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It's Your Skills That Matter. Business owners must lead. They provide the vision and strategy and manage the business. Essentially, the business owner uses knowledge, information and experience to organize and mobilize resources. Others are responsible for carrying out plans. The framework within which to manage is to set clear goals, have a clear understanding of issues and alternatives, perform a proper and adequate analysis in developing appropriate solutions, and implement plans using appropriate and sufficient resources. But all this is only a neat and tidy theoretical framework. It says very little about what is really required to successfully run a business. Actually running a business requires certain skills and tools which can be learned and developed through a combination of reading, formal training and experience. Important skills include the following: Communication skills Organizational skills Supervisory, leadership and arbitration skills Marketing skills Administrative capabilities Financial and analytical skills Management tools are essentially bodies of knowledge which, when applied to problems provide a framework for solutions. These bodies of knowledge are again the result of education and experience. These tools include: Time management Networking Delegation, motivation, and monitoring Monitoring strategic information and balances Problem analysis Decision making models and frameworks Developing and educating personnel As tools, they should be applied in the proper circumstances and in the proper manner with the objective of making best use of your time. For example, it is necessary to monitor the collection of accounts receivable, but instead of looking at all receivables, you may find that a report on customers who are 90 days overdue, along with collection efforts to date is a more efficient use of your time. A planning framework, such as the following, can also be very useful. What is the question, objective, desired result. How can this be achieved Who and what must be involved to achieve this What support\resources\financing required Physical\financial\personnel impacts\constraints Constraints to further opportunities\alternatives What\how should you communicate expectations Why\when\how to take what particular steps Why\when do you need to know\do\have\what Ongoing support\monitoring\costs In summary, management tools are based on knowledge and information. more so than on computers, calculators and other equipment. Understanding how, where and when to use them is probably the most important factor in successfully running a complex business. Most of these tools can be learned from books, seminars and from networks but because every business and person running a business is different, actually applying them to your own situation and learning from the experience is the best teacher. So learn all you can about these tools by reading relevant books, attending seminars and from discussions with your networks. Apply them to your own organization and employees. You will be rewarded by increased efficiency, and knowledge about your own business which in turn supports the planning and decision making process © 2007 John B Voorpostel CA www.iaccountant.ca
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