Management Capsule - 100 Day Wonder (Day 61 to Day 80)

DAY 61

MANAGEMENT SUBJECT: INFORMATION ORIENTATION

Understanding the connection between investments in IT and improvements in business performance

What is the connection between a company's investments in IT and improvements in bottom-line performance? The answer lies with its Information Orientation.

Developed by Professor Donald Marchand, Information Orientation provides a framework for building and managing strategic IT capabilities that will optimize their value to organizations. His approach encompasses three in-formation capabilities:

1.       Information behaviours and values

2.       Information management

3.       IT practices.

These capabilities work together and determine how effectively companies use information. The 15 competencies within these capabilities can be seen below in the Information Orientation Maturity model (source: Professor Donald Marchand):

		Information Orientation
Information technology practices capability		Information management practices capability		Information behaviours and values capability
IT for management support		Sensing		Proactiveness
IT for Innovation support		Processing		Sharing
IT for business process support		Maintaining		Transparency
IT for operational support		Organizing		Control
		Collecting		Formality
				Integrity

Information management practices

Enabling your organization to focus on the right information requires the correct processes to be established and managed and it needs employees to be properly trained to use them. This involves sensing, processing, maintaining, organizing and collecting information. Also, to improve the quality of information that is made available, it is essential to avoid (or minimize) information overload.

Information technology practices

Business strategy and IT strategy are inseparable. IT applications and infrastructure reach every aspect of running a business, from supporting operations and business processes to innovation and decision-making.

In their research, Donald Marchand and William Kettinger found that companies do not always have the same information capabilities in all their units. To be of most use and to avoid potentially damaging gaps, the Information Orientation measures need to be applied consistently throughout the organization.

Information behaviours and values

Organizations need to promote the information behaviours and values that are needed for the effective use of information - integrity, formality, control, transparency, sharing and proactiveness - and remove the barriers that impede information flow and use.

SKILL CAPSULE: HOW TO WRITE A NEWSLETTER

1. Keep your strategic audiences in mind, always.
   What is relevant to them? What is important?
2. Effective management involves planning and influence.
   Develop a publication structure, an editorial calendar and written writers guidelines.
3. A newletter must be sustainable.
   Be realistic about the amount of content you can consistently produce.
4. Begin with good basics and build on solid ground.
   The most basic newsletter should have a few lead stories, shorter news items, and a message from your leader. A more developed publication might include features, departments, columns, an editorial, cartoon, in-house news, news tidbits, regional round-ups, etc.
5. Deadlines are sacred.
   Build in a safety cushion to allow for unexpected delays. [ TOP ]
6. An editor, like a captain, needs to know where the ship is going.
   When dealing with writers, negotiate topic, length, treatment and deadline before assigning an article. Include important sources and the key questions which the story will address.
7. Offer feature writers a byline and an author's note.
   Writers gain exposure and your publication gains credibility.
8. Be concerned about how your newsletter reads before you worry about how it looks .
   Attractive graphics can obscure important content needs. Relevant and well-written content should be able to stand on its own, even as plain text.
9. If you're doing an emailed newsletter, 'clean and simple' spells 'effective'.
   Keep it to plain text. Be concise, and put an 'in-this-issue' outline at the top. The footer should have complete 'subscribe' and 'unsubscribe' information. You should archive back issues, with an annotated index, on your website.
10. Good writing and good editing require direction and hard work.
    Your copy should sing rather than drone. It should ring when tapped. Write compact copy in the active voice. Edit for clarity, conciseness, jargon, length, correctness. The bottom line is your readership; give them top priority. 
11. Lead with strong items that have broad appeal.
    Learn from the best daily newspapers: "People decide within seconds whether or not to read."* Your editorial or a message from the CEO should have a regular spot after the lead items. In-house or more parochial news should have a regular spot much further in. This gives you the best chance of competing for attention, while those familiar with your newsletter know where to find what they want.
12. Learn the distinction between simple information and a story.
    Information comes to life as a story when someone talks about it. Try to cite sources as part of the way you do things.
13. Any successful newsletter depends on plentiful and reliable sources.
    Consider an acknowledgment box that lists everyone who contributed to an issue. This will reward people for helping and encourage others to participate.
14. Look for reader feedback, always.
    Watch to see how people scan your publication. Talk with a new sampling of readers after each issue. Do a formal readership survey on a regular basis. Track what's happening.
15. The true test of performance is behavior.
    You'll know you have an effective publication when your strategic audiences clip and save articles and when people are eager to write for it.

COMMUNICATION EXERCISE: TALK ABOUT YOURSELF IN AN INTERVIEW

Knowing how to talk about yourself in a way that conveys your strengths quickly, clearly, and professionally can set the tone for the entire interview. Some simple steps to address that not-so-simple question:

1. Focus on what the interviewer wants to know

This first question is the time to help the interviewer start to see why you’re the best person for the job—not the time to talk about your family history and hobbies. It’s important to focus on stories and professional experiences that will etch a memory in the employer’s mind, rather than give a run-down of your entire background.

Understand areas where you can “bridge” your previous experience to this job, and sell the employer on what they’ll gain by hiring you. Perhaps your résumé doesn’t have a flashy school or a Fortune 500 company on it, but you came up with a social media strategy that doubled your last company’s Twitter followers. For an employer looking to gain more traction in social media networks, this would be a valuable accomplishment to highlight.

Similarly, be relevant: if you extol your financial planning skills in an interview for a marketing job, or your Excel model-building skills in a sales interview, it’ll likely fall on deaf ears. Make sure the answer you plan paints a picture of your skills for this job.

2. Think about what others say about you

If talking about yourself seems daunting, consider what your friends and family would say. Are you the one who always steps up to organize the office charity event? Or do your friends describe you as the best person to turn to in a crisis? Perhaps you can juggle many responsibilities well under stress, or you excel at organizing large quantities of information.

Each of us has unique strengths, so don’t be afraid to talk about yours. Women tend to underestimate themselves in the work environment and downplay their talents. But that’s not going to land you the job!

3. Put some color behind “go-to” words

Phrases like hard-working, detail-oriented, team player, and problem solver are all over résumés. And they’re not bad, per se, but what do they mean?

For example, if someone told you that she was a problem solver, would you remember that as well as if she’d told you that she drove her boss across town in a foot of snow to attend an important client meeting because he couldn’t get a taxi? Using buzz words in an interview should only be a jumping-off point for talking about a specific experience that will showcase your talents.

4. Keep it short

Your interviewer has other questions for you, and a 15 minute monologue is not the best way to get a conversation going. Pick 2-3 points to highlight in your “tell me about yourself” answer, and an example or two that lets you bring your experience to life.

Then let your interviewer talk. She may ask you follow-up questions, which is great—but give her the chance!

DAY 62

MANAGEMENT SUBJECT: SIX SIGMA

The technique for measuring and improving product quality

Sigma is a term that is used to show how much something deviates from the norm (or target). Six Sigma uses statistical analysis and benchmarking to identify these deviations in order to improve quality and efficiency. Originally developed by Motorola to deal with manufacturing issues, it is now used in many other business contexts.

Six Sigma is a disciplined, data-led approach to measuring and evaluating costs. By measuring how much costs add value for customers, Six Sigma is useful for managing costs effectively and improving operations and strategy. By exposing costs that do not add value, companies can eliminate them and divert resources accordingly. Advantages include:

·         improved performance and the elimination of waste

·         efficient operations and greater control over quality issues

·         reduced costs and increased profitability e decisions and strategy informed by actual data

·         focus on adding value for customers

·         increased employee engagement and commitment

·         setting targets, and focusing people on achieving them.

Using Six Sigma

Six Sigma involves identifying problems and non-value-adding costs and then improving processes and reducing waste as much as possible. The aim is to get a system to operate with Six Sigma quality - a state where defects are minimal. The process in question is measured against benchmarks 1-6 to judge efficiency, where level 6 is the best. For example, a manufacturing process that operates with only 3.4 defects per million outputs would equate to level 6.

A key aspect of the technique is to appoint senior people to champion Six Sigma and for them to create teams of experts to plan and execute the project. The process involves five main steps (known by the acronym DMAIC) with an optional sixth step (T):

1.       Defining the opportunity. The project's exact purpose and parameters should be clearly stated and should factor in customer requirements.

2.       Measuring performance. Relevant and revealing data should be collected.

3.       Analysing the opportunity. Identify problems and where the causes lie.

4.       Improving performance. Design new methods and test them through analysis, simulations or pilot tests.

5.       Controlling performance. Set up procedures that continually monitor performance so that any problems can be immediately highlighted and dealt with.

6.       Transferring best practice. Improvements, information and ideas should be spread throughout the company.

DMAIC is used to evaluate existing processes. A variation on this, known as DMADV (the last two letters standing for Design an alternative and Verify the new design), is used for projects aiming to create a new process.

SKILL CAPSULE: SKILLS TO WRITE A BUSINESS PROPOSAL

An effective business proposal informs and persuades efficiently. It features many of the common elements of a report, but its emphasis on persuasion guides the overall presentation.

Common Proposal Elements

Idea

Effective business proposals are built around a great idea or solution. While you may be able to present your normal product, service, or solution in an interesting way, you want your document and its solution to stand out against the background of competing proposals. What makes your idea different or unique? How can you better meet the needs of the company that other vendors? What makes you so special? If the purchase decision is made solely on price, it may leave you little room to underscore the value of service, but the sale follow-through has value. For example, don’t consider just the cost of the unit but also its maintenance. How can maintenance be a part of your solution, distinct from the rest? In addition, your proposal may focus on a common product where you can anticipate several vendors at similar prices. How can you differentiate yourself from the rest by underscoring long-term relationships, demonstrated ability to deliver, or the ability to anticipate the company’s needs? Business proposals need to have an attractive idea or solution in order to be effective.

Traditional Categories

You can be creative in many aspects of the business proposal, but follow the traditional categories. Businesses expect to see information in a specific order, much like a résumé or even a letter. Each aspect of your proposal has its place and it is to your advantage to respect that tradition and use the categories effectively to highlight your product or service. Every category is an opportunity to sell, and should reinforce your credibility, your passion, and the reason why your solution is simply the best.

Business Proposal Format

Cover Page	Title page with name, title, date, and specific reference to request for proposal if applicable.
Executive Summary	Like an abstract in a report, this is a one- or two-paragraph summary of the product or service and how it meets the requirements and exceeds expectations.
Background	Discuss the history of your product, service, and/or company and consider focusing on the relationship between you and the potential buyer and/or similar companies.
Proposal	The idea. Who, what, where, when, why, and how. Make it clear and concise. Don’t waste words, and don’t exaggerate. Use clear, well-supported reasoning to demonstrate your product or service.
Market Analysis	What currently exists in the marketplace, including competing products or services, and how does your solution compare?
Benefits	How will the potential buyer benefit from the product or service? Be clear, concise, specific, and provide a comprehensive list of immediate, short, and long-term benefits to the company.
Timeline	A clear presentation, often with visual aids, of the process, from start to finish, with specific, dated benchmarks noted.
Marketing Plan	Delivery is often the greatest challenge for Web-based services—how will people learn about you? If you are bidding on a gross lot of food service supplies, this may not apply to you, but if an audience is required for success, you will need a marketing plan.
Finance	What are the initial costs, when can revenue be anticipated, when will there be a return on investment (if applicable)? Again, the proposal may involve a one-time fixed cost, but if the product or service is to be delivered more than once, and extended financial plan noting costs across time is required.
Conclusion	Like a speech or essay, restate your main points clearly. Tie them together with a common them and make your proposal memorable.

Ethos, Pathos, and Logos

Ethos refers to credibility, pathos to passion and enthusiasm, and logos to logic or reason. All three elements are integral parts of your business proposal that require your attention. Who are you and why should we do business with you? Your credibility may be unknown to the potential client and it is your job to reference previous clients, demonstrate order fulfillment, and clearly show that your product or service is offered by a credible organization. By association, if your organization is credible the product or service is often thought to be more credible. In the same way, if you are not enthusiastic about the product or service, why should the potential client get excited? How does your solution stand out in the marketplace? Why should they consider you? Why should they continue reading? Passion and enthusiasm are not only communicated through “!” exclamation points. Your thorough understanding, and your demonstration of that understanding, communicates dedication and interest. Each assertion requires substantiation, each point clear support. It is not enough to make baseless claims about your product or service—you have to show why the claims you make are true, relevant, and support your central assertion that your product or service is right for this client. Make sure you cite sources and indicate “according to” when you support your points. Be detailed and specific.

Two Types of Business Proposals

Solicited

If you have been asked to submit a proposal it is considered solicited. The solicitation may come in the form of a direct verbal or written request, but normally solicitations are indirect, open-bid to the public, and formally published for everyone to see. A request for proposal (RFP), request for quotation (RFQ), and invitation for bid (IFB) are common ways to solicit business proposals for business, industry, and the government.

RFPs typically specify the product or service, guidelines for submission, and evaluation criteria. RFQs emphasize cost, though service and maintenance may be part of the solicitation. IRBs are often job-specific in that they encompass a project that requires a timeline, labor, and materials. For example, if a local school district announces the construction of a new elementary school, they normally have the architect and engineering plans on file, but need a licensed contractor to build it.

Unsolicited

Unsolicited proposals are the “cold calls” of business writing. They require a thorough understanding of the market, product and/or service, and their presentation is typically general rather than customer-specific. They can, however, be tailored to specific businesses with time and effort, and the demonstrated knowledge of specific needs or requirement can transform an otherwise generic, brochure-like proposal into an effective sales message. Getting your tailored message to your target audience, however, is often a significant challenge if it has not been directly or indirectly solicited. Unsolicited proposals are often regarded as marketing materials, intended more to stimulate interest for a follow-up contact than make direct sales. Sue Baugh and Robert Hamper encourage you to resist the temptation to “shoot at every target and hope you hit at least one.” A targeted proposal is your most effective approach, but recognize the importance of gaining company, service, or brand awareness as well as its limitations.

