Main Business International

02/07/2017

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11/02/2017

11/07/2014

Clearly Defined Duties

Let us talk about the issue of clearly defined duties as a relevant and critical component in the administration of an enterprise.

The tasks and duties that are carried out by various employees in an organization must be clearly defined so that individuals can find it easier to deliver on what is expected of them.

The first thing to highlight is the defining of who (the person), does what (the responsibility) and how (the procedure) so that this issue of duties becomes clear for everyone to see.

This is because the issue of duties that are assigned to an individual are so critical in determining the success or failure of an organization.

In some circumstances these duties are not clearly defined to the extent that a certain task can be the responsibility of many people in a given enterprise.

Those tasks that fall within the jurisdiction of many people are the ones that can sow discord in an organization since it makes it difficult to monitor progress and to manage these individuals effectively when they cannot be individually associated with a given task.

You must make sure that you define what a specific individual with a specific title should do and if needs be, what that individual should not do must be highlighted as well.

I would like to advise you to stop the practice of copying and pasting duties and responsibilities from other companies into your own unless you believe that your companies are approximately the same size and are involved in the same nature of business.

The duties of an IT Manager, Buyer etc. in one organization might not be exactly the same compared to those undertaken by the people with the same title in another company.

Therefore based on this reasoning, care must be exercised in order to avoid evaluating a person’s effectiveness using a wrong scale.

A person’s effectiveness and relevance in an organization can be measured against what is written down as the expected results from the activities of such an individual.

Such key result areas must be set having considered a number of variable determinants such as resources necessary for the smooth ex*****on of duty.

Clearly defined duties determines the time tables and relevant schedules that are necessary for effective communication and good service delivery which in turn gives customers and other stakeholders the correct feedback that enables them to plan effectively as well.

In some organizations, roles and titles are not accompanied by clearly written down duties and responsibilities and therefore the effectiveness of an individual employee is only at the mercy, emotions, sentiments and mood of his or her superior.

Under such an environment a person can be promoted at work but unfortunately the individual will not perform very well until or unless he or she is told the exact duties that must be carried out and be given the authority to do it.

You must be bear in mind that organizational success hinges on the smooth working together of different individuals and departments and this can only be achieved when what is expected from every of these individuals and departments is clearly defined.

The inefficiency of one department or individual can affect the result of either the whole company or the other people and departments as well and therefore to avoid such issues duties must be made clear in order to promote easy monitoring and evaluation.

Please note that the defining of these duties and responsibilities is done by drafting a job description. As the name implies, a job description clearly shows what a person in an organization must do in order for the company to achieve its set objectives.

This automatically becomes a mechanism to monitor and audit activities and thus making it easier for non-performers to be noticed so that the corrective action can be taken either in the form of staff developments or even dismissal when the situation calls for it.

In the event that there is non-performance while duties are clearly defined,lines of communication as well as that an organizational structure is in place, it therefore means that there is need for a general organizational system overhaul.

An organizational system overhaul calls for the redefining of a mission statement, company policy and the set duties because in some circumstances these might be self-contradictory and thus must be remodeled to suit the commercial reality.

The way the duties are defined in one organization might not be effectively relevant to the your organization even if the titles of the individuals involved are the same as has been highlighted before.

When the duties are not realistic, they are likely to undermine the achievement of the set goals in the same way when the set goals are not realistic they are likely to interfere with the effectiveness of the defined duties and responsibilities.

There is need for a continued review of these issues in order for your business to remain relevant or rather for it to be at all relevant for that matter.

Clearly defined duties can act as a ‘firewall’ against corruption and inefficiency because every individual knows that the consequences of every action is attributable to someone and therefore failure in one’s area can only be attributed to the respective specific individual.

However in most SMEs, roles and duties are verbally communicated and thus no records are in place for checks and balances.

Adapted from the book The SME Handbook written by Brian Kazungu

09/07/2014

Remuneration – Management Team

Managers are the link between the business owner and the subordinates as well as with other various stakeholders, therefore they are instrumental in determining the organizational mood which the subordinates can reflect to the customers’ in turn.

Before we engage in a detailed discussion of how a manager contributes to the success or failure of an organization we need to firstly understand the art of management.

I can define management as a process of accomplishing an objective through planning, organizing, leading, controlling, coordinating as well as continuous maintenance and upgrade of the available systems and resources.

This means that for a goal to be met someone has to do the planning and this entails putting mechanisms in place in order to take advantage of the opportunities and guard against threats.

After opportunities and threats have been identified, resources have to be put in place in a way that ensures the smooth flow of activities. Organizing therefore means the correct positioning of every resource in its respective place in order for it to achieve its intended objective.

When these resources have been put in their respective positions that ensures maximum benefit, there has to be a mechanism to ensure that every resource is measuring up to the set expectations. If there is a discrepancy, an investigation has to be carried out to find out the cause and make the necessary adjustments. This is called controlling.

People with the requisite skill and expertise are then selected to make sure that they set the pace and mood for achievement. This setting of pace and creating the good mood towards achievement of goals is called leading.

The people and other resources must be made to work together in a way that minimize friction and enhances efficiency regardless of inherent differences. This is called coordinating.

Put simply, a manager is a person who plans, organizes, leads, controls and coordinates the activities of a given entity for it to achieve its goals as explained in detail above.

Poor remuneration to such an individual can lead to poor products and services as well as inefficiency which in turn affects the profitability and reputation of an enterprise.

A business’s profitability hinges on increasing revenue and minimizing costs but however the ways and methods of minimizing these costs must be approached with care since sometimes cost reduction in the form of poor salaries for management can lead to poor product quality and poor service delivery as well as unscrupulous activities.

