Strategy can be broadly divided into _________ strategy, _________ strategy and _________ strategy.

Answer - Corporate, functional, business

A process is a logically sequenced set of actions. (TRUE)

When each independent department creates its own strategy, it is known as __Functional________.

The basic pillars on which the business is built is called ____Structure ________.

Efficient ______Management______ leads to better economical production and also increases the
economic, social, and general welfare of the people.

Process of designing and maintaining environment in which individuals working in groups efficiently
employ resources is called ____Management______.

In Taylor’s parlance there are __ __4________ identifiable components to scientific management.

Elton Mayo’s Hawthorne experiments proved that _____Good working relationship_______ with the
supervisor and colleagues and the idea of ____challenge______ in the job accounted for higher
productivity.

Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman identified _____8_______ characteristics in successful

companies.

Centralisation principle propagates finding the __Ideal balance ________ between these keeping in
mind the size, nature of business, experience of superiors and subordinates, dependability and ability
of the subordinates

System approach to management enables us to understand management from a ____Holistic

________ perspective.

The five management functions that figure in the management process in the modern literature are
planning, organising, staffing, ___ leading ____, and _____ controlling _____.

1. Planning : types, importance

2. Different categories of power
3. Leading
4. Maslow's theory
5. Cattell’s 16 personality types – preception
6. Types of departmentation
7. Define the team group along with various group decision making techniques in details
8. Emotional intelligence and its impact of managers
9. Learning and the Applications
10. Definition of OB and framework of learning OB
11. Theory of John Kotter on leading changes
 12. Decision making and discuss of the process of decision making
13. Seventeen Characterstics of an effective team.
14. Define the team group along with various group decision making techniques in details.
15. Staffing and its importance in the organization
16. .Briefly justify business as a social system.
17. Describe the concept of vision and mission in an organisation.
18. What do you understand by strategy? Briefly explain functional strategy.
19. Determine the importance of management.
20. Explain the importance of principles of management.
21. Describe the importance of planning
22. .Diagrammatically illustrate the types of planning. 3.4
23. Explain Porter’s model and how it helps in decision making.3.7
24. Define organisation. Give any three reasons for why organising isimportant. 4.3
25. .Differentiate between a formal organisation and an informal organisation. 4.4
26. Describe a virtual organisation. 4.6
27. Staffing function and HR management are inseparable. Justify. 4.9
28. Why is leading important ?
29. What are the main functions of leading

Q. 1 Planning : types, importance

Planning is the fundamental management function, which involves deciding beforehand, what is to be
done, when is it to be done, how it is to be done and who is going to do it. A goal is a desired future
state that the organisation attempts to reach. Goals are important because an organisation exists for a
purpose, and goals define and state that purpose.

Managerial function: Planning is a first and foremost managerial function provides the base for other
functions of the management, i.e. organising, staffing, directing and controlling, as they are performed
within the periphery of the plans made.

Goal oriented: It focuses on defining the goals of the organisation, identifying alternative courses of
action and deciding the appropriate action plan, which is to be undertaken for reaching the goals.

Pervasive: It is pervasive in the sense that it is present in all the segments and is required at all the
levels of the organisation. Although the scope of planning varies at different levels and departments.

Continuous Process: Plans are made for a specific term, say for a month, quarter, year and so on. Once
that period is over, new plans are drawn, considering the organisation’s present and future
requirements and conditions. Therefore, it is an ongoing process, as the plans are framed, executed
and followed by another plan.

Intellectual Process: It is a mental exercise at it involves the application of mind, to think, forecast,
imagine intelligently and innovate etc.
Futuristic: In the process of planning we take a sneak peek of the future. It encompasses looking into
the future, to analyse and predict it so that the organisation can face future challenges effectively.

Decision making: Decisions are made regarding the choice of alternative courses of action that can be
undertaken to reach the goal. The alternative chosen should be best among all, with the least number
of the negative and highest number of positive outcomes.
Planning is important for the following reasons:
It helps managers to improve future performance, by establishing objectives and selecting a course of
action, for the benefit of the organisation.

It minimises risk and uncertainty, by looking ahead into the future.

It facilitates the coordination of activities. Thus, reduces overlapping among activities and eliminates
unproductive work.

It states in advance, what should be done in future, so it provides direction for action.

2. Different categories of power

Power can be categorised into two types. They are:
Formal
Informal

Formal power
In an organisation, formal power comes by virtue of position. There are four components which
facilitate this. They are:
Coercive power – The great thing about this type of power is that no one can take it away
from you. It's the knowledge that you hold. However, to remain an expert, you need to continue
learning and improving. A manager can coerce a person on the threat ofwarning, cutting of pay,
holding of promotions, etc.
Reward power – This power is held by those who can motivate people to respond to win
raises, promotions, and awards. For example, managers hold a certain amount of reward
power if they administer performance reviews that determine raises and bonuses for their
underlings.
Legitimate power – Legitimate power happens when someone is in a higher position, giving
them control over others. "If you have this power, it's essential that you understand that [it] was
given to you – and can be taken away. Don't abuse it.
Information power – This is a short-term power that doesn't necessarily influence or build
credibility. For example, a project manager may have all the information for a specific project,
giving them "informational power.

Personal power
This does not depend on the position but relies on other factors such as:
Expert power – This power comes directly from your top-level skills and years of experience.
Once you hold expert knowledge, your peers will likely regard you as such. The great thing
about this type of power is that no one can take it away from you. It's the knowledge that you
hold. However, to remain an expert, you need to continue learning and improving.
Rational persuasion is the ability to controlanother’s behavior by using logical arguments. For
example, persuadinga person the benefits of exceeding the target which would give him anincentive
which can be used for a holiday.
Referent power – No matter what type of leader you are, referent power is one of the most
valuable kinds of power. It's all about how you build and develop relationships.This power
depends on personal traits and values, such as honesty, integrity, and trustworthiness.

Charismatic power – Charismatic power is based on the leader'sexceptional personal qualities or

the demonstration of extraordinaryinsight and accomplishment, which inspire loyalty and obedience
fromthe followers. As such, it rests almost entirely on the leader, and in hisabsence, it gets dissolved.

