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Complete MBA FOR DUMmIES 2ND ‰ EDITION by Kathleen Allen, PhD, USC Marshall Business School and Peter Economy Coauthor, Managing For Dummies, 2nd Edition, and Building Your Own Home For Dummies Complete MBA For Dummies®, 2nd Edition Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2008 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, 317-572-3447, fax 317-572-4355, or online at http://www. wiley.com/go/permissions. Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ. For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 800-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress Control Number: 2007941221 ISBN: 978-0-470-19429-4 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 About the Authors Kathleen R. Allen, PhD, is the author of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management, 3rd Ed., Launching New Ventures, 5th Ed., Bringing New Technology to Market, and Growing and Managing an Entrepreneurial Business, as well as several other trade books. As a Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, based in the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, Allen has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs start their ventures. At USC, she’s also director of the Marshall Center for Technology Commercialization, where she works with scientists and engineers to help bring their inventions to market. As an entrepreneur herself, Allen has co-founded four companies and is presently the co-founder and president of N2TEC Institute, which is dedicated to technology-based economic development in rural areas of the United States (www.n2tec.org). Allen holds a PhD from USC, an MBA, and a master’s degree in Romance Languages. Peter Economy (La Jolla, CA) is Associate Editor for the Apex Award–winning magazine Leader to Leader, a member of the National Advisory Council of the Creativity Connection of the Arts and Business Council of Americans for the Arts, a member of the board of directors of SPORTS for Exceptional Athletes (www.s4ea.org), and bestselling co-author of The SAIC Solution: How We Built an $8 Billion Employee-Owned Technology Company. He has also worked on more than 30 other books, including Managing For Dummies, 2nd Ed., The Management Bible, Enterprising Nonprofits: A Toolkit for Social Entrepreneurs, and Writing Children’s Books For Dummies. Peter invites you to visit him at his Web site: www.petereconomy.com. Dedication To the visionary business people who are infusing the entrepreneurial spirit into organizations –– here, and around the world. Authors’ Acknowledgments We would like to give our sincere thanks and appreciation to our talented publishing team at Wiley –– particularly Joyce Pepple, Stacy Kennedy, Chad Sievers, and Josh Dials. Kathleen would like to thank her husband John and kids Rob, Jaime, and Greg, who have always been champs about putting up with an author in the house. Peter would like to thank his wife Jan and kids Peter, Sky, and Jackson, for being a constant source of wonder, love, and amusement, as well as his mother Betty Economy for helping to pay for his MBA courses. Will the circle be unbroken? Publisher’s Acknowledgments We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development Project Editor: Chad R. Sievers Composition Services Project Coordinator: Kristie Rees Acquisitions Editor: Stacy Kennedy Layout and Graphics: Reuben W. Davis, Melissa K. Jester, Barbara Moore, Christine Williams Copy Editor: Josh Dials Anniversary Logo Design: Richard Pacifico (Previous Edition: Tina Sims) Proofreader: Tricia Liebig Editorial Program Coordinator: Erin Calligan Mooney Indexer: Broccoli Information Management (Previous Edition: Tim Gallan) Technical Editor: Matthew Will, PhD, MBA Editorial Manager: Michelle Hacker Editorial Assistants: Joe Niesen, LeeAnn Harney Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com) Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director, Consumer Dummies Kristin A. Cocks, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies Michael Spring, Vice President and Publisher, Travel Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel Publishing for Technology Dummies Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User Composition Services Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services Contents at a Glance Introduction .................................................................1 Part I: The New, Improved World of Business..................7 Chapter 1: The MBA in a Nutshell ....................................................................................9 Chapter 2: Today’s Hottest Business Trends................................................................19 Chapter 3: Entrepreneurship for Everyone...................................................................31 Chapter 4: Global Business: Fun and Profit in Katmandu ...........................................51 Chapter 5: Polish Your Crystal Ball for Some Strategic Planning...............................69 Part II: Managing a Business in the New World ............91 Chapter 6: Managing Is Hard; Leading Is Even Harder ................................................93 Chapter 7: Carrots and Sticks: The ABCs of Motivating Employees........................113 Chapter 8: Hiring and Firing: How to Get Good Employees and Keep Them .........131 Chapter 9: One for All and All for One: Building Teams That Really Work .............151 Part III: Money: What You Don’t Know Will Hurt You....167 Chapter 10: All You Ever Wanted to Know about Accounting ..................................169 Chapter 11: Working Your Way through Financial Statements .................................191 Chapter 12: Deciphering the Mysteries of Financial Planning and Analysis ..........203 Chapter 13: Understanding Stocks and Bonds ...........................................................225 Chapter 14: It Takes Money to Make Money ...............................................................243 Part IV: Marketing in the New World .........................261 Chapter 15: You Are Nothing without a Customer.....................................................263 Chapter 16: Getting Noticed with Advertising and Promotion.................................285 Chapter 17: Navigating the New World of Selling.......................................................299 Part V: Other Important Stuff ....................................315 Chapter 18: Manufacturing and Distribution: It’s a Brave New World.....................317 Chapter 19: The Ins and Outs of Risk Management ...................................................335 Chapter 20: In Business, Everything Is Negotiation...................................................351 Chapter 21: Econ 101: The Basics of Economics........................................................365 Part VI: The Part of Tens ...........................................377 Chapter 22: Ten Biggest Mistakes Managers Make ....................................................379 Chapter 23: Ten Effective Ways to Market Your Products and Services .................385 Chapter 24: Ten (Or So) Steps to Improve Your Cash Flow ......................................391 Index .......................................................................395 Table of Contents Introduction..................................................................1 About This Book...............................................................................................1 Conventions Used in This Book .....................................................................2 What You’re Not to