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Concepts and Cases 22th by Thompson
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• How to attract customers.
• How to compete against rivals.
• How to achieve the company’s performance targets.
106
Chapter 1 What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important? 107
• How to capitalize on opportunities to grow the business.
• How to respond to changing economic and market conditions.
CORE CONCEPT
A company’s strategy is the coordinated set of actions that its managers take in order
to outperform the company’s competitors and achieve superior profitability.
3. Strategy Is about Competing Differently—A strategy stands a better chance of succeeding when it is
predicated on actions, business approaches, and competitive moves aimed at:
a. appealing to buyers in ways that set a company apart from its rivals and
b. staking out a market position that is not crowded with strong competitors.
4. Figure 1.1—Identifying a Company’s Strategy—What to Look For, shows what to look for in
identifying the substance of a company’s overall strategy. These are the visible actions taken that signal
what strategy the company is pursuing.
ACTIVITY
Consider adding a File Attachment assignment requiring the student to develop a response to this
Illustration Capsule. You can post instructions for the student within the assignment and collect their
attachments for grading.
III. Strategy and the Quest for Competitive Advantage
ACTIVITY
Consider adding a LearnSmart assignment requiring the student to review this section of the chapter as
an interactive question and answer review . The assignment can be graded and posted automatically.
1. The heart and soul of any strategy is the actions and moves in the market place that managers are taking
to improve the company’s financial performance, strengthen its long-term competitive position, and
gain a competitive edge over rivals.
2. A company achieves a competitive advantage whenever it has some type of edge over rivals in attracting
buyers and coping with competitive forces.
3. Strategy is about competing differently from rivals or doing what competitors don’t do or, even better,
can’t do. In this sense, every strategy needs a distinctive element that attracts customers and produces a
competitive edge.
4. What makes a competitive advantage sustainable (or durable), as opposed to temporary, are elements
of the strategy that give buyers lasting reasons to prefer a company’s products or services over those of
competitors
CORE CONCEPT
A company achieves a competitive advantage when it provides buyers with superior
value compared to rival sellers or offers the same value at a lower cost to the firm. The
advantage is sustainable if it persists despite the best efforts of competitors to match
or surpass this advantage.
Chapter 1 What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important? 108
5. Five of the most frequently used strategic approaches to setting a company apart from rivals and
achieving a sustainable competitive advantage are:
a. Low Cost Provider—Achieving a cost-based advantage over rivals.
b. Broad Differentiation—Seeking to differentiate the company’s product or service from rivals’ in
ways that will appeal to a broad spectrum of buyers.
c. Focused Low Cost—Concentrating on a narrow buyer segment (or market niche) and outcompeting
rivals by having lower costs than rivals and thus being able to serve niche members at a lower priced.
d. Focused Differentiation—Concentrating on a narrow buyer segment (or market niche) and out-
competing rivals by offering niche members customized attributes that meet their tastes and
requirements better than rivals’ products.
e. Best Cost Provider—Giving customers more value for the money by satisfying buyers’expectations
on key quality/features/performance/service attributes, while beating their price expectations.
ILLUSTRATION CAPSULE 1.1
Apple Inc .: Exemplifying a Successful Strategy
Discussion Question: Describe Apple’s strategic approach in the computer industry
Answer: The student should be able to discuss that Apple uses a Focused Differentiation strategic
approach. The company focuses on the upper end of the computer buyer market and offers a
premium product. The company designs its own operating system, hardware, and application
software through continuous investments in R&D. These higher cost approaches to the market place
are offset by premium pricing that the niche market can support.
IV. Why a Company’s Strategy Evolves over Time
ACTIVITY
Consider adding a LearnSmart assignment requiring the student to review this section of the chapter as
an interactive question and answer review . The assignment can be graded and posted automatically.
1. Every company must be willing and ready to modify the strategy in response to changing market
conditions, advancing technology, unexpected moves by competitors, shifting buyer needs, emerging
market opportunities, and mounting evidence that the strategy is not working well.
2. Most of the time, a company’s strategy evolves incrementally from management’s ongoing efforts to
fine-tune the strategy and to adjust certain strategy elements in response to new learning and unfolding
events.
3. Industry environments characterized by high velocity change require companies to repeatedly adapt
their strategies.
4 The important point is that the task of crafting strategy is not a one-time event but always a work in
progress.
Chapter 1 What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important? 109
V. A Company’s Strategy Is Partly Proactive and Partly Reactive
ACTIVITY
Consider adding a LearnSmart assignment requiring the student to review this section of the chapter as
an interactive question and answer review . The assignment can be graded and posted automatically.
1. The evolving nature of a company’s strategy means that the typical company strategy is a blend of (1)
proactive, planned initiatives to improve the company’s financial performance and secure a competitive
edge, and (2) reactive responses to unanticipated developments and fresh market conditions.
CORE CONCEPT
A company’s deliberate strategy consists of proactive strategy elements that are both
planned and realized as planned; its emergent strategy consists of reactive strategy
elements that emerge as changing conditions warrant.
2. The biggest portion of a company’s current strategy flows from ongoing actions that have proven
themselves in the marketplace and newly launched initiatives aimed at building a larger lead over rivals
and further boosting financial performance.—Deliberate Strategy
3. Managers must always be willing to supplement or modify the proactive strategy elements with as-
needed reactions to unanticipated conditions.—Emergent Strategy
4. In total, these two elements combine to form the company’s Realized Strategy. Figure 1.2,ACompany’s
Strategy is a Blend of Proactive Initiatives and Reactive Adjustments, illustrates the elements of
strategy that become the Realized Strategy.
VI. Strategy and Ethics: Passing the Test of Moral Scrutiny
ACTIVITY
Consider adding a LearnSmart assignment requiring the student to review this section of the chapter as
an interactive question and answer review . The assignment can be graded and posted automatically.
1. Managers must be careful to embrace actions that can pass the test of moral scrutiny. This goes beyond
just staying within the bounds of what is legal.
2. Ethical and moral standards are not fully governed by what is legal, they are concerned with right vs.
wrong and a sense of duty.
3. While the legal realm deals with must or must not, the ethical/ moral realm deals with should or should
not.
4. Senior executives with strong ethical convictions are generally proactive in linking strategic action and
ethics.
VII. What Makes a Strategy a Winner?
ACTIVITY
Consider adding a LearnSmart assignment requiring the student to review this section of the chapter as
an interactive question and answer review . The assignment can be graded and posted automatically.
Chapter 1 What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important? 110
CORE CONCEPT
A company’s business model sets forth the logic for how its strategy will create value
for customers, while at the same time generate revenues sufficient to cover costs and
realize a profit.
1. A business model is management’s blueprint for delivering a valuable product or service to customers
in a manner that will generate revenues sufficient to cover costs and yield an attractive profit.
2. The two elements of a company’s business model are (1) its customer value proposition and (2) its profit
formula.
3. The customer value proposition lays out the company’s approach to satisfying buyer wants and needs at
a price customers will consider a good value.
4. The profit formula describes the company’s approach to determining a cost structure that will allow for
acceptable profits, given the pricing tied to its customer value proposition.
5. Figure 1.3 illustrates the elements of the business model in terms of what is known as the Value-Price-
Cost Framework highlighting the relationship between the Customer’s Value Proposition (V-P) and the
Profit Formula (P-C).
ILLUSTRATION CAPSULE 1.2
Pandora, Sirius XM, and Over-the-Air Broadcast Radio:
Three Contrasting Business Models
Discussion Question 1: What is the prominent difference between the business models of these
three organizations?
Answer: While all three provide essentially the same type of entertainment service, the business
models employed by Pandora, Sirius XM, and Over-The-Air Broadcast Radio are completely
different. In the area of value proposition (what the customer sees), Sirius XM provides commercial
free entertainment with some local content based upon a monthly fee, while Broadcast Radio
provides entertainment with some local content with interruptions for commercials without a fee.
Pandora bridges these two methods. In one mode it operates more like Over-the-Air Broadcast
Radio in that it provides entertainment without a fee that includes targeted advertisements, with the
added benefit of allowing the listener to customize the music mix.In the other mode, listeners can
elect to go ad-free for a fee using Pandora One.
For profit, Sirius XM must attract a large enough customer base in order to cover costs and provide
profit, while Broadcast Radio must attract a large enough advertiser base to cover costs and provide
profit. Pandora, once again bridging the two, generates profit by either an advertiser base or through
ad-free services.
VIII. What Makes a Strategy a Winner?
ACTIVITY
Consider adding a LearnSmart assignment requiring the student to review this section of the chapter as
an interactive question and answer review . The assignment can be graded and posted automatically.
Chapter 1 What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important?
111
1. Three questions can be used to test the merits of one strategy versus another and distinguish a winning
strategy from a losing or mediocre strategy:
a. The Fit Test: How well does the strategy fit the company’s situation? To qualify as a winner, a
strategy has to be well matched to industry and competitive conditions, a company’s best market
opportunities, and other aspects of the enterprise’s external environment.
b. The Competitive Advantage Test: Is the strategy helping the company achieve a sustainable
competitive advantage? The bigger and more durable the competitive edge that a strategy helps
build, the more powerful and appealing it is.
c. The Performance Test: Is the strategy producing good company performance? Two kinds of
performance improvements tell the most about the caliber of a company’s strategy: (1) gains in
profitability and financial strength and (2) gains in the company’s competitive strength and market
standing.
2. Strategies that come up short on one or more of the above questions are plainly less appealing than
strategies passing all three test questions with flying colors.
IX. Why are Crafting and Executing Strategy Important?
ACTIVITY
Consider adding a LearnSmart assignment requiring the student to review this section of the chapter as
an interactive question and answer review . The assignment can be graded and posted automatically.
1. Crafting and executing strategy are top priority managerial tasks for two big reasons
a. High-performing enterprises are nearly always the product of astute, creative, and proactive strategy
making
b. Even the best-conceived strategies will result in performance shortfalls if they are not executed
proficiently.
2. Good Strategy + Good Strategy Execution = Good Management
a. Crafting and executing strategy are core management functions.
b. Among all the things managers do, nothing affects a company’s ultimate success or failure more
fundamentally than how well its management team charts the company’s direction, develops
competitively effective strategic moves and business approaches, and pursues what needs to be
done internally to produce good day-to-day strategy execution and operating excellence.
X. The Road Ahead
1. Throughout the remaining chapters and the accompanying case collection, the spotlight is trained on
the foremost question in running a business enterprise: What must managers do, and do well, to make a
company a winner in the marketplace?
2. The mission of this book is to provide a solid overview of what every business student and aspiring
manager needs to know about crafting and executing strategy.
ACTIVITY
Use the Question Bank to build a quiz for the chapter to measure and reinforce learning. Consider
using the questions you select to build a comprehensive mid-term and final exam for the course. The
assignment can be graded and posted automatically.
Chapter 1 What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important? 112
ASSURANCE OF LEARNING EXERCISES
1. Based on your experiences and/or knowledge of Apple’s current products and services, does Apple’s strategy
(as described in Illustration Capsule 1.1) seem to set it apart from rivals? Does the strategy seem to be keyed
to a cost-based advantage, differentiating features, serving the unique needs of a niche, or some combination
of these? What is there about Apple’s strategy that can lead to sustainable competitive advantage?
ACTIVITY
This Assurance of Learning exercise is available as a Connect Assignment. The assignment can be
graded and posted automatically.
Response:
Setting Itself Apart—The student should be able to discuss that Apple uses a Focused Differentiation
strategic approach. The company focuses on the upper end of the computer buyer market and offers a
premium product. They strategically place stores in areas where their target market frequent and staff them
with knowledgeable people. The firm is also committed to CSR and sustainability throughout its supply
chain.
Elements of Strategy—The student should identify that some of key elements of Apple’s strategy include
a strong focus on R&D, providing a complete hardware/software/service solution, and a strong brand identity.
These elements, along with the focus on CSR and sustainability combine to form a high end value proposition
for consumers that allows for premium pricing.
Sustainable Competitive Advantage—The student should identify that developing a sustainable
competitive advantage relies on a) building competitively valuable capabilities that rivals cannot readily
match and b) having a distinctive product offering. Further, they should be able to highlight that the two
areas described above are both distinctive and difficult to match.
2. Elements of eBay’s strategy have evolved in meaningful ways since the company’s founding in 1995. After
reviewing the company’s history at www.ebayinc.com/our-company/our-history and all of the links at the
company’s investor relations site (investors.ebayinc.com), prepare a one- to two-page report that discusses
how its strategy has evolved. Your report should also assess how well eBay’s strategy passes the three tests of
a winning strategy.
Strategy Evolution—From the information found in the links provided, the student’s report should include
information similar to the following.
The company was founded in 1995 with the mission of bringing together buyers and sellers in an honest
and open marketplace. By mid 1996, the company had already sold $7.2 million worth of goods, and in late
1997, the name AuctionWeb was replaced with the now iconic ebay name. In 1998, the company began to
focus more on the customer experience through its first of many strategic acquisitions. By mid 1999, ebay
had begun its oversees expansion with moves into Germany, Australia, and the UK. In 2001, ebay continued
to customize the customer experience by providing eBay stores for its sellers. The period from 2001 through
2016 are marked by continued strategic acquisitions that bolster the company’s product and service offerings
including paypal, stubhub, and most recently, corrigon just to name a few of the more prominent ones. Global
expansion continues today with ebay available in 180 countries.
The student should conclude that all of these innovations follow a careful underlying strategy of adding
services and features to the overall product mix that leverage and take advantage of developments in personal
and business technology and devices as well as shifting consumer demands. The company’s strategy has
evolved from a simple mission of providing a market place on the internet to being a comprehensive solution
for engaging in commerce, making the financial transaction as smooth as possible, and moving the
merchandise effectively.
Chapter 1 What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important? 113
Strategy Assessment—The student’s report should include specific indications that the company’s strategy
is a winner as follows.
a. Does the strategy fit the company’s situation? Yes, the company’s strategy fits the evolving world of
technology, consumer behavior, and market demands.
b. Does the strategy helping the company achieve a sustainable competitive advantage? Yes, the growing
base of customers and revenue streams from various services and platforms is led by continuous
innovation which differentiates the company well. The growing profit stream indicates that the strategy
is sustainable.
c. Does the strategy producing good company performance? Yes, but the company needs to address profit
margins. The 2017 Annual Report shows that market growth is steady with $9.56 Billion for fiscal year
2017 up from $8.79 Billion in 2014. Gross profit for fiscal year 2017 was $7.34 Billion up slightly from
$7.13 Billion in 2014, and operating profit for fiscal year 2017 was $2.26 Billion down slightly from
$2.48 Billion in 2014. Taken together, these financial measures indicate market growth but increases in
cost of sales which is driving down operating profits
3. Go to investor.siriusxm.com and check whether the SiriusXM’s recent financial reports indicate that its
business model is working.Are its subscription fees increasing or declining? Is its revenue stream advertising
and equipment sales growing or declining? Does its cost structure allow for acceptable profit margins?
ACTIVITY
This Assurance of Learning exercise is available as a Connect Assignment. The assignment can be
graded and posted automatically.
Response:
General—The responses developed by the students may include information such as the following.
SiriusXM is a leading satellite media company that provides commercial free music from numerous genres,
live play by play sports, news and talk shows, and other forms of audio entertainment streaming to the
consumer’s home, auto, business, or even boats within 200 miles of the coast.
Is the business model working—The student should note that the company’s annual revenue has increased
steadily over the last three reporting periods from $4.57B in 2015 to $5.42B in 2017, while net income has
grown from $509M to $647M over the same period. This is an increase in net profit from 11.1% in 2015
to 11.9%% in 2017. This illustrates an increasing value proposition (revenue) as well as an effective and
growing profit formula (earnings). The conclusion the student should reach is that the business model is
working effectively.
Subscription Fees—The student should identify that the company had subscription revenue of $3.8B in
2015 and $4.47B in 2015, representing a 5.86% average annual growth.
Revenue Stream fromAdvertising—The student should identify that the company had advertising revenue
of $122M in 2015 and $160M in 2017, representing a 10.3% average annual growth.