COMMUNICATION EXERCISE: CALL OUT TO A PERSON 200M AWAY

DAY 63

MANAGEMENT SUBJECT: KAIZEN

Ensuring continual improvement through gradual change

The Kaizen approach involves making small, gradual and continual improvements to business processes.

Overview

Popularized by Masaaki Imai, Kaizen sees quality improvements as a company-wide process, involving everyone, at every level. In particular, it emphasizes the role of people who use the processes because they are best placed to recognize where changes should be made - thereby tapping into a huge source of talent, knowledge and ideas. By using your existing workforce and making gradual changes, you are more likely to minimize expenditure on experts, capital costs and expensive research and development teams. By encouraging everyone to think about how to improve quality, you promote teamwork and foster people's pride in their work and their sense of shared ownership of the company's future - where people are motivated and all pulling in the same direction.

Succeeding with Kaizen

To adopt a Kaizen approach, do the following:

·         Encourage, empower and enable the people who carry out an activity to suggest improvements.

·         Aim to make many gradual and continual improvements rather than radical changes.

·         Use hard evidence and quantitative methods to assess a situation.

·         Consider creating Kaizen groups to meet regularly, to discuss issues and propose and develop improvements.

Kaizen certainly has its critics and it does have some problems and limitations:

·         Its total approach can overshadow the potential contribution of key people and research and development teams. This can be addressed by managing talent - and each individual - appropriately and in the best way. For example, consider using the Nine-Box Grid (see No. 88).

·         Kaizen's focus on everyday processes and its emphasis on gradual change is at odds with the current speed of innovation and market changes and the huge advantages that arise from leaps in thinking and approaches (particularly the concept of 'value innovation').

·         Employees can feel undue pressure to be constantly thinking of how to improve. While, for some, the pressure to think how to improve is valuable, the key is to ensure that pressure does not become stress.

SKILL CAPSULE: EVENT MANAGEMENT: HOW TO ORGANIZE A CULTURAL PROGRAM.

1.       Plan and coordinate

Planning and coordination lays the foundation for a successful event. You need to consider what, who, why, where and when aspects of the event. While planning, set realistic expectations but also list down experimental aims. To start with,

• Make a good team with differently skilled members for making agendas and preparing schedules
• Understand your client’s expectation and identify the target audience
• Analyze the cost and prepare a budget
• Prepare an invitation and list down the programs in the event
• Prepare a deadline for each activity
• Collaborate consistently to ensure timely actions

2.      Start the action

This is the time when you will have to divide your enthusiasm in too many ideas. This is a critical stage of the event where you confirm key things like the date, venue and the speaker. During this stage,

• Get approval for the budget
• Start social media marketing campaign on sites like Twitter, Facebook, etc.
• Market the event by informing media, preparing brochure, sending mails, etc.
• Keep your attendees engaged during the event (by posting event updates on social media)
• Collaborate with the team to ensure that the plans are on track
• Plan travel and transportation arrangements
• Seek special permits from the local governing bodies

3.      Stay active 24-36 hours before the event

If you utilize this time effectively, your event will be a success. Measure the execution of your plans, collaborate with all the stakeholders, sponsors, speakers, guests and your team members. Get final approvals from the vendor of catering, fireworks, decoration, etc. Before 24-36 hours,

• Create the list of guests who responded with RSVP
• Make a list of table accessories like pen, notepad, brochure, bottle of water, etc.
• Ensure all activities are running on time including transportation arrangements
• Remind VIPs about the event, and have volunteers to guide them to the event
• Confirm venue arrangements like lights, decorations, volunteers, security, etc.
• Prepare a minute-by-minute plan for the event

4.      How to manage the final day?

After all the hard work, you are anxiously waiting for the event to start. This is the time to ensure that all things are there and working as planned. Don’t assume; take control of things. On the day of the event,

• Arrive at the event’s location with volunteers and team members hours before the event time
• Check whether all the electronic equipment are working properly (microphones, lights, speakers, etc.)
• Setup a beautiful reception and helpdesk
• Allocate space for sponsors to place their banners
• Ensure that the host/anchor has details of the VIPs to avoid any blunder
• Hire a dedicated photographer to capture special moments, sponsor banners and key people
• Confirm stock of food, water, flowers, etc.

5.      Learn from the event

The event is over, you received appreciation for your efforts, but you thing there is a lot of scope for improvement. Thus after the event, you should collect meaningful information from the participants. Send feedback forms, gather feedback, understand participants’ reactions, gauge expectations and measure the impact of your event. This will help you get valuable insights for nourishing your managerial skills and shaping the future events based on the received feedback.

In conclusion I would say,

Event management is one such profession where failure has no hiding place. No matter what confidence or managerial arsenal you bring on board for the event, loopholes in any of the above mentioned stages will land you in an embarrassing situation. To avoid blunders, you can take assistance from event management and registration softwares. So consider these tips and avoid any uncertainties during the event.

COMMUNICATION EXERCISE: ANNOUNCE (SHOUT) ON SHOP FLOOR " FACTORY CLOSED DUE TO HEAVY RAINS"

DAY 64

MANAGEMENT SUBJECT: MANAGING KNOWLEDGE

Making the most of your organization's information, expertise and experience

Knowledge is a powerful company asset. Capturing, managing realizing and using knowledge in all its forms to create extra value and advantage is the lifeblood of successful organizations.

Overview

Knowledge in organizations often lies dormant because it is not recognized as having potential. Companies need to actively look for sources of knowledge and consider how best to use that information. A large stumbling block is the accessibility of information that resides in different parts of a company. IT overcomes this problem, linking parts of a company and making the information accessible to everyone. By centralizing information and encouraging people to use it, knowledge becomes a powerful company asset.

There are many sources of knowledge, including: your people, customers, intellectual property, databases, research and links with external experts. Customers should not be overlooked or underused - they are not constrained by internal thinking traps, may have ideas for products that are clearly sought after and form a ready-made target market.

Peter Drucker believes that the way in which companies manage knowledge determines their success. He divides the process into capturing knowledge, storing information, generating ideas and distributing information.

Capture Encourage everyone to pool and share their knowledge, to enable others to use it	Generate ideas Promote an innovative culture where everyone feels positive about suggesting new ideas
Store information Develop the right IT system that is capable of storing and ordering information effectively as well as being easily accessible	Distribute information Create an atmosphere where everyone shares information rather than holding it back to promote their own position

Effective knowledge management is not simply about amassing as much information as possible and storing it. The information needs to be ordered and stored efficiently, to enable the right people to access the right information easily and quickly. Information overload - not being able to see the wood for the trees - is no good to anyone. This is not to say that access should be limited - anyone should be able to access information, with the exception of anything sensitive. The point is that people should be aware of what information is likely to be relevant to them (and how to access it) and encouraged to use it and to share their own knowledge and information.

SKILL CAPSULE: PROJECT MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVE

Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling resources to achieve specific goals. A project is a temporary endeavor designed to produce a unique product, service or result with a defined beginning and end (usually time-constrained, and often constrained by funding or deliverables), undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value. The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals and objectives while honoring the constraints on scope, time, quality and cost. Projects need to be managed to meet their objectives, which are defined in terms of expectations of time, cost, and quality.

For example, Project Scope: To move the organization's head office to another location. Its requirements are:

• Time: Complete by March 2017
• Quality: Minimize disruption to productivity
• Cost: Not spend more than $125,000

The scope of the project is defined as: 'the totality of the outputs, outcomes, and benefits and the work required to produce them'.

This can change over time, and it is the project manager's responsibility to ensure the project will still deliver its defined benefits. Consequently, a project manager must maintain focus on the relative priorities of time, cost, and quality with reference to the scope of the project.

The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines project management in the following way:

'Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to meet project requirements.'

This definition begs the question 'Exactly what knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques will I need to successfully manage a project?' In order to answer this question, it is helpful to look at project management from three different perspectives.

1. How the project fits into the organization - This refers to both the project and the individuals who will be involved in it, including how their responsibilities are defined and how they interact with each other.

2. How the project will evolve over time - This is referred to as the project life cycle and is the chronological sequence of activities that need to happen in order to deliver the project. Whatever their differences, all projects will by definition share a similar life cycle; they will all have a beginning, middle, and an end.

3. What skills are required to successfully manage the project - These are usually referred to as 'Project Functional Areas' because there are discrete areas within project management that can be considered in isolation even though they are interdependent.

This might sound unnecessarily complicated, but looking at a project from each of these three viewpoints will give you a much better understanding of the whole process than using any one of them individually.

To use an analogy: Imagine that a ship is traveling from London to New York.

The organizational perspective would be concerned with which members of the crew were responsible for doing what and how they communicated and interacted with each other.

The life cycle of the voyage would be concerned with where the ship was and what it was doing at any point from the beginning to the end of the journey.

The functional areas would be things like navigation, collision avoidance, routine maintenance, etc. Even though these activities would be taking place continuously and interdependently, it is still possible to think about them as discrete areas of knowledge.

This analogy is not perfect but it does illustrate that when you are studying a complex activity it can be helpful to look at it from a variety of perspectives in order to gain a better understanding of the whole.

Key Points

• Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling resources to achieve specific goals.
• The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals and objectives while honoring the constraints on scope, time, quality and cost.
• Project management can be thought of in terms of organizational, life cycle, and functional area perspectives.

COMMUNICATION EXERCISE: READ OUT TO YOUR PARTNER WHO WILL WRITE FACING AWAY FROM EACH OTHER

DAY 65

MANAGEMENT SUBJECT: ACHIEVING A WIN-WIN OUTCOME

The six pitfalls of negotiations

By learning where the pitfalls lie in negotiations, it is possible to sidestep them and ensure results that last for all the parties involved.

Harvard Business School professor James Sebenius argues that six mistakes are responsible for the failure of negotiations. By avoiding them you can negotiate your way to success. These pitfalls are as follows:

1.       Neglecting the other side's problems. If you do not understand the problems your negotiation partner needs to overcome, you will not offer them the correct solution and you will lose an effective bargaining chip.

2.       Letting price bulldoze other interests. It is easy to focus exclusively on price. Make sure you consider other important factors - such as creating a positive working relationship and goodwill between both sides, and a deal-making process that is respectful and fair to everyone.

3.       Letting positions drive out interests. While two sides of a debate may have opposing positions, they may also have compatible interests. Rather than working to persuade someone to abandon their position, it can be more productive to work on innovating and creating a deal that is able to satisfy a range of interests. Here, keep the big picture in mind: don't give up or fail because the detailed working is difficult or frustrating.

4.       Searching too hard for common ground. Common ground can help negotiations, but different interests allow both sides to get something out of the deal. The key is to give and get: don't simply look for disappointing compromises.

5.       Neglecting BATNA. BATNA stands for 'best alternative to a negotiated agreement' - that is, the options if the deal falls through. These may include approaching other companies or adjusting your business model. By fully analysing your prospects - and your partner's prospects - you can decide what to offer in the negotiation and when to offer it.

6.       Failing to correct for skewed vision. Two types of bias can be present - role bias and partisan perception. Rote bias (the confirming evidence trap) is the tendency to interpret information in self-serving ways, overestimating your chances of success. Partisan perception (the overconfidence trap) is the propensity to glorify your own position while vilifying opponents. Overcome these biases by placing yourself in the position of your 'opponent'

Actions of successful negotiators

As well as an ability to avoid pitfalls, great negotiators also have other qualities:

·         They understand the other side's aims, perspectives and experience - essential to persuading them why they should agree.

·         They also thoroughly research an individual or company before negotiations. They do not limit research to information relevant to the deal. Broadening the scope to the industry, goals and market conditions pro-vides extra weight in negotiations.

·         They are measured and avoid being overly aggressive. They may show firmness but remember that mutual understanding and rapport is essential.

·         Above all, they seek a 'win-win' outcome by thoroughly exploring the full range of potential agreements that would allow both sides to benefit from the negotiation.

SKILL CAPSULE: GOAL SETTING FOR MANAGERS

Many people begin their career in management with high hopes of making an impression on their bosses by developing the business or by implementing new and better ways of doing things. Unfortunately, most of them find that they are so busy handling day-to-day issues that there never seems to be time for anything else

Furthermore, comparatively few people have tangible goals; most have the awareness that things could be improved but only vague ideas about how to achieve these improvements.

All tasks are either reactive or proactive. Reactive tasks are when you react to situations that occur, and are driven by events and the actions of other people. Conversely, proactive tasks are when you seek opportunities to make a positive impact in the workplace and are driven by you.

To be an effective manager, it is far more beneficial in the long term to be proactive. Behaving proactively revolves around anticipating events and using initiative to predict the likely outcome, whilst being in a position to respond and take the appropriate action when needed.

Those who gain recognition and promotion in organizations are usually those who are proactive; they are those who use their initiative to make things happen. In order to truly be proactive, however, there are two things that need to be addressed.

The first is that a certain amount of time needs to be freed up from handling routine tasks, resolving crises, and handling interruptions. You can discover how to do this for yourself by reading the other personal productivity eBooks on this website.

The second thing that you need to do is to be able to set goals that will inspire you and your team to make things happen. Setting goals that motivate people is not easy and requires effort and good judgment.

Many people confuse goal setting with wishful thinking and you can see examples of this in organizational and departmental mission statements that are usually so vague as to be virtually meaningless. Some examples, taken from Fortune 500 companies, include:

'To achieve profitable growth through superior customer service, innovation, quality and commitment.'

