While Dr. Fletcher was employed by the Union Carbide Corporation (before completing his PhD at Penn State) he held two positions that contributed significantly to his approach to the use of quantitative tools in management. The first position was as Administrative Assistant to the General Manager of the Exploration and Resource Development Department. The second was as Manager of Financial Analysis in the same department.

Developing Management Systems

As Administrative Assistant he was responsible for training all the management in the department in the Union Carbide Management Program (UCMP). This system, developed by Louis A. Allen Associates, was implemented throughout the corporation and included specific training in the functions and activities of management, the development of what they called Position Charters, which were descriptions of one’s line, coordinating, and service roles in the corporation, and the development of general standards for that position and specific measures of performance for each planning time period. Solving problems associated with murky divisions of responsibility and developing meaningful, challenging but attainable measures of performance has lead to considerable sensitivity to how organizations are structured and how quantitative measures can be structured to guide the success of the organization. Both the organization chart and the managerial chart of accounts become reflections of the development of sound management systems.

The Following is a listing of the functions and activities of management as described by the UCMP:

1. PLANNING
   1. Budgeting
   2. Forecasting
   3. Setting Objectives
   4. Developing Programs
   5. Developing Schedules
   6. Setting Policies
   7. Developing Procedures
2. LEADING
   1. Deciding
   2. Communicating
   3. Motivating People
   4. Selecting People
   5. Developing People
3. ORGANIZING
   1. Setting Organization Structures
   2. Delegating through the Organizational Structure
   3. Establishing Relationships (in addition to the Organizational Structure)
4. CONTROLLING
   1. Setting Performance Standards
   2. Measuring Performance
   3. Evaluating Performance
   4. Correcting Performance
   Correcting Performance

His exposure to Kepner-Tregoe Decision Analysis has also influenced the way he integrates soft subjective reasoning into hard quantitative measures to yield fully integrated planning tools.

Financial Analysis

As Manager of Financial Analysis he was responsible for all financial analysis of North American exploration projects and worldwide mineral resource development projects. This work was a direct consequence of his specialization in the financial aspects of the minerals industry in his PhD work at Penn State. All mineral reserve data, mining costs, mineral processing costs, transportation costs, and pricing data were used to evaluate the traditional measures of cash flow, discounted cash flow, net present value, and internal rate of return. These data were then utilized in a managerial decision making process that allocated resources to a large portfolio of exploration and development projects. At that point Union Carbide Exploration and Resource Development Department focused mainly on tungsten and uranium projects.