Article by shivam kumar

Business Management Shivam Kumar

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magine you’re a manager of a huge grossing business: it’s very busy and you have to manage your 100-plus employees and 2000 people coming in and out watching movies. You have to make sure every employee and assistant manager is ontask and doing their job. You also have to manage profits and fluctuating charts. But when you get through the hardships and the busy stressful nights of hard work and smart decisions, it is the most satisfying you can experience. This is why people get into business management.

These dedicated leaders take on the responsibility of the whole

business and work to make it successful. For some people, this job sounds stressful and difficult.

For others, it is a fun and satisfying challenge. The feeling of making a good decision and have it pay off or finishing off a successful day gives them a sense of completion and encourages them to do even more work.

Management is important because it’s the basis of what runs a business, and running a business is important because it’s what our nation is built upon.

Small businesses or startups need to pay attention to this because it’s the difference between having a successful business or having a

failing business. Startups require excellent business management and techniques for appealing to the customer more. For example, in Jeff Bezos’s newsletter of April 12, 2017, the Amazon CEO emphasizes that “Putting your customer first is critical...

Profits, hopefully, will follow.”

Having a good customer service in a business is one of the most important strategies to bring in more business and hold a reputation. If people come and have a good experience they will then recommend the establishment to their friends thus, giving more business.

Another crucial focus is high-

velocity decision making. Bezos explains, “First, never use a one-size-fits-all decision-making process. Many decisions are reversible, two-way doors.”

As a leader, you’ll be put up to the task to make an important decision fast, in a way that is clever as well. These strategies help startups significantly by setting a foundation for what their company should follow and work towards. One might be asking themselves why would you go through all this work to find that you might not accomplish your goal. Well, this is also interesting because people crave the satisfaction of being at the top and fulfilling the company’s hopes and dreams.

One of my interviewees, Tim Laplant, the General Manager and Cinema Century 16, tells a heartfelt story about becoming a

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business manager. In his early adulthood he had a job at a car dealership which paid well but didn’t satisfy him. He went to work every day hating his life and his occupation. His Mom, at the time, was a General Manager at a Century theater. He would go to his Mom’s work and sometimes help out with the tasks of the employees. He liked the job so much that he quit his dealership job and started working for his Mom. He started as a regular employee getting paid minimum wage and serving popcorn.

Although he got paid a lot less than he did before, he loved the job and that’s what mattered to him. He started to progress in positions and eventually got asked to become the General Manager of the business. At first, he didn’t want

to become a leader with such an important role like that. But everyone knew he was destined for that position. He was a natural when he first started and excelled in the company and improved himself as a person. Through the managerial development process, he learned numerous strategies and ways to approach a difficult task or day. Some of the strategies he did were to hold meetings every week where all the managers would meet and discuss their weekly experiences and hardships so they can build on a surpass in the future. This is also a good strategy because it focused on team collaboration and helped other managers learn from their peers on how to improve their department.

Tim Lepante, the general manager of Century Cinema 16, has developed leadership strategies while working. First, he held meetings every week where all the managers would meet and discuss their weekly experiences and hardships so they can build on a surpass in the future. This is also a good strategy because it focused on team collaboration and helped other managers learn from their peers about how to improve their department.

Another action plan that he takes his having good customer service. He says, “It was about money. Today’s day you see we give out passes to everybody. Is the customer always right, no but it doesn’t matter because

we are going to take care of every single customer no matter what. When I first started in the business, was the customer always right? No, and they can get out. Today it’s not like that and today it’s about customer service and it doesn’t matter whether the customer is right or wrong – we are going to take care of our customers, and in the process that creates loyalty. And more loyalty makes more money in the process”(Lepante). Not only does good customer service create loyalty and profit but it gives your company a reputation that can be noticed through reviews of past customers and recommendations given from customers that have had a good interaction or experience.

Tim strongly believes in good customer service and I see it pay off when I am

working there. Customers will sometimes come up to me and say that we have a great theater and respectful employees.

This just proves that the motto “The customer is always right” is more than just a saying; in practice, it strengthens a business considerably.

Leadership is a personal quality that directly leads you

and your employees towards the right attitude and mindset.