'To combine aggressive strategic marketing with quality products and services at competitive prices to provide the best value for consumers.'

'Be the best in the eyes of our customers, employees and shareholders.'

These mission statements are fairly typical and whilst there is nothing wrong with them per se, they seldom inspire anyone to do anything specific to help achieve them.

If a goal is to be motivational then it must have an objective that is clear and well specified in what should be achieved; it must identify exactly what needs to be done and in what timeframe. It must also define a clear outcome that is measurable and can be assessed.

There are three commonly used methods of setting goals. These are the 4CF Method, the SMART Method and the Backwards Goal Setting Method.

As well as setting goals for your team as a whole, you will usually be expected to set targets for each team member as part of their annual appraisal process. How successful you are in doing this will have a big influence on not only their productivity but also on how they perceive you as a manager.

If you set goals that are unambiguous and measurable then most people will rise to the challenge or at least strive to achieve them to the best of their ability. On the other hand, nothing destroys morale faster than not knowing what you're expected to achieve or how your efforts will be measured.

As a manager, it is very time consuming to try to keep track of an employee's work and to motivate them on a continuous basis. Goals are, therefore, an important tool, since they function as a self-regulatory mechanism that provides each team member with clear objectives.

Goal setting can aid individual performance in four ways:

1. Goals allow team members to be focused and committed to achieving the end result.
2. Goals serve as an energizer; goals stimulate people to make an extra effort to achieve them.
3. Goals encourage team members to use their initiative to make effective decisions with long-term impacts. This often results in more efficient and successful working practices that are driven from the bottom up rather than by management.
4. Goals motivate employees to organize their time efficiently to maximize productivity.

Remember, the attainment of your own targets is highly dependent on your staff achieving the goals you have set them, so be careful to set goals that are constructive as well as productive.

COMMUNICATION EXERCISE: GIVE A DICTATION TO YOUR PARTNER STANDING 15 FEET AWAY

DAY 66

MANAGEMENT SUBJECT: THE FOUR FACES OF MASS CUSTOMIZATION

Cost-effective ways to tailor your products

Mass customization uses mass production methods that are capable of providing customers with tailor-made products.

Overview

Technological changes have ushered in a new era of delivering custom-made products on a large scale. Customers are able to choose different features so that products can match their own needs. It is used across a range of industries, greatly increasing both customer appeal and market opportunities. Although how this is done will depend on the nature of the product, IT facilitates mass customization and streamlines the process.

Successful mass customization strikes the right balance between offering choice and the costs involved and ease of use for customers. It is no good providing so much choice that the costs are prohibitive or the customer is so overwhelmed that they are put off making a purchase. It is essential to find out what features matter most to customers, along with any operational limitations, in order to set workable and profitable limits on available options. These choices need to be reviewed regularly to take advantage of new technology and changing demand, as well as maintaining competitiveness. Also, it is important to streamline the process and change your existing methods to ensure that production and processes can cope seamlessly and efficiently with the many different products that need to be built for each customer.

		What customers want
Mass customization		Operational capability
		Costs involved
		Impact on other products

It is easy to get caught up in the whole process - with the potential of appealing to customers becoming the overriding focus and overlooking the significant logistical and financial problems involved. To be successful, the strategy must have a keen focus on capabilities, costs and the impact on your other products. As with all strategies, a company's overall profitability should be the priority.

Mass customization requires:

·         a system for the customer to specify requirements easily (e.g. online ordering, call centre)

·         advanced manufacturing systems that enable economies of scope, keeping cost and price low

·         a build-to-order approach, with the product not made until the order is received

·         a minimum-order quantity of one.

The four faces of mass customization

Writing in the Harvard Business Review, Joseph Pine and James Gilmore highlighted the four faces of mass customization:

1.       Collaborative customization. The consumer and producer work together to define customer requirements. Examples include computers, clothing and footwear, furniture and some services.

2.       Adaptive customization. The product is designed so that users can alter it themselves to fit unique requirements on different occasions. Examples include high-end office chairs and certain electronic devices.

3.       Cosmetic customization (also called 'personalization'). The product is unique in appearance only. Examples include putting a customer's chosen text or image on T-shirts, mugs, pens and so on.

4.       Transparent customization. The producer provides customized product without the consumer being necessarily being aware that it has been customized. This can be used when consumers' needs are predictable or can be easily deduced, and when customers do not want their requirements repeated. Examples include repeat orders for customized clothing or specialist chemicals.

SKILL CAPSULE: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN COACHING AND TRAINING

One of your prime functions as a manager is to develop those reporting to you so that they attain their maximum potential and productivity for the organization and themselves. There are many different ways individuals learn:

•          Skills can be developed through coaching

•          Skills can be taught

•          Skills can be learned from an expert

•          Skills can be reviewed by looking at past behaviors

Organizations may use all four methods to assist the development of their employees. Managers are increasingly expected to be able to competently perform each of the four 'learning' roles - trainer, coach, mentor, and counselor - for their team as the need arises.

Expecting every manager to be able to perform each role to the same level of competency is in many ways unreasonable. Organizations often poorly equip managers to perform these roles and offer little guidance as to how best to perform the role. You need to understand how each form of learning operates, and the differences between them, and ensure your behaviors match the role you need to perform in order to meet your objectives.

The role of 'manager as coach' is becoming more widespread, especially in organizations that have a culture of empowerment. This creates more and more situations where managers find themselves in a coaching role rather than that of trainer, mentor, or counselor. The rest of this section is dedicated to explaining how the coaching role differs from that used when training, mentoring, or counseling people.

The ways in which the coaching and training roles approach learning are quite different. Training is principally directive: it is driven by the trainer, who will control most of both the process and the content in order to transfer knowledge or develop a new skill as efficiently as possible. The effectiveness of training depends on the competence of the trainer and the aptitude of the trainee for the subject being taught.

Coaching on the other hand is driven by questions addressed to the coachee, who then explores what they already know, but in a way that would probably not occur to them without the guidance of a coach. The coach controls the process, but for it to be really effective, the coachee has to own the content.

Another difference is that people are often trained in groups and this does not reduce the quality of the training received in any appreciable way. However, coaching must always be done on a one-to-one basis.

Although they are distinct activities, training and coaching can work well when used together. One obstacle encountered in business education is the difficulty of transferring skills and enthusiasm from a training course to the workplace. Coaching can be an excellent way of helping people to apply what they learn from a training course and incorporate it into their day-to-day work.

COMMUNICATION EXERCISE: DICTATION TO WHOLE CLASS

DAY 67

MANAGEMENT SUBJECT: PROCESS MANAGEMENT

Putting customers at the heart of your business processes

Process management cuts across departments and functions and seeks to group tasks together to improve the way they work and, importantly, to deliver greater value to customers.

Overview

Process management measures, monitors, analyses and improves business activities, making processes efficient, responsive and adaptable. Re-engineering, as Michael Hammer advocated, is imperative because, by focusing on process improvements, companies are better placed to enhance the value they provide to customers. Fundamentally, to get the most from process management it has to be part of the organization's culture. Looking for ways to improve should be part of people's thinking and approach, and change should be welcomed, not reluctantly accepted.

There are many different routes to managing and transforming processes. Accenture's Five Rs outline how to improve a process:

1.       Reconfigure

2.       Reorder

3.       Reallocate

4.       Relocate

5.       Reduce

Accenture also highlights the qualities of process excellence. A process should:

·         deliver the most value and get rid of waste

·         be clearly outlined, with details of the process stored and accessible

·         be easy to understand and follow and have flexibility

·         minimize the time spent on it

·         provide immediate feedback

·         be linked to the company's other processes

·         be focused on customers and be user-friendly.

SKILL CAPSULE: REGISTER YOUR NEW WEBSITE

Below is the steps included while creating / Hosting / Register a New Website.

1.       Design the Web Pages using HTML, JSP, PHP, etc.            

2.       Get the Domain Name for the Website. This is simply name of the Website. Ex . www.abc.co.in, www.xyz.co.in, etc.

3.       Choose the Webhost Server which allows us save the Web Pages and access it from the Internet.

4.       After uploading the webpages in Webhost Server under the domain name and location, Test the Website. Check for the Bugs and rectify.

5.       Take a Security Measures like port blocking, unauthorized access, SSL, etc.

When the Website is ready, Submit it to the Search Engines like Google, Bing, etc. using the Submission Page link.

COMMUNICATION EXERCISE: EXTEMPORE SPEECH ON UNKNOWN TOPIC -SURVIVAL ON STAGE (TRICKS) ASK QS, SUMMARIZE, GIVE EXAMPLES

DAY 68

MANAGEMENT SUBJECT: TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM)

Putting quality at the heart of your business

Total quality management is an all-encompassing approach to quality throughout an organization. It makes quality the business of everyone in the company and puts it at the heart of every business operation.

TQM seeks to raise standards, ensure minimum standards and make continual improvements for the benefit of customers and stakeholders. It is simply an approach. How it is achieved varies according to the preferences and priorities of each company, with the processes, tools and measurements employed supporting the principle itself.

TQM maintains quality and improves products and practices to deliver advantages that improve competitiveness, profitability and long-term success.  As well as minimizing waste, it empowers and motivates individuals, promotes teambuilding, secures customer loyalty and improves relationships with suppliers. With processes measured against a standard, expected outcome, quality can be monitored effectively and efficiently – with shortfalls immediately highlighted. TQM reaches every part of a company, from corporate responsibility to organizational culture.

Key points

·         Everyone need to be committed to delivering and improving quality standards. Leaders need to be behind TQM and gain the commitment of everyone – by empowering, motivating and encouraging positive participation.

·         Focus on goals and what is needed. Be clear about your purpose, vision and what you want TQM to achieve. Focus on customer needs(current and future). Importantly, your goals need to be realistic and achievable.

·         Don’t be distracted. Being overly focused on securing certificates and awards blinkers thinking and missed potential. By focusing too much on processes, TQM can cement suboptimal practices and anchoring traps. This is a failure of how TQM is implemented rather than the principle itself.

·         Market awareness. TQM would be of limited used without market awareness (including possible changes in tastes or technology). Understanding what others are achieving (inside and outside you industry)will help you remain competitive and identify opportunities.

·         Integrate TQM into all activities.Putprocesses in place so that TQM runs smoothly, is easy to use, becomes an automatic part of operations and is transparent (employees should not feel spied on or undermined).

·         Manage the extra workload. Manage the extra workload TQM places on employees by ensuring that you people have a positive attitude towards TQM and can incorporate changes without being demotivated. TQM should not distract employees from their main activities.

·         Using appropriate measures. Measurement need to be accurate and revealing. Subject your approach to criticism by asking: Are you measuring the right things and how can measures be improved?

·         Use the information. Use data to inform decision-making and strategy and to achieve continual improvements and long-term growth. Analysis needs to be perceptive, insightful and creative. The information should be organized and stored so that it is easily accessible and of use to others.

·         Be prepared for the full impact. TQM is a way of thinking that pervades the entire company. This affects every aspect of running a business – from employee motivation, refocusing priorities and changing business practices through the changes in culture and strategic direction.

SKILL CAPSULE: STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP (SL)

Overview:

•          Strategic leadership & top-level managers importance

•          Top management teams and effects on firm performance

•          Managerial succession process

•          Value of strategic leadership in determining firm’s strategic direction

•          Importance of strategic leaders in managing firm’s resources

•          Organizational culture and actions to sustain it

•          Ethical practices: establishment and emphasis

•          Importance and use of organizational controls

Strategic Leadership and Style

 Strategic leadership: the ability to anticipate, envision, maintain flexibility, and empower others to create strategic change as necessary

•          Multifunctional task that involves

o   Managing through others

o   Managing an entire enterprise rather than a functional unit

§  Corporate, business, and international strategies

o   Coping with change from internal and external environments

o   Attracting and managing human (includes intellectual) capital

o   Being able to meaningfully influence others

o   Strategic leaders make a major difference in how well a firm performs

•          Strategic Leadership and the Strategic Management Process

•          Effective strategic leadership is the foundation for successfully using the strategic management process

•          Strategic leaders:

o   Shape the formation of vision and mission

o   Facilitate strategy formulation and strategy implementation

o   Are needed for the achievement of strategic competitiveness and above-average returns.

The Role of Top-Level Managers

•          Top level managers play a critical role in strategy formulation and implementation

o   Their strategic decisions influence how an organization is designed and how goals are achieved

o   Top managers also develop structure, culture, reward systems, and policies/SOPs

•          Having a top management team with superior managerial skills is critical (and can be a source of CA and AAR)

•          Managers make a difference because of the discretion (or latitude for action) they use when making strategic decisions

•          This discretion influences firm outcomes like performance

•          A manager’s decision-making discretion is determined by several factors

Managerial Succession

•          The choice of executives is a critical decision with important implications for the firm’s performance

•          Organizations select managers and strategic leaders from two types of managerial labor markets

o   Internal Managerial Labor Market – opportunities for managerial positions to be filled from within the firm

o   External Managerial Labor Market – opportunities for managerial positions to be filled by candidates from outside of the firm

•          Impacts company performance and the ability to embrace change in today's competitive landscape

•          Succession, top management team composition and strategy are related

Managerial Succession

•          Benefits of Internal Managerial Labor Market

o   Leads to continuity and continued commitment to firm’s vision, mission, and strategies

o   Insiders are familiar with company products, markets, technologies, and operating procedures

o   Reduces turnover of existing personnel many of whom possess valuable firm-specific knowledge

o   Favored when the firm is performing well

•          Benefits of External Managerial Labor Market

o   Long tenure with the same firm is thought to reduce innovation

o   Outsiders bring diverse knowledge bases and social networks, which offer the potential for synergy and new competitive advantage

Key Strategic Leadership Actions

•          Determining Strategic Direction

o   Involves specifying the vision and the strategy to achieve this vision over time

§  Vision is a picture of what the firm wants to be and in broad terms what it wants to ultimately achieve

o   Strategic direction is framed within the context of the opportunities and threats over next 3-5 years

o   Includes a core ideology and an envisioned future

o   Should serve to motivate, “push”, and guide the organization

•          Establishing Balanced Organizational Controls

o   Strategic leaders are responsible for the development and effective use of strategic and financial controls

o   Controls provide the parameters for implementing strategies as well as the corrective actions to be taken when implementation related adjustments are required

o   The challenge is to achieve an appropriate balance of financial and strategic controls

§  The Balanced Scorecard

§  Framework that allows strategic leaders to verify that they have established both financial and strategic controls to assess firm performance

§  Underlying premise is that firms jeopardize their future performance possibilities when financial controls are emphasized at the expense of strategic controls

§  An appropriate balance of strategic and financial controls allows firms to achieve higher level of performance.

