Category: Management Skills

Globalization has created myriad of new business opportunities as various countries opt to lift trade barriers to accommodate entry of multinationals. The increasing number of business organizations that are pursuing international marketing opportunities has led to stiff competition. Hence, the emerging competitive business environment calls for effective and competent international management skills.

On the same note, foundation of successful management functions in international markets is dependent on intercultural skills of multinational managers.

Similarly, international markets are affected by variety of internal and external factors that are likely to hinder business operations in foreign business environment. Thus, proper application of integral management practices may guarantee success in achieving international and national business goals and objectives.

Needless to say, contemporary management activities are being directed towards achieving two important goals namely improving profitability and securing competitive advantage (Rhinesmith, 1996, p.118).

In order to achieve the aforementioned goals, businesses managers have been entrusted to carry out various managerial activities that are in line with business goals and objectives. So far, scholars in management have identified four management concepts that if effectively executed, may assist organizations achieve their set goals and objectives.

One of the most basic activities of management is planning. It acts as foundation on which all the other functions of management are executed (Clark & Demirag, 2002, p.105). Intrinsically, the process of planning involves critical assessment of an organization in terms of its present positioning in the market as well as future threats and opportunities that are likely to be encountered.

The results of the above evaluation are what determine course of action that a company will adopt to achieve the set goals and objectives. According to Clark and Demirag (2002, p.106), managers should note that planning activity is a continuous process that needs to be modified owing to dynami nature of organizations.

In some cases, external factors that negatively affect business may compel managers to redesign new action plans to accomplish certain goals (Clark & Demirag, 2002, p.116). For example, a new brand of soap in the market may compel companies dealing with similar products to rethink of new marketing strategies in order to maximize their positioning in the market.

Research has shown that business environments are continuously evolving and as such, it may become extremely cumbersome to predict these changes unless business managers undertake the process of planning seriously (Clark & Knowles, 2000, p.1). it is against this backdrop that managers should work towards adopting strategic management as part of planning activity.

Clark and Knowles (2000, p.368) observe that strategic management entails critical analyses of both internal and external factors that are likely to hinder attainment of goals and objectives.

As stated above planning remains to be the foundation of all management activities. The second function of management is organizing or mobilizing available resources in order to optimize production. The responsibility of management at this stage is to organize necessary resources (both manpower and material) that are needed to implement the course of action identified during planning stage (Rhinesmith, 1996, p. 116).

In any case, organizational management seeks to create relationships by assigning specific responsibility for each team member and identifying the authority to head each team. As part of organizational activity, it is the responsibility of management to take care of staffing issues since it is the most important asset in attainment of goals and objectives (Clark & Knowles, 2000, p.367).

Staffing is basically concerned with the process of equipping an organization with the necessary workforce. This includes issues related to recruitment, selection, training, placement, compensation, demotion and employee’s retirement issues.

The main aim of assessing the staffing needs of an organization is to ensure that it gets the right men for the right job. The capacity and ability of an organizations hired personnel is what determines the future success or failure of the organizations goals (Boddewyn, 2004, p.198).

The third and equally important management activity is direction and leadership. The main concern of management at any given level is facilitating workforce delivery to achieve desired goals. Hence, it is imperative to note that human assets require continuous motivation and encouragement in order to work effectively (Boddewyn, 2004, p.211).

It is the role of management to direct team members towards delivery of action plans. It achieves the above function by giving instructions and constant communication about orders, rules and decisions (Schneider & Jean-Louis, 1997, p. 214).

In addition, the management provides guidance and leadership, supervises the work delivery process and employee behavior towards the same, and inspires the employees towards improved performance. Research has shown that employee satisfaction translates to positive and improved performance (Schneider & Jean-Louis, 1997, p.216).

Therefore, most managers today are focused on improving employee satisfaction, and this should be activity for every organization that wishes to survive the cut-throat competition (Boddewyn, 2004, p.198). For example, the management can carry out employee satisfaction surveys to find out the level of satisfaction. Depending on the results, the management can improve on the areas identified to be creating a dissatisfied workforce.

This process of defining the desired direction and leadership of a company can be achieved with ease; however, pro-activation the right direction requires an insightful and experienced management (Boddewyn, 2004, p.200).

The last of the four activities of management activity is control. The main aim of this function is to establish performance standards that are biased towards achieving organizational goals (Clark & Knowles, 2000, p.366). It also involves carrying out performance evaluation on how the actual job is progressing.

At this stage, the management communicates the expected performance standards to their employees and sheds light in case any of the organization’s department is experiencing a challenge in achieving required standards (Clark & Knowles, 2000, p.362). Similarly to other functions of management, control activity is a continuous process.

The management constantly evaluates performance standards and identified challenges that may hinder improved performance standards. The continuous control evaluation process is important because if any future problems are identified, preventive measures can be put in place immediately (Boddewyn, 2004, p.199).

In brief, the managerial control activity is a kind of a follow up process that examines performance and compares it against the identified actions plans, and takes corrective measures if needed (Clark & Knowles, 2000, p.362).

As highlighted above, success of any organization depends on effective and efficient management. Any level of success is measured against the achievement of set goals and objectives (Rhinesmith, 1996, p.212). Hence, management functions are driven by individual bestowed with the responsibility to drive an organization towards its end goals and objectives.

The role of managers is constantly changing in response to the changing organizations needs. Most companies are venturing into international trade, and the move is demanding special qualities that the individuals in management should possess. Globalization has expanded business opportunities, but it has also created a complex corporate management structure.

The 21st century corporate manager has to adapt to the changing business environment to be able to come up with modern solutions in a challenging business environment (Usunier, 1998, p.118). on the same note, International businesses operate in multicultural environments, which equally demand managers to have cross-cultural management skills (Clark & Demirag, 2002, p.106).

Many multinational businesses have realized the need for intercultural communication to drive the businesses in international markets. According to (Usunier, 1998, p.122) a manager should possess intercultural management skills to be able to effectively communicate with customers, employees and any other interest party.

Communication has been recognized as a key driver for a business success; therefore, intercultural skills are extremely essential for international business management. A successful intercultural manager is the one with demonstrative skills on proper supervision of foreign market penetration, besides the ability to oversee the process of employee selection, guidance and mentoring (Usunier, 1998, p.122).

In addition, they should be able to negotiate and manage any arising conflicts with the organizations clients as well offer insightful analysis on the intercultural differences that are likely to cause failure or success to the organization (Usunier, 1998, p.123).

To achieve positive results in cross cultural management, such a manger should possess key attributes such as flexibility, patience to work with multicultural workforce, high level of intercultural awareness and ability to exploit the intercultural differences to the benefit of the organization (Usunier, 1998, p.118).

Boddewyn (2004, p.195) emphasizes that intercultural awareness attribute is the most fundamental factor for succeeding in cross-cultural management. The management in the international context must capitalize on direction and leadership function of management to be able to avoid the negative consequences evident in cross cultural workplace environment.

The organizational element of staffing is the most important factor in achieving success in international business. Therefore, managers should evaluate strength level of organization’s personnel so as to achieve high-performance standards (Chang & Ha, 2001, p. 32).

As exemplified above, globalization have opened new opportunities for international business ventures to expand. However, successful penetration to foreign markets is only attainable if management understands the internal and external factors that affect international businesses (Schneider & Jean-Louis, 1997, p. 216).

The external factors, which collectively forms the business environment include; economic, social, technological, political and legal elements. The external factors are likely to affect an organization’s business operations. Such factors are usually beyond the control of an organization’s management, but the management should be aware on how the factors are likely to affect their business.

To begin with, the economic dimensions of the business environment comprises of the nature of the foreign country economic system. The structural anatomy of the economy which is mainly shaped by the economic policies implemented by governments is also considered to an external factor that affects international business environment (Schneider & Jean-Louis, 1997, p. 216).

In addition, the social-economic structure present in a county plus organization of the capital market affects the operations processes of an organization. Therefore, businesses wishing to succeed in international markets should clearly visualize the economic factors likely to hinder their success.

The social dimension of the business environment comprises of the value system of the society present in a particular country. Any organization willing to succeed in international markets should evaluate the sociological factors present in the country of interest.

According to (Boddewyn, 2004, p.200 ) sociological factors comprises of elements like; customs and conventions, cultural heritage, mobility of labor, cost structure and view towards wealth and income, all which have far reaching effects to the operations of an organization.

Boddewyn (2004, p.195-212) adds that sociological factors defines the work culture and mobility of labor and calls for high level of intercultural management awareness to achieve success with such a dynamic workforce. The demand of products and services is highly dependent on the social cultural factors such dictated by customs, attitudes and preferences (Boddewyn, 2004, p.206).