Revenue from Equipment—The student should identify that the company had revenue from equipment of
$111M in 2015 and $131M in 2017, representing a 6% average annual growth.
Cost Structure and Profit Margins—The student should identify that the company had consistently growth
in Operating Profit with $1.3B in 2013 and $1.68B in 2015, representing a 9.7% average annual growth. This
demonstrates that the company’s cost structure allows for attractive profit margins.
case 1 • Case Assignment Questions
Mystic Monk Coffee
Assignment Questions
1. Has Father Daniel Mary established a future direction for the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming? What is his
vision for the monastery? What is his vision for Mystic Monk Coffee? What is the mission of the Carmelite
Monks of Wyoming?
2. Does it appear that Father Daniel Mary has set definite objectives and performance targets for achieving his
vision?
3. What is Father Prior’s strategy for achieving his vision? What competitive advantage might Mystic Monk
Coffee’s strategy produce?
4. Is Mystic Monk Coffee’s strategy a money-maker? What is MMC’s business model? What is your assessment
of Mystic Monk Coffee’s customer value proposition? its profit formula? its resources that enable it to create
and deliver value to customers?
5. Does the strategy qualify as a winning strategy? Why or why not?
6. What recommendations would you make to Father Daniel Mary in terms of crafting and executing strategy
for the monastery’s coffee operations? Are changed needed in its long-term direction? its objectives? its
strategy? its approach to strategy execution? Explain.
SECTION 6
Case Teaching Notes
for Chapters 1-32
T
case 1 teaching note
Mystic Monk Coffee
Overview
his 24-page case requires that students consider the future direction of a monastery located in Clark,
Wyoming and evaluate the vision, strategy, and business model of the fledgling Mystic Monk coffee
business. As the case unfolds, students will learn of Father Daniel Mary’s vision to build a new Mount
Carmel in the Rocky Mountains and transform the small brotherhood of 13 monks living in a small home used
as makeshift rectory into a 500- acre monastery that would include accommodations for 30 monks, a Gothic
church, a convent for Carmelite nuns, a retreat center for lay visitors, and a hermitage. Father Daniel Mary had
identified a nearby ranch for sale that met the requirements of his vision perfectly, but its listing price of $8.9
million presented a financial obstacle to creating a place of prayer, worship, and solitude in the Rockies. Father
Daniel Mary hoped to fund the purchase of the ranch through charitable contributions to the monastery and
through the profits of its Mystic Monk coffee business, which had earned nearly $75,000 during its first year of
operation.
Suggestions for Using the Case
This case was written as a leadoff case and was carefully crafted by the case author to require students to draw
upon most all of the concepts discussed in Chapters 1 and 2 to sufficiently prepare for a class discussion of the
case. The case involves issues relating to mission, vision, objectives, strategy, business models, and decisive
strategic leadership; the need for an action plan is obvious—these are the very things one looks for in a good
leadoff case. And the nature of the case virtually guarantees the stimulating kind of class discussion one needs to
get the course off on the right foot.
We think Mystic Monk Coffee (MMC) is an excellent leadoff case for the course (other good choices are Robin
Hood, Airbnb in 2016, and Amazon.com’s Business Model and Its Evolution—which also require that students
draw upon the material covered in Chapters 1 and 2). The unusual topic of the business ventures of cloistered
monks, student familiarity with the coffee industry, and the very close connection between the case and the
material in Chapters 1 and 2 make this an especially good leadoff case. You may want to consider covering
Chapter 1 in your first day’s lecture, Chapter 2 on your second day’s lecture, and then assigning Mystic Monk
Coffee for class discussion on Day 3.
We suggest use of a teaching plan that focuses on Father Daniel Mary’s strategic vision for the monastery and its
coffee operations and Mystic Monk Coffee’s strategy and business model. Of course, there is the opportunity for
students to make recommendations regarding the strategic issues confronting the monastery and its coffee
venture.
– 271 –
272
Case 1 Teaching Note Mystic Monk Coffee
The assignment questions and teaching outline presented in upcoming sections of this TN reflect our thinking
about how to conduct the class discussion of the Mystic Monk Coffee case.
It is really very difficult to have an insightful and constructive class discussion of the Mystic Monk Coffee case
unless students have not only read the case but also conscientiously worked their way through a set of well-
conceived study questions before they come to class. In our classes, we expect students to bring their notes to the
study questions to use/refer to in responding to the questions that we pose. Students often find having a set of
study questions is useful in helping them prepare oral team presentations and written case assignments—in
addition to whatever directive questions you supply for these assignments.
To facilitate your use of study questions and making them available to students, we have posted a file of the
Assignment Questions contained in this teaching note for the Mystic Monk Coffee case in the instructor
resources section of the Connect Library. (We should also point out that there is a set of study questions posted
in the student section of the OLC for each of the 32 cases included in the 22nd Edition.)
You may also find it beneficial to have your class read the Guide to Case Analysis that is posted in the Connect
Library and in the textbook immediately following Chapter 12. Students will find the content of this Guide
particularly helpful if this is their first experience with cases and they are unsure about the mechanics of how to
prepare a case for class discussion, oral presentation, or written analysis.
Auto-Graded Connect Case Exercise. The 21st Edition includes a fully auto-graded Connect case exercise
for 14 cases included in the text. The auto-graded exercises closely follow the assignment questions and analysis
included in the teaching note for the case. The auto-graded exercise for the Mystic Monk Coffee case requires
that students answer a series of multiple choice questions related to Assignment Questions 1-5. Question 6 is
left as an open ended question that allows students to fully discuss recommendations concerning improvements
to the company’s coffee operations, changes in its long-term direction, objectives, strategy, or approach to
strategy execution.
Students should be expected to spend about 45 minutes to complete the exercise, assuming they have done
a conscientious job of reading the case and absorbing the information it contains. All of the questions are
automatically graded, and the grades are automatically recorded in your Connect grade book, which
makes it easy for you to evaluate each class member’s ability to apply many of the concepts discussed in
Chapters 1 and 2.
The length of the case makes it ideal for an in-class written case or a final exam case. Our suggested written
assignment questions are as follows:
1. As a new business school graduate who has relocated to Cody,Wyoming and supports the local foundation
to benefit the Wyoming Carmelites, you have been asked to prepare a strategic review and action plan
for the Father Daniel Mary’s consideration. Your report to Father Prior should include an evaluation
of the monastery’s mission, its vision for Mystic Monk Coffee, objectives for the monastery and the
coffee operations, and MMC’s strategy and business model. You should also propose recommendations
to improve Mystic Monk Coffee’s vision, objectives, strategy, business model, or approach to strategy
execution. It is your job to convince Father Daniel Mary to pursue your proposed plan; hence your report
should include full justification and arguments to support your recommended course of action.
2. Cody, Wyoming business owners have noted your quickly developing skills of analysis and growing
business acumen and have asked that you prepare a report for Father Daniel Mary that evaluates Mystic
Monk Coffee’s mission, vision, strategy, business model, and operations. Your report should also make
recommendations concerning strategic issues related to:
n The vision and mission of the monastery and its coffee operations,
n MMC’s strategic and financial objectives,
273
Case 1 Teaching Note Mystic Monk Coffee
n MMC’s strategy and business model, and
n The action steps that will need to be taken to implement the strategy effectively.
Please provide supporting analysis and persuasive argument for your recommended course of action (you must
convince Father Daniel Mary to do what you suggest!) and you need to be specific about what to do and how to
do it.
Assignment Questions
1. Has Father Daniel Mary established a future direction for the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming? What is his
vision for the monastery? What is his vision for Mystic Monk Coffee? What is the mission of the Carmelite
Monks of Wyoming?
2. Does it appear that Father Daniel Mary has set definite objectives and performance targets for achieving his
vision?
3. What is Father Prior’s strategy for achieving his vision? What competitive advantage might Mystic Monk
Coffee’s strategy produce?
4. Is Mystic Monk Coffee’s strategy a money-maker? What is MMC’s business model? What is your assessment
of Mystic Monk Coffee’s customer value proposition? its profit formula? its resources that enable it to create
and deliver value to customers?
5. Does the strategy qualify as a winning strategy? Why or why not?
6. What recommendations would you make to Father Daniel Mary in terms of crafting and executing strategy
for the monastery’s coffee operations? Are changed needed in its long-term direction? its objectives? its
strategy? its approach to strategy execution? Explain.
Teaching Outline and Analysis
1. Has Father Daniel Mary established a future direction for the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming?
What is his vision for the monastery? What is his vision for Mystic Monk Coffee? What is the
mission of the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming?
Students should have little trouble recognizing that Father Daniel Mary’s vision for the Carmelite Monks of
Wyoming is to recreate Mount Carmel in the U.S. Rocky Mountains and transform the small brotherhood
of 13 monks living in a small home used as makeshift rectory into a 500-acre monastery that would include
accommodations for 30 monks, a Gothic church, a convent for Carmelite nuns, a retreat center for lay
visitors, and a hermitage. However, students should also recognize that there is no clear evidence in the case
that Father Daniel Mary has articulated a vision for Mystic Monk Coffee.
If you are using this case as your lead-off case for the course, you may find that many students don’t
distinguish between the monastery and MMC and believe the Prior’s general vision applies to the monk’s
coffee operations. To clear up this confusion and to illustrate the lack of an appropriate vision for MMC,
please have students compare Father Prior’s vision to Howard Schultz’s vision for Starbucks. Howard
Schultz’s vision of bringing the Italian Espresso bar experience to America very accurately described his
intended course and direction and helped stakeholders understand “where we are going.” Schultz’s vision
for Starbucks was graphic, focused, desirable, and easy to communicate. The same can be said for Father
Daniel Mary’s vision for the Carmelite Monks, but not for its coffee business. Initially doubting students
should concede that Father Daniel Mary has yet to spell out a long-term direction for Mystic Monk Coffee.
There’s merit to having students critique both visions using the information in Table 2.1 presented in Chapter
2 of the text.
274
Case 1 Teaching Note Mystic Monk Coffee
You’ll likely find that most students readily recognize that the ultimate mission of the cloistered monks is to
worship God. Some may wish to begin a debate on the role of the monastery’s coffee operations in pursuit
of this mission, but we’ve found it’s best to hold this discussion for the very end of the case discussion. We
prefer to have students consider this dilemma after they’ve recommended an action plan that would help the
monastery achieve its vision of creating a new Mount Carmel in the Rocky Mountains.
2. Does it appear that Father Daniel Mary has set definite objectives and performance targets
for achieving his vision?
Students will find it very difficult to argue that Father Daniel Mary has set definite objectives or performance
targets for achieving the vision. Other than the broad goal of obtaining funds to purchase the $8.9 million
Lake Irma Ranch, there isn’t any evidence that the monks have set short-term or long-run goals for developing
charitable contributions or for its MMC business.
3. What is Father Prior’s strategy for achieving his vision? What competitive advantage might
Mystic Monk Coffee’s strategy produce?
Students will generally agree that Father Daniel Mary is relying on charitable contributions to the monastery
and profits from its Mystic Monk Coffee enterprise to fund the purchase of the Irma Lake Ranch. Students
should also recognize that MMC does have a deliberate strategy, although it may be only tacitly understood
among the monks. The case doesn’t discuss to what extent Father Prior has articulated the strategy to
Brother Java (Brother Elias) and the other monks involved with MMC’s operations, but students should be
able to identify the following elements of MMC’s focused differentiation strategy:
n Exclusive use of high quality fair trade Arabica and fair trade organic Arabic beans
n Variety of blends, roasts, and flavors to appeal to a broad range of coffee preferences
n Focus on U.S. Catholic consumers and those wishing to support the mission of the Carmelite Monks
of Wyoming. An appeal was made to Catholics “to use their catholic coffee dollar for Christ and his
Catholic church.”
n Word of mouth advertising among loyal customers in Catholic parishes across the U.S.
n Majority of sales made through MMC’s Web site
n Telephone orders accepted
n Affiliate program that provided 18 percent commissions to secular Web site operators allowing MMC
banner and text ads to appear on their sites
n ShareASale participation program that allowed affiliates to refer new affiliates and earn 56 percent of the
new affiliate’s commission
n Wholesale sales to churches and local coffee shops
n Product line extension that included sales of T-shirts, mugs, gift cards, and CDs featuring the monastery’s
n Gregorian chants
Students will generally approve of MMC’s focused differentiation strategy and suggest that it is capable
of building competitive advantage. The use of high quality coffee beans, the variety of blends, roasts,
and flavors and the Mystic Monk image produce a number of tangible and intangible benefits for MMC
customers. Students will also recognize that MMC’s focus on the 69 million members of the Catholic
Church in the United States makes the target market sufficiently large to earn attractive profits. Students
275
Case 1 Teaching Note Mystic Monk Coffee
should conclude that even though MMC is incapable of sustaining an advantage in the industry based
upon the quality of its coffee alone, its monastic relationship would be very difficult for a rival seller to
imitate.
4. Is Mystic Monk Coffee’s strategy a money-maker? What is MMC’s business model? What is
your assessment of Mystic Monk Coffee’s customer value proposition? its profit formula? its
resources that enable it to create and deliver value to customers?
Even though MMC’s business model has a compelling customer value proposition, there is reason for
students to challenge the overall soundness of the business model. MMC’s attractive differentiating features
and competitive pricing create a strong customer value proposition, but its profit formula is suspect. Other
than the lack of labor expense, MMC enjoys no cost advantage and many of its non-differentiating activities
involve higher than normal costs because of its low production volume. The company’s cost of sales of 30
percent, broker fees of 3 percent, and inbound shipping costs of 19 percent contributed to a cost of goods
sold of 52 percent. Even though students might argue that some indirect operating expenses (37 percent of
revenues) are largely fixed and might go down as volume increases, most of these expenses are somewhat
variable and will increase with volume. MMC’s current sales and 11 percent net profit margin are quite
insufficient to generate $8.9 million in cumulative earnings within a reasonable amount of time.
Students are also likely to note that MMC generates losses on all sales coming from affiliate Web sites since
the company pays an 18 percent commission on these sales, but has a net profit margin of only 11 percent.
Students will also question whether the monastery possesses sufficient resources to operate a thriving coffee
roasting and sales business. Current monthly sales of $56,500 suggest that MMC sells about 4,250 pounds
of coffee each month at a retail price of $9.95 per 12-ounce bag. The capacity of the coffee roaster will allow
for production of 540 pounds per day, which is about 22.5 pounds per hour. Brother Elias (Brother Java) is
able to work for only 6 hours per day, which limits production to about 135 pounds per day. At a rate of 135
pounds per day, it appears that Brother Java is working 7 days per week to meet MMC’s current monthly
sales!! Students will also note that a larger roaster could be purchased that would push production to 130
pounds per hour, which would increase daily production by a factor of 6. Still there is much labor involved
in packaging the coffee and preparing daily shipment pickups for UPS or the US Postal Service. There is
strong reason to believe that the monk’s monastic constraints would prevent a six-fold increase in daily
production, even if demand permitted such an increase in daily production.
Students’ overall assessment of the business model should recognize its flaws and conclude that MMC’s
current business model severely limits its ability to make a meaningful contribution to the purchase of Lake
Irma Ranch. However, MMC’s average monthly profits of slightly more than $5,000 should go a long way to
supporting the current operating expenses of the monastery. Students may conclude that the business model
is quite sufficient should Father Daniel Mary choose to scale back his vision.
5. Does the strategy qualify as a winning strategy? Why or why not?
There’s merit in directing students to the three tests of a winning strategy presented on page 9 of Chapter 1
of the text if you’ve chosen to schedule Mystic Monk Coffee as the lead-off case for the course. Assessments
made by students may include the following arguments and comments:
n Does the strategy fit the company’s situation? You should find the class more or less evenly divided
in whether to classify MMC’s strategy as a winner. The strategy fits the external situation nicely since
the market for specialty coffees had grown at an annual rate of 32 percent between 2000 and 2007
to reach $13.5 billion. Also, students should note that the retail sales of organic specialty coffee had
grown to $1 billion by 2007. MMC’s focus on Catholic consumers in the United States represents a large
market for MMC—and one that would arguably become very loyal customers. Students who suggest
MMC lacks a winning strategy are likely to point to a poor fit between MMC’s strategy and its internal
situation that requires monks to devote most of their day prayer and worship.
