ABSTRACT
The company ‘Ludwig Beck am Rathaus Eck’ is a family company which has been based in Munich since 1861. The company developed from a haberdashers business which was commissioned by King Ludwig II of Bavaria to provide the furnishings for his castles. In 1976 a survey of female employees found that 39 percent of full-timers wanted to work less than the 173 hours, which was the monthly average they were then required to work, and that even among those who were already working part-time, 21 percent would have liked to reduce their hours even further. Planning charts in each department show how many staff hours are required to ensure that, given a specific turnover and normal conditions, customers receive a proper level of service. Beck believes that the necessary degree of honesty in selling can only be produced by personally upgrading the saleswoman as a woman, person and qualified specialist.