For instance, MacDonald has to readjust their menu when they realized that the demand for their beef burgers was very low in China because the Chinese people prefer chicken to beef. Therefore, the social-cultural business environments as a determinant of businesses code of conduct, need to be evaluated before hand to ascertain how they are likely to influence international business ventures (Usunier, 1998, p.118).

Another pool of external factors that should be appreciated in international business is the political business environment. The latter is shaped by philosophical ideologies of political organizations fueled by the ideology of the government in power. Political ideologies are the main determinant of a country’s political stability depending on the foreign polices that are implemented (Rhinesmith, 1996, p. 102).

International businesses, to some extent, are not free from external political influence. For instance, Rhinesmith (1996, p. 104) cites a case where implementation of a politically motivated policy in India discontinued business operations of Cocoa-Cola company in then late seventies. It was not until 1991 when the same government renewed its policy to allow reentry of multinationals.

Technological development in a country can either enhance or hinder growth of international businesses. The type of technological innovation and advancement is a strong determinant on the type and quality of goods and services that an organization produces (Schneider & Jean-Louis, 1997, p. 216).

Some technological advancement that countries adapt may either act as an opportunity or a challenge for international business to succeed (Rhinesmith, 1996, p. 104).

Finally, legal regulations that prevail in a particular country may hinder or accelerate growth of international businesses. Legal environment is determined by factors such like flexibility and adaptability to law in order to accommodate international business ventures (Usunier, 1998, p.118).

The rigidity of legal factors present in some countries poses a challenge to management activities because they hinder businesses expansion and performance (Usunier, 1998, p.118).

In a nutshell, it is vital to reiterate that globalization has created both opportunities and challenges in corporate management. As companies explore and invest in international business, they have to modify management functions to suit the ever changing business environment. Certainly, the most evident characteristic of international markets is diversity in cultures.

Therefore, future success of international business heavily relies on proper cross cultural management. Any manager willing to succeed in cross cultural environment should prioritize proper coordination and implementation of intercultural communication within the workplace environment.

The latter requirement also amounts to one of the prime qualities of business managers. Therefore, it is crucial for business managers to develop both competent and skillful managerial practices in order to attain set goals and objectives within a given time frame.

References

Boddewyn, J., Toyne, B. & Martínez, Z. 2004. The Meanings of “International Management”, Management International Review, 44(2):195-212.

Chang, S. & Ha, D. 2001.Corporate governance in the twenty-first century: new managerial concepts for supranational corporations. American Business Review, 12(3): 32-44.

Clark, T. & Knowles, L. 2000. Global myopia: globalization theory in International Business. Journal of International Management, 9(1): 361-372.

Clark, W. & Demirag, I. 2002. Enron: The failure of corporate governance. Journal of Corporate Citizenship, 8(1): 105-122.

Rhinesmith, S. H. 1996. A Manager’s Guide to Globalization. Chicago: Irwin Professional Publishing.

Schneider, S. & Jean-Louis, B. 1997. Managing Across Cultures. New York: Prentice Hall.

Usunier, J.1998. International and Cross-Cultural Management Research. London: Sage.

Business Description

The business has developed out of the need to create employment for young people in Amman who happen to be gifted in calligraphy. The idea is a personal product that has been in existence since childhood. The following is therefore a description of the business from its inception, structure, and ownership.

The company that is to be established will be under the name H.T, which is derived from the initials of the partnership. The source of the capital is from a local bank in Amman coupled with savings of the partners. The main product of the business will be male jewellery.

This decision is based on the market need for this product since business environment in the UK has much of female jewelleries and less of the male jewelleries (Bean 2007, p.17). The available outlets for the jewelleries are also rather expensive and monotonous since the trade is dominated by a handful of companies offering similar products.

When established, this business will provide the population with a choice when shopping for jewellery besides creating a sense of satisfaction since each product will be unique. The bulk of shoppers in the UK has also changed with more and more men being involved in shopping and making financial decisions.

With the well performing economy, the population will have more money at its disposal. The company to be set up aims to put in place an effective marketing strategy to attract buyers of all ages and ethnicities.

Amman was chosen to serve as the headquarters for the business and as a source of labour raw material and resources required (Government in Jordan 1978 p.13) because it provides a good centre for the trade. Amman is known globally for her beautiful handmade ornaments, which have mostly been women’s ornaments (Jordan 1989, p.28).

The population is largely gifted in making the ornaments. This makes the marketing strategy for the capital and the country in general (Skinner 2003, p.15: South 2008, p. 12). Calligraphy is an art that dates back in the country to the Middle Ages as evidenced by the discovery of ancient works of art in the prehistoric sites in the country (Herr 1983, p.45).

The works of art have however been marketed in the country alone without exploitation of the international market. The jewellery will be made from different raw materials for start. Clients will be given the choice of selecting the kind of jewellery they want. Traditionally, the jewellery has been made from metals such as gold, silver, and bronze.

This decision made the pricing high for the common market. This business enterprise targets to make cheap jewellery for the low income markets in the UK, as well as the upper class market thus creating a room for choice between the materials used.

The capital required is estimated at a hundred thousand US dollars distributed in terms of equipment, labour, and export price. The three costs represent the largest financial requirements of the company.

Buildings

The company intends to start the trade by using an old warehouse that has been renovated. The warehouse is big enough to house the offices of the company in one section and the manufacturing area in one part. The floor size is also enough for storage.

There are also plans to purchase more offices in some of the office blocks in downtown Amman with other plans being in the advanced stage to acquire a warehouse in the outskirts of London. This will constitute the main buildings owned by the company. The rest will be acquired depending on the demand, market, and quantity produced.

Assets

The assets that the company intends to acquire and own include tools used for the moulding of the metallic jewellery, engraving tools, brushes, cameras, protective clothing, land for setting up the business, and a warehouse for storage of the goods waiting to be exported to the UK.

The company also intends to acquire a van to transport the products to the airport. With time, more will be acquired to facilitate the movement of the staff and the trade equipment. Some of the other assets that the company intends to acquire include cranes to move the large boxes, forklifts, and advertisement assets.

Goals and Objectives

The company has come up with goals and objectives to guide it in the future developments. These have been described as long-term and short term with the time period to be achieved defining the two. In the long-term goals, the company targets to be the leading export company in Jordan dealing with calligraphy.

The other goal includes increasing the net worth to a billion dollar company with branches all over the UK and elsewhere in Europe. The company also targets to be the leader in research and development in the country of Jordan creating employment to a mere thousand people both here and in the UK.

The short term goals for the company are those to be achieved within a period of a year. The first short-term goal is to double the gross sales every two months. Secondly, the company targets to double the profit margins within the same period.

The sales of jewellery is the third short-term goal. The company targets to make more than a thousand sales within the first two months of its inception in the UK. The fourth short term goal is to control a large market share of the male jewellery within the first year.

The last short-term goal involves the introduction of new products into the market with the company targeting to introduce women’s jewellery in the market by the end of the same year.

Philosophy

The company’s philosophy is based on the need to create employment for the youth in Amman by providing cheap and quality jewellery for the UK market. The current image of the company is that of a small firm with the desire to expand in the UK.

The image the firm intends to create is that of a large company and a market leader in jewellery and supply of ornaments in the UK. The company is focused on achieving its set goals and objectives as governed by the laws formulated by the partners.

Legal structure

The business is a partnership with members being drawn from the Capital, Amman, and having the common interest of making money and being self-sufficient. The partners include H.K and T. A from whom the business name is derived. Each member bases the sharing of the profits and other running costs on the contributions.

The members however own business in equal proportions. Therefore, the sharing of the profits is on a 50-50 basis. The legal structure is not fixed. However, the company welcomes any likeminded shareholders and partners.

The contributions they make will define the proportion of the profits they get after each sale. This will benefit the company by increasing its market share and capital base besides enabling it to expand to other markets.

Location

The business is to be set up in the outskirts of Amman, with an outlet in the capital of the UK. These locations were selected for several reasons. Amman was selected, as described above for its cost in terms of labour and human resource.

The cost of the building, and other things needed to set up the location were relatively cheap compared to the prices elsewhere. The building location is on a lease from the previous owner, and plans are underway to fully process it.

The neighbourhood is friendly and sparsely populated. This will provide an adequate environment for business. The floor space will consist mainly of the manufacturing area, and will therefore mostly house the labourers.

The transportation facilities in place include pulleys for hauling large boxes, which will contain the raw materials and the completed works. The site also has ample space for parking, which will accommodate the vehicles transporting the Jewellery to the airport. It is also close to the airport.

Thus, security in the area is also adequate. There are other businesses in the same location though they are mainly involved in the pottery business. The site is advantageous because the raw materials are just in the neighbourhood. A smelting plant is located in the vicinity to provide raw materials for the metallic jewellery.

