How to manage enterprises in different places

Authorization management of real estate enterprises' off-site project companies

Author: Feng Zhe

2007-8-30 17:20: 1 1

Managers generally believe that when training subordinates, it is better to "authorize" than to teach them by hand, that is, to expand the authority of subordinates and let them solve problems by their own ability. Indeed, in order to release the hidden abilities of subordinates, it is better to trust their potential abilities, give play to their subjective initiative and produce good results than to give instructions frequently. Everyone wants to act according to their own wishes, not the wishes of others. The results of these two situations are completely different.

It's easier said than done. In the real estate industry, every business activity means huge investment, and authorization may mean that these investments are gone forever. Who should pay for the final loss of investment? Business managers are usually very cautious about authorization. Although some enterprises have developed rapidly, with annual sales revenue reaching several billion RMB and developing several projects in different places at the same time, their internal management systems are still very centralized. Some enterprises may be authorized by their closest confidants, while others simply use their relatives such as seven aunts and eight aunts to "take charge of state affairs". The question to be studied now is, who is the authorized object? How much should I give? How to grant?

Let's first listen to the voices of management predecessors and masters:

Sam palmisano, the new CEO of IBM, pointed out: "It is impossible to give full play to the strength of IBM (IBM has more than 200,000 employees worldwide) by relying on the organizational structure and the instructions of operators. This requires us to support every employee to make the right judgment through the right method while giving them power. "

Duruk pointed out: an institution that has no ability to cultivate leadership for itself is lifeless; The survival and normal operation of an organization requires it to train a group of independent leaders under the highest leadership; Organizations cannot automatically produce enough leaders, nor can they automatically produce experienced and capable leaders; The solution includes two aspects: let leaders enjoy as much independent leadership as possible in the lowest position, and establish a set of objective standards to evaluate their performance.

After carefully tasting the above viewpoints, it is not difficult for us to draw a conclusion that the ultimate success of the enterprise and the mass production of the leading team are realized in an authorized environment, or that an enterprise without authorization is an enterprise with immature management.

The object of authorization is power, so what is power? Is there a standard? Can it be managed? I won't directly define power here. I believe everyone has his own understanding and will give his own definition. I want to give power an explanation from another related angle-responsibility: responsibility center. As we all know, there is a basic principle in management science: power and responsibility are granted together, that is, the principle of equal rights and responsibilities. In the practice of enterprise management, it is meaningless to analyze power alone, and the results will be instructive to practice if power and responsibility are analyzed together. Furthermore, the management accounting system gives a scientific and detailed definition of the responsibility center, and at the same time, the accounting system can also accurately measure it. These mature enterprise management information systems just give us the basis and foundation of management power. Power can be defined according to different latitudes, but I think it is best to systematically analyze and manage power with the responsibility center as the key link.

In real estate enterprises, one thing that most involves the management's energy is the management of project companies in different places. As the saying goes, distance increases the sense of beauty, but it also increases the difficulty of management. At present, the "personal" basis of the management of domestic enterprises is often greater than the "legal" basis, and the difficulty for individuals to obtain external information increases with the increase of distance. In the case of imperfect internal information system, the management of enterprises in different places really worries the boss. From the perspective of matching the responsibility center and business authority, Lu Zhengjun made a statistical classification of the positioning of real estate enterprises' off-site project companies, which were basically divided into the following five categories:

According to the typical three-level management system, the positioning of city companies is generally concentrated in the proportion of 3, 4, 5 and 4; Project companies generally have a large ratio of 1 and 2,2. Why is there the dispersion of the above positioning distribution? Now let's analyze it. Behind the positioning of the project company is the business authorization, and behind the business authorization is the authorization of people. What are the reasons that affect the authorization of people? Can authorization be managed within the scope of systems and institutions?

Before further analysis, let's list some enterprises' practices in authorization and find out what the influencing factors are.

1. The team members of different companies are not standardized and their abilities are uneven. Some key links that affect the success of the project, such as planning and design, should be taken to the company headquarters to complete, or concentrated in a nearby city to implement unified management and support for the projects within the radiation range.

2. After the introduction of professional managers, they are given full power because of their high consistency on some issues. However, in the future business process, problems frequently occur, and the position in the management's mind is "decreasing day by day". In order to reduce business risks, management began to take over power, and the final result was that professional managers left with complaints.

3. In enterprise practice, the standard of authority granted by management is employee loyalty, and trust is the only basis. The key positions and main managers in an enterprise are often classmates, comrades-in-arms and relatives of the boss.

