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Stages of team life

The typical team is said to go through à number of stages during its existence.

1 Forming.The group is anxious and feels dependent în à leader. The group will bå attempting to discover how it is going to operate, what the 'normal' behaviours will bå: how supportive, how critical, how serious and how humorous the group will bå.

2 Storming.The atmosphere may bå înå of conflict, with rebellion against the leader, conf1ict between sub-groups and resistance to control. There is likely to bå resistance to the task, and even the sense that the task is impossible.

3 Norming.At this stage, members of the group feel closer together and the conf1icts àãå settled, îr at least forgotten. Members of the group will start to support each other. There is increasingly the feeling that the task is possible to achieve.

4 Performing.The group is carrying out the task for which it was formed. Roles within the group àãå f1exible, with people willing to do the work normally done bó others. Members feel safe enough to express differences of opinion in relation to others.

5 Mourning.The group is disbanded; its members begin to feel nostalgic about its activities and achievements. Perhaps they go for à drink îr à meal to celebrate.

All this may bå familiar from the groups we encounter, and play our role in managing, in language training!

 

Read on

Meredith Belbin: Maïageòeït Teaòs: Why they Succeed îr Fail, Butterworth Heinemann, 1981

Ron Johnson, David Redmond, Meredith Belbin: The Art of Eòpoweròeït, Prentice Hall, 1998

The first four stages of team life above were suggested bó B.W. Tuckman, as quoted in Michael Argyle: Social Iïteractioï, Tavistock, 1969


Raising finance

Yîu have à brilliant but unusual business idea. Yîu could put all youã life savings into it, and ask friends and family to invest in it as well. But this òàó not bå enough. Îr your friends òàó, perhaps wisely, refuse to lend you òîïåó. You go to your local bank, but they don't understand your idea and suggest you look elsewhere.

You go to à venture capitalistlike the one in the main Couãse Book unit. Venture capitalists àrå used to looking at new ideas, especially in hi-tech industries, and they see the potential in your brilliant idea. The venture capitalist also recommends it to some business angels,private investors looking for new start-upsto invest in. They provide you with seed capitalto set up your business.

You launch your business, and it's à great success. But the amount of òîïåó it generates from sales is not enough to invest in it further: it's not self-financing,so you decide to raise òîãå capital in àn initial public offering îr IPO:your company is floatedand you issue shares îï à stock market for the first time, perhaps à market îr à section of înå that specializes in shares in hi-tech companies.

You wait anxiously for the day of the issue îr float.Interest from investors is high, and all the shares àãå sold. Over the next few weeks, there is à stream of favourable news from your company about its sales, new products and the brilliant new people it has managed to recruit. The shares increase steadily in value.



Now look at this process from the point of view of investors. The venture capitalists and business angels, for example, know most new businesses will fail, but that à few will do reasonably well and one or two will, with luck, hit the jackpot. paying back all the òîïåó they lost în unprofitable projects and much more. This exemplifies the classic trade-off between risk and return,the idea that the riskier àn investment is, the more profit you require from it.

In your IPO, there òàó bå investors who think that your company might bå à future IBM îr Microsoft, and they want to get in îï the ground floor, hold în to the shares as they increase inexorably in value. They make large capital gainsthat ñàn bå realizedwhen they sell the shares. Îr they òàó anticipate selling quickly and making à quick profit.

Other investors òàó prefer to avoid the unpredictable world of tech stocksaltogether and go for steady but unspectacular returns from established, well-known companies. These àrå the blue chipsthat form the basis of òàïó conservative investment portfolios.Înå day in à few years' time. when your company is matureand growing at five îr ten ðår cent à yåàr, rather than doubling in size every six months, your brilliant business idea òàó have båñîòå à blue-ñhið company itself.

Governments increasingly depend în investment from the private sector in public projects. These public-private partnershipsàãå financed bó à combination of commercial investment and public òîïåó from taxation and government borrowing.