3. Leading
Pervasiveness -Leading is required at all levels of organisation. It is incorrect to believe that leading is
required only at the top level. This is more so in the modern context where teams are the working
entities. In team based working, the team leader has to act much like a CEO except that the level of
working may be much smaller. He/she may be motivating a team of 5 or 10 people while the CEO may
be motivating the whole company, but the function of giving targets, resources, support, motivating,
etc. does not change
Continuity
Leading is a continuous activity as it is continuous throughout the life of organisation. It takes place on
a day to day basis though its importance may become higher when the organisation is undergoing a
change.
Human factor - Leading implies the existence of followers much like directing implies the existence of
subordinates to whom one can pass orders. It follows that there is a key human factor in leading and
because human factor is complex and behaviour is unpredictable, leading function is important and
people have to learn the art of leading.
Executive function -Leading is carried out by all managers and executives at all levels throughout the
working of an enterprise. A follower receives tasks, resources, know-how, and support from a leader
and he/she trusts his/her leader to do the same.
Delegating function -Leading implies guiding followers to the destination. It means that the followers
actually execute and if they have to execute, they need the powers for doing so. Hence, delegating is
natural fallout of leading. It also follows that the leader trusts his/her followers and the vice versa.
Hence, mutual trust always exists in leading. Therefore, delegating function based on mutual trust is a
characteristic of leading.

Q. 4 Maslow's theory
human beings have wants and desires which influence their behaviour. The needs follow an order of
importance (called hierarchy) and when a lower need is satisfied, he has a need to satisfy a higher level
need. Maslow created the following five hierarchies-

Physiological - Includes hunger, thirst, shelter, sex, and other bodilyneeds. So if the workplace does
not fulfil these, an individual will not bemotivated. If he gets these, he will need the next hierarchy.
Safety – Includes security and protection from physical and emotionalharm and therefore he looks for
safer working place, and does not wantto be threatened or abused in the workplace.
Social – which includes love and belonging; when individuals have taken care of themselves physically,
they can address their need to share and connect with others. Includes affection, belongingness,
acceptance, and friendshipin the workplace and if he gets this, he will be happy to work
hard.Workplaces which guarantee this motivate them. We saw in theHawthorne experiments, how
social relationship led to higherproductivity.
Esteem – Includes internal esteem factors, such as, self-respect,autonomy, and achievement; and
external esteem factors, such asstatus, recognition, and attention. So, when we set goals, supports
himto achieve it and rewards him for it, it fulfills his esteem needs and alsoother needs because of the
money he gets as a result which he can use.
Self-actualisation – At this stage, people feel that they have reached their full potential and are doing
everything they’re capable of. Self-actualization is rarely a permanent feeling or state. Rather, it refers
to the ongoing need for personal growth and discovery that people have throughout their lives.

5. Cattell’s 16 personality types –

Personality Traits
Enamoured by personality, psychologists have been trying to identify its components. Managers have
been equally eager to know it. Early research resulted in isolating large numbers of traits, which made
it measuring personality impractical. Over a period of time the fine-tuning continued.
Cattell’s 16 Personality Factor Model (16 PF)
Working on earlier models, Cattell reduced the traits to 16 primary factors. Each of these has high and
low ranges. These 16 are described below. Catell had given each a name but we will confine to
understanding the meaning of these:
1.Warmth. Warm, outgoing, attentive to others, kind, easy going, participating, likes people on the
high range as against impersonal, distant, cool, reserved, impersonal, detached, formal or aloof.
2.Reasoning. Abstract-thinking, more intelligent, bright, higher general mental capacity, fast learner
(Higher Scholastic Mental Capacity).
3.Emotional stability. Emotionally stable, adaptive, mature, faces reality, calm (Higher Ego Strength).
4.Dominance. Dominant, forceful, assertive, aggressive, competitive, stubborn, bossy.
5.Liveliness. Lively, animated, spontaneous, enthusiastic, happy go lucky, cheerful, expressive,
impulsive.
6.Rule-consciousness. Rule-conscious, dutiful, conscientious, conforming, moralistic, staid, rule bound.
7.Social boldness. Socially bold, venturesome, thick skinned, uninhibited.
8.Sensitivity. Sensitive, aesthetic, sentimental, tender minded, intuitive, refined.
9.Vigilance. Vigilant, suspicious, skeptical, distrustful, oppositional.
10.Abstractedness. Abstract, imaginative, absent minded, impractical, absorbed in ideas.
11.Privateness. Private, discreet, non-disclosing, shrewd, polished, worldly, astute, diplomatic.
12.Apprehension. Apprehensive, self-doubting, worried, guilt prone, insecure, worrying, self-blaming.
13.Openness to change. Open to change, experimental, liberal, analytical, critical, free thinking,
flexibility.
14.Self-reliance. Self-reliant, solitary, resourceful, individualistic, self-sufficient.
15.Perfectionism. Perfectionist, organised, compulsive, self-disciplined, socially precise, exacting will
power, control, self-sentimental.
16.Tension. Tense, high energy, impatient, driven, frustrated, overwrought, time driven.

Q 6. of departmentation
Product based departmentation is carried out in large companies that have homogeneous products.
Many organisations use different types of departmentation even within a business unit. There are no
specific rules that govern departmentation but it should facilitate communication, control, speed of
change, delegation, etc. Most organisations evolve and change their organising structure as they grow.
Departmentation is done by the following methods:
a) By enterprise function -This is done by grouping activities as per the enterprise functions such as
production, sales, financing, etc. Production means adding utility to products or services such as
assembling a cycle or a car or making burgers. Selling means finding customers, clients, patients,
delivering the goods, and often taking the payment. Finance includes functions such as raising money,
budgeting, accounting, etc.
b) By geography or territory -When a company is operational over a wide area, it is common to have
the activities grouped in geographical regions. Several government services such as postal, banks,
retailing, motor vehicles distribution, etc. a reorganised on these lines.
c) By customer group - When the nature of products are highly customer specific such as banking for
NRIs, it is prudent to organise the activities based on customer segments. Many organisations follow
this.
d) By product -Grouping of activities by product lines has been growing in popularity especially in large
companies, which span several countries with several homogenous products that can belong to a
category. They have several such product categories. Hence, they move away from the enterprise
function and evolve into a product organisation to facilitate better communication and control.

