RESPONSIBILITY TOWARDS SUPPLIERS-1

Responsibility towards your suppliers emanates from the fact that their survival and growth (partly or wholly) is dependent upon your survival and growth. Suppliers provide you the raw materials, components and parts necessary for the production of your products. You are dependent upon your suppliers for regular, timely supplies of the specified quality at the agreed price. The suppliers in turn depend on you for providing correct design specification, adequate time for production, fixation of a fair price and prompt and timely payments. This two-way relationship works best when it is based on the realization of mutual dependence and one party does not try to pressurize the other for its own benefit.

Escorts Limited and Hero Cycles are examples of how firms can play a responsible role in nurturing the growth of suppliers. As these firms have grown form success to success so have their suppliers. A full-fledged bicycle ancillary industry has been established in and around Ludhiana in response to the needs of Hero Cycles and other cycle manufactures. In some cases firms may even provide the seed capital and other necessary infrastructural support to an individual to start and ancillary industry. There are numerous examples where these small ancillary industries have grown to be as successful and large as the firms to which they were originally supplying.

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RESPONSIBILITY TOWARDS EMPLOYEES-3

Today we continue our discussion on Responsibility towards employees. The thoughts of J.R.D. Tata, Chairman of Tata Steel, expressed in 1943 in a proposal for the creation of a personal Department in the company are noteworthy. 

 “What are the main causes of our difficulties with our workmen? In many respects we have treated our employees exceptionally well. Our rates of pay and bonuses; our hours of work and conditions of service; the accommodation, amenities and medical care we have provided for them and their families, etc., exceeded what any other company in India had done for its employees. Normally, therefore, it would be reasonable to expect that our employees would be appreciative of the liberal treatment and generous term of employment they get at Jamshedpur.  If, instead they are frequently discontented and mistrustful, and hostile towards us, I think we must assume that the fault lies with us and not win with them. It is, therefore, up to us to find out where we have been at fault and them formulate the necessary corrective.” 

Your responsibility as a manager is also to ensure that all dealings with the employees are fair. Whether it is determining the profit linked bonus that is being calculated or the provident fund of a retired employee which has to be paid, you must ensure that the employees are not cheated, harassed or humiliated. 

The fact that we still have child labor, bonded labor, workers suffering from debilitating diseases because of unhealthy, unsafe working environments speaks volumes for our collective failure to discharge managerial responsibility towards our employees. 

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RESPONSIBILITY TOWARDS EMPLOYEES-2

Today we continue our discussion on responsibility towards employees. Instrumentation Limited, Tata Iron Steel Company and Hindustan Machine Tools have developed beautiful townships in Kota, Jamshedpur and Bangalore respectively with the best possible facilities and amenities for the benefit of their employees. Where the company is situated in a remote, undeveloped area, provision of housing and other facilities is necessary to attract and retain the required work-force. But in many other cases, development of such amenities is a reflection of the growing realization by companies that employees are not simply another resource for production, but are beings with emotions, desires, aspirations and have a life outside the factory too. Only a happy, satisfied human being can be a productive worker. Many firms extend their mantle of responsibility to include the employees’ families too. They contribute towards education and marriage of their employees’ children. 

Speaking about the importance of human level personal contact with employees J.R.D. Tata laments:         

“One of the inherent drawbacks of modern industry, with its large and concentrated labor forces, is the difficulty of maintaining personal touch between management and employees. As a result, many petty grievances, negligible individually but substantial in the aggregate, which might have been eliminated by a friendly word or timely action, are allowed to build up a sense of discontent and frustration among the workers.”

RESPONSIBILITY TOWARDS CUSTOMERS

The manager must always remember that the customer comes first. The starting point for the business firm is an understanding of needs of the customer, and the firm’s foremost responsibility is towards the customer.

A firm’s responsibility towards its customer is in terms of ensuring that the desired quality of product at a reasonable price is made easily available to the customers. Product quality is of the utmost concern and covers dimensions of product design, materials used in production, safety, purity, hygiene and aesthetic appeal. The quality of spices is measured in terms of its purity, fragrance, freshness, cleanliness and color. In case of a car the quality refers to its fuel-efficiency, maximum speed at which it can run, reliability and trouble-free working of the engine, efficiency of its brakes, sturdiness of the body, comfortable sitting space, commodious boot for keeping luggage, fitted-in air conditioner, stereo system, foam seat covers, etc. The kust is endless.

