Functioning Management Essay Example

Functioning Management Essay Example Functioning Management Essay Functioning Management Essay Qualcomm Incorporated: Functioning Management Katie Atkinson, Farrah Mason, Jennifer McMahan, Robert Briones, Nichol Vann University of Phoenix MGT 330; Israr Hayath Qualcomm Incorporated: Functioning Management Qualcomm is an American wireless telecommunications research and Development Company, as well as the largest fables chip supplier in the world, based in San Diego, California. Qualcomm was founded in 1985 by UC San Diego Professor Irwin Jacobs, MIT Alumni Andrew Viterbi, Harvey White, Adelia Coffman, Andrew Cohen, Klein Gilhousen, and Franklin Antonio. QUALCOMM, 2010) Qualcomm’s mission statement is: â€Å"Life, Connected with technology. From the written word, to image and photos, to music, to videos, games, streaming content, and more, Qualcomm is on a never-ending quest to feed the mind. Whether by developing our technologies or partnering with companies who share our vision, were leading the charge in the digital revolution. † (Qualcomm, 2010) The external and internal factors that affect Qualcomm’s four functions of management (planning, organizing, leading, and controlling) are as follows but not limited to; Globalization, Technology, Innovation, Diversity, and Ethics. This paper will review how external and internal factors affect the four functions of Qualcomm, and how managers and executives use delegation to manage the different factors and functions listed above. Qualcomm; Planning and management’s function When planning the future for any company, especially Qualcomm, you must consider internal and external factors. Qualcomm’s sustainability and value to its stockholders is dependent upon the ability to predict future trends in technology, the global environment and maintain its strategic advantage. For example, Qualcomm’s core objectives include expanding the use of 3G technologies in emerging markets (Business Civic Leadership Center, 2006). Realization of this objective requires that Qualcomm be aware of political, cultural and economic factors in the markets they may wish to enter. Internally, Qualcomm must be structured to be agile and prepared to quickly form partnerships in response to developing opportunities. : Like a manufacturer who uses the best quality materials to produce a product, Qualcomm’s most valuable asset is the intellectual capabilities of its engineers. Qualcomm must create a corporate environment that attracts and retains the best minds. Qualcomm is a global enterprise. The corporation is chartered to function in the international development of wireless technologies. Planning to achieve corporate objectives must scan the external horizon on an ongoing regular basis. This corporation cannot afford to publish a five year plan that sits on the self. Executive planners must evaluate what is going on in the world almost on a daily basis and asking the question, â€Å"How does this affect our objectives and positioning? † Intelligence is critical to this process. Information on the stability or instability of governments, financial markets and emerging research is critical to the sustainability of Qualcomm. Qualcomm is in the technology business. The future of Qualcomm is dependent upon the ability to invest and develop products that are compatible with and have an advantage over the competition. An innovator cannot assume that if they develop the best can opener, they will be the world’s leader in can opener sales. New technologies often compete until one becomes the industry standard upon which other compatible technologies are based. Qualcomm has declared that one of its core objectives is the expansion of 3G technologies in emerging markets (Business Civic Leadership Center, 2006). They are heavily invested in mobile platforms that utilize 3G technologies. G technology may be adequate to support the utilities presently needed by a small home based business in Malaysia, but will it be adequate to support explosion of demand as this market becomes more globally aware? Qualcomm planners must position the design of Qualcomm technologies to expand and morph to respond to tomorrow’s expectations. Qualcomm does business in almost every corner of the globe. As a corporation they must be prepared and plan to foster diversity in every aspect. They must foster a corpor ate culture that supports and respects the culture, religion, and ethnic backgrounds of employees, customers, and partners. Qualcomm takes to heart their Global Workforce Inclusion policy. The policy states in part: â€Å"Inclusion and Diversity are at the very heart of innovation. It requires different perspectives to take an idea, perfect it, and turn it into world-changing technology. And it requires an energetic, diverse workforce to come up with those different perspectives. Here at Qualcomm, we find diversity, and the creativity it brings, vital to our success. To this end, we are committed to providing all employees the opportunity to achieve their professional goals. † (Qualcomm, 2010) Qualcomm portrays itself as a responsible global corporate citizen. Cutting edge research and product development is the life’s blood of Qualcomm. Unethical practices that infringe on the research and product development of competitors may be costly and detrimental to the sustainability of the enterprise. Planning to mitigate the potential damage of infringement disputes was demonstrated by the recent settlement with Broadband wherein the two giants agreed to cross license each other’s patents. This agreement protects Qualcomm from future infringement lawsuits that could cripple its development (Sinapse, 2010). Qualcomm; Organizing and management’s function Organizing can be defined as â€Å"assembling and coordinating the human, financial, physical, informational, and other resources needed to achieve goals† (Bateman Snell, 2009). The company called Qualcomm