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man, murmur; and this brings me to another question, “Are walls
round open spaces necessary?”
English people seem to have adopted the idea that it is essential
to surround their parks and gardens with visible barriers, perhaps
because England is surrounded by the sea—a very visible line of
demarcation; but, in the stead of a dancing joy, a witchful barrier,
uniting while it separates, they have put up grim hard walls, ugly
dividing fences, barriers which challenge trespass, and make even
the law-abiding citizen desire to climb over and see what is on the
other side.
It is extraordinary how firmly established is the acceptance of the
necessity of walls and protection. Nearly thirty-five years ago, when
the first effort was made to plant Mile End Road with trees, and to
make its broad margins gracious with shrubs and plants, we were
met by the argument that they would not be safe without high
railings. I recall the croakings of those who combated the proposal
to open Leicester Square to the public, and who of us has not
listened to the regrets of the landowner on the expense entailed by
his estate boundary fences?
If you say, “Why make them so high, or keep them up so
expensively, as you do not preserve your game? Why not have low
hedges or short open fences, over which people can see and enjoy
your property?” he will look at you with a gentle pity, thinking of you
as a deluded idealist, or perhaps his expression will change into
something not so gentle as it dawns on him that, though one is the
respectable wife of a respectable Canon, yet one may be holding
“some of those—Socialist theories”.
Not long ago I went at the request of a gentleman who owned
property, with his agent to see if suggestions could be made to
improve the appearance of his estate and the happiness of his
tenants. The gardens were small enough to be valueless, but
between and around each were walls, many in bad repair.
“The first thing I should do would be to pull down those walls,
and let the air in; things will then grow, self-respect as well as
flowers,” I said.
“What!” exclaimed the agent, “pull down the walls? Why, what
would the men have to lean against?” thus conjuring up the vision
one has so often seen of men leaning listlessly against the public-
house walls, a sight which the possession of a garden, large enough
to be profitable as well as pleasurable, ought to do much to abolish.
It is difficult to find arguments for walls. In many towns of
America the gardens are wall-less, the public scrupulously observing
the rights of ownership. In the Hampstead Garden Suburb all the
gardens are wall-less, both public and private. The flowers bloom
with the voluptuous abundance produced by virgin soil, but they
remain untouched, not only by the inhabitants, which, of course, is
to be expected, but by the thousands of visitors who come to see
the realization of the much-talked-of scheme, and respect the
property as they share its pleasures.
In town-planning literature and talk much is said about houses,
roads, centre-points to design, architectural features, treatment of
junctions, and many other items both important and interesting; but
the tone of thought pervading all that I have yet read is that it is the
healthy and happy, the respectable and the prosperous, for whom all
is to be arranged. It takes all sorts to make a world, and the town
planner who excludes in his arrangements the provision for the
lonely, the sick, the sorrowful, and the handicapped will lose from
the midst of the community some of its greatest moral teachers.
The children should be specially welcomed amid improved or
beautiful surroundings, for the impressions made in youth last
through life, and on the standards adopted by the young will depend
the nation’s welfare. A vast army of children are wholly supported by
the State, some 100,000, while to them can be added nearly
200,000 more for whom the public purse is partly responsible. In
town planning the needs of these children should be considered, and
the claims of the sick openly met.
Hospitals are intended to help the sick poor, so, in planning the
town or its growth, suitable sites should be chosen in relation to the
population who require such aid; but in London many hospitals are
clustered in the centre of the town, are enlarged, rebuilt, or
improved on the old positions, though the people’s homes and
workshops have been moved miles away; thus the sick suffer in
body and become poorer in purse, as longer journeys have to be
undertaken after accidents, or when as out-patients they need
frequent attention.
The wicked, the naughty, the sick, the demented, the sorrowful,
the blind, the halt, the maimed, the old, the handicapped, the
children are facts—facts to be faced, facts which demand thought,
facts which should be reckoned with in town planning—for all, even
the first-named, can be helped by being surrounded with
“whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, and
whatsoever things are of good report”.
Every one who has been to Canada must have been struck with
the evidence of faith in educational appreciation which the
Canadians give in the preparation of their vast teaching centres.
“What impressed me greatly,” said Mr. Henry Vivian in his speech
at the dinner given in his honour on his return from the Dominion,
“was the preparation that the present people have made for the
education of the future people,” and he described the planning of
one University, whose buildings, sports-grounds, roads, hostels, and
gardens were to cover 1300 acres. Compare that with the statement
of the Secretary of a Borough Council Education Authority, who told
me the other day, with congratulatory pleasure, that long
negotiations had at last obtained one acre and a quarter for the
building of a secondary school and a hoped-for three acres some
distance off for the boys’ playground.
The town planning of the future will make, it is to be hoped,
generous provision for educational requirements, and not only for
the inhabitants of the immediate locality. As means of transit
become both cheaper and easier, it will be recognized as a gain for
young people to go out of town to study, into purer air, away from
nerve-wearing noise, amid flowers and trees, and with an outlook on
a wider sky, itself an elevating educational influence both by day and
night.
The need of what may be called artificial town addition can only
concern the elder nations, who have, scattered over their lands,
splendid buildings in the centre of towns that have ceased to grow.
As an example, I would quote Ely. What a glorious Cathedral! kept in
dignified elderly repair, its Deans, Canons, Minors, lay-clerks, and
choir, all doing their respective daily duties in leading worship; but,
alas! there the population is so small (7713 souls) that the response
by worshippers is necessarily inadequate—the output bears no
proportion to the return. Beauty, sweetness, and light are wasted
there and West Ham exists, with its 267,000 inhabitants, its vast
workshops and factories, its miles of mean streets of drab-coloured
“brick boxes with slate lids”—and no Cathedral, no group of kind,
leisured clergy to leaven the heavy dough of mundane, cheerless
toil.
If town planning could be treated nationally, it might be arranged
that Government factories could be established in Ely. Army
clothiers, stationery manufactories, gunpowder depôts would bring
the workers in their train. A suitable expenditure of the Public Works
Loans money would cause the cottages to appear; schools would
then arise, shops and lesser businesses, which population always
brings into existence, would be started; and the Cathedral would
become a House of Prayer, not only to the few religious ones who
now rejoice in the services, but for the many whose thoughts would
be uplifted by the presence in their midst of the stately witness of
the Law of Love, and whose lives would be benefited by the helpful
thought and wise consideration of those whose profession it is to
serve the people.
Pending great changes, something might perhaps be done if
individual owners and builders would consider the appearance, not
only of the house they are building, but of the street or road of
which it forms a part. A few months ago, in the bright sunshine, I
stood on a hill-top, facing a delightful wide view, on a newly
developed estate, and, pencil in hand, wrote the colours and
materials of four houses standing side by side. This is the list:—
No. 1 House.—Roof, grey slates; walls, white plaster with red
brick; yellow-painted woodwork; red chimneys.
No. 2 House.—Roof, purpley-red tiles; walls, buff rough cast;
brown-painted woodwork; yellow chimneys.
No. 3 House.—Roof, orangey-red tiles; walls, grey-coloured rough
cast; white-painted woodwork; red chimneys.
No. 4 House.—Roof, crimson-red tiles; walls, stone-coloured rough
cast; peacock-blue paint; red chimneys.
This bare list tells of the inharmonious relation of colours, but it
cannot supply the variety of tones of red, nor yet the mixture of
lines, roof-angles, balcony or bow projections, one of which ran up
to the top of a steep-pitched roof, and was castellated at the
summit. The road was called “Bon-Accord”. One has sometimes to
thank local authorities for unconscious jokes.
My space is filled, and even a woman’s monologue must conclude
some time! But one paragraph more may be taken to put in a plea
for space for an Open-air Museum. It need not be a large and
exhaustive one, for there is something to be said for not making
museums “too bright and good for human nature’s daily food”. There
might be objects of museum interest scattered in groups about the
green girdle which the young among my readers will, I trust, live to
see round all great towns; or an open-air exhibit on a limited subject
might be provided, as the late Mr. Burt arranged so charmingly at
Swanage; or the Shakespeare Gardens, already started in some of
the London County Council parks, might be further developed; or the
more ambitious schemes of Stockholm and Copenhagen intimated;
but whichever model is adopted the idea of open-air museums
(which might be stretched to include bird sanctuaries) is one which
should find a place in the gracious environment of our well-ordered
towns when they have come under the law and the gospel of the
Town-planning Act.
Henrietta O. Barnett.
THE MISSION OF MUSIC.[1]
By Canon Barnett.
July, 1899.
1 From “International Journal of Ethics”. By permission of the Editor.
“We must have something light or comic.” So say those who provide
music for the people, and their words represent an opinion which is
almost universal with regard to the popular taste. The uneducated, it
is thought, must be unable to appreciate that which is refined or to
enjoy that which does not make them laugh and be merry.
Opinions exist, especially with regard to the tastes and wants of
the poor, by the side of facts altogether inconsistent with those
opinions. There are facts within the knowledge of some who live in
the East End of London which are sufficient, at any rate, to shake
this general opinion as to the people’s taste in music.
In Whitechapel, where so many philanthropists have tried “to
patch with handfuls of coal and rice” the people’s wants, the signs of
ignorance are as evident as the signs of poverty. There is an almost
complete absence of those influences which are hostile to the
ignorance, not, indeed, of the mere elements of knowledge (the
Board Schools are now happily everywhere prominent), but to the
ignorance of joy, truth, and beauty. Utility and the pressure of work
have crowded house upon house; have filled the shops with what is
only cheap, driven away the distractions of various manners and
various dresses, and made the place weary to the body and
depressing to the mind.
Nevertheless, in this district a crowd has been found willing, on
many a winter’s night, to come and listen to parts of an oratorio or
to selections of classical music. The oratorios have sometimes been
given in a church by various bodies of amateurs who have practised
together for the purpose; the concerts have been given in
schoolrooms on Sunday evenings by professionals of reputation. To
the oratorios men and women have come, some of them from the
low haunts kept around the city by its carelessly administered
charity, all of them of the class which, working for its daily bread,
has no margin of time for study. Amid those who are generally so
independent of restraint, who cough and move as they will, there
has been a death-like stillness as they have listened to some fine
solo of Handel’s. On faces which are seldom free of the marks of
care, except in the excitement of drink, a calm has seemed to settle
and tears to flow, for no reason but because “it is so beautiful!”
Sometimes the music has appeared to break gradually down barriers
that shut out some poor fellow from a fairer past or a better future
than his present: the oppressive weight of the daily care lifts, other
sights are in his vision, and at last, covering his face or sinking on
his knees, he makes prayers which cannot be uttered. Sometimes it
has seemed to seize one on business bent, to transport him
suddenly to another world, and, not knowing what he feels, has
forced him to say, “It was good to be here”. A church filled with
hundreds of East Londoners, affected, doubtless, in different ways,
but all silent, reverent, and self-forgetful, is a sight not to be
forgotten or to be held to have no meaning. To the concerts have
crowded hard-headed, unimaginative men, described in a local paper
as being “friends of Bradlaugh”. These have listened to and evidently
taken in difficult movements of Beethoven, Schumann, and Chopin.
The loud applause which has followed some moments of strained,
rapt attention has proclaimed the universal feeling.
With a knowledge of the character of the music, the applications
for admission have increased, and the announcement of a hope that
the concerts might be continued the following winter, and possibly
also extended to weekday evenings, has brought from some of those
present an expression of their desire for other high-class music. The
poor quarters of cities have been too long treated as if their
inhabitants were deficient in that which is noblest in human nature.
Human beings want not something which will do, but the best.
If it be asked what proof there be that such music has a
permanent effect on the hearers, the only answer is that people do
not always know how they have been most influenced. It is the air
unconsciously breathed which affects the cure much more often
than the medicine so consciously taken. Music may most deeply and
permanently affect those who themselves can express no
appreciation with their words or show results in their lives. Like the
thousand things which surrounds the child and which he never
notices, music may largely serve in the formation of character and
the satisfaction of life. That the performance of this music in the
East End is not followed by expressions of intelligent appreciation or
by immediate change of life is no proof of its failure to influence.
The fact that crowds come to listen is sufficient to make the world
reconsider its opinion that the people care only for what is light or
laugh-compelling. There is evidently in the highest music something
which finds a response in many minds not educated to understand
its mysteries nor interested in its creation. This suggests that music
has in the present time a peculiar mission.
“Man doth not live by bread alone,” expresses a truth which even
those will allow who profess themselves careless about present-day
religion. There is in human beings, in those whom the rich think to
satisfy by increased wages and improved dwellings, a need of
something beyond. The man who has won an honourable place, who
by punctuality, honesty, and truthfulness has become the trusted
servant of his employer, is often weary with the very monotony of
his successful life. He has bread in abundance, but, unsatisfied, he
dreams of filling quite another place in the world, perhaps as the
leader daring much for others, perhaps as the patriot suffering much
for his class and country, or perhaps as the poet living in others’
thoughts. There flits before him a vision of a fuller life, and the
vision stirs in him a longing to share such life. The woman, too, who
in common talk is the model wife and mother, whose days are filled
with work, whose talk is of her children’s wants, whose life seems so
even and uneventful, so complete in its very prosaicness, she, if she
could be got to speak out the thoughts which flit through her brain
as she silently plies her needle or goes about her household duties,
would tell of strange longings for quite another sort of life, of
passions and aspirations which have been scarcely allowed to take
form in her mind. There is no one to whom “omens that would
astonish have not predicted a future and uncovered a past”.
Beyond the margin of material life is a spiritual life. This life has
been and may still be believed to be the domain of religion, that
which science has not known and can never know, which material
things have not helped and can never help. It has been the glory of
religion to develop the longing to be something higher and nobler by
revealing to men the God, Who is higher than themselves.
Religion having abdicated this domain to invade that of science
has to-day suffered by becoming the slave of æsthetic and moral
precepts. Her professors often yield themselves to the influence of
form and colour or boast only of their morality and philanthropy.
It is no wonder, therefore, that many who are in earnest and feel
that neither ritualism nor philanthropy have special power to satisfy
their natures, reject religion. But they will not, if they are fair to
themselves, object to the strengthening of that power which they
must allow to have been a source of noble endeavour and of the
very science whose reign they acknowledge. The sense of something
better than their best, making itself felt not in outward circumstance
but inwardly in their hearts, has often been the spring of effort and
of hope. It is because the forms of present-day religion give so little
help to strengthen this sense, that so many now speak slightingly of
religion and profess their independence of its forms. Religion, in fact,
is suffering for want of expression.
In other times men felt that the words of the Prayer Book and
phrases now labelled “theological” did speak out, or at any rate did
give some form to their vague, indistinct longing to be something
else and something more; while the picture of God, drawn from the
Bible history and Bible words, gave an object to their longing,
making them desire to be like Him and to enjoy Him for ever.
In these days, however, historical criticism and scientific
discoveries have made the old expressions seem inadequate to state
man’s longings or to picture God’s character. The words of prayers,
whether the written prayers of the English Church or that
rearrangement of old expressions called “extempore prayer,” do not
at once fit in with the longings of those to whom, in these later
days, sacrifice has taken other forms and life other possibilities. The
descriptions of God, involving so much that is only marvellous, jar
against minds which have had hints of the grandeur of law and
which have been awed not by miracles but by holiness. The petitions
for the joys of heaven do not always meet the needs of those who
have learnt that what they are is of more consequence than what
they have, and the anthropomorphic descriptions of the character of
God make Him seem less than many men who are not jealous, nor
angry, nor revengeful.
Words and thoughts alike often fail to satisfy modern wants.
While prayers are being said, the listless attitude and wandering
gaze of those in whose souls are the deepest needs and loftiest
aspirations, proclaim the failure. Religion has not failed, but only its
power of expressing itself. There lives still in man that which gropes
after God, but it can find no form in which to clothe itself. The loss is
no light one. Expression is necessary to active life, and without it, at
any rate, some of the greater feelings of human nature must suffer
loss of energy and be isolated in individuals. Free exercise will give
those feelings strength; the power of utterance will teach men that
they are not alone when they are their best selves.
