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1 • Problem Sensitivity - Part 2

One of the largest and most important corporations in the United States today is General Dynamics. This giant of defense-production industries came into being largely as the result of the problem sensitivity of one man: John Jay Hopkins. In 1945, at the end of World War II, General Dynamics consisted of only the small, but financially sound, Electric Boat Company, which had produced, under Hopkins' leadership, seventy-two submarines for the Navy during the war. By 1945 the company had plenty of cash, but very few orders for future business. It was a time when everyone else was talking disarmament and "get the boys home." Hopkins, however, with his far-reaching mind, was able to foresee the problems ahead for the world and realize that the United States was in for a cold war on a more or less permanent basis. Furthermore, he was able to see that the United States was going to need a new kind of defense company to bolster its position in this war: a company capable of producing complete weapons systems, rather than isolated specialties like tanks, guns, planes, or boats. Using his Electric Boat Company as the nucleus, he was able to plan a careful program of acquisition of other companies and to integrate them into a well-managed, soundly financed whole. John Jay Hopkins' death in 1957 robbed American industry  of one of its most powerful future-oriented minds.

It is highly significant that in each of these examples the person who anticipated a growing "problem" did not regard it as a problem at all. In each case, his approach was to capitalize on an opportunity. This attitude toward problems is probably the chief distinguishing attribute which differentiates the problem-sensitive person from what, for lack of any better term, we could call the "career critic." The world often seems to be filled with people who are only too happy to tell you what is wrong with the world or you or your ideas or your environment or anything else. Some of these are also very brilliant people. And, in a sense, they serve a purpose. They do point out our faults. And, oc­casionally, with hindsight, they tell us how we could have done better. But strangely enough, these people contribute very little to making the world a better place. It may be that they are so busy waiting for other people to make mistakes that can be pounced on and loudly denounced that they just don't have time to contribute anything constructive themselves.

But the creative person—one who exhibits true problem sensitivity—is more positively oriented. He looks upon a problem as an opportunity. And his deep conviction is that any problem can be solved if the right idea can be found to unlock it. Creative people are positive people. Creative people are confident people. They know that nothing is ever done finally and that everything that has been done in our world can be done over and done better. And they use their sensitivity to people, situations, environment, and the future to find opportunities for contributing their own ideas and effort.

In this basic attitude of a creative person lies your best op­portunity to strengthen or develop your own faculty for problem identification. Keep in mind that nothing is ever as well done as it could be. Every man-made article, every business operation,, every human-relations technique can be improved and someday will be. In every situation you encounter as an executive, no matter how many times you have met and handled it before, there exists an opportunity to find a better way.

And, as the eminent business statesman, Bruce Barton,, once said, "Don't complain about your troubles. They're responsible for 90 per cent of your income!"

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