This is because quality means different things to different people. For a professional racing driver the car’s ability to accelerate to the maximum speed in the shortest possible time is probably the most important indicator of quality. In contrast a man buying a car for his family would give more importance to factors such as spacious seating and luggage keeping facility, sturdiness of the body and the engine’s fuel-efficiency, availability of spares and servicing facility, etc.

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COPING WITH INCREASING LEVELS OF ASPIRATION

Improvement in information technology is resulting in an increasing trend towards democratization of the society. People in one part of the world know more about peoples and events in other parts of the world. Similarly, people belonging to one socio-economic segment of society know more than ever before the life styles of people in higher socio-economic segments. Exposed to a better quality of life and a better life style, people from the lower economic segments, especially the younger people, aspire to the same kind of life style.

 

A manager must bear this fact in mind while dealing with blue-collar workers because there is bound to be a vast gap between their levels of aspiration and reality. If the manager is ignorant and insensitive to this gap, the workers’ resentment and frustration is bound to spoil over in ways which can prove disruptive and destructive to the firm’s working.

 

You, as the manager, must understand the nature of aspiration of your workers and try to fulfil them, as far as possible, within the framework of the company and the worker’s job. Giving more autonomy, responsibility, money, status and enhancing the worker’s sense of self-esteem through participation in management decisions can channelise his latent or potential resentment towards more productive ends.

PUBLIC CRTICISM AND POLITICAL OPPOSITION

Large business groups are often target of political and public criticism because of their apartment power and clout arising out of concentration of economic power. By Indian standards this economic power may seem great but is very small by international standards. 

 

The criticism is not always evoked by facts but because of ideological, political or personal reasons. But sometimes the criticism may be founded on facts as in the recent case of the Reliance Textiles, attempts to corner large amounts of loans various nationalized banks. Similarly, Peerless General Finance Limited was the subject of controversy and criticism on account of amassing large amounts of funds without following proper procedures. 

 

The best way to avoid political criticism is to keep all activities absolutely legal and above board. Secondly, the manager should keep a low profit of his company to avoid drawing unnecessary attention to his firm’s activities. And finally, the manager should feed correct information to the media and political parties to ensure that they view his firm in the right perspective.

Coping with growing Technological Sophistication -2

We are talking manager’s role. As a manager he/she is suppose to go with growing technological changes and sophistication. We were talking on technological changing and adoption of technological sophistication by manager. Robots are also being used in manufacturing which requires handling of bulky and dangerous materials. All these changes in production techniques have forced managers to find ways and means of relocating the workers rendered redundant.

 

Simply laying off is not always the best solution as it can involve a very high compensation cost. Moreover, in many countries because of the government’s political ideology or cultural values (as in Japan where the concept of employment with a company is life-long), laying off workers is not permissible.

 

The use of computers in business has totally changed the way that managers make decisions. Managers today not only have access to more updated information but also better information which can improve quality of their decisions. For example a manager of online business company is using seo web design service to have professional layout Moreover, with electronic data processing managers can use complex statistical and mathematical models and tools to study the possible impacts of their decision.

 

All this helps lessen the degree of risk by reducing the level of uncertainty. However, access to more information place the onus on the manager to define what the relevant information that he needs is and also ensure that the benefit derived from the information which receives is greater then the cost incurred in collecting and processing it.

Coping with growing Technological Sophistication

A manager is supposed to play different roles. These different roles are as coping with growing technological sophistication, sustaining leadership effectiveness, maintaining balance between creativity and conformity, postponing managerial obsolescence. In last post we talked about Meeting the challenge of change. We talked change with reference to live human in the organization. Today we are going to talk about coping with growing technological sophistication. 

The two areas which are witnessing dramatic changes in technology are production and information handling. Technology changes are highest in production because we are using machinery and technical knowledge there. Same way with information handling, new technologies are invented and rapidly accepted by business communities. Kentucky Law Firm is the best example of acceptance of technological sophistication. We talk about technological changes in production area. 

In the area of production, technological sophistication has reached the level where the entire production plants are fully automated and programmed to run with the minimum human intervention. For instance, at Nissan’s Zama plant, where Nissan cars are manufactured, the final assembly line operations are fully automated and controlled by robots. These robots have totally replaced men in such jobs in which the former can programmed to perform round the clock without any fatigue or loss of efficiency. Robots are also being used in manufacturing which requires handling of bulky and dangerous materials.  