The world has been moved to many a crusade by a picture of
suffering humanity, and the darkness of heathenism calls forth
missionaries of one Church and another. Almost as moving a picture
might be drawn of those who wanting much can express nothing.
Here are men and women, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh: they
have that within them which raises them above all created things,
powers by which they are allied to all whom the world honours,
faculties by which they might find unfailing joy. But they have no
form of expression and so they live a lower life, walking by sight, not
by faith, giving rein to powers which find their satisfaction near at
hand, and developing faculties in the use of which there is more of
pain than joy. The power which has been the spring of so much that
is helpful to the world seems to be dead in them; that sense which
has enabled men to stand together as brothers, trusting one another
as common possessors of a Divine spark, seems to be without
existence. A few may go on walking grimly the path of duty, but for
the mass of mankind life has lost its brightness. Dullness unrelieved
by wealth, and loneliness undispersed by dissipation, are the
common lot. In a sense more terrible than ever, men are like
children walking in the night with no language but a cry. He that will
give them the means once more to express what they really are and
what they really want will break the bondage.
The fact that the music of the great masters does stir something
in most men’s natures should be a reason for trying whether music
might not, at any rate partially, express the religious life of the
present day.
There is much to be said in favour of such an experiment. On the
one side there is the failure of existing modes of expression. The
prettinesses of ritualism and the social efforts of Broad Churchism,
even for the comparatively small numbers who adopt these forms of
worship, do not meet those longings of the inner life which go
beyond the love of beauty and beyond the love of neighbours. The
vast majority of the people belong to neither ritualism nor Broad
Churchism; they live, at best, smothering their aspirations in activity;
at worst, in dissipation, having forsaken duty as well as God. Their
morality has followed their religion. In the East End of London this is
more manifest, not because the people of the East are worse than
the people of the West, but because the people of the East have no
call to seem other than they are. Amid many signs hopeful for the
future there is also among East Londoners, unblushingly declared at
every street-corner, the self-indulgence which robs the young and
weak of that which is their right, education and protection; the vice
which saps a nation’s strength is boasted of in the shop and flaunted
in the highways, and the selfishness which is death to a man is often
the professed ground of action.
Morality for the mass of men has been dependent on the
consciousness of God, and with the lack of means of expression the
consciousness of God seems to have ceased. On this ground alone
there would be reason for making an experiment with music, if only
because it offers itself as a possible means of that expression which
the consciousness of God supports. And, on the other side, there is
the natural fitness of music for the purpose.
In the first place, the great musical compositions may be
asserted to be, not arrangements which are the results of study and
the application of scientific principles, but the results of inspiration.
The master, raised by his genius above the level of common
humanity to think fully what others think only in part, and to see
face to face what others see only darkly, puts into music the
thoughts which no words can utter and the descriptions which no
tongue can tell. What he himself would be, his hopes, his fears, his
aspirations, what he himself sees of that holiest and fairest which
has haunted his life, he tells by his art. Like the prophets, having
had a vision of God, his music proclaims what he himself would
desire to be, and expresses the emotions of his higher nature.
If this be a correct account of the meaning of those great
masterpieces which may every day be performed in the ears of the
people, it is easy to see how they may be made to serve the
purpose in view. The greatest master is a man with much in him
akin to the lowest of the human race. The homage all pay to the
great is but the assertion of this kinship, the assertion of men’s claim
to be like the great when the obstructions of their mal-formation and
mal-education shall be trained away. Men generally will, therefore,
find in that which expresses the thoughts of the greatest the means
of expressing their own thoughts. The music which enfolds the
passions that have never found utterance, that have never been
realized by the ordinary man, will somehow appeal to him and make
him recognize his true self and his true object. Music being itself the
expression of the wants of man, all who share in man’s nature will
find in it an expression for longings and visions for which no words
are adequate. It will be what prayers and meditations now so often
fail to be, a means of linking men with the source of the highest
thoughts and efforts, and of enabling them to enjoy God, a joy
which so few now understand.
More than this, the best existing expression of that which men
have found to be good has been by parables, whose meanings have
not been limited to time or place but are of universal application.
Heard by different people and at different times, parables have given
to all alike a conception of that which eye cannot see nor voice
utter; each hearer in each age has gained possibly a different
conception, but in the use of the same words all have felt
themselves to be united. The parable of the prodigal son has
represented the God who has been won to love by the sacrifice of
Christ and also the God who freely forgives. Such forms of
expression it is most important to have in an age when movement is
so rapid that things become old as soon as they are new, separating
to-morrow those who have stood together to-day, and when at the
same time the longing for unity is so powerful that the thought of it
acts as a charm on men’s minds.
In some degree all art is a parable, as it makes known in a figure
that which is unknown, revealing the truth the artist has felt to
others just in so far as they by education and surroundings have
been qualified to understand it. Titian’s picture of the Assumption
helped the mediæval saint to worship better the Virgin Mother, and
also helps those of our day to realize the true glory of womanhood.
But music, even more than painting and poetry, fulfils this
condition. It reveals that which the artist has seen, and reveals it
with no distracting circumstance of subject, necessary to the picture
or the poem. The hearer who listens to a great composition is not
drawn aside to think of some historical or romantic incident; he is
free to think of that of which such incidents are but the clothes. Age
succeeds to age; the music which sounded in the ears of the fathers
sounds also in the ears of the children. Place and circumstance force
men asunder, but still for those of every party or sect and for those
in every quarter of the world the great works of the masters of
music remain. The works may be performed in the West End or in
the East End—the hearers will have different conceptions, will see
from different points of view the vision which inspired the master,
but will nevertheless have the sense that the music which serves all
alike creates a bond of union.
Music then would seem fitted to be in this age the expression of
that which men in their inmost hearts most reverence. Creeds have
ceased to express this and have become symbols of division rather
than of unity! Music is a parable, telling in sounds which will not
change of that which is worthy of worship, telling it to each hearer
just in so far as he by nature and circumstance is able to understand
it, but giving to all that feeling of common life and assurance of
sympathy which has in old times been the strength of the Church.
By music, men may be helped to find God who is not far from any
one of us, and be brought again within reach of that tangible
sympathy, the sympathy of their fellow-creatures.
There is, however, still one other requisite in a perfect form of
religious expression. The age is new and thoughts are new, but
nevertheless they are rooted in the past. More than any one
acknowledges is he under the dominion of the buried ages. He who
boasts himself superior to the superstitions of the present is the
child of parents whose high thoughts, now transmitted to their child,
were intertwined with those superstitions. Any form of expression
therefore which aims at covering emotions said to be new must, like
these emotions, have associations with the past. A brand new form
of worship, agreeable to the most enlightened reason and
surrounded with that which the present asserts to be good, would
utterly fail to express thoughts and feelings, which, if born of the
present, share the nature of parents who lived in the past. It is
interesting to notice how machines and institutions which are the
product of the latest thought bear in their form traces of that which
they have superseded; the railway carriage suggests the stage-
coach, and the House of Commons reminds us of the Saxon
Witanagemot. The absolutely new would have no place in this old
world, and a new form of expression could not express the emotions
of the inner life.
Music which offers a form in which to clothe the yearnings of the
present has been associated with the corresponding yearnings of the
past, and would seem therefore to fulfil the necessary condition.
Those who to-day feel music telling out their deepest wants and
proclaiming their praise of the good and holy, might recognize in the
music echoes of the songs which broke from the lips of Miriam and
David, of Ambrose and Gregory, and of those simple peasants who
one hundred years ago were stirred to life on the moors of Cornwall
and Wales.
The fact that music has been thus associated with religious life
gives it an immense, if an unrecognized power. The timid are
encouraged and the bold are softened! When the congregation is
gathered together and the sounds rise which are full of that which is
and perhaps always will be “ineffable,” there float in, also, memories
of other sounds, poor perhaps and uncouth, in which simple people
have expressed their prayers and praises; the atmosphere, as it
were, becomes religious, and all feel that the music is not only
beautiful, but the means of bringing them nearer to the God after
Whom they have sought so long and often despaired to find.
For these reasons music seems to have a natural fitness for
becoming the expression of the inner life. The experiment, at any
rate, may be easily tried. There is in every parish a church with an
organ, and arrangements suitable for the performance of grand
oratorios; there are concert halls or schoolrooms suitable for the
performance of classical music. There are many individuals and
societies with voices and instruments capable of rendering the music
of the masters. Most of them have, we cannot doubt, the
enthusiasm which would induce them to give their services to meet
the needs of their fellow-creatures.
Money has been and is freely subscribed for the support of
missions seeking to meet bodily and spiritual wants; music will as
surely be given by those who have felt its power to meet that need
of expression which so far keeps the people without the
consciousness of God. Members of ethical societies, who have
taught themselves to fix their eyes on moral results, may unite with
members of churches who care also for religious things. Certain it is
that people who are able to realize grand ideals will be likely in their
own lives to do grand things, and doing them make the world better
and themselves happier.
Samuel A. Barnett.
Solution Manual for Crafting and Executing Strategy Concepts and Cases 22th by Thompson
THE REAL SOCIAL REFORMER.[1]
By Canon Barnett.
January, 1910.
1 From “The Manchester Weekly Times”. By permission of the Editor.
The world is out of joint. Reformers have in every age tried to put it
right. But still Society jerks and jolts as it journeys over the road of
life. The rich fear the poor, the poor suspect the rich, there is strife
and misunderstanding; children flicker out a few days’ life in sunless
courts, and honoured old age is hidden in workhouses; people starve
while food is wasted in luxurious living, and the cry always goes up,
“Who will show us any good?”
The response to that cry is the appearance of the Social
Reformer. Philanthropists have brought forward scheme after
scheme to relieve poverty, and politicians have passed laws to
remove abuses. Their efforts have been magnificent and the
immediate results not to be gainsaid, but in counting the gains the
debit side must not be forgotten. Philanthropists weaken as well as
strengthen society; law hinders as well as helps. When a body of
people assume good doing as a special profession, there will always
be a tendency among some of their neighbours to go on more
unconcerned about evil, and among others to offer themselves as
subjects for this good doing. The world may be better for its
philanthropists, but when after such devotion it remains so terribly
out of joint the question arises whether good is best done by a class
set apart as Social Reformers.
There is an often-quoted saying of a monk in the twelfth century:
“The age of the Son is passing, the age of the Spirit is coming”. He
saw that the need of the world would not always be for a leader or
for a class of leaders, but rather for a widely diffused spirit.
The present moment is remarkable for the number of societies,
leagues, and institutions which are being started. There never were
so many leaders offering themselves to do good, so many schemes
demanding support. The Charities Register reveals agencies which
are ready to deal with almost any conceivable ill, and it would seem
that anyone desiring to help a neighbour might do so by pressing
the button of one of these agencies. The agencies for each service
are, indeed, so many, that other societies are formed now for their
organization, and the would-be good-doer is thus relieved even from
inquiring as to that which is the best fitted for his purpose.
The hope of the monk is deferred, and it seems as if it were the
leaders and not the spirit of the people which is to secure social
reform. The question therefore presses itself whether the best social
reformers are the philanthropists. Specialists always make a show of
activity, but such a show is often the cover of widely spread
indolence. Specialists in religion—the ecclesiastics—were never more
active than when during the fifteenth century they built churches
and restored the cathedrals, but underneath this activity was the
popular indifference which almost immediately woke to take
vengeance on such leaders. Specialists in social reform to-day—the
philanthropists—raise great schemes, but many of their supporters
are at heart indifferent. It really saves them trouble to create
societies and to make laws. It is easier to subscribe money—even to
sit on a committee—than to help one’s own neighbour. It is easier to
promote Socialism than to be a Socialist. Activity in social reform
movements may be covering popular indifference, and there is
already a sign of the vengeance which awakened indifference may
take in the cry dimly heard, “Curse your charity”.
Better, it may be agreed, than great schemes—voluntary or legal
—is the individual service of men and women who, putting heart and
mind into their efforts, and co-operating together, take as their
motto “One by One”; but again the same question presses itself in
another form: Should the individual who aspires to serve his
generation separate himself from the ordinary avocations of Society,
and become a visitor or teacher? Should the business man divide his
social reforming self from his business self, and keep, as he would
say, his charity and his business apart?
The world is rich in examples of devoted men and women who
have given up pleasure and profit to serve others’ needs. The
modern Press gives every day news of both the benefactions and the
good deeds of business men who, as business men, think first, not
of the kingdom of heaven, but of business profits. This specialization
of effort—as the specialization of a class—has its good results; but is
it the best, the only way of social reform? Is it not likely to narrow
the heart of the good-doer and make him overkeen about his own
plan? Will not the charity of a stranger, although it be designed in
love and be carried out with thought, almost always irritate? Is it not
the conception of society, which assumes one class dependent on
the benevolence of another class, mediæval rather than modern?
Can limbs which are out of joint be made to work smoothly by any
application of oil and not by radical resetting? Is it reasonable that
business men should look to cure with their gifts the injuries they
have inflicted in their business, that they should build hospitals and
give pensions out of profits drawn from the rents of houses unfit for
human habitation, and gained from wages on which no worker could
both live and look forward to a peaceful old age? Is it possible for a
human being to divide his nature so as to be on the one side
charitable and on the other side cruel?
The question therefore as to the best Social Reformer, still waits
an answer. Before attempting an answer it may be as well to glance
at the moral causes to which social friction is attributed. Popular
belief assumed that the designed selfishness of classes or of
individuals lies at the root of every trouble. Bitter and fiery words are
therefore spoken. Capitalists suspect the aspiring tyranny of trade
unions to be compassing their ruin, workmen talk of the other
classes using “their powers as selfish and implacable enemies of
their rights”. Rich people incline to assume that the poor have
designs on their property, and the poor suspect that every proposal
of the rich is for their injury. The philosophy of life is very simple.
“Every one seeketh reward,” and the daily Press gives ample
evidence as to the way every class acts on that philosophy. But
nevertheless experience reveals the good which is in every one. Mr.
Galsworthy in his play, “The Silver Box,” pictures the conflict between
rich and poor, between the young and the old. The pain each works
on the other is grievous, there is hardness of heart and selfishness,
but the reflection left by the play is not that anyone designed the
pain of the other, but that for want of thought each misunderstood
the other, and each did the wrong thing.
The family whose members are so smugly content with the virtue
which has secured wealth and comfort, whose charities are liberally
supported, and kindness frequently done, where hospitality is ready,
would feel itself unfairly charged if it were abused because it lived
on abuses, and opposed any change which might affect the
established order. The labour agitator, on the other hand, feels
himself unfairly charged when he is attacked as designing change for
his own benefit and accused of enmity because of his strong
language. It may be that his words do mischief, but in his heart he is
kindly and generous. There are criminals in every class, rich men
who prey on poor men, and poor men who prey on rich men, but
the criminal class is limited and the mass of men do not intend evil.
The chief cause of social friction is, it may be said, not designed
selfishness so much as the want of moral thoughtfulness. The rogue
of the piece is not the criminal, but—you—I—every one.
The recognition of this fact suggests that the best Social
Reformer is not the philanthropist or the politician so much as the
man or the woman who brings moral thoughtfulness into every act
and relation of daily life.
There is abundance of what may be called financial
thoughtfulness, and people take much pains, not always with
success—to inquire into the soundness of their investments and the
solvency of their debtors. The Social Reformer who feels the
obligation of moral thoughtfulness will take as much pains to inquire
whether his profits come by others’ loss. He may not always
succeed, but he will seek to know if the workers employed by his
capital receive a living wage and are protected from the dangers of
their trade. He will look to it that his tenants have houses which
ought to make homes.
There is much time spent in shopping, and women take great
pains to learn what is fashionable or suited to their means. If they
were morally thoughtful they would take as much pains to learn
what sweated labour had been used so that things might be cheap;
what suffering others had endured for their pleasure. They might not
always succeed, but the fact of seeking would have its effect, and
they would help to raise public opinion to a greater sense of
responsibility.
