ENTERTAINMENT RECORDS: Those Were the Days

Mr$.$ Miguelito Salde worked very hard as salesman of recorded music. He represented &

company, which distributes compact discs $($VCDs and DVDs$)$ of foreign labels. For about ten

years, he personally called on dealers in Metro Manila and the provinces to convince them to buy

his products. His exposure to the industry provided him with the right mindset to establish his

own recording outfit.

With his mind working, Miguelito hatched a plan on how he would go about operating

his own company: the Entertainment Records. In addition to his knowledge about the market, he

collected information on the production aspect of recording. The plan and the required

information were all stored in Miguelito's memory.

Later, Miguelito mentally prepared a financial plan, as well as a personnel recruitment

program, no matter how crude they were. When he thought that his business plan was complete,

he began to implement it with the required speed. He worked systematically by following

procedures he alone knew and explaining to his recruits the exact functions of each of them.

Within a few months of operating, the company was able to produce two CDs of original

Filipino music. Local singers and composers were tapped. The market received the products with

moderate response. Miguelito went on producing more recorded music until one of the first ten

CDs became a commercial hit! This feat catapulted the company to recognition by the industry.

The company's commercial hits were followed by other hits in succession.

All of the successful efforts of the company were made without the benefit of a written

plan. What Miguelito did was to personally supervise all activities from hiring talents to

providing directions to salesmen. He did this vigorously with the company's total workforce of

$51$ employees. As the company grew with more productions and more than $200$ employees,

Miguelito's immediate subordinates started to worry that their boss must be feeling the burden of

a workload that was getting heavier as the years passed. The staff felt that their leader must begin

to delegate some of the responsibilities to qualified persons. They thought that to be fully

organized, a written plan must be devised so every employee could effectively assist in

implementing the various projects of the company.

When the staff mentioned to Miguelito about the importance of a written plan, Miguelito

replied by saying: "This company was organized without a written plan; it became successful

without a written plan; it will continue to be so without a written plan."