7. Define the team group along with various group decision making techniques in details.

A team is a group of individuals, all working together for a common purpose. The individuals
including a team ideally should have common goals, common objectives and more or less think on
the same lines. Individuals who are not compatible with each other can never form a team. They
should have similar if not the same interests, thought processes, attitude, perception and likings.
Teams are created for both long term and short-term interaction. A product development team or an
executive leadership team are examples of long-lasting ones. Short term teams might include a team
to develop an employee ‘on boarding’ process, a team to plan the annual day of the company,
Functional or departmental teams: Groups of people from the same work area or department, who
meet on a regular basis to analyse customer needs, solve problems, provide members with support,
promote continuous improvement, and share information.
Cross-functional teams: Groups of people who are pulled together from across departments or job
functions to deal with a specific product issue, customer problem, or to improve a particular process.
Self-managing teams: Groups of people who gradually assume responsibility for self-direction in all
aspects of work. This is more a characteristic or nature of the team and indicates its degree of
autonomy.
Based on the function: Teams can be called project teams (which are usually cross functional and self-
managed), employee participation team, maintenance team or problem-solving team which usually is
a departmental or intact team and management team which is intended to take managerial decisions
or managerial level problem solving.

Q8 Emotional intelligence and its impact of managers

"Emotional intelligence is the capacity for recognising our own feelings and those of others, for
motivating ourselves, for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships." (Snow, 2001)
Goleman’s model of Emotional Intelligence (EI)
Daniel Goleman and the Hay Group have identified a set of competencies that differentiate individuals
with EI. The competencies fall into four clusters:
Self-awareness: Capacity for understanding one's emotions, one's strengths and one's weaknesses.
Self-management: Capacity for effectively managing one's motives and regulating one's behaviour.
Social awareness: Capacity for understanding what others are saying and feeling and why they feel
and act as they do.
Relationship management: Capacity for acting in such a way that one is able to get desired results
from others and reach personal goals.
EI for employees
In order to increase the level of employees’ performance, morale and enthusiasm, many organisations
today want to promote an emotionally intelligent culture. To succeed in that, organisations must foster
the following attributes:
 The organisation “promotes a culture in which openness and transparency are the norm.”
 Respectful assertiveness must exist in the organisation.
 The organisation encourages diversity.
 The organisation tolerates constructive disagreement.
EI for Leaders
The characteristics of leaders possessing a high level of EI are as follows (Saavedra, 2000):
 They set goals that are clear and mutually agreed upon.
 They prefer praise as a tool for training and inspiring employees.
 They rely on decentralisation for achieving their goals.
 They focus on employees and their feelings.
 They are role models.

These leaders exhibit a high degree of self-actualisation, self-regard and a strong sense of self-
awareness. They admit their mistakes and seek to learn from them.
A simple definition of leadership is that leadership is the art of motivating a group of people to act
towards achieving a common goal.

Q 9. Learning and the Applications

"Learning is the process of having one's behavior modified, more or less permanently, by what he does
and the consequences of his action, or by what he observes."
What it implies is that learning involves the following:
 A change occurs in the behaviour
  Such change is relatively permanent
 Some form of experience is necessary for this change in behaviour
Learning is dependent on ability i.e., existing capacity to perform the various tasks in a job and
aptitude which represents capability of learning something. Ability is therefore knowledge and skills
that an individual currently possesses and aptitude to gain some knowledge and skill.

Q10 . Definition of OB and framework of learning OB

Organisational Behaviour is the systematic study of individual, group and organizational factors on
productivity, effectiveness and efficiency. Refer Section 7.4 for more details.
OB can be defined as a systematic study that investigates the impact of individuals, groups and
organisational factors on productivity to include effectiveness and efficiency, absentee, turnover,
organisational citizenship behaviour and job satisfaction.
By systematic study we mean looking at relationships and attempting toattribute causes and effects,
and drawing conclusions based onscientific evidence.

By productivity we mean a performance measure that includes botheffectiveness (achievement of

goals) and efficiency (ratio on outputversus input required to achieve it).
By absenteeism we mean failure to report to work especially withoutinforming.
By turnover we mean voluntary and involuntary permanent withdrawalfrom an organisation (simply
put exiting or quitting).
By organisational citizenship we mean discretionary behaviour that isnot part of an employee’s
formal job requirements, but that neverthelesspromotes the effective functioning of the organisation.
By job satisfaction we mean a general attitude towards one’s job; thedifference between the amount
of reward the workers receive and theamount they believe they should receive.

Q 11. Theory of John Kotter on leading changes

There are many theories about how to "do" change. Many originate with leadership and
change management guru, John Kotter. There are many theories about how to "do" change.
Many originate with leadership and change management guru, John Kotter

Create Urgency - The first step is to create a sense of urgency about the need for change. In order to
achieve lasting transformation, all involved should feel the sense of urgency for change and believe
that change is needed for organizational growth. The goal of this step is to prepare employees for the
forthcoming change and to encourage them to participate.
Form a powerful coalition- Do generals go to war alone? Can you go into change alone? This is where
the need for a strong leadership who is courageous enough to enlist the support of several top
managers matter. Depending on the nature of the proposed change, the size of the team will vary.
Create a vision for change - we need a clear vision that can be understood by everyone. Having said
that, one must admit that vision building is a rather interesting but tedious process. The vision for a
company is what motivates and guides its team’s actions. When people see for themselves what
you're trying to achieve, then the directives they're given tend to make more sense.
Communicate the vision- What you do with your vision after you create it will determine your
success. Your message will probably have strong competition from other day-to-day
communications within the company,
Remove obstacles - Once you have kick started the exercise and progressed, your staff would want to
change and enjoy the benefits that you have been promising. If you follow these steps and reach
this point in the change process, you've been talking about your vision and building buy-in
from all levels of the organization. Hopefully, your staff wants to get busy and achieve the
benefits that you've been promoting.
Create short-term wins - Nothing motivates more than success. Give your company a taste of
victory early in the change process. Within a short time frame (this could be a month or a year,
depending on the type of change), you'll want to have some " quick wins " that your staff can
see. 
Don’t declare victory too early - Many change projects fail because the victory is declared too early.
Real change takes time to percolate. When you have quick wins, you might be disoriented; but do not
mix it up with the ultimate success
Anchor the changes in corporate culture - Since change is inherently dynamic, there is a danger of it
falling back. To make it stick, change the core of the organisational culture. We must make every effort
to ensure that change is seen in every aspect of your organisation.