MEETING THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE -1

The social, economic, technical and cultural environment in which the firm operates is always changing. The company must keep pace and change accordingly. Similarly, within organization, new types of production technology may be introduced; the existing product lines may be phased out. These imply a change. We are talking here changes. Man by this very nature resists any change. Used to the old system or method of doing a particular job, people perceive change as a threat to their security. Moreover, change implies learning afresh the new methods or processes and most people resist making this extra effort.

The marketing department of a television company always complained of the low quality circuit in the black and white TV and held it responsible for its poor sales performance. However, when an improved circuit was introduced, the marketing department tried its best to convince the top management against this change saying that the old circuit was now performing in a satisfactory manner. The real reason however, was that the marketing department would now be under pressure to show results as it would have no scapegoat to blame for its lack of results. The engineers responsible for providing after sales service opposed the new circuit since it meant putting in an effort to learn the new way of serving it. If we take example of phoenix law enforcement security they have successfully handled such changes in their industry. 

There will always be change. It is the manager’s task to ensure that the change is introduced and incorporated in a smooth manner with the least disturbance and resistance. Sharing information about the impending change, educating the people about the benefits resulting from changes, and building favorable opinion of the key people in the organization by involving them with the change process itself, go a long way in making the manager’s task easy. The ideal way of introducing change is that you, as a manager, simply sow the idea of the proposed change in the minds of a few people, and then let the idea grow and build till the people themselves come round to asking for the change. This is the way the Japanese make decision-by consensus. However, it is not always possible to introduce change by having

Postponing Managerial Obsolencence

Managers and executives, after 20 to 25 years of work experience, often find themselves having reached a plateau where, on the hand, the prospects of enhanced status, increased pay and perks are no longer motivators enough to work hard; and on the other, they find they are unable to relate to the latest managerial knowledge and skills and feel totally lost. In both cases, these managers cease to be productive and become a drag on the organization in terms of their heavy cost and inability to make meaningful contribution. This is the problem of managerial obsolescence, that is when managers become unproductive, or out of date, or both. In the situation where lack of motivation seems to be the cause, the solution lies in redesigning their job content to make it more meaningful. Mineral Makeup helps remain young to manager and not out of date. An aerospace company designates its senior engineering managers as consultants to its groups of young engineers, thus providing the right outlet for their rich experience. 

 

Training programmers aim to provide or improve knowledge and skills which can help the manager improve his performance on the job. Many companies regularly sponsor their senior managers to attend such training programmes. Other companies invite experts to their own company premises to courses, and basic course in functional areas workshops. Training programmes, refresher courses, and basic courses in functional areas are the solution for managers facing knowledge obsolescence. 

 

These training programmes are not restricted to senior managers alone. In fact, younger managers can also benefit from these programmes, especially those which provide knowledge of other functional areas such as production for non-production managers. Also beneficial for the young managers are workshops aimed at training them for the top level managements posts. 

Creativity and Conformity -1

We are talking about creativity and conformity in last post. We talked most firms allow the product development groups to function in a relatively freer atmosphere. An advertising agency known for the excellent advertisement it produces, allows its creative people, the copy-writers and art-director, the freedom to come into office and leave whenever they please. As long as the work is completed within the deadline, management allows its creative people a great degree of freedom.

 

In contrast to creative success for which definite output or results cannot be pre-determined, business success requires achievement of specific, usually quantifiable targets. In business the best results are usually obtained within the conformity of company policies and rules. Conformity with traditional method not required when it comes to african american makeup, there are many national and international brands in the market. However, this is not to say that managing for business results is boring and requires not creativity. On the contrary, succeeding in today’s cut-throat competitive worlds calls for creativity in all the functional aspects of managing, be it finance, marketing, advertising, public relations or human relations.

 

To succeed, an organization needs both creative people and people who can produce business results. The manager must encourage both kinds of persons in his organization. A new product idea gives a company s rare opportunity to emerge out of the humdrum of competition to the top, but the transformation of opportunity into reality depends on the people performing for business results.

CREATIVITY AND CONFIRMITY

Creativity is a mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts. Maintaining balance between creativity and conformity is important aspect of manager. Developing a new idea, concept or product can be very creative, challenging and exciting. But, that is only one part of the story. The other part of the story, and usually the more difficult part, is to translate this idea into a successful business. This requires detailed planning and organizing of finance, marketing, administration, etc. Colorado Real Estate Broker able to keep balance between creativity and conformity. While new product development involves a high degree of creativity, its transformation into a successful business reality involves carrying out relatively more routine and repetitive tasks.

