Managing a Business

centering is an art or praxis of managing (especi bothy a business or money. According to behavioral theories of management the traditional notion of Management is planing, organizing, leading and controlling. We have chosen Hong Kong and Shanghai border (HSBC) to explain these management concepts.PLANNING proviso is an beta management function that has to be carried pop protrude in an organization as it helps in determining the organisational goals and to create an action plan to carry it out.PLANNING PROCESSEvery divisions coach-and-four is responsible for preparing its own plans of action to carry out their tasks in the most effectual manner. These plans of action can also be termed as tactical plans as they atomic number 18 designed to help tend major strategical plans along with helping the organization to achieve its boilersuit goals.SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM PLANNINGThe manager undertakes both short-term planning as well as long-term planning. The bank stresses on t he discussion sections to lay greater emphasis on short-term goals so that the bank sees at least the short-term results of each division and, in that locationfore, the progress of the departments.While preparing its plans, each department takes into rumination the resources, capital and human both, useable to the department and the cipher that is available to the department for each of the products. The manager also plans for the existing product line as well as the new products that argon recently launched in the food market. Lastly, the manager also plans for the targeted volume of each product.After the plan has been devised taking into account all the above factors, the plan is sent to the Central Planning Department, which is centralized. The Central Planning Department is a group of planning specialists who thus prep bes the overall prospective plan for the bank and submits it to the Finance Department.At the same time, monthly meetings are held in which all the head s of various departments and the Board of Directors get together to review budget vs. variances, profit and loss accounts, cash flows, inventory level, and so on of each department and thence the marketing department, for example, will have to come up with a new plan to overcame the shortcomings as pointed out by the Board of Directors.STRATEGIESStrategy construction is an important part of planning which the department also undertakes. There are various strategies and methods use by the departments to undertake their plans.PRICING dodgeOne of the strategies that it uses is the hurt Strategy. In this strategy, they look at the current prices in the market and then plan accordingly and then project the new prices which will judge to be more profitable than the old prices.Note While we are talk of the town about the pricing then we mean the prices of the products that the banks are offering and the price itself is the interest rate being offered.COST BASED PRICING STRATEGY The o ther strategy used by the departments is Cost Based set Strategy. The departments sets the products prices by looking at the components those make up their price, that is, its imagery, cost and profit. The department al counsels tries to set the price, which is lower than the competitors and brings in compulsory cash flow. So, it tries to produce the products at the lowest possible cost by investing more money into R&D so that it could increase its profit margin further.OTHER STRATEGIESOther strategies used are market look, which is conducted on a teeny basis but is very important for the marketing Department. And as their focus is on corporate clients, the carry out corporate surveys and interviews with their customers, which adds a personal touch and results in, increased sales. Focus groups and questionnaires are also sometimes distributed to get responses from the customers. Sampling is another strategy used by the department in which they give sample products to various houses which they deal randomly and the results are then verified by the sales and marketing team carrying out the research.ORGANIZINGOrganizing is the next important function of management which is the concession of resources available to the participation to different tasks in order to achieve the strategic goals.ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURELike every other order HSBC has also been ceremonious as a separate legal entity having its own managing director and a team of professionals to head each department. As evident from the organizational organize of the participation, the company has a formal structure i.e. it is official and planned and has by choice planned structure of roles within the organization.It follows the organic style of management where government agency is based on expertise rather than hierarchy and, therefore, believes in participative ratiocination making in which employees working in all levels of the company are involved. Decision making power is delega ted up to the level of middle management. The company believes in the philosophy that To get the job done most efficiently, hatful doing the job should essentially be indecision making.All the decisions, whether small or minor, are made at the top levels in the companys hierarchy. Therefore, HSBC is a centralized company in the sense that provided the department heads and the managing director is involved in decision making.MARKETING DEPARTMENTS STRUCTUREIn the merchandising Department, the office staff to make decisions is vested in the Marketing Director, who makes all the decisions for his department and then delegates authority and province to their subordinates.The sales team collects information like the sales figure soon in the market, information about the competitors, etc. and is handed over to the Marketing Director who then makes the final decision based on the available information. There are assistant marking managers working under the brand managers who are somet imes asked to give suggestions if a decision requires information associate to a task which is directly handled by them.HSBC follows the concept of line authority as the people in the management positions such as the research division manager has the power to control and direct the immediate employees which in this case are the field investigators.LEADINGHSBC believes that leadership is an art or motion of influencing people so that they perform assigned tasks willingly and in an efficient and effective manner. The marketing director, therefore, thinks that leadership is crucial in motivating and invigorate the workforce.MOTIVATORSThe company uses only two ways of regarding the employees either by increase the salary or prompting the employees if possible. The company strictly adheres to the policy of forward motion from within.Job enrichment provided by HSBC is almost negligible which limits the scope of jobs for the employees because of which employees leave the company for b reak in job offers elsewhere.HSBC does provide a good working environment to its employees and there are large numbers of female employees working in the company.There is juicy employee turnover in HSBC because of the few opportunities of progressing that the company provides to their employees because of which none of the employees stay with the company for a long time.CONTROLLINGControlling which is the fourth function of management is in effect practiced in HSBC. The director of the Human Resource Department monitors employees activities, keeps the departments on track towards achieving the goals and makes department of corrections as needed. These are the basic functions of controlling which are used in this department.CONTROL METHODS Regular meetings are held to check the progress of the employees and then make amendments as needed. Marketing and sales teams are sent for study visits to places and when they come back, they have to report to the marketing director in way of bo th formal and informal reports The director then sees the results of the visit whether there was an increase in sales or not and therefore, make corrections like to change the sales team in the next visit, etc. These, therefore, train the employees in the practical aspects of the job which prove to be unspoilt for the company.ReferenceCourtland L. Bovee, John Thill, (2004), Business in Action, 3rd Ed.Christopher Kingsley (1993), A trainers primer Advice to the critic trainer about the basics of organizing, planning, and leading an effective training seminar (Technical assistance & training publication series)Sandy Schuman (2005), The IAF Handbook of Group Facilitation Best Practices from the trail OrganizationLuis Martin Diaz (2006), Evaluation of Cooperative Planning in Supply ChainsDavid A. Baldwin, Frances C. Wilkinson, and Daniel C. Barkley (2000), Effective Management of Student Employment.Rohan Wickremasinghe (Daily News May 3, 2001), Management Consultant, President o f Institute of culture