Aspects of Management - Assignment Example

Aspects of Management TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary……………………………………………………………….. 3 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………….. 3 Principles of Business Expansion ………………………………………………… 3 Best practices in Expansion ………………………………………………………. 4 Strategic Expansion ……………………………………………………………….. 6 Expected Changes ………………………………………………………………… 8 Major Considerations …………………………………………………………….. 11 Making Expansion Possible ………………………………………………………. 12 Recommendations …………………………………………………………………. 13 References …………………………………………………………………………. 16 Management for The Beauty Therapy Business Executive summary Business expansion is an attribute of a growing entrepreneur. Expansion, usually, involves taking advantage of situations as they arise. These situations provide opportunities that are unpredicted and may meet a business entity by surprise. To take advantage of these opportunities is as important as managing the single business. However, in some cases, the changes that happen with expansion bring about management challenges when some considerations are not taken. This report is an advisory paper to an expanding business. It entails the basic principles of business expansion that a manager should consider, the main strategies of business expansion and the possible changes in the management functions that occur with expansion. The paper also looks into the challenges that are associated with expansion and how the management can handle these challenges to ensure a successful expansion of business. Introduction Organisations and businesses are always making efforts to expand their territory. This expansion besides indicating growth increases the management responsibilities. Managing a single business entity is not as challenging as managing an expanded business. Without the necessary experience, training and environment, managing can be a great challenge. It is important, therefore, to learn the principles and concepts of expansion with a clear focus on the expected changes and how to deal with them. Principles of Business Expansion Business expansion is one of the basic concepts of business management. To achieve success in expansion, the management needs to take into consideration of several basic principles of expansion. Identify best practices The management should prior to making expansion plans effective review and assess the best practices within the industry and the business that they would like to transfer to the new businesses (Steinhoff & Burgess 2010). In this case, it is important for the beauty-therapy business manager to evaluate what factors in the business customer service, marketing or other aspects of the operation that makes it preferred by the customers. Further, the management should also consider new strategies in enhancing these practices. The selected best practices should be reinforced as the business seeks to expand (Decter et al. 2007). Marketing Strategy and plan Expanding a business means that the products and services will be offered to an entirely new population. This further implies that the new population represents a new market, which may have different requirements, and priorities and preferences compared to the previous. It is, therefore, necessary for a manager to ensure that there is a marketing strategy that is compatible with each new market (Hatten 2012). Making this alignment increases the chances that the business will be successful in the new market. To have an effective marketing strategy and plan, the managers must do a thorough market research to ensure that the strategy is fully accustomed to the situation on the ground (Reinhardt 2000). One Tactic at a time principle In successful expansion of any business, it is necessary to approach implementation of the designed strategy in a way that allows easy monitoring and space for change. This will ensure that in case of a strategy that seems not to be effective, it can be changed for one that is more effective. To achieve this, the strategies that are designed should be tested one at a time to ensure that the one that is effective is easily identified and enforced (Gong & Janssen 2012). Customer contact. As part of the marketing research, a new business or a branch or expanding business should ensure that it targets real customers. To ensure this, the business should be in close relation with the customers and ensure that all strategies are made and implemented with the customers in mind. When the customers’ needs are considered, it is easy to establish loyalty and to get a position in an environment that is relatively new (Pulakos 2009). Best retains the first principle To ensure that a new business is secure, the business must ensure that it obtains its base of loyal customers. This can only be ensured that the business enters the market with products and services that the general customer population regards as the best in the environment. These best services are meant to attract and retain the first customers who will be an avenue that will lead to a deeper recognition of the business and expansion of the customer base (RolstadåS 2009). Enhanced customer satisfaction is the foundation for future revenue growth. Satisfaction can be enhanced through rewards of loyal customers, improvement of services to meet specific customers’ tastes and involving them in basic improvement projects (Longenecker 2012). Involvement of the community Besides having a business that offers services to them, the community needs to be involved and served in other capacities. Using community units of administrations and enhancing corporate social responsibility are measures that ensure that the community feels engaged and involved in the expansion and improvement of services. Use others as examples There are always like businesses that are established before. This means that the new business is not introducing any new services in most of the places. However, the