Designing a new high-fashion garment can be very challenging and satisfying work but selling it to boutiques all over the country, and chasing them for outstanding dues hardly offers that kind of excitement, but certainly offers the satisfaction of a routine job well done. A manager is lucky if the he can find elements of both creativity and conformity in the same individual. Usually this is not the case, and most organizations have separate Product Development Groups or Research and Development Division. Creativity can flourish best when allowed full freedom with minimum rules and regulations. 

Thus most firms allow the product development groups to function in a relatively freer atmosphere. An advertising agency known for the excellent advertisement it produces, allows its creative people, the copy-writers and art-director, the freedom to come into office and leave whenever they please. As long as the work is completed within the deadline, management allows its creative people a great degree of freedom.

Sustaining Leadership Effectiveness

Leadership has a formal aspect (as in most political or business leadership) or an informal one (as in most friendships). Speaking of “leadership” (the abstract term) rather than of “leading” (the action) usually it implies that the entities doing the leading have some “leadership skills” or competencies.  

Every manager is a leader in the sense that he has to influence his subordinates to work willingly for achieving the organizational objectives and inspire them to put in their best effort. The only way a manager can be acknowledged as a leader is by continually demonstrating his leadership abilities. If the manager always gives due importance to the welfare and interests of his employees, makes objective decisions that benefit everyone, he will rewarded by the confidence and trust of his people.

The beginning is always made from the top – the beginning of rot or excellence, that us up to you to choose. Whichever you choose remember that is a very important choice, because once the momentum builds up it is difficult to stop and reverse the process.

An effective leader must be a man with vision who can think and plan ahead, and also have persuasion to carry along all the people.

 

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Retaining Talent

Hiring good people is still a relatively simple task as compared to the task of retaining them; people may join a company because of its favorable image but will stay on only if they find appreciation for, and satisfaction from, their work. 

To retain talented people the manager should provide a comfortable working environment which is conducive to work. More important than the physical environment is the degree of freedom which a worker enjoys in making decisions within the defined parameters of his job. Medical Scrubs given free to all is nice way to retain worker in a hospital business. When a worker knows that it is his responsibility to produce results and he is accountable for them, he will put his best effort. 

On the other hand, if the worker is always ordered to do every single act, and nothing is left from him to decide, whatever little potential exists in him will be killed. A worker should be able to take pride in his work, derive satisfaction from saying “This is my achievement.” To ensure that work does not degenerate into a boring and meaningless affair, repetitive, dull tasks should be interspersed with tasks which call for some element of creativity. In practice this may be difficult, but the manager must at least give some thought to how best he can make work meaningful. Rotating jobs within the same department at the same level may be one way of marking work more interesting and provide opportunity to the worker to demonstrate his professional and technical skill.

Building Human Organization

Man is by far the most critical resource of an organization. No amount of money, materials and machines a produce results by themselves. Men are needed to manage them, Machines can be programmed to take over routine, repetitive jobs, but only a human brain can design the machines. Golf Clubs Furniture can’t be just created with machines only. 

Now a day it’s really very difficult to find good people. It is indeed a paradoxical situation that we have so much unemployment on the one hand and on the other it is genuinely difficult to find the right sort of people. A small consulting firm’s experience is that an advertisement for sales representatives in a national newspaper fetches anything upto four hundred applications and you are lucky if you are able to pick up even two or three good people.

The only reinforce the fact that a good worker is a valuable asset to any company. And, every manager must constantly be on the look out for people with potential and attract them to join his company. A manager with a competent team has already won half the battle. Note that we use the word team, and not individuals. However, competent or brilliant individuals may be, if they cannot work together with each other they are not much use to a company , It is up to the manage to mesh individuals into a well-knit team.

The manager who cannot build his team cannot succeed. Teams should be built on the principles of division of labor, specialization of work and mutual give and take.

 

FIRM’S EFFICIENCY IN TERMS OF PROFIT GENERATION

Efficiency is the ratio of output to the input. A manager has not only to perform and produce results, but to do so in the most efficient manner possible. To produce results a manager requires inputs in the form of money, men, materials and machines. The more output that the manager can produce with the same input, the greater will be the profit generated. Home for sale in Lexington is good profit generation business. Profit is the surplus or differences the manager can generate between the values of inputs and outputs.