The second site in London was chosen because of the strategic position to enable and facilitate in the marketing of the jewellery. This will however be changed with time to the centre of London where there are more customers and distribution outlets for the company products.

Production Plan and Quality Control

The production plan for the company from delivery of the raw material to the final product is short because most of the products will be handmade thus requiring no sophisticated process. The raw materials will depend on the particular product.

For the bracelets, the raw material will mainly be silver and gold with iron being a major component. They will be moulded into shapes and cut using simple tools. Coating the resulting materials will then be made using the desired metals or alloys.

The accessories to make them appear beautiful will then be added by the artisans followed by engraving of the ornaments by the use of calligraphy. This process will be followed for most of the jewelleries except for those requiring special processes.

Quality control will be assured by ensuring that there is a quality control department in the company for checking the quality of products besides ensuring that only those that meet the set standards make it to the market.

The quality assurance in the company will also work in collaboration with the quality assurance departments in both countries involved in the field of the jewellery trade.

Management and Organisational Plan

The management framework for the company will include the manager, sales representatives, and other key officials in the management. The finance section will have to be manned by one of the members.

To begin the company, few numbers of the staff will be involved in management since this will be expensive for the company to maintain.

The full time personnel will be the labourers involved in making the jewellery. They will constitute the largest number of employees.

Part-time workers will be utilised in the finance section. Personal responsibilities and those of the other partners will involve making the jewellery though this plan will later change to management functions after getting adequate labourers.

Business Opportunities

The business has a variety of opportunities in the region where it will be opened. The following is a description of the potential customers, the geographical area, and the competition.

Potential Customers

The population of the UK and London in particular is very large. Thus, it will provide the market needed by the jeweller. The purchasing power of the UK citizens is larger than that of Jordan as presented by the GDPs of both counties (Riley 2002, p.13: Sant 2004, p.76).

The market also has a large appetite for handmade jewellery. It therefore suits the perfect consumer group. The choice to market the jewellery for the male sex is based on the theory that the male sex also has a higher purchasing power compared to its female counterparts in this country.

The average male also considers owning a piece of handmade jewellery from Amman to be prestigious and in fashion. Amman’s items and generally those from tm the Middle East are also fast moving here with stocks running out in the few centres offering them.

There are varieties of customers in the business having different requirements in the way they prefer their jewellery to appear. Most of the customers prefer golden and silver jewellery. For those who cannot afford them, the company hopes to create gold-coated and silver-coated versions of the ornaments that it will produce.

Geographical Area

The company targets to conquer the market in London before proceeding to other markets within the UK. These are the long-term goals in the company’s framework. The plan is to establish outlets across London in the shortest time possible.

This will involve a lot of strategic planning and re-investment back to the company. Other cities planned for expansion include the financial centres around the country.

Business Competitors

The business faces stiff competition from other companies in the region providing the market with similar products (Campedelli 2010, p.43). These are more established in the market. Their prices are competitive.

To deal with competition, the company intends to lower the running costs by operating from Amman and exporting the jewellery to the UK using cheap cargo flights.

Since the innovation uses labourers without the use of machines, the operating costs are set to be lower in relation to those for other companies thus maintaining the lower prices (Duhigg 2012, p.29).

The other criteria of dealing with the competition will involve the limitation of the number of administrative employees and establishment of a strong marketing policy (Steingold & Bray 2001, p.32).

Marketing Strategy

As indicated above, due to high competition in the industry, the business will have to adopt an elaborate marketing strategy to ensure success in the market (Marketing handbook 2006, p. 19). The strategy will be implemented in the pricing, costing, sales projection, and marketing plan.

In developing the company, a research into the unmet need of handmade male jewellery in the UK preceded. This established that the products offered in the market were monotonous with fewer than ten companies offering handmade products.

The market, though not significantly large now, had a chance for expansion with the shares meant to rise (Blythe 2006, p.18). The company has embarked on an ambitious project to open up new markets in the UK by approaching market partners and evaluating the need for mergers and added partners.

The market stands to be affected by the invasion of newer products from china, which are selling at a considerably cheaper price based on China’s cheaper technology.

This could however be overcome by the use of cheaper raw materials and production of more attractive jewellery with the option of having most of them custom-made to meet the needs of each client.

National Economic Trends in the UK

The UK’s market is experiencing a growth. This means that more and more men will be able to spend on accessories such as jewellery. This will increase the market to a greater size besides reducing competition (ICC financial survey 1979, p.12). The population is also shifting with the aged in the populace contributing a large number.

The economy is also noted to be stabilising after the effect inflicted by the global crisis a few years ago (Book 2009, p.29: McLean & Nocera 2010, p.13: Shiller 2008, p.19). Employment rate is also reported to be improving. Thus, more and more people are able to earn a living.

The economy of Jordan is also reported to be performing well. The unique characteristic is the high unemployment in the country especially around Amman.

This project therefore will exploit the existing economic conditions in both countries to produce a well performing business leader in the male jewellery section.

In the year 2011 alone, the British economy improved from the previous years after being facilitated by the increase in the production and manufacturing sectors. The value of imports to this country has risen over the years. Jordan continues to be a major source of imported handmade jewellery to the UK (Amman et al 1996, p.32).

The projected growth rate for the Jewellery market in the UK is 2% every year. This is a positive thing for the company (Amman et al 1996, p.32). As it stands, the jewellery market has a total size of over 4.5 billion pounds (Harrison 2010, p.29). This means that the market is performing well and is set to improve.

The largest share of the jewellery section is made up of precious metals such as silver and gold. Even in the tough economic times in the UK, the jewellery market is described as growing at a fast rate, which is also encouraging. After precious metals, other categories with recorded growth include watches and costume jewellery (Amman et al 1996, p.32).

The marketing plan will be as indicated above. This will involve commercials, adverts, and personalised marketing strategies. Salespeople will also be included in the marketing of the company. Their role will be to sell the company to the large public. There will also be competitions on the streets where the winner walks away with prizes as a way to promote the company.

Business Operations

The business will operate based on the written-down operations schedule. Each employee will have a designated task in the company. The operations will be organised in the form of the functioning of the company.

Operational Function

For the business to be operational, an elaborate structure will be provided with the inclusion of all employees and the supporting staff. In the manufacturing area, the personnel will consist of the labourers involved in the making of the jewellery.

They will be housed in the warehouse in the company grounds. Their day will start at 8 am to 5pm. The company will start with a handful of employees before proceeding to employ more in the manufacturing section within the next years.

The service to be offered will mainly be the provision of the jewellery. In some special cases, delivery will be made at a fee. The other services to be offered to the clients will be shipping to the desired places. This will however start once the appropriate marketing procedures are in place.

To increase the company’s market share, other services to be offered will include the engagement of personal information on the jewellery. The other significant service that the clients will receive includes the provision of accessories that match their taste and fashion. This will be initiated through the marketing strategy that will be set up in the company’s agenda.

For the personnel, the company plans to ensure that they are provided with adequate payments to retain them. This will be met through aggressive marketing to ensure that the company has a large profit margin. Housing will be provided to them after the company establishes market control.

For those without this provision, the company will embark on the payment of house allowances. Workers will initially work on a contract that will be renewed every six months. Based on the success of the company, most will be retained as permanent employees.

The other incentives that the company will use to lure and maintain gifted artisans will be the use of gifts and special payments in the form of commissions for goods sold. This means that each employee will be paid in commission as a percentage of goods sold and made in addition to the regular salary.

The employees will also work for five days a week with the weekend and extra hours worked being paid as overtime. A working schedule will also be made for the workers who will be consulted before the timetable is set up.

Technology

In this section, the technology and application to be used in the company and its operations will be discussed. Since the company will mainly provide handmade materials to market, the technology to be used is simple and readily available. The most important of this will include electric drills and engraving equipment.

Since most of the calligraphy will be handmade, electrical appliances will have a limited use thus cutting down power consumption and or saving on the much-needed capital. The other tools to be used include hammers and chisels. They will be used to give the jewellery the required shapes by making the engravings.

The other technology to be used include the transport pulleys and forklifts that will be utilised during transportation and packaging of the finished products. Mechanisation will be needed in the packaging of the jewellery, moulding the shapes, and coating the alloys.

Electric saws will be utilised during the initial manufacture of jewellery from the raw materials to make the metallic frames on which to engrave and attach any added ornaments. The company will also utilise computers and office ware to keep track of finances, processes of manufacturing, as well as distribution.

Finances

This section covers the financial structure in the company in the present, past, and the expected financial situations.

Capitalisation Plan

This summarises the financial need of the company including the capital and any added expenses in the running of the business. The main means of raising the required capital in the business is through acquisition of a loan from a local bank here in Amman (Forstater & Forstater 2007, p.31).

