical School, for revising Chapter 22; Fred Charlwood for
revising Chapter 16; Diane Campbell for revising Chapter 14. We remain fully
responsible for any errors in these and other chapters.
We would like to acknowledge help from the following organizations: ABB
(Asea Brown Boveri); BAe (British Aerospace); British Steel (now part of Corus);
CSW Group; DaimlerChrysler AG; Ford Motor Company; IBM; Ingersoll Milling
Machine Co. USA; Lamb Technicon; Nissan; the Office of Official Publications of
the European Community; PA Consulting Group; Siemens AG; The British Library
of Political and Economic Science at the London School of Economics; The Royal
Statistical Society.
John V. Chelsom gratefully acknowledges the contribution of two outstanding
individuals to the success of the start-up company (OURCO) that provides the
case study in Chapter 23. Sir Martin Wood founded and developed his own
successful high-technology company, Oxford Instruments. Sir Martin used some
of his rewards to establish The Oxford Centre for Innovation, whose facilities were
vital to OURCO’s early growth. Mr Stewart Newton founded and developed a
successful financial organization, Newton Investment Management. His applied
business acumen and substantial financial support were vital to OURCO’s survival
and eventual success. These two gentlemen did more for OURCO Group Ltd than
all the DTI’s 183 schemes for SMEs put together.

Introduction to the
Second Edition
In the light of the continuing success of Management for Engineers, published in
1996, it has become clear that, while the needs of undergraduate and graduate
engineers were being met, the very similar needs of scientists and technologists
were not being addressed. The purposes of this new edition are to bring to the
attention of a much wider readership the fundamentals of management, and to
bring the text more up to date.
While there have been signiﬁcant changes in the business environment since
1996 there has been no really important addition to the basic management skills
and knowledgerequired by engineering, scienceand technology students about to
start their working careers, nor for those who wish to move from being specialist
practitioners into ‘management’.
Where there have been developments in some aspects of management, we
considered that these could be incorporated without major change to the book’s
structure.Andwheresectionswereoutofdate,suchasthechapteronemployment
law or the appendix on the Single European Market, we felt they could be removed
without much loss. Thanks to the Internet, current information on such topics is
readily available elsewhere.
There are two new chapters, Chapters 19 and 23, and one new appendix,
Appendix 1. Chapter 19, which originally concerned itself with the project man-
agementoflargeprojects,hasbeenrewrittentoconsidertheespecialcircumstance
in which an engineer, scientist or technologist might ﬁnd himself on the project
management team for the procurement of the design and construction of a
new facility, whether it be new buildings, a new manufacturing or processing
facility or a new laboratory. There have been some major new initiatives in
managing construction procurement and these are addressed in this chapter.
The only all new chapter is Chapter 23, which relates to small and medium
enterprises (SMEs). It takes the form of a case study, based on close observation
of a start-up new technology company that was founded by a young engineer
and that now includes several scientists and technologists in key positions. There
is a related appendix, Appendix 1, providing guidelines to developing a business
plan. Other new material has been integrated with the updating of each of the
original chapters, and new references have been added to help locate material
that had to be excluded because of space constraints. Where possible, we have
given Internet references.

xii INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION
With these changes we believe we have made the book a useful ‘primer’ for
all students of management. From our experience and feedback we know that,
as well as engineers, the ﬁrst edition was used by business studies students and
management students – and even by managers. We hope that in its updated form
scientists and technologists can be added to its readership, and that all readers
and users will enjoy it.
John Chelsom Andrew Payne Lawrie Reavill

Preface
Management skills make engineers, scientists and technologists better at their
jobs. This is true even if they are working as specialists in the field for which they
have trained. A study of 30 major UK government-funded collaborative scientific
research and development projects [1] found that almost 90% of them failed
to meet their objectives. Many projects foundered, overrunning their cost and
timing objectives, due to conflicting objectives, perspectives and expectations, and
lack of project management, teamworking and communication skills. Studying
management can overcome such shortcomings. This book is designed to assist
such learning.
The need for management-trained scientists extends far beyond collaborative
RD projects. It exists in commerce, industry, government and education. The
Sunday Times (13 June 1993) said: ‘British management’s biggest defect is its
lack of technocrats: managers combining technical know-how with financial
acumen.’ This defect is not peculiar to Britain, and it persists more than 10 years
on. The defect can be remedied more readily by management training of those
with the technical know-how than by trying to provide accountants, lawyers and
economists with an understanding of science and technology.
In business, the need for technocrats is now even greater. The top business
issues of the 1990s, identified by PA Consulting [2] and shown in Figure P.1, con-
tinue to be important, but the search for winning products now extends deeper
into the science base. Management of the costs and risks of new technology is
therefore more demanding, and the time-to-market issue now focuses on harness-
ing market-driven science to accelerate the introduction of top-quality products
featuring technological advances. More recent research [3] puts ‘strategic plan-
ning for technology products’ top among management of technology issues.
When combined with the ‘advanced materials revolution’ [4] these developments
take management deep into the ‘supply system’ (see Chapter 21) and create many
opportunities for thosetechnocrats with scientificand business know-how.Career
prospects for ‘techies’ who are skilled managers have never been better.
The skills and knowledge required by those who wish to be successful managers
were summarized by W. Edwards Deming [5] as:
• appreciation for a system;
• some knowledge about variation;
• some theory of knowledge; and
• some knowledge of psychology.

xiv PREFACE
Figure P.1 Top business issues
This book makes a start in the direction that Deming would have us travel. It treats
business as a system,takes a systemicapproach and describes ways ofdealing with
variation. The implicit theory of knowledge is the traditional inductive/deductive
scientific method, which was translated by Deming into his Plan–Do–Study–Act
cycle. We incorporate some psychology in Chapters 9 and 10. The book was not
deliberately based on Deming’s philosophy, but the coincidence is not altogether
surprising. When the first edition was written, the authors were in the Systems
Science Department of City University, London, teaching management to under-
graduate and postgraduate engineers, and ‘management and systems’ to other
undergraduates. They all came to City University after careers spanning a total
of more than 80 years as managers in companies with multinational systems
and organizations, and before that they all had a science-based education. So
their systemic thinking had common roots with Deming’s – he trained initially
as a physicist. This all suggests that scientific training is a good basis for becom-
ing a manager or, for the really talented, as in Deming’s case, a world-class
management expert.
Thebookisintwoparts:Part Iisaseriesofchaptersonmanagementapplications
and concepts, starting with basic issues such as ‘What is a business?’ and ‘What is
management?’, continuing through management of quality, materials and new
product development, and concluding with examples of companies who provide
models of good management.
Part II starts with chapters on human resources management and commu-
nication, and goes on to provide some tools and techniques, such as critical
path networks, discounted cash flow and inventory control – with exercises and
worked examples. These examples relate mainly to large organizations, but the
lessons apply also to small and medium enterprises. ‘Know your customer’ is good
advice for any company, and large companies, directly or indirectly, are the cus-
tomers of small companies. To balance this emphasis on large organizations, this

PREFACE xv
second edition includes a new chapter (Chapter 23), dealing with the challenges
facing small start-up companies. The main body of Part II continues to unveil
some of the mysteries of activities such as finance, marketing and purchasing – a
greater understanding of these functions is a precondition for greater cooperation
with them.
To assist those who may wish to pursue a particular subject further, references
and bibliographies are provided throughout. These make specific recommenda-
tions for further reading, identifying useful chapters and passages or outlining the
contents of the referenced material.
We hope that the book will be useful to students and to teachers, that it will
be occasionally enjoyable as well as informative, and that it may inspire and
assist many young engineers, scientists and technologists to become successful
managers. There are opportunities vacant and awaiting you.
REFERENCES
1. Dennis, J. (1993) The Application of Systems Science Methodologies to the Assess-
ment of Collaborative RD, Project for the MBA in Engineering Management,
City University, London.
2. Bone, S. (1992) Chief Executives’ Attitudes to Innovation in UK Manufacturing
Industry, PA Consulting, London.
3. Scott, G. M. (1996) Management of New Product Development, Research study,
University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT.
4. Chelsom, J. V.andKaounides, L.(1995)‘Theadvancedmaterialsrevolution’,
David Bennett and Fred Steward (eds), Proceedings of the European Conference
on Management of Technology, Aston University, Birmingham.
5. Deming, W. Edwards (1993) The New Economics for Industry, Government,
Education, MIT, Cambridge, MA.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
‘W.Edwards Deming (1900–1993):Theman and his message’,the1995 Deming
Memorial lecture delivered by Dr Henry Neave to the First World Congress on
Total Quality Management, traces the development of Deming’s philosophy
of management from Statistical Process Control to the Theory of Profound
Knowledge. The Congress proceedings were published by Chapman Hall, ISBN
0 412 64380 4.
‘Getting equipped for the twenty-first century’, an article by John V. Chelsom in
Logistics Information Management, Volume 11, Numbers 2 and 3, 1998, published
by MCB University Press, deals with changes in the focus of competition and
the concept of total quality. The article adapts some of Deming’s teaching as
presented by Henry Neave, and suggests modifications to other management
models presented by Professors N. Kano and Y. Kondo, to accommodate the
impact ofthematerials revolution and other newtechnologies.Articles in Logistics
Information Management are available online at http://www.mcb.co.uk.

1
Business Basics
Don’t skip this chapter! It may be basic = simple, but it is also
basic = provides a framework or base for your better use of the rest
of the book.
1.1 INTRODUCTION
This chapter identifies the basic business functions and shows how they relate to
each other to form a ‘system’ that leads from the idea – the concept of a product
or service – to satisfying the customers for that idea. It identifies the need to find
funds – that is, money – to get the business started, and to generate more funds by
operating the system so that the business can be sustained and expanded. The first
part of the chapter describes ‘management’ and the various roles of managers.
The basic business functions are then introduced, and the way they relate to each
other to form the ‘business chain’ or business system is outlined. The chapter
concludes with a description of some of the ways in which the performance of
business systems may be measured.
1.2 ABSOLUTE BASICS
In absolutely simple terms, businesses, and many other organizations, are con-
cerned with obtaining reward from an idea. How this is done is the task of
management, as shown in Figure 1.1.
What is management? This question can be answered by considering first what
it is that managers manage – that is, the inputs to the business system – and
secondly the roles of managers as they help to transform the inputs to outputs,
products or services, through the business process.
So, what are the inputs? Through the nineteenth century it was normal to
consider three inputs to a business system:
• land;
• labour;
• capital.
This has its roots in agriculture-based economies, where the capital was used
to provide tools for the labour to work the land, plus ‘material’ in the form of
livestock, feed and seed. As economies became more industrialized, the emphasis
moved away from land and capital became a more important element, to provide

4 BUSINESS BASICS
Figure 1.1 From the idea to the rewards – management’s task is to find the most
efficient, most effective route
more equipment for the labour as well as a wider range of material inputs.
Even in manufacturing, labour was the most important cost element from
the late nineteenth century until the mid-twentieth century. At this point,
mechanization was supplemented by automation and labour’s share of total costs
fell rapidly. Mechanization had increased labour productivity through devices
such as the moving assembly line, which was introduced in the automotive
industry in 1913 by Henry Ford I, initially for the assembly of magnetos in the
Highland Park plant in Detroit and subsequently for the assembly of the complete
vehicle. Automation, through numerically or computer-controlled machines for
cutting, shaping and joining materials, through materials handling equipment
and through reprogrammable universal transfer devices (UTDs) – better known
as robots – has accelerated this decline in labour’s share of cost. As a result,
material and equipment costs have become progressively more significant.
Managing materials and equipment requires a lot of data about them and about
the companies that supply them. Managers also need to know what is going on
inside their own organization, and what is happening outside in the marketplace
and general environment. So, by the 1980s a new input became a vital part
of many businesses: information. Developments in information technology (IT)
and the advent of the Internet have increased the importance of information
managementasameansofoptimizingbusinessperformance.Someorganizations,
for example Asea Brown Boveri (ABB), have used their IT skills as a source of
competitive advantage (see Chapter 8).
Thus there are now four inputs or factors to be managed: land, labour, capital
and information. But what does it mean, ‘to manage’?
From the 1950 edition of Chambers’ Dictionary, ‘to manage’ means: ‘To have
under command or control; to bring round to one’s plans; to conduct with great

ABSOLUTE BASICS 5
carefulness; to wield; to handle; to contrive; to train by exercise, as a horse’, or the
intransitive form, ‘To conduct affairs.’
Some of these terms are rather militaristic or dictatorial, but most of the
elements of later definitions of management are there. Note that the manager has
‘plans’ and brings others round to them, and that ‘training’ is included. These are
elements that have grown in importance.
The 1993 edition of Chambers adds: ‘to administer, be at the head of; to deal
tactfully with; to have time for; to be able to cope with; to manipulate; to bring
about.’ This suggests that the world outside business and industry has detected
little change in management in more than 40 years, and still sees it as a form of
constraintorcontrol.Someauthoritiesclosertotheactionsharethisview.Stafford
Beer, a deep thinker and prolific writer on the subject, described management as
‘the science and profession of control’ [1]. As shown briefly below and in more
detail in Chapter 3, these definitions are too restrictive – good management entails
more positive features, such as initiative and leadership.
Mintzberg [2] quotes a definition from 1916 by a French industrialist, Henri
Fayol, who said that the manager ‘plans, organizes, coordinates and controls’
but goes on to show that managers actually do rather different things most of
the time. Mintzberg defines a manager as a ‘person in charge of an organization
or one of its subunits’. From his own observations and from studies by others in
the US and the UK, Mintzberg concluded that managers spend their time in ways
that can be grouped into three separate roles: interpersonal, informational and
decisional. Elements of each role are shown in Figure 1.2.
While some of the old dictatorial terms from the dictionary definition are
still there in Mintzberg’s analysis – ‘figurehead’, ‘monitor’, ‘handler’, ‘alloca-
tor’ – there are some important softer additions – ‘disseminator’, ‘negotiator’ and,
most important, ‘leader’ and ‘entrepreneur’.
Within the role of leader, Mintzberg notes, ‘Every manager must motivate and
encourage his employees, somehow reconciling their individual needs with the
goals of the organization.’ This is more like the style that most organizations
aim for today. It recognizes that employees are individuals, with needs that may
sometimes conflict with corporate goals, and that corporations do have goals.
Figure 1.2 Mintzberg’s three roles of management

