Management can be defined as the art of analyzing, setting and meeting predetermined goals utilizing others’ skills and abilities. These goals can include; returns on investment of twenty (20%) percent per annum, increases in production efficiency of over three (3%) percent this year, a five 5% percent increases in market share within the next year, and once judged to be attainable becomes the driving focus of the organization. It is goals like these that the selected (President, Chief Executive Officer, General Manager, Managing Director, etc.) top leader is contracted to achieve and is the basis for remuneration.Applications for the post of top leader of any organization have to be based on a proven track record of goal drive successes. The successful applicant must, using all available resources, ideas and management styles, meet or surpass the preset goals. With this in mind, the selection of a support team to complement the leader is crucial and is not easily accomplished in the first try. Many leaders try to reward loyalty by promoting or hiring in their associates, only to realize that the people that got you to the top may not keep you there and have to seek better fits for the sake of the organization and its goals. Understanding and respecting the skills of a successful leader is to assess the abilities of the people surrounding that leader.
Very few people have the ability to keep focus on the goals, while being criticized on every decision or lack thereof and from every quarter. Leaders are rare, strong leaders focus other leaders and demand and deserve market-driven levels of compensation along with performance based incentives. These incentives must also be linked to the organization’s ability to pay and survive.
Selecting the right leader for a particular type of organization is normally done by a board of stakeholders, with vested interest in the organization and its goals and heavily weighted with professionals in human resource management and experts from the core activity of the organization. For example let us consider; an electricity generation company with its core business as the conversion of raw materials into electricity for sale to one or two customers and an electricity distribution company whose core business activity is the sale of electricity to thousands of homes and business. The skill levels of the committee to select a leader in both cases will look the same but their consideration must be different. In the case of the generating company the leader must be selected based on the ability to manage the core component which is to generate electricity with a minimum of downtime. In the case of the distribution company selection consideration is to manage the customer-base with an emphasis on bill collections.
An Engineer-led generating company, supported by human resource, finance and accounting professionals, will spend the majority of time on raw materials, plant and equipment issues, delegating staffing and money issues to others.
A Professional in business administration with an emphasis in marketing management should lead the decision-making in the distribution company, supported by an electrical engineer, human resource, and finance and accounting professionals, constantly communicating and improving customer service and offering bill payment strategies to improve collection, delegating the engineering and maintenance, personnel and other money issues to other leaders.
Rationale
T.A.J & Associates Company Limited uses this occasion to comment on topics that have been covered, both academically and by the mainstream media, to add its opinion and point out investment opportunity, not to invoke any social action.
