Business Essentials Chapter 6 – Flashcards
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Management
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The process of planning, organizing, leading and controlling a business's financial, physical, human and information resources in order to achieve its goals.
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Efficiency
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Achieving the greatest level of output with a given amount of input.
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Effectiveness
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Achieving set organizational goals.
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Planning
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That portion of a manager's job concerned with determining what the business needs to do and the best way to achieve it.
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Strategic Plans
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Plans that reflect decisions about resource allocations, company priorities and steps needed to meet strategic goals.
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Tactical Plans
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Generally, short-range plans concerned with implementing specific aspects of a company's strategic plans.
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Operational Plans
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Plans setting short-term targets for daily, weekly or monthly performance.
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Organizing
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That portion of a manager's job concerned with mobilizing the necessary resources to complete a particular task.
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Leading
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That portion of a manager's job concerned with guiding and motivating employees to meet the firm's objectives.
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Controlling
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That portion of a manager's job concerned with monitoring the firm's performance and if necessary acting to bring it in line with the firm's goals.
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Top Managers
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Those managers responsible for a firm's overall performance and effectiveness and for developing long-range plans for the company.
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Middle Managers
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Those managers responsible for implementing the decisions made by top managers.
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First-Line Managers
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Those managers responsible for supervising the work of employees.
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Human Resource Managers
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Those managers responsible for hiring, training, evaluating and compensating employees.
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Operations Managers
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Those managers responsible for controlling production, inventory, and quality of a firm's products.
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Information Managers
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Those managers responsible for the design and implementation of systems to gather, process and disseminate information.
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Marketing Managers
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Those managers responsible for developing, pricing, promoting and distributing goods and services to buyers.
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Financial Managers
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Those managers responsible for planning and overseeing the financial resources of a firm.
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Technical Skills
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Skills associated with performing specialized tasks within a firm.
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Human Relations Skills
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Skills in understanding and getting along with people.
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Conceptual Skills
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Abilities to think in the abstract, diagnose and analyze various situations, and see beyond the present situation.
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Time Management Skills
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Skills associated with the productive use of time.
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Decision Making Skills
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Skills in defining problems and selecting the best courses of action.
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Organizational Politics
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The actions that people take as they try to get what they want.
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Intuition
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An innate belief about something, often without conscious consideration.
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Escalation of Commitment
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Condition in which a decision maker becomes so committed to a course of action that he or she stays with it even when there is evidence that the decision was wrong.
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Risk Propensity
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Extent to which a decision maker is willing to gamble when making a decision.
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Strategic Management
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The process of helping an organization maintain an effective alignment with its environment.
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Strategy
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The broad set of organizational plans for implementing the decisions made for achieving organizational goals.
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Vision (or Purpose)
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A statement indicating why an organization exists and what kind of organization it wants to be.
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Mission Statement
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An organization's statement of how it will achieve its purpose in the environment in which it conducts its business.
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Long-Term Goals
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Goals set up for extended periods of time, typically five years or more into the future.
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Intermediate Goals
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Goals set for a period of one to five years.
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Short-Term Goals
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Goals set for the very near future, typically less than a year.
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Smart Goals
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Goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-framed.
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Strategy Formulation
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Creation of a broad program for defining and meeting an organization's goals.
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Strategic Goals
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Long-term goals derived directly from the firm's mission statement.
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SWOT Analysis
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Identification and analysis of organizational strengths and weaknesses and environmental opportunities and threats as part of strategy formulation.
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Organizational Analysis
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The process of analyzing a firm's strengths and weaknesses.
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Environmental Analysis
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The process of scanning the environment for threats and opportunities.
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Corporate-Level Strategy
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Identifies the various businesses that a company will be in, and how these businesses will relate to each other.
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Business-Level (Competitive) Strategy
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Identifies the ways a business will compete in its chosen line of products or services.
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Functional Strategies
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Identify the basic courses of action that each department in the firm will pursue so that it contributes to the attainment of the business's overall goals.
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Concentration Strategy
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Involves focusing the company on one product or product line.
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Market Penetration
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Boosting sales of present products by more aggressive selling in the firm's current markets.
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Geographic Expansion
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Expanding operations in new geographic areas or countries.
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Product Development
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Developing improved products for current markets.
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Horizontal Integration
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Acquiring control of competitors in the same or similar markets with the same or similar products.
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Vertical Integration
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Owning or controlling the inputs to the firm's processes and/or the channels through which the products or services are distributed.
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Diversification
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Expanding into related or unrelated products or market segments.
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Investment Reduction
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Reducing the company's investment in one or more of its lines of business.
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Cost Leadership
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Becoming the low-cost leader in an industry.
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Differentiation Strategy
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A firm seeks to be unique in its industry along some dimension that is valued by buyers.
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Focus Strategy
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Selecting a market segment and serving the customers in that market niche better than competitors.
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Contingency Planning
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Identifying aspects of a business or its environment that might require changes in strategy.
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Crisis Management
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An organization's methods for dealing with emergencies.
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Corporate Culture
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The shared experiences, stories, beliefs and norms that characterize a firm.