6 BUSINESS BASICS
Setting corporate goals, and encouraging and enabling all employees to
share them and work towards their achievement, is one of top management’s
major tasks.
Mintzberg also states, ‘As entrepreneur, the manager seeks to improve his
unit, and adapt it to changing conditions in the environment . . . is constantly
on the lookout for new ideas . . . as the voluntary initiator of change.’ Many
organizations are still striving to realize this image of the manager at all levels,
and to create a working environment where constant improvement and new
ideas are encouraged by involvement and empowerment of all employees, not just
managers, to the limits of their abilities.
So, today’s manager is enabler, coach and counsellor, as well as leader,
entrepreneur, communicator, planner, coordinator, organizer and controller.
The manager performs these roles within the business system, and in some cases
in setting up the business system.
1.3 THE BUSINESS SYSTEM
The manager performs within an environment and manages resources to
achieve some end or objective. Whatever the resources and the objective,
there are some features common to the route from the idea or concept to
the end result. The sequence of processes and the functions to be performed
are similar whether the product is a dynamo or a doughnut, software or a
Figure 1.3 Business functions

THE BUSINESS SYSTEM 7
symphony, a car or a cure. A chart identifying the major functions is shown
in Figure 1.3.
What the organization does (i.e. what is to be produced, where it is to be
sold, where the facilities are to be located) is largely determined in the ‘corpo-
rate’ box.
‘Design’ is concerned with what the product or service or system contains,
what its dimensions are, what it is made from and how it performs to meet
the market requirement. ‘Production engineering’ is concerned with developing
how – how the components of the product or service or system are made and
assembled. The production, distribution and support functions are concerned
with when operations are performed – when material, labour or information is
brought in, when production, distribution and service activities are performed. A
more detailed list of the decisions and actions in each of these groups of functions
is shown in Figure 1.4.
The collection of processes and functions can be regarded as a system, or
a business or a business system, through which the idea is turned into a
design, which is turned into a product, which is made, sold, distributed, ser-
viced and eventually replaced and scrapped or recycled. Figure 1.5 represents
such a system.
Within the system, the core functions of design, sales and production are
supplemented by analysts, advisers and scorekeepers concerned with ﬁnancial,
legal and personnel matters. In Figure 1.3 these are contained in the remote
‘corporate’ box, which is sadly realistic – one of the most difﬁcult management
tasks is to close the gap between advisers and monitors in one group, and ‘doers’
in other parts of the organization.
Strategy
Systems
Business and
market
What business?:
What markets?
Product scope
Nature of business
Positioning of the business
Competitive scope
Design and manufacturing policies
What to make:
Product definition and specification
Product planning
Core and strategic parts
Product life cycle
The base or standard product
The specification and options offered
Product variety and specials
Existing products
Future products
Product rationalization
How to make/design it:
Make or buy
Design workload and priorities
Design procedures
Design for manufacture,
assembly and test
The control and admin. of
product data
How to modify the product
How to build the product
Making the ‘how’ happen:
The facilities, tools and aids required
How these are arranged, used and
scheduled
The organization structure required
to undertake the processes
The flow of data
Part structures and BOM
Communications, links and interfaces
Support and control
The systems used to provide
information and control
the facilities
Products
Organization
and
logistics
Process
(design and
manufacture)
Figure 1.4 Business chain

8 BUSINESS BASICS
Figure 1.5 A corporate system
1.4 HOW THE SYSTEM WORKS
The entrepreneur, or research team, with a brilliant idea may find that a great
deal of waste is avoided if the appeal of the idea is checked first with potential
users or buyers. This may be done by market research through specialists, or
by the entrepreneur, or by the organization’s own sales and marketing activity.
This is not an infallible process. One of the most famous market failures was
the Ford Edsel, a car introduced for the US market in the 1950s, which was
also one of the most expensively researched. As at election times, what the
pollsters think the public say they will do is not always what they in fact do.
Internal committees may be no better – the video cassette recorder was invented
in the Victor company of the USA, but its management thought it had no market.
The idea was only brought to market by Matsushita, through its ownership of the
Japanese Victor Company (JVC). The Sony Walkman, on the other hand, was the
result of logical and lateral thinking rather than third-party market research, and
was enormously successful.
Market tested or not, the idea will need design and development to turn it
into something fit for production. The production processes have to be developed,
production personnel put in place with any necessary equipment, materials
procured and the completed product delivered to the customer. The customer in

HOW THE SYSTEM WORKS 9
most cases has to be charged, and suppliers of goods and services paid. Some
products need support or service after they have been sold and taken into use, and
disposal or recycling at the end of the product life have to be considered.
Many of these activities have to be performed, and paid for, before payments
are received from customers, so the idea needs backing with money to bring it
to market or into use. This may be the entrepreneur’s own money, or it may be
borrowed – inwhichcasethelenderwillrequireareturnintheformofinterest – or
it may be subscribed in exchange for a share in the business. Shareholders will
require either interest payments or dividends – that is, a share of profits – as
reward for risking their capital. In Figure 1.6, the shaded lines represent flows of
information, product or funds, or actions that have to be completed before money
starts to flow into the organization as payments from customers.
The first few months in the life of any business are critical, as the owners wait
for the inflow of payments for sales to overtake the outflow of payments for costs.
Of course these ‘cash flows’ have to be carefully considered at all times, not just at
start-up. Cash-flow management through the ‘working capital cycle’, as described
in Chapter 14, is vital to a company’s survival. Lack of control in this activity is
the most frequent cause of failure in start-up companies – the enterprise runs out
of money before it is firmly established in the marketplace. Cash-flow problems
Concept
Design
Engineering
development
Distribution
Production
process
facilities
purchasing
scheduling
inventory
quality
costs
orders
orders
parts
product
prices
invoices
payments
Accounting
and
financial
analysis
invoices
payments
Funds?
How much?
Where from?
market research
specification
Customers
Sales and
marketing
Vendors
Figure 1.6 A corporate system with cash flow out (shown by shaded areas)

10 BUSINESS BASICS
can also create difficulties for large, well-established concerns – see the example
of ABB in Chapter 8.
For short-term success, the entrepreneur has to meet all the organization’s costs
from sales of the product, and have something to spare to make it all worthwhile.
Longer term, the ‘something to spare’ has to cover continual generation of
more and better ideas, the maintenance and renewal of facilities, development
of personnel, and reaction to competitors and other external factors. Long-term
success comes from doing all these things better than other organizations in the
same or a similar business – that is, better than the competition.
The more successful the original idea turns out to be, and the more successful
the company becomes, the greater the likelihood that competitors will appear.
A management tool for dealing with competitive threats – Porter’s Five Forces
analysis – is shown in Chapter 22.
1.5 MEASURING PERFORMANCE
Managersneedtomeasureseveralaspectsofcompanyperformance.Where‘other
people’s money’ is involved, those other people will want to know how ‘their’
company is doing.
Some measures come from the financial accounts that most companies are
required by law to keep. The accounts comprise two major elements – the profit
and loss (PL) accounts and the balance sheet (described in more detail in
Chapter 14).
A very simple indication of what appears in PL and balance sheets is shown
below. The PL accounts show revenues – the value of sales – and the costs
incurred in making those sales. The difference between revenue and costs is
the profit (if revenue exceeds costs) or loss (if costs exceed sales revenue).
The trend of profit or loss in successive accounting periods is one important
performance measure.
The balance sheet shows the company’s assets on one side and its liabilities on
the other. The total value of the assets equals the total of the liabilities – hence
the name ‘balance sheet’. Growth in the balance sheet total is normally seen as ‘a
good thing’, but much depends on why the figure has grown, and what use has
been made of the investment or assets.
Two of the most common performance measures that can be derived from the
accounts and give an indication of how well the assets have been used are return
on capital employed (ROCE) and return on sales.
Return on capital employed is calculated as
profit before tax
capital employed
The normal target is 10% or more.
Return on sales is calculated as
profit before tax
sales revenue
The normal target is 5% or more.

MEASURING PERFORMANCE 11
Some of those terms may need explanation: profit before tax (PBT) is the
difference between sales revenue and costs. The following simple PL account
shows £5m PBT.
Sales revenue (£m) 100
Costs (£m)
Labour 10
Material 60
Overhead 25
95
Profit before tax (£m) 5
‘Overhead’ includes (but may not be limited to):
• Depreciation – the portion of fixed assets written off each year, recognizing
that they wear out and will need to be replaced.
• Utilities – the costs of gas, electricity, fuel oil, water.
• Rates – taxes on property paid to local government.
• Central staff etc. – these costs are usually allocated to ‘operations’, so much
per employee in each operating unit.
(See Chapter 13 for more information on overheads.)
‘Assets’ comprise:
Fixed assets
such as land, buildings, machinery, equipment
Current assets
cash and near cash (e.g. bank balances)
debtors (amounts owed to the company)
inventory
less
creditors (amounts the company owes its suppliers)
short-term loans (e.g. overdrafts)
‘Total assets’ are the sum of fixed assets and current assets.
It is easy to understand why companies wish to make more than 10% annual
return on their assets – the money could earn between 4% and 7% invested in
government bonds. This is a lot easier and, for most governments’ bonds, less
risky than creating and running a business.
Another performance measure normally available from the accounts is ‘sales
per employee’. This is a rather crude indicator of labour productivity, and not very
helpful for interfirm comparisons. It can be useful to indicate productivity changes
over successive accounting periods, but, as already stated, labour is a reducing
element of cost, and there are other more powerful indicators of a company’s
overall performance.
For manufacturing, one such indicator is ‘inventory turnover’, which is the
ratio of total cost of materials during a year to average stock or inventory. This

12 BUSINESS BASICS
measures the frequency of inventory ‘turns’ in a year. In the very simple PL
account above, material costs were £60m for the year. If average inventory was
£6m, it would have ‘turned over’ 10 times a year. This is a fairly typical rate, but
not a good one. Manufacturers such as the car producers Nissan Manufacturing
UK and General Motors Saturn company in Tennessee claim turnover rates of
200 times a year – that is, not much more than one day’s stock. Such rates can
only be achieved with ‘perfect’ quality within the plant and from suppliers, plus
balanced production facilities, well-trained labour, and careful management of
incoming suppliers’ material and distribution of the assembled product. That is
why inventory turnover is such a good business performance indicator. An article in
The TQM Magazine [3] describes how inventory turnover can not just be used to
measure past management performance, but can also predict future performance
of manufacturing organizations.
Another powerful measure is the percentage of sales derived from products
less than two years (or one year) old. This shows how innovative the company
is and can be applied to many types of business. As shown in the Preface, new
product ‘time to market’, or innovativeness, was the top business issue of the
1990s. This measure cannot be derived from the financial accounts, but some
progressive companies are including such information in their reports. It is an
output measure, and therefore a better indicator of the effectiveness of a company’s
research and development (RD) effort than the alternative input measure, RD
expenditure as a percentage of sales, which may be high because RD is inefficient
or misdirected.
These financial and nonfinancial performance indicators are very much mea-
sures of management performance, and should be seen as a package to be
used together, rather than as separate indicators for shareholders or man-
agers. This was neatly expressed by one of the UK’s most successful managers,
Gerry Robinson. His summary of the overall aim of businesses and the role of
managers is:
‘You are in business to manage the corporate affairs of the company in which
people put their money. I have never seen a dilemma between doing what
shareholders want and what is good for the company and the people in it. The
two go hand in hand’ [4].
1.6 SUMMARY
In this chapter a general form of business system was described and an indication
givenofthemajorelementsorfunctionsthatmakeupthesystem,andtheprocesses
that turn inputs to the system into outputs. Changes in the relative importance
of the land, labour and capital inputs were indicated, and the newer, significant
input – information – was introduced. Some definitions of ‘management’ and
the manager’s task were given, including a reference to Mintzberg’s ‘three
roles of management’ – interpersonal, informational and decisional. The chapter
concluded with outlines of some of the ways in which the performance of the
business and its managers is measured by managers themselves, and by outside
observers and analysts.

REFERENCES 13
REFERENCES
1. Beer, S. (1959 and 1967) Cybernetics and Management, Unibooks English
Universities Press, London.
2. Mintzberg, H. (1975) ‘The manager’s job: Folklore and fact’, Harvard Business
Review, July/August 1975.
3. Davidson, A. R., Chelsom, J. V., Stern, L. W. and Janes, F. R. (2001) ‘A new
tool for assessing the presence of total quality’, The TQM Magazine, Volume
13, Number 1. (MCB editors voted this the ‘Outstanding Article of 2001’.
TQM Magazine can be viewed via www.emerald-library.com.)
4. Quoted in The Times, December 1992, during an interview following his
appointment as head of Granada television. Robinson was a millionaire by
the time he was 40 as a result of leading Compass, the corporate catering
group, after its management buyout from Grand Metropolitan. He is not an
engineer or scientist by training, but an accountant – with an approach that
engineers and scientists can learn from!

2
The Business Environment
2.1 INTRODUCTION
As soon as a business is established, it creates its own contacts with the business
environmentthroughitscustomers,employeesandsuppliers.Themoresuccessful
it is, the more contacts it makes – competitors appear, ‘authorities’ become
interested, and new products and markets have to be explored. Soon, the company
is involved in the ‘business game’, surrounded by other players on a huge pitch
that covers the globe, all governed by common factors – the rules: economics,
demographics, politics, technology, ecology – and all affected by and contributing
to change. Surprisingly, even at the start, in its own corner of the field the
new company is influenced by events and developments on the other side of
the pitch – or, realistically, as far as the other side of the world. This chapter
reviews the major elements or factors that make up the business environment,
and considers how their effects may be grouped into opportunities or threats to
influence the strategy of business organizations seeking competitive advantage.
Variations in the significance of the external factors, depending on the type of
business and its location in the supply chain, are described. Common business
objectives are set against this background of external factors, and the ways
in which the objectives interact with each other and with the environment
are shown, with special reference to the role that engineers, scientists and
technologists can play in achieving each objective.
2.2 BUSINESS OBJECTIVES: THE GAME
Almost all companies and organizations have the same objectives:
• greater customer satisfaction;
• higher-quality products and services;
• lower operating costs;
• lower capital costs;
• shorter lead times – quicker to market; and, of course,
• survival.
For businesses, an implicit, superordinate objective is to make profit. This is
essential for survival, and will follow from lower costs, greater customer satisfac-
tion and the other objectives listed.

