So you've decided to mark a company anniversary with a public celebration?

We recommend that management, perhaps in the person of the "real" General Chairman (who has undoubtedly played a leading part in guiding celebration thinking up to the point where it got a green light from the Board of Directors), proceed with all possible speed to:

1. Select a person (1) to take charge of anniversary preparations. And we don't mean in an advisory or supervisory capacity either. We mean shirt-sleeve charge. We recommend that this person have no duties or responsibilities other than those concerned with pulling the celebration program together quickly and efficiently.

This person may be given a title in the company, or none.

This coordinator should be chosen by the man to whom he will report, with the concurrence of whatever company officers that man deems advisable.

2. Choose him from outside the company. This is our recommendation unless management is prepared to relieve the chosen company employee of all other duties. We believe this assignment to be a full-time job. We do not believe that superior results are likely when it is undertaken in addition to a daily load of routine duties. Hire your coordinator from outside the company, and keep him "outside," so to speak. In other words, he punches no clock, worries over no politics, and fears no ax for the term of his contract.

3. Grant him authority comparable to the responsibility you are assigning him. This man has been employed to use his time and skill on matters and in ways for which other staff members cannot be spared. In discharging his duties he will be on the move a great deal, and will frequently find it necessary to cross established lines of authority.

Therefore, make it crystal clear to all persons of responsibility throughout your organization that he has permission to do everything necessary to complete his assignment. Have it understood that you expect him to receive full cooperation and support within the framework of the job he has been hired to do.

4. Give him your complete confidence. Because he will be on the move a great deal, your coordinator will take on tinges of the "lone wolf and - whether he knows it or not - he is going to miss a sense of "belonging."

Moreover, he is smart enough to know that he has two strikes on him the minute it is known he was hired by you and reports directly to you. So it will be a great source of pride and inspiration to him (and thereby of great benefit to you and to your company) to know that he has your complete confidence. He's sure that, professionally, you believe in him.

5. Give him the personnel he needs, when he needs them. Management has - or should have - too many serious responsibilities to have much time left for the multitude of tasks which are an integral part of celebration planning. The coordinator has been hired to shoulder these tasks.

Hang out the "Welcome" sign for him at your office. The coordinator should be able to obtain his General Chairman's attention and support without delay whenever necessary. Advice and consultation should be available to him on request. This is particularly important during the first months of his tenure if he is new to the organization. If you are required to be absent a great deal from your office or from the city, see that he is provided with an advisory group of two or three competent men to talk with.

Carry put these guidelines and you should be off to a good start with your company celebrations.