Posts Tagged ‘Business Management’
May 7th, 2012 | 
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One of a manager’s key roles is to delegate work. Delegation frees up the managers time to focus on work that is more valuable and productive. To be a good delegator the manager must determine which type of work needs to be delegated and which should not. Below are tasks that the manager should not delegate:
Goal setting
A key managerial role is to look at the big picture. This involves setting the team or departments medium to long term goals and the overall direction of where the organisation is heading. This type of task cannot be delegated because it is the fundamental, essential duty and responsibility of the manager’s role.
Providing support
A key role of the manager is to provide support to the team. This involves providing feedback of employee’s progress and work. If good work has been accomplished then it is the manager’s job to ensure there is recognition and praise given. If this is delegated out to other team members then, this can affect morale as it sends out the message that the manager does not think it important enough to do it personally. In this way staff can feel less valued.
Appraisals
An important part of a manager’s role is appraising their staff’s performance on the job. Other key roles is listening to their staff if they have any problems and dealing with disciplinary issues. The reason why managers have to be the one who appraise their staff is because it is also the manager’s job to set each of their staff’s goals, create the standards and quality of work that they should achieve. The manager needs to determine if staff are meeting these standards and decide what needs to happen when these standards are not met. This task cannot be done by anyone else but the manager.
By: James Mako
About the Author:
James Mako has been writing articles for over 2 years on subjects he is passionate about. Why not check out his new website that provides information about luxury shower curtains and designer shower curtain products and accessories.
Posted in Business Management | 
Tags: Appraisals, Big Picture, Business Management, Delegation, Disciplinary Issues, Key Role, Managerial Role, Role Of The Manager | 
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The issue of being flexible concerns both individuals as companies or organizations. It is a very extensive topic. To understand the basics about the issue, think about a personal topic, like the summer holidays. Have you already arranged everything or do you wait until the last minute. Flexibility is linked to choice and tradeoffs: A choice regarding time, money and features.
Managers often pursue a high level of flexibility because of the unceasing number of changes. Experience with much of these changes has lead to the idea that you cannot often plan, nor anticipate and the best thing to do is to change your habit of organizing in favor of a more flexible mode.
Here are some elements where flexibility will impact your organization.
Resource management.
A flexible organization will think twice before “owning” resources. Ownership is what makes resources inflexible. Outsourcing is a known example where resources are no longer owned but still used by the company. Flexibility is therefore a mayor (non-functional) requirement for outsourcing. When outsourcing – you pay for the number of transactions ($ 1,50 per sent e-mail). This is flexible because when your business is facing a temporary downturn you automatically downsize your costs.
Other examples are hiring contractors (in a call center) rather than attracting “own” employees.
Investment management
Projects and investments provide another opportunity to become more flexible. Make sure that whatever project is time-boxed or otherwise controlled. Break up complex projects in short parts. Do not only make long term plans but analyze possible scenarios and reserve a war-fund. Spending all your money is the enemy of flexibility. Like a personal investor you should never be fully allocated. Disadvantage: more flexibility will lead to a lower return, but also to a lower risk.
Client management
This is about organizing. The most flexible way of organizing activities is to decentralize your business process. Everything close to consumer demands and changing requirements can best be channeled locally. It is also the most expensive way to organize because you will not benefit from scale effects. Clients have local needs and speak a local dialect.
Product management
To be more flexible, product management must be centralized and product design must allow exceptions (from the Client Management). This is where the flexibility-issue becomes conflictive. If a company chooses a limited diversity in products it will become less flexible (for the client – it is just not allowed) if it chooses too much exceptions its flexibility becomes unmanageable on the longer term.
Partnership
More flexible solutions are those where you core product is part of a wider palette of products to provide a single solution to the client. The more partners and suppliers the more flexible but also at a higher price: your flexibility requirement implicates a higher risk for the partner which you will have to pay for.
Posted in Business Management |
Tags: Business Management, Downturn, E Mail, Functional Requirement, Investment Management, Resource Management, Summer Holidays, Tradeoffs |
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It is important that when you are recruiting people to fill a role in your organisation that you find the best person for the role. The list of ways to find potential candidates can be limitless and it is important that you look at a variety of sources as part of your recruitment campaign.
