The Importance of Competitive Advantage Management

Almost all businesses have to face stiff competition with their business rivals in virtually any market today. Having an advantage over them is not enough to guarantee you can sustain your position on the competitive ground. An ongoing analytical survey of the market and its volatility is required to keep you updated and informed of the need for improving the quality of your product and ensuring the superiority of your service. Neglecting to keep your eye on the changing climate of the market creates an unacceptable risk. This article describes the importance of competitive advantage management in today's highly competitive world.

Competitive advantage management is a set of methods and strategies that work to not only position your company or business but also make it stand out in the market. Understanding the competitive advantage of your company over its rival companies is the key to creating a dominant position in your market. The business plan that you have sketched as an outline of the future progress of your business should incorporate competitive advantage management. Without it, your business plan is incomplete and will be ineffective as well.

* Cost leadership - in most markets, most competition is based around price. However, cost leadership is very difficult to sustain, unless you can develop a proprietary technology or monopolize suppliers. Using competitive advantage management as the focal point of your business plan, you can develop a unique selling proposition that eliminates the need for competing on the basis of cost leadership. By creating a unique value proposition, you can elicit huge response from a mass of customers.

The Importance of Competitive Advantage Management

* Promotion of the business - a focus on the management of competitive advantages will help you promote your product and service by implementing effective marketing strategies. Promotion of product and service plays an instrumental part in the marketing of your business.

* Continual assessment - one of the requirements of competitive advantage management, continual assessment of your product and service strategies, will help you sustain your edge over your competitors. Assessing the quality perceptions of the product keeps you aware of your image in the market and the market value of the product.

* Image enhancement - managing competitive advantages over your rivals works for the enhancement of your image in the market. Product positioning, quality checking and effective marketing are the means of gaining competitive advantages over others. It helps set your company or business on the road to sustainable success.

The Importance of Competitive Advantage Management
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Greg Roworth owner of http://www.autopilotbusinessplan.com is an author, mentor and specialist in Competitive Advantage Management [http://www.autopilotbusinessplan.biz/time_management/small-business-time-management.asp] and has helped many small business owners transform their average businesses into businesses that work so well, the owner can live a life of freedom, fulfilment and reward.

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Basic Management Skills - What Makes a Good Manager?

Basic management skills are necessary to run a small business. Some business owners believe that leading vs managing is most important. In reality, you need to be able to both lead and manage.

What makes a good manager? There are definite business management styles and skills to focus on; specifically for small business owners. If you're the owner or manager of a small business, it's important to understand what those basic management skills are and to try to incorporate them into your own behaviors. Why? Because some skills are more successful than others and because some styles will engage your employees, while others will dis-engage them.

Business management skills such as planning, decision making, problem solving, controlling and directing, and measuring and reporting are needed for the daily operation.

Basic Management Skills - What Makes a Good Manager?

Using their small business plan, effective managers direct the business operation. Communications, benchmarking, tracking and measuring are tactics and strategies that they use to check their direction, to adjust the plan (if necessary), and to move the business forward. Good managers act to achieve the desired results; and they manage people and resources to get where they want to go.

Understanding what makes a good manager, means understanding what motivates employees.  How do you build an environment and culture that encourages employees to participate? How do you increase employee productivity and employee satisfaction; simultaneously? How do you recruit the best talent, and then keep them? How do you train your staff to solve problems, make decisions, and involve others in the process? These are just some of the challenges, and responsibilities, of managing.

As a manager, you need to understand what the common business management styles are (autocratic, paternalistic, democratic, and passive are the most common styles). And you need to understand what your style is, and how that style affects business results.