This will fund 95% of the project with the rest of the money coming from the pockets of the partners. A bank loan provides the best opportunity to fund a business (Allman 2006, p.23: Banks 2011, p.13). The bank will be paid in a schedule that will be agreed upon based on the company’s returns and the loan size.

The estimated time for payment of the loan is projected to be five years when the company is projected to have stabilised to become self-sufficient. The capital gathered will be split between paying labourers, buying raw materials and new equipment, as well as acquiring the new warehouse.

To begin with, the company will lease the warehouse and obtain the raw materials from the smelting plant. This will cost around 50,000 dollars with the bulk of it being the raw materials. The rest of the money will cater for the shipping costs, the distribution, as well as the marketing of the products.

Personal contribution to the business will be 20,000 dollars from personal savings. The rest of the money will be gotten from partners and the profits made in the first sales. The partners will make the products in the first few months.

When the company has established itself, more labourers will be added on to provide their services. The estimated cost of materials is at 20,000 dollars. Advertisements and other marketing strategies are estimated at 5,000 dollars including offers, sale prices, and payment for the sales officers involved in the process of selling the brand to the male customers in the UK.

In the purchase of fixed assets, the building and land on which it stands will be valued with the company willing to spend about 20,000 dollars for the same. This is however not fixed, as the company is still in the process of working out the final price with the original owners of the asset.

The money will also be used to purchase the technology to be used in the manufacturing process with the main utility being the electrical equipment.

The purchase of the initial gold and silver raw materials will be made using capital from the loan because it serves the biggest proportion of the money being spent. Transport costs and tax levied on the final products to the market will also be included in the loan though this is estimated not to be over 10,000 dollars.

The company’s vehicle to be used to transport the final products to the airport to get raw materials is no included in the budget. Raw materials and jewellery will be transported using the locally available means of public transport.

Cabs and rental cars will be used in doing this and in the transport of personnel to and from the airport. In the UK, transport to the outlets will also be via public means. This will continue until the company makes enough money to buy a van and other modes of transporting the jewellery.

Security is a major component of capital. Jewellery is expensive and a target for theft. To avoid this, some of the money will go towards hiring guards during the transit of the precious metals and in the transport of the jewels to the final destination in the UK.

The purchase of insurance for the company and employees will also be a significant step needed to cover any loss of the raw material, the jewellery, and other assets both in the production and in marketing processes because any loss will be a setback for the company.

The company will also set on a risk-reducing plan by ensuring that the market is evaluated adequately before entry and production of little jewellery to test the market. Contingency plans for the company will also be made should the company fail to make the targeted profits for the first year.

This will involve laying off any employed on a contract basis and using the amount of money spared to pay any remaining part of the loan.

The table below shows the source and cost of assets.

References

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Ballantyne, J 1844, Principles of Persian calligraphy, Madden and Co, London.

Banks, E 2011, Finance, Routledge, New York, NY.

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Bienkowski, P 1991, Treasures from an ancient land: the art of Jordan, Stroud, A. Sutton Pub, Gloucestershire.

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Reasons for Interest

This article highlights the importance of employing strategic management skills in the quest of developing a cohesive team of workers for purposes of ensuring organizational productivity and continuity. The article emphasizes on the need for managers to employ a structure that ensures that they identify their employees’ talents and capabilities in order to structure teams that are operational and not dependent on “Lone Star” (Ekekwe).

The Colts, who have been major contenders for the Super Bowl are faced with a team work structure issue. The team has always appeared strong and focused until the exit of one of their major players MVP due to injury. This has portrayed the lack of balance in the team structure as the team is highly dependent on one individual. This article is vital because it helps managers to identify with the need to categorize and develop workers from average performance to high performance. It also highlights the need for managers to build teams that can sustain themselves or fulfill the organizational goals even if one of the team members were to leave the company (Ekekwe).

Synopsis

Key issues:

Worker development, how managers can avoid a business crisis, how managers can ensure business continuity, how managers should measure the performance of lone star’s and managing the risks associated with an imbalanced team.

Summary of the article

Team work refers to performing tasks as a group with the intent of meeting common organizational goals. Team work is a prerequisite factor towards organizational development. Strategic employee management calls for the development of employees in order to form cohesive team structures that ensure maximum productivity and continuation of the organization. Developing specific individuals as opposed to developing members of a group can lead to a crisis if the member developed exits the company. Managers are therefore advised to identify and nurture all their employees in their quest to avoid a crisis when lone star’s exit.

Developing employees also leads to building solid teams that can oversee the completion of any of the team’s tasks. This ensures that the business is not sustained by an individual player thus ensuring continuity. Managers are advised to have the business goals in mind when developing employees in order to ensure that they develop efficient people. Managers should assess the performance of the team leaders by the number of backup people that they train in their quest to ensure that work runs smoothly even in their absence. Managing risks that emerge from existence of imbalanced teams requires effective management skills that are centered on employee development and training (Ekekwe).

Key lessons

The main aim of the article is to emphasize on the need to employ strategic management skills that seek to build on solid teams through employee development. Team work is an important aspect of any organization because it is centered on ensuring that a group of people work together towards actualizing organizational goals. Managers should strive to ensure that they identify their employee’s talents and develop them to fit the needs and, requirements of a specific team.

Developing a specific individual to spearhead all the tasks of a give group is a risky business decision that should be avoided by managers. Therefore, it is vital that all managers avoid exit crisis by ensuring that they have backup individuals who can oversee the implementation of organizational projects. Further, team leader’s assessments should be based on job performance and the number of people that they “discover and nurture” in their respective teams (Ekekwe).

Works Cited

Ekekwe, Ndubuisi. What the Colts Can Teach Us About Team Building. Bloomberg Business week. Web.

Introduction

Individuals benefit from the concept of developing management skills. One group of individuals who are guaranteed to enjoy the positive impacts of the concept is composed of managers. With management skills, they are capable of developing attractive qualities, such as courageousness, decisiveness, trustworthiness, and self-confidence. Thus, one can be a good listener, visionary, committed, hardworking, inspirational and capable of setting high moral standards.

These qualities, combined with the ability to solve problems, contribute to improved performance outcomes. Management skills are developed using a special learning model, which is not supposed to be fixed. However, all strategies adopted should share similar qualities that include theoretical reviews of the existing literature, practice and field work that usually involve the application of the ideas acquired into real life scenarios. This paper focuses on discussing the concepts I learned in the course and they can be applied in the future, among other aspects.

Chapter one

What did I cover in this chapter?

The areas covered in this chapter included management skills, such as assessment, learning, analysis, practice, and application. In relation to assessment, I learned about several sub-sections of the assessment. The first item is self-awareness assessment. This, according to what I learned, involves seeking information from foreign parties regarding one’s strong and weak attributes. In order to facilitate this process, one needs to be self-disclosing and honest, while doing it to ensure that correct information is availed for the evaluation process. Other qualities required for the purpose of successful assessment are loyal and humility.

The second item is the emotional quality assessment that involves the analysis of the emotional fluctuations that one experiences. For example, how often one gets angered, agitated, anxious, and the level of emotional composure. I also learned about a test of defining issues, and the quantification process that is conducted using various methods, such as a cognitive style indicator, locus of control scale, and tolerance of ambiguity scale.

Learning

This dealt with the principle components of self-awareness and the corresponding hierarchy that describes the steps taken during the management of personal life. Other issues that I learned include the self-awareness enigma, and peoples’ ability to understand and appreciate the differences that occur amongst individuals. This is important in making people appreciate each other and understand others for what they are. The final section of this sub-chapter emphasized on the key aspects that are recommended for consideration with regard to self-awareness, an idea that was supported by a series of behavioral guidelines.

Analysis

I understood the analysis of techniques that could be employed to achieve different aspects of self-awareness, including those that are used to create and destroy self-awareness. After covering the computerized exams and decision dilemma analyses, I appreciated the fact that different decisions can be made based on different forms of reasoning. I also learned a lot about different approaches that can be applied in decision-making processes.

Practice and application

In the future, I will apply the concepts learned in the chapter to enable me to relate better with my classmates and workmates. I will use self-awareness for the purpose of boosting self-confidence through the process of disclosing my issues. I will use diagnostic approaches to create an understanding among different people.

Chapter 4

In this chapter, the main concept that I learned was the aspect of establishing relationships through communicating supportively. This was divided into similar sub-chapters like those in chapter one, i.e., assessment, learning, analysis, application and practice.

Assessment

Effective communication, according to what I covered, involves establishing high quality interrelationships, and delivering the original information that is intended to be given to a recipient. It is a skill that is intended to evaluate one’s status in terms of communicating and interacting with others. Results from the surveys adopted in the learning provided results that were on a scale of 1 to 6. One (1) implies “strongly disagree”, while 6 implies “strongly agree”.

