Functions of Management
Virtually everyone is aware of the infamous dot-com crash in early 2000. However, not
everyone is as conscious of the telecom bust. According to the editorial of The Economist,
The Great Telecoms Crash, The telecoms bust is some ten times bigger than the dotcom
crash: the rise and fall of telecoms may indeed qualify as the largest bubble in history.
Companies caught up in the telecommunications industry were forced to take huge debt
write-offs and even resorted to fraudulent accounting tricks as displayed by WorldCom
(Economist). Being involved in the manufacturing segment of the telecom market, I
witnessed first hand the results of the crash, including massive layoffs, hostile corporate
take-over, and enormous company debt. Many top managers and front-line supervisors
were so consumed with demands, changes and challenges of the exponential growth of the
telecom market that portions of the four functions of management were short-circuited ,
which are planning, organizing, leading and controlling.
The first function for managers at all levels is to engage in planning. Planning involves
devising a scheme for attaining the goals of the organization. Planning is setting goals and
deciding on courses of action, developing rules and procedures, developing plans and
forecasting (Dessler 5). One method of how our company accomplishes this endeavor is
defining the mission, which is the purpose of our organization. Planning involves setting
goals, and our organization formulated the goals into a tree. This tree consisted of revenue
growth, earnings before income taxes and appreciation (EBITA), productivity, free cash
