Professional development for strategic managers Essay

Professional development for strategic managers - Essay Example An individual must, of course, sustain all of the mandated academic talents associated with the entire business value chain, including fundamental knowledge of strategic planning, implementation, control and evaluation. Further, the individual seeking the role of strategic manager must identify with cultural issues, the external environment related to stakeholders/shareholders and consumer demand, as well as the fundamental skills that are provided by sociological and psychological curricula. Outside of these academics-based learnings are more complex understandings of the self as it relates to emotional intelligence, motivational factors that drive goal attainment and learning, as well as having a practical understanding of personality constructs and learning style. There are countless theorists that can describe the systems view of the strategic management process, however transposing theory to practical application in the real-world business environment requires a talented blend o f knowledge and self-understanding. The report highlights literature regarding specific aspects of achieving success in the role of strategic manager, supplemented by a forthright self-analysis of skills development and capabilities in order to determine strengths versus weaknesses in priority aspects of skills associated with strategic theory and application. The student created a pre-set list of criteria, based on consultation with considerable secondary resource studies, that would be most critical for an honest self-assessment. In order to fully measure areas requiring development, the student needed to examine the structural, interpersonal, cultural and adaptive behaviours needed to become a successful strategic manager and leader. The assessment, in order to create a realistic and priority personal development plan, required consultation with theorists and case studies involving change management, developing and evaluating quality control systems, the psycho-social elements of management and interpersonal relatio nship development, as well as various literature on effective teaching and learning as these are fundamental in being a strategic practitioner. Besides the student’s many personal strengths in multiple areas, the following were identified as requiring re-assessment and development to attain success in the strategic career role. These include: The ability to teach others in team-focused environments Effective promotion of change leadership philosophy Teaching others to assess and analyse qualitative and quantitative research data Improvement of knowledge regarding cultural diversity principles Advanced development needs in psycho-social learnings for leadership improvement Outside of the more structural and systems view of strategic

The Marketing Research Discussions and the Understanding of the Paper

The Marketing Discussions and the Understanding of the Marketing Mix Concept - Research Paper Example Research is the amalgamation of data that has been taken over a period of time. It takes into account the qualitative as well as the quantitative details which are pursued a particular area of study and hence the results are envisaged only after the research has been completed. Research is a fact-finding exercise and it requires extensive planning and allocation of much-needed resources on the part of the researching party. The purpose of research is to seek answers that are raised in the wake of different queries and questions. The problems are solved after data is gained with the help of different tools and methodologies which come under the research heading. There are two different research methodologies - the primary research and the secondary research, both of which require the extensive finding of data and knowledge on the researcher's part. The primary research methods include sampling through questionnaires, survey methods, and one-on-one interviews. The questionnaires could be open-ended where there is room for respondents to spell out as much information as needed or these could be close-ended where the respondents are tied to certain answers from which they need to choose. These could also be mixed ended - having a combination of open-ended and close-ended questions and queries. The survey could be through interviews and questionnaires. This is basically a case of quantitative research where quantities and figures could be tabulated rather than quality which is judged through the use of secondary research methods. The secondary research methods include the usage of books, journals, websites, encyclopedia and other related information and knowledge which have already been sorted out and has been documented for pretty much the same purposes.Both primary and secondary pieces of research are used in unison so that the whole process of carrying out research is backed up with a solid basis of evidence and proof. The quantitative methods of marketing resear ch include the approaches that basically compute numbers and data, not concerning with the quality of the input which is being collected and rather focusing on the sheer quantity.