03 Jul 2009
by Asif J. Mir
in Marketing Decision-making and Case Analysis
Tags: ability, Analysis, analytical, applicant, approach, assess, better, burden, case, communication, company, confrontation, deal, decision-making, definite, demonstrate, effective, hand in hand, identical, interview, judgment, laureate, lessen, listening, manage, management, manager, Marketing, Nobel, Organization, Peter Drucker, prerequisite, process, questioning, rational, reason, recognize, result, scope, sequence, Skill, steps, strategic, study, systematic, theorist, thinking, turn, variety, view
Skill in decision-making is a prerequisite to being an effective marketing manager. Indeed, Nobel laureate Herbert Simon viewed managing and decision-making as being one and the same. Another management theorist, Peter Drucker, has said that the burden of decision-making can be lessened and better decisions can result if a manager recognizes that decision-making is a rational and systematic process and that its organization is a definite sequence of steps, each of them in turn rational and systematic.
Just as decision-making and managing can be viewed as being identical in scope, so the decision-making process and case analysis go hand in hand. For this reason, many companies today use case studies when interviewing an applicant to assess his or her decision-making skill. They have found that the applicant’s approach to the case demonstrates strategic thinking, analytical ability and judgment, along with a variety of communication skills, including listening, questioning, and dealing with confrontation.
My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Line of Sight
02 Mar 2009
by Asif J. Mir
in Characteristics of Managerial Creativity
Tags: acceptance, accomplish, adjustment, alien, approval, arts, assertion, beauty, Behavior, challenge, characteristics, characterize, clear, colleague, complexity, confidence, confident, conflicting, conform, considerable, constant, constraints, contact, conviction, conytrol, core, correct, courage, creative, crisis, curiosity, cynical, dedicated, delicate, effective, elegance, empathy, evaluative, execute, expert, failure, fairly, fantasying, feeling, fine, forceful, grip, how, Human, hunger, ideas, impact, independence, information, initiative, interest, interesting, intuitively, knowing, listen, literature, manager, maximum, mechanism, mind, moodiness, motive, neutralize, odd, operating, opposition, order, penalize, People, Persistence, philosophies, preference, questioning, reality, regulated, responsiveness, risk-taking, self-sufficiency, sensitive, sensitivity, situation, solutions, status quo, stimulating, strong, subordinate, succeed, suffering, superior, synergize, system, tend, tendency, theories, tightly, tough, traits, understand, venture, venturing, vested, viewpoint, visionary, why, won
The creative manager must be a creative human and an effective manager. He/she tends to be characterized by following group of traits:
1) Hunger for knowing curiosity, constant questioning; strong interest in stimulating ideas, theories, and philosophies, always wanting to know the ‘how’ and ‘why of things; strong interest in trying to understand people’s motives and behavior.
2) Sensitivity responsiveness to literature, arts and other fine and delicate things; interest in meeting interesting and sensitive persons; empathy for the suffering; responsiveness to beauty and elegance.
3) Complexity intuitively finding correct solutions; being a visionary; having odd, even conflicting ideas; moodiness.
4) Venturing calculated risk-taking; preference for starting own ventures; aiming big; striking out in one’s own.
5) Independence and courage questions the status quo or established order; sticking to core convictions; listens to experts but makes up own mind; clear and forceful assertion of feelings and viewpoints.
6) Reality contact initiative taking in finding out operating constraints; confidence in managing crisis; quick adjustment to new challenges and information; grip on reality despite fantasying.
7) Self-sufficiency absorbed in challenging tasks; confident in operating in alien situations; tendency to take on tough tasks; persistence in getting ventures accomplished.
The creative manager operates in a fairly tightly regulated system in which creativity failures may be penalized; creativity needs to be directed towards organizational requirements; almost all creative initiatives require approval from superiors and acceptance by colleagues and subordinates to succeed; the cynical need to be won over; opposition of vested interests to these initiatives needs to be neutralized; dedicated teams need to be developed to execute creative initiatives; creative initiatives need to confirm to evaluate and control mechanisms of the organization; changes and creative initiatives need to be synergized for maximum impact—so on and on.
My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please contact www.asifjmir.com, Line of Sight