Learning

It is critical to note that effective communication is the most important skill that I used during my study on this topic. I learned about communication in details, considering factors that should be considered when building positive interpersonal relationships. In addition, causes and the measures that can be taken to prevent miscommunications were learned in depth. This skill is required by managers so that they can effectively manage both time and workers. An emphasis was placed on the importance of focusing on the accuracy of information being communicated. In fact, it was demonstrated that the adoption of high levels of accuracy goes a long way in retaining the original intent. Finally, I found out that supportive communication is aimed at enhancing a positive relationship between two individuals.

Analysis

When I was studying the skill of supportive communication and its application, I visited different cases that involved different persons. Specifically, in met students and workers in organizations to evaluate my level of interactions and relationships with them on the basis of supportive communication. I established that when I scored low in terms of interrelationships, I also scored low in relation to effective communications.

Practice and application

In the future, I would apply the concept learned in the chapter by undertaking activities involved in the form of interactions that would be intended for short-lived or prolonged benefits of supportive communications. In addition, practical applications will encompass the ways through which I would transfer the skill I acquired. For example, in the future, I would teach other people about how they can enhance their supportive communications by establishing high quality interrelationships. The skill will help me to produce excellent performance outcomes in the workplace because I would interact and communicate effectively.

Chapter seven

Chapter seven focused on the concept of conflict management and the strategies involved in the diagnosis of conflicts. In addition, the management of conflicts and the resolution of intrapersonal confrontations were tackled.

Assessment

I learned the manner through which surveys could be used to diagnose and evaluate conflicts amongst individuals. The steps involve an analysis of people’s reactions in relation to displeasures. The survey approaches also aim at utilizing different ways that can be used in conflict management processes.

Learning

Conflicts originate from different sources, such as interpersonal disputes and confrontations. The causes of conflicts can be categorized as either personal preferences or situational considerations. There are several ways of solving conflicts, for example, collaborative problem-solving techniques and reasonable dispute resolution methods.

Analysis, practice and application

The theories learned in the chapter will help me to relate better with other persons. In the future, I will aim at using the best approaches to solve disputes, which might result in constrained relationships. In addition, the theories will aid me to apply personal preferences or situational considerations to achieve the best relationship outcomes, both at school and in the workplace.

Provide an outline of each skill set and distinguish among the three sets of skills. How do the enabling skills support the two management skills?

Skill sets for effective work in the telecommunication management sphere generally include all the skills and knowledge necessary for planning, acquiring, operating, and evaluating the potential and real capabilities of the telecommunication systems. The TC manager has to evaluate correctly the structure and environment of the telecommunication industry, able to perform strategic planning and perform financial management of the telecommunication system. At the first sight, the telecommunication manager needs to have a wide range of skills in order to be a good manager. However, it is impossible to know everything. Consequently, the TC manager may be either a good IT specialist or a good manager. There is also another variant – to be an average IT specialist and average manager. IT specialist is much better aware of the technical side of the sphere, while manager better copes with the financial, HR, marketing spheres. Originally, it is rather difficult to combine these two skill sets, so, the optimal variant is the third skill set – a specialist good at technical and managerial issues.

The enabling skills that support the two management skills are regarded to be the joining link of these two skill sets. These enablers are the intermediate knowledge that adds to the managing and technical skills and often relate to the optimization means and tools.

Describe the skill sets of the first two people that you hire to help you launch this project. Provide a full justification for the selection of each of these skill sets.

The skill sets that are necessary to arrange and fix the DSL net would include both IT and management skills. However, it is necessary to emphasize that the people who would arrange the net should have well-developed communication skills that would help to set up contacts with future users of the net. Originally, good communication helps not only arrange the net but also manage it after being arranged. Moreover, communicative workers would promote the creation of a solid and professional team. According to Margerison (p. 128), communication is the basis for solving any problem.

Let alone the technical skills that are essential for both types of employees, they will need to be initiative (in order to improve the managing and technical support means), stress-resistant (a common requirement for all workers in any company), able to plan and responsive (in order to arrange his/ her own work, and complete the planned assignments), and analytic (if one is applied for a managing post).

Describe the team management and organization strategy that you will use to build this new telecommunications system. What will the chain of command be? Why?

Team management and organization strategy that will be used in the newly created company will be built on the authoritative ground. Such a form of managing a team will help to create productive and reliable relations among employers and employees. However, the principle of preferences should be prevailing (this principle is described by C.J. Margerison and D.J. McCann (1995), and it tells that people succeed more in issues they prefer to perform).

As for the technical matters of the problem, it is necessary to highlight that in order to keep the system working it should be properly managed and supported. It signifies the team will have to work day and night. Night shifts will have to be paid higher (in order to encourage people to work the night shifts).

Team management strategy will include a bonus-fine system. Schoening (2004, p, 38) points out that the bonus-fine system is a great motivator for a team. Moreover, it might help to save money that may be spent on infrastructure development.

The chain of command will include all the necessary steps for improving the initial work of the team and the DSL net. Thus, the first step will be to create a web page with a guest book and a possibility to fill in the form required for getting support. The feedback must be extensive. The second step is the arrangement of the request-response system, as the filled forms must not stay un-replied.

The following command is the elaboration of the advertisement strategy. It requires the definition of the target audience, and the geographical location (including the technical potential, its enlargement, and restrictions). After launching the advertisement campaign all the forces should be given for performing the declared possibilities and promises given in the advertisement.

The last, but not the least step is the team-building process. If all the employees, including the top manager, are working as a single team, and maintain good relations with each other, the productivity of such a team will be the highest. All the team managers, who succeeded in team building, point out that a properly created team also decreases the turnover that helps to work more effectively.

References

Charles Margerison, Dick McCann. Team Management. Publisher: Management Books 1995.

Schoening, Heinrich M. Business Management of Telecommunications. Prentice Hall. 2004

A case manager needs to develop many skills in order to carry out his or her role efficiently on a service team. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS, 2004), case managers plan and coordinate health and social services to meet the individualized needs of clients. Case managers need to schedule hundreds of appointments with different providers for their clients every week.

Therefore, it is vital for them to be able to manage their time and the time of their clients effectively. Moreover, efficient communication is also an integral part of case management, as these specialists need to discuss numerous matters with all the stakeholders, and without efficient communication, it would take extensive time. Additionally, case managers need to be able to operate on their own and in a team to ensure efficient problem-solving and decision-making. HHS (2004) states that there are almost 200 specific knowledge items, skills, and attitudes associated with providing care to substance abusers. A case manager should master all of them to achieve proficiency.

A special focus should be put on the responsivity principle of case managers described by the National Institute of Correction (NIC, 2004). According to this principle, case managers are to “be responsive to temperament, learning style, motivation, gender, and culture when assigning to programs” (NIC, 2004, p.4). For instance, when assigning a Muslim female to a physician, it would be more appropriate to schedule an appointment with a female specialist. This way, a case manager will provide culture-sensitive services, which is of extreme importance to achieve positive outcomes. However, it should be remembered that even though responsivity is vital, the case manager should adhere to all eight principles of evidence practice for effective interventions (NIC, 2004).

References

National Institute of Correction. (2004). Implementing evidence-based practice in community corrections: The principles of effective intervention. Web.

US Department of Health and Human Services. (2004). Case management for substance abuse treatment: A guide for treatment providers. Rockville, MD: HHS Publications.

Nowadays, there are a number of various occupations in different fields of work. Each occupation requires a unique set of skills and qualities. The potential employees should have most of those qualities and skills for the successful fulfillment of their duties. It is important for any employee to clearly separate the duties and to be aware of the tasks and activities expected to be done. The current study covers three different management positions and compares the knowledge, skills, and abilities that each occupation requires from the position holder.

The main task of a financial manager’s position is to coordinate, plan, and direct the accounting, banking, investing, and other finance-related activities of the company. Another task of the financial manager is to recruit the staff, data analysis of the budget, directly work with business customers, and maintain a good relationship with them (“Financial Managers,” 2021). The main technological skills are the ability to use accounting software, data analysis software, and good presentation skills. Knowledge in economics, mathematics, administration, and management is essential for this occupation. In contrast, the social and community service manager position is mainly to supervise the organization’s program, including budget, policies, directing social workers. The technology skills include client information database software, presentation, and spreadsheet software (“Social and Community Service Managers,” 2021). The required knowledge is psychology, administration and management, education and training, and customer service.

The human resources manager’s duties are more specific, including coordination of human resources and staff of the organization. The position is a bridge connecting management position holders and employees, resolving the questions and problems related to work or contracts. Also, the human resource manager can give advice to other managers regarding the policies related to the employees of the organization. A specific technological skill is human resources software. In terms of knowledge, law, and government, personnel, and human resources, education and training knowledge is required.

