skills and ideas essential in business operations, strategic planning, and partnerships

skills and ideas essential in business operations, strategic planning, and partnerships

During the semester, I have gained many skills and insights. These skills and ideas are essential in business operations, strategic planning, and partnerships. Focusing on existing literature, I have established vital critical points that ensure efficiency and effectiveness. First, I encountered the global nature of business

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lobalization of trade and other functionalities has led to high competition. As a result, I sought to establish ways in which companies can gain a competitive advantage. These were an integral part of the unit and have proven to be applicable in various aspects. In the essay, I will outline and explain the primary skills extracted from numerous sources. Using several generally accepted theories, I will highlight the critical skills that I have deemed necessary for organizational/business success.

Communication

Most business functions are initiated and conducted by teams of people. The creation of groups is based on departments that are derived from specialization. Generally, the most diverse teams are often the most successful. The diversity is portrayed in their innovation processes and the day to day business operations. Broad research indicates that for the business to work efficiently, effective communication is paramount.

During the semester, I established the importance of communication. By ensuring I am in contact with my coursemates, I have had access to data and information from different sources. The most efficient way of ensuring communication has been through the use of Belbin team roles. These roles derive their strength from the diversity in each team (Omar et al. 2016). I learned that when teams are in communication, team members can relay their strengths and consequently, their weaknesses. Each person has a role that they play that helps achieve the team’s objectives.

Building on that, roles are assigned. Team members individually communicated their strengths and weaknesses. I witnessed the importance of effective communication in role delegation based on the Belbin self-assessment criteria. Verbally intelligent group members focused on presentations while those who were excellent researchers created the reports, among other vital roles.

Numeracy

The fiscal position of the business is the core pillar of its functions.  Every process in the business is to enhance the value of the business and hence its profitability. Accordingly, I found it indispensable that one learns financial literacy and fiscal matters concerning the business. I understood that markets, values, and processes are driven by money. By going through various scholarly articles, I established that the creation of value maximizes profit.

I went through business statistics literature to understand the complexities of data management. Elementary level lessons include data analysis and interpretation. Current trends have incorporated technology in business statistics. Additionally, big data and data science are concepts that are interlinked with business statistics. These are data collection and refinement strategies to make informed fiscal decisions. Big data is the vast amount of metadata that exists; for example, invoices or subscriptions made for over two years are metadata. By identifying key insights such as loyal customers, the month with the highest subscriptions, among other factors, you can make an informed marketing or investment decision.

I have established different numeracy skills as essential, including balancing the books, i.e., financial and cost accounting, and understanding taxation policy, among others.

ICT

Information Communication technologies have been the most instrumental development of the century. Businesses that have refused to adapt to these technological advantages have been rendered obsolete, redundant, and in some cases, loss-making. I was able to understand the importance of information technology. The globalization of the business world has been enabled by technology. Businesses can now reach audiences far and wide, globally at considerable and justifiable costs. They are also able to store vast amounts of data for minimal storage space.

Consequently, it is bordering paramount to be IT literate. A critical advancement that I learned is the Microsoft 365 Business package. The Microsoft Office Suite is a cloud-based platform that offers all the in-house apps. The in-house apps I discovered as essential are Microsoft Word (for word documents-reports, memos, letters), Microsoft Excel (for numerical calculations and reports), and Ms. Access (for Database management), among other integral features. During the semester, ICT incorporation in learning proved to be very helpful as I could access uncountable online resources on virtually any topic.

By utilizing the Kolb learning style, I was able to complete the whole cycle to understand ICT concepts. The cycle serves as a learning inventory (Forray et al. 2017). I read the coursework, watched tutorials on the use of these apps, and noted down critical insights. I then created projects on these apps and used them to manipulate figures and information.

Problem-solving

I concluded the most effective and efficient method is through communication and brainstorming. Throughout the semester, I have learned the importance of idea sharing and discussions. As a result, I observed problems could only be solved via a functional team. For a team to be efficient, effective, and innovative, the group’s formation was a crucial factor.

Our utilization of the Tuckman model provided the success required. By going through the different stages, a powerful team was formed. The stages are development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. The team’s interaction built individual members’ confidence, which I learned provided creative solutions to problems. The more the solutions were diverse, the better the final decision that was made.

Teamwork

Teamwork, as explained earlier, is an integral part of successful operations. The model mentioned above forged a team that was powerful and achieved its objectives (Jones, 2019). The stages that the team went through include

Forming the team

The first stage is when the teams assemble and meet each other. They share their expectations, strengths, and broad vision of their input. The team members are polite and are pleasant towards each other as they have just met each other.

Storming stage

At this stage, the team members have started rubbing each other’s shoulders. The different personalities and character traits have been revealed, and this has led to a clash. Some team members separate into factions that they feel they share the same direction. The need to be polite has since been subdued, and conflict at this point is inevitable. This stage during the semester was the most intense period.