§  Uses multiple perspectives

•          Developing Policies and Procedures

o   Policies and procedures - are written or unwritten standards or styles of behavior that govern how people act and lead people to behave in predictable ways

o   Can facilitate good strategy implementation:

o   Can increase efficiency because they standardize work behavior and specify the best way to accomplish a task

o   Provide top down guidance about how certain things need to be done

o   They help ensure consistency in how strategy critical activities are performed

o   Different types of firms make use of different types and numbers of policies and procedures

o   Firms need to create a strong supportive fit between policies and procedures and strategy

•          Developing Reward Systems

o   It can be argued that rewards are the single most powerful tool for winning the commitment of employees to effective strategy implementation

o   Rewards are an important tool used to achieve behavioral control.

o   Firms should create a results oriented system in which those achieving objectives are generously rewarded and those not achieving objectives are not rewarded

o   Rewards and incentives should also be tied to strategy:

§  Cost leaders should reward people for being efficient and for identifying ways to reduce costs

§  Differentiators should reward people for being innovative

o   The bottom line is that firms need to reward and motivate people in ways that are supportive of strategy and strategy implementation

COMMUNICATION EXERCISE: DEBATE PREPARED

DAY 69

MANAGEMENT SUBJECT: THE EFQM MODEL

A practical guide to managing quality

The EQFM model is a quality-management tool that is used to assess how a company's systems and processes are performing, and also to in-form strategy and business re-engineering.

Overview

Named for the European Foundation for Quality Management, the model aims to assess and inform the design of a company's structures, processes and management. At its core is the knowledge that quality management is not a fragmented, piecemeal activity: its reach is far broader. Quality and excellence are achieved by ensuring that all parts of a company work together effectively. Systems, procedures, strategy, resources and people all need to support one another and pull in the same direction.

How the EFQM model works

The model is highly customer-focused and results-driven and it shows how results can be achieved by exploring the links between what you are doing and the results you get. The model is divided into two main aspects: results and enablers, with results informing our learning to better inform enablers in the future.

·         Results are reviewed over four areas: key performance, people, customers and society.

·         Enablers are examined through five categories: leadership, people, policy and strategy, partnerships and resources, and processes.

Using the right performance indicators and monitoring techniques is critical - based on the philosophy that what gets measured gets managed. The information you gather is then used to set the right strategy, innovate and make further improvements. This builds an organization that learns, adapts and achieves more.

Learning and innovation

Successful companies learn from their results, and this learning feeds back into each of the five enablers. This cycle of assessing, measuring, learning and redesigning is a continuous process that reaches into all aspects of running a company, including softer issues such as culture, levels of employee engagement and leadership. Quality management is not simply concerned with technical processes; these are important but they are not the only factors we need to consider. Like any system, parts that work together build on each other constructively, amplifying the benefits. So it is with quality management: hard and soft issues need to be on the same page, supporting one other.

Enablers Leadership People Policy and strategy Partnerships and resources Resources		Results Key performance  People Customers Society
	Learning and innovation

For each enabler, with reference to results, review how it is working and identify what works well, any gaps that exist, what needs to be done better and how all the enablers either work together or create barriers to achieving excellence.

SKILL CAPSULE: TALENT BUILDING & RETENTION OF CORE TEAM THROUGH EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND MOTIVATION

Developing talent in your small business is part of the larger talent management process that occurs over the years. In a “global and virtual workforce,” says Nancy R. Lockwood in “Talent Management: Driver for Organizational Success,” your employee base is increasingly diverse. This new diversity opens up opportunities to develop talent to achieve your vision. Developing talent also means projecting the skills you will need in the future and making sure those talents are there when shortages are projected.

Step 1

Identify your small business goals over the coming years. Clarify the demands your goals place on employee skill sets. Look for “talent gaps”--skill sets lacking in your current work force--advises RMG Consulting.

Step 2

Devise a plan to recruit the talent you need and to develop talent you have. Develop talent over time using seminars, workshops and other professional development tools.

Step 3

Provide employees with tools to assess their professional goals and their strengths, advises the website All Things Workplace. Provide opportunities for employees to reject performing roles they do not want to do.

Step 4

Meet with employees to discuss their places in your business. Guide them to prepare for movement into more challenging tasks that match your company goals.

Step 5

Perform regular reviews and evaluations. Meet with your managers to assess progress and changes. Meet with employees to check on their development. Engage in dialog about your business strategies and their roles in your vision.

COMMUNICATION EXERCISE: READ OUT YOUR ESSAY TO THE CLASS

DAY 70

MANAGEMENT SUBJECT: THE DEMING CYCLE: PLAN-DO-CHECK-ACT

Planning for improvement

The Deming Cycle promotes learning and continuous improvement through its four sequential steps: Plan - Do - Check - Act.

The model provides a clear, logical process for making continuous improvements, and focuses your thinking on the actual details and on what your purpose and objectives are so that you can better turn your goals into reality. Importantly, it breaks companies out of the Plan - Do - Plan -Do approach by formally building measurement, review, amendments and learning into the process. The cycle is self-explanatory:

·         Plan — draw up a plan

·         Do — implement the plan

·         Check — measure and assess progress

·         Act — make necessary refinements

Critically, the experience, information, feedback and analysis you learn at each stage is then used to improve the current plan and subsequent projects.

The cycle of learning

Each step will obviously cover many factors, and these will differ from project to project and company to company, depending on the issues and circumstances faced.

Plan Gather information about what is currently happening and think about what you would like to happen. Decide: ·      what you would like the future to look like ·      what your goals are ·      theimpact on those involved - and their likely responses. How can these be handled effectively? ·      how your goals can be achieved. Draw up an implementation plan - know what is to be done, and when.

Do Implement the plan carefully. Make sure your people have the necessary training. Changes are best introduced in discrete steps so that results can be accurately measured.

Check Collate all measurements, feedback and information. Assess how the plan is working. Determine whether the goals have been achieved.

Act Roll out the successful changes you've made to other functions. Use the information, learning and experience from this experience both to plan further improvements to this plan and to inform new projects.

 

 

SKILL CAPSULE: HOW TO COMPLAIN (EFFECTIVELY)

There are some people who are incredibly effective at making complaints. They seem to know instinctively how to pitch their problem, what to say, and what to do to get apologies, refunds, or other satisfactory outcomes.

Other people find that they just seem to end up shouting in frustration down the phone.

So what is it that the first group does that the second does not?

This page unpicks some of the issues involved in complaining and helps you learn how to complain effectively, whether in person or on the phone.

What is an Effective Complaint?

An effective complaint is one that is heard by the person at whom it is aimed, and which gets a result that pleases the complainant.

There are a number of simple rules to follow that will make your complaints more effective.

Rule 1:

Know what you want to achieve

The most effective complainants are those who have a clear idea of what they want to achieve from their complaint, and who set it out clearly to the person to whom they are complaining.

If you want a refund, for a product or service that didn't live up to your expectations, say so. If a refund won’t be enough, say that too. If you are simply looking for an apology, then make it clear. This makes your complaint much easier to deal with and also more likely to be resolved to your satisfaction.

Rule 2:

Threaten the company’s reputation

Effective complaints threaten to damage the company’s reputation in some way.

Not overtly; you don’t have to say ‘If you don’t respond, then I’ll go public’. It’s enough to say ‘I was really happy with you, and would have recommended you to all my friends, but now I don’t think I will’.

This will make the company concerned aware that you might just start telling your friends about your experience or, worse, talking about it via social media.

Rule 3:

Aim high and get personal

Most companies have a designated complaints procedure. You will probably get a reasonable result if you go through that procedure.

However, you’ll get at least that level of response if you write or email the chief executive directly, by name. You can generally find the details on the company’s website or via Google.

At the very worst, the chief executive’s PA will send your letter or email straight into the general complaints procedure. But it’s quite likely that the chief executive will at least see your email and that you will get some kind of personal response.

Rule 4:

Write or go in person, don’t phone

It is possible to make effective complaints by phone but, in general, the odds are stacked against you.

In the first place, you can’t see who you are talking to. You are therefore easy to fob off. A very junior person may promise to look into it and then do nothing. If you write or email the chief executive, your complaint is much harder to ignore. And if you’re standing at the reception desk, or on the shop floor, demanding to see someone senior every two or three minutes, you’re likely to get a much faster response because you’re embarrassing them.

Reputational damage is bad news for most companies.

If you really have to complain by phone, then remain focused on what you want to achieve and state it clearly:

§  Make sure that you keep a full record of the conversation, including the name of the person to whom you spoke.

§  If you’re not satisfied, ask to speak to that person’s manager and don’t allow yourself to be fobbed off with ‘He/she is on a coffee break right now’. Ask when they’ll be back and request that they call you back on return.

§  Ask for the manager’s name and, if they don’t call you back, call again and ask to speak to them.

§  Be persistent.

Rule 5:

Use social media, especially if you don’t get an immediate response

A complaint expressed via Twitter, especially with the hashtag of the company’s name together with ‘bad customer service’, is likely to get a very quick response.

Most large companies have someone monitoring Twitter for any sign of activity about them. Again, it’s about reputational damage. To make the matter even more high profile, aim your tweet at the chief executive if he or she is active on Twitter, using their @handle at the beginning of your tweet. Make sure that you have spent time crafting your tweet carefully to express the nature of your complaint, or saying how long it has taken to respond to your original complaint.

Rule 6:

Expect the unexpected

Don’t be thrown by a company’s response to your complaint. If you’ve complained effectively, you may well get a much higher level of response than you were expecting.

For example, the chief executive’s PA or a very senior manager may call you, or you may get a personal email or tweet from the chief executive. Whatever the level of the response, don’t feel that you need to jump at the first offer made: you can always say ‘Well, that sounds quite good, and I’d like that very much, but I’m still not confident that you’ve really taken on board x’. Quite apart from anything else, that gives you thinking time.

Rule 7:

Don’t get mad, get even

You’re angry. That’s why you’re complaining. But try to get calm before you email or pick up the phone.

Make sure that you’re right to be angry before you start jumping in at the deep end. Are you sure you haven’t misunderstood? Sometimes it can be better to wait a day or so before deciding whether to complain, although there will obviously be times when you just need to wade in, all guns blazing.

Rule 8:

If you don’t get the response that you want, say so

There is no point in seething to yourself. If you are talking to someone and they don’t seem to be listening to you, then say so.

If they are responding to a completely different point, then make that clear. If they are being downright rude, then ask politely if they are aware of how rude that sounded. And if you’re not happy that the person to whom you are talking has the authority to agree the response that you want, then ask to speak to their manager.

COMMUNICATION EXERCISE: PREPARE A LECTURE AND DELIVER TO ONE

DAY 71

MANAGEMENT SUBJECT: SUPPLY CHAINS

Adding value at every stage of your business

Supply chain management is about achieving success - not just for yourself but for others. No matter where your company is placed in the supply chain, it is important to understand the whole chain so that you can better manage and support everyone involved - that way, everyone wins.

Overview

Maximizing profits for your company is best achieved by understanding the needs of your suppliers and the companies you supply. This requires one basic component that is often neglected: strong business relationships in general and great communication in particular. By talking to your suppliers and clients you will better understand their needs and capabilities, but, more than that, you will be able to create a dialogue where you can all develop a better route to success. Figuring things out together is the core of supply chain excellence.

Business strategy needs to start by looking at how the supply chain is structured. Your approach will reflect the needs of your company. You also need to be creative. Are there new technologies that could rewrite your current supply chain? Could you cut out your current clients and sell direct to customers?

Example: supply chain for a car company

Raw materials e.g. Mining company producing aluminium ore

Primary manufacturer e.g. Company producing sheet aluminium

Fabricator e.g. Company that turns aluminium sheets into car parts

Product producer e.g. Company that assembles parts into cars

Consumer marketer e.g. The company or division that markets the car

Retail e.g. The local dealer that sells the car directly to customer

                Upstream organizations                                                              Downstream organizations

      Centre of gravity

Each company is dependent on the others in the supply chain. This means that everyone needs to consider the needs of other companies and, most importantly, the ultimate end user: the customer. The advantages of cutting stages out of the supply chain are self-evident: better prices for customers, faster service and greater control, and competitive advantage. Essentially, supply chains require careful management: companies rely upon one another. By developing the right strategy together, everyone wins.

SKILL CAPSULE: COMPETENCY DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

 Identifying the competencies that an individual already has and those that they need to develop is a skill that is often neglected. In many instances managers never receive any formal training in this area and are often left to read a personnel manual or base their behavior on their own appraisal experiences. Understanding how to assess an individual's competencies from the behaviors they exhibit is a key management skill.