If you are currently embarking on a new recruitment campaign to hire new staff you may want to consider the following list of options to find new candidates:
1. The first place to look will be within your own organisation. People who already work in your organisation are already familiar with the working processes, policies and environment. Recruiting from within can also work out less expensive compared to recruiting externally.
2. You can also send out are speak to your own network that includes family, friends and business contacts that you are actively recruiting. They may be able to refer someone to you. By casting out your net you increase your chances of finding a candidate that can fit the role.
3. Temporary staff that are already working for your organisation are a good way of hiring new candidates for a full time role. The advantage that you have is that temporary staff are already working for the organisation. Even though they are on a temporary contract, the limited time they have spent with the organisation can give you a good indication if they are a hard worker, have the skills to do the job and fit within the culture of the organisation.
4. If your organisations work within a specific or specialised industry such as medicine or law then, there are professional associations that promote the interests of these industries. They will have a wide range of communication materials such as newsletters, magazines and journals that you can place an advertisement in. This can be very effective as you will be targeting highly relevant groups.
5. You can use employment agencies at the beginning of your recruitment campaign or when your internal search has not come up with any viable options. Employment agencies can be expensive so you need to be clear about what you want to achieve with them. If the role you are recruiting for is highly specialised then, you will probably need to use a head hunter or executive search firm in order to find the right candidates for the interview.
6. Another popular method is advertising media. This can be an expensive option however, if it is highly targeted it can be very effective in getting a number of potential candidates. Certain organisations rely on recruitment advertising only.
By: James Mako
About the Author:
James Mako has been writing articles for over 2 years on subjects he is passionate about. Why not check out his new website that provides information about luxury shower curtains and the unique shower curtains fabric range.
Posted in Business Management |
Tags: Advertisement, Business Contacts, Business Management, Culture, Magazines, Organisations Work, Professional Associations, Recruiting |
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Delegation is one of the most important skills to learn as a manager. However, not many managers are good at it. They tend to hold onto tasks that they should be delegating to free up their time to do more important activities. There are certain tasks that a manager should and should not delegate. Before delegating work the experience and expertise of the team members should be assessed to ensure they will be able to do the work.
In the beginning it is probably better to start delegating simpler tasks that will not cause a problem or financial restraint on the firm. In this way the team member will gain more experience and confidence as they are given tasks with higher responsibilities.
The following are tasks that can be delegated:
Work that involves a lot of data
Work that involves checking statistics, technical details and data can be very time consuming. This is also the type of work that is making the manager less productive. These types of work are perfect for delegating to your team. When you delegate always make it clear to your employees that they are responsible for completing the work. Make sure you are accessible to them if they have any questions are problems.
Research work
Certain research work that involves a lot of finding and collecting information can be time consuming work. Research work can involve looking at what your competition is up to or researching information through reports, journals etc. This type of work can be delegated to members of your team. This will provide you with more time to analyse the research information with fresh eyes.
Repeat jobs
There are always jobs that involve the same tasks and need to be done on a regular basis. These types of jobs can also be delegated to your team. These types of repeat jobs can involve writing up weekly progress reports, and monthly expenses etc. These sorts of jobs take up valuable time that you should be using to move the organisation forward.
By: James Mako
About the Author:
With over 3 years writing experience, James Mako writes about topics that fascinate him. Currently he has a new site that provides information and advice on luxury shower curtains and the new shower curtain unique range and accessories.
Posted in Business Management |
Tags: Business Management, Monthly Expenses, Progress Reports, Statistics, Team Member, Technical Details, Types Of Jobs, Work Experience |
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When you look at Apple from purely a corporate performance standpoint all you can say is wow, but we all know that such incredible performance never lasts forever – or can it. Recently, our think tank took a look at the company, and had a rather lengthy discussion on the topic. Perhaps, I might share some of my thoughts with you on this as well.
There was a very decent quickie type article in the Wall Street Journal, accompanied by a nice graph of Apple’s success. The chart is clearly going skyward, and somewhat hyperbolic. Every business CEOs dream, and it is all thanks to good business management, executive leadership, marketing execution, and branding. The article was entitled; “On Apple and Its (Enviable) Problems,” by Yukari Iwatani Kane (featured in the “Heard it on the Street section”) on October 18, 2010.