Read.................................................................................2 Foolish Assumptions .......................................................................................3 How This Book Is Organized...........................................................................3 Part I: The New, Improved World of Business ....................................3 Part II: Managing a Business in the New World ..................................4 Part III: Money: What You Don’t Know Will Hurt You ........................4 Part IV: Marketing in the New World....................................................4 Part V: Other Important Stuff................................................................4 Part VI: The Part of Tens .......................................................................5 Icons Used in This Book..................................................................................5 Where to Go from Here....................................................................................5 Part I: The New, Improved World of Business ..................7 Chapter 1: The MBA in a Nutshell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Do You Really Need an MBA?........................................................................10 Exploring the New World of Business .........................................................11 What’s so great about change?...........................................................12 Making an entrepreneurial mindset part of your toolkit.................12 . . . And a global perspective wouldn’t hurt......................................14 Managing and Motivating an Engaged Workforce......................................14 One Part of Business Hasn’t Changed: Money ...........................................15 Reaching Out to Customers..........................................................................16 The Rest of Your MBA Syllabus ....................................................................17 Chapter 2: Today’s Hottest Business Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 The World Really Is Flat!................................................................................19 From outsourcing to insourcing: Listing the flattening factors......20 Hello, neighbor: When did China move in next door?.....................21 Googlevision: Searching everywhere for Waldo...............................21 Turnabout: When little businesses get big businesses to work for them ...............................................................................22 Do It Yourself: User-Generated Everything .................................................23 Tapping the new opinion leaders .......................................................24 Amateurs compete with experts online and over the airwaves......25 Do It for Others: Becoming Socially Responsible ......................................25 Doing good is good business ..............................................................26 It’s not easy being green ......................................................................26 x Complete MBA For Dummies, 2nd Edition The Changing Workforce: Harnessing the Power of the Millennials .......27 The Millennials: Understanding the age of entitlement ..................28 Motivating new Millennial employees ...............................................29 Chapter 3: Entrepreneurship for Everyone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 Understanding the Importance of Entrepreneurship ................................32 Entrepreneurs contribute to economic growth................................32 Entrepreneurship gives birth to new industries ..............................32 Entrepreneurs create new jobs...........................................................33 Thinking as an Entrepreneur ........................................................................33 Understanding entrepreneurial thinking...........................................34 Testing your entrepreneurial mindset ...............................................34 Beginning to think like an entrepreneur............................................35 Finding an Opportunity .................................................................................37 Identifying the barriers to creativity..................................................38 Removing the barriers to creativity...................................................39 Testing a New Business Idea.........................................................................40 Develop a business concept ...............................................................41 Conduct a feasibility study .................................................................43 Drawing conclusions............................................................................47 Even with all the planning, sometimes businesses fail ...................47 Corporate Venturing: An Oxymoron? ..........................................................48 Learning from corporate entrepreneurship models ........................48 Surviving as an entrepreneur in a large company ...........................49 Chapter 4: Global Business: Fun and Profit in Katmandu . . . . . . . . . . .51 Going Global Is No Longer a Choice ............................................................51 Understanding the appeal of being global ........................................52 Determining whether your business has what it takes to go global.................................................................52 Figuring out when to go global ...........................................................53 Spinning the Globe: Where to Begin? ..........................................................54 China: Possible, but not always easy.................................................54 India: Outsourcing heaven ..................................................................57 The European Union: Finding common selling ground ...................57 Mexico: Doing business with a neighbor...........................................58 Understanding the Role of Foreign Agents and Other International Types .................................................................59 Choosing your intermediary...............................................................60 Putting your agreement in writing .....................................................61 Avoid headaches: Using a freight forwarder.....................................62 Considering the Price of Global Growth .....................................................63 Getting a letter of credit ......................................................................63 When it’s time to make a sale .............................................................65 Knowing Where to Go for Help.....................................................................65 Hitting the road: Trade shows and trade missions..........................66 Calling on Uncle Sam............................................................................67 Table of Contents Chapter 5: Polish Your Crystal Ball for Some Strategic Planning . . . .69 Comparing Strategy and Tactics ..................................................................70 Strategic goals.......................................................................................70 Tactical goals ........................................................................................71 Operational goals .................................................................................72 Scanning the New Business Horizon ...........................................................73 Do you really know your