business can make use of the opportunity by providing services in a different way. The business should, therefore, use others first as benchmarks to establish themselves and later as examples to get past them in the business. Human resource expansion The expansion of business goes hand in hand with the expansion of all the resources of the business. The worker's population is the most important resource on which all the other principles will depend on. The management must ensure that the people given the task to ensure the success of the expansion (Cardy 2011). Strategy of business expansion Successful business expansion calls for serious strategy. This is because, with any expansion, there are new challenges and new markets to be conquered. Managing expansion, therefore, require strategies that will assist in the easy transformation of a single branch business to a hyper-local business entity. Lean on the strength of your inner circle. This is in important strategy in expansion. It requires the managers to depend on the available inner strength of their business to acquire strong ground for expansion. It is also about getting advice from peers and friends who have undergone similar types of expansion. The importance of this strategy is that it gives a wholesome view of the activity that the business is out to engage in and what the expected difficulties are (Wilson & Bates 2003). This helps prepare the managers of the expansion activity both in terms of resources and psychologically. Use the current staff as ambassadors To expand the beauty services business, the manager needs the help of the current workers. It will be an important boost in business of the relationship between the manager, and his or her staff is friendly. This is because the staff is supposed to act as a business ambassador in a new environment. The current staff is, therefore, the right team to manage growth. To facilitate this, it is advisable to hire more qualified staff prior to the expansion (Gong & Janssen 2012). Prioritise resources allocation Business expansion is a resource consuming activity. Proper planning will lead to the identification of possible sources of failures in the process and hence help in planning for resources allocation. Priority is given to the activities that are supposed to lay foundation for a quicker establishment of the business. Expanding at the right time For the success in expansion, timing is an important factor. Expanding too early will mean that there has not been enough time to plan and to study the market. The implication of this is wrong placing of resources and possible loss. On the other hand, expanding too late means that the business is getting into a changed market and re-assessment is necessary. In this case, the original market information may be obsolete, and the opportunities once identified may be long gone ( Oldfield & Baron 2000). Revenue should dictate the spending When growing a business, every new branch is supposed to take from the revenue of the existing business. This ensures sustainability of the business. If a business cannot finance its own expansion, then it cannot expand profitably (Basu 2004). Assess and use baseline metrics The baseline report of the business, market and environmental analysis should be as accurate as possible. This is because the information will be necessary for maintaining steady growth as it will form the baseline on which further reports will be based and compared. Further, the baseline report helps to give the business an alternative plan in case of a failed attempt. Expected changes with the expansion Expansion, as already observed is characterized by changes in the whole set-up of the business. From the location, the market requirement and the human resources, changes are inevitable (Gong & Janssen 2012). These changes may be a great challenge if their implied change on management functions are not understood. The management functions include planning, organizing, staffing, directing, controlling and budgeting. All these functions are bound to undergo changes that will have to be dealt with (Mullins & Dossor 2013). Planning Planning entails the whole process of giving a guideline to be followed in an organization. The manager has the responsibility to ensure that there is adequate planning in terms of having strategies to achieve the business objectives. In this case, the expansion will offer a change in the planning function of the manager. The manager will need to plan for a larger entity that before, the resources allocation will involve more complex considerations. For example, the planning function will now involve planning for the whole business, as well as planning, for each of the other branches independently (Hess 2010). However, these plans must be in alignment with the overall objectives and requirements of the business. The changes in planning will, therefore, require a more vigilant planning to ensure that the expansion does not lead to incoherent or misaligned strategies that will divide the business. Even with the expansion, the business must remain as a single entity (Mahmood & Basharat 2012). Organising The organisation of an expanding business is very different from that of a single business. Dividing and allocation of duties in a large business is complex. Whereas a single business require a single unit of command, it an expanding business there will be a need to decentralise authority to other branches. This, therefore, means that the manager will need to identify the work and the capability of every unit, allocate duties and responsibilities as well as developing diverse chains of commands in each of the branches (Nieuwenhuizen, Rossouw & Badenhorst 2008). These chains of command should be aligned to the general management to ensure that organisation runs well in all the sectors. The management will need to design a more complex organisation structure to replace the current pure-line