Pleasure-seekers are proverbially free-handed, they throw their
money to passing beggars, they patronize any passing show which
promises a moment’s amusement; greater moral thoughtfulness
would not prevent their pleasure, but it would prevent them from
making children greedy, so that they might enjoy the fun of
watching a scramble, and from listening to songs or patronizing
shows which degrade the performer. Gwendolen, in George Eliot’s
“Daniel Deronda,” did not realize that the cruelty of gambling is
taking profit by another’s loss, and so she laid the foundation of a
tragedy. Pleasure-seekers who make the same mistake are
responsible for some of the tragedies which disturb society.
The Social Reformers who will do most to fit together the jarring
joints of Society are, therefore, the man and woman who, without
giving up their duties or their business, who without even taking up
special philanthropic work are morally thoughtful as to their words
and acts. They are, in old language, they who are in the world and
not of the world. If any one says that such moral thoughtfulness
spells bankruptcy, there are in the examples of business men and
manufacturers a thousand answers, but reformers who have it in
mind to lead the world right do not begin by asking as to their own
reward. It is enough for them that as the ills of society come not
from the acts of criminals who design the ills, but from the thousand
and million unconsidered acts of men and women who pass as
kindly and respectable people, they on their part set themselves to
consider every one of their acts in relation to others’ needs.
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  • 5. Solution Manual for Crafting and Executing Strategy Concepts and Cases 22th by Thompson Full download link at: https://testbankbell.com/product/solution-manual-for-crafting- and-executing-strategy-concepts-and-cases-22th-by-thompson/ • How to attract customers. • How to compete against rivals. • How to achieve the company’s performance targets. 106
  • 6. Chapter 1 What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important? 107 • How to capitalize on opportunities to grow the business. • How to respond to changing economic and market conditions. CORE CONCEPT A company’s strategy is the coordinated set of actions that its managers take in order to outperform the company’s competitors and achieve superior profitability. 3. Strategy Is about Competing Differently—A strategy stands a better chance of succeeding when it is predicated on actions, business approaches, and competitive moves aimed at: a. appealing to buyers in ways that set a company apart from its rivals and b. staking out a market position that is not crowded with strong competitors. 4. Figure 1.1—Identifying a Company’s Strategy—What to Look For, shows what to look for in identifying the substance of a company’s overall strategy. These are the visible actions taken that signal what strategy the company is pursuing. ACTIVITY Consider adding a File Attachment assignment requiring the student to develop a response to this Illustration Capsule. You can post instructions for the student within the assignment and collect their attachments for grading. III. Strategy and the Quest for Competitive Advantage ACTIVITY Consider adding a LearnSmart assignment requiring the student to review this section of the chapter as an interactive question and answer review . The assignment can be graded and posted automatically. 1. The heart and soul of any strategy is the actions and moves in the market place that managers are taking to improve the company’s financial performance, strengthen its long-term competitive position, and gain a competitive edge over rivals. 2. A company achieves a competitive advantage whenever it has some type of edge over rivals in attracting buyers and coping with competitive forces. 3. Strategy is about competing differently from rivals or doing what competitors don’t do or, even better, can’t do. In this sense, every strategy needs a distinctive element that attracts customers and produces a competitive edge. 4. What makes a competitive advantage sustainable (or durable), as opposed to temporary, are elements of the strategy that give buyers lasting reasons to prefer a company’s products or services over those of competitors CORE CONCEPT A company achieves a competitive advantage when it provides buyers with superior value compared to rival sellers or offers the same value at a lower cost to the firm. The advantage is sustainable if it persists despite the best efforts of competitors to match or surpass this advantage.
  • 7. Chapter 1 What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important? 108 5. Five of the most frequently used strategic approaches to setting a company apart from rivals and achieving a sustainable competitive advantage are: a. Low Cost Provider—Achieving a cost-based advantage over rivals. b. Broad Differentiation—Seeking to differentiate the company’s product or service from rivals’ in ways that will appeal to a broad spectrum of buyers. c. Focused Low Cost—Concentrating on a narrow buyer segment (or market niche) and outcompeting rivals by having lower costs than rivals and thus being able to serve niche members at a lower priced. d. Focused Differentiation—Concentrating on a narrow buyer segment (or market niche) and out- competing rivals by offering niche members customized attributes that meet their tastes and requirements better than rivals’ products. e. Best Cost Provider—Giving customers more value for the money by satisfying buyers’expectations on key quality/features/performance/service attributes, while beating their price expectations. ILLUSTRATION CAPSULE 1.1 Apple Inc .: Exemplifying a Successful Strategy Discussion Question: Describe Apple’s strategic approach in the computer industry Answer: The student should be able to discuss that Apple uses a Focused Differentiation strategic approach. The company focuses on the upper end of the computer buyer market and offers a premium product. The company designs its own operating system, hardware, and application software through continuous investments in R&D. These higher cost approaches to the market place are offset by premium pricing that the niche market can support. IV. Why a Company’s Strategy Evolves over Time ACTIVITY Consider adding a LearnSmart assignment requiring the student to review this section of the chapter as an interactive question and answer review . The assignment can be graded and posted automatically. 1. Every company must be willing and ready to modify the strategy in response to changing market conditions, advancing technology, unexpected moves by competitors, shifting buyer needs, emerging market opportunities, and mounting evidence that the strategy is not working well. 2. Most of the time, a company’s strategy evolves incrementally from management’s ongoing efforts to fine-tune the strategy and to adjust certain strategy elements in response to new learning and unfolding events. 3. Industry environments characterized by high velocity change require companies to repeatedly adapt their strategies. 4 The important point is that the task of crafting strategy is not a one-time event but always a work in progress.
  • 8. Chapter 1 What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important? 109 V. A Company’s Strategy Is Partly Proactive and Partly Reactive ACTIVITY Consider adding a LearnSmart assignment requiring the student to review this section of the chapter as an interactive question and answer review . The assignment can be graded and posted automatically. 1. The evolving nature of a company’s strategy means that the typical company strategy is a blend of (1) proactive, planned initiatives to improve the company’s financial performance and secure a competitive edge, and (2) reactive responses to unanticipated developments and fresh market conditions. CORE CONCEPT A company’s deliberate strategy consists of proactive strategy elements that are both planned and realized as planned; its emergent strategy consists of reactive strategy elements that emerge as changing conditions warrant. 2. The biggest portion of a company’s current strategy flows from ongoing actions that have proven themselves in the marketplace and newly launched initiatives aimed at building a larger lead over rivals and further boosting financial performance.—Deliberate Strategy 3. Managers must always be willing to supplement or modify the proactive strategy elements with as- needed reactions to unanticipated conditions.—Emergent Strategy 4. In total, these two elements combine to form the company’s Realized Strategy. Figure 1.2,ACompany’s Strategy is a Blend of Proactive Initiatives and Reactive Adjustments, illustrates the elements of strategy that become the Realized Strategy. VI. Strategy and Ethics: Passing the Test of Moral Scrutiny ACTIVITY Consider adding a LearnSmart assignment requiring the student to review this section of the chapter as an interactive question and answer review . The assignment can be graded and posted automatically. 1. Managers must be careful to embrace actions that can pass the test of moral scrutiny. This goes beyond just staying within the bounds of what is legal. 2. Ethical and moral standards are not fully governed by what is legal, they are concerned with right vs. wrong and a sense of duty. 3. While the legal realm deals with must or must not, the ethical/ moral realm deals with should or should not. 4. Senior executives with strong ethical convictions are generally proactive in linking strategic action and ethics. VII. What Makes a Strategy a Winner? ACTIVITY Consider adding a LearnSmart assignment requiring the student to review this section of the chapter as an interactive question and answer review . The assignment can be graded and posted automatically.
  • 9. Chapter 1 What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important? 110 CORE CONCEPT A company’s business model sets forth the logic for how its strategy will create value for customers, while at the same time generate revenues sufficient to cover costs and realize a profit. 1. A business model is management’s blueprint for delivering a valuable product or service to customers in a manner that will generate revenues sufficient to cover costs and yield an attractive profit. 2. The two elements of a company’s business model are (1) its customer value proposition and (2) its profit formula. 3. The customer value proposition lays out the company’s approach to satisfying buyer wants and needs at a price customers will consider a good value. 4. The profit formula describes the company’s approach to determining a cost structure that will allow for acceptable profits, given the pricing tied to its customer value proposition. 5. Figure 1.3 illustrates the elements of the business model in terms of what is known as the Value-Price- Cost Framework highlighting the relationship between the Customer’s Value Proposition (V-P) and the Profit Formula (P-C). ILLUSTRATION CAPSULE 1.2 Pandora, Sirius XM, and Over-the-Air Broadcast Radio: Three Contrasting Business Models Discussion Question 1: What is the prominent difference between the business models of these three organizations? Answer: While all three provide essentially the same type of entertainment service, the business models employed by Pandora, Sirius XM, and Over-The-Air Broadcast Radio are completely different. In the area of value proposition (what the customer sees), Sirius XM provides commercial free entertainment with some local content based upon a monthly fee, while Broadcast Radio provides entertainment with some local content with interruptions for commercials without a fee. Pandora bridges these two methods. In one mode it operates more like Over-the-Air Broadcast Radio in that it provides entertainment without a fee that includes targeted advertisements, with the added benefit of allowing the listener to customize the music mix.In the other mode, listeners can elect to go ad-free for a fee using Pandora One. For profit, Sirius XM must attract a large enough customer base in order to cover costs and provide profit, while Broadcast Radio must attract a large enough advertiser base to cover costs and provide profit. Pandora, once again bridging the two, generates profit by either an advertiser base or through ad-free services. VIII. What Makes a Strategy a Winner? ACTIVITY Consider adding a LearnSmart assignment requiring the student to review this section of the chapter as an interactive question and answer review . The assignment can be graded and posted automatically.
  • 10. Chapter 1 What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important? 111 1. Three questions can be used to test the merits of one strategy versus another and distinguish a winning strategy from a losing or mediocre strategy: a. The Fit Test: How well does the strategy fit the company’s situation? To qualify as a winner, a strategy has to be well matched to industry and competitive conditions, a company’s best market opportunities, and other aspects of the enterprise’s external environment. b. The Competitive Advantage Test: Is the strategy helping the company achieve a sustainable competitive advantage? The bigger and more durable the competitive edge that a strategy helps build, the more powerful and appealing it is. c. The Performance Test: Is the strategy producing good company performance? Two kinds of performance improvements tell the most about the caliber of a company’s strategy: (1) gains in profitability and financial strength and (2) gains in the company’s competitive strength and market standing. 2. Strategies that come up short on one or more of the above questions are plainly less appealing than strategies passing all three test questions with flying colors. IX. Why are Crafting and Executing Strategy Important? ACTIVITY Consider adding a LearnSmart assignment requiring the student to review this section of the chapter as an interactive question and answer review . The assignment can be graded and posted automatically. 1. Crafting and executing strategy are top priority managerial tasks for two big reasons a. High-performing enterprises are nearly always the product of astute, creative, and proactive strategy making b. Even the best-conceived strategies will result in performance shortfalls if they are not executed proficiently. 2. Good Strategy + Good Strategy Execution = Good Management a. Crafting and executing strategy are core management functions. b. Among all the things managers do, nothing affects a company’s ultimate success or failure more fundamentally than how well its management team charts the company’s direction, develops competitively effective strategic moves and business approaches, and pursues what needs to be done internally to produce good day-to-day strategy execution and operating excellence. X. The Road Ahead 1. Throughout the remaining chapters and the accompanying case collection, the spotlight is trained on the foremost question in running a business enterprise: What must managers do, and do well, to make a company a winner in the marketplace? 2. The mission of this book is to provide a solid overview of what every business student and aspiring manager needs to know about crafting and executing strategy. ACTIVITY Use the Question Bank to build a quiz for the chapter to measure and reinforce learning. Consider using the questions you select to build a comprehensive mid-term and final exam for the course. The assignment can be graded and posted automatically.
  • 11. Chapter 1 What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important? 112 ASSURANCE OF LEARNING EXERCISES 1. Based on your experiences and/or knowledge of Apple’s current products and services, does Apple’s strategy (as described in Illustration Capsule 1.1) seem to set it apart from rivals? Does the strategy seem to be keyed to a cost-based advantage, differentiating features, serving the unique needs of a niche, or some combination of these? What is there about Apple’s strategy that can lead to sustainable competitive advantage? ACTIVITY This Assurance of Learning exercise is available as a Connect Assignment. The assignment can be graded and posted automatically. Response: Setting Itself Apart—The student should be able to discuss that Apple uses a Focused Differentiation strategic approach. The company focuses on the upper end of the computer buyer market and offers a premium product. They strategically place stores in areas where their target market frequent and staff them with knowledgeable people. The firm is also committed to CSR and sustainability throughout its supply chain. Elements of Strategy—The student should identify that some of key elements of Apple’s strategy include a strong focus on R&D, providing a complete hardware/software/service solution, and a strong brand identity. These elements, along with the focus on CSR and sustainability combine to form a high end value proposition for consumers that allows for premium pricing. Sustainable Competitive Advantage—The student should identify that developing a sustainable competitive advantage relies on a) building competitively valuable capabilities that rivals cannot readily match and b) having a distinctive product offering. Further, they should be able to highlight that the two areas described above are both distinctive and difficult to match. 2. Elements of eBay’s strategy have evolved in meaningful ways since the company’s founding in 1995. After reviewing the company’s history at www.ebayinc.com/our-company/our-history and all of the links at the company’s investor relations site (investors.ebayinc.com), prepare a one- to two-page report that discusses how its strategy has evolved. Your report should also assess how well eBay’s strategy passes the three tests of a winning strategy. Strategy Evolution—From the information found in the links provided, the student’s report should include information similar to the following. The company was founded in 1995 with the mission of bringing together buyers and sellers in an honest and open marketplace. By mid 1996, the company had already sold $7.2 million worth of goods, and in late 1997, the name AuctionWeb was replaced with the now iconic ebay name. In 1998, the company began to focus more on the customer experience through its first of many strategic acquisitions. By mid 1999, ebay had begun its oversees expansion with moves into Germany, Australia, and the UK. In 2001, ebay continued to customize the customer experience by providing eBay stores for its sellers. The period from 2001 through 2016 are marked by continued strategic acquisitions that bolster the company’s product and service offerings including paypal, stubhub, and most recently, corrigon just to name a few of the more prominent ones. Global expansion continues today with ebay available in 180 countries. The student should conclude that all of these innovations follow a careful underlying strategy of adding services and features to the overall product mix that leverage and take advantage of developments in personal and business technology and devices as well as shifting consumer demands. The company’s strategy has evolved from a simple mission of providing a market place on the internet to being a comprehensive solution for engaging in commerce, making the financial transaction as smooth as possible, and moving the merchandise effectively.
  • 12. Chapter 1 What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important? 113 Strategy Assessment—The student’s report should include specific indications that the company’s strategy is a winner as follows. a. Does the strategy fit the company’s situation? Yes, the company’s strategy fits the evolving world of technology, consumer behavior, and market demands. b. Does the strategy helping the company achieve a sustainable competitive advantage? Yes, the growing base of customers and revenue streams from various services and platforms is led by continuous innovation which differentiates the company well. The growing profit stream indicates that the strategy is sustainable. c. Does the strategy producing good company performance? Yes, but the company needs to address profit margins. The 2017 Annual Report shows that market growth is steady with $9.56 Billion for fiscal year 2017 up from $8.79 Billion in 2014. Gross profit for fiscal year 2017 was $7.34 Billion up slightly from $7.13 Billion in 2014, and operating profit for fiscal year 2017 was $2.26 Billion down slightly from $2.48 Billion in 2014. Taken together, these financial measures indicate market growth but increases in cost of sales which is driving down operating profits 3. Go to investor.siriusxm.com and check whether the SiriusXM’s recent financial reports indicate that its business model is working.Are its subscription fees increasing or declining? Is its revenue stream advertising and equipment sales growing or declining? Does its cost structure allow for acceptable profit margins? ACTIVITY This Assurance of Learning exercise is available as a Connect Assignment. The assignment can be graded and posted automatically. Response: General—The responses developed by the students may include information such as the following. SiriusXM is a leading satellite media company that provides commercial free music from numerous genres, live play by play sports, news and talk shows, and other forms of audio entertainment streaming to the consumer’s home, auto, business, or even boats within 200 miles of the coast. Is the business model working—The student should note that the company’s annual revenue has increased steadily over the last three reporting periods from $4.57B in 2015 to $5.42B in 2017, while net income has grown from $509M to $647M over the same period. This is an increase in net profit from 11.1% in 2015 to 11.9%% in 2017. This illustrates an increasing value proposition (revenue) as well as an effective and growing profit formula (earnings). The conclusion the student should reach is that the business model is working effectively. Subscription Fees—The student should identify that the company had subscription revenue of $3.8B in 2015 and $4.47B in 2015, representing a 5.86% average annual growth. Revenue Stream fromAdvertising—The student should identify that the company had advertising revenue of $122M in 2015 and $160M in 2017, representing a 10.3% average annual growth. Revenue from Equipment—The student should identify that the company had revenue from equipment of $111M in 2015 and $131M in 2017, representing a 6% average annual growth. Cost Structure and Profit Margins—The student should identify that the company had consistently growth in Operating Profit with $1.3B in 2013 and $1.68B in 2015, representing a 9.7% average annual growth. This demonstrates that the company’s cost structure allows for attractive profit margins.
