LESSONS FOR THE PROGRAMME
(1) THE FRAMEWORK TO BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Business Management and business Administration are two leadership fields that have been under the satellite study of many business and corporate leaders for several decades. Some have viewed management to be higher, compared to administration; whereas others have thought otherwise. Till date, this debate persists.
In as much as we do not have a universally accepted definition on Business management and administration, we however have features which can help to define them and to differentiate the two.
However, the Institute of Commercial Management Programme for business and Administration defines Business Management to be the study of business and leadership concepts which are formulated, coordinated, and resourced to achieve an organizational goal. Business Administration is therefore considered to be the part of Business management which executes plans laid down.
Business management and Business Administration therefore uphold any organization to fulfil its mandate upon which it exists.
The programme also introduces the Board of Directors and their duties.
A board of Directors is a group of business experts called to make concrete decisions on behalf of the organization. This means that the success of the organization lies on the meetings and discussions which will stem from the Board.
The continuity and a full note on this topic can be gotten from the book 'BMA Made Simple ' from Study4facts educational team.
The book will outline the following :
* Differences between management and administration
* The board of directors and their roles as managers and as administrations
* The general duties of the Board Members
* The Members forming the Board
* The managing Director and his roles
* The Chairman and his roles
* The Chief Accounting officer and his roles
* The Executive Directors and their roles
* The non executive Directors and their roles
Call on 0547377805 to get a copy delivered into your mail or via whatsapp.
(2) FUNCTIONS, STRUCTURE AND AUTHORITY TYPES
Henri Fayol, a French industrialist and business manager, defined the word Function as the duty or task assigned to be performed as a primary work within an organization. All industries, he noticed, had certain core functions which guided them so that their businesses achieved progress. He finally penned these functions down to be studied and practiced by others.
The following are the six (6) functions he proposed to managers to work with.
* Technical Function. He considered this function to be the work associated with the production of goods or services.
* Commercial Function. This is the function considered to be the work responsible for the buying and selling of raw and finished materials.
* Financial Function. This was responsible for the optimum use of money within the organization.
* Accounting Function. He considered this function as the work associated with the recording of all activities, including transactions moving to and fro the organization.
* Security Function. Fayol named this function for the purpose of the work involved with the protection of workforce and the preservation of properties.
* Management Function. This is the work associated with the coordination, leading and and directing of people within an organization.
AUTHORITY
Authority can be described to be an
ability, a command, or power given to be used to perform defined roles.
There are two groups of authorities : Authority that exits naturally and authority within an organization.
There are four basic authorities that naturally exit. They include the charismatic, legal, empowerment and traditional authorities. All these authorities have their individual areas they seem to operate within.
The second category of authority, called organizational authority or the authority found within an organization includes the line authority, staff authority and functional authority.
Finally, for every organization to thrive successfully, that organization must have a structure upon which its functions will flow from.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHART
Any successful organization will have an organizational chart which shows the leadership power flow, their responsibilities of work assigned, the span of control for each leader and the structure type; whether vertical or horizontal organizational chart. An organizational chart can also be called organogram.
A full explanation on authority types and their relevance to this course can be found in the book ' BMA made Simple'.
The book will outline areas like
* The functions according to Henri Fayol
* Updates made to the functions
* Modern day business functions compared with Fayol's functions
* The resemblance of Fayol's functions to today's management and administration
* Authority definition and types
* The definition for an organizational chart
* How to draw an organizational chart.
* How to represent any type of authority chosen for an organizational chart drawn, with illustrations to support your answer.
Grab your copy of the book now.
(3) BUREAUCRATIC ORGANIZATION AND TRADITIONAL PRINCIPLES
A bureaucratic organization is any type of organization that has the following traits
1) there is a hierarchy of authority with leadership at the top and subordinates at the lowest level.
2) There is control over the work executed so that those at the bottom send feedbacks to those at the top
3) Individual workforce at the bottom are not permitted to made or contribute to leadership decision making plans, except for those who occupy the top positions.
The advantages associated with any bureaucratic organization are not completed enough to keep any bureaucratic organization strong to thrive for decades. The disadvantages do pose serious problems to the success of bureaucratic organizations.