customers? ................................................73 Riding the market rollercoaster..........................................................74 Keeping up with the changing competition ......................................74 Designing Your Strategy Right the First Time.............................................76 Something New: Strategic Improvising........................................................76 Keep your head up ...............................................................................77 Power to the people.............................................................................78 Employing a SWOT Analysis.........................................................................79 Examining your company’s strengths ...............................................81 Evaluating your company’s weaknesses ...........................................81 Recognizing your company’s opportunities and threats ................82 Putting your company through a test................................................83 Planning for Success with Operational Innovation....................................84 What operational innovation is all about..........................................85 Making process innovation work .......................................................85 Measuring Strategic Planning Success ........................................................86 Creating clear objectives.....................................................................86 Determining your metrics for success ..............................................87 Measuring during and after operations.............................................88 Figuring out how to juggle...................................................................89 Part II: Managing a Business in the New World.............91 Chapter 6: Managing Is Hard; Leading Is Even Harder . . . . . . . . . . . . .93 Understanding What Managers Do ..............................................................93 The different levels of management...................................................94 Planning .................................................................................................95 Organizing .............................................................................................95 Leading ..................................................................................................96 Controlling.............................................................................................96 Highlighting the Differences between Managers and Leaders .................97 Getting Work Done through Others .............................................................98 Power and influence.............................................................................98 Responsibility, authority, and accountability...................................99 Delegation..............................................................................................99 Goals ....................................................................................................101 Designing a Better Organization.................................................................101 Division of labor .................................................................................101 Departmentalization and cellular manufacturing ..........................102 Span of control....................................................................................103 xi xii Complete MBA For Dummies, 2nd Edition Creating a Culture of Innovation ................................................................104 Recognizing why innovation is important ......................................104 Four keys to a more creative (and innovative) workplace ...........106 Ethics: Following Your Business Compass ...............................................107 Understanding what’s right and wrong ...........................................107 Setting an example for others to follow ..........................................108 Examining Management Trends in Business Today ................................109 Corporate transparency ....................................................................109 Entrepreneurial leadership ...............................................................110 Work–life balance ...............................................................................111 Chapter 7: Carrots and Sticks: The ABCs of Motivating Employees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113 Grasping the Theories of Motivation.........................................................114 Eyeing content theories of motivation ............................................115 Identifying process theories of motivation .....................................119 You Get What You Reward ..........................................................................124 The good and bad news about rewards ..........................................124 The four keys to effective rewards and recognition programs ....125 Informal rewards and recognition....................................................126 Formal rewards and recognition ......................................................127 Be careful what you reward ..............................................................129 Chapter 8: Hiring and Firing: How to Get Good Employees and Keep Them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .131 Hiring and Keeping the Very Best Employees ..........................................131 Defining the available job..................................................................132 Paying employees what they’re worth ............................................133 Understanding the hiring process....................................................134 Structuring your new employee’s first day at work.......................141 Disciplining (and Perhaps Terminating) Deserving Employees.............142 The first resort: Discipline ................................................................143 The last resort: Termination .............................................................145 I Fought the Law (and the Law Won).........................................................148 Chapter 9: One for All and All for One: Building Teams That Really Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151 The Construction and Evolution of the Team ..........................................152 Eyeing the different kinds of teams..................................................152 Spanning the stages of team growth................................................155 Empowering Employees ..............................................................................157 Setting Goals and Monitoring Progress.....................................................158 Setting goals ........................................................................................158 Monitoring progress toward goals ...................................................160 Conducting Better Business Meetings.......................................................162 The good (and bad) news about meetings .....................................162 Eight surefire ways to make your meetings better ........................164 Table of Contents Part III: Money: What You Don’t Know Will Hurt You ....167 Chapter 10: All You Ever Wanted to Know about Accounting . . . . . .169 Grasping the Basics of Accounting ............................................................169 The accounting cycle.........................................................................170 The accounting equation...................................................................171 