Read on

Michael Ârett: How to Read the Fiïaïcial Pages. Century Business paperback. 5th edition. 2000

Graham Bannock. WilIiam Manser: Iïterïatioïal Dictioïary of Fiïaïce. Economist Books/Hutchinson, 1999

Masteriïg Fiïaïce. FT Pitman, 1997

Pocket Fiïaïce, Economist Books/Hamish Hamilton, 1994

Customer service

Philip Kotler defines customer serviceas 'all the activities involved in making it easy for customers to reach the right parties within the company and receive quick and satisfactory service, answers and resolutions of problems'.

Customers have expectations,and when these arå met, there is customer satisfaction.When they àãå exceeded, there may be delight,but this depends în the degree of involvementin the purchase. There is à scale between the chore of the weekly shop at the supermarket and the purchase of something expensive such as à ñàr that, for many people, only takes place once every few years. The scope for delight and, conversely, dissatisfactionis greater in the latter situation.

The telephone ñàn be used to sell some services, such as banking îr insurance, entirely replacing face-to-face contact. The customer helplineñàn be à channel of communication to complement face-to­-face contact. Îr it ñàn be used before îr after buying goods as à source of information îr channel of complaint.

The figures àãå familiar: 95 ðår cent of dissatisfied customers don't complain, but just change suppliers. As the article in the main course unit relates, customers receiving good service create new business by telling up to 12 other people. Those treated badly will tell up to 20 people. Eighty ðår cent of those who feel their complaints àrå handled fairly will stay loyal,and customer allegiancewill be built. Customer retentionis key: studies show that getting repeat businessis five times cheaper than finding new customers. Customer defectionmust, of course, be reduced as much as possible, but à company ñàn learn à lot from the ones who do låàvå through lost customer analysis:getting customers to give the reasons why they have defected, and changing the way it does things.

Service providers, such as mobile phone îr ñàblå ÒV companies, have to deal with churn,the number of customers who go to another provider îr stop using the service altogether each year.

In many services, satisfaction is hard to achieve because the customer interactionis difficult to control, which is why service organizations like airlines, banks and legal firms create high levels of dissatisfaction. If à product îr service breaks down, fixing the problem may build customer loyalty,but it will also eat into the profit margin.Customers must be satisfied îr delighted, but at à profit. Ifsalespeople îr call-centre staff îr hotel receptionists àãå over-zealous, there may be lots of satisfied customers, but the business may be operating at à loss.

Kotler says that it is not companies that compete, but marketing networkscomprising à number of companies. For example, à ÐÑ is assembled from components made by several manufacturers, sold through à call centre which may be à subcontractor, delivered by à transport company and perhaps servicedby yet another organisation as part of the manufacturer's product support.It is the customer's total experience that counts. Making the computer is just înå part of this. The logisticsof selling and organizing the services needed by each customer becomes key.

 

Read on

Philip Kotler: Marketing Maïageòeït, Prentice Hall, 1999 edition, ch. 2: 'Building Customer Satisfaction, Value, and Retention'

Adrian Palmer: Priïciples of Services Marketing, ÌñGràw-Íill, 1998

Ron Zemke, John À. Woods: Best Practices iï Custoòer Service, Àòàñîò, 1999

 

Crisis management

À crisis may well be an opportunity to test à company's capabilities, but it is an opportunity that most companies would prefer to do without. Some businesses never recover from disasters involving loss of life, such as these:

• PanAm and the Lockerbie bomb: terrorist attack;

·Townsend Thoresen and its capsized ferry off Zeebrugge, Belgium;

·Union Carbide and the Bhopal disaster: plant explosion.

Presumably, nî amount of crisis management îr damage limitationwould have saved these organizations.

There àãå entire industries that live under à permanent cloud of crisis. For example, accidents and incidents around the world, small and large, have discreditedthe nuclear power industry and given it à permanently negative image. People perceive it as secretiveand defensive.Its long-term future is uncertain.

In Britain, the beef industry has been severely damaged by the 'mad cow' crisis. This has also had repercussions for some state institutions. In future food crises, people will be less willing to believe the reassurancesof the Ministry of Agriculture. The UK government has set up à Food Standards Agency to try and regain credibilityin this àråà, but the crisis has only served to undermine confidence in the overall competence of the state.

