Managerial Functions on Starting a Sporting Goods Store - Case Study Example

Managerial Functions on Starting a Sporting Goods Store Supervisor's Level 5th June, 2009 Managerial Functions on Starting a Sporting Goods Store Introduction Starting a business is a serious and rather a complex affair in the modern business environment where business enterprises are to comply with a number of legal and social criteria. Moreover, materializing a plan of business irrespective of the size and nature requires the business man to perform multitudinous activities of varied nature. It is very well known to everybody that the management of any business organization requires performing fundamental functions such as planning, organizing, directing and controlling. This report describes the various managerial activities to be performed to start and operate a sporting goods store. The store is likely to deal in a variety of sports goods supplied by different manufactures of national and international repute. Sporting Goods Store- Definition According to North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), a sporting goods store may be defined as "an establishment primarily engaged in retailing new sporting goods, such as bicycles and bicycle parts; camping equipment; exercise and fitness equipment; athletic uniforms; specialty sports footwear; and sporting goods, equipment, and accessories".(Small Business Notes) Planning Planning function is fundamental to any serious and time-bond activity. In business, the importance of planning activity cannot be over emphasized. It is commonly accepted that a well formulated plan is half done of what is required to be done in future. As remarked by Arnold S. Goldstein, a good business plan is the road map to success (Goldstein 2002). However, the activities to be performed at this stage differ from business to business. The various elements of planning process of the present business can be detailed as below: 1. Vision and Mission Statement: Vision- To become the most sought after Sports Goods Store in the City (Please name the city of your choice) Mission- To achieve the status of best sports goods retailer in the city with the support of Customers, Employees, and Suppliers 2. Finding t an appropriate location for the shop: Location is very important as it determines how successful the business is. It is advisable to find a location near schools or colleges and/or near to stadium or sports grounds. 3. Complying with the legal Formalities: The following requirements are to be completed before starting the business operations in the United States (State Requirements):- a. Getting Business Licenses b. Registration for Occupations and Professions c. Licenses Based on Products Sold d. Tax Registration e. Trade Name Registration, and f. Employer Registration 4. Strategic Planning: This requires the firm to frame appropriate long term plans for the firm to survive in a competitive and highly innovative business environment. 5. Financial Planning: Initially finance is required not only to meet start up capital but for meeting day to day working capital as well. The working capital requirement of a retail shop is relatively lower than that of manufacturing firms. 6. Finding suppliers: When selecting the suppliers, the manger should take care of the reputation and reliability of the supplier and must ensure that goods are available without interruption. It is also imperative that materials are at affordable prices and good quality. Organising It is basically a function of grouping of all activities of an organisation into various departments and determining the authority and responsibility of employees assigned to various groups/departments (Kroon 1995). Since the present organisation is of trading nature, it is better not to for very complicated organisation structure. Therefore, it has been decided to follow the functional approach of organisational structure where the entire activities are grouped into departments based on the nature of function. The following departments have been formed so as to serve the objectives. Purchase Department: This department is concerned with purchasing sport goods from various suppliers, maintaining the same in the stores and supplying the same to marketing department as and when required. It is also the responsibility of this department that a good relationship is maintained with all the suppliers, domestic as well as international. Marketing Department: Once the goods are made available by the purchase department, it is the responsibility of the marketing department to find customers and generate sales and income. It is, therefore, necessary for marketing department to keep an eye always on the market trend and also upon competitor as to know how successful they are in attaining and maintaining business. For the purpose of getting more customers, this department may have to devise some promotional plans such as samples, coupons and prizes. Human Resource Department: This department recruits and maintains sufficient employees for the smooth flow of all operations of the firm. The department takes care of all employee related matters and issues that are to be presented before owner/top management to be discussed and resolved. The department determines the wages/salary of employees and any other rewards for which they are eligible on the basis of performance or hours of work. Accounting Department: managing money and its proper accounting assumes great importance in any organisation. The retail stores are also no exception to this. The accounting department of this firm is entrusted with the task of handling money, income, assets, liabilities, debts, credits and expenses and its recording in a set of books of accounts. Though money management is mostly the duty of owner/top management in small firms, financial manger has a significant role in this regard as he/she is obliged to reply for any discrepancy in the management of financial resources. Organisational Structure Directing The functions of directing involve motivating employees to perform better and leading them to the right direction to achieve the organisational objectives. It is known that no two people behave alike and hence all employees are fully satisfied with their firm's motivation and leadership practices. The following approaches are intended to observe in respect of people management and leadership. Paternalistic People focused Empathetic Understanding More inclined to maintain and sustain status quo 'Welfare of people' motive rather than business motive Commands loyalty of people through trust, care and collaboration. Realising the importance of people and organisational goals the owner has selected the above approach. Moreover, he has recognised that organization is about people, about other resources, the way people interact and the way they deal with other resources. It is a complex system built around human relationships, relationships between human and other resources. Organizations are just not about resources and their combination; it is much more than that. It has life as it has people and it has a definite purpose, a definite code, a definite approach. Controlling Controlling is the process of measuring the discrepancies in the performance of an organisation by comparing the actual performance with planed performance. Here, the owner has to collect actual information in respect of sales, return and employee performance and compare the same with planned objectives set in the beginning. If any deviations are found, the same has to be corrected with appropriate measures so that same deviations will not happen in future. References Goldstein, S. Arnold, Starting on a shoestring: building a business without a bankroll, 4th Ed., John Wiley and Sons, 2002 Kroon, J., General Management, 2nd Ed., Published by Pearson South Africa, 1995 Small Business Notes, Sporting Goods Stores as a Business, Small Business. Com, Retrieved 4th June, 2009, from State Requirements, Get Licenses and Permits, U.S. Small Business Association, Retrieved 4th June, 2009, from Read More