THE SUPPLY CHAIN 15
Today these objectives are being pursued in a business environment that
features:
• slow economic growth;
• relentless cost competition;
• government and consumer pressures;
• changing consumer expectations;
• increasing market complexity;
• faster technological change;
• globalization of key industries.
Managers who have trained as engineers or scientists are uniquely well equipped
to help companies succeed in achieving these aims in this environment, but before
considering the ways in which they can contribute, two more influences on their
role are introduced. Different business functions, such as design, manufacturing,
distribution and service, which all involve engineers, scientists and technologists
in different ways, have already been mentioned. The two further influences on
their tasks to be reviewed here are:
(1) Location of the organization in the ‘supply chain.’
(2) The type of organization (product or project based).
2.3 THE SUPPLY CHAIN
The requirement for a particular management skill, the importance of particular
objectives and the influence of particular external factors depend somewhat on
where the manager’s organization is located in the supply chain (Figure 2.1).
Environmental factors may be more important to extractive industries that
supply basic raw materials, and to process industries, such as power generation
or oil refining. Demographic factors – that is, the size and age structure of
populations – may be more important to service or assembly industries with
relatively high labour requirements.
The supply chain stretches from holes in the ground or seabed where metals,
minerals, fuels and feedstuffs are extracted from mines, quarries and boreholes,
through refining of basic materials, the processing and forming of parts and
components, the stages of subassembly, final assembly, distribution, service
and maintenance, and, eventually, disposal – possibly into more holes in the
ground or seabed. Along the way, all manner of services and equipment are
required. At every stage there are supplier/customer relationships – internally,
between different functions within the organization, and externally, between the
organization and its suppliers and customers. It is these internal and external
relationships that occupy most of a manager’s time. They may also be the
source of a new employee’s first business experience, through participation in
preparation of an offer to supply a product or service, or through helping to review
and analyse such an offer from within the receiving organization, or through
‘chasing’ a supplier organization to expedite delivery of information or the product
or service.

16 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
Figure 2.1 The supply chain
2.4 PRODUCT-BASED COMPANIES AND PROJECT-BASED COMPANIES
2.4.1 Product-based companies
Aproduct-basedcompanyisonethatmakesarangeofproductssuchashardware,
light ﬁttings, motor cars or television sets, which are designed to meet a general
market need. A series of models and options may be necessary to cover the
majority of customers’ requirements and, together with a mix of technologies,
this can result in a high level of complexity in designing, manufacturing and
distributing the product. The products are made in relatively high volumes, which
leads to a high percentage of management and engineering effort being devoted
to manufacturing and distribution. This is illustrated in Figure 2.2.
The ﬁgure indicates that production schedules for product-based companies
are based on sales forecasts, which is still generally the case. Some product-
based companies, though, such as those in the car industry or personal computer
makers,areseeking to becomemoreresponsivein their manufacturing operations

PRODUCT-BASED AND PROJECT-BASED COMPANIES 17
Figure 2.2 The product-based company
and to supply within a few weeks or even days, to fill specific orders. Another
change affecting product-based companies is the growing emphasis on design
and production engineering. This stems from the realization that manufacturing
concerns to improve quality and increase responsiveness are often better resolved
in these early phases of the business cycle. In turn, this means that suppliers,
and hence purchasing, are also more involved in the design stages than solely
with production as shown in the illustration. The figure was provided by PA
Consultants in 1991, immediately after it had been used in a workshop for a
leading UK engineering company. It has been reproduced as then used to make
thepointthatmanyaspectsofengineeringandbusinessarecontinually changing.
2.4.2 Project-based companies
Project-based companies design and manufacture complex items such as aircraft
or locomotives in relatively low volumes, or design and construct such things as
bridges, processing plant, ships or oilrigs, which may be unique, one-off projects.
Some of these products, such as aircraft, have extended working lives of 20 years
or more, so that aftersales support such as maintenance, servicing and upgrading
are more important than for product-based companies. A greater proportion of
management and engineering and technological effort is therefore absorbed by

Figure 2.3 The project-based company
such support functions. Equally, more effort goes into design (which may include
scientists designing materials at the molecular level) and into production or
construction engineering compared with product-based companies (Figure 2.3).
Selling and buying a ‘project’ is a more complicated task than selling or buying
a product like a domestic washing machine, and is done by teams rather than
individuals. The teams contain engineers and scientists of many kinds, who have
to work together with other professionals such as lawyers, accountants and
buyers to secure the best contract for their company. Learning to work as a
member of a team is particularly important for engineers and scientists in project-
based companies (see Chapter 17), and is increasingly important for engineers
in product-based companies. Project-based or product-based, the companies and
teams have to work in a business environment with similar external factors.
2.5 EXTERNAL FACTORS
To determine a business strategy, or any other strategy, it is necessary to
consider the environment within which the manager’s unit is performing. This
consideration should identify the ‘OT’, opportunities and threats, of ‘SWOT’
analysis arising from the external factors that are considered below. (‘SW’ stands
for strengths and weaknesses, which are identiﬁed by internal review to determine
how the organization is placed to handle the opportunities and threats.) SWOT
analysis is useful at any level in business (see also Chapter 22, section 22.6) and
in many other aspects of life – such as preparing for a sporting encounter, or even

EXTERNAL FACTORS 19
an unsporting encounter – so engineers and other ‘techies’ will benefit in many
ways if they use the approach.
Like most management tools, SWOT is not new – a much cheaper version with
a different mnemonic, ‘SMEAC’, was used at the very low level of the British
infantry section at least 50 years ago. It may be easier to remember and use than
SWOT analysis. SMEAC covers:
S – Situation. What is the operating environment?
M – Mission. What are we aiming to do?
E – Execution. How are we going to do it?
A – Administration. What do we need to get it done?
C – Communication. Who needs to know what? When? How?
A review of the situation or business environment, to identify the factors that
are important to the organization’s mission and the ways in which the mission
is to be pursued, is the initial management task. This applies whether the unit
being managed is a small team within an office, or a whole department, or a
manufacturing plant, or an entire company.
External factors can be classified in two ways:
(1) Groups of people, sometimes labelled stakeholders, such as shareholders,
suppliers,customers,competitors,unions,themedia,governments,financial
institutions. (These are not separate groups!)
(2) Abstract concepts, such as economics, politics, technology, ecology, culture.
(Again, the borders overlap.)
Figure 2.4 illustrates the way in which these factors ‘surround’ the organization,
with the stakeholders in the inner ring having more direct, short-term influence
than the factors in the outer ring.
In this chapter, only the outer general or global factors will be considered.
Some of the stakeholders and inner factors are covered elsewhere – suppliers in
Chapter 21 and competitors in Chapter 22, for example. Chapter 11 aims to assist
engineers, scientists and technologists when they face the task of communicating
with (and within) the groups shown in the inner circle.
Some factors coming from the outer group that affect many managers are
as follows.
Economics. Worldwide economic growth, measured by Gross National Product
(GNP), was slow in the 1980s and even slower in the 1990s – less than 2%
annually over the decade. Even the ‘driver’ economies of Japan, Germany and the
USA slowed in the first few years of the 1990s. At the turn of the century, Japan
and Germany were still in the economic doldrums, but the USA was growing
faster. By the start of the twenty-first century, in addition to growth in the USA,
impetus to global growth was coming from new quarters such as China, India
and Russia. (See Table 2.2.)
Japan became used to double-digit growth rates from the 1960s and was
shocked to find itself struggling with annual rates of 4% or less in the early
1990s – although 4% is the sort of increase that many western economies would
be glad to reach. Germany consistently grew at 4 or 5% for many years, but
struggled after reunification at the levels that are more familiar to Britain, Italy

ECONOMICS
EDUCATION
ECOLOGY
GOVERNMENT
TECHNOLOGY
MEDIA
CULTURE
POLITICS
DEMOGRAPHY
SHAREHOLDERS
FINANCIAL
INSTITUTIONS
SUPPLIERS
COMPETITORS
EMPLOYEES
THE
ORGANIZATION
UNIONS
CUSTOMERS
Figure 2.4 External factors influencing the organization
Table 2.1 Real GDP % change per annum in G7 countries 1991–1996
1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996
USA −0.7 2.6 3.1 3.9 2.7 3.6
Japan 4.0 1.3 0.1 1.0 1.9 3.4
France 1.7 1.9 −1.1 2.8 1.8 1.1
Germany 0.7 1.4 −1.0 2.2 1.7 0.8
Italy 1.3 0.9 −0.7 2.2 2.9 1.1
UK −2.2 −0.5 2.0 3.5 2.9 2.6
Canada −1.7 0.7 2.2 4.1 2.8 1.6
G7 0.4 1.7 1.3 2.8 2.4 2.7
Total OECD∗
0.5 1.7 1.3 2.8 2.6 3.0
∗
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries comprise
over 20 of the world’s more advanced economies. They are dominated by the seven largest
‘free world’ economies of the ‘G7’ countries: USA, Japan, Germany, France, UK, Italy
and Canada.
Source: OECD Economic Outlook, Vol. 2003/1, No. 73, June 2003
and France. From 1993, for the rest of the decade, both Japan and Germany
experienced growth rates between zero and 2% (see Table 2.1).
This slow growth led to surplus capacity in many industries – automotive,
aerospace, shipbuilding, steel and so on. Despite the surplus, new capacity was
added as part of national or company policy, and the effectiveness of existing
capacity was increased by efficiency improvements. This led to intense compe-
tition, with national and company efforts enhanced or frustrated by fluctuating
exchange rates. For example, the value of the Japanese yen doubled versus the
US dollar in the 1980s, completely changing the economics of shipping products

EXTERNAL FACTORS 21
from Japan to the USA. Japanese companies therefore set up assembly plants in the
USA for motorcycles, televisions, copiers, cars and more, and their major suppliers
followed. Some of the American states with limited industrial development, such
as Tennessee, came up with their own economic policies to attract this investment
and became alternative sources for the US market. With further exchange rate
changes in the early 1990s, and partly due to political influences, these new,
efficient, low-cost, high-quality American assembly plants were in some cases
used as a base for exporting to Europe, or back to Japan.
TheUnitedStates(withCanadaincloseassociation)tookoverasthedriverofthe
world economy in the closing years of the twentieth century, but a combination of
political, cultural, demographical and technological influences began to change
the shape of global economics in the twenty-first. GDP growth in the early years is
shown in Table 2.2, where China and Russia have been added to the G7 countries,
and some of the factors affecting recent and later years are discussed below.
Demography. Changes in the age structure of populations – which are almost
inevitable,barringsomeformofglobalcatastrophe – haveimportanteffectsonthe
threats and opportunities for countries, companies, products and services – and
people. Figures 2.5 and 2.6 (taken from an internal Ford publication distributed
in 1985) show projections of the age structure of the populations of the USA and
western Europe.
These projections were made in 1985, but this is one area where forecasts are
very reliable and, as expected, the projections held good. The chart shows, for
example, that the number of Americans in the 35 to 44 age group was expected
to increase by 68% between the years 1980 and 2000. Over the 30-year period
1970 to 2000, in both Europe and North America, the projections showed a
middle age bulge (not an anatomical feature, but an increase in the proportion of
the population and in the absolute numbers, in the 35 to 55 age range). There was
also a growing old age tail, as lifespans increased with better diet, better health
care and better education and, in Europe particularly, as the effects of loss of lives
in World War II diminished.
Table 2.2 Real GDP % change per annum in G7 countries 1997–2004 (plus two of
the new growth economies, China and Russia 2001–2004)
Forecast
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
USA 4.4 4.3 4.1 3.8 0.3 2.4 2.5 4.0
Japan 1.8 −1.1 0.1 2.8 0.4 0.3 1.0 1.1
France 1.9 3.5 3.2 4.2 1.8 1.2 1.2 2.6
Germany 1.4 2.0 2.0 2.9 0.6 0.2 0.3 1.7
Italy 2.0 1.8 1.7 3.1 1.8 0.4 1.0 2.4
UK 3.4 2.9 2.4 3.1 2.1 1.8 2.1 2.6
Canada 4.2 4.1 5.4 4.5 1.5 3.4 2.7 3.4
G7 3.1 2.7 2.8 3.6 0.8 1.5 1.8 2.9
China 7.3 8.0 7.7 7.1
Russia 5.0 4.3 5.0 3.5
Total OECD 3.5 2.7 3.1 3.8 0.8 1.8 1.9 3.0
Source: OECD Economic Outlook, Vol. 2003/1, No. 73, June 2003

16−24
60
50
40
30
Millions
Age groups
Up 31%
Up 21%
Up 23%
1970 1980 1990 2000
20
10
0
25−34 35−44 45−54 55−64 65+
Figure 2.5 Population age shifts – Europe
15−24
60
50
40
30
Millions
Age groups
Up 68%
Up 62%
Up 36%
1970 1980 1990 2000
20
10
0
25−34 35−44 45−54 55−64 65+
Figure 2.6 Population age shifts – USA
The way these expanded middle age and old age groups use their relatively high
disposable income has a profound effect on the demand for services and consumer
goods. They tend to be better informed and more demanding customers, and
their priorities and values are changing compared with their counterparts 20 or
even 10 years ago. This shifts the edge of the intense competition generated by
economic factors into quality and product features that particularly appeal to the

EXTERNAL FACTORS 23
‘golden oldies’, and to competition on convenience as well as cost. These older
groups tend to be impatient, so they want the improved products and services
now, which introduces time competition – shorter times from idea to availability,
and shorter times from order to delivery. So, products become more complex and
tailored to segments of the market, and production and delivery systems have to
be adjusted to deal with this complexity.
While demographic trends in the closing decades of the twentieth century had
similar economic effects in Europe and North America, in the opening decades of
the twenty-first century they ‘will transform the economic importance of different
areas of the world’, as described in an article by Christopher Smallwood [1].
Through a combination of differential birth and immigration rates, the population
of the United States will grow from some 250 million – that is, 100 million less
than Europe in 2003 – to catch up with Europe by 2040 and exceed Europe by 40
million by 2050. The working population of Europe will decline, and America’s
will increase. Consequently, the US share of global GDP will grow from 23% in
2000 to 26% in 2050, while Europe’s will shrink from 18% to 10%. A later article
by David Smith [2] shows that despite this growth, US GDP will be overtaken
by China’s by 2041, and possibly by India’s later in the century – as a result of
political and technological developments, as well as demographic factors.
These shifts in economic power have to be recognized in the business planning
andmanagementofcompaniesengagedinengineeringandtechnology.Managers
have to predict what products and services will be required, where they can be
sold most profitably, and where they can best be sourced.
Governments.Local,nationalandsupranationalgovernmentsalltakeongreater
responsibilitiesinareassuchashealth,safety,carefortheenvironment,consumer
protectionandmuchelse.Keepingupwiththeresultantlegislation,andcomplying
with it, is an increasing part of a manager’s job. Designers and researchers in the
pharmaceutical, automotive and aircraft industries in particular need to be aware
of existing and expected legal requirements affecting the content, production and
use of their industries’ products in all the countries where they are to be made
and used. Managing the associated information is almost an industry in itself, and
complying with the laws is an important driver of technological change.
Governments can be credited or blamed for the rapid economic growth of China
and Russia, the sustained strength of the USA and the decline of ‘Euroland’ – the
countries using the euro as their common currency. China’s decisions to join
the World Trade Organization in 2001 and to peg its currency to the US dollar
have made it a low-cost manufacturer for many of the consumer products
required by ‘the West’, enabling it to overtake Japan as America’s biggest trading
partner and generating a $100 bn trade surplus with the US. These decisions
also helped make China an increasingly important market for equipment and
engineering companies that can help modernize China’s manufacturing base and
infrastructure – and for makers of consumer goods for China’s new wealthy elite.
In contrast, the European Monetary Union policy of retaining a ‘strong’ euro has
made it difficult for European companies to retain their share of US markets, and
has drawn increased imports from the USA, Japan – and China.
Culture.ThisisshownasanexternalfactorinFigure 2.4.Itwasculturethatkept
China out of the international trade community, and extreme cultural differences
could be cited as a root cause of the attack on the World Trade Center in September