M y third interviewee, V i k a s h Kumar, is a part of a

club A t h e t o as a how role They a n d public T h e teaches because

leadership in his school. the program, learns how collaborate team and to take the of a leader. do speech exercises practice speaking. c l u b him this o n c e you get

used to speaking to an audience your normal voice will have more confidence and authority.

He wants to get into business management when he grows up and he thinks this program will really help him in the future. Leadership directly ties into management because you need to portray yourself as a leader to your employees or they will not give you respect. The best way of doing this is by enforcing

your rules and guidelines and making everyone follow them.

Given that your employees respect you and do what you say, it’s then up to you to make the right decisions to guide them.

Some small companies lack this important characteristic and that’s why they do advance.

The music streaming service Pandora was a small startup in 2000, trying to become successful. Their application became a huge hit because they used the strategies of finding what the people wanted from the app and worked to their best ability to supply it to them. They faced major struggles while doing this.

The founder, Tim Westergren, managed to find his way out of struggles and continue. One of the problems he faced was to find funding. “It was 2001 and finding funding especially funding for

“Putting your customer first is critical... Profits, hopefully, will follow.”

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music in the midst of the Napster shut down was impossible.

Westergren had no choice but to ask his 50 employees to work for “deferred” salary.” The article describes how he was able to communicate with his employees and come to an agreement.

Today they are prospering, coming in with a revenue of 1.39 billion. Westergren himself said that “a strong shared sense of

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purpose is what ultimately kept the company alive.” Having a common interesting and working together towards that goal is the main thing that kept his company going.

My other interviewees are not business managers but plan to become ones in the future by following the paths they are taking right now. One of them is named Rob Abousamra and he is

a student at Mountain View High School. He is planning on being a business manager for a tech company. His dad is a business manager for a department in Yahoo and just like his Dad, he plans on being successful.

Tim enjoys what he does for a living and when I asked him where he saw himself in 10 years he said that he would be at the

same place that he right now. He plans on moving to a region leader position which is higher than general manager and takes care of all the Cinemark’s in the state. He thinks he’s not set up for the job, but that’s what he said when he was moving to general manager, and he’s a natural at his profession.

Meanwhile, young Vikash continues his studies as a middle school student and plans on creating his own business and using his skills to the best of his ability.

Pandora is one of the largest music streaming apps to this day. They are doing very well in profits and hold firmly as a well-structured company.

Business management is a hard profession. With many rules, guidelines, and strategies to follow and practice, it can be a daunting task at times, but it really matters today’s startup culture . If there were no companies starting up, there would be no advances in this world. That is why management is the key to success, and having a good or bad one could mean the rise or fall of a potentially important company.

Works Cited Abousamra, Rob. Personal interview. 18 Apr. 2017.

Kumar, Vikash. Personal interview. 14 Apr. 2017.

Laplante, Tim. Personal interview. 14 Apr. 2017.

“Origin Story: The Founding of Pandora Radio.”

Startup Grind, www.startupgrind.com/blog/origin-story-the-founding-of-pandora-radio/. Accessed 27 Apr. 2017.

Sozzi, Brian. “Amazon’s Jeff Bezos New Letter to Shareholders Reveals 4 Big Secrets to Being Successful in Business.” TheStreet, TheStreet, 13 Apr. 2017, www.thestreet.com/story/14083292/1/amazon-s-jeffbezos-new-annual-letter-reveals-several-big-secrets-tobeing-successful-in-business.html. Accessed 28 Apr. 2017.

Stuart, Dredge. Pandora in 2016: $1.39bn Revenues and a $343m Net Loss, musically.com/2017/02/09/pandora-in-2016-1-39bnrevenues-and-a-343m-net-loss/. Accessed 27 Apr. 2017.

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Shivam Kumar is a Junior in Freestyle at Mountain View High school. He is taking Digital Media, English and Design. In the Digital Media, he learns how to make websites, produce music, and how to make slideshow videos. They use Adobe applications such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Animate, and After effects. Outside of school he has a part time job likes to play video games and build computers. He has a strong interest in coding and plans to go into it in the future.

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