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News Release from: Cavendish | Subject: Management techniques CD and sotfware
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 30 January 2006
Develop Management Techniques To
Increase Profits
Organisations needs management techniques to increase bottom-line profitability and survive as the major priority, according to UK management consultancy Cavendish.
Organisations needs management techniques to increase bottom-line profitability and survive as the major priority, according to UK management consultancy Cavendish Cavendish's Colin Thompson said that all directors and managers are seeking to improve efficiency and effectiveness in their businesses but need to implement systematic and analytical methods to assist in decision making, the improvement of efficiency and effectiveness, and in particular the conduct of the two key managerial activities of planning and control
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 27 Apr 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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Areas of management such as corporate planning, marketing, management accounting and operational research make considerable use of related techniques that may be termed as disciplines, said Thompson.
He added: "Techniques, used individually or grouped in to disciplines, should be distinguished from managerial skills, such as co-ordinating, delegating, communicating, negotiating and interviewing, which rely upon personal expertise developed by experience and training." Procedures which consist of the various administrative tasks, systems and guidelines needed to get the work done, for example, the way in which sales orders are processed is a procedure.
Activities and functions is where various administrative tasks are carried out and skills and procedures are used to achieve a desired result - for example, advertising, recruitment and selection or purchasing.
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"In each of those areas of skills, procedures and activities, management techniques play an important part, either generally in helping to solve issues, or particularly by enabling things to be done more effectively.
All management techniques are systematic and analytical, " explained Thompson.
He continued to add that quantification plays an important part in many techniques, and all techniques attempt to be objective, or at least try to minimise the amount of subjectivity in decision making.
In his opinion, the benefits of formal management techniques provide a foundation for improved managerial performance.
Their main strengths lie in their systematic, analytical and, in many cases, quantified base.
He said that they operate by means of a continuous cycle of gathering and analysing factual data, formulating issues, selecting objectives, identifying alternative courses of action, building new models, weighing costs against performance and benefits and monitoring performance to point the way to corrective action and improvements.
And he continued: "The value in all these respects is undeniable, but a word of caution is necessary.
Techniques are only as good as the people who use them.
Quantification is fine, but if it is based upon doubtful assumptions, it can result in ponderous edifices being built on sand and collapsing when the sand moves and can no longer bear their weight." He claimed that techniques such as investment appraisal and risk analysis will put executives in to the best position possible to determine where they are going, but judgement is still required.
"Management techniques can help directors and managers to make better decisions, but can never replace good judgement, which is the hallmark of the successful trained executive," concluded Colin Thompson.
Cavendish said that it is making available a CD and software detailing how management techniques can be beneficial and to help identify the hidden potential within business and to provide company's with the focus to exploit that potential.
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