Management And Leadership Competitive Edge Essay - 813 words

We live in an era of economic challenges. It is an age of increasingly scarce resources and world markets. Enterprises face increasingly fierce competition not only from down the street but from enterprises halfway around the world that have access to cheaper labour, less expensive materials, or better technology. In the 1950 s and 1960 s, Americans made about one-quarter of all the manufactured goods in the world market (Stokes, pp. 5 - 6). Then the Americans competitive edge started to slip.


Foreign producers, now challenge entire product areas that used to be dominated by American Industry. Their trade and domestics deficits are now enormous (Stokes, pp. 24 - 26). To solve this problem, to improve and restore the competitive edge of small business client base, I recommend teaching leadership as well as management. We need to move beyond the simplistic and boring, everyday management skills commonly taught in core courses in business schools. Important as these skills are, we need to redirect our focus towards the essential ingredient required to put these skills to work leadership. As Warren Bennis and Burt Names have expressed it, The problem with many organizations is that they tend to be over managed and underfed.


There is a profound difference between management and leadership, and both are important. To manage means to bring about, to accomplish, to have charge or responsibility for, to conduct. Leading is influencing, guiding in direction, course, action, opinion. Other characteristics include: motivating and inspiring individuals, providing direction and vision, earning the respect of others, turning talent and efforts into results, and being an excellent communicator and listener. The distinction is crucial.


Managers are people who do things right, and leaders are people that do the right thing (Bennis, cover). The difference may be summarized as activities of vision and judgement effectiveness versus activities of management routines efficiency. (Bennis, p. 21). Do students need leadership education? There is a considerable body of evidence that suggests that they do. First it is clear that something is not working. Small businesses fail frequently.


For example, a recent study funded by the Small Business Administration indicates that 37. 3 percent of small businesses survive the first six years after start-up (the State of pp. 24 - 25). In this fiercely competitive age, we cannot afford a 37 percent success rate. The education system must cont ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: competitive edge, small businesses, education system, management skills, management and leadership

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