What is management? (Менеджмент)

Management has as many definitions as there are managers. Many people consider it to be an art of how to motivate people to give off their best. Others think that management is a science. In practice business management is the art and science of getting things done through other people.

There are 5 kinds of tasks which are generic to all management jobs. They are planning, organizing, coordinating, directing and controlling. Any managerial system at any managerial level is characterized in terms of these general functions.

There are different types of management, the most important of them are production management, financial management, human resources management, marketing management.

But management also includes the personnel who have the right to make decisions that influence company's affairs. Organization is the means by which management organizes achieving company's goals.

There are three management levels in the organization: top management middle management and operating management or first level management. Top management includes the president, vice-presidents and general manager. Middle management includes department managers, plant managers, and production superintendents. Operating management includes supervisors, foremen, etc.

Moving into managerial role involves making changes from the way you perform as a specialist. It is the transition from “doing the job” to “an uncertain supervisory role”; from “using technical skills” to “placing emphasis on people”; from “doing delegated tasks” to “having to delegate them to other people”; from “controlling the output” to “being judged on the output and quality”.

Any manager can be successful only if he has his own team. Successful teams have several things in common. Here are 8 characteristics, which will help you to analyze the “health” of the team. They are as follows:

1. A mission.

2. Common objectives.

3. Interdependence of members.

4. An effective relationship to the environment.

5. A decision-making system.

6. Well motivated members.

7. An effective leader.

8. Well-organized, effective meetings.

If you want to be a successful manager, try to use all the above mentioned ideas in practical work.

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Marketing (Маркетинг)

Marketing includes all the business activities connected with the movement of goods and services from producers to consumers. Sometimes it is called distribution. On the one hand, marketing is made of such activities as transporting, storing and selling goods, and on the other hand, a serious of decisions you make during the process of moving goods from producer to user. Marketing operations include product planning, buying, storage, pricing, promotion, selling, credit, traffic and marketing research.

The ability to recognize early trends is very important. Producers must know why, where, for what purpose the consumer buy. Market research helps the producer to predict what the people will want. And through advertising he attempts to influence the customer to buy.

The construction of good shopping centres makes goods available to consumers. It provided a wide range of merchandise and plenty of parking facilities.

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