At some point in your business career you will likely be asked to build a case study. Whether it’s for school or for work, building a case study is a very methodical task. While case studies will differ across companies and sectors, your process should remain the same. When conducting a case study, you should try to include these core pieces: a summary of the … Continue reading Building Case Studies
Leading and directing are important management functions, but usually do not appear in the main job description. A great manager needs to be able to both lead their team and direct their operations – failing either of these roles is a recipe for disaster. Leading vs Directing To understand how managers can excel (or fail) at these roles, we first need to define what they … Continue reading Leading vs Directing
Social responsibility is having a sense of duty to society and everything that is a part of it. In other words, “social responsibility” means managers are accountable to society at large, not just their shareholders. Social responsibility is an important aspect of capitalism at large. Individuals and consumers place trust in businesses to “do the right thing”, and take a leadership role in making the … Continue reading Social Responsibility in Management
Risk Management is when a manager tries to organize his company (or business unit) to prepare in case of, and try to prevent, something going wrong. Risk management is one of the most complicated branches of management, as it requires managers to be able to assess unknown situations and try to be prepared for anything. It is the technique of distinguishing, investigating, and acknowledging uncertainty … Continue reading Internal Risk Management
Planning is an important management function because it helps managers prepare for the short term and long term challenges and opportunities that a business faces every day. Planning plays a crucial part in creating a business plan and strategic plan in that it reinforces a company’s mission, visions, and goals that are used to develop and implement strategy, competitive advantage, and achieve effectiveness and efficiency … Continue reading Importance of Planning and Vision
“Business Ethics” defines what is right and wrong in a business – not necessarily what is or is not illegal. It is the responsibility of everyone in any organization to maintain high levels of business ethics, as businesses who fail to do so lose the public trust, and the ability to continue to do business, very quickly. Maintaining strong business ethics generally requires all actions … Continue reading Business Ethics
The Human Resources department at a business is in charge of everything from hiring and firing employees, organizing and implementing training programs, resolving internal conflicts, determining the pay scales, and everything in between. Human Resources Role The Human Resources department is concerned with the specific employees of the company, rather than sales, marketing, or product development. In a nutshell, the Human Resources department of any … Continue reading Human Resource Planning
When holding a job, there are usually certain people that have specific “titles” that describe the work that they do. With those titles, comes the chain of command, which can be looked at as a flow chart: The CEO –> who oversees Management –> who oversees Associates. These managers organize and coordinate the activities of the business to achieve specific goals. While the chain of … Continue reading Management Theory
A company, just like any person, needs to be able to raise extra funds for itself to build new plants, buy inventory, etc. But a firm, unlike a person, has many more options to choose from when it comes to borrowing money. People either get a loan from a bank, or use a credit card, but a firm can raise capital by issuing stock, selling … Continue reading Short Term and Long Term Financing
“Slow and Steady” does not always win the race. The business world is very fast paced, competitive, and often a ruthless world where the one who stays ahead of the game is more likely to emerge victorious. “Competitive Advantage” is what businesses have that puts them ahead of the competition. What is competitive advantage? Competitive advantage is what makes a business better than everybody else … Continue reading Competitive Advantage in Business
A key first step for any entrepreneur is setting up an organization that will be used to formally embark on the business journey, but many new business owners struggle to identify the best way to move forward. These are the most common ways to organize a business, from the simplest through the most complex. Sole Proprietorship A sole proprietorship is the most basic form of … Continue reading Types of Business Ownership
When a company starts to grow, one of the biggest questions they face is how to organize their management. The two main branches of management roles are centralized and decentralized authority. Companies usually fall somewhere between these extremes. Centralized Management Centralized management is the organizational structure where a small handful of individuals make most of the decisions in a company. For example, a small family … Continue reading Centralized and Decentralized Management Explained