  • 13. case 1 • Case Assignment Questions Mystic Monk Coffee Assignment Questions 1. Has Father Daniel Mary established a future direction for the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming? What is his vision for the monastery? What is his vision for Mystic Monk Coffee? What is the mission of the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming? 2. Does it appear that Father Daniel Mary has set definite objectives and performance targets for achieving his vision? 3. What is Father Prior’s strategy for achieving his vision? What competitive advantage might Mystic Monk Coffee’s strategy produce? 4. Is Mystic Monk Coffee’s strategy a money-maker? What is MMC’s business model? What is your assessment of Mystic Monk Coffee’s customer value proposition? its profit formula? its resources that enable it to create and deliver value to customers? 5. Does the strategy qualify as a winning strategy? Why or why not? 6. What recommendations would you make to Father Daniel Mary in terms of crafting and executing strategy for the monastery’s coffee operations? Are changed needed in its long-term direction? its objectives? its strategy? its approach to strategy execution? Explain.
  • 14. SECTION 6 Case Teaching Notes for Chapters 1-32
  • 15. T case 1 teaching note Mystic Monk Coffee Overview his 24-page case requires that students consider the future direction of a monastery located in Clark, Wyoming and evaluate the vision, strategy, and business model of the fledgling Mystic Monk coffee business. As the case unfolds, students will learn of Father Daniel Mary’s vision to build a new Mount Carmel in the Rocky Mountains and transform the small brotherhood of 13 monks living in a small home used as makeshift rectory into a 500- acre monastery that would include accommodations for 30 monks, a Gothic church, a convent for Carmelite nuns, a retreat center for lay visitors, and a hermitage. Father Daniel Mary had identified a nearby ranch for sale that met the requirements of his vision perfectly, but its listing price of $8.9 million presented a financial obstacle to creating a place of prayer, worship, and solitude in the Rockies. Father Daniel Mary hoped to fund the purchase of the ranch through charitable contributions to the monastery and through the profits of its Mystic Monk coffee business, which had earned nearly $75,000 during its first year of operation. Suggestions for Using the Case This case was written as a leadoff case and was carefully crafted by the case author to require students to draw upon most all of the concepts discussed in Chapters 1 and 2 to sufficiently prepare for a class discussion of the case. The case involves issues relating to mission, vision, objectives, strategy, business models, and decisive strategic leadership; the need for an action plan is obvious—these are the very things one looks for in a good leadoff case. And the nature of the case virtually guarantees the stimulating kind of class discussion one needs to get the course off on the right foot. We think Mystic Monk Coffee (MMC) is an excellent leadoff case for the course (other good choices are Robin Hood, Airbnb in 2016, and Amazon.com’s Business Model and Its Evolution—which also require that students draw upon the material covered in Chapters 1 and 2). The unusual topic of the business ventures of cloistered monks, student familiarity with the coffee industry, and the very close connection between the case and the material in Chapters 1 and 2 make this an especially good leadoff case. You may want to consider covering Chapter 1 in your first day’s lecture, Chapter 2 on your second day’s lecture, and then assigning Mystic Monk Coffee for class discussion on Day 3. We suggest use of a teaching plan that focuses on Father Daniel Mary’s strategic vision for the monastery and its coffee operations and Mystic Monk Coffee’s strategy and business model. Of course, there is the opportunity for students to make recommendations regarding the strategic issues confronting the monastery and its coffee venture. – 271 –
  • 16. 272 Case 1 Teaching Note Mystic Monk Coffee The assignment questions and teaching outline presented in upcoming sections of this TN reflect our thinking about how to conduct the class discussion of the Mystic Monk Coffee case. It is really very difficult to have an insightful and constructive class discussion of the Mystic Monk Coffee case unless students have not only read the case but also conscientiously worked their way through a set of well- conceived study questions before they come to class. In our classes, we expect students to bring their notes to the study questions to use/refer to in responding to the questions that we pose. Students often find having a set of study questions is useful in helping them prepare oral team presentations and written case assignments—in addition to whatever directive questions you supply for these assignments. To facilitate your use of study questions and making them available to students, we have posted a file of the Assignment Questions contained in this teaching note for the Mystic Monk Coffee case in the instructor resources section of the Connect Library. (We should also point out that there is a set of study questions posted in the student section of the OLC for each of the 32 cases included in the 22nd Edition.) You may also find it beneficial to have your class read the Guide to Case Analysis that is posted in the Connect Library and in the textbook immediately following Chapter 12. Students will find the content of this Guide particularly helpful if this is their first experience with cases and they are unsure about the mechanics of how to prepare a case for class discussion, oral presentation, or written analysis. Auto-Graded Connect Case Exercise. The 21st Edition includes a fully auto-graded Connect case exercise for 14 cases included in the text. The auto-graded exercises closely follow the assignment questions and analysis included in the teaching note for the case. The auto-graded exercise for the Mystic Monk Coffee case requires that students answer a series of multiple choice questions related to Assignment Questions 1-5. Question 6 is left as an open ended question that allows students to fully discuss recommendations concerning improvements to the company’s coffee operations, changes in its long-term direction, objectives, strategy, or approach to strategy execution. Students should be expected to spend about 45 minutes to complete the exercise, assuming they have done a conscientious job of reading the case and absorbing the information it contains. All of the questions are automatically graded, and the grades are automatically recorded in your Connect grade book, which makes it easy for you to evaluate each class member’s ability to apply many of the concepts discussed in Chapters 1 and 2. The length of the case makes it ideal for an in-class written case or a final exam case. Our suggested written assignment questions are as follows: 1. As a new business school graduate who has relocated to Cody,Wyoming and supports the local foundation to benefit the Wyoming Carmelites, you have been asked to prepare a strategic review and action plan for the Father Daniel Mary’s consideration. Your report to Father Prior should include an evaluation of the monastery’s mission, its vision for Mystic Monk Coffee, objectives for the monastery and the coffee operations, and MMC’s strategy and business model. You should also propose recommendations to improve Mystic Monk Coffee’s vision, objectives, strategy, business model, or approach to strategy execution. It is your job to convince Father Daniel Mary to pursue your proposed plan; hence your report should include full justification and arguments to support your recommended course of action. 2. Cody, Wyoming business owners have noted your quickly developing skills of analysis and growing business acumen and have asked that you prepare a report for Father Daniel Mary that evaluates Mystic Monk Coffee’s mission, vision, strategy, business model, and operations. Your report should also make recommendations concerning strategic issues related to: n The vision and mission of the monastery and its coffee operations, n MMC’s strategic and financial objectives,
  • 17. 273 Case 1 Teaching Note Mystic Monk Coffee n MMC’s strategy and business model, and n The action steps that will need to be taken to implement the strategy effectively. Please provide supporting analysis and persuasive argument for your recommended course of action (you must convince Father Daniel Mary to do what you suggest!) and you need to be specific about what to do and how to do it. Assignment Questions 1. Has Father Daniel Mary established a future direction for the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming? What is his vision for the monastery? What is his vision for Mystic Monk Coffee? What is the mission of the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming? 2. Does it appear that Father Daniel Mary has set definite objectives and performance targets for achieving his vision? 3. What is Father Prior’s strategy for achieving his vision? What competitive advantage might Mystic Monk Coffee’s strategy produce? 4. Is Mystic Monk Coffee’s strategy a money-maker? What is MMC’s business model? What is your assessment of Mystic Monk Coffee’s customer value proposition? its profit formula? its resources that enable it to create and deliver value to customers? 5. Does the strategy qualify as a winning strategy? Why or why not? 6. What recommendations would you make to Father Daniel Mary in terms of crafting and executing strategy for the monastery’s coffee operations? Are changed needed in its long-term direction? its objectives? its strategy? its approach to strategy execution? Explain. Teaching Outline and Analysis 1. Has Father Daniel Mary established a future direction for the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming? What is his vision for the monastery? What is his vision for Mystic Monk Coffee? What is the mission of the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming? Students should have little trouble recognizing that Father Daniel Mary’s vision for the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming is to recreate Mount Carmel in the U.S. Rocky Mountains and transform the small brotherhood of 13 monks living in a small home used as makeshift rectory into a 500-acre monastery that would include accommodations for 30 monks, a Gothic church, a convent for Carmelite nuns, a retreat center for lay visitors, and a hermitage. However, students should also recognize that there is no clear evidence in the case that Father Daniel Mary has articulated a vision for Mystic Monk Coffee. If you are using this case as your lead-off case for the course, you may find that many students don’t distinguish between the monastery and MMC and believe the Prior’s general vision applies to the monk’s coffee operations. To clear up this confusion and to illustrate the lack of an appropriate vision for MMC, please have students compare Father Prior’s vision to Howard Schultz’s vision for Starbucks. Howard Schultz’s vision of bringing the Italian Espresso bar experience to America very accurately described his intended course and direction and helped stakeholders understand “where we are going.” Schultz’s vision for Starbucks was graphic, focused, desirable, and easy to communicate. The same can be said for Father Daniel Mary’s vision for the Carmelite Monks, but not for its coffee business. Initially doubting students should concede that Father Daniel Mary has yet to spell out a long-term direction for Mystic Monk Coffee. There’s merit to having students critique both visions using the information in Table 2.1 presented in Chapter 2 of the text.
  • 18. 274 Case 1 Teaching Note Mystic Monk Coffee You’ll likely find that most students readily recognize that the ultimate mission of the cloistered monks is to worship God. Some may wish to begin a debate on the role of the monastery’s coffee operations in pursuit of this mission, but we’ve found it’s best to hold this discussion for the very end of the case discussion. We prefer to have students consider this dilemma after they’ve recommended an action plan that would help the monastery achieve its vision of creating a new Mount Carmel in the Rocky Mountains. 2. Does it appear that Father Daniel Mary has set definite objectives and performance targets for achieving his vision? Students will find it very difficult to argue that Father Daniel Mary has set definite objectives or performance targets for achieving the vision. Other than the broad goal of obtaining funds to purchase the $8.9 million Lake Irma Ranch, there isn’t any evidence that the monks have set short-term or long-run goals for developing charitable contributions or for its MMC business. 3. What is Father Prior’s strategy for achieving his vision? What competitive advantage might Mystic Monk Coffee’s strategy produce? Students will generally agree that Father Daniel Mary is relying on charitable contributions to the monastery and profits from its Mystic Monk Coffee enterprise to fund the purchase of the Irma Lake Ranch. Students should also recognize that MMC does have a deliberate strategy, although it may be only tacitly understood among the monks. The case doesn’t discuss to what extent Father Prior has articulated the strategy to Brother Java (Brother Elias) and the other monks involved with MMC’s operations, but students should be able to identify the following elements of MMC’s focused differentiation strategy: n Exclusive use of high quality fair trade Arabica and fair trade organic Arabic beans n Variety of blends, roasts, and flavors to appeal to a broad range of coffee preferences n Focus on U.S. Catholic consumers and those wishing to support the mission of the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming. An appeal was made to Catholics “to use their catholic coffee dollar for Christ and his Catholic church.” n Word of mouth advertising among loyal customers in Catholic parishes across the U.S. n Majority of sales made through MMC’s Web site n Telephone orders accepted n Affiliate program that provided 18 percent commissions to secular Web site operators allowing MMC banner and text ads to appear on their sites n ShareASale participation program that allowed affiliates to refer new affiliates and earn 56 percent of the new affiliate’s commission n Wholesale sales to churches and local coffee shops n Product line extension that included sales of T-shirts, mugs, gift cards, and CDs featuring the monastery’s n Gregorian chants Students will generally approve of MMC’s focused differentiation strategy and suggest that it is capable of building competitive advantage. The use of high quality coffee beans, the variety of blends, roasts, and flavors and the Mystic Monk image produce a number of tangible and intangible benefits for MMC customers. Students will also recognize that MMC’s focus on the 69 million members of the Catholic Church in the United States makes the target market sufficiently large to earn attractive profits. Students
  • 19. 275 Case 1 Teaching Note Mystic Monk Coffee should conclude that even though MMC is incapable of sustaining an advantage in the industry based upon the quality of its coffee alone, its monastic relationship would be very difficult for a rival seller to imitate. 4. Is Mystic Monk Coffee’s strategy a money-maker? What is MMC’s business model? What is your assessment of Mystic Monk Coffee’s customer value proposition? its profit formula? its resources that enable it to create and deliver value to customers? Even though MMC’s business model has a compelling customer value proposition, there is reason for students to challenge the overall soundness of the business model. MMC’s attractive differentiating features and competitive pricing create a strong customer value proposition, but its profit formula is suspect. Other than the lack of labor expense, MMC enjoys no cost advantage and many of its non-differentiating activities involve higher than normal costs because of its low production volume. The company’s cost of sales of 30 percent, broker fees of 3 percent, and inbound shipping costs of 19 percent contributed to a cost of goods sold of 52 percent. Even though students might argue that some indirect operating expenses (37 percent of revenues) are largely fixed and might go down as volume increases, most of these expenses are somewhat variable and will increase with volume. MMC’s current sales and 11 percent net profit margin are quite insufficient to generate $8.9 million in cumulative earnings within a reasonable amount of time. Students are also likely to note that MMC generates losses on all sales coming from affiliate Web sites since the company pays an 18 percent commission on these sales, but has a net profit margin of only 11 percent. Students will also question whether the monastery possesses sufficient resources to operate a thriving coffee roasting and sales business. Current monthly sales of $56,500 suggest that MMC sells about 4,250 pounds of coffee each month at a retail price of $9.95 per 12-ounce bag. The capacity of the coffee roaster will allow for production of 540 pounds per day, which is about 22.5 pounds per hour. Brother Elias (Brother Java) is able to work for only 6 hours per day, which limits production to about 135 pounds per day. At a rate of 135 pounds per day, it appears that Brother Java is working 7 days per week to meet MMC’s current monthly sales!! Students will also note that a larger roaster could be purchased that would push production to 130 pounds per hour, which would increase daily production by a factor of 6. Still there is much labor involved in packaging the coffee and preparing daily shipment pickups for UPS or the US Postal Service. There is strong reason to believe that the monk’s monastic constraints would prevent a six-fold increase in daily production, even if demand permitted such an increase in daily production. Students’ overall assessment of the business model should recognize its flaws and conclude that MMC’s current business model severely limits its ability to make a meaningful contribution to the purchase of Lake Irma Ranch. However, MMC’s average monthly profits of slightly more than $5,000 should go a long way to supporting the current operating expenses of the monastery. Students may conclude that the business model is quite sufficient should Father Daniel Mary choose to scale back his vision. 5. Does the strategy qualify as a winning strategy? Why or why not? There’s merit in directing students to the three tests of a winning strategy presented on page 9 of Chapter 1 of the text if you’ve chosen to schedule Mystic Monk Coffee as the lead-off case for the course. Assessments made by students may include the following arguments and comments: n Does the strategy fit the company’s situation? You should find the class more or less evenly divided in whether to classify MMC’s strategy as a winner. The strategy fits the external situation nicely since the market for specialty coffees had grown at an annual rate of 32 percent between 2000 and 2007 to reach $13.5 billion. Also, students should note that the retail sales of organic specialty coffee had grown to $1 billion by 2007. MMC’s focus on Catholic consumers in the United States represents a large market for MMC—and one that would arguably become very loyal customers. Students who suggest MMC lacks a winning strategy are likely to point to a poor fit between MMC’s strategy and its internal situation that requires monks to devote most of their day prayer and worship.