structure. Further, duties allocation and delegation of authority are more important concept to consider in an expanding business. Choosing the right person to do the right job will ensure that there is success in the expansion (Mullins 2011). Professional help is necessary for organising a business. Staffing Management involves having the job done through others. The manager has the responsibility therefore of ensuring that the business has the adequate technical and management personnel to handle the requirements of every department and to ensure that everything moves as planned. With an expanding business, the changes expected are that the general manager will have to entrust the management of each entity to a different person (Barringer & Greening 1998). This may be difficult when there is little trust between the management and the staff. In addition, the business will require bringing aboard more staff to fill positions in each of the branches to be opened. Being in different environments, and having different client bases, the staffing needs will change and may become a challenge to the management. Directing Directing entails all the activities performed by the manager as a leader in the organisation. The laid down activities have to be done in a certain way. The leader directs the activities to have them done in the intended way and hence ensure that the organisation is always on course to achieving its broad objectives. Dire3cting a single business is easy. However, when the business is expanding, the management has to ensure that all activities in every branch are directed towards a similar goal, which represent the general goal of the organisation. The expected change will, therefore, be the strategies to ensure that the course is maintained even in the background of diverse environmental requirements and needs (Söderlund 2004). Controlling Controlling is an important management function that helps establish stability in any business. Through efficient controlling, the performance of the business will be aligned to the objectives. Measuring individual departments of personnel’s performance against their set objectives is a control measure that ensures that the business runs on the course and that there are no issues related to failure of any entity. With the increased branches and staff population, the manager is likely to be overwhelmed by control measures and will, therefore, have to depend more on the help from the selected managers in each of the branches. Expansion, therefore, comes with a considerable loss of internal control of the manager and increased need for effective delegation of duties (Todnem By 2005). Budgeting Among the most disturbing factors in business is the allocation of the scarce resources. Scarcity cannot be expressed better than the lack of funds to finance basic and developmental activities. Expansion is one of those activities that requires a strict budget to ensure that all the activities are performed efficiently and that the business does not suffer economic losses because of the expansion. The expenses of expansion should be obtained from the revenue generated from the business. This ensures that the expansion is sustainable (Mullins 2009). Major Consideration Due to Change Human resources One of the most important consideration in a successful expansion is the inclusion of qualified personnel in the expansion strategy. This is because as observed earlier, an expanding business is hard to manage. This means that there will be a need to ensure that the business has on board managers and technical workers who can sustain the expansion of the business. To obtain such a pool of personnel, there are several recommendations (Mahmood & Basharat 2012). First, the manager should seek to expand the human resource pool prior to the expansion. This will enable close monitoring of the workers, as they get accustomed to the business activities and characteristics before being deployed to various branches. During this time, the manager is also able to identify trustworthy members of the staff who can be entrusted with the manning of each of the branches. Secondly, the manager needs to observe the workers as they perform their duties. Through enhanced control of actions and performance, the manager will be in a position to identify the problems that exist in the business and therefore plan training and development programs before expansion and even after expansion is enhanced. Thirdly, the management should seek to recruit qualified personnel to solve the issues related to the growth of the business. The manager should also seek to ensure that they undergo personal, professional development in an effort to ensure that the expanding business, which requires a greater level of technical training is achieved, and quality retained (Brocke et al. 2014). The current manager will need to develop her managerial skills through on-job, as well as formal training. This will require a close contact with the qualified management that the business will bring aboard. From these workers, the manager can learn the skills that can be further enhanced by formal training on management. This is important because the manager will be required from time to time supervise the performance of junior workers, and this will require technical as well as management skills. Making expansion viable The strategy described in this report can be made viable through the application of further efforts. These efforts are meant to ensure that each of the established branches can operate on its own and contribute effectively to the reputation as well as the revenue development of the overall organisation. First, the business needs to establish planning strategy for the growth of each branch with consideration the specific environment in which every branch is. Cash-flow consideration and protection are important in making it possible to ensure that all the revenue collected is utilised efficiently. For this