Introducing Management: A Development Guide, Third Edition
Ideal for both new and existing managers, this comprehensive text incorporates the latest innovations in management thinking and reflects the changes within the management standards.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Introducing Management: A Development Guide, Third Edition
Section 4: Effective Resource Management
Chapter List
- Chapter 18: Managing and controlling costs and resources
- Chapter 19: Changing inputs into outputs
- Chapter 20: Information management
- Chapter 21: Financial information and management control
- Chapter 22: Preparing and using budgets
- Resource bank
Part Overview
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What are the best ways of controlling costs?
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How do I get the best from my resources?
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How are inputs transformed into outputs?
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What management information do I need?
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How should I store and record information so that it is readily accessible?
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What financial information do I need?
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How can I use the budget process to monitor performance?
Overview
Chapter Objectives
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What are the best ways of controlling costs?
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How do I get the best from my resources?
Monitoring and controlling costs and getting the best from your resources are a key task for you as a manager. Managing costs and resources is a six-stage process:
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Knowing what you want to achieve
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Identifying the quality and quantity of inputs needed to achieve it
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Setting standards for measurement
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Monitoring performance against them
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Taking corrective action if necessary
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Comparing results with plans.
This chapter will provide a brief explanation of each of these six stages, describing in more detail some techniques that are specific to controlling costs and resources. We will also consider inventory/ stock as a resource and some of the associated quality issues.
The control process
Knowing what you want to achieve
We have already stressed that effective control depends on being able to compare actual performance with plans expressed in quantified terms.
Copyright Kate Williams 2006 under license agreement with Books24x7