My organizational skills allow me to easily handle managing positions. Being detailed and highly focused is advantageous for social and community service management since determining policies, preparing reports require considering every related detail. Sometimes, I overthink the projects delaying their delivery, which might cause problems in all three positions. Also, weak networking with peers is a big disadvantage for all positions since all managing occupations require good relationships and networking with other staff. To sum up, three managing positions have both common and specific features and requirements, which a professional should meet. I, personally, better suit for the social and community service management occupation.

References

Financial Managers. (2021). Web.

Social and Community Service Managers. (2021). Web.

Employability abilities are portable skills and are helpful in almost any employment. They entail the acquisition of skills, information, or attitudes that increase an individual attractiveness to organizations. They frequently help a person to perform better, make minimal mistakes, and encourage teamwork with other coworkers, which enables one to carry out their job more successfully. Even though they may not be mentioned in a position description, adaptability abilities are essential and can increase a person’s appeal to potential recruiters. The most significant advantage of possessing various qualities is that they make an individual stand out from other job applicants competing for the same profession. This paper will discuss employability skills such as communication, problem-solving, and initiative, which a person can gain from learning administration.

Employability Gained from Studying Management

Communication

Interaction is among the most crucial foundational abilities since it is a need for practically every profession. The five components that make up the transmission of information are the sender, recipient, data, channel, and response. When people study management, they get effective communication, enabling them to communicate ideas and effectively avoid misconceptions and mistakes (Nisha & Rajasekaran, 2018). People with interaction skills can increase a business’s effectiveness and productivity and assist in minimizing the waste of precious time and resources.

Problem Solving

Issue solving includes the identification of essential difficulties and their ramifications, thoroughly comprehending the concerns, and selecting the best answers. People who learn management understand how to break more significant, challenging issues into more superficial, smaller portions. Challenge-solving abilities can help a person stand out from other job prospects and support the future employer to successfully execute activities and accomplish goals more successfully (Nisha & Rajasekaran, 2018). People who are competent in problem-solving can play a significant part in debugging difficulties. Additionally, the person’s group may be able to face difficulties and solve complicated situations more easily.

Initiative

The initiative involves understanding and resolving an issue, anticipating a crisis and taking preventative action, seizing chances, and maintaining a good mindset. It demonstrates a person’s independence by demonstrating their ability to make decisions independently and act accordingly without direction. Studying management helps a person be an independent thinker with a strong intent to obtain, a thirst for continuous improvement, and a valuable asset to any firm (Nisha & Rajasekaran, 2018). Companies reward individuals who have the personality to finish things without being asked and view assertiveness as one of the essential professional abilities.

Reference

Nisha, S. M., & Rajasekaran, V. (2018). Employability skills: A review. IUP Journal of Soft Skills, 12(1), 29-37.

Gaining Power and Influence

This chapter thoroughly discussed various factors that work towards gaining power and influence. It began with self-evaluative skill assessments that determine how individuals use their power and how they influence others. It then created a baseline of what power means, both the negative and positive perspectives of people on power. Culture can be responsible for how people view power. Some cultures view power as something that can exploit others, while other cultures view power as something that can influence others to do something good. This means that power belongs to a spectrum ranging from inadequate power to excessive power. If one has sufficient power, then he can be empowered to perform at his peak. This is the point that people with power should strive for.

Power is defined in the chapter as the potential to influence behavior. It has gained a more multidimensional meaning considering the changes in organizations today. For example, since more organizations tend to be less hierarchical or flatter, power is not relegated to just the superiors but is shared with the workers. Boundaries within and between organizations have become blurred, that the nature of authority relationships have also changed. This implies that the bottom line is that one should develop personal power, so he is able to influence others towards his and the organization’s goals. Sources of personal power include one’s expertise or work-related knowledge and capabilities, attraction or charisma; effort or one’s personal commitment or motivation; and legitimacy or one’s credibility. At the same time, one should also learn to develop positional power, which comes from organizational centrality, flexibility, visibility, and relevance.

Once one has achieved power, it should be used to gain influence. The three R’s in turning power into influence are retribution, reciprocity, and reason. Fear of retribution is a strong factor in influencing others to behave according to the desired goal of the person in power. Often, the person being influenced accedes to the preferences of the person in power unwillingly because of the coercion and intimidation used by the powerful person. With reciprocity, there is the satisfaction of mutual self-interest that it seems the relationship between the person in power and the person being influenced is transactional. Finally, the use of reason is persuading the other party to do something by explaining the benefits of compliance.

The influence strategies can be neutralized to make the person being influenced feel empowered instead of ordered around. This is usually done by being assertive in pushing for what one thinks should be done without being offensive to the other party. This assertiveness is actually a great part of one’s personal power.

The chapter gives direct guidelines that are easily applicable to the workplace. It also provides a case study that demonstrates the use of power and influence and an exercise to test one’s learning about power and influence. Finally, the chapter provides recommended activities and tests for readers to apply such learning from the chapter.

Motivating Others

This chapter also begins with a self-assessment test to check how motivation is used in one’s life. Managers need to learn how to motivate their workers so that their performance improves. This then translates to organizational success. The chapter examines how to work problems arise, and it has been found that workers’ performance is equivalent to the worker’s ability and motivational level. Hence, managers need to work on increasing the workers’ motivation towards work while equipping them with skills to enable them to perform better, which leads to their own satisfaction at work. This entails investigating their goal-setting strategies and if it matches their worker’s. This is a crucial step because goals are associated with workers’ enhanced performance because goals encourage them to exert effort, provide attention, persist, and develop strategies to succeed.

Workers’ goals are influenced by their own motivations as well as the managers’ reinforcement strategies. The use of rewards and punishment should be used with discerning so that it is not abused. The chapter discussed various theoretical frameworks on motivation as well as presented models to show the process of motivation that determines one’s performance at work and if the achievement of extrinsic/intrinsic motivators leads to their satisfaction. Although the provision of extrinsic rewards for good performance is common and acceptable to companies, it is recommended that developing intrinsic motivation is encouraged. That way, one does not rely on what others may reward workers with, but being satisfied with one’s work becomes intrinsic motivation enough.

Empowering and Delegating

Empowering and delegating are management skills that are valued in organizations. Empowering is providing people the freedom to do things with their own style without the manager’s controls, constraints, and boundaries. This gives workers a feeling of self-fulfillment, which is intrinsically motivating. One way of empowering workers is through delegating or assigning tasks to them to let them know that their performance in the task means they are trusted enough to be delegated with it. The chapter enumerated the dimensions of empowerment as self-efficacy or being competent in one’s work, self-determination or being able to make decisions and stand by them, personal consequences, meaning being accountable for one’s own doing, meaning or value of what one does and trust or being reliable without fail. When people have all these, then they are more likely to work better.

In order to empower people, one needs to provide a clear vision and goals that everyone can work for. This ensures individuals that they have a direction to tread instead of being lost in the process. Setting goals should follow the SMART framework, which is the acronym for Specific, Measureable, Aligned, Realistic, and Time-bound goals. Fostering personal mastery experiences also empowers them. When small gains are celebrated, people feel that they are capable of even bigger successes, so they are motivated to work towards that. Managers should also be able to model correct behaviors to their workers. If workers are exposed to models who achieve success, they are empowered to follow suit.

Empowered workers are provided with social and emotional support. It is like there are people that cheer them on towards their progress or success. They are also emotionally aroused, meaning they replace negative emotions with positive, empowering ones so that they have a good disposition for work. They are also provided adequate information about the tasks they are given and resources to use for their tasks. They also get to own their work as they identify with it and finally develop the confidence to carry out such tasks.

Building Effective Teams and Teamwork

Because teamwork has been found to contribute to organizational performance, managers should be able to foster positive team camaraderie and synergy. Effective teams work together harmoniously and hurdle challenges together. The phases a team goes through are known as “forming, norming, storming and performing.” In the forming stage, team members get to know each other since they come from different backgrounds. The “norming” (sic) stage is when the members develop a sense of a team. The rules and norms of the group are discussed for everyone to understand from the beginning. The storming stage is when differences come out, causing conflicts between members. Finally, the performing stage is when they develop harmony to work together towards their goals.

Conducting Meetings

This chapter discussed the five P’s of effective meetings. The first one is the purpose, which declares what the meeting is for. All members should be guided accordingly with the purpose of the meeting so that all adhere to it. The next is the participants, or the people attending the meeting, which customizes the language, etc., so that everyone understands the meeting. The plan or the preparation for the agenda of the meeting envisions the sequence and inserts where the highlights of the meeting should be to keep members interested. The participation or the meeting proper is how everyone takes part in the meeting. Finally, perspective is how everyone evaluates the meeting, if it has addressed all concerns and if it has been managed effectively. Supplement C also provides specific guidelines to follow for each “P.”