primarily operates in South Korea, where they employ over 16,100 employees. The external factors affecting organizing in Qualcomm are making sure there are enough resources to complete the jobs for the telecommunication devices. Having an organizational structure is the key to internal aspect of Qualcomm, with employing a lot of employees there must be a clear and concise structure of job duties assigned. Another internal factor is Qualcomm grants out their licenses for use of their telecommunication devices. â€Å"Qualcomm also grants licenses to use its intellectual property portfolio, which includes certain patent rights useful in the manufacture and sale of wireless products†. (Thompson, 2010). Qualcomm has stretched globally in areas such as Italy, Asia Pacific, and United Kingdom which reinforces there leadership in the worldwide messaging market. With Qualcomm going globally all employees have to be organized in the supplier chain of sending over the new product to the global areas as well as manufacturing the new product. This new technology was called Eudora, were it allowed different time zones to still communicate. With Qualcomm becoming so innovated, the company created an agreement with the international publishers which allowed for faster product delivery and improved distribution. With reaching out their market globally Qualcomm has become very diverse, by adding this new agreement it allowed the international countries to keep the delivery and distribution more organized. â€Å"Republisher’s customers will now be able to purchase these localized products and receive localized support in the respective countries† (Qualcomm, 2010). With it now being localized to re-publisher’s customers Eudora is also offered in different languages such as Italian, Chinese and Korean. Qualcomm is such a huge corporation that their ethics have to be very structured, and organized. All employees at the corporation are expected to do their job duties with honesty and in an ethical manner. It’s very important for managers to be organized and follow the code of ethics as well as all employees. By implementing a strong code of ethics all employees and managers will know what values are expected from them. Qualcomm; Leading and management’s function What is Leadership and what makes a good leader? Basically, a leader is one who is able to influence others to attain certain goals that must be met by the corporation or department. According to James Kouzes and Barry Posner, great leaders have five key traits or behaviors which make them outstanding at leading others (Bateman Snell, 2009). Those five traits are: challenging the process, inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, leading by example, and being generous with affirmations. These traits are always being tested both internally and externally. The people who are being led have many things to deal with in their own lives which require them to juggle an enormous load, between work life and personal life it is enough to make anybody go mad if it wasn’t for effective leadership. Internally a leader must face the issues of budgeting effectively, creating a vision that he can get everyone on board with and the overall morale of the organization. There are many times a leader must put aside his own desires to be able to â€Å"lead by example† and show his subordinates what is best for the company as a whole. All in all a great leader is going to be able to nstill in his workers/followers a sense of ownership in the vision which he created. This vision can is affected not only by the internal factors previously stated, but also by those elements from outside the organization. So examples of external factors are the economy, world events, and the leaders’ personal life. If there is a bad economy he must know ho w to restructure while keeping morale high. If the world faces an immediate threat or, even, something positive that will change how his organization runs, how will he handle the change and lead his people in the same direction? Lastly, personal lives, everybody has them and something always happens that will potentially throw you off course, how do you plan for the worst or the best and keep your organization or department running like a well-oiled machine? The amount of knowledge of the vast array of topics a leader must be familiar with is astounding. They must know how everything from globalization and technology to diversity and ethics affects his organization. Globalization and technology are a huge area for a manager to have a handle on due to the advantages and disadvantages they bring. For example, an advantage technology can bring to a manager and his organization is the ability to serve his clients or customers quickly and more efficiently. The disadvantage is if the manager either doesn’t know of the technology available to him or doesn’t know how to use it properly, the client could decide to change providers due to lack of quality of service. Technology has also made it harder for managers to keep up with the demand. Technology has also affected the kind diversity the workforce can have. So often the baby boomers may be losing out on promotions due to the fact that they do not know how to use the technology given to them, which in turn allows the younger generation to take over their positions. On the flip side, the younger generations, know how to use the technology, may end up stuck at their current position because the boomers, with more experience, are better suited for the management positions. They will just need to have an advisor for things that they are not familiar with or take a class. Ethics has also being greatly affected by technology and diversity. Ethics, basically the theory of right and wrong, has been pushed to the background because of the insurmountable amount of information the manger most learn. Ethics can affect a leader’s role by the way he corresponds with and conducts himself around