2001. Immediate effects of the attack were a plunge in business confidence and
the US stock market, a cessation of air travel, and diversion of resources to a ‘war
on terror’, which together knocked US GDP growth from about 4% p.a. to zero,
overnight – see Table 2.2. Thus culture, though a somewhat vague concept, has
significant real-world influence and has to be considered in long-term planning.
Technological change. The pace of technological change continues to increase.
Information technology (IT) and electronics are two of the fastest-changing areas,
and these changes themselves generate more potential for change by putting
powerful tools at the disposal of designers. A complete car, aircraft or oil refinery
can be designed and shown in three dimensions on screen in sufficient detail to
‘sit in’ or ‘walk through’, and components or processes can be tested by computer
simulation in a fraction of the time it would take to build and test a model or a
prototype. The designs and test results can be flashed across the world instantly.
Materials with new properties are being developed, bringing the possibility of new
products and processes – and new competition. Bringing these new materials and
technologies to market ahead of competition is becoming, or has become, the
most important source of competitive advantage (see Chapter 22).
Globalization. Because of the huge costs of developing new products in many
industries,suchasaerospace,pharmaceuticals,computersandcars,itisbecoming
increasingly common for design to take place in one centre only, and for manu-
facturing or assembly facilities to be established in several locations to minimize
production and delivery costs. Readily transportable products like aeroplanes can
be built wherever the necessary skills are available and flown or floated to the cus-
tomer, but products like cars and consumer electronics (TV and hi-fi, for example)
tend to be assembled closer to major markets. Centralized design and dispersed
production of ‘end products’ by the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) has
implications all the way down (or is it up?) the supply chain. The technological
changes in IT mentioned above make ‘global’ companies of high-street banks,
utility companies and many others – call centres, design offices, ‘back-office’ oper-
ationsandsooncanbelocatedincountriesacrosstheworldwithlowlabour costs.
A more complete picture of the external factors at work in the business
environment is shown in Figure 2.7, from the Department of Trade and Industry’s
book Manufacturing in the Late 1990s [3]. It is worth spending time looking at the
threats and opportunities, and considering how they work their way through to
the strategies of companies close to home – wherever that may be.
At first it may bedifficult to seethelinks between,say,theexpanding PacificRim
countries, exchange rate fluctuations and the affairs of a small UK supplier to one
ofthelong-establishedEuropeanvehiclemanufacturers.However,suchasupplier
has to consider the effects of the arrival of the Japanese as vehicle producers in
Europe (because currency movements and political pressures preclude reliance on
continued growth in the shipment of cars from Japan). Will the European vehicle
manufacturer – that is, the UK supplier’s present customer – lose a large part of its
market share to the Japanese? Will the customer perhaps even go out of business?
Will it be demanding price cuts as part of its battle to survive? Should the supplier
begin to court the newly arrived producers? If it does, what will be the reaction
of its current major customer? What do the Japanese expect from their suppliers?
Will this mean new equipment, retraining of staff and involvement with designers
in Japan? Suddenly, what is happening on the other side of the world becomes

THE OPPORTUNITY 25
Figure 2.7 External drivers or factors
an important factor in the development of the UK supplier’s business plan, and
it has to review its strengths and weaknesses (the internal factors) to determine
its response.
2.6 THE OPPORTUNITY FOR ENGINEERS, TECHNOLOGISTS
AND SCIENTISTS
2.6.1 Natural strengths
Engineers, technologists and scientists probably have better basic strengths than
other professional groups to handle the pursuit of those common business goals

listed at the start of this chapter, against the background of external factors
described above. This can be inferred from a look at the corporate objectives from
a ‘techie’s’ point of view. They are considered in turn below.
2.6.2 Greater customer satisfaction
Think about customers in the internal sense, as shown in Figure 2.8, from a Ford
Simultaneous Engineering team presentation. The major internal customer and
supplier functions are engineering and technological activities, so it should be
the case that engineers and technologists in the supplier functions will readily
understand the needs of engineers and technologists in the customer functions,
and will be motivated to satisfy them. With product development increasingly
starting in the science base (see Chapter 6, section 6.6), scientists, too, become
part of the design team, and have to satisfy customer colleagues.
In the wider, external context, customers – as shown in Figures 2.5 and 2.6 –
are getting older. This is unavoidable and should not depress young engineers
and technologists. We all get older one year at a time, which means that from a
population’s present age structure it is possible to predict its future age structure
with some precision. This is one case where making predictions, even about the
Product development department
Production and process planning
Manufacturing and assembly
Sales department
Customers of the Ford Motor Company
is a supplier
for the customer
is a supplier
for the customer
is a supplier
for the customer
is a supplier
for the customer
Figure 2.8 The internal customer chain

THE OPPORTUNITY 27
Figure 2.9 Increasing real affluence – USA
Source: DRI population trends applied to NNCBS age/income distribution
future, is not so dangerous. By combining the expected age structure with some
rather less secure forecasts about social and income patterns, it is possible to
outline customer profiles some years ahead. Figure 2.9 shows such a forecast of
age and income distributions in the USA.
It can be seen that potential customers were expected to become richer. This
is not so certain as the prediction of their life expectation, but the general trend
should be an encouragement to young engineers and technologists. The chart
reflects an expected increase in real affluence. From a mid-1980s base when
$40 000 p.a. was a comfortable level of earnings, it was expected that the 35 to 54
age group earning more than $40 000 (in real terms) would increase from 19%
to 30% of the population by the year 2000. The increased number of middle-aged
Europeans probably expected a similar comfortable state of affluence.
So, customers are getting older and wealthier. Maybe they are getting wiser, but
we should not rely on it. They are also becoming better educated, more discerning
and more demanding.
In both senses, internal and external, customers are changing and their
requirements are changing as well. This is where engineers and others with
scientific training can score, because they are used to dealing with change.
Change results from potential difference, temperature difference, or a force or
chemical reaction. Inertia and impedance slow down change. A control system
listens, measures and adjusts so that the desired performance or result is achieved
despite variations. The same analytical approach can be used to recognize the
forces creating change and the obstacles to change in business, and to measure
and hear ‘the voice of the customer’, which is the key to quality and the start of
new product and process development (Figure 2.10).
2.6.3 Higher quality
Customer satisfaction and improved quality are inseparable. Compliance, per-
formance, reliability, durability, availability and disposability are all aspects of
quality that affect customer satisfaction.
Engineers and technologists help to meet all these quality aspirations through
design, both of the product and the process. At the same time, they can, by using
tools such as QFD, FMEA, Pokayoke and the concept of the internal customer,
resolve the ‘design dilemma’. (See Chapter 4 for an explanation of these tools and
Chapter 6 for an illustration of the design dilemma.)

Figure 2.10 The listening engineer – hearing the customer
2.6.4 Lower operating costs
The key to lower operating costs is higher quality, and doing things right first
time every time. Redoing things, sorting, dismantling, correcting, scrapping,
replacing, compensating, inspecting, checking and chasing are all unnecessary
wasteful activities that add 20% or more to cost. (See Chapter 4.)
Engineers and scientists can eliminate these wasteful activities, through design
for quality, design for manufacture, design for assembly, design for mainte-
nance – and design for customer satisfaction and delight. They are therefore key
people in the drive for lower operating costs.
2.6.5 Lower capital costs
Quality is again the key to lower capital costs. Capacity utilized in making defects
is lost capacity. The way this can be changed by engineers and technologists
is illustrated by achievements in Ford’s paint shop at Halewood, which at one
time had a first-time OK rate of about 65%, meaning that 35% of painted bodies
needed rework before they met the levels of quality required for the next phase of
production. With problem-solving techniques, minor investment and improved
labour relations this was raised to over 90% – similar to the best European and
Japanese paint shops, and equivalent to almost 50% more capacity, with a similar
increase in labour productivity. Production control, maintenance planning and
other activities for which engineers and technologists are responsible can have
similar effects – but to influence investment levels, these aspects have to be
considered in the planning phases and included in the QFD analysis – another

THE OPPORTUNITY 29
province of engineers and technologists. This is the sort of factor that cuts
investment costs, rather than ‘squeezes’ by accountants.
Another spectacular example of savings that engineers can achieve in this field
also comes from the motor industry. A 12-year-old transfer line for machining
engine blocks was the bottleneck in production of the engine whose availability
was restricting sales. For every extra engine produced, another car could be sold.
The line ran only just over 50% of the time. One engineer, working with the
shop-floor operators and using simple analytical methods, found out why (the
main reason was waiting for parts) and devised ways to increase production
by over 50%, and at the same time reduce manning levels by 22 employees
per shift. The changes in the way the line was managed were valid for other
lines – including the next transfer line of that type, which could be designed with
20% fewer stations – at a saving of more than £3m.
An example that is not from the motor industry, but from close to it, is the
British Steel Llanwern works. It was reckoned that its total quality performance
programme helped raise plant utilization from 80 to 90%, saving £20m a year.
However, it is not clear whether this success can be claimed by engineers and
technologists – in fact, like all successful quality programmes, it was the result of
involvement of the whole workforce (which included many engineers, scientists
and technologists!).
2.6.6 Shorter lead times
The main cause of programme delays is change – design change leading to
component change, process change and equipment change. The next most
important cause is the development process itself, including the sourcing of
bought-out materials, parts and equipment, which generates a series of delays if
performed sequentially.
Design engineers may argue that they are not the source of changes but
innocent victims of the whims of the customer or senior management. This is
not very persuasive – it is really an admission of poor communication and an
inadequate new product development process for which they themselves are
largely responsible.
By working together in teams, using the simultaneous engineering approach to
newproductdevelopment(seeChapter 6)andseekingtosatisfyinternalcustomers
as described in section 2.6.2, scientists and engineers can eliminate – or at least
reduce by significant margins, such as 80% – the changes to product and process
that cause delay in new product development. They are the drivers of ‘faster to
market’.
2.6.7 Government, pressure groups and technological change
This review of the engineers’ and scientists’ natural strengths in relation to
business objectives has mentioned most of the global influences that were listed,
but rather understated the scientists’ and engineers’ roles in:
• government and consumer pressures;
• technological change.

The government and consumer pressures always translate into new or modified
products or processes – the scientists’ and engineers’ territory. Technological
change is generated largely by scientists and engineers, so handling it is also their
responsibility.
Government and consumer pressures are most keenly felt in the areas of health
and safety, and in environmental protection. Most developed countries have
legislation relating to health and safety at work, as well as safety in the home, in
all forms of transportation, in public buildings, and in connection with products
such as foods and pharmaceuticals. These all have important implications for
researchers, technologists and engineers. It is a small step from product safety
to product quality and consumer protection. The consumer movement probably
beganwithsafetyissuesraisedbyRalphNaderintheUSAinhisbookUnsafeatAny
Speed [4], which criticized the design of some of the then recently introduced cars.
Now there are regulations on product liability that go beyond safety, to function
and durability, and on to environmental effects in use and after use. Processes, too,
may be required to comply with standards relating to noise, emissions, effluents
and residues, and meeting all these standards involves scientists and engineers.
Environmental issues were highlighted by Rachel Carson in 1963, in her book
The Silent Spring [5]. A wide range of environmental pressure groups has built
up since – some private, some funded by governmental bodies like the United
Nations. Recognition of public concerns as expressed by such bodies can have an
influence on corporate image, and for this reason alone the environmental lobby
is yet another factor for scientists, engineers and managers to consider. There can
also be a direct effect on business performance: it was an environmental issue
(asbestos-relateddisease)thatalmostruinedABBanddominatedtopmanagement
attention for over three years – see Chapter 8.
2.7 SUMMARY
This chapter identified in general terms the business objectives that are being
pursued by almost all organizations, and the major factors in the external
business environment that have to be considered by managers working towards
achievement of these corporate goals. The concept of the ‘business chain’ was
introduced, followed by a classification of engineering and technology companies
into product-based and project-based organizations. Together with the business
functions described in Chapter 1, this should give some idea of the wide range of
business roles for scientists, technologists and engineers. The chapter concluded
with an indication of the outstanding opportunities for such ‘techies’ in all of these
roles to contribute to the achievement of corporate objectives, and to respond to
the threats and opportunities in the global business environment.
REFERENCES
1. Smallwood, Christopher (2003) ‘People power rings changes’, The Sunday
Times, August 10. The article highlights points from Christopher Small-
wood and Andrew Jones (2003) Demographic Trends and Economic Growth:
Positioning Companies for the Long Term, Makinson Cowell. London.

REFERENCES 31
2. Smith, David (2003) ‘World tilts towards the east’, Economic Outlook, The
Sunday Times, October 10.
3. PA Consulting (1993) Manufacturing in the Late 1990s, Department of
Trade and Industry, HMSO, London. Available from www.dti.gov.uk/
publications.
4. Nader, R. (1965) Unsafe at Any Speed, Grossman, New York.
5. Carson, R. L. (1963) The Silent Spring, Hamilton, London.