Although only a part of the book has been summarized, the discussed chapters exhausted a variety of material to help managers be more efficient in handling their workers and lead them to achieve organizational goals. The whole book is a valuable resource in developing the necessary management skills in contemporary businesses and organizations.

Introduction

Simulation games are of extreme importance for business learners as they help to apply knowledge to simulated situations. As a part of the Marketing 300 class, I had a chance to gain first-hand experience in marketing a new product line from start to finish. According to the scenario provided by the game, a large, international bicycle firm has decided to enter a new segment of the bicycle business. The company licensed a new technology that allowed 3D printing bikes using a new economical form of carbon fiber. As a result of this innovation, the company gained a chance to create new types of bicycle shops, reduce inventory costs, and reduce prices. I was selected as the head of a new division that was created to become a separate company with no association with the Corporate Headquarters. This implied that I had to make all the strategic and tactical decisions, including brand design, pricing, segmentation, advertising, service and sales personnel, and sales outlets during six quarters of simulated company life. The present paper provides an overview of all the decisions by quarter and provides justification for them.

Quarters 1 and 2

During the first quarter, I had to make several strategic decisions, including the selection of the company name, target segments, and the location of the first store. I decided that the name of the company should be Chen’s for two reasons. On the one hand, I decided that as I am the founder of the division/company, my name should appear in the company name. On the other hand, the name “Chen” is a simple one-syllable word that is easy to remember. After choosing the name, I needed to select priority segments and open my first sales office.

These two decisions came in tandem, as they both depended on market research. I decided that since I was opening a new company that had absolutely no background, my goal was to serve the maximum number of customers to gain their trust. In the world of global communication and fast information sharing, customer feedback is of extreme importance in the early stages, as it helps the company to gain momentum and let the satisfied customers be the best marketing tool. As a result, I decided to focus on the segment that generated the highest demand. The recreation segment had the highest demand that totaling 23,536 in three locations, including Amsterdam, Bangalore, New York City, and Rio de Janeiro. I also checked the customer needs to understand if the new design could meet the needs of the chosen segment. The new technology led to the minimization of costs associated with lower costs of material, production, and distribution (smaller bike shops). Since the recreation segment was most sensitive to the pricing policy, the initial idea for the target segment was confirmed. I decided to open my office in Amsterdam since it had the highest market potential (6,830 of twelve-month potential demand).

During the second quarter, I was to design my first bike, set a fair price, create an advertisement, select media placement, and hire sales and service people. While some of the decisions were straightforward, others required in-depth analysis. In terms of personnel, it was clear that I needed five people, one of whom needed to have specialized service training and the other four in recreation sales. The second quarter was associated with selling only one type of recreation bike, which meant that the salespeople had to be experts in the segment. Since service was not a priority during the second quarter, only one service person was needed. I also decided to open a new store in Bangalore, as it had the second-highest market potential among the four cities.

The most challenging task was to design the first bike. I decided to name the bike Chen-R#1 to increase brand awareness. At the same time, I wanted all the model names to be consistent, so I thought I would only change the last number for all the following bike designs. The decisions about the bike design were based upon the needs of the customers and strategic goals for the second quarter. The primary objective was to gain the highest market share to increase awareness about the brand. Therefore, I decided to create a bike design that was the most attractive for the target segment and set the lowest possible price for the maximum number of benefits valued by the segment. According to market research, the customers wanted a bike that was easy to ride, comfortable, able to carry things, safe, simple to use, and low in price. Therefore, I added hybrid tires for university, precision brakes and reflectors for safety, comfort straight handlebars, polymer gel comfort seats, and front suspension for comfort, a basket to carry things, and 14 gears for ease of use.

The marketing campaign was also chosen to fulfill two objectives, which were to increase brand awareness and describe the benefits of the new bike in the most appealing way for the target segment. As a result, I included mentioning the brand as a top priority, and other priorities were distributed according to the market review. I made six inserts for Chen-R#1 in local media to start an aggressive marketing campaign. The price of the bike was set at 850 with 50 as a price rebate. The pricing policy was formulated considering the price that the segment was willing to pay and the cost of production.

Quarter 3

The goal of the third quarter was to review the results of the second quarter and alter the marketing strategy appropriately. Before making any decisions for the third quarter, I revised the balanced scorecard, market demand and market share, profitability, and customer satisfaction. The results of the second quarter were promising. The division had the highest overall market share (42%) and recreation market share (51%), which meant that the central strategic goal to increase brand awareness by maximizing market share was a success. However, it should be acknowledged that the market performance of the division was lower than two other companies in Amsterdam because the segment had a strong competitor (Winged Wheels). Chen’s was the top performer among others in terms of marketing effectiveness (78.500) and financial performance (69,706 in net profit). The total performance of Chen’s was slightly above average (43.748 with an average of 41.971).

Customer satisfaction was one of the strongest points of the company’s performance. In quarter 2, Chen’s had the highest brand judgment rating in the entire industry for Chen-R#1. This implies that the objective of using positive feedback for company products as the central marketing tool was fulfilled. In summary, it can be said that the goal for the second quarter was successfully achieved and only slight moderations needed to be made. In particular, the company’s strategy needed to be adjusted to make sure that I could substantially expand the marketing program and capture significant demand and profits from the market.

First, I decided to increase the product line without trying to capture any other segments. Chen-R#2 was created as an experiment to understand if the profitability can be increased by slightly reducing the production cost and increasing the price. As a result, the new product had almost the same characteristics as its predecessor at the expense of 900 with 100 as price rebate and without front shock observers. I also made slight alterations in the marketing campaign for the second product by adding emphasis on the ability to carry things using the basket, as it was one of the segment’s needs. The profitability of the first model was 340 per unit, and I wanted to see if the new product could become more profitable. However, for financial safety purposes, the sales priority remained on Chen-R#1.

Second, I hired new personnel in both open locations, Bangalore and Amsterdam. In Amsterdam, I hired another person with specialized training in service, as I expected that the demand for service professionals would grow with the increased number of bikes in use. In Bangalore, I mimicked the decision made for Amsterdam in Quarter 2 and hired four salespeople with specialized training in recreation and one service specialist. The idea behind the choice was to reproduce the success made in Amsterdam. I also decided to open my next store in New York, as it is the third city in terms of the market potential in recreational bike demand.

Third, I decided that the marketing campaign in Bangalore did not need to be as aggressive as in Amsterdam. The first reason for the decision was that the market potential in the segment was significantly lower in Bangalore than in Amsterdam. At the same time, I decided to start an internet marketing campaign that was supposed to compensate for the decreased number of local marketing inserts in Bangalore. Therefore, I decided to make three inserts in the marketing of the two products and invested 6,000 in Internet marketing. However, I decided to keep the number of local advertisement inserts in Amsterdam at the level of six per product.

In summary, all my decision for the third quarter were aimed at repeating the financial success of the second quarter. I decided that it was too early to invest in the development of other segments and decided to make my position in the recreation segment firm. As a result, I decided to run a cautious experiment with the introduction of a new product that did not differ considerably from the first one to test if I can improve profitability and customer satisfaction. By the end of the third quarter, I expected that my financial performance and marketing effectiveness would improve, while the market performance would remain unchanged. I planned an increase in the market share for the fourth quarter.

Quarter 4

The central goal for quarter 4 was to expand the market offering by choosing a second segment the company wanted to serve. At the same time, I needed to evaluate the results of the third quarter and see if I needed to make any changes. The results of the third quarter were a little lower than expected. The market share decreased considerably, as Winged Wheels increased its presence in the recreation sector by 3%. Marketing effectiveness remained unchanged with the highest performance among the competitors of 78.500. However, the financial performance skyrocketed with cumulative net profit for the division of 582,087, which is 12.81% of the final goal set by the Corporate Headquarters of 4 billion by the end of the sixth quarter. In summary, the majority of strategic objectives were achieved with minimal differences between desired and actual outcomes.

In terms of customer satisfaction, Chen-R#1 continued to be the top performer in the industry (total score: 80), while Chen-R#2 was the runner-up with an overall score of 77. This implied that my decision to create the second product was a success as I was able to increase the price and decrease the production cost with minimal losses in customer satisfaction. The profitability of Chen-R#2 was lower (438 per unit in comparison with Chen-R#1’s 471). However, after the exclusion of investments in brand design and advertisement design, per unit profitability of Chen-R#2 was 505, which was higher than the per-unit profitability of Chen-R#1. In other words, even though the demand for the new model was considerably lower, the experiment with Chen-R#2 was a success. It was decided to keep both products to give customers a choice.

