Brown, 1957

According to Alvin Brown in a 1957 pamphlet prepared by the Society for Advancement of Management, "...an industrial enterprise exists for the sole purpose of earning money for its owners. All of its actions, therefore, and all of the decisions that prompt those actions, are directed toward earning money. All decisions are financial decisions.

"All decisions are financial, either because they directly affect the expenditure of money, or because they indirectly affect expenditures by consuming or disposing of effort, facilities, or material, all of which cost money. ... All decisions are financial because you cannot conceive of one that does not affect, in one way or another, and in some degree, the earnings of the enterprise." (p. 101)

from Brown, A., "All Decisions are Financial," in Shull, F., Jr., Selected Readings in Management, Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin, Inc., 1958, pp. 100-102.

appeared in DSS News, June 23, 2002, Vol. 3, No. 13