Executive Summary
This report intends to demonstrate crucial aspects of business management to absorb and strengthen the value proposition of a business.
The following will discourse in the report, (1) the role of management in businesses; (2) business management issues within the country, region, and the world, and finally (3) business management professionals.
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Furthermore, recommendations will be given on how to enhance the effectiveness of business management and better manage the business management professionals.
Introduction
Business management is the act of unifying people to accomplish the desired goals and objectives of a business. Business management requires the exploitation of the business’ resources in the most efficient manner possible.
Business management encompasses organizing, planning, leading, controlling, and directing a business effort for accomplishing the entity’s listed goals. In a for-profit business model, business management focuses on the satisfaction of a range of stakeholders, including the officers of the business, its employees, investors, and the public (consumers). In this regard, business management’s primary aim is to make a profit, (for shareholders) create valuable and innovative products at a reasonable cost (consumers), and provide employment opportunities. In a non-profit aspect, business management will focus on keeping the faith of its supporters and donors (A GUIDE TO BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, n.d.).
The Role played by Business Management
The manager is the dynamic, life-giving element in every business. Without his leadership ‘the resources of products’ remain resources and never become products.
According to Rice University, the managerial process or role can be described as (1) anticipating potential problems or opportunities and designing plans to deal with them, (2) coordinating and allocating the resources needed to implement plans (3) guiding personnel through the implementation process and (4) receiving results and making any necessary changes.
One can argue and say managers develop and communicate the overall purpose and structure of the company. In other words, a manager is responsible for controlling, planning, leading, and organizing of human resources and other departments to ensure that production takes place efficiently and effectively in an organization.
Basic Roles of the Business Management Process:
- Decisional Roles: Carried out by the company’s directors, the decisional roles are required for decision-making purposes.
- Interpersonal: These roles are necessary to effectively coordinate and interact with the employees. Interpersonal roles are used to bridge the gap between the businesses’ senior managers and their employees; they are also used to create a sense of uniformity and a team environment.
- Administration: These roles are implemented to handle, analyze and share information that is important to the business.
- Conceptual: These skills are required to effectively evaluate complex situations.
- Interpersonal: A series of skills needed to boost motivation and communication among the senior managers and employees of a company. Interpersonal skills are a fundamental aspect of the business management process because they allow executives to mentor employees and delegate tasks (A GUIDE TO BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, n.d.).
Business Management Issues
Change is the new normal; we live in a constantly changing environment and with the emerging world of technology and new ways of doing business, management is constantly facing issues related to these changes.
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Local Business Management Issues
Botswana continues to face challenges in the business world. Due to our small population and low-skilled labor, Botswana lacks qualified managers and technical professionals to open up companies that can be lucrative and bring in foreign direct investment which can help revive our nation from poverty. Businesses also face constraints such as limited access to funding, low worker productivity, and poor customer services (Harare, 2019).
Corruption is also one of the issues we face. We have corrupt government officials who pose a threat to good governance, democratic processes, and fair business competition. However, the president announced in his inaugural speech in April 2018 that he will do his utmost to fight corruption in the country as it is a setback to the growth of both public and private companies (Tebele, 2019).
Issues in the SADC Region
The tourism industry in the SADC region faces challenges that require urgent attention. There is a highly poor road network generally between the SADC regions and also the world thinks that the region is malaria endemic. Due to this, businesses suffer millions of losses because tourists do not visit these areas. In Mozambique, the local public finds it challenging to interact with tourists since they are not well educated in communicating in English. In support of this statement, Acheampong and Tseane-Gumbi (2016) cited (Tourism and Development: Agendas for Action, 2007) English is considered a tourism language yet most locals are unable to access training in English, which hinders the local public from cooperating easily with visitors.
Diseases such as HIV/AIDS amongst others are also a challenge and those that are affected are unable to be productive enough. Due to this, businesses lose skilled and productive employees, and hiring new employees is also a challenge. Managers cannot acquire information from potential candidates about their well-being in regard to this disease and therefore managers are afraid to recruit new staff.
Security issues
Security remains a challenge in the SADC region. Through the oral interview, Veazey (2019) states that oil theft in Nigeria serves as a reminder that doing business in Africa–like other regions-present unique security challenges. Fuel theft and vandalism are frequent security problems for the oil and gas industry in Africa. Management constantly faces physical security issues for the oil and energy industry as the harsh reality is that this is a mission-critical resource (Manny, 2019) Businesses are to come together and brainstorm solutions and a way forward to try and combat this urgent matter.