4. After the establishment of a project company in different places, the distribution of responsibilities and rights is unbalanced, and responsibilities are often greater than power. For example, the responsibility requires the project company to control the project cost, but the actual power is only to control the expenditure in the construction stage. The material procurement is all arranged by the headquarters, and there is no ability and opportunity to intervene in the planning and design. After the establishment of the project company and the arrival of project personnel, the construction drawing, project budget and main material suppliers have been determined.

5. The authorization of the project company is not fixed. This year, the authority has been delegated and may be taken away next year. For example, in the planning and positioning stage, due to local customs, natural environment, market purchasing power, historical consumption habits, public appreciation standards and other factors, the project planning and positioning should focus on local project companies as much as possible, and tuition fees may be paid during the preliminary project, but in the long run, it is a better solution to use local people to do local things. But the reality is that it is difficult to find qualified intermediaries in the local market, and the local market has not yet cultivated high-quality planners. The company can only deploy elite soldiers from the headquarters to enter the new market, and the personnel are solved, but the issue of management ownership will swing internally for a long time. When outstanding achievements are made in the work, the trust of the headquarters will be enhanced, the number and degree of plan approval will be reduced, and the approval procedures will be greatly simplified; If something goes wrong with the project, the future work headquarters will basically be fully involved, approving everywhere and checking from time to time.

6. Horton, the United States, realized that clear goals must be set, and only when each branch reaches the goal can the whole company succeed. The branch company must work with the head office to set goals and provide the necessary resources, services and support for the branch company in order to succeed. How to implement it? It's entirely up to the branch. "Because the real estate industry is always a regional industry, it is impossible for the headquarters to understand the characteristics of all regional markets, and it must be implemented by people who know the local market. We decentralized construction activities and gave local company leaders more operational autonomy. We believe that general managers in various places are familiar with the situation in various places and can make better decisions. " By managing the newly developed market through the existing branches, Horton avoided the increase of management expenses. In the small "satellite market" where few big developers dare to venture into, Horton believes that they will find and seize future business opportunities.

7. Vanke's existing management platform was formed in 2000, emphasizing professional headquarters. However, Vanke predicts that in the three years after 2006, the scale of its three major business areas will be equivalent to that of the current group. In view of this growth trend, Vanke has adjusted its management structure to "strategic headquarters, professional regions and front-line implementation" and put the functions of professional headquarters in various regions. A separate regional management headquarters will represent the headquarters and exercise its authority including project, planning and design, engineering, sales, market positioning and even some nearby project financing, and the headquarters will continue to master it.

8、 ......

Through the analysis of previous consulting projects and internal independent research, Lu Zhengjun proposed three factors affecting authorization:

1. Professional manager system: the professional ability level of the person in charge of the city company or project company or development team;

2. Management standard system: management standard and authorization scale of foreign enterprise business process;

3. Management report system: grasp the business process information of foreign enterprises in real time.

The above three aspects can also be understood as object, standard and process feedback, which constitute a simple management cycle and can be adjusted and continuously optimized in the implementation process.

First, professional managers at all levels as authorized objects sometimes encounter the following three problems:

1. "With the expansion of power, what value can you provide to customers?"

2. "Do you have the ability and skills to use new power?"

3. "What should you do when your ability and skills are insufficient and you can't skillfully use new strength?"

Professional ability evaluation of professional managers is the basis of authorization management.

Second, the definition of authorization scale needs to be analyzed and determined by the top management from the level of strategy and business model. For example, a national developer will basically establish a three-level management system (headquarters-city-project), and when it sets foot in the real estate finance field, it will increase to a four-level management system (headquarters-region-city-project). The management orientation of regional companies and city companies basically determines the scale of authorization. Among the five positions of the project company mentioned above, the higher the level of the responsibility center, the more authority is needed. The higher the positioning level of the corporate responsibility center in the city where the developer is located, the more favorable it is for the rapid development of the enterprise.

Third, in the process of authorization management, it needs to be adjusted frequently, which is what is usually called the art of management. Without the support of management reporting system, it really depends on the management intuition and management art level of senior management! At this point, the middle managers at the headquarters can't get involved. When the enterprise organization system is relatively large, there are many companies in different places, and only a few decision makers implement authorization management, they often pay attention to one thing and lose sight of another. If an internal reporting system can be established to report and analyze business process information in real time, more power will be granted to business units with sound management foundation and strong business and management capabilities, while for relatively poor units, the headquarters will take the lead in formulating improvement or adjustment plans, strive to reach the target level set by the company, and finally realize the standardization and integration of enterprise management. Only in this way can authorization management enter the institutionalized track.