Other documents randomly have
different content

own, first in its general meaning, and then word for word. Take an
illustration from the language of the Bushmen. The meaning would
be substantially this: 'The Bushman was at first received kindly by
the white man in order that he might be brought to herd his sheep;
then the white man maltreated the Bushman; the latter ran away,
whereupon the white man took another Bushman, who suffered the
same experience,' The language of the Bushmen expresses this in
the following way: 'Bushman-there-go, here-run-to-white man, white
man-give-tobacco, Bushman-go-smoke, go-fill-tobacco-pouch, white
man-give-meat-Bushman, Bushman-go-eat-meat, stand-up-go-
home, go happily, go-sit-down, herd-sheep-white man, white man-
go-strike Bushman, Bushman-cry-loud-pain, Bushman-go-run-away-
white man, white man-run-after-Bushman, Bushman-then-another,
this one-herd-sheep, Bushman-all-gone.' In this complaint of the
man of nature against his oppressor, everything is concrete,
perceptual. He does not say, The Bushman was at first kindly taken
up by the white man, but, The white man gives him tobacco, he fills
his pouch and smokes; the white man gives him meat, he eats this
and is happy, etc. He does not say, The white man maltreats the
Bushman, but, He strikes him, the Bushman cries with pain, etc.
What we express in relatively abstract concepts is entirely reduced
by him to separate perceptual images. His thought always attaches
to individual objects. Moreover, just as primitive language has no
specific means for expressing a verb, so also are change and action
overshadowed in primitive thought by the concrete image. The
thinking itself, therefore, may be called concrete. Primitive man sees
the image with its separate parts; and, as he sees it, so he
reproduces it in his language. It is for this very reason that he is
unfamiliar with differences of grammatical categories and with
abstract concepts. Sequence is still governed entirely by the pure
association of ideas, whose order is determined by perception and
by the recollection of that which has been experienced. The above
narrative of the Bushman expresses no unitary thought, but image
follows upon image in the order in which these appear to
consciousness. Thus, the thinking of primitive man is almost
exclusively associative. Of the more perfect form of combining

concepts, the apperceptive, which unites the thoughts into a
systematic whole, there are as yet only traces, such as occur in the
combination of the separate memory images.
Many analogues to the formal characteristics of primitive thought
revealed in these linguistic phenomena may be met in child-
language. There is a wide divergence, however, with respect to the
very element which has already disappeared, with the exception of
slight traces, from the language of primitive peoples. I refer to the
close correlation of sound and meaning. As regards this feature,
child-language is much more similar to gesture-language than is
possible in the case of forms of speech that have undergone a long
historical development. For, child-language, like gesture-language, is,
in a certain sense, continually being created anew. Of course, it is
not created, as is sometimes supposed, by the children themselves.
It is a conventionalized language of the mothers and nurses who
converse with the child, supplemented, in part, by the child's
associates along the lines of these traditional models. The sound-
complexes signifying animals, 'bow-wow' for the dog, 'hott-hott' for
the horse, 'tuk-tuk' for the chicken, etc., as also 'papa' and 'mamma'
for father and mother, are sounds that are in some way fitted to the
meaning and at the same time resemble so far as possible the
babbling sounds of the child. But this entire process is instituted by
the child's associates, and is at most supplemented by the child
himself to the extent of a few incidental elements. For this reason,
child-language has relatively little to teach us concerning the
development of speaking and thinking; those psychologists and
teachers who believe that it affords an important source of
information concerning the origin of thought are in error. Such
information can be gained only from those modes of expressing
thought which, like gesture-language, are originated anew by the
speaker and are not externally derived, or from those which, like the
spoken languages of primitive peoples, have retained, in their
essential characteristics, primitive modes of thinking. Even in these
cases it is only the forms of thought that are thus discoverable. The
content, as is implied by the formal characteristics themselves, is, of

course, also of a sense-perceptual, not of a conceptual, nature. And
yet the particular character or quality of this content is not inherent
in the forms of the language as such. To gain a knowledge of its
nature we must examine the specific ideas themselves and the
associated feelings and emotions.
Thus, then, the further question arises: Wherein consists the content
of primitive thought? Two sorts of ideas may be distinguished. The
one comprises that stock of ideas which is supplied to consciousness
by the direct perceptions of daily life—ideas such as go, stand, lie,
rest, etc., together with animal, tree (particularly in the form of
individual animals and trees), man, woman, child, I, thou, you, and
many others. These are objects of everyday perception that are
familiar to all, even to the primitive mind. But there is also a second
class of ideas. These do not represent things of immediate
perception; briefly expressed, they originate in feeling, in emotional
processes which are projected outward into the environment. This is
an important and particularly characteristic group of primitive ideas.
Included within it are all references to that which is not directly
amenable to perception but, transcending this, is really
supersensuous, even though appearing in the form of sensible ideas.
This world of imagination, projected from man's own emotional life
into external phenomena, is what we mean by mythological thinking.
The things and processes given to perception are supplemented by
other realities that are of a non-perceptible nature and therefore
belong to an invisible realm back of the visible world. These are the
elements, furthermore, which very early find expression in the art of
primitive man.
7. EARLIEST BELIEFS IN MAGIC AND DEMONS.
In entering upon a consideration of the development of primitive
myths, we are at once confronted by the old question disputed by

mythologists, ethnologists, and students of religion, Where and
when did religion originate? For is not religion always concerned with
the supernatural? Now, in certain cases, even primitive man
supplements the sensuous world in which he lives and whose
impressions he has not so much as elaborated into abstract
concepts, with supersensuous elements, though he himself, of
course, is unaware of their supersensuous character. The question,
therefore, lies near at hand: Is religion already present at this stage,
or is there at most a potentiality of religion, the germ of its future
development? If the latter should be true, where, then, does religion
begin? Now, our interest in the history of myth-formation derives
largely from the very fact that the problem is intimately bound up
with that of the origin of religion. Merely in itself the origin of the
myth might have relatively little interest for us. The question,
however, as to how religion arose acquires its great importance
through its connection with the two further questions as to whether
or not religion is a necessary constituent of human consciousness
and whether it is an original possession or is the result of certain
preconditions of mythological thought.
It is interesting to follow this ancient dispute, particularly its course
during the last few decades. In 1880, Roskoff wrote a book entitled
The Religion of the Most Primitive Nature-Peoples. In this work he
assembled all the available facts, and came to the conclusion that no
peoples exist who have not some form of religion. About ten years
ago, however, the two Sarasins, students of Ceylon and of the
primitive Veddah tribes, summed up their conclusions in the
proposition: The Veddahs have no religion. If, however, we compare
Roskoff's facts concerning primitive peoples with those reported by
the Sarasins concerning the belief of the Veddahs in demons and
magic, it appears that the facts mentioned by these investigators are
essentially the same. What the former calls religion, the latter call
belief in magic; but in neither case is there a statement as to what is
really meant by religion. Now, we cannot, of course, come to an
understanding with reference to the presence or absence of
anything until we are agreed as to what the thing itself really is.

Hence, the question under dispute is raised prematurely at the
present stage of our discussion; it can be answered only after we
have examined more of the steps in the development of myth and of
the preconditions of the religion of later times. We shall therefore
recur to this point in our third chapter, after we have become
acquainted with such religions as may indubitably lay claim to the
name. Postponing the question for the present, we will designate the
various phenomena that must be discussed at this point by the
specific names attaching to them on the basis of their peculiar
characteristics. In this sense, there is no doubt that we may speak of
ideas of magic and of demons even in the case of primitive peoples;
it is generally conceded that such ideas are universally entertained at
this stage of culture. But the further question at once arises as to
the source of this belief in magic and in demons, and as to the
influences by which it is sustained. Now, in respect to this point two
views prevail, even among the ethnologists who have made an
intensive study of primitive peoples. The one view may briefly be
called that of nature-mythology. It assumes that even far back under
early conditions the phenomena of the heavens were the objects
that peculiarly fascinated the thought of man and elevated it above
its immediate sensible environment. All mythology, therefore, is
supposed originally to have been mythology of nature, particularly of
the heavens. Doubtless this would already involve a religious
element, or, at least, a religious tendency. The second view carries
us even farther in the same direction. It holds that the ideas of
primitive man, so far as they deal with the supersensuous, are
simpler than those of the more highly developed peoples. Just for
this reason, however, it regards these ideas as more perfect and as
approaching more nearly the beliefs of the higher religions. As a
matter of fact, if we compare, let us say, the Semangs and the
Senoi, or the Veddahs, with the natives of Australia, we find a very
great difference as regards this point. Even the mythology of the
Australians is undoubtedly much more complex than that of these
peoples of nature, and the farther we trace this myth development
the greater the complexity becomes. That which is simple, however,
is supposed to be also the higher and the more exalted, just as it is

the more primitive. The beginning is supposed to anticipate the end,
as a revelation not yet distorted by human error. For, the highest
form of religion is not a mythology including a multitude of gods, but
the belief in one God—that is, monotheism. It was believed,
therefore, that the very discovery of primitive man offered new
support for this view. This theory, however, is bound up with an
important anthropological consideration—the question concerning
the place of the so-called Pygmies in the history of human
development. It was on the basis of their physical characteristics
that these dwarf peoples of Africa and Asia, of whom it is only in
comparatively recent times that we have gained any considerable
knowledge, were first declared by Julius Kollman to be the childhood
peoples of humanity, who everywhere preceded the races of larger
stature. Such childhood characteristics, indeed, are revealed not only
in their small stature but in other traits as well. Schweinfurth
observed that the entire skin of the Pygmies of Central Africa is
covered with fine, downy hair, much as is that of the newly born
child. It is by means of these downy hairs that the Monbuttu negro
of that region distinguishes the Pygmy from a youth of his own tribe.
The Negrito is primitive also in that his dermal glands are abnormally
active, causing a bodily odour which is far greater than that of the
negro, and which, just as in the case of some animals, increases
noticeably under the stress of emotion. If, in addition to these
physical characteristics, we consider the low cultural level of all these
dwarf peoples, the hypothesis that the Pygmies are a primitive
people does not, indeed, seem altogether strange. Starting with this
hypothesis, therefore, William Schmidt, in his work, The Place of
the Pygmies in the Development of Mankind (1910), attempted to
prove the proposition that the Pygmies are the childhood peoples of
humanity in their mental culture no less than in their physical
development. This being their nature, they are, of course, limited
intellectually; morally, however, they are in a state of innocence, as
is demonstrated among other things by the pure monogamy
prevailing among them, as well as by their highest possession, their
monotheistic belief.

Now, the supposition of moral innocence rests essentially on the
twofold assumption of the identity of primitive man with the Pygmy
and of the legitimacy of holding that what has been observed of one
tribe of Pygmies is true of the primitive condition generally. But this
identity of primitive man with the Pygmy cannot be maintained. The
most typical traits of primitive mental culture are doubtless to be
found among the Veddahs of Ceylon. The Veddahs, however, are not
really Pygmies, but are of large stature. Moreover, there are primitive
people who are so far from being Pygmies that they belong rather to
the tall races. We might cite the extinct Tasmanians, whose culture
was probably a stage lower than that of the modern Australians. In
most respects, many of the tribes of Central Australia exhibit traits of
primitive culture, even though their social organization is of a far
more complicated nature. Finally, all the peoples whose remains
have been found in the oldest diluvial deposits of Europe belong to
the tall races. On the other hand, there are peoples of small stature,
the Chinese and the Japanese, who must be counted in the first
ranks of cultured peoples. Thus, mental culture certainly cannot be
measured in terms of physical size but only in terms of itself. Mental
values can never be determined except by mental characteristics. It
is true that W. Schmidt has sought to support his theory regarding
the Pygmies by reference to the reports of E.H. Man, a reliable
English observer. According to these reports, the Andamanese, one
of these dwarf peoples, possess some remarkable legends that are
doubtless indicative of monotheistic ideas. Since the Andamans are a
group of islands in the Sea of Bengal and the inhabitants are
therefore separated from other peoples by an expanse of sea,
Schmidt regarded as justifiable the assumption that these legends
were autochthonous; since, moreover, the legends centre about the
belief in a supreme god, he contended that we here finally had proof
of the theory of an original monotheism. The main outlines of the
Andamanese legends as given by E.H. Man are as follows: The
supreme god, Puluga, first created man and subsequently (though
with regard to this there are various versions) he created woman.
She was either created directly, as was man, or man himself created
her out of a piece of wood, possibly a reminiscence of Adam's rib.

Then God gave man laws forbidding theft, murder, adultery, etc.,
forbidding him, furthermore, to eat of the fruits of the first rainy
season. But man did not keep the Divine commandments. The Lord
therefore sent a universal flood, in which perished all living things
with the exception of two men and two women who happened to be
in a boat. In this story, much is naturally distorted, confused, and
adapted to the medium into which the legend is transplanted. But
that it points to the Biblical accounts of the Creation, Paradise, and
the Flood, there cannot, in my opinion, be the slightest doubt. If it is
objected that the Andamans are altogether too far separated from
the rest of the world by the sea, and also that no missionaries have
ever been seen on these islands, our answer would be: Whatever
may be the 'when' and the 'how,' the fact that the Biblical tradition
at some time did come to the Andamanese is proven by the legend
itself. This conclusion is just as incontestable as is the inference, for
example, that the correspondence of certain South American and
Asiatic myths is proof of a transmission. Indeed, the two latter
regions are separated by an incomparably wider expanse of sea than
that which divides the Andamans from Indo-China and its
neighbouring islands. It should also be added that the inhabitants of
the Andaman Islands have obviously progressed far beyond the
condition in which we find the inland tribes of Malacca, the Veddahs
of Ceylon, or the Negritos of the Philippines. They practise the art of
making pottery—an art never found among peoples who are
properly called primitive; they have a social organization, with chiefs.
These phenomena all characterize a fairly advanced culture. When,
therefore, we are concerned with the beliefs of peoples who are
really primitive, the Andamanese must be left out of consideration.
According to the available proofs, however, these people possess a
belief neither in one god nor in many gods. Moreover, even far
beyond the most primitive stage, no coherent celestial mythology
may be found, such as could possibly be regarded as an incipient
polytheism. No doubt, there are ideas concerning single heavenly
phenomena, but these always betray an association with terrestrial
objects, particularly with human beings or animals. And, to all
appearances, these ideas change with great rapidity. Nowhere have