Okay so, that was some interesting commentary and my hopes are that you will go read that article and then come back to this article so you can better follow along on my comments for Apple’s future strategy. You see, trying to keep control of such rocket-ship growth is going to be tough, but there are avenues, venues, and strategies which can allow Apple to continue their loyal following, and grow it organically in the market place.
Consider if you will that there are many PC and Microsoft based loyalists too, and despite what you might think for every religiously loyal Apple follower there are five who absolutely will not touch the product – can Apple win them over? Perhaps, over time, and those who are hard core against Apple could become their best word-of-mouth referrals in the future – or not, depends on how they play it. Likewise there are huge numbers of Blackberry followers too, who seem to be able to be coaxed into trying the Apple products such as iPhone and iPad.
Even as a non-Apple person myself, I happened into an Apple Retail store, which is Apple’s strategy in taking it to the people, will that work? Well, it might for Apple if they only put them into the right demographic, but it didn’t work so well for Microsoft or Gateway, of course, neither really had a cult-like brand loyalist following like Apple has now.
Apple so far has capitalized on its “road-show” roll-outs of new products, and capturing the product cycle curves of each, at the prescribed inflection points, but now Apple must pick up the pace to continue. Is it possible? Or will even their loyal followers get fatigue, and god-forbid they make a big mistake or a product does not do what it says and they lose all credibility. They’ve had a few recent crisis management fires to put out recently – for instance the signal strength of the border-perimeter antenna of one of their latest products.
Still, if Apple is to break into the main-stream and really sell tons of products while keeping price points high for that currently “stellar brand name” of theirs – they are going to need a consumer financing arm, and that means taking some profits and retained earnings off the table, and taking some risks with “Apple Financing Programs” and Apple Loyalty Card Programs, but in this uncertain economy that could be risky too. Please consider all this.
By: Lance Winslow
About the Author:
Lance Winslow is the Founder of the Online Think Tank, a diverse group of achievers, experts, innovators, entrepreneurs, thinkers, futurists, academics, dreamers, leaders, and general all around brilliant minds. Lance Winslow hopes you’ve enjoyed today’s discussion and topic. http://www.WorldThinkTank.net – Have an important subject to discuss, contact Lance Winslow.
Posted in Business Management |
Tags: Apple Products, Apple Retail Store, Business Management, Ceos, Follower, Hard Core, Iwatani, Loyalists |
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Every transaction or activity carried out by a business is commonly done within the scope of the frame-work laid out by the management. Therefore any activity done outside this is counter productive and will not promote the objectives of the organization.
A manager should set the targets to be achieved by the employees. Objectives should be clearly stated, measurable, prioritized and timed. A good manager constantly checks weather these targets are being achieved and takes corrective measures when called upon. He should be able to predict any impossibility and act beforehand.
When it comes to purchasing, it should be made from the cheapest source not forgetting to check on quality of the products. Apart from that, sales increasing policies such as displays and advertising budget should be affordable. A sales manager must also set reasonable prices and not exploit customers.
Lack of records can easily bring down a business; record keeping helps in detecting problems in advance. Updating records constantly will help run a business in an organized manner thus improving efficiency.
Apart from being given instructions, staffs also need to be motivated. Good supervision will lower operating costs by reducing the number of errors made while increase quality of work.
In any organization, the secret to getting the most out of workers is by boosting their morale. Once the employees are motivated, they will work hard towards achieving the company’s set objectives and thus ensure the success of the business. Some of the ways of motivating workers would include periodic salary increments, rewarding best performing employees, organizing team building activities just to mention a few.
By: Belsheba Nyabwa
About the Author:
Belsheba is a business management expert. She researches and studies on big and small business organizational strategies. Website: Business Management Solutions [http://moneymakingsecret07.blogspot.com] for efficient business operation.
Posted in Business Management |
Tags: Business Management, Business Record, Efficiency, Efficient Management, Frame Work, Record Keeping, Supervision, Targets |
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