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  • 21. man, murmur; and this brings me to another question, “Are walls round open spaces necessary?” English people seem to have adopted the idea that it is essential to surround their parks and gardens with visible barriers, perhaps because England is surrounded by the sea—a very visible line of demarcation; but, in the stead of a dancing joy, a witchful barrier, uniting while it separates, they have put up grim hard walls, ugly dividing fences, barriers which challenge trespass, and make even the law-abiding citizen desire to climb over and see what is on the other side. It is extraordinary how firmly established is the acceptance of the necessity of walls and protection. Nearly thirty-five years ago, when the first effort was made to plant Mile End Road with trees, and to make its broad margins gracious with shrubs and plants, we were met by the argument that they would not be safe without high railings. I recall the croakings of those who combated the proposal to open Leicester Square to the public, and who of us has not listened to the regrets of the landowner on the expense entailed by his estate boundary fences? If you say, “Why make them so high, or keep them up so expensively, as you do not preserve your game? Why not have low hedges or short open fences, over which people can see and enjoy your property?” he will look at you with a gentle pity, thinking of you as a deluded idealist, or perhaps his expression will change into something not so gentle as it dawns on him that, though one is the respectable wife of a respectable Canon, yet one may be holding “some of those—Socialist theories”. Not long ago I went at the request of a gentleman who owned property, with his agent to see if suggestions could be made to improve the appearance of his estate and the happiness of his tenants. The gardens were small enough to be valueless, but between and around each were walls, many in bad repair. “The first thing I should do would be to pull down those walls, and let the air in; things will then grow, self-respect as well as flowers,” I said.
  • 22. “What!” exclaimed the agent, “pull down the walls? Why, what would the men have to lean against?” thus conjuring up the vision one has so often seen of men leaning listlessly against the public- house walls, a sight which the possession of a garden, large enough to be profitable as well as pleasurable, ought to do much to abolish. It is difficult to find arguments for walls. In many towns of America the gardens are wall-less, the public scrupulously observing the rights of ownership. In the Hampstead Garden Suburb all the gardens are wall-less, both public and private. The flowers bloom with the voluptuous abundance produced by virgin soil, but they remain untouched, not only by the inhabitants, which, of course, is to be expected, but by the thousands of visitors who come to see the realization of the much-talked-of scheme, and respect the property as they share its pleasures. In town-planning literature and talk much is said about houses, roads, centre-points to design, architectural features, treatment of junctions, and many other items both important and interesting; but the tone of thought pervading all that I have yet read is that it is the healthy and happy, the respectable and the prosperous, for whom all is to be arranged. It takes all sorts to make a world, and the town planner who excludes in his arrangements the provision for the lonely, the sick, the sorrowful, and the handicapped will lose from the midst of the community some of its greatest moral teachers. The children should be specially welcomed amid improved or beautiful surroundings, for the impressions made in youth last through life, and on the standards adopted by the young will depend the nation’s welfare. A vast army of children are wholly supported by the State, some 100,000, while to them can be added nearly 200,000 more for whom the public purse is partly responsible. In town planning the needs of these children should be considered, and the claims of the sick openly met. Hospitals are intended to help the sick poor, so, in planning the town or its growth, suitable sites should be chosen in relation to the population who require such aid; but in London many hospitals are clustered in the centre of the town, are enlarged, rebuilt, or improved on the old positions, though the people’s homes and
  • 23. workshops have been moved miles away; thus the sick suffer in body and become poorer in purse, as longer journeys have to be undertaken after accidents, or when as out-patients they need frequent attention. The wicked, the naughty, the sick, the demented, the sorrowful, the blind, the halt, the maimed, the old, the handicapped, the children are facts—facts to be faced, facts which demand thought, facts which should be reckoned with in town planning—for all, even the first-named, can be helped by being surrounded with “whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, and whatsoever things are of good report”. Every one who has been to Canada must have been struck with the evidence of faith in educational appreciation which the Canadians give in the preparation of their vast teaching centres. “What impressed me greatly,” said Mr. Henry Vivian in his speech at the dinner given in his honour on his return from the Dominion, “was the preparation that the present people have made for the education of the future people,” and he described the planning of one University, whose buildings, sports-grounds, roads, hostels, and gardens were to cover 1300 acres. Compare that with the statement of the Secretary of a Borough Council Education Authority, who told me the other day, with congratulatory pleasure, that long negotiations had at last obtained one acre and a quarter for the building of a secondary school and a hoped-for three acres some distance off for the boys’ playground. The town planning of the future will make, it is to be hoped, generous provision for educational requirements, and not only for the inhabitants of the immediate locality. As means of transit become both cheaper and easier, it will be recognized as a gain for young people to go out of town to study, into purer air, away from nerve-wearing noise, amid flowers and trees, and with an outlook on a wider sky, itself an elevating educational influence both by day and night. The need of what may be called artificial town addition can only concern the elder nations, who have, scattered over their lands, splendid buildings in the centre of towns that have ceased to grow.
  • 24. As an example, I would quote Ely. What a glorious Cathedral! kept in dignified elderly repair, its Deans, Canons, Minors, lay-clerks, and choir, all doing their respective daily duties in leading worship; but, alas! there the population is so small (7713 souls) that the response by worshippers is necessarily inadequate—the output bears no proportion to the return. Beauty, sweetness, and light are wasted there and West Ham exists, with its 267,000 inhabitants, its vast workshops and factories, its miles of mean streets of drab-coloured “brick boxes with slate lids”—and no Cathedral, no group of kind, leisured clergy to leaven the heavy dough of mundane, cheerless toil. If town planning could be treated nationally, it might be arranged that Government factories could be established in Ely. Army clothiers, stationery manufactories, gunpowder depôts would bring the workers in their train. A suitable expenditure of the Public Works Loans money would cause the cottages to appear; schools would then arise, shops and lesser businesses, which population always brings into existence, would be started; and the Cathedral would become a House of Prayer, not only to the few religious ones who now rejoice in the services, but for the many whose thoughts would be uplifted by the presence in their midst of the stately witness of the Law of Love, and whose lives would be benefited by the helpful thought and wise consideration of those whose profession it is to serve the people. Pending great changes, something might perhaps be done if individual owners and builders would consider the appearance, not only of the house they are building, but of the street or road of which it forms a part. A few months ago, in the bright sunshine, I stood on a hill-top, facing a delightful wide view, on a newly developed estate, and, pencil in hand, wrote the colours and materials of four houses standing side by side. This is the list:— No. 1 House.—Roof, grey slates; walls, white plaster with red brick; yellow-painted woodwork; red chimneys. No. 2 House.—Roof, purpley-red tiles; walls, buff rough cast; brown-painted woodwork; yellow chimneys.
  • 25. No. 3 House.—Roof, orangey-red tiles; walls, grey-coloured rough cast; white-painted woodwork; red chimneys. No. 4 House.—Roof, crimson-red tiles; walls, stone-coloured rough cast; peacock-blue paint; red chimneys. This bare list tells of the inharmonious relation of colours, but it cannot supply the variety of tones of red, nor yet the mixture of lines, roof-angles, balcony or bow projections, one of which ran up to the top of a steep-pitched roof, and was castellated at the summit. The road was called “Bon-Accord”. One has sometimes to thank local authorities for unconscious jokes. My space is filled, and even a woman’s monologue must conclude some time! But one paragraph more may be taken to put in a plea for space for an Open-air Museum. It need not be a large and exhaustive one, for there is something to be said for not making museums “too bright and good for human nature’s daily food”. There might be objects of museum interest scattered in groups about the green girdle which the young among my readers will, I trust, live to see round all great towns; or an open-air exhibit on a limited subject might be provided, as the late Mr. Burt arranged so charmingly at Swanage; or the Shakespeare Gardens, already started in some of the London County Council parks, might be further developed; or the more ambitious schemes of Stockholm and Copenhagen intimated; but whichever model is adopted the idea of open-air museums (which might be stretched to include bird sanctuaries) is one which should find a place in the gracious environment of our well-ordered towns when they have come under the law and the gospel of the Town-planning Act. Henrietta O. Barnett.
  • 26. THE MISSION OF MUSIC.[1] By Canon Barnett. July, 1899. 1 From “International Journal of Ethics”. By permission of the Editor. “We must have something light or comic.” So say those who provide music for the people, and their words represent an opinion which is almost universal with regard to the popular taste. The uneducated, it is thought, must be unable to appreciate that which is refined or to enjoy that which does not make them laugh and be merry. Opinions exist, especially with regard to the tastes and wants of the poor, by the side of facts altogether inconsistent with those opinions. There are facts within the knowledge of some who live in the East End of London which are sufficient, at any rate, to shake this general opinion as to the people’s taste in music. In Whitechapel, where so many philanthropists have tried “to patch with handfuls of coal and rice” the people’s wants, the signs of ignorance are as evident as the signs of poverty. There is an almost complete absence of those influences which are hostile to the ignorance, not, indeed, of the mere elements of knowledge (the Board Schools are now happily everywhere prominent), but to the ignorance of joy, truth, and beauty. Utility and the pressure of work have crowded house upon house; have filled the shops with what is only cheap, driven away the distractions of various manners and various dresses, and made the place weary to the body and depressing to the mind. Nevertheless, in this district a crowd has been found willing, on many a winter’s night, to come and listen to parts of an oratorio or
  • 27. to selections of classical music. The oratorios have sometimes been given in a church by various bodies of amateurs who have practised together for the purpose; the concerts have been given in schoolrooms on Sunday evenings by professionals of reputation. To the oratorios men and women have come, some of them from the low haunts kept around the city by its carelessly administered charity, all of them of the class which, working for its daily bread, has no margin of time for study. Amid those who are generally so independent of restraint, who cough and move as they will, there has been a death-like stillness as they have listened to some fine solo of Handel’s. On faces which are seldom free of the marks of care, except in the excitement of drink, a calm has seemed to settle and tears to flow, for no reason but because “it is so beautiful!” Sometimes the music has appeared to break gradually down barriers that shut out some poor fellow from a fairer past or a better future than his present: the oppressive weight of the daily care lifts, other sights are in his vision, and at last, covering his face or sinking on his knees, he makes prayers which cannot be uttered. Sometimes it has seemed to seize one on business bent, to transport him suddenly to another world, and, not knowing what he feels, has forced him to say, “It was good to be here”. A church filled with hundreds of East Londoners, affected, doubtless, in different ways, but all silent, reverent, and self-forgetful, is a sight not to be forgotten or to be held to have no meaning. To the concerts have crowded hard-headed, unimaginative men, described in a local paper as being “friends of Bradlaugh”. These have listened to and evidently taken in difficult movements of Beethoven, Schumann, and Chopin. The loud applause which has followed some moments of strained, rapt attention has proclaimed the universal feeling. With a knowledge of the character of the music, the applications for admission have increased, and the announcement of a hope that the concerts might be continued the following winter, and possibly also extended to weekday evenings, has brought from some of those present an expression of their desire for other high-class music. The poor quarters of cities have been too long treated as if their
  • 28. inhabitants were deficient in that which is noblest in human nature. Human beings want not something which will do, but the best. If it be asked what proof there be that such music has a permanent effect on the hearers, the only answer is that people do not always know how they have been most influenced. It is the air unconsciously breathed which affects the cure much more often than the medicine so consciously taken. Music may most deeply and permanently affect those who themselves can express no appreciation with their words or show results in their lives. Like the thousand things which surrounds the child and which he never notices, music may largely serve in the formation of character and the satisfaction of life. That the performance of this music in the East End is not followed by expressions of intelligent appreciation or by immediate change of life is no proof of its failure to influence. The fact that crowds come to listen is sufficient to make the world reconsider its opinion that the people care only for what is light or laugh-compelling. There is evidently in the highest music something which finds a response in many minds not educated to understand its mysteries nor interested in its creation. This suggests that music has in the present time a peculiar mission. “Man doth not live by bread alone,” expresses a truth which even those will allow who profess themselves careless about present-day religion. There is in human beings, in those whom the rich think to satisfy by increased wages and improved dwellings, a need of something beyond. The man who has won an honourable place, who by punctuality, honesty, and truthfulness has become the trusted servant of his employer, is often weary with the very monotony of his successful life. He has bread in abundance, but, unsatisfied, he dreams of filling quite another place in the world, perhaps as the leader daring much for others, perhaps as the patriot suffering much for his class and country, or perhaps as the poet living in others’ thoughts. There flits before him a vision of a fuller life, and the vision stirs in him a longing to share such life. The woman, too, who in common talk is the model wife and mother, whose days are filled with work, whose talk is of her children’s wants, whose life seems so even and uneventful, so complete in its very prosaicness, she, if she
  • 29. could be got to speak out the thoughts which flit through her brain as she silently plies her needle or goes about her household duties, would tell of strange longings for quite another sort of life, of passions and aspirations which have been scarcely allowed to take form in her mind. There is no one to whom “omens that would astonish have not predicted a future and uncovered a past”. Beyond the margin of material life is a spiritual life. This life has been and may still be believed to be the domain of religion, that which science has not known and can never know, which material things have not helped and can never help. It has been the glory of religion to develop the longing to be something higher and nobler by revealing to men the God, Who is higher than themselves. Religion having abdicated this domain to invade that of science has to-day suffered by becoming the slave of æsthetic and moral precepts. Her professors often yield themselves to the influence of form and colour or boast only of their morality and philanthropy. It is no wonder, therefore, that many who are in earnest and feel that neither ritualism nor philanthropy have special power to satisfy their natures, reject religion. But they will not, if they are fair to themselves, object to the strengthening of that power which they must allow to have been a source of noble endeavour and of the very science whose reign they acknowledge. The sense of something better than their best, making itself felt not in outward circumstance but inwardly in their hearts, has often been the spring of effort and of hope. It is because the forms of present-day religion give so little help to strengthen this sense, that so many now speak slightingly of religion and profess their independence of its forms. Religion, in fact, is suffering for want of expression. In other times men felt that the words of the Prayer Book and phrases now labelled “theological” did speak out, or at any rate did give some form to their vague, indistinct longing to be something else and something more; while the picture of God, drawn from the Bible history and Bible words, gave an object to their longing, making them desire to be like Him and to enjoy Him for ever. In these days, however, historical criticism and scientific discoveries have made the old expressions seem inadequate to state
  • 30. man’s longings or to picture God’s character. The words of prayers, whether the written prayers of the English Church or that rearrangement of old expressions called “extempore prayer,” do not at once fit in with the longings of those to whom, in these later days, sacrifice has taken other forms and life other possibilities. The descriptions of God, involving so much that is only marvellous, jar against minds which have had hints of the grandeur of law and which have been awed not by miracles but by holiness. The petitions for the joys of heaven do not always meet the needs of those who have learnt that what they are is of more consequence than what they have, and the anthropomorphic descriptions of the character of God make Him seem less than many men who are not jealous, nor angry, nor revengeful. Words and thoughts alike often fail to satisfy modern wants. While prayers are being said, the listless attitude and wandering gaze of those in whose souls are the deepest needs and loftiest aspirations, proclaim the failure. Religion has not failed, but only its power of expressing itself. There lives still in man that which gropes after God, but it can find no form in which to clothe itself. The loss is no light one. Expression is necessary to active life, and without it, at any rate, some of the greater feelings of human nature must suffer loss of energy and be isolated in individuals. Free exercise will give those feelings strength; the power of utterance will teach men that they are not alone when they are their best selves. The world has been moved to many a crusade by a picture of suffering humanity, and the darkness of heathenism calls forth missionaries of one Church and another. Almost as moving a picture might be drawn of those who wanting much can express nothing. Here are men and women, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh: they have that within them which raises them above all created things, powers by which they are allied to all whom the world honours, faculties by which they might find unfailing joy. But they have no form of expression and so they live a lower life, walking by sight, not by faith, giving rein to powers which find their satisfaction near at hand, and developing faculties in the use of which there is more of pain than joy. The power which has been the spring of so much that
  • 31. is helpful to the world seems to be dead in them; that sense which has enabled men to stand together as brothers, trusting one another as common possessors of a Divine spark, seems to be without existence. A few may go on walking grimly the path of duty, but for the mass of mankind life has lost its brightness. Dullness unrelieved by wealth, and loneliness undispersed by dissipation, are the common lot. In a sense more terrible than ever, men are like children walking in the night with no language but a cry. He that will give them the means once more to express what they really are and what they really want will break the bondage. The fact that the music of the great masters does stir something in most men’s natures should be a reason for trying whether music might not, at any rate partially, express the religious life of the present day. There is much to be said in favour of such an experiment. On the one side there is the failure of existing modes of expression. The prettinesses of ritualism and the social efforts of Broad Churchism, even for the comparatively small numbers who adopt these forms of worship, do not meet those longings of the inner life which go beyond the love of beauty and beyond the love of neighbours. The vast majority of the people belong to neither ritualism nor Broad Churchism; they live, at best, smothering their aspirations in activity; at worst, in dissipation, having forsaken duty as well as God. Their morality has followed their religion. In the East End of London this is more manifest, not because the people of the East are worse than the people of the West, but because the people of the East have no call to seem other than they are. Amid many signs hopeful for the future there is also among East Londoners, unblushingly declared at every street-corner, the self-indulgence which robs the young and weak of that which is their right, education and protection; the vice which saps a nation’s strength is boasted of in the shop and flaunted in the highways, and the selfishness which is death to a man is often the professed ground of action. Morality for the mass of men has been dependent on the consciousness of God, and with the lack of means of expression the consciousness of God seems to have ceased. On this ground alone
  • 32. there would be reason for making an experiment with music, if only because it offers itself as a possible means of that expression which the consciousness of God supports. And, on the other side, there is the natural fitness of music for the purpose. In the first place, the great musical compositions may be asserted to be, not arrangements which are the results of study and the application of scientific principles, but the results of inspiration. The master, raised by his genius above the level of common humanity to think fully what others think only in part, and to see face to face what others see only darkly, puts into music the thoughts which no words can utter and the descriptions which no tongue can tell. What he himself would be, his hopes, his fears, his aspirations, what he himself sees of that holiest and fairest which has haunted his life, he tells by his art. Like the prophets, having had a vision of God, his music proclaims what he himself would desire to be, and expresses the emotions of his higher nature. If this be a correct account of the meaning of those great masterpieces which may every day be performed in the ears of the people, it is easy to see how they may be made to serve the purpose in view. The greatest master is a man with much in him akin to the lowest of the human race. The homage all pay to the great is but the assertion of this kinship, the assertion of men’s claim to be like the great when the obstructions of their mal-formation and mal-education shall be trained away. Men generally will, therefore, find in that which expresses the thoughts of the greatest the means of expressing their own thoughts. The music which enfolds the passions that have never found utterance, that have never been realized by the ordinary man, will somehow appeal to him and make him recognize his true self and his true object. Music being itself the expression of the wants of man, all who share in man’s nature will find in it an expression for longings and visions for which no words are adequate. It will be what prayers and meditations now so often fail to be, a means of linking men with the source of the highest thoughts and efforts, and of enabling them to enjoy God, a joy which so few now understand.