fellow employees. Qualcomm; Controlling and management’s function When reviewing the controlling aspect of management one should review how revenues are invested, and recognize the importance of the previous steps of planning, implementing and leading (Bateman Snell, 2009). A strong company will invest in its innovative team to plan out future or expected needs, and create viable, efficient and effective solutions to these problems. Pushing forward into new territories helps a company remain on the forefront of their industry, which is highly important in the fast pace business of technology and communications. Qualcomm has the opportunity to continue their innovative steps and continue to hold their established presence in the United States, while expanding to our European neighbors. The ability to properly control the leadership of the planning and implementing process will prove to be Qualcomm’s success. Qualcomm’s established presence as a communication provider prompts innovative thoughts and controlling of company policies that have been implemented. Qualcomm has expanded their presence globally and in doing so have extended their responsibilities for ensuring their company standards are upheld. The creation of operating procedures during the planning, organizing and leading processes allow for thorough monitoring. Qualcomm expresses the importance of controlling company assets by smartly investing â€Å"23% of our gross revenue †¦ into RD (research and development)† (Qualcomm, 2010). The monies invested into planning and implementing or research and development, has provided Qualcomm with the security of being the first to implement new technologies and upgrades to consumers (Qualcomm, 2010). Using Delegation to Manage Delegation is the assignment of tasks and responsibilities and has many potential advantages for managers, subordinates, and organizations. In order to be effective, the delegation process must be managed carefully, defining the goal, selecting the right person, soliciting opinions, providing resources, scheduling checkpoints, and discussing progress periodically. (Bateman Snell, 2009). Qualcomm used delegation by setting up different divisions within the company. Each division is responsible for different factors such as Qualcomm Global Trading Inc (QGT) is responsible for the globalization factor. (Qualcomm, 2010) Qualcomm uses a decentralization decision making process within each division. The decentralized decision making process allows the employees most directly affected by the decision that is made and have the hands on knowledge of the problem or project to make the decisions. (Bateman Snell, 2009). The authors of this paper believe planning is centered on all of the four functions of management. Managers of an organization are to carry out the functions to assist in the organizations growth. Therefore, they delegate and perform the functions of management. The functions the managers are using to delegate are planning, organizing, leading and controlling. They are to make sure that clients are valued by specific planning. They also must contain a certain amount of people skills. The managers are to lead, motivate, and communicate effectively. (Bateman Snell, 2009). Delegation is a critical skill in the effective management of organizations. Qualcomm has used delegating by first separating each function into a division such as Technology (IT) and each division has their own vice-president who does planning and his subordinates do the organizing, leading, and controlling of the different projects or product management. Qualcomm, 2010) In conclusion, to live up to their missions’ statement Qualcomm used the external and internal factors, the four functions of management, and the delegation management style. Qualcomm is now the world leader in next generation mobile technologies, Qualcomm’s ideas and inventions are driving wireless growth and helping to connect people to information, entertainment and one another. (Qualcomm , 2010) Qualcomm uses the four functions of management (planning, organizing, leading, and controlling) to manage globalization, technology, innovation, diversity, and ethics. In this paper you have read how the external and internal factors affect the four functions of Qualcomm, and how managers and executives use delegation to manage the different factors and functions listed above. Qualcomm management style allows them to evolve quicker then the competition and gives them the flexibility to change with the times. References Bateman, T. S. , Snell, S. S. (2009). Management: Leading collaborating in a competitive world (8th ed. ). Boston, MA: McGraw, Inc.. Business Civic Leadership Center. (2006). Qualcomm and Gramenn Foundation. Business Civic Leadership Center (BCLC). Washington, D. C.. Retrieved on November 27, 2010 from http://bclc. uschamber. com/awards/qualcomm-and-grameen-foundation2006 Sinapse. (2010). Qualcomm and Broadcom settle. Sinapse; An Intellectual Property Rendezvous, A Brain League Institute. Powered by Blogger. Retrieved on November 27, 2010 from sinapseblog. com/2009/06/qualcom-and-broadcom-settle. html. Thompson, B. (July 5, 2010). New market research report: Qualcomm Incorporated – SWOT analysis. PR-inside. com; News and Free PR. Retrieved on November 24, 2010 from pr-inside. com/new-market-research-report-Qualcommm-incorporated-r1983909. tm. Qualcomm, (2010). Enabling small and diverse businesses. Qualcomm, Inc. San Diego, CA. Retrieved on November 27, 2010 fro m qualcomm. com/citizenship/diversity/supplier_diversity. html. Qualcomm: Italy, (June 15, 1998). Qualcomm increases worldwide presence of Eudora Pro ®. Qualcomm Italy, San Diego, CA. Retrieved on November 24, 2010 from http://italy. qualcomm. com/news/releases/1998/press843. html. Qualcomm, (2010). Pathway to innovation. Innovation. Qualcomm Incorporated, San Diego, CA. Retrieved November 26, 2010 from qualcomm. com/innovation/pathway/index. html.