What is Management?

Management is more art than science. Managing is working with and through other people to accomplish the objectives of both the organizations and its members.

Management consists of:

• the rational assessment of a situation and the systematic selection of goals and purposes (what is to be done);

• the systematic development of strategies to achieve these goals;

• the marshalling of the required resources;

• the rational design, organization, direction, and control of the activities required to attain the selected purposes; and finally,

• the motivating and rewarding of people to do the work.

Difference Between Effectiveness and Efficiency

There is vital distinction between effectiveness and efficiency:

• Effectiveness is doing the right things: know why.

• Efficiency is doing things right: know how.

Main Business Purpose

"Enterprises are paid to create wealth... The only valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer... The foundations have to be customer values and customer decisions. It is with those foundations that management policy and management strategy increasingly will have to start."² Therefore customer values and decisions are the starting point for the actual practice of management, its policy and strategy.

Corporate Leader

As a corporate executive of your firm, you have a critical responsibility for the direction and successful operation of all business units within your organization. Corporate leadership involves a complex set of issues that demands a certain cross-unit expertise, which seldom is achieved through management experience at the business-unit level. You must search for synergies and explore achievements that are possible at the corporate level through cross-unit activity and the development of entirely new growth opportunities... More

Inspirational Leadership: 10 Roles

Inspirational leaders create an inspiring culture within their organization. They supply a shared vision and inspire people to achieve more than they may ever have dreamed possible. They are able to articulate a shared vision in a way that inspires others to act.

People do what they have to do for a manager, they do their best for an inspirational leader... More

Strategic Management

Strategic management is not a task, but a rather a set of managerial skills that should be used throughout the organization, in a wide variety of functions. Strategic cross-functional management is central to capitalizing on functional excellence, and in order for functional specialists to make the greatest possible contribution, managers must take a broader view of their functions and understand how they fit into the web of the organizational processes and, ultimately, into the overall strategy.

The ability to implement strategies is one of the most valuable of all managerial skills. Managers intent on implementing strategy must coordinate a broad range of interconnected efforts aimed at transforming intentions into action... More

Leadership – the New Managerial Task

In the new era of rapid changes and knowledge-based enterprises, managerial work becomes increasingly a leadership task. Leadership is the primary force behind successful change. Leaders empower employees to act on the vision. They execute through inspiration and develop implementation capacity networks through a complex web of aligned relationship... More

Leadership-Management Synergy

To maximize your long-term success you should strive to be both a manager and a leader and to synergize their functions. Merely possessing management skills is no longer sufficient for success as an executive in today's business world. You need to understand the differences between managing and leading and know how to integrate the two roles to achieve organizational success... More

Leadership and Management

Coaching – New Managerial Task

Effective managers need to coach. Coaching aims to enhance the performance and learning ability of your employees.

Coaching at work involves providing feedback, effective questioning and consciously matching your managerial style to the player's readiness to undertake a particular task¹². The coaching approach, a generosity, born of maturity, opens the door to a new way of interfacing with your organization, and makes people want to follow your lead, accomplish your mutual goals. "The more you give in terms of coaching, mentoring, empathizing - the more you will achieve in terms of measurable business goals."¹¹

Managers will find some coaching skills easy to integrate because they're either experienced in using them or they innately have this skill.  However, there will be skills that they find difficult to put into practice and they need their own coach to best support them with this.²⁵... More

Managing in the New Era of Rampant Change, Knowledge Enterprise, Pervasive Globalization, and Increasing Complexity

Rapid change that is sweeping through every aspect of business today prompts you to rethink the way you do things. Although the traditional management model has evolved quite a bit, it is still geared to a rigid structure and command-and control mentality. This model was well tailored to an environment where change was slow and evolutionary rather than rapid and revolutionary. It helped organize processes and foster a sense of accountability, order, and discipline. What it lacks is flexibility making the company irresponsive to continuous external and internal changes. We have reached a limit to what can be accomplished using traditional management approaches, but by changing the way we manage, that constraint can be removed. This is not to say that the basics of traditional management should be ignored, but they are just not enough to get the job done any more.¹⁷

To compete successfully in the global arena, you must create new act as an entrepreneur and create new business models – rethink, re-plan, strategize, innovate, and learn continuously. Once reliable guides for managerial action no longer exist. "In an environment virtually bereft of the old rules of conducting business there is no safety net. Every process, procedure, rule of thumb, and standard ratio is being challenged, reengineered, and morphed into a new form".¹¹ This fundamental change has brought a daunting new reality to the challenge of growing and managing businesses.