For example, because most plans are decided upon by only the leaders at the top, it becomes a problem when the ideas later fail to work.
Moreover, the feedbacks coming from the lower bottom gets delayed when, sometimes, the content has to do with certain considerations observed and needs to be corrected with respect to the task assigned to the lower workforce by the top.
TRADITIONAL PRINCIPLES
Traditional principles are those old,tried and tested plans that work for any organization.
The word tradition means an old custom which has been preserved and passed on to the next generation for continuity of the customs outlined within the framework for a group of people.
In business, we do have the same old customs for doing businesses. The following are few bulleted traditional principles.
* Any organization needs to have a set of well defined objectives or goals.
* The organization must create responsibilities around the objectives.
* Each role or work must have a position attached to it, so that respect can be earned.
* Finally, there must be policies and codes of conduct within the organization. All drafted policies will include the dos and don'ts for various activities.
(4) BUSINESS ENTERPRISES
There are four business setups which are widely known in the commerce world. They include
* Sole Proprietorship
* Partnership ( General partnership )
* Limited Liability Partnership ( LLP )
* Limited Liability Company ( LLC - whether Private or Public type )
SOLE TRADER OR SOLE PROPRIETORSHIP
The definition for a Sole trader enterprise is any single manned business established by one man for profit gaining. It does not require long registration processes, hence any person who wants little stress in business registration plus a full ownership and control over his business must go for this type of business enterprise.
GENERAL PARNERSHIP or otherwise called PARTNERSHIP
A partnership type of business is one in which two or more people ( minimum of 2 and maximum of 20 ) come together to pull resources for the establishment of the business with an intend of making profit. Usually, business names like X and Co. ventures is a typical partnership type.
The partners file for registration with a partnership deed which contains their statements of agreements on contributions and profit/loss sharing plans. This type is also a simple form of registering business and partners seeking for simple business registration and management duties can go for this.
Their nature, advantages and disadvantages are all outlined and explained in the book BMA made simple.
LIMITED LIABILITY PARTNERSHIP (LLP)
This partnership type has all partners (100% contributors of liability or debt payment) qualifying to be called limited liability partners.
This means that all partners would put down how much they want to lose and pay that amount during business risk of debt payment. limited liability partnership (LLP) gives partners a protection on how much they can pay during debt penalties which can arise in the future. Full explanation can be found in the book.
LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY (LLC)
A company (often registered as limited liability company - LLC ) is any business
Enterprise established by an individual
or group and have undergone a business registration process to obtain business
certificates with the intent of making profits called dividends.
The owner(s) of the company are mandated to allow a Promoter to come along with Directors to represent the company during registration. The Directors present
to the registrar of business registration documents. Here are the documents
types :
1) an article of association
2) memorandum of association
3) a statement of nominal capital
4) A list of names of directors, consents and their
signatures
5) declaration on compliance to all Acts ( statutory Acts and company Acts).
The promoter is a person who is asked to lead the directors to register the business on behalf of the Shareholders. The registrar presents to the company two certificates. They are the certificate of incorporation and the certificate to commence business.
The first certificate allows them to be recognized as artificial
human being. The second certificate allows them officially to begin company
operation.
A limited liability company is of two types. They include the Private limited Liability Company and the Public limited liability company.
Their nature, advantages and disadvantages are all outlined and explained in the book BMA made simple.
(5) MARKETING FUNCTION
The Marketing Department plays a vital role in promoting the business and mission of an organization. It serves as the face of every company by coordinating and producing all materials representing the business.
It is the Marketing Department's role to also reach out to prospects, customers, investors and/or the community, while creating an image that represents your company in a positive light.
Marketing Department roles may include one or more of the following
* Defining and managing your brand.
* Conducting campaign management for marketing initiatives.
* Producing marketing and promotional materials.
* Creating content and providing search engine optimization for your website.
* Monitoring and managing social media.
* Producing internal communications.
* Serving as media liaison.
* Conducting customer and market research.
* Overseeing outside vendors and agencies.
More explanations are provided in the book.
