Personal development
From the grid, I have chosen the following areas to illustrate personal development.
Team skills
Teams are very important in accomplishing marketing tasks. In some instances, teams have been found to be more competitive that individuals in marketing. Although teams have been found to be slower in decision making, the end result is always a thorough consultative answer which leads to improved marketing.
Communication is the most important aspect in forming and maintaining a marketing team. There must be good communication between members of the team in order to accomplish the task assigned. Without proper communication, a team cannot accomplish the task well. A team is made of up different members holding different views about an aspect. The team members must sit down and talk in order to achieve their target. To bring different members on board, with their divergent views, there must be an efficient way of accommodating them and their view. In building a team it is important to have a leader who will be coordinating the activities of the team. (Sharp, 2005)
Teamwork is helpful in achieving all key areas as portrayed in the marketing theory of 4Ps. This will involve coordinating a team to produce a product, sell it at a competitive price, take it to the right people, and promote it widely as a team.
Strong leadership qualities translate to a working team. The leader must be non-partisan in the team work but should recognize those who achieves more than the rest. This is in order to motivate others to raise their performance. There should be a kind of competition among the team members and the team leader has a role to play to ensure that this competition is healthy and does not lead to conflicts. The leader has a very important role to play in ensuring that there is a link between all members in the team. The leader should ensure that there is delegation of powers to the team members. This makes the team members feel like a part of the team. They should be involved in making decisions that affects them. Team leaders must practice leadership skills to make sure that the team is led in the right manner.
Information technology can help a great deal in enhancing coordination of team work. An efficient web site will help all the team members have updated information about what is to be accomplished by the team in general. Information technology helps to make sure that each member of the team gets updated briefs on new developments in the market and the product. It makes if easier for team leaders to coordinate a team which is located in different places since they can reach and every member of the team instantly.
Leadership
There are several kinds of leadership strategies in the world. Contingency theories of leadership argue that effective leadership depends on context while instrumental theories suggests that stress task and behaviour like participation, delegation from a leader leads to high performance from the subjects. However inspirational leadership theories which tends to draw support from charismatic and transformations leadership styles show that a leader must have a vision and values in order to create confidence in those one is leading. The path-goal theory screens things that a leader must do in order to motivate other people to perform well. It draws support form a leadership that is supportive, directive, participative and which leaders to achievement of the set standards.
Whichever theory of leadership that we side with there are some basic things that any leadership must fulfil. First it must unite all those who are led in order for them to work as a team especially in marketing. This is very important if the spirit of team work has to be maintained if a team is to achieve the marketing target. Going by the theory of marketing, the product must be marketed to be a leader in the market. The marketing team must be coordinated by a leader in order to reach the people and promote the product effectively. Leadership skills are very important in achieving all the theories of marketing.
Leadership skills require planning. Planning based on the existing theories leads to an efficient leadership which is aimed at achieving the best for a business organisation. A leader must be able to plan in advance for the business to market its product. There must be planned objectives. The objectives must be attainable. They set a target that they will achieve. They must be within a defined time frame. They must be measurable which means the set targets must be quantifiable in order to be evaluated.
Time management
Time is an important resource in business. Time management is an important skill that any business person should have. Time management helps one to allocate duties to be fulfilled according to the time provided. Every business person should have a definite time when the business opens and closes. Time management is very important in business management because it leads to saving a lot of resources. The Pickle Jar Theory states that in time management, one need to identify all what is to be done for the day and then arrange them to the order of their adolescent. Then all the important things should be accomplished first.
In achieving marketing targets, time is very important in determining how the product reaches the people. This depends with the nature of the product. Perishable products must reach customers before they wither. Time management skills are important in planning. All objects must be time bound which means there must be a definite time frame within which they must be achieved. In information technology, time management is important since it determines the time taken for information to reach to the team members. Time is very important in determining how the product reaches the customers. It is important in determining the time span information takes to be put on the web of an organisation.
Business plan skills
Planning
The success of a business requires a good master plan. This master plan is the business plan. A good business plan must site clearly where the business is heading. It acts as a projectile path for the business. It guides a business to achieve it goals. A business plan is made up of many sections which are all important in laying out the path for the business. The business plan must give the mission and vision for the business.