Q12 Decision making and discuss of the process of decision making

The steps involved in creative decision making are incubation, invention, insight, verification.
Creative decision making
In a complex world, we have to take creative decisions more so when there is change and
uncertainties. Let us see how we do this.
Incubation – To make creative decisions, first we allow a problem to simmer in our mind in the
unconscious. You must have observed how an important question remains in your mind without an
answer for some-time and then you get an answer to it all of a sudden. This happens because you
incubate the problem enabling your brain to connect the various aspects and then find a possible
solution.
Intuition – After you have incubated it for some time, you get an intuition, i.e., what is in the
unconscious is connected to the conscious.
Insight – Insight is something concrete about the underlying nature of the problem and its solution
comes to us often when we are not thinking of the problem. Your brain connects the need of a solution
with the intuition and gives you possible answers. They are untested and may or may not work. Insight
is the result of hard work where you have thought of many variables, permutations, and combinations.
Logical formulation or verification – Here we verify the insight and see its viability and then take a
decision.

Q 13. Seventeen Characterstics of an effective team.

Clear Purpose -The vision, mission, goal or task of the team is defined and accepted by everyone on
the team. The team have an action plan.
Informality- The atmosphere is informal, comfortable and relaxed. There are no obvious tensions or
signs of boredom.
Participation -There is much discussion and everyone is encouraged to participate.
Listening -The members use effective listening techniques such as questioning, paraphrasing and
summarising to generate ideas.
Civilised Disagreement - When there is disagreement, the team is comfortable with it and shows no
signs of avoiding, smoothing over or suppressing conflict.
Consensus Decisions -For important decisions the intention is to achieve substantial, but not
necessarily unanimous, agreement through open discussion of everyone’s ideas and avoidance of
formal voting or easy compromises.
Open Communication -Team members feel free to express their feelings on the tasks as well as on the
group’s operation. There are few hidden agendas. Communication also takes place outside of
meetings.
Clear Roles and Work Assignments -There are clear expectations about the roles played by each team
member. When action is taken, clear assignments are made, accepted and carried out. Work is fairly
distributed among team members.
Shared Leadership -While the team has a formal leader, leadership functions shift from time to time
depending on the circumstances, the needs of the group and the skills of the members. The formal
leader models the appropriate behaviour and helps establish positive norms.
External Relations -The team spends time developing key outside relationships, mobilising resources
and building credibility with important players in other parts of the organisation.
Style Diversity -The team has a broad spectrum of team player types including members who
emphasise attention on the task, goal setting, focus on process and question how the team is
functioning.
Self-Assessment -Periodically the team stops to examine how well it is functioning and what may be
interfering with its effectiveness.
Networking – It reflects group members' ability and willingness to link upwith others, external to the
group.
Participation - Participation also facilitatesstrategy development and increases member self-efficacy.
Q 14. Define the team group along with various group decision making techniques in details.

Functional or departmental teams (also called intact teams): Groupsof people from the same work
area or department, who meet on aregular basis to analyse customer needs, solve problems,
providemembers with support, promote continuous improvement, and shareinformation. These are
also sometimes called intact team which meansthat they operate within a department to support a
function of thedepartment.
Cross-functional teams: Groups of people who are pulled togetherfrom across departments or job
functions to deal with a specific productissue, customer problem, or to improve a particular process. A
fulldiscourse on it is included later in this unit.
Self-managing teams: Groups of people who gradually assumeresponsibility for self-direction in all
aspects of work. This is more acharacteristic or nature of the team and indicates its degree
ofautonomy. Thus, for example a cross functional team would also be selfmanaged.
Based on the function: Teams can be called project teams (which areusually cross functional and self
managed), employee participationteam, maintenance team or problem solving team which usually is
adepartmental or intact team and management team which is intended totake managerial decisions or
managerial level problem solving. They areusually cross functional and self managed.
Q 15. Staffing and its importance in the organization
Staffing is a management function which includes hiring, motivating, and
retaining the best people available to achieve a company’s objectives. It is
essentially the task of getting and keeping the right people. Right man for
the right job is the basic principle of staffing.
 Fills the various positions with competent people who ensure that the activities are done as
efficiently and effectively as possible. If the activities identified by organising are not filled by
manpower who is able to do the activities, it would follow that no activity will take place and no goals
will be achieved.
 Ensures the quality of manpower by providing appropriate goals, motivation, training, and other
aspects that are essential to keep the staff from delivering.
 Impacts the productivity directly.
 Plays a vital and considerable role especially with regard to development of executives and non-
executives employees.
 Helps in matching the expenditure incurred in maintaining human resource and the benefit derived
out of it.
 Creates synergy with other functions of management and makes them strong e.g., without staffing
there can be no planning, leading, or controlling. Therefore, it is central to the management process.

Q16. Briefly justify business as a social system.

The social system was created by Raju and his friends who later became his employees as well as the
employees who joined later. In larger businesses, there will be people from diverse backgrounds of
education, gender, religion, region, etc. They form the social system. Business is actually something
that society has created for itself to make things simpler to fulfill its needs and wants. Therefore, we
must accept that it is a social system and it is the social system and not business itself that dictates
how a business is to be done at a macro level. This is done through social pressures such as the ones
created by NGOs and environmental groups and also through legislation by the representatives of the
people, etc. So, though a business is an economic entity, we should not forget that it is the society
which gives it sanctity.
Society, through its government, can change the rules of business and say that you can bring in foreign
direct investment in this business, but not that business, etc. because a business is an organisation that
the society has created to fulfill its needs. If it does not do so, the society tends to control it and even
close it down. This is not to say that society and government interferes in everything. In fact, society
gives business a lot of freedom, because in doing so, competition takes place, the cost goes down,
quality goes up, and the society’s need is better fulfilled. If you think of mobile phones, you will see
how this freedom has helped the society. You can also see how when this led to corruption, another
system called the judicial system (also created by the society) intervened on behalf of the society and
cancelled about 122 licenses. Every business and young leaders of such business which you are or soon
will be must understand and accept this power of the society and that business organisations are its
creation and will exist only if it fulfills its purpose.
Goal
The goal of the social system in the case we discussed was to make tables and chairs and earn better
wages and have better working condition than working as daily wage carpenters. All businesses,
whether big or small, have a goal. Society too has a goal. The goals of the society are not only to have
tables and chairs but also employment and prosperity. All organisations will have a goal. It may be
implicit in small organisations and often well expressed in larger ones. This is usually done through a
vision and mission statement.

Q 17.Describe the concept of vision and mission in an organisation.

