Challenge faced by management

In the constantly competitive business environment of the 21st century, the challenges facing management simply change, but never diminish. As experienced managers and supervisors people are not an easy job. Every day facing different problems and challenges perhaps large or small problems, whether you’re managing in a booming or stagnant economy, the challenges, while often different, will continue unabated. Managers are faced with external and internal challenges. Some of these include competitors and technology. Besides, some of those challenges affect the business directly which some others have indirectly effect on the business. Competitors

Competition, from a managerial perspective, generally falls into the externalenvironment, though it can also be defined in the internal environment through struggle between strategic business units (SBUs). As a manager, understanding the external competitive landscape is a critical factor in assessing company strategies and bench-marking appropriately to ensure the competitiveness of the firm. Businesses that fail to keep pace with the rivalry will eventually be overpowered, and often forced to an exit-strategy. Avoiding the risks of competitive factors requires a strong understanding of operational efficiency (low-cost), quality production, differentiation, and competitive advantage. The simplest perspective on competition is in industries where products are homogeneous. A directly involved in such a framework and thus compete based upon two basic strategies: low-cost and branding. Low-cost suppliers are just as they sound, finding ways to optimize their production and distribution to provide the consumer with the lowest possible price.

Branding, on the other hand, is convincing the consumer that a higher price point is worth paying due to the company name. Most products and services are not homogeneous, however, and there is some opportunity for varying incumbents in an industry to compete with one another through employing varying strategies. This is called differentiation, where companies approach certain niche needs within an industry in order to capture a segment of the market share. Branding plays an important role here as well, though assessing niche consumer needs and filling them is the focus. Rather than that, quality usually sports the opportunity cost of efficiency, and generally sees higher price points. This makes it a strong antithesis to the low-cost strategy. Internal competition is also a reality, and is a more complex issue intrinsically. On the surface, internal competition can either be direct substitutes or competing for funding. Combining these points, management must understand what products they are pitching and at what strategy will help them avoid going compete with other businesseswhom they cannot contend with. Managers must understand what they do better than the competition in order to implement the appropriate competitive strategy to gain market share and remain profitable.

Technology

Managing technology is an intrinsic part of managing a business, and effectively balancing resources to optimize efficiency is an important operational objective for all managers. The pace of technological improvement is running at an exponentially increasing rate. While this has been true for several decades, the strategy today makes capital investment in technology as much an asset as a handicap because a competitor can wait for the next-generation technology, which may only be a year away, then use it to achieve an advantage. Similarly, the ability for even the best of technologists to stay informed about emerging technology is in conflict with the need to master a company’s current technology. The problem to be solved is to develop a long-term technology strategy while remaining flexible enough to take advantage of unexpected technology developments. There are varying perspectives and strategies in technology management, all revolving around a few simple needs being filled in order to move the business towards the goal of achieving competitive advantage. The reason behind this importance is that new, disruptive technology constantly presents the threat of competitors achieving higher efficiency and the opportunity of outpacing the competition

It is easier to succeed and achieve when you are challenged.When in the nexus of an economic boom, it seems everyone shines brightly. You are then challenged to be noticed and recognized. However, when real challenges or crises arise, you have the opportunity to step up, handle the situation, and resolve the problem successfully. A down economy or competitive breakthrough from other companies creates the opportunity for you to establish career prospects.