It tells the direction the business is heading and where it wants to be in a defined time frame. A mission statement shows what the business wants to accomplish in the course of its operations while the vision tells of where the business wants to be in a defined time frame. The objectives laid out in a business plan define the specific targets that the business wants to accomplish. Objectives must be measurable, attainable, within a defined time frame, realistic and suitable. (Federer, 1996)
Another important area in a business plan is the section that defines products and services. This is very important because it tells what the business will be dealing with. It helps us to understand the areas of specialization of the business in terms of products and services. It defines the products clearly and their use.
Marketing
Perhaps the most important section that helps us to determine whether a business is worth operating is the market analysis section. This tells us of the dynamics in a certain industry that the business is engaging in. It helps to determine the chances of success of a business in an area based on the data showing the players in that industry. It shows the level of competition in a business. It helps us understand the strategies that other business use to reach their customers and how a business can use the same strategies or modify them in order to achieve higher performance standards than other players in the industry. It gives all the aspects of the industry including the current technologies used in the business and other operation models used in the industry.
The marketing section is very important since it help to gauge the suitability of the business in that industry. In marketing one must take into consideration the 4p’s of marketing which are very important in introducing any product in the market. The plan must define the product itself, it must also define price of the product, the people the product is meant for, and finally the promotion strategies to be used. Using Porter’s five forces to analyze the business we are able to understand the chances of the business making it in the industry. They help in analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that the business faces.
The analysis of buyer power gives us an idea of the position of the customer to purchase the products that the business is offering. It shows the threats, strengths and opportunities that exist if the business decides to offer inferior or superior products than those of the competitors. It explores the ways in which the business can overpower other through the use of cost leadership by selling products at a price below that of the competitors or by offering alternatives products to create differential advantage. It also helps us explore the opportunities that exist in the supply chain by analyzing the powers of the suppliers in regarded to the operations of the business. (Smith and Kolb, 1996)
It also analyses competition within the industry and the threats that the business can face with the entry of new business in the industry. Increase of business offering the same kind of services or the same goods leads to completion. The business can respond to this by using cost leadership or differential advantage strategies as explained above. The plan must clearly explain the regulations that exist concerning the entry of new business in the industry and at the same time explore the effects they will have on the operations of the business. This plan must also explore the threats that the business can face if there are substitutes in the market.
Generally a business plan must give the strengths of the business as it starts its operations, it must also show the opportunities that exist in the industry that the business can exploit. It must also show the weaknesses of the business in relation to other players in the industry and the market forces and also clearly show the threats that the business faces in the industry which may lead to slowing of its activities.
This analysis also gives an overview of the target market of the business. It defines the kind of customers that the business is targeting, their purchase power, their likes and dislikes, and other aspects of the customers that the business is meant for. It clearly defines whether the business serves the general public, or if it targets a segment of the public like the students, women, men, children, and others. This is very important in knowing location of the business and other operational aspects of the business.
Financial analysis
The financial analyses give us an overview of the financial status of the business. It gives the balance sheet of the business as at that time and also shows all the financial statements of the business. It shows the strengths and weaknesses of the business financially. It helps us to determine the cash flow trends in the business and the profits and losses made by the business in a given year. It reflects an overview of the performance of a business. It gives us an overview of the allocation of funds according to all departments in the business.
The analysis of profit and loss helps us to know how the business is performing compared to the expected performance. It analyzes the losses and profit the business has incurred or made in the course of its operation. It also analyses the risk analysis which determines the probability of the business continuing with its operations. The risk analysis is important as since shows the viability of continuity of the business.
From the above I have learnt that building a team work is very important if a business has to succeed. All the employees in the business must be organized into a team that can achieve. To build a team work, there need to a strong leadership that unites all those in the business. The leadership must be aimed at achieving some set goals. Leadership must be all inclusive of the leaders and the subjects. All this has improved my personal skills in business areas.
In business planning skills I have learnt that it is important for the business to have a mission and a vision. These are important in giving the business a direction. There must be set goals which are achievable and bound on a time frame to help in achieving the vision. There must be a substantially researched market data to support the operations of the business. The financial analysis data gives the strength of the business financially.
These business skills will definitely help me so much in starting and running a new venture as I have an in-depth of the operations of the business.
References
Felder, R. M. (1996). Matters of style. ASEE PREM, Vol. 6 issue 4. pp 18-24.
Sharp, J. E. (2005). Teaching teamwork communication with Kolb Learning style theory. Web.
Smith, D. and Kolb, D. (1996). User’s Guide for the learning style inventory. Boston: Mc Bern Press.