  • 33. More than this, the best existing expression of that which men have found to be good has been by parables, whose meanings have not been limited to time or place but are of universal application. Heard by different people and at different times, parables have given to all alike a conception of that which eye cannot see nor voice utter; each hearer in each age has gained possibly a different conception, but in the use of the same words all have felt themselves to be united. The parable of the prodigal son has represented the God who has been won to love by the sacrifice of Christ and also the God who freely forgives. Such forms of expression it is most important to have in an age when movement is so rapid that things become old as soon as they are new, separating to-morrow those who have stood together to-day, and when at the same time the longing for unity is so powerful that the thought of it acts as a charm on men’s minds. In some degree all art is a parable, as it makes known in a figure that which is unknown, revealing the truth the artist has felt to others just in so far as they by education and surroundings have been qualified to understand it. Titian’s picture of the Assumption helped the mediæval saint to worship better the Virgin Mother, and also helps those of our day to realize the true glory of womanhood. But music, even more than painting and poetry, fulfils this condition. It reveals that which the artist has seen, and reveals it with no distracting circumstance of subject, necessary to the picture or the poem. The hearer who listens to a great composition is not drawn aside to think of some historical or romantic incident; he is free to think of that of which such incidents are but the clothes. Age succeeds to age; the music which sounded in the ears of the fathers sounds also in the ears of the children. Place and circumstance force men asunder, but still for those of every party or sect and for those in every quarter of the world the great works of the masters of music remain. The works may be performed in the West End or in the East End—the hearers will have different conceptions, will see from different points of view the vision which inspired the master, but will nevertheless have the sense that the music which serves all alike creates a bond of union.
  • 34. Music then would seem fitted to be in this age the expression of that which men in their inmost hearts most reverence. Creeds have ceased to express this and have become symbols of division rather than of unity! Music is a parable, telling in sounds which will not change of that which is worthy of worship, telling it to each hearer just in so far as he by nature and circumstance is able to understand it, but giving to all that feeling of common life and assurance of sympathy which has in old times been the strength of the Church. By music, men may be helped to find God who is not far from any one of us, and be brought again within reach of that tangible sympathy, the sympathy of their fellow-creatures. There is, however, still one other requisite in a perfect form of religious expression. The age is new and thoughts are new, but nevertheless they are rooted in the past. More than any one acknowledges is he under the dominion of the buried ages. He who boasts himself superior to the superstitions of the present is the child of parents whose high thoughts, now transmitted to their child, were intertwined with those superstitions. Any form of expression therefore which aims at covering emotions said to be new must, like these emotions, have associations with the past. A brand new form of worship, agreeable to the most enlightened reason and surrounded with that which the present asserts to be good, would utterly fail to express thoughts and feelings, which, if born of the present, share the nature of parents who lived in the past. It is interesting to notice how machines and institutions which are the product of the latest thought bear in their form traces of that which they have superseded; the railway carriage suggests the stage- coach, and the House of Commons reminds us of the Saxon Witanagemot. The absolutely new would have no place in this old world, and a new form of expression could not express the emotions of the inner life. Music which offers a form in which to clothe the yearnings of the present has been associated with the corresponding yearnings of the past, and would seem therefore to fulfil the necessary condition. Those who to-day feel music telling out their deepest wants and proclaiming their praise of the good and holy, might recognize in the
  • 35. music echoes of the songs which broke from the lips of Miriam and David, of Ambrose and Gregory, and of those simple peasants who one hundred years ago were stirred to life on the moors of Cornwall and Wales. The fact that music has been thus associated with religious life gives it an immense, if an unrecognized power. The timid are encouraged and the bold are softened! When the congregation is gathered together and the sounds rise which are full of that which is and perhaps always will be “ineffable,” there float in, also, memories of other sounds, poor perhaps and uncouth, in which simple people have expressed their prayers and praises; the atmosphere, as it were, becomes religious, and all feel that the music is not only beautiful, but the means of bringing them nearer to the God after Whom they have sought so long and often despaired to find. For these reasons music seems to have a natural fitness for becoming the expression of the inner life. The experiment, at any rate, may be easily tried. There is in every parish a church with an organ, and arrangements suitable for the performance of grand oratorios; there are concert halls or schoolrooms suitable for the performance of classical music. There are many individuals and societies with voices and instruments capable of rendering the music of the masters. Most of them have, we cannot doubt, the enthusiasm which would induce them to give their services to meet the needs of their fellow-creatures. Money has been and is freely subscribed for the support of missions seeking to meet bodily and spiritual wants; music will as surely be given by those who have felt its power to meet that need of expression which so far keeps the people without the consciousness of God. Members of ethical societies, who have taught themselves to fix their eyes on moral results, may unite with members of churches who care also for religious things. Certain it is that people who are able to realize grand ideals will be likely in their own lives to do grand things, and doing them make the world better and themselves happier. Samuel A. Barnett.
  • 37. THE REAL SOCIAL REFORMER.[1] By Canon Barnett. January, 1910. 1 From “The Manchester Weekly Times”. By permission of the Editor. The world is out of joint. Reformers have in every age tried to put it right. But still Society jerks and jolts as it journeys over the road of life. The rich fear the poor, the poor suspect the rich, there is strife and misunderstanding; children flicker out a few days’ life in sunless courts, and honoured old age is hidden in workhouses; people starve while food is wasted in luxurious living, and the cry always goes up, “Who will show us any good?” The response to that cry is the appearance of the Social Reformer. Philanthropists have brought forward scheme after scheme to relieve poverty, and politicians have passed laws to remove abuses. Their efforts have been magnificent and the immediate results not to be gainsaid, but in counting the gains the debit side must not be forgotten. Philanthropists weaken as well as strengthen society; law hinders as well as helps. When a body of people assume good doing as a special profession, there will always be a tendency among some of their neighbours to go on more unconcerned about evil, and among others to offer themselves as subjects for this good doing. The world may be better for its philanthropists, but when after such devotion it remains so terribly out of joint the question arises whether good is best done by a class set apart as Social Reformers. There is an often-quoted saying of a monk in the twelfth century: “The age of the Son is passing, the age of the Spirit is coming”. He
  • 38. saw that the need of the world would not always be for a leader or for a class of leaders, but rather for a widely diffused spirit. The present moment is remarkable for the number of societies, leagues, and institutions which are being started. There never were so many leaders offering themselves to do good, so many schemes demanding support. The Charities Register reveals agencies which are ready to deal with almost any conceivable ill, and it would seem that anyone desiring to help a neighbour might do so by pressing the button of one of these agencies. The agencies for each service are, indeed, so many, that other societies are formed now for their organization, and the would-be good-doer is thus relieved even from inquiring as to that which is the best fitted for his purpose. The hope of the monk is deferred, and it seems as if it were the leaders and not the spirit of the people which is to secure social reform. The question therefore presses itself whether the best social reformers are the philanthropists. Specialists always make a show of activity, but such a show is often the cover of widely spread indolence. Specialists in religion—the ecclesiastics—were never more active than when during the fifteenth century they built churches and restored the cathedrals, but underneath this activity was the popular indifference which almost immediately woke to take vengeance on such leaders. Specialists in social reform to-day—the philanthropists—raise great schemes, but many of their supporters are at heart indifferent. It really saves them trouble to create societies and to make laws. It is easier to subscribe money—even to sit on a committee—than to help one’s own neighbour. It is easier to promote Socialism than to be a Socialist. Activity in social reform movements may be covering popular indifference, and there is already a sign of the vengeance which awakened indifference may take in the cry dimly heard, “Curse your charity”. Better, it may be agreed, than great schemes—voluntary or legal —is the individual service of men and women who, putting heart and mind into their efforts, and co-operating together, take as their motto “One by One”; but again the same question presses itself in another form: Should the individual who aspires to serve his generation separate himself from the ordinary avocations of Society,
  • 39. and become a visitor or teacher? Should the business man divide his social reforming self from his business self, and keep, as he would say, his charity and his business apart? The world is rich in examples of devoted men and women who have given up pleasure and profit to serve others’ needs. The modern Press gives every day news of both the benefactions and the good deeds of business men who, as business men, think first, not of the kingdom of heaven, but of business profits. This specialization of effort—as the specialization of a class—has its good results; but is it the best, the only way of social reform? Is it not likely to narrow the heart of the good-doer and make him overkeen about his own plan? Will not the charity of a stranger, although it be designed in love and be carried out with thought, almost always irritate? Is it not the conception of society, which assumes one class dependent on the benevolence of another class, mediæval rather than modern? Can limbs which are out of joint be made to work smoothly by any application of oil and not by radical resetting? Is it reasonable that business men should look to cure with their gifts the injuries they have inflicted in their business, that they should build hospitals and give pensions out of profits drawn from the rents of houses unfit for human habitation, and gained from wages on which no worker could both live and look forward to a peaceful old age? Is it possible for a human being to divide his nature so as to be on the one side charitable and on the other side cruel? The question therefore as to the best Social Reformer, still waits an answer. Before attempting an answer it may be as well to glance at the moral causes to which social friction is attributed. Popular belief assumed that the designed selfishness of classes or of individuals lies at the root of every trouble. Bitter and fiery words are therefore spoken. Capitalists suspect the aspiring tyranny of trade unions to be compassing their ruin, workmen talk of the other classes using “their powers as selfish and implacable enemies of their rights”. Rich people incline to assume that the poor have designs on their property, and the poor suspect that every proposal of the rich is for their injury. The philosophy of life is very simple. “Every one seeketh reward,” and the daily Press gives ample
  • 40. evidence as to the way every class acts on that philosophy. But nevertheless experience reveals the good which is in every one. Mr. Galsworthy in his play, “The Silver Box,” pictures the conflict between rich and poor, between the young and the old. The pain each works on the other is grievous, there is hardness of heart and selfishness, but the reflection left by the play is not that anyone designed the pain of the other, but that for want of thought each misunderstood the other, and each did the wrong thing. The family whose members are so smugly content with the virtue which has secured wealth and comfort, whose charities are liberally supported, and kindness frequently done, where hospitality is ready, would feel itself unfairly charged if it were abused because it lived on abuses, and opposed any change which might affect the established order. The labour agitator, on the other hand, feels himself unfairly charged when he is attacked as designing change for his own benefit and accused of enmity because of his strong language. It may be that his words do mischief, but in his heart he is kindly and generous. There are criminals in every class, rich men who prey on poor men, and poor men who prey on rich men, but the criminal class is limited and the mass of men do not intend evil. The chief cause of social friction is, it may be said, not designed selfishness so much as the want of moral thoughtfulness. The rogue of the piece is not the criminal, but—you—I—every one. The recognition of this fact suggests that the best Social Reformer is not the philanthropist or the politician so much as the man or the woman who brings moral thoughtfulness into every act and relation of daily life. There is abundance of what may be called financial thoughtfulness, and people take much pains, not always with success—to inquire into the soundness of their investments and the solvency of their debtors. The Social Reformer who feels the obligation of moral thoughtfulness will take as much pains to inquire whether his profits come by others’ loss. He may not always succeed, but he will seek to know if the workers employed by his capital receive a living wage and are protected from the dangers of
  • 41. their trade. He will look to it that his tenants have houses which ought to make homes. There is much time spent in shopping, and women take great pains to learn what is fashionable or suited to their means. If they were morally thoughtful they would take as much pains to learn what sweated labour had been used so that things might be cheap; what suffering others had endured for their pleasure. They might not always succeed, but the fact of seeking would have its effect, and they would help to raise public opinion to a greater sense of responsibility. Pleasure-seekers are proverbially free-handed, they throw their money to passing beggars, they patronize any passing show which promises a moment’s amusement; greater moral thoughtfulness would not prevent their pleasure, but it would prevent them from making children greedy, so that they might enjoy the fun of watching a scramble, and from listening to songs or patronizing shows which degrade the performer. Gwendolen, in George Eliot’s “Daniel Deronda,” did not realize that the cruelty of gambling is taking profit by another’s loss, and so she laid the foundation of a tragedy. Pleasure-seekers who make the same mistake are responsible for some of the tragedies which disturb society. The Social Reformers who will do most to fit together the jarring joints of Society are, therefore, the man and woman who, without giving up their duties or their business, who without even taking up special philanthropic work are morally thoughtful as to their words and acts. They are, in old language, they who are in the world and not of the world. If any one says that such moral thoughtfulness spells bankruptcy, there are in the examples of business men and manufacturers a thousand answers, but reformers who have it in mind to lead the world right do not begin by asking as to their own reward. It is enough for them that as the ills of society come not from the acts of criminals who design the ills, but from the thousand and million unconsidered acts of men and women who pass as kindly and respectable people, they on their part set themselves to consider every one of their acts in relation to others’ needs.
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