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Summary Managment BA1 Business Economics- VUB
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This is a summary of the management course in the first bachelor Business Economics at the VUB. I got 16/20 with this summary.
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Business Economics- Bachelor 1: Management summaryManagement: Managing and Performing
1. Managing in a competitive world
Four ongoing challenges that characterize the business landscape:
1) Globalization
Context in which companies operate when they produce across borders. Global (= active in
many regions worldwide). Interaction and integration of people, firms and governments.
Many well-known enterprises are global, with offices and production facilities all over the
world. Depends on the market opportunities where they operate. Everything related to
hiring people/developing skills -> international component.
A company’s talent can come from anywhere => change of the workforce => role of expats
Effect on both small and large companies. Also small companies play an important role from
international perspective -> small companies can be supplier to larger ones.
2) Technological change: looking back 2 decades -> enormous evolution in technological
context -> evolution web.
Web 1.0 (mid 1990 till early 2000s) -> on-line consultation data, ‘reading’, dot.com
companies and crisis.
Web 2.0 ( 2005-2015) -> interactive, more user-friendly, consulting and sharing, social media
start-ups.
Web 3.0 ( 2015-….) -> “read-write-execute” => internet of Things, real time, artificial
intelligence, mobile applications, big data analytics, cloud computing. Web 4.0 (highly
intelligent interactions).
The internet has a lot of advantages in business making, it provides information ( shared &
picked up on the internet), Marketplace (supply & demand meet each other), Means for
manufacturing goods and services, Distribution channel
The internet drives down costs and speeds up globalization, improves efficient decision
making, facilitates information flows and learning processes.
3) Knowledge management
Importance of strong idea and translation into innovation -> example; entertainment,
advertising, software, pharma.
Knowledge workers: use and create knowledge and information to develop ideas, and to
signal and solve problems
Knowledge management: set of practices aimed at discovering and harnessing an
organization’s intellectual resources, its about finding, unlocking, sharing and capitalizing on
the most precious resources of an organization, to covert ideas into innovation: people’s
expertise and skills, vision/creativity/wisdom, relationships.
4) Collaboration across boundaries
One of the most important processes of knowledge management is to ensure that people in
different parts of the organization collaborate.
Effective collaboration requires good communication between departments, divisions and
other units of the organization (not between borders/nations) -> example: T-shaped
manager -> shares knowledge (horizontal) and remains committed to business unit ( vertical)
=> broad and deep perspective => knowledge across and within domains -> e.g. Toyota
bringing together engineers and manufacturing employees.
Companies may capitalize on the ideas of people outside the organization e.g. consultants,
suppliers, clients -> e.g. customer service
,2. Managing for competitive advantage
Staying ahead of the competition by doing better than your competitors at doing valuable
things = delivering performance
The best managers and companies deliver on multiple performance dimensions.
Performance indicators Examples: turnover, profit, customer satisfaction, market share
Success drivers of performance: innovation, quality, service, speed, cost competitiveness,
sustainability. Don’t assume that you can settle for delivering just one of the sic competitive
advantages: low cost alone, or quality alone
3. Managing for competitive advantage: innovation
Innovation: introduction of new technologies processes, goods or services.
Driven by globalization.
A firm must: adapt to changes in consumer demands and to new competitors, Be ready with
new ways to communicate with customers and deliver the products to them, innovate or die
-> products don’t sell forever -> competitors are continuously introducing new products.
4. Managing for competitive advantage: quality
Quality: is a function of characteristics of goods or services. Most companies claim that they
are committed to quality.
Aim: excellence customers expect high-quality goods and services and often accept
nothing less.
Historically: emphasis on attractiveness, minimal defects, long-term reliability. Combined
with first: quality check after product, completion and next eliminate defects.
Today: preventing defects before they occur, achieving zero defects in manufacturing,
emphasis on quality already in design-phase = Total quality management, continuous
improvement, ongoing effort to improve products and processes cooperation,
commitment, proactivity and creativity in solving problems.
5. Managing for competitive advantage: service and speed
Service: giving customers what they want or need, when they want it. Continually meeting
the needs of customers to establish beneficial long-term relationships. Making it easy and
enjoyable for customers to experience or to buy and use products.
Speed: Fast and timely execution, response, and delivery of results. Speed requirement has
increased exponentially. No longer just a goal but a strategic imperative.
