Harvard business reports (1930)

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PATHE EXCHANGE, INCORPORATED 369 exercised control over the routine selling activities, including the analysis of contract applications, and was available for field work. The product division of the sales organization consisted of the educational department and the short subjects and feature sales managers. The educational department, while under the supervision of the general sales manager, was somewhat detached from the organization because the bulk of its sales were made by special salesmen and by correspondence. Educational films, while largely sold to nontheatrical accounts, were considered a part of the company's regular line, and were available for theatrical exhibition. Specialized sales managers, situated at the New York office, were responsible for sales promotion, sales, and bookings of the two major classes of product, features (including special, program, and western pictures) and short subjects (including comedies, short films, newsreels, and educational pictures). Their relations with the branch managers were through the assistant sales manager. The territorial division of the sales department comprised the central and western division managers, who were largely concerned with selling to the large accounts in their territories. The number of theater chains and circuits in which purchasing of films was concentrated in one office made it practicable to utilize the division managers as salesmen. The division manager in the western territory also exercised supervision over the branch exchanges in his territory because of the distance of these exchanges from the New York office. Three sales representatives spent their entire time in the field assisting the branch managers and the salesmen in closing accounts and in the promotion of sales. Three exchange auditors visited the several exchanges for the purpose of checking the activities of the bookers and cashiers. The auditors were responsible to the manager of exchange operations. The branch exchange managers were responsible to the home office for all distributing activities in their territories. Because the company recognized certain deficiencies in the organization of the sales department as of May, 1929, a second plan of reorganization was proposed. Under this proposed plan, the division of work between short subjects and features would be discontinued. The work would be divided into three territorial divisions, eastern, central, and western, with a reallocation of