Double-entry bookkeeping ................................................................174 Inventory .............................................................................................175 Depreciation........................................................................................175 Understanding Budgets and Estimates .....................................................179 Perusing different kinds of budgets .................................................180 Creating a budget ...............................................................................181 Utilizing budget tricks of the trade ..................................................183 Keeping Your Eye on the Numbers ............................................................184 Variance analysis ................................................................................184 Audits...................................................................................................185 The Lowdown on Sarbanes-Oxley..............................................................186 The good news....................................................................................186 The bad news......................................................................................187 Chapter 11: Working Your Way through Financial Statements . . . . .191 Financial Statements Are Your Friends .....................................................192 Who reads financial statements? .....................................................192 What do financial statements tell you? ...........................................193 Taking a Snapshot: The Balance Sheet......................................................194 Making Money: The Income Statement .....................................................196 Keeping Your Business Afloat: The Cash-Flow Statement ......................200 Chapter 12: Deciphering the Mysteries of Financial Planning and Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203 Manage Your Finances (Before They Manage You!) ................................204 Preparing accurate forecasts ............................................................204 Developing and executing budgets ..................................................208 Establishing financial controls .........................................................209 Identifying Financial Tricks of the Trade ..................................................211 Liquidity ratios: Measuring solvency ..............................................211 Activity ratios: Can you raise the cash? ..........................................212 Debt (or leverage) ratios: Avoiding the borrowing blues .............213 Profitability ratios: The return of return .........................................214 Analyzing Investment Risk ..........................................................................216 Net present value (NPV)....................................................................216 Internal rate of return (IRR) ..............................................................218 Payback period ...................................................................................219 Profitability index ...............................................................................219 Reading an Annual Report: A How-To .......................................................220 The nine parts of the annual report.................................................220 Analyzing the annual report..............................................................222 xiii xiv Complete MBA For Dummies, 2nd Edition Chapter 13: Understanding Stocks and Bonds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .225 Grasping the Secondary Market.................................................................226 Stock exchanges .................................................................................227 Over-the-counter markets .................................................................227 The NASDAQ market..........................................................................228 Understanding Stocks..................................................................................228 Types of stock.....................................................................................228 Stock quotes........................................................................................229 Investing in Stocks .......................................................................................231 Bargain hunter: Value investing........................................................231 Dividend growth hunters...................................................................232 Investing in companies you like .......................................................232 Joining Forces: Mutual Funds .....................................................................233 Bonds: When Debt Makes Sense ................................................................235 U.S. government bonds......................................................................235 Corporate bonds ................................................................................236 Municipal bonds .................................................................................236 How bonds are valued .......................................................................237 How bonds are rated..........................................................................238 Why bonds may be good for you . . . ...............................................239 . . . And why bonds may not be good for you .................................239 Should I Get Investment Help? ...................................................................239 Hiring a broker....................................................................................240 Going it alone (if you absolutely, positively must) ........................241 Chapter 14: It Takes Money to Make Money . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .243 How Much Money Do You Really Need? Setting Up Your Funding Plan .................................................................244 Acquiring First-Stage Money.......................................................................246 Debt ......................................................................................................247 Equity ...................................................................................................249 Choosing between debt and equity .................................................250 Finding Second-Stage (or Expansion) Financing......................................251 Getting an angel on your side ...........................................................251 Taking the fast track with venture capitalists (at your own risk) ...........................................................................253 Considering a public offering............................................................256 Forming a Strategic Partnership to Access Growth Capital ...................259 Part IV: Marketing in the New World ..........................261 Chapter 15: You Are Nothing without a Customer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .263 Identifying Your Customers and Their Needs ..........................................264 The customer is the person who pays you.....................................264 Table of Contents Customers want benefits, not products ..........................................265 Eyeing Key Trends in Marketing ................................................................266 Grabbing the long tail ........................................................................266 Understanding media convergence .................................................268 Customers doing their own marketing — oh my! ..........................268 Creating a Marketing Plan ...........................................................................269 Prepare to do the plan .......................................................................270 Create a plan in one paragraph ........................................................271 Defining Your Target Market .......................................................................271 Hopefully you have more than one customer: Target the first customer! ..............................................................272 Do some research on the target customer......................................273 Market Research Made Easy and Fun........................................................274 What information do you need? .......................................................275 How do you find that information? ..................................................275 How do you figure out how much you’ll sell?.................................278 You Can’t Be an MBA without Knowing the Five Ps ................................279 Products include features and benefits...........................................279 Pricing requires many considerations.............................................280 Place is more than location...............................................................283 Promote, promote, promote .............................................................283 Chapter 16: Getting Noticed with Advertising and Promotion . . . . .285 Eyeing the Basics of Advertising................................................................286 Running a successful ad campaign ..................................................286 Locating the best place to advertise ...............................................288 Keeping your ads honest...................................................................290 Publicizing and Promoting Your Products and Services ........................291 Publicity: Getting noticed..................................................................291 Promotion: Conveying information..................................................294 Guerrilla marketing ............................................................................295 Grabbing Consumers’ Attention with Special Events and Premiums ...296 Giving customers a hands-on experience: Special events ............296 Giving away useful items with a message: Premiums....................297 Chapter 17: Navigating the New World of Selling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .299 Build Relationships: Forget the Hard Sell .................................................299 Telemarketing: Dialing for Dollars .............................................................301 Inbound telemarketing ......................................................................301 Outbound telemarketing ...................................................................302 Selling on the Web........................................................................................303 Online retailing and wholesaling for businessto-business transactions................................................................303 Online advertising: Replacing click-throughs with search-engine marketing .......................................................304 Doing Business with Other Businesses .....................................................306 The need for speed (and accuracy): Electronic data interchange .............................................................................306 xv xvi Complete MBA For Dummies, 2nd Edition Choosing your partners: Vendor-managed inventory ...................307 CRM: Getting a Handle on Your Contacts .................................................308 Keeping Your Best Customers ....................................................................309 Identifying your best customers ......................................................310 Rewarding and keeping your best customers ................................311 A win-win strategy for great long-term customer relationships...312 Getting rid of bad customers ............................................................313 Part V: Other Important Stuff .....................................315 Chapter 18: Manufacturing and Distribution: It’s a Brave New World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .317 Manufacturing Today Is a New Game ........................................................318 Using technology to make things fly................................................319 Outsourcing: The “make versus buy” decision ..............................320 Purchasing: When, Where, and How Much...............................................321 Managing Materials and Scheduling Production .....................................322 Grasping the importance of inventory ............................................323 Making wise management decisions with a Gantt chart ...............324 Scheduling with a PERT chart ..........................................................325 Production: Building the Product ..............................................................327 Quality: It Isn’t Right Until It’s Right ..........................................................327 Build quality into your processes ....................................................328 ISO 9000: Passing the ultimate test ..................................................328 Other quality measurements ............................................................328 Process/Equipment Maintenance: Keeping the System Running Smoothly ....................................................................................329 Maintaining processes and equipment............................................329 Designing an after-sale service and warranty program.................330 Distribution and Logistics: A Great Way to Compete ..............................331 Eyeing some new distribution strategies ........................................331 Nailing down logistics: Head ’em up and move ’em out................332 Chapter 19: The Ins and Outs of Risk Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .335 The 4-1-1 on Risk Management...................................................................336 Managing Risk (Before It Manages You)....................................................337 Developing a risk management process..........................................337 Conducting a vulnerability analysis.................................................338 Taking action.......................................................................................343 Purchasing Insurance to Shift the Risk......................................................344 Training Employees to Minimize Risk .......................................................346 New Technology, New Risks: Internet and E-mail Threats......................347 Viruses, Trojan horses, worms, and other strange beings of risk ...................................................................................348 Dealing with threats to your information technology ...................349 Table of Contents Chapter 20: In Business, Everything Is Negotiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . .351 Ready to Rumble: Negotiation 101.............................................................352 Matching your strategy with the type of negotiation: Is winning everything? ...................................................................352 