As for the strategic decisions in Quarter 4, I decided to create a product to serve the mountain segment of the bicycle market. I was opening a new store in New York, which had the highest market potential in terms of demand for mountain bikes. For the new store, I hired two service people, four specialists in mountain bikes, and two salespeople with specialized training in recreational bikes. I also made sure that my stores in Amsterdam and Bangalore hired two specialists each in mountain bikes. Such a distribution of salesforce was dictated by the decision that the New York store would specialize in mountain bicycles. I was also planning to open a new store in Quarter 5 in Rio de Janeiro, which was the only city left among the options.

The design of the new product was defined by customer needs in the sector. The name of the new product was Chen#3. Customer needs assessment provided in the first quarter revealed that the customers in the mountain segment wanted a durable bike, could handle rough terrain and soften its impact, and was able to stop quickly and turn sharply. Price was not among the immediate concerns, and customers were willing to pay around 1,100 per unit. Therefore, the design included front suspension, mountain high grips, standard disk brakes, and 24 gears. The decals and accessories did not seem to be needed. The price was set at 1,150 with 50 in price rebate, which was rationalized by marker research and the experience of DreamBikes, which was the leader in the segment in terms of market share.

The experience of the competitor also inspired the design of the advertisement for the new product. Chen’s was doing well in terms of financial performance; therefore, the central goal of the market expansion was not to distort the success by making only the safest decisions. I did not want to shift the emphasis from recreation bikes to the new segment, and the introduction of the new product was used as a test to see how the new product can improve financial performance.

In terms of media placement, I decided to start an aggressive local campaign in the mountain segment for the new product in New York. The local media inserts were supplemented by online advertisements on the website and social media. I also started a moderate local marketing campaign in Amsterdam by dedicating four local media inserts, as it also had an adequate market potential in the mountain segment. Local media inserts in Bangalore remained the lowest as the city had the lowest market potential.

In summary, the results for Quarter 3 were adequate, and no drastic alterations in the current strategy were needed. Therefore, I focused my attention on expanding the market by introducing a new mountain bike. The expansion was expected to improve the market performance of the company and boost financial performance. However, marketing effectiveness was expected to stagnate as I utilized a borrowed marketing strategy.

Quarter 5

There were two primary goals for the fifth quarter, including launching new products based on the latest available components and maximizing performance based on the results of the fourth quarter. Quarter 4 was a success as all the strategic goals were achieved, and all three evaluated aspects reached the desired results. As was expected, marketing effectiveness stagnated with a score of 77.50, as I tried to make cautious decisions not to disrupt the success of the previous quarters. Market performance improved considerably as Chen’s grabbed 38% of the mountain segment with Chen#3, which was the largest market share in the sector. The financial performance skyrocketed once again, with 1,646,083 in net profit for the quarter. As a result, Chen was the top performer in all aspects, with a total performance of 67.217. This implied that my judgment was fair, which made me more confident to make drastic changes in the branding and marketing campaign.

In this quarter, I realized that I could no longer make safe decisions. The performance needed to improve drastically, especially in marketing effectiveness, as the board expected brand judgment and ad judgment to be above 90. Updating the design of advertisements and products required significant investments; however, it was not a significant concern, as the division generated substantial profits. I redesigned all the products to include the best components with minor differences between the products in the same segment and introduced a new bicycle, Chen#4. I decided that I did not need to increase the price, as I could afford a decrease in profitability to boost brand judgment. I also did not want to differentiate my products too much, as I wanted the company to produce only top-quality bicycles. In short, by the end of Quarter 5, Chen’s offered four high-quality products at a reasonable price, which was expected to improve customer satisfaction.

I adjusted all the advertisements to include information about the new parts. I also decided it was no longer a priority to include the brand name in all products, as the customers were aware of the company. Instead, I decided to focus on the benefits of the new design and core values. I thought about mentioning in the advertisements the fact that Chen-R#1 and Chen#3 had the highest rating in the segments. However, I decided not to include this information, as the move appeared too risky for me at that moment.

As for local media placement, I decided to modify my strategy and market different products in different locations. In New York City and Rio de Janeiro, I emphasized Chen-R#2 and Chen#4; in Amsterdam, I focused on advertising Chen-R#1 and Chen#3, and in Bangalore, I decided not to differentiate my marketing strategy. The idea behind the distribution was to test the effectiveness of different marketing strategies. Local media inserts were supplemented by an online marketing campaign, which remained the same since the fourth quarter. I decided not to use any paid ads, as I believe they can annoy the customers. However, if the marketing campaign was not efficient enough, I considered adding a small budget to paid ads, to improve the situation.

During the fifth quarter, I also opened a new store in Rio de Janeiro, which was specialized in the mountain segment, as market research revealed it was the most appropriate for the region. The specialization was achieved by hiring sales personnel trained in selling mountain bicycles. I mimicked the staff of the store in New York, as its experience confirmed that the number of salespeople and service personnel was optimal.

The expectations for the fifth quarter were unclear as there were many variables that changed. I believed that all the decisions were adequate and expected a significant increase in customer satisfaction and marketing effectiveness. However, I feared that my financial performance would lose its momentum. However, I decided to take the risk to maximize the score in ad judgment and brand judgment.

Quarter 6

The central aim of the last quarter was to make the final push to the objectives set by the central headquarters. In order to achieve desired outcomes, I needed to review the results for Quarter 5 and make necessary alterations. The results of the fifth quarter were astounding. All the goals set by the Corporate Headquarters were achieved in five quarters instead of six. The market performance improved considerably as Chen’s grabbed 55% of the mountain and recreation segments, which led to the final score of 110 on the balanced scorecard. The financial performance beat all the records generating more than 10,000 sales in the quarter, which meant 4,678,171 in net revenues for the quarter, which was 117% of the goal set by the central headquarters. Finally, marketing performance improved considerably from 76.5 to 110. Brand judgment was between 97 and 99, which was considerably above the minimum of 90. In other words, the results of the fifth quarter surpassed the expectations and with a total score of 106.401, which was the highest in the market.

The review of Quarter 5 revealed that no alterations were needed to achieve the desired outcomes. Therefore, the fundamental idea behind all the decisions made during the last quarter was to maintain stable performance in all three aspects. For that reason, I decided to keep the same number of employees in all the regions. I also did not make any changes in the marketing campaign in terms of advertisement design and local media inserts for the existing products, as they did seem to be needed.

However, I decided that the company should not stop its development. Therefore, I decided to design a new product, which was named Chen-C#3. I also renamed all the models for consistency: all names of the recreation models started with “Chen-C#,” while all the mountain bikes’ names started with “Chen-R#.” The idea of creating a new recreational bicycle was motivated by the desire to emphasize that the company’s top priority was the recreational segment. The new product mimicked the design of Chen-C#1, the top-selling bike in the sector. However, Chen-C#3 had a valuable addition of a performance bike computer with only a minor price increase (900 instead of 850). Before the introduction of this bicycle, none of the products in the recreation sector offered this accessory. Therefore, I decided to give my customers the opportunity to have such an option. However, I did not want the bike to have a high priority in sales, as it was expected to be less profitable than the other two models. Therefore, I gave the new bike less attention to the local media; however, I still ran a website and a social media campaign to promote it. I still did not dedicate any money to paid online ads, as I believed they were unnecessary.

After all decisions for the last quarter were made, I felt uneasy, as I expected stagnation in the development of the company. I realized that my competitors would be making significant changes in their campaigns, which may cause Chen’s to lose its current position as a leader. However, I still believed that all the objectives set by the Corporate Headquarters would be achieved.

Final Results and Conclusion

The results for the sixth quarter were not as good as they were in Quarter 5, as I decided to preserve the lead instead of continuing the development. As a result, the market performance of the company decreased from 110 to 92, as I lost 8% of the market share in recreation and 10% in the mountain segment. Marketing effectiveness and financial performance improved inconsiderably with a net profit of 4,740,180. The introduction Chen-C#3 was successful; however, the new product decreased the sales of Chen-C#1 and Chen-C#2. The final score was 101.002, which was significantly lower than in the fifth quarter. In summary, the results of the sixth quarter signaled a looming disaster, and if the game were to continue, I would need to make significant alterations to avoid stagnation.

In conclusion, the game turned out to be a useful tool to practice decision-making skills in marketing and company management. I was able to utilize the knowledge gained in Marketing 300 class to analyze the data provided by the marketing research and financial reports to make adequate strategic and tactical decisions. Even though the game was overly simplistic, I was able to learn valuable lessons, which I will use in my career. First, I realized how important the decisions be data-driven to ensure objectivity. Second, I understood that market performance often depends on the decisions of the competitors, and strategies should be adjusted using the information about their performance. Third, I realized that there is nothing wrong with mimicking the choices of the competitors to receive stable results. Finally, I realized that trying to hold for the achieved results is not a viable strategy, and the best managers should always look for ways to improve.