People hate indecisive leadership so you have to make choices.

However that doesn't mean you have to decide everything the moment it comes to your

Attention. Nor that you can't ever reconsider a decision.

10. Let people know whom to please. Maybe it's you, maybe it's your boss and maybe it's
somebody who works for you. You're in trouble - and risking paralysis in your organization
- when employees start saying to themselves: «Am I supposed to be making this person
happy or this other person happy? They seem to have different priorities)).

I don't pretend that these are the only 10 approaches a manager should keep in mind, or even that they're the most important ones. There are lots of others but these 10 ideas may help you manage well, I hope they do.

FREDERICK W. TAYLOR: SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT

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No one has had more influence on managers in the twentieth century than Frederick W. Taylor, an American engineer. He set a pattern for industrial work which many others have followed, and although his approach to management has been criticised, his ideas are still of practical importance.

Taylor founded the school of Scientific Management just before the 1914-18 war. He argued that work should be studied and analysed systematically. The operations required to perform a particular job cold be identified, then arranged in a logical sequence. After this was done, a worker's productivity would increase, and so would his/her wages. The new method was scientific. The way of doing a job would no longer be determined by guesswork and rule-of thumb practices. Instead, management would work out scientifically the method for producing the best results. If the worker followed the prescribed approach, his/her output would increase.

When Taylor started work at the end of the nineteenth century, the industrial revolution was in full swing. Factories were being set up all over the USA. There was heavy investment in plant and machinery, and labour was plentiful. He worked for twenty years (1878-1898) with the Midvale Steel Company, first as a labourer, then as a Shop Superintendant. After that, he was a consultant with the Bethlehem Steel Company in Pennsylvania.

Throughout this time, he studied how to improve the efficiency of workers on the shop floor. He conducted many experiments to find out how to improve their productivity. His solutions to these problems were, therefore, based on his own experience. Later, he wrote about his experiments. These writings were collected and published in 1947, in a work entitled Scientific Management.

When he was with Bethlehem Steel, Taylor criticised management and workers. He felt that managers were not using the right methods and that workers did not put much effort into their job. They were always «soldiering» - taking it easy. He wanted both groups to adopt a new approach to their work, which would change their thinking completely. The new way was as follows:

1 Each operation of a job was studied and analysed;

2 Using this information, management worked out the time and method for each job, and the
type of equipment to be used;

3 Work was organized so that the worker's only responsibility was to do the job in the
prescribed manner;

Men with the right physical skills were selected and trained for the job.

Observing; analysing; measuring; specifying the work method; organizing and choosing the right person for the job - these were the tasks of management.

Taylor's approach produced results! For example, at Bethlehem Steel, he did an experiment with shovels, the tool used for lifting and carrying materials. He studied the work of two first-class shovellers and then changed their working procedure. In the beginning, the men used their own shovels for all the types of materials they handled, whether coal or iron ore.

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TOP MANAGEMENT –PLANNING AND STRATEGY

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The top management of a company have certain unique responsibilities. One of their key tasks is to make major decisions affecting the future of the organization. These strategic decisions determine where the company is going and how it will get there. For example, top managers must decide which markets to enter and which to pull out of; how expansion is to be financed; whether new products will be developed within the organization or acquired by buying other companies. These and other such decisions shape a company's future.

Before doing any kind of strategic planning; the management must be sure of one thing. They must decide what is the mission and purpose of their business. They also need to decide what it should be in the future. In other words, they must know why the business exists and what its main purpose is. Deciding the mission and purpose is the foundation of any planning exercise.

Two examples will make this point clear - one British, the other American. Most people have heard of Marks and Spencer, one of the biggest" and most successful retailers in the world. Michael Marks opened his first penny bazaar in 1884, in Leeds, England. Ten years later there were nine market stores, and Marks had taken into partnership Tom Spencer, the cashier of one of his suppliers. In 1926 Marks and Spencer became a public; company. At that point, they could have rested on their laurels! However, around that time, they developed a clear idea of Marks and Spencer's mission and purpose. Their later success was founded on this idea. They decided that the company was in business to provide goods of excellent quality, at reasonable prices, to customers from the working and middle classes. Providing value for money was their mission and purpose. One of the strategies they used was to concentrate on selling clothing and textiles. Later on, food products were added as a major line of business.

The second example concerns the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. They decided on their mission some sixty or so years ago. The head of the organization at that time, Theodore Vail, realized that a privately-owned telephone and telegraphic company might easily be nationalized. If the company didn't perform well, the public would call for its nationalization. To avoid this fate, it had to give efficient service to its customers. Vail and his colleagues decided that giving service would be the mission and purpose of the organization. This became the overall objective of the company, and has remained so ever since.

Having decided on its mission and purpose, an organization will have worked out certain more specific objectives. For example, a car firm may have the objective of producing and marketing new models of cars in the medium-price range. Another objective may be to increase its market share by 10% in the next five years. As soon as it has established its more specific, medium-term objectives, the company can draw up a corporate plan. Its purpose is to indicate the strategies the management will use to achieve its objectives.

However, before deciding strategies, the planners have to look at the company's present performance, and at any external factors which might affect its future. To do this, it carries out an analysis, sometimes called a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats). First, the organization examines its current performance, assessing its, strengths and weakness. It looks at performance indicators like market share, sales revenue, output and productivity. It also examines its resources - financial, human, products and facilities. For example, a department store chain may have stores in good locations — a strength - but sales revenue per employee may be low - a weakness. Next, the company looks at external factors, from the point of view of opportunities and threats. It is trying to assess technological, social, economic and political trends in the markets where it is competing. It also examines the activities of competitors. The department store chain, for example, may see the opportunity to increase profits by providing financial services to customers. On the other hand, increasing competition may be a threat to its very existence.

Having completed the SWOT analysis, the company can now evaluate its objectives and
perhaps work out new ones. They will ask themselves questions such as: Are we producing the
right products? What growth rate should we aim at in the next five years? Which new markets
should we break into?

The remaining task is to develop appropriate strategies to achieve the objectives. The
organization decides what actions it will take and how it will provide the resources to support
those actions. One strategy may be to build a new factory to increase production capacity. To
finance this, the company may develop another strategy, the issuing of new shares to the
public.