Vision and mission

Every organisation has a vision and mission. In the case of Raju, he may not have expressed it in a
statement, i.e., it may not be explicit; but perhaps if you had talked with him, you would come to know
that he wants to provide faultless tables to the people, earn money, provide for his family, get social
status in the process, etc. A vision statement is a formal statement of what a business wants to be. But
who decides what it wants to be? Well, it is not only Raju, but also the customers, the employees, and
the society or in other words those who have an interest in the business because they get some
benefit out of it. They are called ‘stakeholders’. In our case, Raju (owner or promoter or shareholder),
the other carpenters (employees), the saw mill (supplier), the shops (distributors), banks who may
have given loan (the financiers), and the people who bought the tables and chairs (the customers) are
all stakeholders.
So the vision cannot be made by the owner alone. He has to fulfill the wishes of the stakeholders. An
owner who puts in money has to ask other people before deciding his/her vision. Yes, strange but true.
The core values are those things very close to your heart that you willnot give up at any cost. It can be
integrity (for example, I will never cheaton the taxes I have to pay) or quality (I will never use a lower
qualitywood), etc. Usually we say that you should have only 4 to 6 core values. Of course, personal
values and business values may differ. For example, love may be a very important personal value but it
may not beso relevant in your business of furniture though it can be relevant if youwere having a
home for the aged. If you have too many of them, they failto remain ‘core’ and loses their impact. Why
are core values important?When you have a decision dilemma, they come up like a lighthouse
tonavigate you.

You might ask ‘What about the mission statement?’ Well, in the Collins and Porras format, the vision
and mission are fairly well integrated. Vision is the state that one wants to be in and mission is the way
of doing it. You can, of course, say that your vision is to be the No. 1 in India, and you will do it by
providing high quality furniture, by maintaining integrity, etc. The Mission statement can be a separate
one or it can be rolled into one but Collins and Porras model has been gaining popularity of late
because it encapsulates the vision and mission into one and anchors the value.

Q 18 What do you understand by strategy? Briefly explain functional strategy.

Once you have your vision, you have to see how that vision can be executed. Here is where strategy
comes in. Strategy means the grand plan and the term is borrowed from the military which
distinguished between the grand plan and actual action by calling the former strategy and the latter
tactics.
Strategy in organisations can be divided into three:
Corporate strategy
Corporate strategy
If you are a company like TATA or BIRLA, you will have several businesses under you and a corporate
headquarters which controls these. Each of these businesses may be run by an independent company
much like Tata Motors runs the vehicle business and Tata Consultancy Service runs the IT business
(they both are different companies). The corporate headquarters will have grand plans on how each
business should operate. For example, it might say that that Tata Motors should design, develop, and
manufacture an indigenous small car Nano or that TCS should expand business to China.
This grand plan created by the corporate headquarters is called ‘Corporate Strategy’. It lays down the
grand plan to be followed by each business under a corporate headquarters. If you are small like Raju,
you will not have a corporate strategy; however, will still have a strategy for your business.

Business strategy Every business, small or big, will have a business strategy. This is the grand plan for
doing business. For example, Raju can make a grand plan of expanding his business to another district
or having branches. He can take a decision to be the provider of low cost furniture or highly
differentiated furniture, household furniture only, modular furniture only, a supplier of all furniture
needs, etc. This is what business strategy is. If you were a TATA company, each business of TATA (say
Tata Motors, Tata Iron and Steel Company, Tata Hotels, etc) would have their own business strategy in
consonance with the corporate strategy.
Functional strategy
Once you have a business strategy, each independent department will need its own strategy. For
example, the HR of Tata Motors will need a strategy quite different from the HR of Tata Consultancy
Service (TCS). So, the operations, marketing, finance, HR, etc of each business will make their own
grand plan or strategy and this is called functional strategy. In the case of Raju, he might plan to hire
more carpenters and pay daily wages or wages per piece. This is the HR strategy (of course it is only
one element of HR strategy but illustrates what functional strategy means). In other words, the grand
plan made by each functional area is called functional strategy. Usually organisations have operations
strategy, finance strategy, marketing strategy, and HR strategy. If you are large and well diversified,
you may have an information strategy, supply chain strategy, etc. also and this depends to some
extend on the nature of your business. For example, if you are in retail chain business like Big Bazaar,
you may have a merchandise strategy (what products to sell) and supply chain strategy (how to
procure the products at the lowest cost and move them nationally) as these are very important to
business success. Similarly, Raju too can have a strategy to purchase wood in bulk from Malaysia and
ship it and call it his procurement strategy.

19. Determine the importance of management.

Importance of Management
From the definition, we can derive the importance of management. If you see the definition and
carefully read the case, we find that management is important because of the following reasons

It helps in achieving group goals – Green Path Hotels was on expansion and to create the capacity for
service, they had hired more people and were training them in one place so that when the new hotels
are opened, these trained men can go there and be productive from day one. This is about achieving
the goals set, i.e., smooth expansion.
Optimum utilisation of resources – GreenPath could have avoided hiring these people in advance and
thus saved money but then if they had hired them late, these resources would not have been ready to
render the service and would probably have earned a bad name in those initially. So there is a trade-off
between maintaining the brand name and the service quality and hiring in advance and bearing the
cost. The overstaffing was therefore deliberate and planned and not the result of ahaphazard planning.
This is optimisation of resources.
Reduces costs – It gets maximum results by using minimum input through proper planning. You saw
how Green Path uses physical, human, and financial resources in such a manner that it creates great
results at low costs. Management is about cost reduction. You can see how the physical resources, the
flute playing blind man, the foot massage, and the people are judiciously combined to create
happinessto the hotel guests (in hotel parlance we call the customers as guests).These reduced the
cost of building expensive rooms to create the ambience, hiring expensive hotel school graduates to
serve the guests, etc.
Establishes sound organisation – No overlapping of efforts (smoothand coordinated functions) is an
important lesson from the case. Yousaw how the service staff moved around with calmness and
renderedthe service smoothly which avoided all duplication of effort and perhapshow they covered
each other’s deficiency in service through teamwork.
Establishes equilibrium – It enables the organisation to survive in achanging environment. Green Path
was able to see the new era comingwith its focus on environment and social responsibility. It keeps in
touchwith the changing environment. Green Path is an example of how itchanges to the demand of
market/changing the needs of societies and becomes responsible for growth and survival of
organisation. You saw how Green Path is riding the new wave of sensitivity to environment, social
responsibility of caring for the blind beggar, etc. This is the newreality that Green Path has been able to
capture in its service.