Readers will come across themes like
* Marketing Mix
* Market research types
* Advertising platforms or Media outlets for promoting businesses
* Product life cycle
* Factors that determine the size of a market
* Pricing Policy
* Distribution channels
* Break even chart simplified
(6) PRODUCTION FUNCTION
What is production?
Production is the process of combining land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship to produce goods and services for market consumption. The afore mentioned elements form the factors of production.
The types of production.
We have four (4) types of production. They include
* Job production
* Batch production
* Flow/mass production
* Process production
JOB PRODUCTION
Job production is the production type in which a single product is made without being duplicated. Here, all tastes and preferences are considered into the product's manufacturing, so that the customer can boast of being the only person in the world with such a product after it is completed.
An example can be the designing and manufacturing of a birthday cake, dress or a bridge.
BATCH PRODUCTION
Batch production is the type of production in which identical parts are made to go through a production stage in a batch.
An example can be the designing and manufacturing of automobile parts of a car with the same size, shape and purpose for their assembling into a unit automobile car.
FLOW OR MASS PRODUCTION
Flow or mass production is a type of production in which LARGE AMOUNTS of products that are manufactured move in between stages such that the unprocessed raw materials go through several stages until the last stage is reached with the complete product. All products are made in their bulk quantities without a break or interference in the machine running.
Moreover, the machinery involved under this type of production do not get shut down, as work demands huge electricity usage. This production type is expensive and tedious to kick off the machines for production.
It therefore makes it tough to service the machines once they are not put to continuous use.
An example would be the production of chemical products like paints, fabrics and pharmaceutical drugs.
PROCESS PRODUCTION
This is the production type in which products manufactured subjected to series of activities. These include the inspection of the products from the initial manufacturing stage, the testing of the products for quality assurance and their rigorous subjection to hard pressures before they are certified as essential products.
We call all the activities for their certification, processes, hence the name derivation for the production type.
Other important topics are outlined and discussed in the book. They include
* Computer Aided Design ( CAD)
* Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM)
* Computer Integrated Manufacturing ( CIM)
* Some staff duties of the Production department
* Some responsibilities of the production manager
* Work study ( method study and work measurement )
(7) INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ( IT ) FUNCTION
Information Technology is the study of technological devices that are used to send and to receive information for business purposes.
Today, almost every person and business organizations rely on IT to thrive in the market.
Under this topic, the following key elements are studied and discussed in the book.
* Internet
* Intranet and Extranet
* Similarities and differences on (internet, intranet and extranet - which are all network types)
* Hardware and Software - definition and differences
* ecommerce - definition and nature
* Security functions relating to ecommerce ( How to secure a safe transaction online )
* Email - advantages and disadvantages
* Equipment needed for installation in a new business environment
(8) ACCOUNTING FUNCTION
What is accounting?
The simplest definition to accounting is the process of making accurate records on all transactions done.
Functions of accounting
* Every company deploys accounting skills to do their report, track, execute and
prepare information and oversee monetary transactions. Accounting is therefore used to
prepare financial statements for a companies.
* Accounting creates a fiscal history for any company. It is
used to track expenditures from business operations as well as a company's
profits.
* It can also be utilized to predict financial success and
the future needs of a company to create budgets and take advantage of new
growth opportunities. Accountants use this information to prepare financial
statements used by business professionals and government officials.
Again, readers will come across some themes in the book including
* Budgeting defined
* How to create a master budget
* Cash Flow budget
* How budgeting helps financial managers to make decisions
(9) HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT FUNCTION
The personnel officer, otherwise called the Human Resource manager is one who is tasked with the responsibility to recruit the right calibre of workforce, train them, develop them for higher positions and maintain them for higher duties.
He must be one who is well vexed in the knowledge of human resource management, human resource planning, recruitment and selection, induction training, management training, performance appraisal, promotion and transfer exercises and laws governing termination and dismissal of employees as well as industrial relations practice.
The following are the areas to be discussed under the personnel function
* THE FIVE POINT PLAN FOR PERSON SPECIFICATION
* INDUCTION TRAINING AND BENEFITS
* HOW TO CREATE AN INDUCTION CHECKLIST.
