management

1. Organization and coordination of the activities of an enterprise in accordance with certain policies and in achievement of clearly defined objectives. Management is often included as a factor of production along with machines, materials, and money. According to the management guru Peter Drucker (1909-2005), the basic task of a management is twofold: marketing and innovation. Practice of modern management owes its origin to the 16th century enquiry into low-efficiency and failures of certain enterprises, conducted by the English statesman Sir Thomas More (1478-1535).

2. Directors and managers who have the power and responsibility to make decisions to manage an enterprise. As a discipline, management comprises of the interlocking functions of formulating corporate-policy and organizing, planning, controlling, and directing the firm's resources to achieve the policy's objectives. The size of management can range from one person in a small firm to hundreds or thousands of managers in multinational companies. In large firms the board of directors formulates the policy which is implemented by the chief executive officer. Some business analysts and financiers accord the highest importance to the quality and experience of the managers in evaluating an organizations current and future worth.

Good jockeys will do well on good horses, but not on broken-down nags. Both Berkshire's textile business and Hochschild Kohn had able and honest people running them. The same managers employed in a business with good economic characteristics would have achieved fine records. But they were never going to make any progress while running in quicksand. I've said many times that when a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.

• Are Management's Compensation Plans Aligned with Shareholder Interest?
• How Management Can Make High Earnings
• When Should Companies Buy Back Shares
• Management has to Change with the World
• Focus Marketing on Perception Management
• Management Changes can Help a lot With Timing
• Management's Priorities
• Same Business, Two Different Leaders
• Glamorous Businesses versus Dull Businesses