they led to the actual formation of myths. Among the Indians of the
Brazilian forests, for example, the sun and moon are called leaves or
feather-balls; by several of the Soudan tribes they are conceived as
balls that have been thrown to the sky by human beings and have
stuck there. Such ideas alternate with others in which the sun and
moon are regarded as brothers or as brother and sister, or the sun is
said to be chasing the moon—images influenced particularly by the
phenomena of the moon's phases. As a matter of fact, this whole
field of ideas reveals only one belief that is practically universal,
appearing among peoples of nature and recurring even among
civilized peoples. Because of the rare occurrence of the
phenomenon, however, it has never led to a real mythology. I refer
to the belief that in an eclipse of the sun, the sun is swallowed by a
dark demon. This belief, obviously, is very readily suggested to the
primitive imagination; it occurs in Central Africa, in Australia, and in
America, and is found even in Indian mythology. Taken by itself,
however, the notion is incapable of engendering a myth. It is to be
regarded merely as an isolated case to be classed with a more richly
developed set of demon-ideas that dominate the daily life of
primitive man. At this stage, these ideas are the only elements of an
incipient mythology that are clearly discernible and that at the same
time exercise an important influence upon life. In so far as the
mythology of primitive man gains a permanent foothold and
influence, it consists of a belief in magic and demons. There are,
however, two motives which engender this belief and give form and
colour to the ideas and emotions springing from them. These are
death and sickness.
Death! There are doubtless few impressions that have so powerful
an effect upon the man of nature; indeed, civilized man as well is
still very greatly stirred by the phenomenon of death. Let his
companion meet with death, and even the outward actions of a
primitive man are significant. The moment a person dies, the
immediate impulse of primitive man is to leave him lying where he is
and to flee. The dead person is abandoned, and the place where he
died continues to be avoided for a long time—if possible, until

animals have devoured the corpse. Obviously the emotion of fear is
regnant. Its immediate cause is apparently the unusual and fear-
inspiring changes which death makes in the appearance of a man.
The suspension of movements, the pallor of death, the sudden
cessation of breathing—these are phenomena sufficient to cause the
most extreme terror. But what is the nature of the ideas that
associate themselves with this fearsome impression? The flight from
the corpse is evidence that man's fears are primarily for himself. To
tarry in the presence of a dead person exposes the living man to the
danger of being himself overtaken by death. The source of this
danger is evidently identical with that which has brought death to
the recently deceased person himself. Primitive man cannot think of
death except as the sudden departure from the dying person of that
which originally brought life. Nevertheless, there is evidently bound
up with this conception the further idea that powers of life are still
resident in the body; the latter remains firmly associated in the mind
of primitive man with the impression of life. Here, then, we have the
original source of the contradictory idea of a something that
generates life and is therefore independent of the body, while
nevertheless being connected with it. So far as we can gain
knowledge of the impression which death makes on the mind of
primitive man, two disparate motives are indissolubly united. He
regards life as something that, in part, continues in some mysterious
manner to dwell within the corpse, and, in part, hovers about,
invisible, in its vicinity. For this reason, the dead person becomes to
him a demon, an invisible being capable of seizing upon man, of
overpowering or killing him, or of bringing sickness upon him. In
addition to this primitive idea of demons, we also find the conception
of a corporeal soul, meaning by this the belief that the body is the
vehicle of life, and that, so long as it has not itself disappeared, it
continues to harbour the life within itself. The corporeal soul is here
still regarded as a unit which may, by separating itself from the body,
become a demon and pass over into another person. No certain
traces are as yet to be found of belief in a breath or shadow-like
soul. As will appear later, this is a characteristic feature of the
transition from primitive to totemic culture. When some investigators

report that the soul is occasionally referred to by the Semangs of
Malacca as a small bird that soars into the air at the death of a
person, it is not improbable that we here have to do either with the
Semangs of culture, who have undergone marked changes under
Malayan influence, or with the presence of an isolated idea that
belongs to a different cultural circle. For in no other case are ideas
similar to that of the psyche to be found on the level of primitive
culture. On the other hand, the burial customs of the Malays and of
the mixed races living in the immediate vicinity of the primitive
peoples of the Malay Peninsula, already exhibit a striking contrast to
the flight of primitive man from the corpse.
The next group of ideas, those arising from the impression made by
sickness, particularly by such sicknesses as attack man suddenly, are
also restricted to the conception of a corporeal soul. For, one of the
most characteristic marks of this conception is that magical,
demoniacal powers are believed to issue from the body of the dead
person. These powers, however, are not, as occurs in the above
case, regarded as embodied in any visible thing—such as the
exhalations of the breath or an escaping animal—that separates
itself from the person. On the contrary, the demon that leaves the
corpse and attacks another person in the form of a fatal sickness, is
invisible. He is purely the result of an association between the fear
aroused by the occurrence of death and the fright caused by an
unexpected attack of sickness. The dead person, therefore,
continues to remain the seat of demoniacal powers; these he can
repeatedly direct against the living persons who approach him.
Primitive man believes that the demon may assume any form
whatsoever within the body, and deceitful medicine-men take
advantage of this in ostensibly removing the sickness in the form of
a piece of wood or of a stone. But it is precisely these ideas that are
totally unrelated to that of a psyche and its embodiments. Though
the corpse is perhaps the earliest object that suggests sickness-
demons, it is in no wise the only one. Indeed, the attack of sickness
is in itself sufficient to arouse fear of a demon. Thus, the Semangs
and Senoi distinguish a vast number of different sickness-demons.

Such ideas of demons, however, as we find among the Malays and
the Singhalese, where demons are regarded as counter-agents to
sickness-magic and usually take the form of fantastical animal
monsters, never occur except at a later cultural stage. Any
resemblance of these demons to 'soul animals,' which, as we shall
find in our next chapter, are always actual animals, is confined to the
fact that they have some similarity to animals. Obviously they are
creations of the imagination, due to fear and terror. Their only
difference from the monsters of similar origin that are projected into
the outward world is that they are reduced to proportions which fit
the dimensions of the human body.
Closely connected with the magic of sickness is counter-magic, an
agency by which disease is removed or the attack of sickness-
demons warded off. Even primitive man seeks for such modes of
relief. Hence, probably, the original formation of a special group of
men, which, though not, of course, at the very first a fixed
professional class, was nevertheless the precursor of the latter.
Among the American Indians, these were the 'medicine-men'; the
peoples of northern Asia called them 'shamans'—more generally
expressed, they were magicians. The name 'medicine-man,' indeed,
is not inappropriate. The medicine-man of the savages is, in truth,
the predecessor of the modern physician, and also, in a certain
sense, of the modern priest. He not only ministers to the individual
whom he restores to health by means of his counter-magic, but he
can himself directly practise magic. Since he has power over
demons, he can exorcise them from the body; but he can also
magically cause them to enter it. Thus, the medicine-man has a
twofold calling. He is feared, but he is also valued as a helper in
need. His position differs according as the one or the other emotion
predominates. He was the first to investigate the effect of herbs on
man. He probably discovered the poisons, and, by rendering the
arrow poisonous, gained a still higher authority in the eyes of the
savage. For the arrow, too, is a means of magic. But he also
discovered methods of removing poisons, and thereby transformed
poisonous plants into articles of food. His calling, then, is a

supremely important one, though also at all times dangerous for the
one who practises it. He is not only exposed to persecution if he fails
to accomplish what is expected of him, or if he is suspected of evil
magic, but the magician, when pressed by need, also becomes a
deceiver. The deception of the medicine-man, indeed, apparently
dates back to the very earliest times. Koch-Grünberg tells us that
among the Central Brazilians the medicine-men expel disease by
carrying about with them a piece of wood, which they bring forth,
after various manipulations, as the alleged seat of the demon. If the
suggestion thus given is effective, the patient may, of course, feel
himself improved. At any rate, we must not think that the mass of
the people is led to lose belief in magic; in most cases, perhaps, the
medicine-man himself remains a deceived deceiver.
Nevertheless, on the primitive stage, death and sickness are the
main sources of belief in magic and in demons. From this as a
centre, the belief radiates far out into all departments of life. The
belief in magic, for example, assumes the form of protective magic,
of magical defence against demoniacal influences. In this form, it
probably determines the original modes of dress, and, more
obviously and permanently still, the adornment of the body. In fact,
in its beginnings, this adornment was really designed less for
decoration than for purposes of magic.
In connection with the external culture of primitive man we have
already noted his meagre dress, which frequently consisted merely
of a cord of bast about the loins, with leaves suspended from it.
What was the origin of this dress? In the tropical regions, where
primitive man lives, it was surely not the result of need for
protection; nor can we truthfully ascribe it to modesty, as is
generally done on the ground that it is the genital parts that are
most frequently covered. In estimating the causes, the questions of
primary importance are rather those as to where the very first traces
of dress appear and of what its most permanent parts consist. The
answer to the latter question, however, is to be found not in the
apron but in the loin-cord, which is occasionally girt about the hips
without any further attempt at dress. Obviously this was not a

means of protection against storm and cold; nor can modesty be
said to have factored in the development of this article, which serves
the purposes both of dress and of adornment. But what was its real
meaning? An incident from the life of the Veddahs may perhaps
furnish the answer to this question. When the Veddah enters into
marriage, he binds a cord about the loins of his prospective wife.
Obviously this is nothing else than a form of the widely current
'cord-magic,' which plays a not inconsiderable rôle even in present-
day superstition. Cord-magic aims to bring about certain results by
means of a firmly fastened cord. This cord is not a symbol, but is, as
all symbols originally were, a means of magic. When a cord is
fastened about a diseased part of the body and then transferred to a
tree, it is commonly believed that the sickness is magically
transplanted into the tree. If the tree is regarded as representing an
enemy, moreover, this act, by a further association, is believed to
transfer sickness or death to the enemy through the agency of the
tree. The cord-magic of the Veddah is obviously of a simpler nature
than this. By means of the cord which he has himself fastened, the
Veddah endeavours to secure the faithfulness of his wife. The
further parts of primitive dress were developments of the loin-cord,
and were worn suspended from it. Coincidentally with this, the
original means of adornment make their appearance. Necklaces and
bracelets, which have remained favourite articles of feminine
adornment even within our present culture, and fillets about the
head which, among some of the peoples of nature, are likewise worn
chiefly by the women, are further developments of the loin-cord,
transferred, as it were, to other parts of the body. And, as the first
clothing was attached to the loin-cord, so also were the bracelet and
fillet, and particularly the necklace, employed to carry other early
means of protective magic, namely, amulets. Gradually the latter
also developed into articles of adornment, preferably worn, even to-
day, about the neck.

The assumption that the present purpose of clothing is also the end
that it originally served led naturally to the theory that when the
loin-cord alone is worn—as a mere indication, seemingly, of the
absence of clothing—this is to be regarded not as an original custom
but as the remnant of an earlier dress now serving solely as an
adornment. But this supposition is contradicted, in the first place, by
the fact that the loin-cord occasionally occurs by itself precisely
amidst the most primitive conditions, and, in the second place, by
the general development not only of clothing as such but also of
certain means of adorning the surface of the body, particularly
painting and tattooing. Now, there is a general rule that
development proceeds not from the composite to the simple, but,
conversely, from the simple to the complex. Moreover, indications of
the influence of magical ideas are generally the more marked
according as the stages on which the phenomenal occur are the
earlier. The loin-cord, particularly, is occasionally put to certain
magical uses which are scarcely intelligible without reference to the
widely prevalent cord-magic. If the binding of a cord of bast of his
own weaving about the hips of his prospective wife signifies a sort of
marriage ceremony for the Veddah, as it undoubtedly does, this
must imply that the cord is a means of magic that binds her for life.
Instances have been found of another remarkable and complex
custom that substantiates this 'magical' interpretation. A man binds
a loin-cord of his own weaving about the woman and she does the
same to him—an exchange of magic-working fetters which is a
striking anticipation of the exchange of rings still customary with us
upon betrothal or marriage. For the exchange of rings, to a certain
extent, represents in miniature the exchange of cords practised by
primitive man, though there is, of course, this enormous difference
that, in the primitive ceremony the binding has a purely magical
significance, whereas the later act is merely symbolical. All these
phenomena indicate that even the beginnings of clothing involve
ideas of magic. Later, of course, a number of other motives also
enter in, gradually leading to a change in meaning and to a wide
departure from the idea originally entertained. Owing to the

influence of climatic changes, there arises, in the first place, the
need of protection; and the greater this becomes, the more does
magic recede. And so, even among primitive tribes, the loin-cord is
gradually replaced by the apron proper, which no longer requires a
special cord for its support. In the course of this transition into a
means of protection, the feeling of modesty more and more enters
into the development as a contributing factor. According to a law
operative everywhere, even under very different conditions, modesty
is always connected with such parts of the body as are required by
custom to be kept covered. To do what custom forbids arouses the
feeling of shame, particularly in such cases as this, where the
violation is so direct and apparent. It is for this reason that the
feeling of shame may be aroused by the exposure of very different
parts of the body. Thus, the Hottentot woman wears an apron in
front and also one behind. The latter covers a cushion of fat over the
seat, which is greatly developed in the case of the Hottentot woman
and is regarded by these tribes as a particular mark of beauty. To a
Hottentot woman it is no worse to have the front apron removed
than for some one to take away the rear apron. In the latter case,
she seats herself on the ground and cannot be made to get up until
the apron has been restored to her. When Leonard Schultze was
travelling in the Hottentot country of Namaqua Land, he noticed a
certain Hottentot custom which strictly prescribes that the legs must
be stretched out when one sits down upon the ground—they are not
to be bent at the knees. When one of his companions, unfamiliar
with the custom, sat differently, a Hottentot struck him on the knees
so that they straightened out; when the reason was asked, the
answer was that this manner of sitting brings misfortune. The
reply is significant, particularly because it shows how the feeling of
shame, which arises at a later period in the development of the
original idea of magic and is due to the influence of custom, itself, in
turn, reacts associatively on the older magical ideas. The violation of
custom is regarded as dangerous, and as a matter requiring,
wherever possible, the employment of protective magic. The reasons
for guarding against a violation of custom are not merely subjective,

