Taken literally from "Sun Tzu's Art of War"
There are three ways a sovereign can defeat his army:
Yes, unaware that the army should not advance, order an advance; or if, unaware that he should not withdraw, he orders a withdrawal. This is known as unbalancing the army.
Yes, ignorant of military affairs, it interferes with his administration. This causes puzzlement among officers.
Yes, ignorant of the problems of the command, it interferes in the direction of the fight. This breeds doubt in the minds of the officers.
In order to offer administrators, businessmen, students, interested parties and readers of culture in general a further tool in the understanding of business administration, I submit to your evaluation the following glossary of the subject in question.
Administration: Coming from three Greek words detailed at the end of this definition, business administration consists of the efficient, logical and intelligent union of the planning, organization, execution, management, control and evolution processes of the resources destined for the same objective or company, which are used under the same leadership.
Business administration above all is not a "set" of the processes detailed above, but rather is the integrated sum of them, by which it is meant that they are not independent of each other, each one having a special relationship with the rest and to achieve optimal administration, it must be seen as a team that works under the concept of synergy and dependency. Equally, within business administration, there is no greater or lesser importance among the elements that make it up, the achievement of the objectives proposed by therefore it will depend on the adequate integration that each component has in its summation.
Ad: Comparison or top-down observation
Minus: Bottom-up comparison or observation
Ter: Delegation of a job or work of a superior being to someone of inferior rank or position.
Control: It consists of the subordination, verification and correction of the processes, resources and results from each activity carried out, its implementation does not require any specific starting point begins and ends inside and outside each activity carried out, it is present within the same planning even before being executed, based on the fact that the same planning consists of an administration activity, its objective is to offer a constant diagnosis of the company and each of its components; However, this diagnosis is not limited to saying how the organization is, but it goes much deeper and works as a corrective part of the errors and deviations that they could perceive in the execution of the planned operations.
There are three types of controls similar to the maintenance of a machine, the first of them is the Preventive Control that is dedicated to anticipating:
The deviations that the plans may have, whether these are arranged by the management or not, Possible errors within the habitual or unusual operations, Phenomena or external elements that prevent or alter the normal development of the activities; all this by creating contingency measures capable of reversing the damages caused and making the most of learning from such situations. The following is the Recurrent Control dedicated to being present in the realization of each process, it consists of the permanent verification of all the activities, this control should not be seen as a burden that prevents the proper functioning of the company but on the contrary the tools that allow the optimal development of it,As an example, the adequate communication channels between subordinates to the different managers or other departments of the company, without delaying or affecting the results, in addition to the timely disclosure of an error to the responsible entities and the learning thereof.
The last one is the Corrective Control: which is the one in charge of comparing the results obtained versus the expected results, making the differences obtained a starting point for the investigation of the factors that had an impact, in turn taking corrective measures so that they do not It happens again if there are differences against the planned results and they are maximized if they are differences in favor.
Above all, no control should be an obstacle or impediment to the effective development of the company's functions; on the contrary, easy and timely management tools for administration.
Direction: It consists of the process of leading the execution of the programmed activities within a company, the management uses the mission, vision and objectives to establish its primary purpose and not skimp on resources to achieve them, the business policies and values for its guide within decision-making, the different types of leadership to provide the knowledge and experience necessary in any situation, the scientific method for learning the damages caused by poor decision-making, and taking advantage of opportunities, maximizing the latter.
The business management is one that carried out by leaders is in charge of "dealing" with the efficient union of the resources put in place to achieve business goals or objectives. We should not confuse dealing with company resources, with a load of problems placed on the shoulders of corporate bosses (such as the dissatisfaction of employees with their salaries) but rather directing these problems in the best way to comprehensive solutions that do not affect the rest of the resources or make the company lose its balance.
The leadership must be carried out by leaders capable of dealing with any situation the organization may go through, and fulfill the characteristics described by Sun-Tzu in his masterpiece "The Art of War".
Execution: Ultimate end of planning and start of a new stage in the company, execution includes the implementation of planned activities, following the plans carried out for each of the objectives as a guiding instrument. In other words, it consists of the point of intersection between the planned and the performed, log-type records are executed in this process that serve as verification for the control and management process of the company, among the most used records are the accountants summarized at their Once in the different financial and economic statements that form a key mirror of the financial situation of a company, on the other hand, documentary records such as the mission, vision, policies, values, objectives,CVs of staff and any documents that can be used within the learning of business capital.
Company: This name is understood to mean any union or set of resources that, when grouped together, hope to achieve a certain purpose. A company is not only that organization that for profit is engaged in an agricultural, industrial, commercial or service activity; It consists of a much broader concept that encompasses all the tasks aimed at achieving a specific end, so, as a company, we could exemplify a job, a department head, a small store and, of course, large corporations that conform from many other companies; derived from the verb to undertake, company then constitutes any effort whose purpose or objective is well defined, carried out by entrepreneurs.