 

Profit is essential for the survival and growth of a business. A manager may decide to forego some profit today for the profits which he is seeking tomorrow but in the long run he must understand that no business can survive if it does not make profits. Business activity is undertaken to satisfy a need of the society in a manner which yields profits. A business is not a philanthropic or charitable activity which is run merely to provide some goods and services irrespective of whether it is making a profit.

 

Profit generated can be used for expansion, upgrading of technology, growth of paying dividends. Profits are one of the cheapest sources of financing growth, as they involve no interest liability nor putting the freedom at stake by having representative of financial institutions sit on your board of directors. Profit gives you the cushion to take risk, think big and venture into relatively unknown areas.

 A profitable firm can turn unprofitable because of obsolete technology, inability to meet high fixed cost structure, high levels of wastage, or simply because the product is no longer in demand by customers.

MANAGING SURVIVAL AND GROWTH

“Survival of the fittest” is the law of the jungle which is equally applicable to the competitive market place firms struggle and fight for survival. Ensuring survival of the firms is critical task of the manager. But that alone is not enough. They manager has also to actively seek growth. No matter how big or powerful a firm may be today, it is sure to be left behind in the race by newer, healthier and more efficient firms if it does not pursue growth.

 

Two sets of factors impinge upon the firm’s survival and growth. Paradise Valley Real Estate use both set of factors for survival and growth. The first is the set of factors which are internal to the firm and are largely controllable. These internal factors are choice of technology, efficiency of labor, competence of managerial staff, company image, financial resources, etc.

 

The second set of factors influencing the firm’s ability to ensure survival and growth are those which are external to the firm and over which it has little or no control. These external, environmental factors refer to government policy, laws and regulations, changing customer tastes, attitudes and values, increasing competition etc.

Purposeful Direction To The Firm

Role of Manager we are talking here. We understand Task of Professional Manager. A manager in insurance industry need to study and understand different insurance software available in the market and need to select the best one like Insurance CRM Software and Insurance SFA software from agency management software provider.

A manager can be compared to the captain of a ship who has first to set the course to reach the destination and then steer the ship along the course. Similarly, a manager has to, first of all, set objectives which the firm must achieve. Objectives provide the direction in which the firm must move. Having decided upon the objectives, the manager must constantly monitor the progress and activities of the firm to ensure that it is moving in the desired directions. This is the first and foremost task of every manager.

 

If you are a part of the top management team then you will be very actively involved in this task through the process of defining the mission and objectives for the entire organization. If you are a manager reporting to the top manager, it is your task to see that the actions of the people who work for you in your department or division are in the desired direction. It is your task as a manager to prevent all such actions which take your company away from the direction set by the top management.

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Task of a Professional Manager – 1

Role of Manager we are talking here. A manager is required to get targeted results set up with agency management system. Manager can use different crm and sfa software to perform his role.

A professional Manager may have learnt the necessary skills and gained competence from his experience. The second characteristic of a professional manager is that his primary concern is the organization or the company with which he works. This is true whether the manager works for a private or public sector or a multinational company; whether he is the executive director or the personnel manager reporting to the executive director. The professional manager always has his company’s overall perspective in his mind and all his actions are guided by the company’s objectives.

The third and the most im portent characteristic of a professional manager is that he is responsible for performance. Managing involves collecting and utilizing resources (money, men, materials and machines) in the most optimal manner for achievement of dome pre-determined objectives or results. It is the professional manager’s responsibility to utilize resources to produce the require results.

Responsibility and performance are really the key words in defining a manager’s role. Performance implies action and action necessitates taking specific steps and doing certain tasks. Let us take up  the  various tasks which a manager is expected to do to produce results.

 

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Tasks of a Professional Manager

As a reader of this blog, you are either a practicing manager or are aspiring to be one. Your first concern, therefore, is to know the tasks which you are expected to fulfill as a professional manager. These various tasks’ are discussed in this blogs. Agency management system helps manager to perform his role easily.

There is a lot of confusion over the much widely used terms-professional management and professional managers. Some researchers contend there is nothing like professional management. Management is a discipline. There are practitioners of this discipline who practice management as a profession and thus are professional managers. Just as there are doctors and lawyers by professional similarly there are professional managers. As doctors practice medicin, managers practice management.

The only difference between professional managers and other professional is that, while the latter must possess a formal degree in their discipline, a professional manager need not have a formal defree or education in management.

We talk more in next post.

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