Competencies are distinct from goals. Goals are concerned with 'what' has been accomplished; competencies are concerned with 'how' it was accomplished.

Both of these factors are equally important since it would be possible for someone to achieve all of his or her performance goals whilst creating problems with customers, suppliers, and co-workers. In fact, focusing exclusively on the achievement of performance goals with no reference as to how they have been achieved can prove disastrous in the long term.

For example, if a sales person has achieved all of their sales targets by misleading customers about product functionality or delivery dates then this would impact on other people in the organization and may damage the reputation of the organization itself.

Similarly, a technical support team member might have a good record of resolving technical problems, but if they appear condescending towards customers then this will need to be dealt with before it causes damage to the organization's image.

It can be tempting to focus your attention on goal attainment and disregard the behavioral aspects of performance, because goals are generally much easier to define and measure than competencies. However, you need to take account of both goals and competencies if you want to improve your team's performance in a way that benefits the whole organization.

You can use our Competency Observation Template to help you to keep high-level notes on each team member's progress in developing their competencies, and our Competency Evaluation Template will help you to record how and when an individual displayed the required competencies identified in their last appraisal.

In many organizations the appraisal cycle is used to assess future development needs as well as assess current performance. The appraisal cycle usually looks something like this:

Both competencies and goals are equally important and focusing exclusively on the achievement of performance goals with no reference as to how they have been achieved is a shortsighted approach for the following reasons:

Firstly, because the way in which people achieve their goals has implications for the organization as a whole and ignoring this aspect of performance simply because it is difficult to measure can lead to serious problems.

Secondly, the work that you do to develop the competencies of your team members represents a direct investment in their future. Most people consider any increase in their skills and marketability as a positive thing and in the absence of a monitory reward (something you may not be able to offer) it can keep them motivated and engaged with their work. The time that you invest in developing your team can more than make up for the time you would spend dealing with motivation problems or resignation and recruitment issues.

Finally, your organization will only be successful in the long term if it can realize the potential of everyone who works there. Whilst it is true that there are costs incurred when developing people's competencies, it is still far cheaper to do so than to buy in the skills from outside, with all of the attendant uncertainty, risk, and management overhead that this involves.

Key Points

• Competencies are distinct from goals. Goals are concerned with 'what' has been accomplished; competencies are concerned with 'how' it was accomplished.
• Assessing an individual's competencies from the behaviors they exhibit is a key part of conducting a performance appraisal.

COMMUNICATION EXERCISE: PREPARE LECTURE AND DELIVER TO CLASS

DAY 72

MANAGEMENT SUBJECT: RATIO ANALYSIS

Revealing measurements

Ratios assess business performance at strategic and operational levels. When compared to ratios for previous periods, they show trends and patterns.

Use the most effective ratios for each situation and choose appropriate time periods. Knowing the ratios other organizations monitor provides access to similar information. Use ratios creatively and extensively to provide insight into performance. Make sure that everyone knows what the ratio measures and what it means — use graphs to reveal trends. A ratio measures only one aspect and is only as good as the data it is based on. Moreover, its value depends on interpretation. Understanding causes requires further analysis.

Gross profit margin ratio

This is the relationship between revenue and costs. If gross profit is too low, either prices are too low or costs are too high

Gross profit ÷ Sales x 100 = Gross profit margin

Net profit ratio

This is the relationship between revenue and costs. If it is too low, or falling, costs may be rising or revenue falling.

Net profit ÷ Sales x 100 = Net profit margin

Average debtor collection periods

365 x Debtors (amount owed to your business) = Average debtor collection period

Average creditor payment period

365 x Creditors (amount owed by your business) = Average creditor payment period

Current ratio

This is normally between 1.5 and 2. If it is less than 1, current liabilities exceed current assets, thus risking insolvency (though thus depends on the industry).

Current assets ÷ Current liabilities = Current ratio

The quick ratio (acid test)

The quick ratio deducts from current assets those assets difficult to turn into cash quickly. This is normally between 0.7 and 1. If it stands at 1 or more, quick assets exceed current liabilities and the business is safe.

Quick assets ÷ Current liabilities = Quick (or 'Acid test') ratio

The gearing ratio

This measures solvency. Apart from new and small businesses, gearing should not exceed 50 per cent.

Loans + Bank overdraft ÷ Equity + Loans + Bank overdraft = Gearing

The price/earnings ratio (P/E)

This values a company.

Share price ÷ Earnings per share = Price/earnings ratio

The higher the P/E ratio, the more the company is worth. This is relative to competitors. Earnings rise when share prices rise - which can be misleading. Past earnings may not reflect future growth.

Return on equity

Net profit after tax ÷ Equity capital = Return on equity

Fluctuations in a supplier's prices

Supplier's current prices ÷ Supplier's previous prices

Suppliers' delivery times

Value of outstanding orders with suppliers ÷ Value of average daily purchases

A supplier's reliability

Value of overdue orders from a supplier ÷ Average daily purchases from all suppliers

Employee productivity

Profit ÷ Number of employees

Value-added per employee

Sales minus material costs ÷ Average number of employees

Sales growth

Sales for the period ÷ Sales for a previous period = Sales growth

Market share, to monitor product portfolio

Current market share ÷ Previous market share = Market share ratio

Value of work in hand

Value of orders in hand ÷ Average value of daily sales = Size of order book

Marketing efficiency

This is sales to cost ratio.

Marketing spend ÷ Revenue = Marketing efficiency

SKILL CAPSULE: WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Work-life balance is a term used for the idea that you need time for both work and other aspects of life, whether those are family-related or personal interests. The saying goes that ‘all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’.

But work, or at least some kind of contributory effort, whether paid or voluntary, is often recognised as being important for personal satisfaction, so it seems likely that ‘all play’ would be dull too.

The Origin of the Idea of ‘Work-Life Balance’

The idea that rest is vital for productive work goes back millennia.

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

In the 1800s, during and following the industrial revolution, industrialists and unions alike agreed that workers needed a day off. This later became a two-day ‘weekend’. But in those days, ‘work’ was mostly manual, and once workers left the site, they also left their work behind. They were genuinely able to rest, away from work, without having to think about it or worry about what might be going on in their absence.

Times have changed dramatically.

The phrase ‘work-life balance’ is rather more recent in origin. It was probably first used in the UK in the late 1970s, and in the US in the mid-1980s. It has, however, taken on a new meaning with the recent technological changes that have made it possible for workers to stay in touch 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Smart phones, remote working technology and the like have meant that, even on holiday, people find it hard to ‘switch off’ and genuinely rest, and the complaint is often that people are expected to be ‘on-call’ at all times, without being allowed to have a life outside work.

The Importance of Work-Life Balance

Broadly, Maslow says that people have needs, which had to be met in order. Before anything else can be considered, basic physiological needs such as food, water, and shelter must be provided. After that, people need to feel safe, and then to be loved and belong to a group.

They then move on to issues of self-esteem, cognitive needs, and aesthetic needs, and finally, at the top of the pyramid, there is self-actualisation, or achieving your full potential as a human being.

What this means in practice is that work provides for basic needs: money earned provides food, and shelter, and a regular income means safety. Work also allows people to belong to a group, and doing well at work boosts self-esteem. The lower levels are all largely met through aspects of working.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Physiological Needs, Safety Needs, Love and Belongingness, Esteem Needs, Cognitive Needs, Aesthetic Needs and Self-Actualisation.

At the top of the pyramid, however, are needs which are hard to meet with work alone, and this is where lifestyle choices, and having time for leisure, become important.

This explains partly why a work-life balance is a relatively modern concept, because you truly do need all the basic needs to be met before you have time or energy, or need, to worry about aesthetics or self-actualisation.

Stress and Rest

While some level of stress can be very productive, prolonged and high levels of stress can lead to mental health problems, including burnout and depression. These are not just personal problems: time off work for mental health problems is extremely expensive for businesses.

It is well-documented that rest and, particularly, being able to detach from work is vital for reducing stress.

With almost half of people reporting that their jobs are either ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ stressful in a survey in the US, this means that the idea of a work-life balance is increasingly important to the economy.

Achieving a Work-Life Balance:

A Suggested Process

Achieving a work-life balance can be a challenge, but these ideas should help you to make a start:

1. What is the nature and scale of the problem?

Before you can make things better, you have to understand the problem.

Try keeping a diary for a week, and set out how much time you spend on each activity, both at work and outside. That will give you an idea of your current work-life balance. You may also find it helpful to separate chores, including driving children to activities, and ‘fun’.

Warning! You may be surprised by the results.

A recent study using this technique found that women who reported having a good work-life balance and those who felt that they were spending too much time at work actually had very similar diaries. Much of it was a matter of perception.

Just seeing how much leisure time they had often made the participants feel better immediately.

Once you can see how your life separates into work and ‘other’, and into chores and fun, you can start to work out how to make changes to improve the balance.

2. Identify the ideal scenario

In many ways, this process is a bit like strategic thinking.

First you need to know where you are, then where you want to be. Think about how you would like your life to look.

    What would be the ideal balance between work and home?

    How would you like to be spending your time?

Top tip: Clocks

One very useful technique for this is ‘clocks'.

Draw two clock faces on a page, one for an ideal week day and one for an ideal day at the weekend.

Split the day up into chunks to show how you would like to spend it: how much time in bed, how much time doing chores and other necessary but boring things, how much time working, and how much time on other things.

Be specific about the other things, whether those are playing with the children, practising a musical instrument or learning a language. The discipline of having a clock face forces you to fit your activities into the time available, and you can see whether your ambitions are realistic.

You can expand this to seven clock faces, one for each day of the week, if you wish.

WARNING! Be realistic about your ambitions. You do need to do boring stuff like cleaning and laundry from time to time, or pay someone else to do it.

3. What changes do you need to make to get from ‘now’ to ‘future’?

Look at your current situation and at your ideal scenario.

G  Identify three to five key changes that will help you to move from ‘now’ to ‘future’. For example, if you have identified that you want to confine weekend overtime to an hour in the evening on Sunday night, then what do you need to do to achieve that?

Concrete steps that you could take include:

§  Telling your colleagues that you will not be checking emails at the weekend;

§  Putting an out-of-office notification on your email to remind people;

§  Putting your work phone and computer away somewhere during the weekend. If your work emails come to your personal smartphone, then remove the account, or get a dedicated phone for work; and

§  Telling your family what you intend so that if they catch you checking emails they can remind you. If you have enough time outside work, but you feel that it’s all swallowed by chores, then steps to take might include:

§  Working out whether you can afford to have a cleaner;

§  Asking your spouse, and if appropriate, children, to do more chores, and agreeing a reasonable split or rota; and

§  Identifying one day per week which is ‘chore-free’.

Remember……it is possible to achieve a reasonable work-life balance, but you have to want to do it.

You can take control of your life, and make time for the things that matter to you, but nobody else is going to do that for you. If you want to spend more time out of work, then you will have to start leaving work earlier or arriving later.

You may need to learn to be more assertive with your colleagues, and particularly start to say ‘no’, if anyone asks you to take on more. But once you start looking to make changes, you may be surprised how easy it is to achieve a better work-life balance.

COMMUNICATION EXERCISE: EXTEMPORE LECTURE TO CLASS

DAY 73

MANAGEMENT SUBJECT: MAPPING AND MITIGATING RISK

Can you afford not to?

In order to minimize the chances of things going wrong, it is important to focus on the quality of what people do: doing the right things right reduces risks and costs.

Mapping risk

If the ability to control the risk is plotted against its potential impact, as shown in the diagram below, you can decide on actions either to Communication Exercise greater control or to mitigate the potential impact. Risks falling into the top-right quadrant are the priorities for action, although the bottom-right quadrant (total/significant control, major/critical impact) should not be ignored, as management complacency, mistakes and a lack of control can lead to the risk being realized.

 

No control
Weak control
Significant control
Total control
	Minor	Significant	Major	Critical

                                                                               

Potential Impact

                                                               

Quantifying potential risks

Because each risk may have a different level of impact, quantifying their effects is essential. Risks can be mapped both in terms of likely frequency and potential impact, with the emphasis on significance. Also, the potential consequences of risk may be ranked on a scale ranging from inconvenient to catastrophic.

                       High

Monitor - risk is unlikely but potentially significant; prepare contingency measures	Danger - risk is high and impact significant. Action needed urgently
Monitor - risk and impact low, but may change	Minimize - risk is likely but impact small. Reduce the likelihood of it occurring at all and check that potential impact stays low

                               

                  Low
                                                      Low                                                                                                 High

                                                                                Probability of the risk occurring

When mitigating risks, start by reducing or eliminating those that result only in cost: essentially non-trading risks (these might include property damage risks, legal and contractual liabilities and business interruption risks, and can be thought of as the 'fixed costs' of risk). Other ways that risks can be reduced or mitigated are to share them with a partner, to monitor them or subject them to contingency plans. For example, acceptable service level agreements from vendors are essential to reduce risk. Joint ventures, licensing and agency agreements are also different ways of mitigating risk.

Finally, actively managing and using information is also crucial. Risk management relies on accurate, timely information. Management information systems should provide details of the likely areas of risk and of the information that is needed to control the risks. This information must reach the right people at the right time, so that they can investigate and take corrective action.

SKILL CAPSULE: GIVING LECTURES AND SEMINARS

Both lectures and seminars are frequently used in higher and further education, and increasingly in schools too.

Although lectures, in particular, are very similar to giving presentations, the term ‘lecture’ is uniquely used for some kind of educational session.

Lectures offer a good way to provide a large amount of information to a big group in a short space of time.