Four Business Management Styles:

Autocratic: The manager makes all the decisions; a "command and control" (militaristic) management style. Focus is on business; doesn't want any personal 'stuff' to get in the way. The benefit is that decisions are made quickly. The cost is in high employee turn-over as employees find this style difficult, and stressful. Paternalistic: The manager makes all decisions (or most of them) but focuses on what's best for employees. The benefit is that employees feel the business is taking care of them. The cost is that employees don't take care of business - they are uninvolved and have little at risk. Democratic: The manager wants input from the whole 'team' and majority rules. Often good decisions are made and employees feel involved in the business (the benefit to this style) but the process is very slow and you can't always make everyone happy. Passive: The manager abdicates responsibility to the employees; and calls it delegation. The benefit is that employees often step forward and learn in this environment. The cost is that the direction is scattered and there can be numerous false starts because there is no real manager.

Managers typically use more than one style, depending on the situation. If brainstorming creative new product ideas is today's focus, then the manager may want to use a democratic or passive style. If a decision about keeping or firing an under-performing employee must be made, the manager may need to use an autocratic or paternalistic style (hopefully not a democratic or passive style).

In most small businesses, the business owner is also the manager and the leader. In your business, make sure that you have a good understanding of your own business management styles, skills and qualities and learn how to control them and use them as necessary.

Basic Management Skills - What Makes a Good Manager?
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To understand more about what makes a good manager, or the difference between leading vs managing, it is good to focus on the qualities of an effective manager as compared to the qualities of an effective leader.
Kris Bovay is the owner of Voice Marketing Inc, a business and marketing services company. Kris has 25 years of experience in leading large, medium and small businesses. For more pricing strategies and other small business resources and services go to the more-for-small-business website.
Copyright 2008 - 2009 Voice Marketing Inc.

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Project Management - Risk Management

There are some factors to consider when identifying risk in a project. A risk is known as some future happening that results in a change in the environment. It has associated with it a loss that can be estimated, a probability that the event will occur, which can be estimated, and a choice on the projects manager's part as to what to do, if anything, to mitigate the risk and reduce the loss that will occur.

During the project planning process, the risk assessment which is normally completed during the development of the Business Case is reviewed and updated by the project team. Risk assessment is formalized subjective assessment of the probability of project success. Risk assessment has an obvious impact on the management style, team structure, use of methodology, strategies for system development, and, most importantly, the business decision to approve the project.

Simply, the greater the risk of the project, the higher the probability that estimates, schedules, and planning will be incorrect and that the project will move "out of control". The risk of a project can be established by considering the following criteria;

Project Management - Risk Management

What are the risks? What is the probability of loss that results from them? How much are the losses likely to cost? What might the losses be if the worst happens? What are the alternatives? How can the losses be reduced or eliminated? Will the alternatives produce other risks?

The business decision is to assess how the expected loss compares to the cost of defraying all or some of the loss and then taking the appropriate action.

It is mandatory that, throughout the system development process and especially during project planning, the project manager consider these project risk criteria using a formal questionnaire and develop a risk mitigation list. If the project manager considers the combination of any of these factors is significant and contributes to the degree of risk of the project, he or she is encouraged to consider the following actions;

Take steps to limit the scope of the project to reduce its complexity Document the areas of complexity in the Project Plan and allow for additional time/resources Raise a formal Risk Memorandum that details the high-level factors, identifies their possible impact and actions/options available to reduce that impact or reduce the risk factor.

It is imperative that the management of project risk is seen as a proactive process. For example, prior to the commencement of the full development cycle, the project manager should negotiate with the Steering Committee, key stakeholders and sponsor to minimize the high-risk factors.

To increase the likelihood of project success, the project team must put in place a program that identifies risks and steps to mitigate that risk. The management and minimization of project risk is the responsibility of all involved parties in the project.

Project Management - Risk Management
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CER1projectmanagement has been involved with Project Management since 1996, and has completed many varied and complex projects for both small and large organisations.

http://www.cer1projectmanagement.com provide informative articles, templates and other resources on everything you'll ever need to know about Project Management.

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Understand 4 Basic Management Styles to Be an Effective Manager

In the corporate world, there needs to have a formal structure that organizes the tasks to manage the corporate office in its controllable manner. It is often ruled by a hierarchy of organization structure. This structure is commonly termed as organization chart.

