Fundamentals of business management: Explore six functional areas

To successfully lead a team or become a well-rounded entrepreneur, you need strong business management skills and a good grasp of the core business functions.

Read on to learn more about the six fundamentals of management and how to incorporate them into your business or job role.

1. People management

Applying the standard human resources management processes is not enough to build a high-performing business environment. Successful managers need to display empathy in order to ascertain and address the needs of their workforces.

Remember: How well you manage yourself determines how effective you are as a manager.

As more organizations shift to hybrid work and implement more technology to monitor employees, motivating and driving performance from their team members will become even more critical for success.

2. Operations

Operations management oversees the entire production process of a good or service. Managing a supply chain and making sure production meets demand under tight deadlines can be incredibly complex and is critical to business success.

Professionals in operations management spend much of their time problem solving and thinking about how to improve the production processes. This requires an understanding of a range of concepts such as capacity planning, productivity analysis, quality assurance, and lean management.

3. Accounting

Proper management of finances is important to make critical business decisions. Knowing basic business accounting will enable you to answer questions such as how much you can spend on marketing, or whether you have the ability to secure a loan from a bank. By understanding profit margins, cash flow, and managing debts and expenses, you are equipping yourself with the knowledge to ensure that your business stays profitable.

4. Strategy

The ability to take a high-level, strategic view of a business is critical in order to meet business goals. A good business strategy should give you a clear vision of your target audience, your business’s unique value proposition, available resources you can utilize, and your competitive advantages and disadvantages.

But the strategic management of a business requires higher levels of critical thinking.

Remember: A good strategy requires thinking deeply about where to focus your energy and resources to maximize your performance.

5. Data Analytics

Today’s businesses have more data than ever before. Implementing insights from large amounts of data into your business model can help optimize performance, improve decision making, and increase your business’s ROI.

Focus on collecting the right data and bringing on team members who can extract valuable insights and information from complicated data sets to better position your organization

6. Marketing

Marketing is more than advertising or having a social media presence. Learning marketing fundamentals can help you gain insight into who your customers are, what marketing channels you need to utilize, and how to build a strong and recognizable brand.

Learn the fundamentals of business on edX

Whether you’re a small business owner or want to bolster your entrepreneurship and leadership skills, a thorough understanding of the six fundamental areas of business management can help you. Explore business management courses on edX today.

Last updated: January 2024