Planning, Organizing, Leading and Controlling

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RESPONSE;

1. Summarize each of the management functions of Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling and discuss how a specific company has executed each management function, whether successfully or unsuccessfully. Use a different company as an example for each of the four management functions. Use at least one example of a company conducting business internationally.

Practical reasons for entering the international business are desire for market expansion, need for natural resources, and availability of cheaper labor, global marketing, and proximity to the consumer or end user (Source: http://books.google.ca/books?id=lqVxipzMQkwC&pg=PA474&lpg=PA474&dq=international+business+ford&source=web&ots=T8OsxXjB0u&sig=1X4nZgENKIvvbr5ps-URz5Gxxew&hl=en#PPA482,M1)

The four functions of management are planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.

(1) Planning

Planning is the process that management uses to accomplish the objectives of a business. The most common objective is to make money and planning defines how to get there. Examples would be what kind of business, or whether to expand to other products or concentrate on a narrower field, to grow by acquisitions or not to grow, to be socially or environmentally conscious, to have multiple locations or not. (Source: http://www.helium.com/items/583539-functions-management-planning-organizing).

For example, in 1984 AT&T planned to expand its telecommunication and technology into Spain, but due to security reasons, the company was not allowed. However, in 1986 state of the art computer chip manufacturing plant was under construction by AT&T and called AT&T Microelectronics in Spain. The plan was market expansion into Spain, and entry occurred when security issues were dealt with. The goal was market expansion.

Also, in 1995, AT&T Microelectronics - Agere Systems - was weighing two options for its Orlando based semi-conductor production plant: expand the existing facility, at a cost of $700 million, or build a facility in Spain and move operations there. Expanding in Orlando would mean 700 new jobs.A move to Madrid would cost some 1,000 jobs. When it looked like AT&T was leaning toward Spain, the presidents of the University of Central Florida in Orlando and University of South Florida in Tampa banded together, committing research money and resources, and sparking a two region effort to convince AT&T it should stay. The effort worked. "That was what made the difference," Berridge said. "The company, quite frankly, did not have that commitment or level of expertise in Madrid." Agere recently announced it would lay off some 200 workers in the Orlando area. That leaves the company with about 800 employees there. Keeping Agere led to the creation of the Florida High Tech Corridor Council Inc. in 1996. "Everything with AT&T was done on a reactive basis," Berridge said. UCF President " John Hitt and (former USF president) Betty Castor's vision was that we function as a team proactively." (Source: http://www.custom-mfg-eng.com/news_ten.html).

Another example, occurred in August 2007, when Ford Motor Co (NYSE: F) signed an agreement with the UGT Union in Spain, according to the Associated Press. The agreement allowed Ford's plan to go ahead. It allowed, for example, Ford to build three new small- and mid-sized cars in its Almussafes plant in Spain, with an annual production target of 350,000 cars. The union agreed to keep labor costs low in effort to keep the plant competitive with its European rivals. (Source: http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2007/08/29/ford-invests-in-spain-not-the-u-s/).

(2) Organizing

Organizing is the process of deciding on the internal structure. The plans would include how to divide the work between managers by function; how to coordinate between departments; how to control each division of work, and what kind of people are needed at each level. Staffing is an important element including recruiting, hiring and training of people whose positions were defined in the organizational structure. It requires decisions about prior experience, compensation, benefits, evaluation and delegation. (source: http://books.google.ca/books?id=lqVxipzMQkwC&pg=PA474&lpg=PA474&dq=international+business+ford&source=web&ots=T8OsxXjB0u&sig=1X4nZgENKIvvbr5ps-URz5Gxxew&hl=en#PPA482,M1)

At Ford, for example, management employs collaboration between networks in the supply chain. For example, Dr. Angel Ortiz, Professor of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain, agreed that collaborations in the supply chain have become crucial to companies in order to gain superior performance and create sustainable advantages. "This collaboration among enterprises must be supported by both business decisions and technological infrastructure," he said. Data, application and process integration are "key success factors" as demonstrated in Ford Motors (Spain)'s experience. He leads a team of researchers who have helped Ford Motor Company in Spain to design and implement an integrated information system for production planning and sequencing. (Source: http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/cpr/pressrelease/040528e.htm). ...