_ Thomas: ‘Edison’s: bulb concluded "(it was). - scien tific men.’ ‘of the chapters ‘‘Business as Lots of rot at top E WERE talking about Why Things Go |, Wrong, the new book by Laurence J. Peter, subtitled The Peter Principle Revisited”, and I was saying that it was a barrel of '» laughs interlarded with gems of wisdom. It’s the kind of book from which you. keep reading bits to your. spouse without being told to shut up. “You know. about the Peter Principle, . Ivhope. ‘It was ~ revealed’ to’ the world some years .dgo" and posits. the. fol- lowing: . fina hierarchy, in- dividuals tend: to rise to their. levels of i incompetence.”* If you're a manager, take: heart. The professor is not “saying, that everyone in he’s saying. is that a Person . who makes.a-good waiter is _ ‘fot necessarily. a good res- taurant” manager. Nor is a good teacher necessarily a. "good school administrator, «Which is’:one,, reason . why ‘ ‘there! 's So much bleating and ts ‘cawin in the school system. “4 “stiiay on electric. light - unworthy Of : ‘the attention: of ‘practical or~ It i is a “common ‘fallacy, encouraged by incompetent “ . “columnists, that inefficiency: .is.confined: to’:government * Sand the post office, and that '- ar: | corporation must weed out ~its: failures in order to- sur- ., ‘vive. : If you: think that,. @ read ‘usual’ and ‘‘A clot for every .slot?’ will cure. you of your “misapprehensions. Rot is ” often evident at the top. So HOME FURNISHINGS - Warehouse/Showroom OPEN TO THE FUBLIG {2 biks, behind the Avalon) , at 1075 Roosevelt Cres., N.Van. $3 8, 985-8738 [A are wrong guesses. ‘The Volkswagen, for ex- ample, was the world’s most successful car. But in 1948, ‘when British and American ‘automobile company cxecu- - tives toured. the Volkswagen ‘plant ‘in Germany, they thought it would be a bum- mer. “The car is not worth a damn,” said Ernest Breech, vice-president of Ford. ‘‘lt does not. meet the fun- damental -technical require- ments of a motor, car, said Sir William Rootes, head of » the Rootes Group. Going back into history a bit, we find that the Peter Principle was. always with : “us, just like the poor, A ‘- study ‘on: Thomas Edison’s electric light. bulb that was commissioned by the British Parliament concluded: oo ‘‘Edison's-.ideas. are’ good . -enough ‘for our ‘trans-Atlan- -. tic’ friends, but unworthy of. “nthe attention of practical or. ave oF ESEEEEEEEEES “Shady 1 Spots . UELESILTLEEREELILS TRS ESERISS 5 SESEELEESE | in. your : Garden? - scientific men.” In Canada, Billy Bishop the great war ace found no favor as a cadet at the Royal Military College. They said he was ‘‘the worst cadet the Royal Military College ever had.”’ A professor of lierature _ at France’s Lycee d’Aix gave one of his students zero marks for composition and literature. The student was Emile Zola. There is.a grain of com- fort in Peter’s Competence Principle, which is: The way to avoid mistakes is to gain experience. The way to gain experience is to make mistakes. Publishing houses are famous for. putting Peter Principle people in key posi- tions. George Orwell couldn’t get published for years, for instance, and Peter himself took just as long to get The Peter Prin- ciple into the bookshops. The manuscripts went to 13 publishers, one of whom wrote: ‘‘I regret to say that | can foresee no commercial possibilities for such a book.”? When it was ac- cepted, it went to the number one position on the New York Times non-fiction bestseller list and stayed there for six months. It was published in 37 foreign edi- tions, and did so well that the author was able to retire from university work, where the Peter Principle reigns supreme. The howlers he has col- lected are priceless. The stuffy Times of London ran this, for instance: “His face was a striking one and even without his. clothes, people would have turned to look at him.”’ Student newspaper in Germany: ‘‘Sexual at- mosphere scrutinized: Ad- ministrators touch many areas.’’ Sign in a store in Tulsa, Oklahoma: ‘‘Ladies room -out of order. Please use stairway.”” The book is published by William Morrow and costs $17.95. Essential reading for all Peterists. 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