but also objective, for guilt is followed by punishment. Thus, there is
here an intertwining of motives.
The necklace, bracelet, finger-ring, and sometimes the head-fillet,
occur as specific means of magic, in addition to, and in substitution
for, the loin-cord. In more restricted localities we find also earrings
and nose-rings, the boring through of the lips, and combs to which
twigs and leaves are attached. Of these, the necklace has
maintained itself far down into later culture, for it is the necklace
that gives support to the amulet. The latter is supposed to afford
protective magic against all possible dangers; the finger-ring, on the
other hand, is the favourite vehicle of an active magic, changing
things in accordance with the wishes of the owner—that is to say, it
is a talisman. Similar in its powers to the necklace, furthermore, is
the bracelet—found even in primitive culture—and also the head-
fillet, which encircles the forehead and the back part of the head.
The Semangs and Senoi of the Malaccan forests are invested with
the head-fillet by the medicine-man, who exchanges it for another at
particularly important turning-points of life, such, for example, as the
entrance of the youth into manhood, or of the woman upon
marriage. The head-fillets that have been removed are preserved in
the house of the medicine-man. If the woman is widowed, her
former fillet is placed on her head. This signifies the annulment of
the magical union that existed throughout the period of marriage.
Evidently this magic custom is closely connected with the strict
observance of monogamy. These ceremonial changes in dress are
accompanied by a similar change in name. On entering the married
state a woman changes her name, as does also the youth who
passes into manhood. Moreover, this change is not in the least a
mere symbol, but represents a magical act. With the change in
name, the individual himself becomes another person. The name is
so closely connected with the person that even the speaking of it
may exercise a magical influence upon him.
But the magical ideas radiating from death and sickness come to be
associated also with other external objects—objects not attached to
the individual's person, as are clothing and adornment. Examples of

this are implements, and, in particular, the weapon of primitive man,
namely, the bow and arrow. The magical significance has, of course,
frequently disappeared from the memory of the natives. The
Sarasins saw the Veddahs execute dances about an arrow that had
been set upright. On inquiring, the reason, they were told: 'This was
done even by our fathers and grandfathers; why should we not also
do it?' A similar answer could be given in the case of many, indeed,
of most of these magical ceremonies. Those ceremonies particularly
that are in any way complicated are passed down from generation to
generation, being scrupulously guarded and occasionally augmented
by additional magical elements. It is for this reason that, in the
presence of the extraordinarily complicated dances and magical
ceremonies of primitive peoples, we sometimes ask in amazement:
How could such a wealth of connected ideas possibly arise and
become expressed in action? To this it might briefly be replied that
they did not arise at all as creations of a single moment. The
meaning of the ceremonies has for the most part long been lost to
the participants themselves, and was probably unknown even to
their ancestors. The general reason for the various acts that are
executed according to ancient usage is that they serve a magical
purpose. The performers firmly believe that the acts will secure that
which is desired, whether it be good fortune or protection from evil,
and that the greater the care and exactitude with which the act is
performed, the more certainly will the magical purpose be attained.
The conditions here are really not essentially different from those
that still prevail everywhere in the cult ceremonies of civilized
peoples. It is the very fact that the motives are forgotten that leads
to the enormous complexity of the phenomena. Even in the case of
the above-mentioned dance about the arrow, there may have
entered a considerable number of motives that were later forgotten.
Of them all, nothing was eventually remembered except that, to
insure the welfare of the individual and that of the group, the act
prescribed by custom must be performed at stated times or under
particular conditions.

Quite secondary to these numerous irradiations of magical ideas
among primitive peoples are the general notions connected with
natural phenomena. A cloud may, no doubt, occasionally be
regarded as a demon. And, as already stated, an unusual natural
phenomenon, such as an eclipse of the sun, is likewise almost
everywhere regarded as a demoniacal event. But, on the whole,
celestial phenomena play a passing and an exceedingly variable rôle
in the beliefs of primitive man. Moreover, while the ideas and the
resultant acts engendered by death and sickness are, on the whole,
of a uniform character, the fragments of celestial mythology vary in
an irregular and self-contradictory manner. For this reason the latter
cannot be regarded as having any important significance on the
earliest plane of culture. This flatly contradicts a theory, still
prevalent in the scientific world, to the effect that all mythological
thinking is due to the influence of celestial phenomena, whether it
be the moon in its changing phases, or the sun, the thunderstorm,
or the clouds. This theory is certainly not valid as regards primitive
man. It can be maintained only if we distinguish—as has, indeed,
sometimes been done—between two completely disparate realms, a
'higher' mythology, exemplified by the above, and a 'lower'
mythology. We shall return to this point later. We are here concerned
with the standpoint of nature-mythology only in so far as it has
exercised a decisive influence on the interpretation of the earliest
manifestations of the 'lower' mythology. With respect to the ultimate
psychological motives of mythology as a whole, including that of
primitive man, the idea is even to-day widely current that
mythological thought was from the very beginning a naïve attempt
at an interpretation of the phenomena which man encounters in
nature or in his own life. That is to say, all mythology is regarded as
a sort of primitive science, or, at any rate, as a precursor of
philosophy. This innate need for explanation is then usually
associated with an alleged a priori principle of causality inherent in
the mind. The mythological view of nature, therefore, is supposed to
be nothing but an application—imperfect as yet, to be sure—of the
causal law to the nexus of phenomena. But if we call to mind the
condition of natural man as revealed in his actions, no trace can be

found of any need for explanation such as requires the initial
employment of the concept of causality. Indeed, as regards the
phenomena of daily life and those that surround him on all hands
and constantly recur in a uniform manner, primitive man experiences
no need at all for explanation. For him everything is as it is just
because it has always been so. Just as he dances about an arrow
because his father and his grandfather practised this custom in the
past, so also does he hold that the sun rises to-day because it rose
yesterday. The regularity with which a phenomenon recurs is for him
sufficient testimony and explanation of its existence. Only that which
arouses his emotion and calls forth particularly fear and terror comes
to be an object of magical and demoniacal belief. The primitive level
of mythological thought differs from the more developed stage in
also another respect. In the former case, the phenomena that are
most apt to arouse ideas of magic and of demons are those that
concern man himself and that arouse fear and terror. But here again
death and sickness are of greatest importance. True, a thunderstorm
may occasionally find a place in the nexus of magical ideas, or an
eclipse of the sun, or some other natural phenomenon—and this
occurs the more readily according as the phenomenon is the more
unusual and striking. The regularly recurring features of the primitive
myth, however, have their source in the immediate environment and
in the facts of personal experience, in fear and terror. Thus, it is not
intelligence nor reflection as to the origin and interconnection of
phenomena that gives rise to mythological thinking, but emotion;
ideas are only the material which the latter elaborates. The idea of a
corporeal soul, present in the corpse yet also capable of abandoning
it and of becoming a dangerous demon, is a creation of the emotion
of fear. The demons who possess the sick man and cause his death,
or who depart from him in convalescence, are products of emotion.
They are supersensible, as is the soul, because they are born purely
of emotion. Nevertheless, they always tend to assume a sensible
nature, being imaged either as men, or as external things, such as
animals, plants, weapons, and implements. Only in the course of
later development are the demons themselves equipped with

relatively permanent qualities that differ from the characteristics of
the vehicles in which they are regarded as embodied.
Thus, then, we utterly confuse primitive thinking with our own
scientific standpoint when we explain it by the need for the
interpretation of phenomena. Causality, in our sense of the word,
does not exist for primitive man. If we would speak of causality at all
on his level of experience, we may say only that he is governed by
the causality of magic. This, however, receives its stamp, not from
the laws that regulate the connection of ideas, but from the forces of
emotion. The mythological causality of emotional magic is no less
spasmodic and irregular than the logical causality arising out of the
orderly sequence of perceptions and ideas is constant. That the
former preceded the latter is, nevertheless, of great importance. For
the causality of natural law, as we know it, would hardly have been
possible had not magical causality prepared the way for it. Yet the
later arose from the earlier just at that moment in which the
attention of men ceased to be held by the unusual, the startling, and
the fearful, and occupied itself with the orderly, the regular, and
commonplace. For this reason the very greatest advance in the
investigation of natural laws was made by Galileo, when he took as
the object of his research that which was the most commonplace,
the falling of a body to the earth. Primitive man did not reflect about
this phenomenon nor, until a long time afterwards, did civilized man.
That a body should fall to the earth when thrown upwards 'is self-
evident' because it is thus that bodies have always acted. An echo of
this primitive view remains even in the older physics, which,
following Aristotle, tells us that a body falls because the centre of
the earth is its natural point of rest—that is, to put it otherwise, it
must behave as it does because it has always done so.
8. THE BEGINNINGS OF ART.

Though mythological thinking, particularly on the level of belief in
demons and magic, has but slight connection with later science, it
stands in close relation to the beginnings of art. This relation
appears, among other things, in the fact that the simplest forms of
the one are connected with the simplest forms of the other. This
connection is twofold. Ideas of magic are, in a certain sense,
projected into the products of art; art, on the other hand, being the
means whereby mythological thinking finds expression, reacts upon
magical ideas and brings about an enhancement of their motives.
This is particularly apparent, in the beginnings of art, in the fact
that, as viewed by civilized man, primitive peoples have brought but
one art to a high degree of perfection, the art of dancing. For no
other form of artistic expression is early man better endowed. His
body is incomparably more supple than that of civilized races. The
life of the forest, the climbing of trees, and the capturing of game
qualify him for performances that would prove difficult to a modern
art-dancer. All who have witnessed the dancing of men of nature
have marvelled at their great skill and dexterity, and especially at
their wonderful ability in respect to postures, movements, and
mimetic expression. Originally, the dance was a means for the
attainment of magical ends, as we may conjecture from the fact that
even at a very early stage it developed into the cult dance.
Nevertheless, from the very beginning it obviously also gave rise to
pleasure, and this caused it to be re-enacted in playful form. Thus,
even the earliest art ministered not only to external needs but also
to the subjective life of pleasure. The direct source of the latter is
one's own movements and their accompanying sensations. The
dance of the group enhances both the emotion and the ability of the
individual. This appears clearly in the dances executed by the inland
tribes of Malacca. These peoples do not seem to have any round
dances. The individual dancer remains at a fixed spot, though he is
able, without leaving his place, to execute marvellous contortions
and movements of the limbs. These movements, moreover, combine
with those of his companions to form an harmonious whole. They
are controlled, however, by still another factor, the attempt to imitate
animals. It is true that, on the primitive level proper, the animal does

not play so dominant a rôle as in later times. Nevertheless, the
imitation of animals in the dance already foreshadows the totemic
period. Some individuals are able, while remaining at a fixed spot, to
imitate with striking life-likeness the movements of even small
animals, and this is regarded as art of the highest order. Yet the
animal-mask, which is later commonly used in cult and magic, is
here as yet entirely lacking. These very mimic and pantomimic
dances, however, unquestionably bear the traces of magic. When the
Veddah imitates game-animals while executing his dance about the
arrow, the arrow is without doubt regarded as a means of magic,
and we may conjecture that the game-animals that are struck by an
arrow are supposed actually to succumb as a result of this mimetic
performance.
Among primitive peoples, the dance is not, as a rule, accompanied
by music. At most, means of producing noise are introduced, their
purpose being to indicate the rhythm. The simplest of these noise-
instruments consists of two wooden sticks that are beaten together.
The drum is also common at a very early time; yet it was probably
introduced from without. The real musical accompaniment of the
dance is furnished by the human voice in the dance-song. It would,
of course, be wrong to suppose that because the dance originally
served purposes of magic, the dance-song was a sort of primitive
cult-song. Of such songs as the latter no traces occur until later. The
contents of the early songs are derived from the most commonplace
experiences of life. The songs really consist of detached fragments
of purely descriptive or narrative prose, and have no inner
connection with the motives of the dance. That which characterizes
them as songs is the refrain. One might say without qualification
that this poetic form of speech begins with the refrain. The song has
grown up out of selected natural sounds. Anything that has been
done or observed may serve as content of the song. After such
material has once been employed, it is continually repeated. Thus it
becomes a folk-song that is sung particularly during the dance. The
melody is of a very monotonous character; could it be translated into
our notes, we would find that in the songs of the Veddahs or of the

inland tribes of Malacca, the melody moves at most within the range
of a sixth. Moreover, there is an absence of harmonic intervals, so
that, not having been phonographically recorded, the songs cannot
be reproduced in our notes except with great uncertainty. Of their
content, the following illustrations may give us some idea. One, of
the songs of the Veddahs runs as follows:—
The doves of Taravelzita say kuturung.
Where the talagoya is roasted and eaten,
there blew a wind,
Where the memmina is roasted and eaten,
there blew a wind,
Where the deer is roasted and eaten, there
blew a wind.
On a somewhat higher level stands the following song of the
Semangs. It refers to the ring-tailed lemur (macaco), a monkey
species very common in the forests of Malacca; by the Semangs it is
called 'kra':—
He runs along the branches, the kra,
He carries the fruit with him, the kra,
He runs to and fro, the kra;
Over the living bamboo, the kra,
Over the dead bamboo, the kra;
He runs along the branches, the kra,
He leaps about and screams, the kra,
He permits glimpses of himself, the kra,
He shows his grinning teeth, the kra.
As is clear, we have here simply observations, descriptions of that
which the Semang has seen when watching the lemur in the forest.
This description, of course, serves only as the material for the music
of speech; that which is really musical is the refrain, which in this
case consists simply of the word kra. This music of speech exalts
and supplements the dance; when all parts of the body are in
motion the articulatory organs also tend to participate. It is only the

modern art-dance which has substituted an instrumental
accompaniment for the voice and has thus been able to suppress the
natural expression of emotions. But, even in our culture, the
emotions receive active, vocal expression in the folk-dances of our
villages.
Musical instruments, in the strict sense of the word, are almost
unknown to primitive man. Where somewhat complex forms occur,
they appear to have been imported. Such, for example, is the
bamboo nose-flute, occasionally found among the inland tribes of
the Malay Peninsula. The nose-flute is similar to our flutes, except
that it is blown from above instead of from the side, and is not
played by means of the mouth, but is placed against one of the
nostrils, so that the side of the nose serves as the tone-producing
membrane. It has from three to five holes that may be covered with
the fingers. This instrument is a genuine product of Melanesia, and
was doubtless acquired from this region by the Malayan tribes. Of
earlier origin, no doubt, are stringed instruments. These are to be
found even among primitive peoples. The forms that occur in
Malacca have, in this case also, obviously come from Oceania. But,
on the other hand, an instrument has been found among the
Bushmen and the neighbouring peoples which may be regarded as
the most primitive of its kind and which throws important light on
the origin of musical instruments of this sort. A bow, essentially
similar to that which he employs in the chase, affords the Bushman
a simple stringed instrument. The string of the bow now becomes
the string of a musical instrument. Its tones, however, cannot be
heard distinctly by any one except the player himself. He takes one
end of the bow between his teeth and sets the string into vibration
with his finger. The resonance of the bones of his head then causes
a tone, whose pitch he may vary by holding the string at the middle
or at some other point, and thus setting only a part of the string into
vibration. Of this tone, however, practically no sound reaches the
external world. On the other hand, the tone produces a very strong
effect on the player himself, being powerfully transmitted through
the teeth to the firm parts of the skull and reaching the auditory