6. Managing for competitive advantage: cost & sustainability
Cost competitiveness: keeping costs low enough to achieve profit maximization and offer
attractive prices to consumers.
Sustainability: avoiding wasteful use of energy can bolster company’s financial performance
while being kind to environment. Efforts to cut energy waste are one way to achieve
important form of competitive advantage. Minimize the use of polluting and loss of
resources, non-renewable and nonrecyclable resources, improve social conditions. Focus on
the long term.
7. The four functions of management
, Management entails: Working with people and other resources to achieve organizational
goals. Good managers do those things both efficiently and effectively
Efficiently -> Realizing the goals
Effectively -> Realizing goals with minimal waste of resources (= make the best use of money,
time, materials, and people)
How? => the four fundamental functions of management
Planning: delivering strategic value* (= value of good/service delivered to client)
Organizing: building a dynamic organization
Leading: mobilizing people
Controlling: learning and changing
8. 4 functions of management
Planning: formulating goals to be achieved, developing strategies to achieve the goals,
delivering strategic value, the better you meet goals, the higher the value will be.
Organizing: assembling and coordinating human, financial, physical, informational and other
resources needed to achieve goals -> hiring of people, job descriptions, specifying
responsibilities, allocating resources.
Leading: stimulating/motivating people to be high performers, communicating and
connecting with people, in teams/departments/divisions, solving problems.
Controlling: monitoring performance and making necessary changes -> is everything
according to plan? -> feedback: continually learning and changing, so goals can be realized.
9. Performing all four management functions
A typical day for a manager is not neatly divided into the four functions.
Days are fractionated and spent dealing with interruptions, meeting and troubleshooting.
Managers can start the day with a good planning but they have to take into account the
onforseeing.
Good managers devote adequate attention and resources to all four management functions.
Important: flow/relation of information between different types of managers.
10. Management levels and skills
Top- level managers (strategic): Senior level
executives of an organization and are responsible
for its overall management (CEO, CFO, COO, CIO),
Top Management Team (TMT).
Middle- level managers (tactical): Translating
corporate goals into business unit targets/Daily
operations/Entrepreneurial and innovative ideas
Frontline managers (operational): lower-level
manager who Supervise the operations/
production, these managers often have titles such
as supervisor or team leader. Liaising managers
and non-management employees.
11. Managerial roles: what managers do (Henry Mintzberg)
, Role of managers can be broken down in 3 categories: Decision, Informational, Interpersonal
roles.
“Management is above all a practice where art, science and craft meet”,
12. Must-have management skills: Soft and hard skills
Performing management functions and roles, and achieving competitive advantage, are the
cornerstones of a manager’s job. However, understanding this does not ensure success.
Managers need a variety of skills to do these things well.
Technical -> Ability to perform a specialized task involving a particular method or process.
Conceptual/decision -> Ability to identify and resolve problems.
Interpersonal and communication -> People skills, Ability to lead, motivate, and
communicate.
Important is a mixture of those 3 skills, a balance bases on the people employed. One person
cannot have all of the 3 skills.
13. You and Your Career
At the beginning of your career -> contribution to employer depends on performance, that’s
all your responsible for. A manager is responsible for a group. Throughout your career, you’ll
need to lead team effectively, influence people over whom you have no authority. Human
skills over Important. Business People talk about emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence -> The skills of understanding yourself (strengths and limitations),
managing yourself ( dealing with emotions, making good decisions, seeking and using
feedback, exercising self-control) , and dealing effectively with others (listening, showing
empathy, motivating, leading).
Social capital -> Goodwill stemming from your social relationships
Be both a specialist (you should expert in something useful) and a generalist (knowing
enough about a variety of subject matters) , Be self-reliant (take full responsibility for
yourself and your actions), Connecting ( having good working relationships and interpersonal
contacts), Actively managing your relationship with your organization, Surviving and thriving
(you will be accountable for your actions and the results).
14. Two Relationships: Which Will You Choose?
Importance of taking responsibility for your own
actions and your own career. Unless you are self-
employed and you own boss -> Think about the
nature of the relationship between you and your
employer.
The exhibit shows 2 possible relationships and you have some control over which
relationship develops.
15. Managerial Action Is Your Opportunity to Contribute (drawing ppt)
You can contribute with your conceptual and human skills and your
managerial actions. You can execute the essential management
functions and deliver competitive advantage.
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