Management 201 Fundamentals of Management Term Report

Management 201 Term Report

Course: Fundamentals of Management

Section: 06

American University of Sharjah

ABSTRACT

The basic requirement of our term project for this management course, MGT 201, was to analyze the managerial concepts studied and how they can be applied in practical life. To do this, we interviewed Mr. Nitesh Shewakramani, the Brand Design Manager of TruEagle with the help of the questionnaire that was provided to us. We found out how key managerial concepts can be applied in terms of managing an online fashion store. In a nutshell, Mr. Nitesh described the whole management process that defines the company, the company’s culture and the impacts of the task and general environment, the decision making process, the strategic management process including use of SWOT analysis, the type of structure of the organization, factors relating to employee motivation and the adopted style of leadership. Efficiency and effectiveness at TruEagle is achieved by ensuring that all the departments know their roles and what their priorities are. Keeping in view the fact that TruEagle operates in the fashion industry, both the middle and the first line managers are considered more important as compared to the top managers. Moreover, the company’s customers and the suppliers are given top priority and so are considered the most valued and important stakeholders. The company is, therefore, structured around its customer and has adopted and the Organic structure. TruEagle observes a strong organizational culture with everyone working towards the same vision. Changes in the environment are handled by making sure that the company keeps up with the changing fashion trends and by ensuring good relations with powerful suppliers. The decision making process usually involves a good mix of intuition as well as bounded rationality to respond to opportunities and threats. At TruEagle, strategic plans are considered more important because the company wants to focus on achieving long-term goals. Also, the long-term strategies are revised on an every two-month basis. Furthermore, its competitive advantage is its ability to provide a wide range of products and it uses Differentiation as its competitive strategy and conducts a SWOT analysis on a seasonal basis. The company has experienced minor changes such as price changes. As far as employee motivation is concerned, mostly intrinsic factors are used to motivate employees at TruEagle. The leadership style adopted by managers such as Mr.Shewakramani involves being intuitive and motivational.

Table of Contents

                                                                                                                                                       [pic 1]

                                                                                                                    Figure 1: TruEagle logo

INTRODUCTION

TruEagle is an up and coming, home grown UAE fashion brand that operates an online store. Its main aim is to represent UAE in terms of fashion. It hopes to keep ahead of f trends and obtains the finest materials to provide and create the most unique apparel in the UAE.  Because it operates in the fashion industry, it gives top priority to the customers, keeping in mind all of their particularities .The brand is quite versatile as it caters to most age groups and both men and women.

The company started off in late 2014, locating its headquarters in Bur Dubai. At this point, the company wishes to shift its headquarters to Dubai Design District, because it better matches the fashion industry that the company is currently operating in. As of yet, TruEagle does not have a retail store, so it only operates online. However, the managers are thinking about setting up a retail store once they find the perfect location. As for the management hierarchy, there is the CEO, the Marketing Manager, the Brand Design Manager, Production Manager and the Creative Director. There are around 15-17 employees in total and 5-7 working under each manager. Besides offering men’s and women’s garments, the company is thinking about going into shoes and other accessories. As far as market share is concerned, since the company is still very young, its market share is obviously minimal. Moreover, it has not experienced any major changes as of yet. The only changes that it has experienced are minor price changes.

The key managerial concepts relating to TruEagle covered in this report are as follows:

• Introduction to Management
• Organizational Culture
• Global Environment
• Decision making Process
• Strategic management Process
• Organizational Design and Structure
• Employee Motivation Strategies
• Style of Leadership

We analyzed these different concepts after interviewing Mr. Nitesh Shewakramani, Brand Design Manager of TruEagle. The interview took place on the 16th of December and its duration was an hour and forty-five minutes. Moreover, a voice recorder was used and notes were made to record everything that was said during the interview.

BODY

Introduction to Management

By definition, management is the achieving of organizational goals by working and collaborating with people and other organizational resources. Three key concepts should be taken away from this definition: managers, resources and the process of management itself. Managers are the people who oversee the organization’s activities and ensure that effective and efficient use is made of the resources used to achieve organizational goals. Resources include all of those things that help an organization achieve its goals. These include employees and the skills, experience and the knowledge that they possess technology, capital, raw materials, patents and most importantly, customers. The process of management itself involves planning, organizing, leading and controlling of the resources to achieve organizational goals. Planning focuses on making long and short term plans that set out the tasks to be performed and choosing the appropriate courses of action to carry out these tasks. Organizing involves assigning these tasks to individuals and groups in the organization and ensuring that they work together. Leading can be thought of as guiding the organization, with the use of, for example, motivation, in the direction that helps fulfill these tasks. Controlling is an ongoing process that includes the establishment of accurate monitoring systems to evaluate how well said tasks are being performed.