to be a reality, branches should have budgets spanning a shorter time than the normal one-year period. This will help to develop an image of what is expected to happen if more or fewer funds is put into the projects. Secondly, it is necessary that the management seek to improve sales and diversify business. This will help to ensure revenue even in slow times. The strategy will ensure that the business survives during the peaks and valleys of business. Complementary services and products can be used to ensure that the business maintains a sustaining revenue in low seasons. Thirdly, the business should endeavour to establish a managed cash beast. A business plan for each of the branch should be made to ensure that cash flow is maintained. The operating budget should be periodically updated and maintained to ensure that the business has a stable finance strategy. To be included in the strategy is the need to increase the quality of every minute of operation, shortening the billing cycle and ensuring that the business does not offer free services. Every service should be paid for (Miller & Tsang 2011). Fourthly, the business should establish a corporate culture, which should ensure the involvement of all the employees and the customers. A corporate culture helps create an exciting and stimulating growth of the business. It also enhances communication channels from which strategies can be evaluated in a formal or informal information gathering. This grapevine information can be necessary for correcting errors and enhancing services (Doerhoff 2014). In addition, the business should set time to itself. This means that the management should allocate time for the employees to develop their social and interpersonal interactions, which help in ensuring healthy growth and development of the business. Steering the business through growth and success requires the manager to take serious consideration of all these factors. Recommended approach To make good use of the opportunity without risking the loss of control of the business, the management should make a strategy for the implementation of the expansion project. The strategic planning is the initial step in achieving success of the project while ensuring ultimate control of the process. For this to be a success, the management should first establish the general mission and vision of the strategy (Appleby 2004). These should be the guiding factors in further planning and execution of the strategy. Secondly, the company needs to establish the current position and the factors surrounding the position that either favour or threaten growth. This is done through situational analysis (Krohne 2002). Situational analysis requires that the business is evaluated regarding the current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. On the strengths, a business should identify factors such as the availability of a strong partnership with the hotel, and the client base as strengths that could be used in enhancing growth and development. Further, the business needs to establish the weaknesses that may deter the achievement of the objectives and development plan. As the business enhances its strengths, it should also seek to reduce the weaknesses such as lack of experience of the manager and therefore ensure that such weaknesses are eliminated (Nieman, Pretorius & Dyer 2004). The management needs also to make a list of all the opportunities that the plan can make good use of to hasten growth and increase revenue (El-Masry 2006). Lastly, the strategy requires a concern for the threats that are present which can prevent the achievement of the objectives. After the situational analysis, the management should formulate goals and objectives of the expansion strategy. The mission and vision of the business should guide the goals and objectives development. Each of the objectives should be elaborated in terms of the expected activities to achieve them, and the players or actors needed. In addition, it should also include the specific timings for the achievement. It is a recommendation that the business should seek to establish a branch after a specific time. Taking one at a time will allow monitoring of the process and rectifying errors (Morecroft 2007). Through this, the business will grow as learning is achieved through controlled growth. The strategy, therefore, should involve an action plan to have the business opening one branch in each of the ten new hotels available. However, this should be controlled such that the business starts from low, probably one branch at a time (Killen et al. 2012). As explained, this will allow the management to learn from the experience of one opening and applying this knowledge on the opening of the next. It also helps to control the use of resources. The implementation of this strategic plan will have to be planned for by ensuring that all the identified players are notified and trained on their roles. Evaluation of the plan should be explained prior to the implementation and the parameters to look for as well as the players identified. Another recommendation that will go along the strategic planning is the performance management. To ensure the project is a success, the management should ensure that the performance of the employees is monitored and managed to make sure that all the activities are in line with the strategy to meet the objectives of the expansion. This performance should move from branch to the departmental and include the individual workers. The purpose of this management is to ensure that all the branches, departments and individual workers are performing in a way that will lead to achievement of the objectives of the business. From this information, the training and developmental needs of the workers as well as promotions and compensation activities are identified (Miller & Tsang 2011). References Appleby, R. C. (2004). Modern business administration. 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