Seminars enable group discussion and checking that your students have understood the subject in a much smaller group.

Defining Lectures and Seminars

lecture  n. a lesson or period of instruction, a discourse on any subject, especially a professorial or tutorial discourse. seminar n. a class at which a group of students and a teacher discuss a topic.

Lectures, then, basically consist of one person (the lecturer) standing at the front of the room, and speaking, or giving a presentation, to everyone in the room.

Lectures are not primarily interactive opportunities, although students may well ask questions about the content if they do not understand.

Seminars, however, are a discussion opportunity.

Seminars may also be called study groups, work-groups, or discussion groups. The students are expecting, and expected, to interact with the tutor and with each other.

Choosing a Lecture or Seminar

It should immediately be clear that the two types of session lend themselves to very different topics and also require different skills from those running them.

When to choose a……lecture…seminar

When you need to get a large amount of information across to a big group in a short space of time;     When the group needs or wants to discuss alternative ideas and debate their merits;

When the group needs to know about facts or alternative theories, but not to discuss their relative merits;      When you want to check the group’s understanding about a particular topic;

When you want the group to know and understand a particular idea in some detail;    When there are fewer facts, and the topic is more a matter of opinion and/or there are several possible alternative interpretations and actions;

When you are the expert and your role is to provide information. When you feel that your role is to facilitate discussion and not to provide information.

This distinction is perhaps becoming less clear-cut, with many tutors using lectures as a more interactive discussion session, designed to engage students and keep them awake.

It’s far from the old stereotype of a lecturer who stands at the front and reads out the handout, making copious notes on a whiteboard as he does so. This is particularly the case for social sciences and other more nuanced subjects, where there is less ‘truth’ and more ‘opinion’.

In reality, how you approach your lectures is very much up to you.

Giving a Lecture

Giving a lecture is very like giving a presentation to a large group, except that you are unlikely to have a microphone.

You may therefore find it helpful to work through our series of pages on Presentation Skills to help you prepare, organise your material, and write the presentation.

Perhaps the key difference is the duration of the session.

Presentations tend to be 20 minutes to half an hour, followed by a question session. Lectures are expected to last the full duration of the session, with little or no designated question time. The duration of the session will be set by the institution, but is often one or two hours. This means that some sort of visual aid is probably going to be essential to keep your students’ attention.

Lecture theatres often have banked seating to ensure that all students can see, which can give the feeling of being at the bottom of a large goldfish bowl, or perhaps in the arena in ancient Rome. But the importance of making eye contact and engaging with your audience are no different.

Some lecturers find it helpful to identify one or two students whom they know well enough from seminars or tutorials to assess when they might be getting confused. If your key students start to look worried, it’s as well to pause and check everyone understands the topic.

It’s also worth pausing periodically and asking if anyone has any questions or would like you to go over any particular points. After all, you are there to teach and, if you’ve lost them all, it’s not much help.

Your students will also appreciate a handout. If you are using slides, this will often be a copy of them. You should hand this out at the beginning of the lecture, so that they can supplement it with their own notes if they wish. You should also make sure that they have any handouts or slides  electronically, for those who make notes on a laptop or tablet.

Some lecturers provide background reading in advance of their lectures. However, don’t be surprised if nobody has read it.

Giving a Seminar

Your first role as a seminar tutor is to provide materials in advance for your students to prepare. This may be some background reading, or perhaps a case study to consider. You may also want to provide some potential discussion questions for your students to start to consider their answers.

At the seminar itself, you need to begin by setting the scene at the beginning of the seminar. In an ideal world, your students will have prepared and come ready to discuss a particular question or set of questions, but it won’t hurt to remind them of the subject and give them a starting point for discussion.

You may want to start with three or four slides to set out the background to the seminar. Consider this as a mini-presentation. For more ideas about how to do this effectively.

You should then kick off the discussion by asking a question. After that, your key role is to facilitate discussion.

Have a series of questions ready to move the discussion through key areas of the subject.

You can either share these questions at the beginning of the seminar, or just interject them at suitable moments, either when the discussion flags or to move it through the key areas.

One of the key roles of a facilitator at any event is to help the group to manage their time so that they have a chance to discuss everything.

During your preparation, make sure that you consider how long the group will need to spend on each item or discussion question, and that they have enough time to discuss everything. If not, cut down the number of questions! You can always bring them in later should discussion flag earlier than expected.

A Word of Warning

This is a very general guide to the specifics of lectures and seminars, which is designed to help those new to lecturing and/or organising seminars.

However, what you actually do will depend on you, your students and also, to some extent, your institution, whether school, college or university. You should check any guidance carefully, and also ensure that you are providing educational opportunities that work for your students.

COMMUNICATION EXERCISE: MOTIVATION LECTURE

DAY 74

MANAGEMENT SUBJECT: SHAREHOLDER VALUE ANALYSIS

Consistently increasing the value of a business for shareholders

Shareholder value analysis sees the worth of a company as the long-term value it creates for shareholders. Originally proposed by Alfred Rappaport, it can be applied to the whole company, a business unit or specific project and is used to determine a company's direction and to measure progress.

Dealing with long-term profit forecasts, it focuses efforts on creating long-term shareholder value. Freeing strategic thinking from the limitations of other financial measures that can be overly focused on past data or short-term issues, it better informs a company's strategy and puts the focus on securing future financial stability and growth. This makes it particularly important for determining the long-term direction of a company or business unit. A significant advantage is that it can be used across a range of operating units, regardless of any differences between financial measures that are in place.

The method

Obviously, the calculations involved in shareholder value analysis are many and complex. The following is designed to show the general principle of what is being determined.

·         First, estimate the total net worth of a company, unit or project - that is, assets minusliabilities. (This involves using discounted cash flows and subtracting expected capital costs.)

·         Then divide this by the number (or value) of shares. This reveals the return to shareholders:

(total net worth - liabilities) ÷ number of shares = return

·         If this return is higher than the costs involved, then value has been created for shareholders - clearly, the larger this difference between return and costs (also known as equity return and equity costs), the more shareholder value is added.

return - costs = shareholder value

Limitations

Awareness of its limitations and being clear about what you expect to get out of the process will help you to use shareholder value analysis effectively.

·         It involves painstaking assessment, valuation and analysis - these take considerable time and money.

·         Predictions about future cash flows and costs can never be accurate. As well as basing the value of a company on guesses, these figures are subject to unforeseen changes.

·         It can skew strategy to only considering shareholder value as a measure of worth. Not all value in a company lies in its return to shareholders. It is important not to lose sight of other factors, with different measures - such as corporate social responsibility, customers and employees.

SKILL CAPSULE: GIVING AND RECEIVING FEEDBACK

In life as much as in work, it’s important to know how to provide feedback to others, effectively and constructively without causing offence.

There are many opportunities in life for providing others with feedback, from commenting on the way that your colleague has carried out a task, to discussing your children’s behaviour with them.

This page focuses on the process of communicating with someone about something that they have done or said, with a view to changing or encouraging that behaviour. This is often called ‘giving feedback’, and when you do, you want your feedback to be effective.

'Feedback' is a frequently used term in communication theory. It is worth noting that this page is not about what might loosely be called ‘encouragement feedback’—the ‘yes I’m listening’-type nods and ‘uh-huhs’ which you use to tell someone that you are listening.

What is Effective Feedback?

For our purposes, we will define effective feedback as that which is clearly heard, understood and accepted. Those are the areas that are within your power. You have no control over whether the recipient chooses to act upon your feedback, so let’s put that to one side. 

So how can you make sure that your feedback is effective?

Develop your feedback skills by using these few rules, and you’ll soon find that you’re much more effective.

1. Feedback should be about behaviour not personality

The first, and probably the most important rule of feedback is to remember that you are making no comment on what type of person they are, or what they believe or value. You are only commenting on how they behaved. Do not be tempted to discuss aspects of personality, intelligence or anything else. Only behaviour.

2. Feedback should describe the effect of the person’s behaviour on you

After all, you do not know the effect on anyone or anything else. You only know how it made you feel or what you thought. Presenting feedback as your opinion makes it much easier for the recipient to hear and accept it, even if you are giving negative feedback. After all, they have no control over how you felt, any more than you have any control over their intention. This approach is a blame-free one, which is therefore much more acceptable.

Choose your feedback language carefully.

Useful phrases for giving feedback include:

    “When you did [x], I felt [y].”

    “I noticed that when you said [x], it made me feel [y].”

    “I really liked the way that you did [x] and particularly [y] about it.”

    “It made me feel really [x] to hear you say [y] in that way.”

3. Feedback should be as specific as possible

Especially when things are not going well, we all know that it’s tempting to start from the point of view of ‘everything you do is rubbish’, but don’t. Think about specific occasions, and specific behaviour, and point to exactly what the person did, and exactly how it made you feel. The more specific the better, as it is much easier to hear about a specific occasion than about ‘all the time’!

4. Feedback should be timely

It’s no good telling someone about something that offended or pleased you six months later. Feedback needs to be timely, which means while everyone can still remember what happened. If you have feedback to give, then just get on and give it. That doesn’t mean without thought. You still need to think about what you’re going to say and how.

5. Pick your moment

There are times when people are feeling open to feedback and times when they aren’t. Have a look at our page on emotional awareness and work on your social awareness, to help you develop your awareness of the emotions and feelings of others. This will help you to pick a suitable moment. For example, an angry person won’t want to accept feedback, even given skilfully. Wait until they’ve calmed down a bit.

Feedback doesn’t just happen in formal feedback meetings.

Every interaction is an opportunity for feedback, in both directions. Some of the most important feedback may happen casually in a quick interchange, for example, this one, overheard while two colleagues were making coffee:

Mary (laughing): “You remind me of my mum.”

Jane (her boss): “Really, why?”

Mary: “She gets really snappy with me when she’s stressed too.”

Jane: “Oh, I’m so sorry, have I been snapping at you? I am a bit stressed, but I’ll try not to do it in future. Thank you for telling me, and I’m sorry you needed to.”

Mary had, quite casually, raised a serious behavioural issue with Jane. Jane realised that she was fortunate that Mary had recognised the behavioural pattern from a familial situation, and drawn her own conclusions.

However, Jane also recognised that not everyone she would ever work with would do the same. Having been made aware of her behaviour, she chose to change it. Mary had also, casually or not, given feedback in line with all the rules: it was about Jane’s recent behaviour, and so was specific and timely, and showed how Mary perceived it. It was also at a good moment, when Jane was relaxed and open to discussion.

Receiving Feedback

It’s also important to think about what skills you need to receive feedback, especially when it is something you don’t want to hear, and not least because not everyone is skilled at giving feedback.

Be Open To The Feedback

In order to hear feedback, you need to listen to it. Don’t think about what you’re going to say in reply, just listen. And notice the non-verbal communication as well, and listen to what your colleague is not saying, as well as what they are.

For example, you might say:

    “So when you said …, would it be fair to say that you meant … and felt …?”

    “Have I understood correctly that when I did …, you felt …?”

Make sure that your reflection and questions focus on behaviour, and not personality. Even if the feedback has been given at another level, you can always return the conversation to the behavioural, and help the person giving feedback to focus on that level.

Emotional intelligence is essential. You need to be aware of your emotions (self-awareness) and also be able to manage them (self-control), so that even if the feedback causes an emotional response, you can control it.

And Finally…

Always thank the person who has given you the feedback. They have already seen that you have listened and understood, now accept it.

Acceptance in this way does not mean that you need to act on it. However, you do then need to consider the feedback, and decide how, if at all, you wish to act upon it. That is entirely up to you, but remember that the person giving the feedback felt strongly enough to bother mentioning it to you.

Do them the courtesy of at least giving the matter some consideration. If nothing else, with negative feedback, you want to know how not to generate that response again.

COMMUNICATION EXERCISE: ORGANISING LECTURE

DAY 75

MANAGEMENT SUBJECT: THE SIX LEVELS OF STRATEGIC AGILITY AND COST CONTROL

Managing Costs and preparing for the future.

The future arrives quickly and in ways that continually surprise: only those ready to adapt will survive and prosper. Companies need to create the processes that enable them to adapt easily, quickly and effectively to changes and opportunities without harming other parts of the company.

A company’s processes do not exist separately from the people who run them. Administrators enable the rapid adaptation needed to succeed while protecting the whole company. By creating self-adaptive systems, companies are more than robust-they maximize potential. This requires redesigning systems to:

1.   enable people to determine and make necessary changes so that processes adapt quickly, successfully and effectively

2.   decouple processes so that changes in one part do not harm other parts. 

The dangers of cost-cutting

When times are tough, companies cater to the short term and cut costs. However, long term needs are important. John Wells has identified six typical responses from companies that are facing cost cutting pressures.

·         Level Zero. Leaders promise cuts but don’t deliver –long term success doesn’t materialize. Their focus is on other, narrow goals – not on creating a company capable of rapid and successful adaptation.

·         Level One. Drastic, arbitrary, ill-conceived cuts are made that fail to deal with the causes of difficulties. Only by resolving fundamental, structural causes can a company hope to redress the situation.

·         Level Two. Redesigning processes to meet current needs. While this cuts immediate costs, it fails to build for the future. This leads to higher costs as the company repeatedly overhaul the system to keep pace with competitors.

·         Level Three. Although future needs are considered, plans are constrained by the need to stagger initiatives according to what can be afforded.

·         Level Four. Leaders plan for the unknown by creating adaptable systems that are decoupled from each other so that targeted changes can be made easily, without harming other activities.

·         Level Five. Leaders ensure that companies can weather storms. Systems are decoupled and people are seen as enabler of those systems. Decoupling is the first step, but the right culture need s t be in place to make it happen. Trust and enable your people to assess situations and make changes quickly and effectively. This is when companies are agile and adaptive.

