Abstract
The managerial role is very important in any company. This paper gives a stringent analysis of the Toshiba Company. It describes the various approaches that the company has employed to portray its planning, organizing, leading, and controlling functions. The Toshiba managers have employed a strategy of planning using predefined objectives. The managers formulate plans by assessing the possible challenges that are likely to obstruct the company from attaining its goals. To accomplish the organization’s role, the managers have developed a strategy of delegating duties to employees according to their knowledge and skills. Every employee is thus obliged to offer the best services for the success of the company.
Thirdly, the Toshiba Company’s managers are able to accomplish their leading role by employing humility strategy. The managers give due respect to all the employees regardless of their positions. This approach has won the trust of the employees and they are obliged to offer the best services to the company. Finally, the control strategy that the managers have employed is setting performance standards. Given the comfortable working environment, the employees are obligated to meet the predefined work standards, failure to which, employees have to give a detailed explanation. Generally, the Toshiba Company managers have portrayed a great example of competent managers who deserve some credit.
Introduction
Management is a core activity in every business. The managing directors have to ensure that they employ an effective management approach that gets all the business stakeholders to work collectively to achieve the desired business goals. The manager has a great role of ensuring that the available resources are put into efficient and effective use to reap maximum benefits to the company. In this case, we have the Toshiba Company, one of the leading electronic manufacturers in the world. Toshiba deals with a wide variety of electronic products, digital products, home appliances and several other electronic devices. The company is well known for its innovative ideas, and it even has a social infrastructure segment that aims at enhancing community security and safety.
The mission of Toshiba plays a great role in streamlining all its activities. Toshiba is committed to value people, respect them, and serve the entire society with an emphasis on environmental sustainability (Toshiba Inc. 6). Obviously, the management team plays a great role in ensuring that all the activities at Toshiba run smoothly. The management team has to manipulate the human resources, technological resources, natural resources and the financial resources to ensure the company maximizes its profits. This paper will give a clear outlay of the four management functions, planning, organizing, leading, and the controlling function of the Toshiba Company.
Planning
Planning is a special function in which the managerial team decides on what the company should do in the near future. The Toshiba Company managers have always made decisive plans that have enabled it to have a sustainable growth to its current level. The company managers work for the aims and objectives that are set on an annual basis. One of the core goals that drive the company is the goal of being an excellent company that continually makes profits.
To attain this dream, the company sets up a medium term management plan that took effect in 2013. A set of strategic approaches was adopted to facilitate the success of the medium term management plan. Firstly, Toshiba had to realize a profitable and sustainable growth, and consequently employ a corporate business administration technique and accomplish the Corporate Social Responsibility (Toshiba Inc. 12). Thereafter, Toshiba’s management team enforced initiatives that worked towards attaining the medium term management plan.
Obviously, there are challenges that are likely to obstruct the company from attaining its goals; hence, it is from the challenges that the managers are able to formulate plans. Managers are obliged to reassess their plans and adjust them accordingly. Firstly, with the evolving world, the world of technology is likely to change considerably. Toshiba plans to create a business model that would enable the company to cope with the changing market demands. The approach would help the company to expand their businesses, as well as identify new business opportunities.
Secondly, Toshiba is a multinational company that would expand its businesses into new locations. Obtaining new inexperienced employees to run the new branches would be too risky. Therefore, Toshiba identified a need to transfer some of its competent human resources to their upcoming businesses. The approach would enable the experienced employees to readily adapt into the new work environment and work smart for the success of the company (Stevens 16). This approach would reduce the risk of business failure that mainly affects mismanaged new outlets.
In addition to the various plans that Toshiba intends to implement in the near future, Toshiba’s group of managers foresaw the stiffened competition that would occur in the electronic industry. To have a competitive advantage, Toshiba intends to reform the cost structures of their products and services. Toshiba has a plan of continuing to reduce the production cost of employing the strategy of a large economy of scale (Eastman 133). Therefore, the company would enjoy the reduced production cost and find it worthwhile to sell its products at a reduced price. This approach would play a great role in ensuring that Toshiba obtains a competitive advantage over its competitors.
Another approach that would help Toshiba greatly is improving their procurement facilities. The company intends to upgrade their procurement facilities by integrating all the procurement expenses. This approach would reduce the overall fixed and variable procurement expenses significantly. Employment of enhanced technology is another very important approach that Toshiba intends to use. The company managers have plans to upgrade their manufacturing machines and methods. Through this approach, Toshiba will be able to maximize their productivity and meet the demands of the customers in terms of quality and quantity (Voisey 92). With the above-mentioned managerial planning strategies, Toshiba is likely to prosper considerably in the next three years.
Organization
Organization is a managerial function that enables the management team to make maximum use of the available resources to reap maximum benefits to the company. Managers achieve the organization’s role by mobilizing all the resources and ensuring that the employees are able to perform their defined roles. The board of directors of the Toshiba Company has the role of supervising the management of the company and the role of formulating policies. With the help of the human resource managers, Toshiba Company managers have developed a way of delegating specific tasks and responsibilities to the employees who possess the required skills. The company has an organizational structure, where the company’s activities are subdivided into different departments.
The marketing department, for example, has the major role of travelling everywhere to advertise Toshiba’s products and services. Voisey states that the department is obliged to identify the customer needs in the evolving world, and thus the report from the marketing department helps greatly in the decision making process (93). The research and development department works hand in hand with the operations and logistics department to ensure there is a strong internal network structure. The managers organize all the company activities to ensure there is maximum productivity of each of the stakeholders.