Preparing for a negotiation: What you need to ask yourself ........354 Understanding the ethical side of negotiation ...............................355 Sizing Up Any Deal’s Critical Elements......................................................356 Power is a good thing ........................................................................356 Time is on your side...........................................................................358 Information is the key ........................................................................359 Let’s Make a Deal: How to Play the Game .................................................359 Following the natural sequence .......................................................360 Knowing what you want before you play the game .......................361 Making sure you end up with a good deal ......................................362 Some do’s and don’ts of negotiations..............................................363 Chapter 21: Econ 101: The Basics of Economics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .365 Why Adam Smith Knew What He Was Talking About..............................366 Classic versus neoclassic: Almost as good as pro wrestling ........367 And in this corner, we have the Austrian point of view ................368 And the winner is . . . .........................................................................368 Poring Over Fundamental Economic Questions ......................................369 The lowdown on economic systems................................................369 The law of supply and demand: You can’t build it and expect them to come ..............................................................370 The law of scarcity: You can’t have it all .........................................370 The law of diminishing returns: That last bite of apple pie ..........371 The knowledge economy: It defies the scarcity principle ............371 What Some Key Economic Concepts Mean to You ..................................372 Riding the rollercoaster of economic cycles ..................................372 Measuring the health of the economy .............................................374 Part VI: The Part of Tens ............................................377 Chapter 22: Ten Biggest Mistakes Managers Make . . . . . . . . . . . . . .379 Taking Employees for Granted ...................................................................379 Taking Customers for Granted ...................................................................380 Failing to Lead ..............................................................................................380 Not Setting Clear Goals with Employees...................................................381 Forgetting What It’s Like to Be a Worker...................................................381 Stealing the Spotlight...................................................................................382 Sidestepping Opportunities to Delegate ...................................................382 Communicating Too Little, Too Late .........................................................383 Hiring Too Fast (And Firing Too Slow) ......................................................383 Forgetting to Have Fun ................................................................................384 xvii xviii Complete MBA For Dummies, 2nd Edition Chapter 23: Ten Effective Ways to Market Your Products and Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .385 Build Trust with Your Customers ..............................................................385 Tell an Interesting Story ..............................................................................386 Become Effective at Web Content ..............................................................386 Utilize Affiliate Marketing............................................................................387 Consider Mobile Marketing.........................................................................387 Give Your Product Away..............................................................................388 Make Customers Your Marketing Stars .....................................................388 Build Relationships, Not Sales....................................................................389 Get Your Customers Emotionally Involved...............................................389 Go Local in a Global World..........................................................................390 Chapter 24: Ten (Or So) Steps to Improve Your Cash Flow . . . . . . . . .391 Manage Your Accounts Receivable............................................................391 Require Instant (Or Advance) Payment ....................................................391 Accept and Encourage Credit Card Use ....................................................392 Hold Onto Your Money................................................................................392 Make Sure Your Invoices Are Correct........................................................393 Give Prompt-Payment Discounts ...............................................................393 Follow Up on Late Payments ......................................................................394 Keep Track of Your Expenses .....................................................................394 Index........................................................................395 Introduction W hether you work for a corporation, a nonprofit organization, or for the government, chances are you’ve considered getting — or have already obtained — a Masters of Business Administration degree, an MBA. Why? Because if you want to get ahead in your organization — or just to do a better job of managing or leading — obtaining an MBA is the best ticket in town. Studies show that MBA graduates — particularly those from the top business schools — are offered significantly higher starting salaries than their counterparts who don’t have MBAs. And that effect carries on throughout the careers of these MBAs. But is it the degree that makes the difference, or is something else at work here? Although that piece of paper with your name and the words “Masters of Business Administration” would mean a lot, what is even more important are the things you’d learn during the course of your MBA studies. Complete MBA For Dummies, 2nd Edition, presents and explains some of the same information that you’d encounter in a typical MBA program in any highquality business school. Strategic planning, management, accounting, finance, marketing, negotiation — you’ll find the key points here. As you browse this book, keep one thing in mind: There isn’t a monopoly of business skill and talent at the top levels of an organization. Indeed, employees at all levels can (and today are often expected to) play active roles in running their organizations. You can find engaged businesspeople in every part of today’s dynamic organization. The bottom line: This book provides you with the very best ideas, concepts, and tools taught in today’s top business schools. If you apply them, we’re sure that you’ll see a noticeable difference in your everyday business dealings — a difference that will make you and your business partners even more successful in the future. About This Book Complete MBA For Dummies, 2nd Edition, is full of useful information, tips, and checklists that will help anyone who aspires to lead, manage, or participate in a business at a high level of competence. Your current level of leadership and management experience doesn’t matter. For a fraction of
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