Essentials for prosperity of society – Efficient management leads tobetter economical production and
also increases the economic, social,and general welfare of the people. Good management makes a
difficulttask easier and more importantly, avoids wastage of scarce resources. Itimproves the standard
of living. You saw how GreenPath uses the localmen and woman and creates prosperity to the village
folks.
Q 20. Explain the importance of principles of management.

There are fourteen principles of management which Henri Fayol enunciated. This has wide acceptance
and let us discuss them in detail.
1.Division of labour- We saw in the case how everyone was doing their own job. For example, playing
flute, selling rooms from the front office, massaging feet, etc. When the major tasks and activities of
the organisation is divided and carried out by different people in the organisation it is called division of
labour.
2.Authority and responsibility coexist - If the manager is given the responsibility to run his hotel in a
specified manner, he should be given the formal authority to do so and if he has been given the
authority, he has to be responsible for the right andwrong things going on.
3.Unity of command - This means that one person should report to only one boss. This principle has
undergone considerable changes, and we now have ideaslike adhocracy or matrix organisations where
a person may report to multiple bosses. However, the principle stands in good stead. Suppose you had
two bosses, whom would you listen to? Who will make youfollow some discipline, to whom will you be
loyal? Will there beconfusion and chaos and will you pitch one boss against the other andescape
responsibility? Will there be duplication of work and overlapping
of efforts? Your candid answers to these questions will make the idea of unity of command clearer to
you.
4.Unity of direction - If you have many guests checking into Green Path, we need many people to do
the foot massage. This needs one plan and one way ofdoing it. Also it is preferable that the same
people serve the welcome drink and carry the baggage to the rooms. If we do that, there will be better
direction in the work since these works can be grouped under, receiving the guest, showing hospitality,
giving them some physical comfort and then getting him settled in his room. This is creating unity of
direction or one head one plan.
Equity- Equity is a combination of fairness, justice, and empathy. It does not mean absence of
assertive action rather existence of it to ensure fairness for all. This does not mean giving all the same
reward but rewarding according to one’s effort. In fact, the idea of productivity-based incentives
emanates from the principle of equity.
Order -In the case, we saw how the service staff was moving around smoothly and doing their job. You
might have observed how things are kept in order in a Maruti Genuine Workshop as against a wayside
workshop. Appointing the most suitable person for a job is also part of this principle of order. In other
words, it means doing things systematically
Initiative -When the workers are encouraged to do things which are not strictly defined but which add
to the productivity, cost reduction, etc. which arethe objectives of management, the workers enjoy
doing their job and efficiency and effectiveness increase just like the front office manager who took the
initiative to negotiate full room tariff rather than yield to are quest for discount.
Fairness -Fairness in remuneration and the way people are treated in rewardimplies reward and
recognition keeping in mind the current market rate,the living needs of the workers, safe working
conditions, medicalfacilities, wages being linked to the nature of the work and beingreasonable in
everything. It implies a dialogue between the employerand the employee. Modern industrial laws are
society’s means ofensuring fairness in organisations.

21. Describe the importance of planning

Planning implies goal setting for the organisation keeping in mind the constraints, opportunities, and
threats as much as what the person or business which is planning wants to do. Thus, a plan is a
blueprint for goal achievement, a blue print that specifies the necessary resource allocations,
schedules, tasks, and other actions to achieve the purpose.
A goal is a desired future state that the organisation attempts to reach. Goals are important because
an organisation exists for a purpose, and goals define and state that purpose. Goals specify future
ends; plans specify the means to do that. In Unit 1, we saw the idea of vision and mission and
therefore, we can state that the method we choose to achieve the vision and execute the mission is
planning. Therefore, planning is about looking ahead.
Planning answers six basic questions in regard to any activity:
What needs to be accomplished? What are the alternative routes to it?
When is the deadline?
Where will this be done?
Who will be responsible for it?
How will it get done?
How much time, energy, and resources are required to accomplish thisgoal?

Planning is important for the following reasons:

It helps the management to clarify, focus, and research their businesses or project's development and
prospects.
It provides a considered and logical framework within which a businesscan develop and pursue
business.
It offers a benchmark against which the actual performance can be measured and reviewed.
It plays a vital role in helping to avoid mistakes or recognise hidden opportunities.

In the business context, it guides the development of products, management, finances, and most
importantly, markets and competition.
It helps in forecasting the future and makes the future visible to some extent.
It bridges between where we are and where we want to go.

Q 22. Diagrammatically illustrate the types of planning. 3.4

Planning can be classified from different perspectives. Figure 3.1 depicts the perspectives of planning.
Based on level (corporate, business and functional plans)
They cover long-term objectives of various businesses and the ways to do these. They are integrated
and future oriented. Sambhavi may consider that they could enter into long-life-packaged bakery
products, production of bakery raw materials, a chain food retail, etc. These are corporate plans. Of
course, Sambhavi is small. Take an organisation like Tata. They have over 150 businesses under their
corporate headquarters and the plan made for various businesses by the corporate is called corporate
plan. Under the corporate plan, there would be plans how to muster the money, HR, etc. These are
functional plans. They cover the sub-functions and are derived from the corporate plan and cover a
segment of activity. Business Plan could also be plans to enter business and how this is done and is
called business plan. Even a small organisation like Sambhavi Bakers will have a plan for handling
money, marketing, recruiting people, etc. These are functional plans.
Based on importance - A plan that is important and future oriented and forms the hub of fulfilling the
vision is, of course, very important and such plans are called strategic plans. As against this, short-term
plans made for the day-to-day functioning such as production, purchase operation, etc are called
operational plans. These plans cover the production, distribution, etc that sustain the markets.
Based on formal process (formal and informal) -When planning is done as per the steps and
documented in a structured way, it is called formal plan and when this is missing it is called informal
plan.
Based on approach (proactive and reactive) -The plans that we make anticipating an incident is called
proactive plans and something that we make as a consequence of an event or action of the
competition is called reactive plans. Reactive plans bring us back to the balance after we have lost it
while the proactive plans give us initiative. In other words, we can say that reactive plans are about
survival while proactive is about growth.
Long, medium, and short-term plans - Every organisation is required to fulfil some need of the
society. If you were the chairman of PWD, your purpose would be road building and if you were the
owner of Sambhavi bakers, your purpose would be to provide good bakery items. In the latter case, it
could be to the people from all over the state, a few districts, etc and the plan would further cover the
short term, medium term, and long term from a time perspective. Usually, we say that short term
implies one or two years, medium term up to 5 years and long term from 8 to 20 years. The time frame
cannot be strictly defined without keeping in mind the peculiarities of the segment and the product or
service that we are providing. For example, for road construction, the long term could be as much as
15 or 20 years while this may be 8 or 10 years for Sambhavi bakers because it takes a long time to build
roads as against building bakery outlets.