(10) RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT FUNCTION
Research and development, according to Investopedia, is the “investigative activities that a business chooses to conduct with the intention of making a discovery that can either lead to the development of new products or procedures, or to the improvement of existing products or procedures”
PROBLEM BASED RESEARCH
This type of research is designed to solve challenges from a working method within a department, so that new methods can be created to ensure the continuity of the work. Every working method will come with a challenge. When it is faced, a problem based research is required to investigate that challenge by analyzing the method used so that a solution to that challenge can be arrived.
BASIC RESEARCH
This is very basic. The purpose is to gain knowledge and to share with an area where it is less informed or equipped, with information. Just like a student will read for the purpose of becoming more informed, so is the purpose for basic research.
Researchers undertake the task to find and to train others about areas where knowledge is low. The idea is not to solve problem but to educate people with new information.
APPLIED RESEARCH
Do you have an idea of what it means to apply? When we say ‘to apply’, it means we want to use an idea gained from one area to create/solve something new thing in another area. Applied research therefore has to do with the conversion of ideas into new products so that these products can be added to the already existing products of the organization.
Since every product has a limited life span, it stands to reason that when products get to the end of their appreciation, they need to be revamped.
Thus, applied research is responsible to work this out. New colours, shape, brand name, just to mention a few, will be introduced to spice up an old product.
Furthermore, applied research considers the handling of all counterfeit products introduced into the market, through the changing of old brands to with new ones.
After a new idea has been appreciated and screened, it will call for its conversion into a product. Development work, therefore, would facilitate the conversion of the idea into a product.
Development work, which is the last type of research, is the systematic approach to complete a product development through:
* Market survey
* price checking
* Systematic filing for copyright
* Developing of a prototype on the product for testing
* Modification on the prototype
* Approval of prototype and production of product
* Launching of the product
Finally, the book addresses other relevant themes including
* Ideation or How to generate ideas
* Idea screening
* Copyright
* Patent
* Trademark
(11) PURCHASING FUNCTION
Purchasing is the act of making available to an organization, all materials requested for sales or production. A purchasing officer is one entrusted to make decisive purchases for his organization.
He does this whenever there is shortage of materials. This is achieved through his list of all suppliers he uses to buy the cheapest but durable material(s) available in the market.
He is responsible to undergo the following duties
*purchasing of capital assets
* purchasing of consumable items
* purchasing of goods for resale
* purchasing of raw materials
A purchasing officer will deal with the following materials
* Goods Returned Note (GRN)
* Index of supply
* Suppliers Invoice
* Requisition list
* Stock or Inventory Control
* Stores Control
* Economic Order Quantity ( EOQ)
(12) OFFICE ADMINISTRATION
OFFICE ADMINISTRATION
The office Administrator takes into account all administrative activities that do not lie within the clear functional responsibilities of specialist directors, such as marketing director, the accountant, among other people.
He is concerned with the supervision of the premises, equipment, furniture, cleaning, the working environment, health and safety at work, clerical, secretarial services and many more.
DELEGATION
Delegation is the conferring upon lower level staff, sufficient authority from higher level so that the lower level can do a task/ responsibility.
O & M DEPARTMENT
An organization and method department, is a special department which reveals all systems in use from time to time, and also investigates any new procedure- related problems arising, so that adequate advice can be granted to the target department facing this problem. Such departments like production, procurement, among others, all undergo O&M scrutiny.
When a department finds any challenge, the O&M department prepares a report on that challenge to be presented to the administrative head or board for scrutiny, after which measures for correction are proposed.
HOW O & M CONDUCTS A REVIEW
The stages include:
* The crafting of terms of reference to be followed, before an investigation can begin.
* The existing situation is investigated.
* The situation is now analyzed for improvement.
Again, the book introduces other themes like
* Risk management
*Environment
* Claimant
You would benefit a lot after purchasing the book. The book also address most ICM questions for the last 15 years which keeps on getting peated and some ot cent questions. Order yours now.
Call on 0547377805 to get your copy.
Below are some Students who have benefited from The purchasing of the book ( BMA made simple) under study4facts.
They were given both classroom and oline tuition.
picture taken from the Office of the CEO of PrimpS, with permission from study4facts team
Some part time business students interviewing the ceo
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