Global Issues
Linda Hill, an author, and a business administration professor at Harvard school in an interview with Martha Lagace explained how the digital workplace is generating greater burdens on managers but also operating new opportunities to shine. “Complex trends in globalization, demographic shifts, and new technologies are raising serious challenges for managers on an everyday level. Bernard further agrees and adds that as technologies change practically at the speed of light, it’s vital for companies to innovate or be left behind (Lagace, 2019).
Cyber Attacks on U.S. Companies
JPMorgan Chase – The financial firm was attacked in June 2014 but didn’t discover it until August. Russian hackers, who may have ties to the Russian government, gained access to servers and stole contact information from 76 million households and 7 million businesses. Current and former customers who used Chase.com or JPMorgan.com via web or mobile device were affected.
Target – In December 2013, Target announced a massive breach of its in-store payment system, where hackers stole some 40 million credit and debit card numbers. In January, the company confirmed that 70 million customers also had their names, addresses, emails, and telephone numbers stolen. The data breach led to the May resignation of Target’s CEO (10 Companies Affected by Cyber Attacks, 2019).
Impact of Recession on Businesses
The UK recession had the impact of three factors
Credit Crunch – banks have had serious liquidity problems and become very risk averse about lending to businesses and individuals as well as to other banks.
Globalization of the world economies – the globalization of business and finance has caused huge inter-dependencies between economies. Thus, a recession in one country will dramatically affect other countries.
Impact of UK public finances – the problems of the UK’s public finance deficit creates major concerns for businesses:
- Increasing levels of corporate taxation would have negative impacts on business
- Increasing levels of individual taxation could reduce consumer demand for goods and services.
- Public sector procurement will decline with implications for businesses that have significant public sector customers (Lowth, Prowle, & Zhang, 2010).
Business management professional
In the journal article “Professions & Professionalism”, the author, Mike Saks focuses on two approaches that define categories of the profession. These approaches are; (1) the Taxonomic approach; and (2) the neo-Weberian approach.
The Taxonomic Approach
Professions within this approach were possessing a diverse range of characteristics differentiating them from other occupations. These characteristics centrally encompassed knowledge and expertise as well as others such as playing a positive role in the community. Saks (2012) cited (Freidson, 1986), stated that taxonomic contributors gave to knowledge and expertise was understandable as recognized professions typically had a stronger formal knowledge and higher educational base than other occupations.
The neo-Weberian Approach
Saks (2012) cited (Saks, 2003b), stated that the neo-Weberian approach is centered on the tenet that we live in a dynamic and competitive world of macro-political power and interests, in which occupational groups gain and/or maintain a professional standing based on the creation of legal boundaries that mark out the position of specific occupational groups-be they accountancy and architecture or law and medicine. Professionalism in this sense is centered on attaining a form of formal legal regulation with registers creating bodies of insiders and excluding outsiders. This, moreover, is typically linked to improved life chances for members of professional groups in the wider society - not least in terms of enhanced income, status, and power.
Effective business management
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them” ~Albert Einstein~.
· Communication is the key to any business and is a two-way process. It consists of eight components (APPENDIX 1). Proper communication is necessary in order to deliver the best results, therefore, it should be made sure that the message conveyed to the last person is exactly the same as it was sent by the sender and has not been tampered (Strydom, 2007).
Teamwork is a group of people with different backgrounds, experience levels, knowledge status, and thought processes. For an effective management system, employees who are put into teams together with the whole organization should have a vision and goal that is in line with the business's mission and vision goals and always put their best foot forward. This can be done by revising the vision and goal of the business regularly to ensure that they understand what they must do. It is common for a team to encounter conflicts caused by different opinions and ideas, but a trait of a strong and productive team is to develop coherence and come out as plausible and advantageous (How to Manage a Business Effectively (7 Key Elements), n.d.).
Long and complicated rules could generate confusion and misunderstanding among employees and management. Therefore, simple rules and guidelines could be put into place to help minimize uncertainty and confusion. Complexity science tells us as managers that our simple rules must provide minimum specifications and no more. Each simple rule should be just that; simple and a rule (Cunningham, 2014). Too many detailed instructions will just drain and stall the corporation. Furthermore, Cunningham (2014) urges businesses to think of simple rules as liberating structures, citing (Kimball, 2012), that the rules are for groups that allow individuals and groups to step safely to the edge of chaos, where they can be most creative, adaptive and productive.