Q 23 Explain Porter’s model and how it helps in decision making.3.7

Porter designed a five forces model to evaluate, plan, and decide on a strategy. The same is shown in
the Fig. 3.5 diagrammatically.
The five forces are
1)competition among companies which indicate the degree of competition, for example, are there a
lot of bakeries of this nature in Salem and neighbouring districts;
2)threat of new companies entering the market, which is high in this case since you don’t need any
special capability except the capability to makegood bakery products,
3)the possibilities of using substitute products, for example, can people use other eatable products
than bakery products if they choose to,
4)bargaining power of the suppliers, for example, if there are no good raw material suppliers for a
bakery like Sambhavi, the purchase has to bemade anyway but if there are many good raw material
suppliers, then Sambhavi can bargain better, and
5)the bargaining power of the customers which is self explanatory.
Based on this analysis, companies plan one of the following:
Cost leadership – In our case, Sambhavi Bakers is not following a cost strategy. But there could be
other bakers who could be doing that and they could keep the product portfolio low, become bulk
producers, and therefore, gain economies of scale, etc.
Differentiation – Sambhavi is a differentiator as it produces unique products which the competitors
are not able to imitate. Since customers from the neighbouring districts are willing to drive all the way
to buy the products, we can conclude that customers will not be averse to paying more for the
products of Sambhavi. As a result, it is easy for new entrants to enter the market and directly compete
with Sambhavi. It is not easy for the customers to substitute it either. The suppliers have high
bargaining power but to offset the cost of raw materials, Sambhavican, if required, increase the price.
Focus strategy – To thrive in the market, Sambhavi could focus on aniche area. For example, they
could focus on birthday cakes only and make nothing else and create a niche in the market as a
birthday cakeprovider.

Porter’s five forces model is thus used to take a decision on the desirable strategy that one should plan
and decide on.
d)Blue Ocean
In the TOWS matrix we discussed how companies can use their strengthand reduce their weaknesses.
In Blue Ocean strategy, its authors suggestthat it is better that one uses the strength and enter the
untouched
opportunities rather than try to make up strengths and enter a competitive environment or try to
make up its weaknesses and enter into a competition. The proposition is that the companies should
look for virgin areas of opportunities that match its strength and enter uncontested markets.
Uncontested areas are called Blue Ocean as opposed to Red Ocean which is the contested areas.
Porter’s 5 forces suggests that the companies have to make a strategic choice to beat the competition
by choosing to be cost leader and differentiator or follower of focus strategy while Blue Ocean
suggests companies should enter uncontested areas and that they need not make a strategic choice of
entering a contested areas.

Q 24. Define organisation. Give any three reasons for why organising isimportant. 4.3

The term organisation is used in a generic sense by many to mean anything from a company such as
Vodafone to a cultural organisation. The word organising often refers to conducting a party or meeting.
But for practising managers, the term organisation means the formalised and intentional structure of
roles and positions.
Organising is a function of the management that follows planning. In order to execute the plan and
move towards the goal of the business or any concern, several activities have to be performed. These
include human activities, activities by machines, financial activities, marketing of the products and
services, etc. Thus we get results only when all the resources are put into action through numerous
activities. The term organising means doing these activities in a logical and systematic way so as to get
the maximum results. By implication, it also means communicating between various activities to
achieve co-ordination. Thus, the organising function helps in achievement of results. According to
Chester Barnard, “Organizing is a function by which the concern is able to define the role positions, the
jobs related and the co- ordination between authority and responsibility.” Hence, a manager always has
to organise in order to achieve results.

Creates roles – Organising enables a business to create roles or in other words, it links a person to an
activity with its own set of responsibility. Thus an activity and a person who must perform the activity
are linked.
Facilitates specialisation – Through organising, all the roles can be categorised into cohesive wholes
based on similarity. Thus, the activitiesalong with the roles can be divided into units and departments.
This division helps in bringing specialisation in various activities of the business and thus enhances
efficiency.

Clarifies authority –- Organisational structure helps in clarifying the rolepositions of every manager
by defining the powers of each role, the reporting structure, with whom a manager should
communicate and coordinate so that all the activities run smoothly such that the productivity
increases.
Enables co-ordination – By defining the above relationship, organising automatically brings co-
ordination in activities and ensures mutual co-operation among individuals (roles). It prevents role
conflicts and if it exists, it gives a method to redefine the roles and the relationship to remove such
conflicts.

Facilitates effective administration – Organising is helpful in defining the job positions.

Q25 .Differentiate between a formal organisation and an informal organisation. 4.4

Organisations are generally divided into formal and informal organisations on the basis of
relationships.
Let us now study formal and informal organisations in detail.
Formal organisation – In formal organisations, the relationships, roles, norms, and responsibilities are
defined and are usually reduced to writing. Consequences of achieving and not achieving the goals are
also defined as the rules of interacting vertically and horizontally.
Informal organisation – It refers to a network of personal and social relationships which originates
within the formal set up spontaneously. This relationship is built on likes, dislikes, feelings, and
emotions. Therefore, social groups existing within the overall organizational structure can be called as
informal organisations.

The difference between formal and informal organisations is the conscious effort made in formal
organisation and the lack of it in the informal organisation. Informal organisation is not based on any
rules and regulations though these organisations often create their own norms, rules, and regulations
on mutual consent for achieving their own goals. E.g., a biking group in a company, which goes biking
every Sunday, might create its own rules for dress, conduct, frequency, leadership, etc.

Let us now study the relationship between formal and informal organisations.
Relationship between formal and informal organisations
For a concerns working both formal and informal organisation are important. Formal organisation
originates from the set organisational structure and informal organisation originates from formal
organisation. For an efficient organisation, both formal and informal organisations are required. They
are the two phases of a same concern. Formal organisation can work independently. But informal
organisation depends totally on the formal organisation. Formal and informal organisation help in
bringing efficient working organisation and smoothness in a concern. Within the formal organisation,
the members undertake the assigned duties in co-operation with each other. They interact and
communicate amongst themselves. When several people work together for achieving organisational
goals, social tie ups are built and therefore informal organisation helps to secure co-operation by
which goals can be achieved smoothly. Therefore, we can say that informal organisation emerges from
formal organisation and synergises it. E.g., a biking group may consist of people from different
departments but because they create a bond outside the organisational structure, they can interact
with each other in a better way inside the organisation’s formal structure.

