Spotlight of Management’s Priorities for a Successful Business

Managing business efficiently is an art and skill both. Many succeed but many fail live their dream of a successful business. The harmony of business sustainability and growth depends on its performance from every department and every person in the organisation. For functioning every department efficiently priority of work plays main role and to prioritize the work or activities, decision making is key tool for every team leaders or managers in the organisation. Below are list of priorities to manage the business:

1. Decision making – For every business decision making is a crucial activity. This should be given top priority over any other activities. Decisions can be small or big but the right decision on time gives a fruitful result. I would give you two examples from my personal experience. 
   • Example 1 – I used to work as a business head, once I had approached and fixed a meeting with one of the clients from a reputed apparel brand. This meeting needed to happen between my Managing Director and senior people from the client. Obviously, I needed to be present so that I could do an introduction and the company’s presentation. It happened that I got a reply from the client about meeting dates as they had made a travel plan to India following week while they were already on a trip to Hong Kong. We didn’t expect their travel so early and we were not prepared with the relevant product range. Unfortunately, this time my boss/MD was traveling to USA for family work. There was a delay in getting a reply from my MD and hence we could not confirm the proposed meeting date. We missed having a meeting with a very good customer who was losing a business opportunity with them. We later came to know that they had a meeting with the other two companies in India and they started the business with them. 
   • Example 2 – One factory in Dhaka used to work for us. If you have an idea about social compliance requirements you must be aware that it is mandatory to pass the audit. The factory had a very good score in previous audits and had a green rating. When the audit was about to expire re-audit was initiated. As per the report from the re-audit, one critical issue was discovered. There was contamination in the water supply. Auditor had asked for immediate rectification, from our side we had a meeting with the factory’s top management and advised to take immediate action to rectify the problem but management delayed in making arrangements. This caused factory red-listed and all production stopped till rectifications and pass report after another re-audit. This not only hampered the production but also had losses.
2. Marketing & Sales planning – Without having demand no business can run and for having the demand sale is the must. Higher the sale higher the demand and bigger the demand bigger the business. In order to increase sale marketing is a key tool. Based on the marketing, sales projection can be arrived and based on sales projection business and operations planning can be done.
3. Funds planning –Fund is the backbone of any business. Based on the availability of fund size of business can be planned. It is vital that there is a balance between the sales plan and the required fund for operations. In case of shortage of funds, the resource would be insufficient causing lesser production than demand.
4. Resource planning –No matter whether the business is small or big, new or old resource planning is very important for running the business. Optimum resource planning can give a profitable result. Keeping the balance between demand and resource is equally very important for optimum utilization of resources and higher profitability.
5. Supply chain and raw material planning –Procurement of raw material and availing the same for production on time is crucial to run the operations as per the schedule and avoid losses due to unutilized resources. Hence keeping the track of the raw material status and monitoring supply chain to arrive on time is another important managerial task for the business.
6. Machine planning –Machine planning can be part of resource planning however the purpose of keeping it separate is, in case of special or additional machinery required machine planning becomes a separate important management activity.
7. Operations management –Managing human resources, production, efficiency, quality are the main part of operations management. Operations performance plays a vital role in the company’s performance. Hence to achieve higher profitability higher efficiency, low defect rate, minimum rejections, optimum utilization of human resources and machinery are key for the business.
8. Paperwork and documentation –Legal paperwork and documentation for domestic and export sales are important to ensure the smooth functioning of any business. Delay or errors can hamper delivery or delay in payment or legal implications. Hence this department should be well-taken care by knowledgeable and experienced people. 
9. Cost saving –Management should opt for process improvisation, efficiency improvisation, reducing all types of wastages to reduce cost. Also, sourcing of raw materials, machinery with more competitive price without compromising quality can be significant to bring down the cost.
10. Technology upgrdation –As far as technology upgradation is concern it is essential for being competitive in the market and also helps in process improvisation which can reduce cost and increase profitability.
11. Business forecast and planning –The business forecast is referring here to sales forecast based on which resource and operations plan needs to be formulated for the future. Missing sales forecasts means no work in the future for the company. It is important that management and marketing team ensures business forecast available for rolling months. 

Hope the management priorities and steps in this article will be helpful for your business. You can also read the “4 Ways to keep business always profitable”. Please share your feedback and comments in the comment section.