Management must have an appropriate delegation of authority and responsibility for effectiveness. This will easily enable the manager to allocate tasks without having to confirm with the senior authorities thus saving time. As we know authority comes with great responsibility therefore, he who is held in charge will be held accountable for any shortcomings. However, one could disagree and say it is also in the hands of the recipient whether to successfully deliver or not to deliver so therefore there cannot be only one party to be held accountable. At the same time, authority gives liberty and confidence to make decisions, hence developing better management (How to Manage a Business Effectively (7 Key Elements), n.d.).
Another personnel issue that is often overlooked and can be surprisingly challenging for top-level executives is employee appreciation (Landry, 2018). An employee development initiative that encourages outstanding work should be employed. Reward employees with a bonus, a small trophy, or even just a vocal recognition. Do this in front of the group; it will make the intended recipient feel good and show the rest of the team that hard work is rewarded.
Professionals should be limited to certain parameters and not be given the liberty to make decisions alone before consulting with other seniors. This will help them to know whether what the manager suggests will be necessary at the time or not. In support of this statement, (Gordon, 2018) added, that the context and structure we work within always have a set of parameters, limitations, and guidelines. A stellar manager knows how to work within the structure and not let the structure impinge upon the process or the project.
References
- 10 Companies Affected by Cyber Attacks. (2019, May 6). Villanova University. Retrieved July 21, 2019, from https://www.villanovau.com/resources/iss/companies-affected-by-cyber-attacks/
- A GUIDE TO BUSINESS MANAGEMENT. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://business.laws.com/business-management
- Acheampong, D., & Tseane-Gumbi, D. (2016). Tourism in the SADC region and challenges facing the youth market: the Mozambican experiences. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, 5(4). Retrieved July 16, 2019, from http://www.ajhtl.com/uploads/7/1/6/3/7163688/article 19 vol 5 4 .pdf
- Cunningham, N. (Ed.). (2014). Rethink Growth and Learning through Coaching and Organisational Development. Randburg, Randburg, Republic of South Africa: Knowles Publishing (Pty) Ltd. Retrieved July 16, 2019
- DeMers, J. (2016, January 11). The 10 Golden Rules of Effective Management. Retrieved July 16, 2019, from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/254547
- Gordon, J. (2018). TOP 10 QUALITIES OF AN EXCELLENT MANAGER. Retrieved from https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/top-10-qualities-of-an-excellent-manager.php
- Harare, T. F. (2019, May 06). Botswana to host elephant summit. THE NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA. Retrieved July 16, 2019, from https://southerntimesafrica.com/site/news/botswana-to-host-elephant-summit
- How to Manage a Business Effectively (7 Key Elements). (n.d.). EDUCBA. Retrieved July 16, 2019, from https://www.educba.com/how-to-manage-a-business-effectively/
- Lagace, M. (2019, June 07). Are You a Digital Manager? Retrieved July 16, 2019, from https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/how-to-be-a-manager-in-the-digital-digital-age
- Landry, A. O. (2018, April 30). 5 issues facing business management. Business Report. Retrieved July 16, 2019, from https://www.businessreport.com/business/5-issues-business-management
- Lowth, G., Prowle, M., & Zhang, M. (2010, September). The impact of economic recession on business strategy planning in UK companies. 6(9). Retrieved July 21, 2019, from https://www.cimaglobal.com/Documents/Thought_leadership_docs/Research%20Funding/R268%20Economic%20recession%20final%20V2.pdf
- Manny, P. (2019, June 18). Oil Execs Explore Solutions to Africa's Security Threats. (M. V. Veazey, Interviewer) Nigeria: Rigzone Staff. Retrieved July 14, 2019
- Saks, M. (2012, May 06). Defining a Profession: The Role of Knowledge and Expertise. PROFESSIONS & PROFESSIONALISM, 2(1), 1-10. Retrieved July 16, 2019, from http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-30970
- Strydom, J. W. (2007). Basics of Business Communication (First ed.). Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa: Red Pepper Books. Retrieved July 16, 2019
- Tebele, M. (2019, July 5). Bots to enact laws to root out corruption, and woo investors. Gaborone, Botswana: Southern Times. Retrieved from https://southerntimesafrica.com/site/news/bots-to-enact-law-to-root-out-corruption-woo-investors
- The Role of Management. (n.d.). Rice University. Retrieved July 16, 2019, from opentextbc.ca/businessopenstax/chapter/the-role-of-management/
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