However some business people especially those for start-ups tend to enjoy the good life brought by increased business activities while forgetting those people who make it happen.

As the business starts to grow, the span of control increases as well as other activities and therefore the proprietor should find it worthwhile to proportionally reward those in charge of the business activities.

When the managers feel neglected and deceived from not receiving a commensurate reward, they may quit the organization or reduce their effort. When this happens the business will start to feel the pinch as most managers have an influence on staff members and stakeholders.

The three most common routes that poorly paid managers can take in an organization are:

1) To quit the job

2) To engage in corrupt activities

3) Poor performance.

Whichever route is taken is equally dangerous and can quickly lead to company’s closure.

When a manager quits, this can result in losing valuable expertise that was very instrumental in propping the business forward and this might cause you to engage an inexperienced or unqualified individual.

The engagement of a wrong or poor management team is dangerous to the well-being of an enterprise because of the lack of the necessary tactics to plan, organize, coordinate, control and lead the organization towards achievement.

Adapted from the book the SME Handbook written by Brian Kazungu

08/07/2014

"Contingency Alertness - (Point of Transition)" by on http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140708074313-98835313-contingency-alertness-point-of-transition

03/07/2014

Purpose and Determination In Business

Business success equals a defined purpose and determination.

Business is anchored and centered on the element of exchange and therefore people seek to fulfill their dreams, needs and wants by exchanging goods and services using either money or any other agreed medium.

The extra amount that a person gets in business after subtracting expenses is the profit, in the same way the satisfaction of a need or a want can also be called a profit to the one who buys the product.

The satisfaction of a need or want can be referred to as profit to the client because it represents a difference between stages from where there was lack or where there was a need, up to the stage that the need is fulfilled.

To the customer profit is therefore that fulfilling element that covers the gap between lack and possession.

Therefore those things that we have, whether they are goods or services and the money should be in a state that ensures that there is maximum benefit from the exchange. The process involved in the acquisition of goods and services is combined with the product or service to form one compound unit which I can refer to as a deliverable.

People cannot transact based on a good handshake and an affectionate hug when the quality of goods and services is poor. It is therefore imperative to take due care on the state and quality of things in our possession as well as the processes involved in delivering the product or service since it is these issues that determine business success.

There are a number of issues that can be considered in business and these can include the way the product is presented, the general mood of the business environment as shown by the employees as well as the cleanliness of the business environment.

In selling a product you should bear in mind that you make the monetary profit but the customer’s profit will be in the satisfaction derived from the consumption or use of a given product or service.

a) Do you have a defined purpose (objectives and a mission) in your business engagement?

b) Do you consider the satisfaction of your clients or you are just profit centric?

c) Do you make some evaluations to the way you do business in line with the economic trends or you just keep doing it the same way in a world where needs and wants are changing?

d) Do you assess the effectiveness of the processes (customer care) taken to get the product or service from your hands into the hands of the customer?

Adapted from the book Fresh Thinking written by Brian Kazungu

03/07/2014

"Purpose and Determination In Business" by on http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140703070548-98835313-purpose-and-determination-in-business

02/07/2014

Leadership

“A rare ability to see the good and the bad in everyone and making use of the good in a way that overshadows the bad, makes you good leader.”- Brian Kazungu

Management generally means the planning, organizing, leading, directing, coordinating and controlling of the resources in an environment for the common good of a given setting.

You are supposed to be a manager of your own personal life and destiny.

As a leader you should therefore possess a rare ability of recognizing the positives and negatives of others especially those in your team whether in social, economic and even political issues.

You must analyze the extremes and assess whether using the good side of an individual can outweigh their bad side for the good of the person and the society as whole.

This principle can be used in choosing friends, social clubs or even a marital partner because at the end you will have to enjoy or endure another person’s character in your engagement with the same and thus a good weighting scale must be used.

You must note that every person has got his or her own strengths and weaknesses and therefore it is the strengths of every individual that must be emphasized and be promoted so that the combined effect of the strengths of everybody in the society can be felt.

When the exposure of wrong is not malicious, there must be an attempt to highlight the good side of others as well.

Sometimes more of the wrong side of an individual is seen when the society does not set itself to appreciate the positive side of its citizens either expressly or impliedly. Celebrating and promoting the strengths of others has got an automatic ripple effect towards creating a stable and progressive society.

It is therefore necessary for you as a leader to possess this important attribute for the common good of the company, community and even the state.

a) Is there anyone you believe is a good manager or leader? Why do you think of the person that way?

b) Have you ever tried to appreciate that person’s goodness in person? Please do that if you can!

c) Pray for the person so that he or she can keep up the good work

1Timothy 2:1-2 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. KJV

Adapted from the book Fresh Thinking written by Brian Kazungu

01/07/2014

Supervision

2Thessalonians 3vs.10-12: For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat: 11 For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies: 12 Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread. KJV

The work place is a cocktail of characters made of individuals from different backgrounds, age groups, gender and aspirations amongst other variables.

These people work for different reasons and therefore it is necessary to put mechanisms in place to monitor the effort and effectiveness of every employee.

Some people need minimum or no supervision for them to perform assigned tasks while others will need constant supervision and monitoring so that they can achieve the same task.

In environments where there is such a fusion of individuals, where others need supervision and others do not, it is imperative to launch a monitoring and evaluation tool to help in the determination of a reward.

Those who perform better than others must be acknowledged and be rewarded for their effort while poor performers must be first encouraged to work so that they can also deliver on their given tasks.

Adapted from the book Biblical Business Management Principles written Brian Kazungu