Importance of Management Control Control is an indispensable function of management. Without control function, the management process is incomplete. In business organizations, the need for control arises due to several factors; Firstly, it is difficult to establish fully accurate standards of performance in large and complex organizations. An executive needs all kinds of timely information, which are not always available. Control is required to judge the accurate of standards. Secondly, there are several temptations in business. Employees are entrusted with large sums of money and valuable resources. In the absence of control employees may yield, to these temptations. An efficient control system helps to minimize dishonest behavior on the part of employees. Thirdly, in the absence of control employees may become lax in their efforts and their performance may be below normal. The signals at, a busy road crossing very well illustrates the significance of control. Just as road signals Continue reading
Strategic Management
Strategic management is the art and science of formulating, implementing and evaluating cross-functional decisions that will enable an organization to achieve its objectives. It involves the systematic identification of specifying the firm’s objectives, nurturing policies and strategies to achieve these objectives, and acquiring and making available these resources to implement the policies and strategies to achieve the firm’s objectives. Strategic management, therefore, integrates the activities of the various functional sectors of a business, such as marketing, sales, production etc. , to achieve organizational goals. It is generally the highest level of managerial activity, usually initiate by the board of directors and executed by the firm’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and executive team.
Reverse Merger – Meaning and Example
Normally, a small company merges with large company or a sick company with healthy company. However in some cases, reverse merger is done. When a healthy company merges with a sick or a small company is called reverse merger. This may be for various reasons. Some reasons for reverse merger are: The transferee company is a sick company and has carry forward losses and transferor Company is profit making company. If transferor Company merges with the sick transferee company, it gets advantage of setting off carry forward losses without any conditions. If sick company merges with healthy company, many restrictions are applicable for allowing set off. The transferee company may be listed company. In such case, if transferor Company merges with the listed company, it gets advantages of listed company, without following strict norms of listing of stock exchanges. In such cases, it is provided that on date of merger, Continue reading
What is Departmentalization?
Departmentalization is the grouping of activities and responsibilities by sub-units of the organization. These sub-units are called departments. The division of labor or degree of departmentalization is driven by the need for specialization whether by process or purpose within an organization. The most common way of process departmentalization is the division of the firm into business functions, such as purchasing, manufacturing, sales, accounting, etc. Departmentalization specifies how employees and their activities are grouped together. It is a fundamental strategy for coordinating organizational activities, because it influences organizational behavior in the following ways: Departmentalization establishes the chain of command – the system of common supervision among positions and units within the organization. It frames the membership of formal work teams and typically determines which positions and units must share resources. Thus, departmentalization establishes interdependencies among employees and subunits. Departmentalization focuses people around common mental models or ways of thinking, such as Continue reading
Strategy Diamond – The Five Elements of Strategy
All organizations have strategies. The real question for a business is not whether it has a strategy but rather whether its strategy is effective or ineffective, and whether the elements of the strategy are chosen by managers, luck, or by default. You have probably heard the saying, “luck is a matter of being in the right place at the right time”–well, the key to making sure you are in the right place at the right time is preparation, and in many ways, strategizing provides that type of preparation. Luck is not a bad thing. The challenge is to recognize luck when you see it, capitalize on luck, and put the organization repeatedly in luck’s path. The strategy diamond model was developed by strategy researchers Don Hambrick and Jim Fredrickson as a framework for checking and communicating a strategy. The strategy diamond framework can be used systematically to examine a Continue reading
Learning Organization – Characteristics, Benefits and Limitations
The phenomenon of globalization has turned the business world into a global dynamic village for business exchanges. Indeed, competition is becoming increasingly fiercer and simultaneously using Learning Organization as a strategy has become a MUST for companies’ success and development. Adopting such strategy helps organizations to innovate and acquire knowledge in order to survive and thrive in the current rapid changing environment. Some key definitions by distinguished writers on Learning Organization are as follows: “The essence of organizational learning is the organisation’s ability to use the amazing mental capacity of all its members to create the kind of processes that will improve its own”- Nancy Dixon “A Learning Organization is one that consciously manages its learning processes through an inquiry-driven orientation among all its members”- Kim D. “A Learning company is an organization that facilitates the learning of all its members and continually transforms itself”- M. Pedley, J. Burgoyne and Continue reading
Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM)
Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM) is a strategic management tool used in the evaluation of strategic options and determination of relative attractiveness of strategies. The QSPM technique determines which of the selected strategic options is feasible, and it actually prioritizes these strategies. A basic tenet of the QSPM is that firms need to systematically assess their external and internal environments, conduct research, carefully evaluate the pros and cons of various alternatives, perform analyses, and then decide upon a particular course of action. The Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM) consists of three stages that are used in the strategies formulation process. The first step is to define key strategic factors. Then, once this has been determined, a SWOT analysis, or other similar form of analysis, is performed to objectively weigh the pros and cons of each strategic factor in numerical form. Finally, based on the information found in the analysis, a Continue reading