How Management Functions
Planning
• Setting realistic goals for a business
• Short term and long term
• Goals can be expressed as a sales or income target
• Managers have to understand goals and develop
strategies:
• Marketing manager develops promotions
• HR department hires necessary employees
• Production manager arranges resources
Organizing
• Arranging people and tasks to carry out the plan
• Each department has its own manager
• Manager determines tasks and duties, hires employees
• Upper management sets long term goals (CEO, CFO, Vice
President)
• Middle management interprets plans and puts them into
action (plant manager, regional manager)
• Lower level management implements plans from above
(team leader, assistant manager)
Leading
• Manager must motivate workers to do their best; a good
manager knows how best to motivate each employee
• Good leaders know how to communicate effectively
• Good manager encourage participation for better
decisions and motivation
• Called participative management
Controlling
• Methods manager use to increase, maintain, or decrease
the resources allocated
• Employee discipline, performance appraisals, budgeting
Managing Resources
Purchasing
• Negotiates deals for the supply and delivery of raw
materials
• Arranges for inventory to arrive when it is needed
• Just In Time delivery is common, and cost saving
Production
• Ensure that the business makes the things it is supposed
to make
• Arranging for raw materials to be processed, storing the
final product
• Arrange and coordinate maintenance, repair,
improvements
Marketing & Distribution
• Ensure that what the company produces actually gets
sold!
• Sales strategies, advertising, promotional activities,
publicly
• Direct sales efforts (face to face), and indirect (vending
machines)
Research & Development
• Create new products/services, come up with new and
better ways to produce same products
• Conduct studies to find out what consumers like/dislike
• Prepare reports from purchasing, production, and
marketing
Finance
• Comptroller is the manager of the financial department
• Often an accountant
• Keeps records of company’s financial transactions
• Controls money and budgets