The problem of IT

IT structure is problematic: it is company-wide and an entrenched monolith – so much so that IT is often quoted as a major barrier to change. It is essential that IT does not impede the ability of individual parts of a company to adapt. Decoupling processes are necessary for adaptive systems.

Only by creating a culture of self–adaptation will companies be future-proof.

SKILL CAPSULE: WORKING IN GROUPS AND TEAMS

Being in groups is part of everyday life and many of us will belong to a wide range of groups, for example: family groups, social groups, sports groups, committees, etc.

This page concentrates on groups that have been specially formed to fulfil some purpose, or groups that are a drawing together of people with shared experience.  This type of group is often also referred to as a team.

What are Groups and Teams?

There is some confusion about the difference between a group and a team; traditionally academics, communication and management theorists use the terms: group, group-working, group-interaction, group-structure etc. to refer to the dynamics of people working together towards a common cause.

The word group however has a broader meaning – a group of passengers on a flight have a common characteristic – to travel, but they are not necessarily working towards a common cause.  Groups do not even need to refer to people, for example, a group of products in a supermarket, in this case the group is arbitrary and could be defined by any number of variables.

A team is generally more specific.  We would not refer to our airline passengers as a team, unless they crashed on a desert island and needed to work together to survive.  The distinction is that a team is working together for a common cause.  A group of schoolchildren may be in the same class, whereas a team of schoolchildren may be working together on a specific project within the class.

When we talk about groups and teams we use the terms interchangeably – it is possible to have a group without a team but not a team without a group.  Although we use the word team throughout our pages we use the following definition of group:

§  A group is a collection of people with some common characteristics or purpose.

§  A group can consist of any number of people.

§  People in groups interact, engage and identify with each other, often at regular or pre-determined times and places.

§  The group members share beliefs, principles, and standards about areas of common interest and they come together to work on common tasks for agreed purposes and outcomes.

§  People in groups are defined by themselves and by others as group members, in other words individuals are aware that they are part of a group.

§  Important Defining Features of Groups:

§  People who can identify with each other.  Sharing ideas, beliefs and/or experience of common areas.

§  People who frequently and regularly engage with each other, agreeing on a purpose and working together on shared tasks.

§  People who recognise themselves and are recognised by others as part of a group.

Types of Groups

Groups may be formal, brought together for a particular purpose, or they may be informal such as family groups, groups of friends or colleagues.  You may come into contact or work with a range of different groups.

These types of group may include:

§  Work Groups:  Either formal, such as teams, committees or training groups, or informal maybe setup to tackle an ad-hoc problem.

§  Neighbourhood Groups:  An example of a neighbourhood group would be one established to develop local amenities.

§  Social Groups | Special Interest groups:  These are groups established to meet the needs of a particular sector (e.g. age group, gender) or interests (e.g. music or sports).  Examples include Women’s Institute and Scouts.

§  Self-Help Groups:  Such groups are often established to work through particular emotions or to provide support for people with a certain illness, e.g. helping to overcome an addiction such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

§  Inter-Agency Groups:  These are developed between agencies/organisations that work in related fields to improve product and/or client services.  In addition, they aid communication and establish joint ventures to prevent duplication and confusion.

§  Pressure Groups:  The function of pressure groups is to challenge the status quo, often by using high profile tactics to gain media attention to achieve their aims.

§  Task-Based and Experience-Based Groups

§  Groups can also be sub-divided in two ways:

o   Groups established to carry out specific tasks are known as task-based groups, such as a pressure groups.

o   Groups which are based on the experiences of their members are known as experience-based groups, such as a self-help group.

§  The distinction between task-based groups and experience-based groups is important because it affects how the group is formed, organised, led and what roles the individual group members play.

§  Task-Based or Content Groups

These types of group focus on the achievement of specific goals and the individual members of the group work towards completing these goals.  These types of group are common in organisations and include groups set up to work on specific projects – perhaps the design of a new product.

§  Experience-Based or Process Groups

These types of group focus on the individual group members and how they interact, support and grow together, an example would be a group established to support people suffering from stress.

§  Group Communication. When people are part of a group they interact and communicate in different ways to how they would on a one-to-one basis.

These differences include:

The Individual Member within a Group

Through networking within a group people come to a greater understanding about other group members and the wider environment – seeing things from other people’s point of view.  Also, within a group situation, people often learn about who they are and their strengths and weaknesses through comparison with other group members.

Groups are important to personal development as they can provide support and encouragement to help individuals to make changes in behaviour and attitude.  Some groups also provide a setting to explore and discuss personal issues.  A group setting can allow people to become more confident and learn new interpersonal, social and practical skills through observation as well as practice.

These skills can be developed within a group setting and then effectively used in individual situations.  As group membership can improve self-esteem and confidence so it can also improve self-motivation and the desire to learn and develop.

The Group as a Whole

From the experience of belonging to different groups, it quickly becomes obvious that groups are often made up of individuals with very different personalities, attitudes and ideas.  For a group to function well a bond needs to be developed so that individual differences can be used for the wider interests of the group.  ‘Cohesiveness’ is the term used to describe this mutual bonding between members, with each having a strong sense of belonging to the group.

Cohesiveness is, in part, the measure of the success of the group. A group with more cohesiveness is more likely to keep its members than that of a group with little cohesiveness. Members of a high-cohesive group are likely to talk in group terms, using 'we' instead of 'I' when talking about group activities. The more cohesive a group the greater the sense of team spirit and the more individual members will cooperate with each other. A low-cohesive group may find that members frequently miss meetings; sub-groups or cliques may form within the original group and there is likely to be an underlying sense of frustration as the goals of the group are less likely to be attained.

COMMUNICATION EXERCISE: SPEAK TO TRADE UNION LEADERS TO PACIFY THEM

DAY 76

MANAGEMENT SUBJECT: DISCOUNTED CASH-FLOW ANALYSIS

Understanding the time value of money

We all know that cars depreciate in value from the moment we drive away from the sales forecourt, and that the money cannot be spent on anything else. Essentially, discounted cash flow is no different. Money has a value - one that changes through time. Inflation means that cash today is worth more than cash tomorrow. That is where discounted cash flow comes in: it is a means of tracking true worth and guiding business and investment decisions.

Overview

When deciding where to invest, you need to take three things into account.

1.       Is the risk worth the investment?

2.       Are there other projects that would be more lucrative? That is, what is the opportunity cost of using the money in this way rather than on something else?

3.       Will the return, over the estimated timescale, outdo inflation? In other words, would you have been better off investing your money elsewhere?

As a starting point, look at the current inflation rate, historical inflation rates, and possible future rates for the markets you are operating in. For example, if inflation is running at 2 per cent (and this is indicative of the historic trend and is unlikely to be eroded by future changes), you will know that, if you invest a certain sum over a certain period, you will need to obtain a return of at least the original sum plus this inflation figure — otherwise, you would have been better off spending your money elsewhere.

The five steps of discounted cash-flow analysis

These five steps will help you to determine the level of investment a project can justify.

1.       Identify exactly how the investment will be used — including the timing of all costs and likely sales.

2.       Determine both the positive and negative cash flows over time.

3.       Estimate the cash flow for when the project has been fully implemented and is likely, given unchanging markets, to continue.

4.       Apply the discounted cash-flow figure. This will reveal whether the original investment is worth making. This involves considering how much risk is involved, the cost of any loans, and inflation. This is not an exact science, so it is useful to create best-, medium- and worst-case scenarios. You will also need to consider the expectations of investors.

5.       Finally, compare your discounted cash flow with each year of operations. Decide whether the returns justify the investment.

Importantly, profit is not simply a case of deducting costs from sales: it is about knowing the opportunity cost of your money.

SKILL CAPSULE: INTERVIEWING SKILLS

Here we look at the skills you need to be an effective interviewer, an important skill-set when attempting to find the best possible candidate for a job.

This page provides a framework for the recruiting process, from preparation, interviewing, reviewing and decision making.

Interviewing, by itself, is not a very reliable way of selecting potential employees however skilled the interviewer, and it is particularly unreliable if there is just a single interviewer. Ideally you should include a test of some kind, whether problem-solving or giving a presentation, and include other people in the selection process to get a second opinion and avoid bias.

Preparing for the Interview

Good preparation for an interview is absolutely key. Exactly what you need to do will vary depending on your role in the interview.

You may be:

§  The recruiting manager, the person who is going to be managing the person recruited on a day-to-day basis, and therefore probably has the best understanding of the job requirements;

§  There to give a second opinion of the candidate. Such interviewers usually, but not always, have some knowledge of the job requirements.

§  An independent assessor or HR representative, there to manage the process and ensure that it is fair for all candidates. They are unlikely to have detailed knowledge of the job.

§  Perhaps the most important aspect of successful interviewing is knowing what you’re looking for in a candidate.

§  Make sure that you have a detailed job description and person specification that sets out what you really want from the person. Try to avoid jargon. If you haven’t written the particulars yourself, speak to the person who did and make sure you understand exactly what they meant.

§  Read the applications for all the candidates that you will be interviewing.

§  Ideally, you should score each candidate against the criteria in the person specification. Scores out of five are usual, where five is excellent and one is ‘does not show this at all’.

§  If you’re holding a panel interview, the panel needs to meet beforehand and discuss interview tactics.

§  Ideally, the interviewers (or panel) should carry out the short-listing for the interview, comparing the individual members’ scores for each candidate and agreeing on a panel score.

§  The panel then need to agree what questions should be asked and who is going to ask which questions, or cover which areas. It’s also helpful to discuss which areas are most important in case some areas have to be left unexamined.

§  Finally, the panel needs to agree what a ‘good’ answer to any particular question will look like, and how far they are prepared to probe to try to obtain one.

On the Day of the Interview

§  A key skill for interviewers is to be able to build rapport swiftly and help candidates feel relaxed.

§  When you meet the candidates make eye contact, offer a handshake and smile at them. Understand that they are probably feeling quite nervous.

§  Everyone is nervous in an interview so candidates will be better able to show you what they can do if you can help them to relax.

§  Your role, as the interviewer, is not to trip up the candidates. You’re there to find out if they can do the job or not.

§  Invite the candidate to sit down, and indicate a chair. It stops them worrying about what they should do.

§  One interviewer will generally lead the interview, they should:

§  Introduce the members of the interview panel and outline the process of the interview.

§  Explain broadly what the interview is going to cover and who is going to ask questions. It is also useful to explain what other members of the panel will be doing: making notes, observing, or perhaps adding supplementary questions.

§  Start off the process with a simple question such as ‘Tell us what you do in your current job’.

Presentations

If you have asked the candidates to prepare a presentation, start with that.

§  You can then ask them for more details about aspects of their presentation that you found either interesting or concerning. Set aside at least 10 minutes for questioning after the presentation.

§  Candidates can also be asked to do a written test. It is helpful to have the results of the tests in front of you during the interview so that you can ask them about anything that emerges.

Asking Questions

Interview questions generally take three forms: experience- or competence-based questions, hypothetical questions, and personal awareness questions.

§  Experience-Based Questions

§  These questions are designed to explore what the candidate has done, and the skills that they have previously demonstrated. They take the form:

o   “Tell me about a time when you….”

o   “Can you tell me how you have gone about solving a particular problem that you have faced at work?”

These questions have one big drawback: they don’t explore potential. What a candidate has previously done may not translate to your organization or your job.

If you are interviewing candidates who don’t have much work experience, it’s hard for them to demonstrate the skills from the past. It’s therefore also helpful to use a few hypothetical, or problem-solving questions.

Hypothetical Questions

These questions are designed to explore how candidates will deal with the problems that are likely to face them in this post. You may provide them with a written statement of the problem, perhaps as half a page of bullet points, or just outline it to them, and ask them to consider what they would do to address the problem.

    Many interview processes use a candidate presentation to explore this area, for example asking candidates to present on what they see as the first five issues to be addressed in the job and how they would go about doing so.

Personal Awareness

These questions are designed to explore the fit between the candidate’s needs and what the job or organisation can offer. For example, you might ask the candidate to tell you what motivates them, or what strengths they bring to the job. Good questions of this type ask the candidate to rank their requirements or strengths. This enables you to assess how personally aware they are, and also whether you can provide the necessary motivation and/or use their strengths.

Such questions might include:

§  “Please tell us, in descending order, the top five factors that keep you motivated on the job”

§  “Tell us the most effective ways of managing you”

§  “What have recent appraisals and feedback suggested is an area for further work for you, and how are you addressing it?”

There is no space in a serious interview for ‘quirky’ questions such as ‘If you were a car/animal/country, what would you be?’. Anyone worth their salt will have prepared a stock answer, and you will find out nothing. Don’t waste everybody's time.

When you’ve asked all your questions, make sure that you offer the candidate the opportunity to ask any questions they may have.

Their questions may be illuminating: for example, do they seem to be interested largely in the job, or in the perks that accompany it?

Making Notes and Scoring

As a general principle, the person asking the questions should focus on the candidate while they are answering. Watching their body language, and listening carefully to what they’re saying.

Don’t try to make notes while the candidate is answering the question; you can do that once they’ve finished. In a panel interview, the other members of the panel should make notes as the question is being answered, but making sure that they too are listening and aware of the candidate’s body language.

Each panel member or interviewer should score the candidate on each criterion as the interview progresses.

You can always amend an earlier assessment, but after 45 minutes you won’t remember the earlier answers clearly enough to do all the scoring at the end.

For the same reason, the panel should also discuss each candidate immediately after they have left the room and agree their scores against the criteria.

Making a Decision

Your final decision should be based on the scores you have given each candidate.

