ABSTRACT

As Sir Thomas Inskip, Minister for the Co-ordination of Defence, observed in 1938, 'the machine tool industry had for some time been languishing'. Imports, of course, were conducive to the business of merchant firms in Britain who imported machine tools, and who had fully endorsed the acceptance of the importing policy of the defence programme. Sir Alfred viewed business firms as possessing a pool of resources, with managerial strategy directed towards the more effective use of the company's organisational capabilities. As the realities of war dawned, the state would have to take a more proactive role in business planning. The foreign trade sector remained important to the machine tool industry, despite the demands of rearmament, and this was a key issue in the formulation of a planned programme of supply negotiated between the government and the industry, which also included the demand for imported machines.