It is noteworthy that in October 2013, Toshiba Company’s management group reorganized their business groups with respect to the product lines. The approach was very useful in increasing productivity and attaining the needs of the customers and the surrounding community. According to Stevens, the five groups formed comprised of the community solutions group, the electronic devices and component group, the lifestyle, the product and service group, and the healthcare systems and service group (14). The organization and formulation of the above-named groups strengthened the company’s business operations. To further improve and streamline the business activities, the head office managers of the company reduced the number of departments.
The reduced number of departments paved the way to the expansion of the important company departments such as the personnel department, the accounting department, and the IT department. Generally, the Toshiba Company’s managers have played a critical role in their organizational function. They continuously reorganized the company’s activities in an efficient manner that has resulted into the production of quality products and efficient services (Eastman 136). The whole organization exercise has strengthened the company’s corporate management strategy. Therefore, the corporate staffs are motivated to work hard to give their best in their predefined professional responsibilities.
Leading
Leading is a managerial function that obliges the manager to be the director. In this case, the manager determines whatsoever that needs to be done and identifies the stakeholders who are most suitable for the identified role. The Toshiba company leaders have proven to be very efficient as they lead by example. The leaders employ a strategy that motivates the employees to follow their footsteps. Voisey Toshiba company leaders are somewhat influential because they possess some unique human personalities that are able to influence the decisions of the employees (89). It is noteworthy that communication is a very important aspect in any organization. Toshiba’s management team has a firm democratic rule that governs the company’s communication structure.
All employees at the Toshiba Company have equal rights to express their feelings about any issue in the company. Regardless of the position held at the company, all stakeholders are obliged to respect every individual’s opinion. The Toshiba Company capitalizes on the potentials of its employees. Obviously, individuals have specified field in which they can offer the best of services. The management team has taken on the role of motivating the employees to offer their best of services to benefit the company. Toshiba is a company that possesses esteemed virtues that has enabled their employees to boast about their jobs.
As indicated in the organization function, Toshiba Company reformed its structure; hence, it has developed and invested in new technologies. The managers at Toshiba decided to implement all the proposed changes without necessarily affecting any employees negatively. The working morale of the employees is never distracted by the technological innovations. In fact, the technological innovations play a critical role in convincing the shareholders that their investments are safe. The above named leading potentialities of Toshiba Company portray Toshiba as a straightforward company that will continue to lead in the list of electronic companies in the world (Toshiba Inc. 13).
The way the company leaders do things in a transparent manner clearly indicates that the corporate governance strategy would prevail for a long period. The company’s employees have made it a tradition to employ sincerity in everything they do, as they work very hard, take everything seriously, and they foresee the consequence of all their actions. The esteemed customer services from the motivated employees have played a critical role in increasing the demand for Toshiba products. Generally, the strategies that the Toshiba management team and all the stakeholders employ will enable the company to grow significantly in the years to come.
Controlling
The controlling managerial function obliges the managers to monitor all the activities of the company. The managers have to check the progress of every plan and give a detailed report from the observations. The Toshiba Company managers have made a habit of establishing performance standards for all their employees. Through such evaluation exercises, the employees are obliged to offer the best of services. They portray sincerity in all that they do, whether under supervision or not. To achieve the set standards, Toshiba’s management team has come up with performance standards that every employee has to meet (Stevens 18).
Employees who do not meet the set standards are obliged to give a detailed report as to why they could not attain the standards. In most cases, Toshiba’s managers have used such reports to identify a situation or problem within the organization that calls for some action. Upon identifying and addressing the problem, the company is likely to increase the level of performance, and thus increase productivity.
Toshiba managers have often controlled the company’s activities by measuring the exact achievements and comparing them with the previous goals and objectives. A considerably enormous deviation between the achievements and the set goals is a clear indication of a problem that needs to be addressed. Therefore, with an effective control system, Toshiba Company is able to achieve monetary goals, some non-tangible goals, and goals to attain the highest level of customer satisfaction.
The Toshiba Company’s managers have found it worthwhile to have constant improvements of the company’s internal control systems. This approach has enabled the managers to effectively manage the employees, as well as having reliable finance operations. The management has also developed ways to track the auditing services and ensure the company’s records are free from fraud cases (Eastman 138). Essentially, the effective control function of Toshiba Company is one of the approaches that have enabled the company to be at its current affluent position amongst the companies that manufacture electronic products.
Conclusion
From the discussions, it is evident that the management role for an esteemed company like Toshiba is somewhat difficult. The manager has to take the servant’s role and lead by example. The managers have to plan, organize, control, and lead the employees in a company. The Toshiba Company’s managers are examples of leaders who have portrayed great managerial roles. Their tireless efforts have resulted in tangible benefits to the company and all its stakeholders. Unlike many other companies where employees work under maximum supervision, Toshiba’s employees feel obliged to offer the best services to the company. They are proud of their work, and they work hard to meet the set standards as their hard work is crowned. Generally, having responsible employees is the desire of all managers; it is upon the management team to carry out their managerial services effectively to win the trust of all the stakeholders, especially the employees.
Works Cited
Eastman, Christine. “Working with Toshiba, Lewin, and Dewey: A journey into the heart of change.” Higher Education, Skills, and Work-based Learning 2.2 (2012): 132-140. Print.
Stevens, Susan. “Toshiba’s Proactive Approach to Employee Well-being.” Strategic HR Review 4.3 (2005): 10-21. Print.
Toshiba Inc. Toshiba Annual Report 2013. Tokyo: Toshiba, 2013. Print.
Voisey, Christopher. “Knowledge Works: Managing Intellectual Capital at Toshiba.” Sloan management review 39.3 (2008): 87-99.Print.