ABSTRACT
An old South African song describes a parent’s advice to his daughter when receiving a suitor at home as to ‘keep on talking’. Then he, when elsewhere in the house, would not worry over whether the young couple were engaging in other activities. This often seems to represent the attitude of home offices towards their managers in the field and it takes the form of requiring a steady stream of reports on all phases of their operations abroad. To many companies this flow of reports represents a communications system.
