Business Management (Short Course) Assessment:

1- Business environment is the collection of all of the internal and external factors
that influence a organization as a all and that influence its growth and survival
throughout the course of activity, and it is very important to pay attention to this
factors in any part of the world where a person or group of people intend to open a
business or intend to grow in a specific market. The internal aspects of an
organization are the ones that the management can control and can change if
necessary, like the mission and objectives, the human resource (employees and
their abilities), the financial resources (like available money to do investments in
different areas of the enterprise or to buy necessary materials), the machinery or
equipments available to produce goods, products or services, the technology used,
the structure of the organization, the location and quality of the infrastructures and
the management leadership and relationship with the workforce. The external
aspects can't be controlled by the organization and correspond to the outside
environment of the business so they can pose as threats to the organization or they
can be beneficial in a certain moment (they are always changing so the
management needs to very pay attention to the outside factors)… the external
aspects can be divided in two groups Micro and Macro factors. Micro environment
is closer to the operation of an organization and correspond to the costumers
(different kind of buyers and their satisfaction), suppliers (deliver the materials
required to the production and the management shouldn't rely only on one or it can
be a threat to accomplish the production goals), middlemen (who establishes the
link between consumers and the company), competitors (to maintain or gain the
loyalty of the costumers in the face of the competition), and the public (that includes
the target niche of the business). In other hand of the Micro factors we have the
Macro factors that are more difficult to control and it's mandatory to adapt to those
specific external conditions to survive like the economic of the specific country the
organization is inserted which includes the political factors (the party that is running
the government) and the legal factors (laws and obligations created during a certain
period) and also the social factors (related to the people o live in any society) which
includes the customs and traditions of the targeted city or country (cultural aspects),
technology available to decrease time and waste in the production (very important
aspect that changes regularly) or even a similar or innovative product created and
inserted in the targeted market by a competitor. All the Micro and Macro factors can
pose as a threat to a business or can be very beneficial in a certain moment to
grow and evolve in a specific market.

2- Human resource management it's a mandatory and very important department in

any organization because it establishes the link between the employees from any
department and the other departments (especially the higher positions in a
business structure), it represents the workforce (their skills, ideas, knowledge,
aptitudes and any other valuable aspects than an employee possesses to the
business). Human resources department is responsible for dealing with the
workforce issues, recruiting new talents, hiring people with the right profile to
accomplish the business goals, facilitate communication, assure employees safety,
wellness, motivation and morale, coach, training and evolution and also reward and
discipline (punish) when necessary, which grants this department a major
administrative, operational and strategic role since they are responsible to evaluate
every department and maintain a safe work environment for every employee so
they become more valuable to the organization and maintain the business
competitive advantage in the market.
This department as a variety of functions such as planning (know the organization
business plan to find the right profile employees to certain job, programming
specific activities to recruit new rare talents to increase the value of the production,
train and layoff people also evaluate the procedures and make the necessary
corrections or give orientations if necessary to meet the management pre
established objectives), determine the demand forecast for different profiles
considered necessary like labour-hours (according to the labour law) to produce,
distribute and sell a product or service, appraise performance from outstanding
workers using reward systems, maintain employees motivated, satisfied, secured
and hard-working (so the productivity levels don't fall). The recruitment and
selection function can be internal (promoting workers) or external (finding and
selecting the right person for the job that will increase the business value), to select
the right person HR will analyze resumes, make interviews, background checks and
tests (like credit history, drug testing, cognitive tests, integrity tests). Other function
of this department is assure good labour relations between all workers and the
management creating or using a relation system and negotiating with Labour
Unions to ensure the happiness of the employees (this involves negotiating working
hours, work conditions, wages and maintaining the workforce rights preserved).

3- Performance Management is a process of managing where individual employees

are challenged to complete goals in order to achieve the organization main mission
and objective so each employee or group is tracked by their behavior and results
and all employees together if succeeded reach the expectations established.
Performance management can be very beneficial because it delegates tasks for
each person or department (making employees feel more power of decision,
challenged and contributing to each of them personal development), helps creating
a standard and eliminate unnecessary jobs, it helps diagnosing problems at an
early stage to take fast corrective measures (eliminating bad work habits and
procedures), it is crucial to analyze regularly the practices of every department to
determine the right procedures to be followed and evaluate the performance by the
attitudes, skills, techniques used and qualifications . This type of management it's
made to ensure that organization objectives are reached and it also points out the
efficiency and effectiveness of the goals initially established, efficiency correspond
to minimizing use of resources to maximize productivity and profit while
effectiveness refers to its ability to achieve tangible goals or objectives in
predetermined times, making performance management essential to every
business especially to leave competitors behind improving constantly each
department results and increasing profits.
To achieve the organization goals using Performance Management it's necessary to
follow five key components, first of all it has to have the (reasonable) goals well
defined and also the expected results, then it's necessary to continually monitor the
work to find weak spots and make the required changes, after that it's necessary to
develop the expected methods and techniques that the team will have to follow in
order to never be behind the competitors of the company (for example if a new
technology comes out and it can reduce the time of achieving a goal in half of the
time it will be a good investment to buy that technology and to teach the employees
that will use it how to handle it increasing the task force value and maximizing
profits), to conclude it's necessary to evaluate the results for each task given rating
them to know who are the best among the others and rewarding them according to
the expectations as an act of appreciation for his or her hard work developed during
the challenge increasing the teamwork (if it was a group task), and enhancing their
pride and satisfaction to be part of the team and the company (a organization that
don't appreciate the efforts of their workers will end up with a frustrated and
dissatisfied group of employees).

4- Opposing to what the majority of people think… marketing it's not just about
advertising, promoting and making sales, it's about giving costumers what they are
looking for, want and reaching their expectations about a product or a service.
Therefore it's very important to make an effective marketing plan after analyzing
every aspect of the business to meet the expectations of a costumer (including
research, planning, pricing, packaging, promotion, selling and distribution). The
marketing plan is all of the above and essentially every aspect necessary to reach
the costumer and know what is on his or her mind, to create an idea of needing the
product or service that a company produce and leave them satisfied reaching the
expectations and it includes how information was gathered where it came from, all
the strategies, tactics, processes and procedures necessary in order to create a
great costumer base in the market niche the enterprise is selling and how the
company will be better than the competitors.
To make an effective marketing plan the organization needs to follow the “6P’s”
areas. A company needs to know very well the Product or service that is offering
especially if the product corresponds the costumers desires and needs so they can
have a high demand. The Place of business is essential because you are not going
to correspond the costumer needs if you're business is faraway from the targeted
market or if the chosen place will never want your products (example: if you try to
sell surf boards in a mountain with no sea around probably the company will never
be very successful). The Price of the product have to match it's market value
according to offer and demand and also the competitors (example: if the equilibrium
price in a market it's 5€ for 2 units of a certain product they would not be successful
selling 3 units for 12€). It's essential to have a good Promotion strategy to increase
the demand and to know what will be the most successful way to promote that kind
of product or service in that market and that the company will always have a team
of People or a person available to ensure that the organization accomplish the
predetermined goals. Also, all business Processes must be targeting the primary
goals so it's necessary to tune the minds of workers to be positive win the clients
support at all times.

Henrique Luciano Pereira