Q 26 Describe a virtual organisation. 4.6

Virtual organisations are those which are primarily connected by information technology and are
seldom located in a place. Thus, these organisations have a global reach. Naukri.com which is a
recruiting company is almost a virtual organisation though they may have a place from where its top
management operates. It enables to bring the customers and the service together on a global basis
and therefore the reach is really high. Most interactions including the service is largely virtual. Though
it may be more difficult to co-ordinate in the initial stages as people learn the art of working in a virtual
group, it becomes smooth as it can transcend space and time i.e., a service can be rendered anywhere
and at any time.

Q27. Staffing function and HR management are inseparable. Justify. 4.9

The entire gamut of HR management emanates from the staffing concept. If staffing is the process of
ensuring that there are people for all activities, this is done through the HR process of planning,
recruiting, selection, performance evaluation and management, reward management, training and
development, and motivation. Hence staffing directly connects to HR.

HR planning is the process by which the requirement of manpower for an organisation is forecasted
and a plan is created to recruit and select the required people. Thus the execution of staffing process
starts with HR planning. Once a plan is created, the people have to be recruited. Therefore, we have
the recruiting plan, which is the process of calling for applications and ensuring that sufficient numbers
of qualified applications are made available. From these qualified applicants, the best are selected
based on several factors through the selection system. They have to be oriented, trained, and
positioned in various jobs and only then we can say that we have staffed the various activities.

Even after the employees are positioned we cannot say that staffing is complete. If an organisational
activity has to be done to make the organisation effective, they have to perform. Therefore, the
performance management system comes into play and sets objectives, targets, etc. and defines the
way of measuring the achievement of these objectives. The employees have to be rewarded so that
they remain motivated and continue to deliver the objectives. Often you might find that the people
manning the activity are not effective for various reasons and therefore the role of training and
development comes in.

Thus we find that staffing is a complex process and does not end by merely picking up people and
placing them in job roles to do some activities but goes beyond to ensure that people produce
effectively in these roles. Thus staffing and HR management are inseparable.

Q 28. Why is leading important ?

Leading or leadership function is said to be the heart of management process. Therefore, it is the
central point around which accomplishment of goals take place. A few philosophers call leading as
“Life spark of an enterprise”. It is also called as an actuating function of management because it is
through direction that the operation of an enterprise actually starts. Being the central character of an
enterprise, it provides many benefits to a concern which are as follows:
1.Initiates actions – Leading is the function which starts the workperformance of the followers or
subordinates. Mrs. Rakhi of Sambhaviinitiated the actions by giving goals to the employees. She could
havegiven direction, rules, and regulations. The work would perhaps stillhave been done but not with
so much enthusiasm. Further, leading hasa self perpetuating component in that the led knows where
to do andtherefore, even if they take different routes, ensure that the destination isreached more
efficiently and effectively.

Sustains action – Direction, much like leading initiates action but thesedirections have to be repeated
if the actions have to go on. Leading onthe other hand ensures that the actions go on and course
correctionsare done automatically by the followers because of their innate belief inthe goal being
something desirable to follow. When they face obstacles,they would either fall back on the leader if
the obstacles are too huge toovercome.
3.Integrates efforts – Through leading, the superiors are able to guide,inspire, and instruct the
subordinates to work. When every employee,team leader, and division leader knows that his/her
reaching the goal isdependent on other’s effort, there is a natural flow of inter team
andinterdepartmental information. If you had been directing, this relation will
not only be forced but also monitored. Literature on directing will often speak of the need for effective
communication and often communication is considered as the key to directing.
Means of motivation – Leading helps in achievement of goals. A manager makes use of the element of
motivation to improve theperformances of subordinates. This can be done by providing incentivesor
compensation, whether monetary or non-monetary, which serves as a“morale booster” to the
subordinates. Motivation is also helpful for thesubordinates to give the best of their abilities, which
ultimately helps ingrowth. You saw how the employees of Sambhavi are praised andrewarded.

Provides stability – Stability and balance in a concern becomes veryimportant for a long-term survival
in the market. This can be broughtupon by the managers with the help of four tools or elements of
leadingfunction - judicious blend of persuasive leadership, effectivecommunication, clear performance
goals, and efficient motivation.Stability is very important since that is an index of growth of
anenterprise. Therefore, a manager can use of all the four traits in him/herso that the performance
standards can be maintained.
6.Copes with the changes – It is a human behaviour to show resistance to change. Adaptability with
changing environment helps in sustainingplanned growth and becoming a market leader. But when it
comes to leading, there is a much natural flowto change as people automatically embrace change and
adapt to theirjourney towards the goal. It is the role of the manager to communicatethe nature and
contents of changes required for reaching the goal veryclearly to the subordinates.

Q 29. What are the main functions of leading

Leading is an essential management process. The three main functions of leading are as follows:
Setting direction
Creating alignment
Creating engagement

Let us now study the functions in detail.

Setting direction
Direction setting can be defined as ‘fixing the purpose and the mission of an organisation along with
the values’. Simply put, it is about creating a vision statement.
Usually the top executives set the direction in an organisation. But it has to be bought into by the
employees. Usually, we see people running mission statement exercises and vision retreats.
Sambhavi’s owner had quietly talked to people and got at it. Her job is to make this clear so that other
actions such as planning, organising, and staffing can get going. She did that in no uncertain terms. But
how does her outlet manager do it? Does he/she also set a direction? Well, usually we say that he/she
should set goals based on the direction. What about the merchandise manager or the service
manager? They too should set their objectives and targets. We often perceive direction setting, goal
setting, and arriving at objectives as different. The only difference is that direction setting is broader
and lacks
Creating alignment - Creating alignment can be defined as ‘making the organisation act in unions with
the mission statement’. As a sub-function of leading, we ensure that people understand the mission
and goal and show willingness to align their
personal missions and goals with the organisational mission just like what many employees of
Sambhavi had done. This of course is the onus of the top management and the employees.
Aligning the product portfolio – The product and services of the organisation are in tune with the
mission and the customers understand that this is what is being delivered so that the value proposition
is clear. At the top management level this means deciding on the product portfolio, at the middle
management it means product improvement and innovation, which makes the product more aligned
and at the lower level it means adhering to the quality and processes, fine tuning the processes and
contributing ideas to enrich the processes and products.