Lot has been written on qualities expected of a good manager. Managers have been and are being interviewed based on specific requirements of the company. Certain basic traits remain unchanged for any business, however; even those are undergoing constant change because of globalization, shortened product cycles, and continuous product or service disruptions.
Domain knowledge: This is useful though not compulsory. Mukesh Ambani is a chemical engineer and thus understands his petrochemical business well. However many of his other business requires different domain knowledge including telecommunication, retailing etc. Still, the company is doing well because of his various other knowledge, skills and managerial abilities. Similarly, Natarajan Chandrasekaran CEO of Tata group, an MCA deals with multiple products from salt to software to automobiles to steel.
Business administration: A manager should be well versed with the topics typically taught in the MBA program including S&M, design, engineering, manufacturing, HR, F&C.
Out of these HR and F&C are more important. HR helps you to acquire and retain the requisite talent as also to train them on the product, motivational and behavioral aspects. It is said the success of any organization or the quality of the department under your supervision will depend on quality of the manpower. It is decided by how much energetic, knowledgeable and skillful your boys are.
A manager needs to be a good leader and thus have qualities like passion, drive, positive approach and above all risk-taking ability. He needs to be a good communicator and should have sound problem-solving abilities.
Managers today need to have global thinking as the world has become a small place with much faster technology transfer, communication, transport. WTO has helped reduce trade barriers. (Though USA/ China trade war is diluting these now) Companies which sell their products and services locally as well as globally have a bigger market. So many Indian companies including Tata Steel, Tata Motors, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, Reliance, Bharat Forge, Infosys, TCS, Adani group, Essar steel, Indian hotels, etc. have acquired companies abroad. This offers synergy advantage wrt technology, new market and above all, a different managerial skill set.
Our local products now need to compete with global products. This trend started with auto companies. Earlier Only Ambassador and Fiat existed in 4 wheelers and Bajaj scooter in 2 wheeler segments in India. Quality problems were rampant in these. Cars rusted heavily in a few years and had severe starting troubles. Bajaj scooter needed to be made inclined before kick-starting lest it would never start.
All this changed with the advent of foreign brands in almost all the sectors and now managers need to be highly qualified and cost-conscious else the company products cannot compete effectively. Quality and cost control are huge topics by themselves but to make a long story short, QC manager needs to be thoroughly knowledgeable on 7 QC tools and 6 sigma for controlling the quality and the remedial measures to control them. This pushes the pressure back on to manufacturing managers to strive to move to a zero-defect / zero customer complaint products with continuous improvement in products and processes. Similarly, cost control is another manufacturing managers nightmare as it is a never-ending story. So many tools have evolved and keep on evolving for inventory reduction, make or buy decision, value engineering, lean manufacturing, SMED, TPM, TQM, Kaizen, Kanban, Poka-yoke .. the list is endless. Multiple books can be found on each of these topics and managers can contribute a lot here.
Today it has become all the more necessary for managers to remain innovative in a fast-changing world. So many companies have incurred losses, have been acquired or even closed because of not being able to maintain pace with technological changes. Xerox, Kodak, Motorola, IBM, GM, Yahoo, Nokia, Sony are a few big names.
Managers need to understand product cycles well in advance. For example, we have all seen music being offered undergoing so many technological upgradations. From Edison’s record player to radio to tape recorder including Sony’s walkman to CD to pen drive to Smartphone app. This alone has rendered many companies bankrupt or loss-making.
Startups are causing huge disruptions these days. Ecommerce companies like Amazon, Flipkart, and Alibaba have closed many mom and pop shops. Ola, Uber has reduced the need to own a car. Airbnb has posed a serious threat to the Hotel industry. Zomato and Swiggy have reduced the need to have a kitchen in homes. The list is endless.
Above examples needs a manager to be having foresight, innovate, take calculated risks and perseverance in the initial loss-making years with continuous fund scarcity and keeping the talent motivated despite these odds. A very big challenge!!
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