If, when you get to the end of the process, one or more interviewers feels that the ‘wrong’ candidate has emerged as successful then it’s helpful to examine why this is so. Have you missed a key job skill? Or was there something that they said which should have resulted in a lower score?

It’s fine to revisit the process and come up with a different answer, as long as you can justify it in the event of an appeal by the candidate. At this stage, the role of the independent assessor, if there is one, is to ensure that the process is fair to all candidates.

‘Gut instinct’ is a very poor selection tool.

‘Liking’ someone in an interview usually means either that they were very good at building rapport, or that they remind you of someone you like.

Likewise, not really taking to someone usually just means that they were nervous, or said or did something that reminded you of someone you dislike or don’t get on with.

This is NOT an indication of how well they could do the job, although it may tell you something about their fit with the team. However, unless you have clearly indicated in advertising that this is a factor, it’s not a good idea to take it into account.

Besides, every oyster needs grit to make pearls and every team needs someone who will disagree with the consensus from time to time.

A Final Word of Warning

At the end of the interview process, you will hopefully have selected a suitable candidate. That may turn out to have been a good decision, or not.

Give yourself more chance of success by always taking up references, and not just in writing. Phone the referee as well and have a personal chat. People may say things in person that they wouldn’t put in writing and you may save yourself an expensive error.

COMMUNICATION EXERCISE: SPEAK TO BOSS AND CONVINCE HIM THAT WE NEED TO START A NEW BUSINESS

DAY 77

MANAGEMENT SUBJECT: ECONOMIES OF SCALE

Increasing your profit margins

High costs hit profits, and one vital way of reducing costs is to develop economies of scale where the cost of producing individual units falls as the volume of production increases.

Overview

Given that fixed costs need to be divided between the total number of units produced, the more units produced the lower unit costs become. Economies of scale can be achieved when your suppliers are able to offer lower prices for large orders, or because your own means of production reaches a large enough scale for goods to be produced more cheaply - perhaps through more efficient equipment or where fixed costs are divided over many more units.

The graph below shows the average cost per unit falling as production levels increase:

 

                                                               

                                                                Output

The benefits

Economies of scale:

·         improve efficiency

·         boost profitability

·         may lead to price reductions

·         enable resources to be used efficiently

·         optimize output

·         emphasize a focus on costs

·         enable us to question current methods and look for improvements.

Why it matters

Achieving economies of scale is not simply about increasing profit margins. It is also about passing these savings on to customers by offering competitive prices, and benefiting shareholders and people who invest and risk their capital by building the value of the business.

Economies of scale are all about crunching the numbers and looking for ways to reduce those numbers even further. It may involve making substantial investments in new equipment. Again, it is a simple case of doing the sums: calculating all the costs, investment: price and expected sales and then seeing what comes out. The goal is to reduce average unit costs while being mindful of other considerations, such as the need to maintain an acceptable standard of quality and brand values.

The importance of managers taking economies of scale into account is clearly seen in the publishing industry. A short print run of a book is very expensive. The high fixed costs of the set-up are divided between a small number of books. These costs can be recouped only by charging a high price per book, which then has the disadvantage of being uncompetitively priced. When those high initial costs are spread over a larger print run, average cost per unit falls dramatically.

Admittedly, however, economies of scale are not always the only consideration - risk is also an important factor. Not only is there no point in achieving economies of scale if the product doesn't sell, it has simply exposed you to greater risk or limited your strategic options by tying money up. Nonetheless, economies of scale enable companies to be more competitive and to increase their profit margins.

SKILL CAPSULE: 5 INTERVIEW TIPS

1. What are you looking for?
Interviewing is just like playing darts. The interviewer's screening criteria is the target and each dimension of your talent is represented by a dart.  At the start of the interview you must find the target and decide which 3 "experience darts" to present. "What skills do you feel are required to be successful in this position?" is an effective question for you to ask at the start ("opening phase") of the interview.
2. Ask Questions:
It is your responsibility to make sure the interview is an interview and not an interrogation. You do this by asking questions throughout the interview.
3 . Specific Examples:
Interviewers ask questions about your past experience to predict your future performance.  In response to their questions provide specific examples of your work and life experience. Focus on the actions you took and the results achieved.  Interviewers are less interested in what "the team did" or what you were "responsible for".
4. How do you like me so far?
At the conclusion of each interview ask the interviewer for their opinion of your background. Ask them what t they feel your strengths are and what concerns they have about your ability. Interviewers form opinions based on a 45 minute interview. The potential for misunderstanding is enormous. Ask a couple questions at the end to make sure they understand your e xperience accurately.

5. Visual Aids:
Bring visual aids whenever applicable to convey the quality of your work. You can even prepare a few PowerPoint slides or one page document to communicate the quality of your work. Visual aids can include anything that you feel conveys what you have done and what you can do.

COMMUNICATION EXERCISE: CONFERENCE CALL WITH 3 DEPARTMENTAL HEADS

DAY 78

MANAGEMENT SUBJECT: PRICE ELASTICITY

The way things are priced

Elasticity determines how flexible prices are. If a product is highly elastic, a company will find it difficult to increase the price because customers can go elsewhere, either to competitors or to purchasing entirely different goods. If it is inelastic, sales are less dependent on price - perhaps there are few suppliers and the product is essential.

Can you charge more for a product? Price elasticity answers that simple question, indicating the price you can set, which markets to enter and the levels of justifiable investment.

·         If your product is highly sensitive to price changes, focus on reducing costs or achieving market dominance by creating a stronger brand. Aim to create artificial scarcity or desirability to lower the price elasticity for your product. Alternatively, focus on reducing costs to raise profit margins.

·         If your product is less sensitive to price, you can increase profit through higher prices because people have fewer options. With cost reductions, price inelasticity is a recipe for supra-normal profits. Theoretically - brand issues and company longevity aside - the ultimate goal in a free market is monopolistic profits. Here, high price inelasticity is ideal - enter quickly, scoop profits and switch lanes when others enter the market.

Because free markets are free, companies can never be certain about how secure their positions are. Companies that once enjoyed price inelasticity and now rest on their laurels may often find themselves on the wrong side of enterprising, innovative, disruptive start-ups with new technologies and better products. Also, when price inelasticity becomes too high for an essential product provided through few companies (an oligopoly), governments often step in and regulate prices.

Veblen goods

Usually, when prices rise, demand falls. However, with 'Veblen goods' (goods with snob value), demand rises when price increases. Here, perception is everything: customers value products because they are expensive.

Price elasticity in detail

Elasticity is calculated as the percentage change in demand divided by the percentage change in price. The negative or positive sign in the answer only indicates the relationship between demand and price. Except in the case of Veblen goods, the sign is usually negative because price rises reduce demand, so the negative sign is usually ignored. It is the extent of the change that indicates price elasticity:

·         If the percentage change in demand is less than the change in price, demand is relatively inelastic. (See graph 1; the answer is less than one.)

·         If the percentage change in demand is greater than the change in price, demand is relatively elastic. (See graph 2; the answer is greater than one.)

The area of the rectangle under each price/quantity combination reveals the impact of price levels on revenue.

SKILL CAPSULE: COMMON MISTAKES IN AN INTERVIEW

Interrogations one sided questioning and Interview is 2 sided. Having no questions prepared indicates you are not interested and not prepared. Interviewers are more impressed by the questions you ask than the selling points you try to make. Before each interview make a list of 5 questions you will ask.

 Making a Positive out of a Weakness "I'm a perfectionist" and turn it into a positive. Interviewers are not fooled. Highlight a skill that you wish to improve upon and describe what you are proactively doing to enhance your skill. the question and what your answer indicates about you.

Only Researching the Company, What about You? Job seekers must  research themselves by taking inventory of their experience, knowledge and skills. Formulating a talent inventory prepares you to immediately respond to any question about your experience. You must be prepared to discuss any part of your background.

 Leaving Cell Phone On: We may live in a wired, always available society, but a ringing cell phone is not appropriate for an interview. Turn it off before you enter the company.

 Waiting for a Call: Time is your enemy after the interview.  After you send a thank you email and note to every interviewer, follow-up a couple days later with either a question or additional information.  Contact the person who can hire you , not HR (Human Resources).  Additional information can be details about your talents, a recent competitor's press release or industry trends. Your intention is to keep their memory of your fresh.

COMMUNICATION EXERCISE: INTRODUCE AND PRESENT A TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION TO THE CLASS

DAY 79

MANAGEMENT SUBJECT: SEVEN STEPS FOR SURVIVING A DOWNTURN

How businesses come through tough times stronger than before

What are the practical steps a business should take when faced with in-tensifying competition or a market downturn? There is no magic formula, just seven areas where practical action will help ensure continued success.

1.      Develop the right strategy

A strategy has three elements: development, implementation and selling (gaining commitment and buy-in). Underpinning all three is choice, in particular the need to choose a distinctive, competitive position with three dimensions. These dimensions are:

1.       who to target as customers (and who to avoid targeting)

2.       what products to offer

3.       how to undertake related activities.

2.      Focus decisions on the lost profitable areas

Concentrating on products and services with the best margin will protect or enhance profitability. This might involve redirecting sales and advertising activities.

3.      Strengthen customer focus

Customer focus matters because this is how firms retain existing customers, sell more to existing customers and attract new business (from the market and also from competitors). This means segmenting markets and using data mining and the Internet for decision-making.

4.      Increase sales revenue

This can be achieved by increasing the effectiveness of your pricing, sales teams, sales process, sales activities and channels - or a combination of all five. An invaluable technique here is measurement.

5.      Manage the money

The financial issues that influence success are cash management, costs, revenue and investment. Keep control of costs, reduce them aggressively wherever possible, and manage your cash by controlling suppliers' and customers' payment terms.

6.      Develop profitable new products

While it may be risky to develop a new product in a downturn, inaction may be riskier the momentum of innovation is what will carry you beyond the downturn. If you stay the same during a period of increased competition and falling demand, you will fall even further and faster behind your competitors.

7.      Remember the basics of sales, finance and leadership

·         Match customers' needs and wants with your product.

·         Meet with customers, gain their trust - and sell.

·         Choose the best pricing strategy and consider using price innovations.

·         Review past sales techniques and refine your approach.

·         Make your product easy to buy.

·         Develop an awareness of competitors and build your competitive advantage.

·         Evaluate and develop the performance of sales teams.

·         Review costs and understand cost structures.

·         Manage debtors, purchasing, overheads and creditors.

·         Demonstrate a desire to learn, not blame.

·         Encourage people to find cost savings.

·         Keep people informed.

Above all, keep your head. There is no silver bullet to surviving a downturn. It is a time for sound common sense, energy and calmness, and the business basics.

SKILL CAPSULE: WHAT IS THE INTERVIEWER LOOKING FOR?

·         Personality

·         Motivation

·         Attitude

·         General Awareness

·         Qualification

·         Job Skills

·         Drafting Skills

·         Industry Knowledge

·         General Knowledge

·         Team Spirit

·         Leadership Qualities

·         Communication Skills

·         Social Skills

·         Flexibility

·         Alertness

·         Decision Making

·         Go Getting Attitude

·         Conflict Management Skills

·         Problem Solving Skills

·         Extra Curricular Activities

·         Loyalty, Integrity

·         Honesty

·         Patience

·         Initiative

·         Enthusiasm

·         Artistic Skills

·         Creativity

·         Negotiating Skills

·         Presentation Skills.

COMMUNICATION EXERCISE: DEBATE UNPREPARED

DAY 80

MANAGEMENT SUBJECT: THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE

How effective are you?

In his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, writer Stephen Covey outlines the following set of activities and attitudes that promotes good leadership skills.

1.      Be proactive

This involves self-determination and the power to decide the best response to a situation, so you can control your environment rather than it controlling you.

2.      Begin with the end in mind

This is essential to both personal leadership and to leading others. To achieve your aims, concentrate on activities that are relevant. This will help you to keep focused, to avoid distractions and to be more productive and successful.

3.      Put first things first

Effective personal management involves organizing and implementing activities that will help you and your team to achieve your aims. While habit 2 requires mental creation, habit 3 is about physical creation.

4.      Think win - win

Leadership requires good interpersonal skills, as achievements often depend on the co-operation of others. Covey argues that win-win is based on two assumptions: there is plenty for everyone and success tends to follow a co-operative approach rather than the confrontation of win-or-lose.

5.      Seek to understand first and then seek to be understood

Covey argues that for good communication you need to 'diagnose before you prescribe' - this is an extremely powerful tool.

6.      Synergize

Leaders need to understand how to use co-operation creatively. Given the principle of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts, organizing co-operative activities to utilize each person's strengths will promote a successful outcome. Covey argues that this requires us to see both the good and the potential in the other person's contribution.

7.      Sharpen the saw

Self-renewal both enables and strengthens the other habits. Covey divides the self into four parts - spiritual, mental, physical and social/emotional - which should all be developed if you wish to become a highly effective leader.

SKILL CAPSULE: HOW TO PREPARE EMOTIONALLY FOR THE INTERVIEW

Hiring is an emotional process for both the candidate and the interviewer.

·         The hiring process is shrouded with a veneer of logic “to hire the best qualified person”,

but in reality it is grounded with emotion.

·         Your enthusiasm, confidence and energy will determine whether or not you get hired.

·         Normally the most qualified person never gets hired.

·         This is because personality “fit” and the candidate's personal qualities are extremely important & give support to the interviewers.

·         Interviewers receive and interpret all  inputs coming from you and evaluated your emotional state.

·         When you are feeling great you project a positive image of yourself and are more “likable” and “hire-able.”

COMMUNICATION EXERCISE: GROUP DISCUSSIONS