Evolution: Within the administrative terminology, this term must be seen as "any change that implies an improvement", it means then that the evolution does not consist solely of momentous changes capable of improving the current state of the company, but down to the smallest detail capable to achieve a process more effectively; The business evolution in turn comprises two main components, both based on the optimal learning of all situations, the first, that of The Experience, which provides all the knowledge acquired by both the human capital when carrying out its tasks and the records described in the Control, that they provide in a consistent manner how the management's decisions have been developed, presenting if their consequences have been beneficial or detrimental to the company;The second component of evolution is that of The Initiative, which can be described according to the following phrase: “the powers put in place”, it is not enough to know what to do to be better or how to do it better, no matter how good it is. It is useful if it is not put into practice, there are hundreds of new technologies and thousands more new ways of doing it all, but if knowing them we are not able to start them, they are useless.There are hundreds of new technologies and thousands more new ways to do it all, but if knowing them we are not able to start them, they are useless.There are hundreds of new technologies and thousands more new ways to do it all, but if knowing them we are not able to start them, they are useless.
Mission: Basic business structure that understandably describes the following elements: what to do? The mission tells stakeholders including managers, employees, suppliers, customers and consumers what the company does for them; how to do it? It also determines in an understandable way how the company will achieve the previous element, why do it? It also implies the main objective or series of them that the company intends to achieve by dedicating itself to its activity.
The three elements gathered describe in an easy and logical way what is the purpose of the company and its activities to achieve it, it is designed for oscillating periods of five to ten years, so its flexibility and objectivity are paramount. The mission can be a phrase or a paragraph as long as it meets the three main elements.
Planning: Future visualization process of the activities to be carried out to achieve a goal; within the administrative process, planning also leads to the allocation of resources for such activities; it also integrates the different contingency measures in the event of possible deviations that it may have at the time of its execution; deviations being understood as any error, unforeseen, deficiency, deficit or surplus that could be had during the development of the activities.
The planning of activities starts from three basic structures within every company: a vision, a mission and objectives that show what? it is hoped to achieve with the use of the resources made available; In addition, planning is limited and structured in business policies that guide the how? such activities will be carried out, finally within this first process are the values that tell both administrators and their collaborators why? That way of operating has been selected and not another.
Objectives: Distributed and classified in different ways, the objectives constitute the goals that the administration hopes to achieve with the use of different resources; There are many ways to classify them, the best known is the Temporal, which determines that the objectives are divided into three categories: the first is Short-Term, where the objectives to be met within a year are established - some authors say that it should be in less six months- from the implementation of the plans, the second Medium Term where those that must be met in the period of one year to five are grouped and the last Long Term where the objectives must be met in the span of five onwards. Another recognized classification is the differentiation by its Origin,which differentiates that the objectives can be classified depending on the activity or business of the company, in such a way that a production company or the industry sector can have the following objectives: Sales.
Administrative, Production, Distribution, Marketing, among others, the classification emphasizes that each department or function of the company must set its own objectives derived from the primary objective. Both classifications and many others are totally valid and can even be combined in such a way that the objectives determined by their Origin are in turn temporally differentiated.
What should not be forgotten when establishing the objectives of the company is the root or foundation that gives life to each of them: The Productivity of the Company.
Organization: Business structure made up of different areas of functionality, motivated by a common objective, each area represents an operating resource within it.
Policies: They are guidelines for action within the company, they limit acting within the normal activities of the company or not, they also constitute a basic structure that guides managers and employees in making decisions; they are oriented according to the activities and functions already planned. The policies seek to promote the proactive empowerment of personnel who may well make an administrative decision based on company policies, for example: if Tomás who is the purchasing assistant of a manufacturing company receives from his supplier a statement informing him that the prices of materials have risen by 7% of the initially offered value, you could well make a decision - in the event that your boss is not available - if within the company's policies it is established that:"No purchase will be authorized if the supplier increases the prices by a value greater than 5% of those initially offered", for the exposed case the auxiliary would be in the 1a possibility to refuse the transaction and start a new process of quotes.
Policies must be clear and above all specific in their actions, not allowing ambiguity or contradiction between them.
Vision: Basic business structure that defines in a Phrase or Paragraph where the company wants to arrive conditioning a specific time, the vision is the complement of the Mission and tells the interested parties - administrators, employees, suppliers, clients, consumers, supervisory entities and others- what position does the company want to reach in a period that complies with the stipulations of the mission; for example if a School says in its mission:
“To provide educational services of the highest quality for five years to the El Calvario community in the city of La Divina Concepción through the optimal teaching staff and the necessary resources for students to be trained in morality, science and spirituality, hoping to thus offer citizens productive for society ”, then the vision of it must complement the Why of its objective, which could be:
“To become the best educational institution for the El Calvario community in the city of La Divina Concepción in a span of five years, managing to provide society in general with useful citizens who help improve the current situation of the nation”, although in Extremely similar, the vision differs from the mission in that the first one explains in more depth the purpose of the company, it also establishes a future conditioning of comparison for the evaluators, in such a way that if the previous approaches were real, the supervisors and those in charge of managing That school would start - within five years - from a specific point to know if the company is complying with its foundation and not with subjectivity.
Values: Basic business structures that guide administrators and employees before any decision, values are parameters orient in the daily work, if for example one of the values promoted by the company is that of Honesty, an employee who performs a purchase where the supplier charges him less by mistake and this error means a profit to the company of 10% more on the sale of those products the employee would not hesitate to clarify the error with his supplier and solve the situation.
A value can be any favorable action or recommendation for decision-making within the company, thus facilitating the operating procedure, examples of business values: Kindness, Sincerity, Ambition, Pro activity, Assertiveness, Future Vision, among others.
