Ch. 1 Outline
• Managing in The New Competitive
Landscape
• Managing for Competitive Advantage
• The Functions of Management
• Management Levels and Skills
• You and Your Career
1
Learning Objectives
• The major challenges of managing in the new
competitive landscape
• The drivers of competitive advantage for your
company
• The functions of management and how they are
evolving in today’s business environment
• The nature of management at different
organizational levels
• The skills you need to be an effective manager
2
Managing in the New Competitive
Landscape
• Four elements that are defining the current
business environment
– Globalization
– Technological Change--Internet
– Importance of knowledge and ideas
– Collaboration across organizational boundaries
3
Knowledge Management
• The set of practices aimed at discovering an
harnessing an organizations intellectual
resources.
• This involves finding and capitalizing on
the expertise, skills, wisdom and
relationships of the people within the
organization.
4
Managing for Competitive
Advantage
• Good managers know that they are in a
competitive struggle to survive and win
• To survive and win you must gain an
advantage over your competitors
• The key to long-term success is the
competitive advantage held by the company
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A Competitive Advantage
Our text—being better than your competitors at
doing valuable things for your customers
Other texts:
• Advantage over competitors gained by offering
greater value, either through lower prices or by
providing higher quality to justify higher prices
• What sets an organization apart from its
competitors in the minds of its consumers. The
competitive advantage comes from the
organizations core competencies.
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Managing for Competitive
Advantage
• Sources of competitive advantage
– Innovation
– Quality
– Speed
– Cost
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Example of CA Based on
Innovation
• (on-line radio station) When they wanted to give
advertisers a way to reach young, tech-savvy Hispanics,
Batanga.com started a new magazine - Batanga Latin
Music. But the magazine soon caught on, and Batanga
was soon getting requests for subscriptions and to carry the
magazine on newsstands. In 2004, the magazine brought
the company $250,000 in revenue, and it should grow 30%
in the next few years.[1]
[1] Monahan New products come from all kinds of
sources. For example, Batanga.com, Inc. is a North
Carolina internet, J. “All systems grow.” Entrepreneur,
March, 2005, pp. 79-82.
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The Functions of Management
• Management is the process of working with
people and resources to accomplish
organizational goals
• Good managers are both effective and efficient
in this process
• Efficient means goals are achieved with
minimal resources wasted
• Effective means that the organizational goals
are achieved
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The Functions of Management
• What do managers do?
– Plan
– Organize
– Lead
– Control
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The Functions of Management
• Planning: Delivering
Strategic Value
– Systematically making
decisions about the
goals and activities that
an individual, group,
work unit, or
organization will
pursue in the future
• Organizing: Building
a Dynamic
Organization
– Assembling and
coordinating human,
financial, physical,
informational, and
other resources needed
to achieve goals
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The Functions of Management
• Leading:
Mobilizing People
– Stimulating people
to be high
performers;
includes motivating
and communicating
with employees,
individually and in
groups
• Controlling:
Learning and
Changing
– Monitoring
performance and
making needed
changes
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The Management Pyramid
Top
Managers
Middle
Managers
First-line
Managers
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The Management Pyramid
President, CEO, VP
Top
Managers
•Make long-range plans
•Establish policies
•Represent the company
Middle
Managers
First-line
Managers
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The Management Pyramid
Controller, Marketing
Manager, Sales Manager
Top
Managers
•Implement goals
•Make decisions
•Direct first-line managers
Middle
Managers
First-line
Managers
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The Management Pyramid
Office Manager,
Supervisor, Foreman,
Department Head
Top
Managers
•Implement plans
•Oversee workers
•Assist middle managers
Middle
Managers
First-line
Managers
16
Management Levels and Skills
• Three levels of management
– Top-Level: these managers are responsible for the
overall management and effectiveness of the
organization
– Middle-Level: these managers are located in the
middle layers of the organizational hierarchy and
report to top-level executives
– Frontline: lower-level managers who supervise the
operational activities of the organization
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Management Roles
• Interpersonal Roles – involve people and duties
that are ceremonial and symbolic in nature
• Informational Roles – receiving, collecting, and
dissemination information
• Decisional Roles – revolve around making
choices
• Note: the emphasis a specific manager gives to the
various roles changes with their level of
management.
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Managerial Skills
• Technical Skill: Ability to perform a specialized
task involving a particular method or process
• Conceptual and decisional skill: Skills
pertaining to the ability to identify and resolve
problems for the benefit of the organization
and its members
• Interpersonal and Communication Skills:
People skills; the ability to lead, motivate, and
communicate effectively with others
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