Posts Tagged ‘business strategies’
Information About Packaging
A consumer package is one which holds the product for ultimate consumption and is within the means of a buying household. In other words, the consumer has the option to purchase the pack size which he considers adequate for the consumption of his family over a length of time and which does not involve extra investment during that period. A bulk package is opposite. It is either for the industrial consumer’s use, e.g., steel drums for paint or 4gallon or 18 liter kerosene oil can, a sack of rice, etc. The consumer package itself very often requires an outside package in which it is transported which is sometimes referred to as a transmit package or an outer container. An industrial package may either be described as a bulk package or a package for durable consumer goods. It is a basic package type, although many sub-divisions can be listed, e.g. a strip package or a multiple package. A dual use package is one which has a secondary usefulness after its contents have been consumed. Drinking glasses, boxes of jewelry or cigarettes, wastepaper baskets, refrigerator dishes, cloth from flour, and feed sacks are examples of this type of package.
Importance of Procedures
Procedures play an important role in an organization’s daily operations. They relieve the manager of much of the details in directing the subordinates. They indicate the steps to be taken as well as the required time and order of performing certain things or actions.
They help in facilitating the training of new employees. An orderly statement of ‘what to do’ and ‘how to do’ can save the new employee the expense and frustration of a trial and error method of finding an acceptable way of performing a task. As they are well thought out steps in carrying out the task, work operation is facilitated and better results at lower cost are ensured.
Since procedures dictate a chronological sequence of doing a task and set the time limit for its performance, effective control over each operation is possible.
Group Dynamics
Group dynamics portrays how a group should be structured and conducted. It encompasses the dynamics of interaction patterns within the group, the subtle and not-s-subtle pressures exerted by group members, the manners in which decisions are made in the group, how work gets done and member’s needs are met. Understanding these group dynamics will enable managers to completely harness the synergy of the group members.
Individuals join groups for security social relationships, affiliation, leadership etc. These are numerous types of groups. The important among them are primary groups, secondary groups, formal groups and informal groups. Primary groups are small groups enough for face-to-face interaction, having a feeling of commandership, loyalty and a common sense of values among its members. Coalitions are very relevant to organizations. Coalition is group of groups.
Ethics of Business Relationship
Relations with competitors should be governed by basic ethics and the rules of fair play rather than by the ethics of self-defense and warfare. Unethical competition turns rivalry into a ruthless battle.
Such competition is often done in many ways, e.g., harming a competitor by interfering with his production and distribution, encouraging labor disputes and work stoppages as well as boycotts of a competitor’s products, hiring away of key employees or use of market power to move the competitor’s products out of the market, extorting, bribing and the granting of discriminatory advertising allowances or brokerage fees, price-cutting, making disparaging statements about the competitor’s products or quality, etc. What is needed is that an ethical businessman must resist the temptation of retaliating against the rival, for such unethical attacks destroys confidence in business and introduces chaos in place of order; and substitutes tricks for real competence and leads to a weakening of all human ideals.
The correct solution is to secure through combined efforts such regulations as are necessary to protect honest businessmen.
Organization
Organization implies not only a purpose or a set of purposes but a form appropriate to carry on the activities to achieve the objectives. The greater the range of activities of an organization, the more complicated, and specialized does its structure become. It is the organization which carries on the activities of life by means of parts or organs more or less separate in function but mutually dependent. As the business enterprise grows, the separation and definition of functions increase but the oneness of the whole is nonetheless important.
Organization forms the backbone of the management because without its proper care at higher, middle and lower levels of administration, it may be practically difficult and or impossible for any management to run smoothly. Organization is not an end in itself, but a means to the end of business performance and business results. A sound organization contributes greatly to the continuity and success of the enterprise.
Importance of Co-ordination
Combination of Labor: With work divided and assigned to the members of an organization, their activities are grouped together, forming operations; and operations are arranged to establish systems and procedures. From a structural point of view, this grouping of activities results in units, departments and divisions of an organization. The basis for this grouping of activities may be the skills of the workers, the tools and machinery used the nature of the product, the materials employed, or some other elements. Whether it is logical or not, there is always some reason for the arrangement of tasks in a work place.
Co-ordination: This all-inclusive principle emerges because of the need in every organization for the integration of activities and the coordination of individuals and group of individuals performing their tasks. Co-ordination is achieved through leadership; in the structural sense, it involves the fixing of responsibility and the delegation of authority. It establishes controls which provide for an efficient scheduling and performance of activities.
Functions of an Organization
An organization tries to establish an effective behavioral relationship among selected employees and in selected work places in order that a group may work together effectively. There are three kinds of work which must be performed whenever an organization comes into being, division of labor, combination of labor and co-ordination, the people and the relationship between them. These are known as fundamentals in every successful organization.
Division of labor
Since an organization of human associations for the achievement of common goals, it involves individuals and groups of individuals. When two or more individuals join together to perform certain tasks, it follows that some division of work is done. Properly or improperly, fairly or unfairly, work is divided among those who participate in a productive organization. With effective planning and organization in an enterprise, the division of labor leads to a fixing of responsibility, the delegation of authority, specialization, and other conceptual schemes which are frequently called the principles of an organization.
Business Objectives
No business firm is completely static, like a building or a machine with stationery framework and standard parts that may be replaced from the ready stock or got from outside. Instead shift in demand, in competition, and in other external forces call to continuous adaption, and the ambition and drives of executives within the company keep it evolving. And as changes are made in one part of the company, compensating adjustments are needed in other parts. Consequently, each company should be thought of as a dynamic, integrated entity. Each of these business entities develops character and an individual personality of its own. This personality is shaped, not only by physical resources and technology, or financial inputs but also by some basic objectives which may be set for it by the top management. Objectives are the ends towards which enterprise activities are aimed the end points of planning.
Methods of Making Business Planning Effective
The management at different levels should take measures to make the business plan effective due to the possibility of limitations. These measures include:
i) Establishment of co-ordination between long-terms plans and short-term plans
ii) Bringing co-ordination among all the departments in the organization in formulating and implementing plans.
iii) Formulating a comprehensive plan linking all the departmental plans with the corporate level plans.
iv) Giving proper attention to the departmental level plants.
v) Ensuring the commitment and involvement of all managers at all levels in the organization.
vi) Train and develop the managers in analyzing and understanding external environment, formulate the plans effectively.
vii) Foresee the environmental changes; feed the information forward to all the levels in the organization.
viii) Ensuring effective team work and empower the mangers to formulate effective plans.
Limitations of Business Planning
Though the top management formulates the business plans, sometimes they fall in producing results due to the uncertainties in the implementation stage.
The limitations of the business planning include:
i) Implementation of the strategic plan should be pre-planned and based on detailed action. Many times managements fail to monitor the implementation process.
ii) Some managers are reluctant to formulate objectives for their departments or jobs.
iii) Managers are sometimes afraid of failure, to achieve business plans.
iv) Managers fail to integrate the plans of their departments or jobs with the organizational/company plans.
v) Some managers do not have required skills to understand and analyze the external environment
vi) Forecasting often becomes misleading due to wrong premises.
vii) Mangers due to their deficient and inherent nature, fail to plan efficiently.
viii) The uncertainties in the environment, makes the business plan in efficient.
ix) Inter-group conflicts: Inter group conflicts and inter-departmental conflicts are the other important limitations of business plan. These limitations are also due to
. Lack of understanding about the objectives of the firm
. Lack of constructive approach to objectives
. Different values and personalities of individual managers
. Competition for scarce resources.
. Built-in conflict between a young manager and an experienced manager.