nerves through a direct bone-conduction. Thus, then, it is a
remarkable fact that music, the most subjective of the arts, begins
with the very stringed instruments which are the most effective in
arousing subjective moods, and with a form in which the pleasure
secured by the player from his playing remains purely subjective.
But, from this point on, the further development to tone-effects that
are objective and are richer in gradations is reached by simple
transitions effected by association. The one string, taken over from
the bow used in the chase, is no longer sufficient. Hence the bridge
appears, which consists of a piece of wood whose upper side is
fastened at the middle of the bow and whose lower side is toothed
for the reception of several strings. The strings also are perfected,
by being made of threads detached from the bamboo of which the
bow is constructed. Then follows a second important advance.
Instead of taking the end of the bow in his mouth and using his own
head as a resonator, the player makes use of a hollow gourd and
thus renders the tone objectively audible. The best and most direct
point of connection between the gourd and the bow proves to be the
end of the stick that carries the bridge. It is now no longer the head
of the player that furnishes the resonance, but the substituted
calabash. In its external appearance the calabash resembles the
head—indeed, upon other occasions also, it is sometimes regarded
as a likeness of the head, and eyes, mouth, and nose are cut into its
rind. Thus, the association of the gourd with the head may possibly
have exerted an influence upon this step in the development of the
musical instrument. Perhaps the inventor himself did not realize until
after the artificial head came into use that he had made a great
advance in the perfection of his instrument. His music was now
audible to others as well as to himself.
Another instrument also, the bull-roarer, dates back to the
beginnings of music, though its development, of course, differed
from that of the zither. The bull-roarer, indeed, is an instrument of
tone and noise that is to be found only among relatively primitive
peoples. True, it does not reach its highest development among
those peoples who, from a sociological point of view, occupy the

lowest plane of culture; it becomes an instrument of magic, as we
shall see, only within the totemic culture of Australia. Nevertheless,
there has been discovered, again among the Bushmen, a form of
bull-roarer of an especially primitive character. Doubtless that which
led primitive man to the invention of the zither was the tone which
he heard in his everyday experience in war or in the hunt when he
applied an arrow to his bow. No doubt, also, it was the whirring
noise of the arrow, or that, perhaps, of the flying bird which the
arrow imitates, that led him to reproduce this noise in a similar
manner. Indeed, in South Africa, the bull-roarer, though, of course,
used only as a plaything, occurs in a form that at once reminds one
of a flying bird or arrow. The feather of a bird is fastened at right
angles to a stick of wood. When the stick is vigorously swung about
in a circle, a whistling noise is produced, accompanied, particularly
when swung with great rapidity, by a high tone. This tone, however,
is not capable of further perfection, so that no other musical
instrument developed from the bull-roarer. The contrary, rather, is
true. In other forms of the bull-roarer in which the feathers were
displaced by a flat wooden board—whose only resemblance to a bird
was a slight similarity in form—the noise was more intense but the
tone less clear. For this reason the bull-roarer soon lost its place in
the ranks of musical instruments and became purely an instrument
of magic, in which function also it was used only temporarily. In
many parts of the world, moreover, there is a similar primitive
implement, the rattle, whose status is the same as that of the bull-
roarer.
It was in connection with ideas of magic and of demons that
formative art or, as it would perhaps be truer to say, the elements
from which this art proceeded, was developed. Such art was not
unknown even to the primitive peoples of the pretotemic age. If
anywhere, it is doubtless among the primitive tribes of Malacca and
Ceylon that we can, in some measure and with some certainty, trace
formative art to its earliest beginnings and to the causes back of
these. The Bushman must here be excluded from consideration,
since, as we shall see, he was clearly affected by external influences.

The Veddahs, as well as the Senoi and Semangs, are familiar with
only the simplest forms of linear decoration. Yet this makes it
evident that simple lines, such as can be produced by cutting or by
scratching, form the starting-point of almost all later development.
Here again it is the bamboo that is utilized, its wood being a material
suitable for these simple artistic attempts. Its connection with art is
due also to the fact that it is used in the manufacture of implements
and weapons, such as the bow and the digging-stick, and, later, the
blow-pipe and the flute. As important objects of adornment, we find
the combs of the women, which, among the Malaccan tribes, are
extremely rich in linear decorations. At first, the dominant motive is
the triangle. Just as the triangle is the simplest rectilinear figure of
geometry, so also is it the simplest closed ornamental pattern. The
weapons not infrequently have a series of triangles included within
two parallel straight lines. This illustrates in its simplest form the
universal characteristic of primitive ornaments, namely, uniform
repetition. The pattern later becomes more complicated; the
triangles are crossed by lines between which there are spaces that
are also triangular in form. Such figures are then further combined
into double triangles having a common base, etc. These are followed
by other forms, in which simple arcs take the place of straight lines.
For example, an arc is substituted for the base of each triangle,
again with absolute uniformity. Finally, the arc, in the form of the
segment of a circle, is utilized independently, either in simple
repetition or in alternation. These simple designs then become
increasingly complex by the combination either of the forms as a
whole or of some of their parts. This multiplication of motives
reaches its most artistic development in the women's combs found
among the tribes of the Malay Peninsula. The comb, in some form or
other, is a very common article of adornment among peoples of
nature. But it is just in the form in which it occurs among the Senoi
and Semangs that the comb gives evidence of having originally
been, at most, only incidentally an article of adornment and of
having only gradually come to be exclusively a decoration. In shape,
it is like the women's combs of to-day. The teeth are pointed
downwards, and serve the purpose of fastening the hair. The upper

part forms a broad crest. But among these peoples the crest is the
main part of the comb, the function of the teeth being merely to
hold it to the head. For the crest is decorated in rich profusion with
the above-mentioned ornamentations, and, if we ask the Semangs
and the Senoi what these mean, we are told that they guard against
diseases. In the Malay Peninsula, the men do not wear combs,
evidently for the practical reason that, because of their life in the
forest and their journeys through the underbrush, they cut their hair
short. In other regions which have also evolved the comb, as in
Polynesia, such conditions do not prevail; the comb, therefore, is
worn by both men and women. In this, its earliest, use, however, the
comb as such is clearly less an object of adornment than a means of
magic. It serves particularly as a sort of amulet, to protect against
sickness-demons. For this reason the ornamental lines in their
various combinations are regarded as referring to particular
diseases. The marks which a Semang woman carries about with her
on her comb are really magical signs indicating the diseases from
which she wishes to be spared. The head would appear to be a
particularly appropriate place for wearing these magical signs. It is
to magical ideas, therefore, that we must probably look for the origin
of this very common means of adornment. In Malacca, indeed, the
combs are carefully preserved; the drawings made upon them
render them, as it were, sacred objects. But it is impossible to learn
directly from the statements of the natives just how primitive articles
of adornment came to acquire the significance of ornaments. Our
only clue is the fact that the decorations on the bows and blow-pipes
are supposed to be magical aids to a successful hunt; for, among the
representations, there are occasionally those of animals. This fact we
may bring into connection with observations made by Karl von den
Steinen among the Bakairi of Central Brazil. This investigator here
found remarkable ornamentations on wood. All of these were of a
simple geometrical design, just as in the case of other primitive
peoples, yet they were interpreted by the natives not as means of
magic but as representations of objects. A consecutive series of
triangles whose angles were somewhat rounded off, was interpreted
as a snake, and a series of squares whose angles touched, as a

swarm of bees. But the representations included also other things
besides animals. For example, a vertical series of triangles in which
the apexes pointed downwards and touched the bases of the next
lower triangles, was regarded as a number of women's aprons—the
upper part was the girdle, and, attached to this, the apron. In a
word, primitive man is inclined to read concrete objects of this kind
into his simple ornamental lines. That we also can still voluntarily put
ourselves into such an attitude, is testified to by Karl von den
Steinen himself, when he tells us that he succeeded without
particular effort in discovering similar objects in certain simple
ornamentations. We here have a case of the psychical process of
assimilation. This is characteristic of all consciousness, but, as might
be supposed, from the fact that primitive peoples live continuously in
the open, it is more strongly in evidence among them than among
civilized races.
But the question now arises, Which came first? Did the Bakairi really
wish to represent snakes, bees, women's aprons, etc., and reduce
these to geometrical schematizations? Or did he, without such
intention, first make simple linear decorations, and later read into
them, through imaginative association, the memory images of
objects? The latter is doubtless the case. For it is much easier first to
draw simple lines and then to read complicated objects into them
than it is, conversely, to reduce these pictures at the outset to
abstract geometrical schemata. Indeed, when the Bakairi wishes to
draw real objects, he proceeds just as our children do: he copies
them as well as he can. For example, the Bakairi occasionally draws
fishes in the sand for the purpose of marking out a path, or he
attempts to reproduce men and animals in a way strikingly similar to
our children's drawings. Evidently, therefore, it was not inability to
draw the objects themselves that gave rise to these primitive
geometrical decorations. The decorations came first, and the
memory images of the objects of daily perception were then read
into them. The answer, however, to the question as to why primitive
man produces decorations at all, is easily found by calling to mind
the motives discernible in such uniform and simple series of figures

as the triangles and arcs which the Senoi and the Semangs cut into
bamboo. Because of the character of his locomotor organs, primitive
man repeats the movements of the dance at regular intervals, and
this rhythm gives him pleasure. Similarly, he derives pleasure even
from the regularly repeated movements involved in making the
straight lines of his drawings, and this pleasure is enhanced when he
sees the symmetrical figures that arise under his hand as a result of
his movements. The earliest æsthetic stimuli are symmetry and
rhythm. We learn this even from the most primitive of all arts, the
dance. Just as one's own movements in the dance are an æsthetic
expression of symmetry and rhythm, so also are these same
characteristics embodied in the earliest productions of pictorial art—
in the beginning indeed, they alone are to be found. The primitive
song comes to be a song only as a result of the regular repetition of
a refrain that in itself is unimportant. As soon as primitive man
produces lines on wood, his pleasure in rhythmic repetition at once
leads him to make these symmetrical. It is for this reason that we
never find decorations that consist merely of a single figure—a single
triangle, for instance—but always find a considerable number of
figures together, either above one another, or side by side, or both
combined, though the last arrangement occurs only at a somewhat
more advanced stage. If, now, these decorations are more and more
multiplied by reason of the increasing pleasure in their production,
we naturally have figures that actually resemble certain objects. This
resemblance is strengthened particularly by the repetition of the
figures. A single square with its angles placed vertically and
horizontally would scarcely be interpreted as a bee, even by a
Bakairi; but in a series of such squares we ourselves could doubtless
imagine a swarm of bees. Thus there arise representations
resembling animals, plants, and flowers. Because of their
symmetrical form, the latter particularly are apt to become
associated with geometrical designs. Yet on the whole the animal
possesses a greater attraction. The animal that forms the object of
the hunt is carved upon the bow or the blow-pipe. This is a means
of magic that brings the animal within range of the weapon. It is
magic, likewise, that affords the explanation of the statement of the

Senoi and the Semangs that the drawings on the combs of their
women are a means of protection against diseases. These two sorts
of purposes illustrate the two forms of magic that are still
exemplified on higher cultural levels by the amulet, on the one hand,
and the talisman, on the other—protection from danger, and
assistance in one's personal undertakings. Now it is easy to
understand how especially the complicated decorations on the
combs of the Malaccan tribes may, through the familiar processes of
psychical assimilation, come to be regarded as living beings, in the
form either of animals or of plants, and how these forms in turn may
come to be interpreted as sickness-demons. For, these demons are
beings that have never been seen; hence the terrified imagination
may all the more readily give them the most fantastic shapes.
Indeed, we still find examples of this in the more elaborate pictures
of the art of some semi-cultural peoples. Thus also are explained
many of the masks used among the most diverse peoples. It is
almost always grotesque animal or human masks that are employed
to represent fear-demons. The freer the sway of the imagination, the
easier it is to see the figure of a demon in any decoration
whatsoever. The multiplicity of the ornamental drawings, moreover,
meets the need for distinguishing a great number of such demons,
so that a woman of the Senoi or the Semangs carries about on her
head the demoniacal representation of all known diseases. For,
according to an ancient law of magic, the demon himself has a
twofold rôle—he both causes the sickness and protects against it.
Just as a picture is identified with its object, so also is the drawing
that represents or portrays the sickness-demon regarded as the
demon itself. Whoever carries it about is secure against its attack.
Both magic and counter-magic spring from a common source. The
medicine-man who exercises counter-magic must also be familiar
with magic. The two are but divergent forms of the same magical
potency that has its birth in the emotions of fear and terror.
In summary of what we have thus far learned with regard to the art
of drawing among primitive men, it may be said that this art is
throughout one of magic and adornment. These are the two motives

from which it springs, and which, apparently, co-operate from the
outset. The mere drawing of lines in regular and symmetrical
repetition is due to that regularity of movement which also finds
expression in the dance and, even prior to this, in ordinary walking
and running. But the artist himself then attributes a hidden meaning
to that which he has created. Astonishment at his creation fuses
with his pleasure in it, and his wonder at the picture that he has
produced makes of it, when animated and retransformed by the
imagination, a magical object. The pictures carried about on the
person, or wrought on an object of daily use, assist in guarding
against diseases and other injuries, or they assure the success of the
weapon and the implement.
In view of these characteristics of a purely magical and decorative
art, it may perhaps at first glance cause surprise that there should
be a people which, although primitive in other essential respects,
has far transcended this stage in artistic attainment, and has,
apparently, followed an entirely different direction in its pathway to
art. Such are the Bushmen. The primitive tribes mentioned above
show no traces of an art of drawing; beyond suggestions of a single
object, it is absolutely impossible to find representations of objects
and their groupings such as are common in the pictures of the
Bushmen, which portray particularly animals and, to a less extent,
men. This is all the more significant in view of the fact that, while
the Bushmen also decorate their weapons and utensils with magical
and ornamental designs, these are of far less importance than in the
case of the primitive tribes referred to above. The painting of the
Bushmen, however, is obviously neither magical nor decorative in
character. Originally these pictures seem to have been drawn in
caves; at any rate, it is here that many of them have been found.
We have already indicated the importance of this primitive dwelling
for the beginnings of a memorial art. When external impressions are
absent, as in the cave, the imagination is all the more impelled to
preserve memories in self-created pictures. The simpler of these
resemble, in their characteristics, the drawings and paintings of
present-day children. But we can plainly distinguish the more

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