Good management key to the success of any venture

Leadership and management have many faces and aspects that must be aligned together, the key ones being sales and marketing management. FOTOSEARCH 

By Murori Kiunga

In Summary

• Casualness on money matters leads to casualties and fatalities in vital organs of business and a business without an informed manager is like a ship in high seas without a captain.

As we celebrated 50 years of independence, I spent the better part of the week talking to some of my clients about the state of their business this year.

What surprised me was that the majority were not satisfied with their performance. They felt they had the potential to do better but failed to do so. This bordered on self blame and regret.

Even in acceptance that they could have done better, majority confessed that some forces were overwhelming and rendered them captive.

Some of the factors frequently mentioned included failure to get trained staff to help them implement their vision, failure to control stock and finances, failure to grow revenue to sustainable levels and failure to keep up with customer demands.

Generally all those factors point out to one key aspect of business — management.

As it has often been said, success or failure of any venture depends on management.

Any business person is a manager and must possess the right skills in the right measure in order to succeed.

Do not be fooled that a little knowledge is better than none. More than 90 per cent of businesses that fail within two years are started by people who lacked adequate managerial skills.

Even if you lack knowledge and skills in certain specific areas of your business, you can succeed as long as you hire and manage people with those skills.

But if you cannot manage you are doomed to fail. Henry Ford, the founder of the famous Ford Motor Company confessed that he lacked engineering and other skills associated with automobiles but had one great thing in the right measure — the ability to get and manage people who had the skills.

The mortality rate of businesses started by people with above average skills is low. It’s everyone’s bet that if you have a good car, are a competent driver and you know the road well, you have 99 per cent chance of reaching your destination without a dent. The same principle applies to business. Most of businesses that fail are run by reckless and ignorant entrepreneurs.

Leadership and management have many faces and aspects that must be aligned together, the key ones being sales and marketing management.

A study conducted in the US indicates that 48 per cent of businesses that fail do so because they could not sell enough products or services. Nothing kills a business faster than lack of revenue generated from sales.

The second aspect is poor control of various resources — such as human resource, stock and financial resources— which accounts for almost 50 per cent of business failure.

You may have some employees who are working hard but a couple of others being a liability to the business; you may be selling much but losing more through fraud, damage or dead stock; you may be making money but losing it through poor spending. In both cases success is remote.