 In order to be effective as a manager at various level in the organization structure, he or she are often challenged by work environment. How does his or her management style help to manage the situation. The four basic Management Styles is listed below:-

1)  Autocratic Style

Understand 4 Basic Management Styles to Be an Effective Manager

Perhaps is the oldest style in managing a group of people to get things done. This style of management is very obvious in the olden days of slavery where only the "master" give command and the slaves just follow. However, it is by no means the is a slavery type of management.

If you pay attention to this style, what it indicates is that there is always a one way communication where the "commander give out order and expect it to get done without any question. Even until today, this style of managing still exist and effective in environment such as arm forces, emergency situation, crisis management etc where there is not time to wait or entertaining any feedback or suggestion.  And autocratic style of management is most effective.

2)  Democratic Style

Just the opposite to autocratic management style, tasks carry out only after getting people's opinion and rule by a majority vote.  A very obvious example is a general election of a country, election of certain official in an organization of society. However, a democratic management style can and often apply in business when the manager makes decision based on the agreement of the majority. 

However, the style of management is normally guided by the manager who has made certain evaluation of the possible solutions and let the employees pick one among the best options. 

3)  Participative Style

This style of management is quite similar to the democratic type of management in getting opinion from the mass employees. However, the decision is not necessary follow the majority vote. What it does is to seek feedback and opinion from employee and then make a decision on his own.

4)  Laissez Faire

This style of management is a free hand management style where managers do not make decision nor interfere. It just let the issue develop by itself whether to the better or worst. This type of management style is best to handle rumor. for an example, a conflict among two or more parties is best let the parties involved settle on their own.

Now that you have any idea the four common management styles, you need to evaluated their differences and apply them.

Understand 4 Basic Management Styles to Be an Effective Manager
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Do you want to learn which management style is best? If so, click Management styles

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Effective Management Through Leadership

Leadership and Management

Leadership and management skills are essential throughout our working life with leaders found in industry, commerce, sport, and even social settings. The aim is the same wherever they are found, leading a group towards a common goal or set of stated objectives. The essential leadership and management skills can be learned through training courses or from studying textbooks, though the very best learning comes through on their job experience.

Effective leadership: Everyone Working Together

Effective Management Through Leadership

It is only possible to truly appreciate the complexity and skills involved in effective leadership in guiding a group, through practising leadership and management in the field. Those following the leader will be disparate in many ways having different skill sets, motivations, personalities and tastes. Everyone is different, but it is essential that they work together. An effective leader is able to bind the group together in whatever setting, sports, school, the workplace, or even socially.

Companies need effective leaders to ensure their success. This is why we find many companies sending their management staff on leadership and management courses. Even those with substantial experience are likely to benefit from refresher courses. This helps keep managers motivated and channel their experience and knowledge in a positive way in encouraging those around them.

Effective leadership is important in schools too, with teachers needing leadership and management skills in order to go about their work to best effect. It is vital that they can motivate the pupils, encouraging them to learn and recognise learning opportunities from problems and challenges. The pupils will need to be excited by the various topics presented to them in order that they retain that knowledge and learning. If not, the teacher will have failed them - a burdensome responsibility.

Effective team leaders are needed for sports teams too, without them then morale may be depressed and the team then working as a bunch of individuals. This may make itself known in terms of poor results against possibly a less skilful set of individuals but organised as a successful team working together.

Leadership and Preparedness

All of the above examples show us where leadership and management courses may help us. They assist in preparing us to make on the fly decisions, responsive and appropriate to the circumstances. They show us how our collective power is only unleashed through co-ordinated team action, focusing our energy positively towards shared goals. We can train ourselves to be good leaders, prepared for any eventuality. By preparing for the worst that may happen, we are also preparing for success.

Effective Management Through Leadership
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Mark J Emslie has been a business leader most of his working life. There is more useful information and additional resources on Leadership Coaching at www.Leadership4All.com.

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