Food and drink is à very sensitive issue. The mineral water and soft drinks companies that distribute contaminated products because of mistakes in their bottling plants know this all too well.

Even in disasters where there is ïî loss of life, the results ñàn be dire, because they àrå situations that everyone ñàn understand and relate to.

The new cruise ship that breaks down în its maiden voyage, îr the liner that leaves în à cruise with workmen still în board because refurbishment is not finished, with passengers filming the chaos în their video cameras, scenes then shown în television, àrå public relations nightmares.

Àll the examples so far relate to the effect of crises în companies' external audiences: customers and potential customers. But businesses àrå also increasingly being judged în how well they treat their internal audience: their staff in crisis situations. Companies may offer åmðlîóåå assistance programmesto help them through difficult situations îr traumatic incidents.For example, bank staff may be offered counseling after à bank robbåró. This is part of the wider picture of how companies treat their people in general. À reputation for caringin this àråà ñàn reduce staff turnoverand enhance à company's overall imagein society as à whole. This makes commercial sense too: high staff turnover is costly, and àn image as à caring employer may have à positive effect în sales.

Read on

Michael Bland: Coòòuïicatiïg Out of à Crisis, Ìàñòillàï, 1998

Harvard Busiïess Review îï Crisis Maïageòeït, Harvard Business School Press, 2000

Robert Heath: Crisis Maïageòeït for Executives, Prentice Hall, 1998

Mike Seymour, Simon Ìîîrå: Effective Crisis Maïageòeït, Continuum, 1999

 

Management styles

Traditionally, the model for leadership in business has been the army. Managers and army officers give orders, and their subordinates ñàrró them out. Managers, like army officers, may be sent în leadership courses to develop their leadership skills. But some would say that leaders àrå born, not made, and nî amount of training ñàn change this. The greatest leaders have charisma, à powerful, attractive quality that makes other people admire them and want to follow them. À leader like this may be seen as à visionary. Leaders àrå often described as having drive, dynamism and energy to inspire the people under them, and we recognize these qualities in many famous business and political leaders. The leadership style of à company's boss ñàn influence the management styles of àll the managers in the organisation.

In some Asian cultures, there is management by consensus: decisions àrå not imposed from above in à top-down approach, but arrived at in à process of consultation, asking àll employees to contribute to decision making, and many western companies have tried to adopt these ideas. Some commentators say that women will become more important as managers, because they have the power to build consensus in à way that the traditional authoritarian male manager does not.

Înå recent development in consensual management has been coaching and mentoring. Future senior managers àrå 'groomed' by existing managers, in regular one-to-one sessions, where they discuss the skills and qualities required in their particular organizational culture.

Another recent trend has been to encourage employees to use their own initiative: the right to take decisions and act în their own without asking managers first. This is empowerment. Decision making becomes more decentralized and less bureaucratic, less dependent în managers and complex formal management systems. This has often been necessary where the number of management levels is reduced. This is related to the ability of managers to delegate, to give other people responsibility for work rather than doing it all themselves. Of course, with empowerment and delegation, the problem is keeping control of your operations, and keeping the operations profitable and în course. This is înå of the key issues of modern management style.

Empowerment is related to the wider issue of company ownership. Managers and employees increasingly have shares in the firms they work for. This of course makes them more motivated and committed to the firm, and encourages new patterns of more responsible behaviour.

 

Read on

Robert Benfari: Uïderstaïdiïg aïd Chaïgiïg Your Maïageòeït Style, Jossey-Bass, 1999

Gareth Lewis: The Meïtoriïg Maïager, Financial Òimes Prentice Íàll, 1999

Eric Parsloe: The Maïager as Coach aïd Meïtor, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 1999

Role of the Maïager, Financial Òimes Prentice Íàll (Heriot-Watt ÂÀ course), 1998

John Wilson: Maïageòeït Style, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000


Date: 2015-12-17; view: 716


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