Explain the tasks of a professional manager. Identify the mangers whose prime task is to plan and steer the future of the organization you are working

Explain the tasks of a professional manager. Identify the mangers whose prime task is to plan and steer the future of the organization you are working in or familiar with. What are the various survival and growth options which your organization has adopted in the recent past. Briefly describe the organization you are referring to.
There is a lot of confusion over the much widely used terms-professional management and professional managers.
Management is a discipline. There are practitioners of this discipline who practice management as a profession and
thus are professional managers. Just as there are doctors and lawyers by professional managers. As doctors
practice medicine, managers practice management. The only difference between professional managers and other
professional is that, while the latter must possess a formal degree in their discipline, a professional manager need
not have a formal degree or education in management.
The second characteristic of a professional manager is that his primary concern is the organization or the
company with which he works. This is true whether the manager works for a private or public sector or a
multinational company; whether he is the executive director or the personnel manager reporting to the executive
director. The professional manager always has his company's overall perspective in his mind and all his actions are
guided by the company's objectives.
The third and the most important characteristic of a professional manager is that he is responsible for
performance. Managing involves collecting and utilizing resources (money, men, materials and machines) in the
most optimal manner for achievement of some pre-determined objectives or results. Responsibility and
performance are really the key words in defining a manager's role. Performance implies action, and action
necessitates taking specific steps and doing certain tasks. Let us first take up the various tasks which a manager is
expected to do to produce results.
Manager has to, first of all, set objectives which the firm must achieve. Objectives provide the direction in which
the firm must move. Having decided upon the objectives, the manager must constantly monitor the progress and
activities of the firm to ensure that it is moving in the desired direction. This is the first and foremost task of every
manager.
If you are a part of the top management team then you will be very actively involved in this task through the
process of defining the mission and objectives for the entire organization. If you are a manager reporting to the top
manager, it is your task to see that the actions of the people who work for you in your department or division are in
the desired direction. It is your task as a manager to prevent ail such action's which take your company away from
the direction set by the top management.
A large Australian MNC Company has its subsidiary In India which manufacturers and markets a popular line of
toys and medication it maintains are large shop in Mumbai for production of a medicinal plant which is an active
ingredient in all its medication.
To derive further cost advantage it was proposed that the company set up its own toy raw materials and own
packaging labels. However raw materials was not such a critical activity that it required the company to have full
control over it. The key point is that all movements and actions must be consistent with achievement of the
objectives. To ensure consistency it is important that the manager carefully thinks through each alternative course
of action, to evaluate its potential to contribute towards attainment of objectives.

Ensuring survival of the firm is a critical task of the manager. But that alone is not enough. The manager has also to actively seek growth. No matter how big or powerful a firm may be today, it is sure to be left behind in the race by newer, healthier and more efficient firms if it does not pursue growth. Two sets of factors impinge upon the firm's survival and growth.
The first is the set of factors, which are internal to the firm and are largely controllable. These internal factors are choice of technology, efficiency of labour, competence of managerial staff, company image, financial resources, etc.
The second set of factors influencing the firm's ability to ensure survival and growth are those which are external to the firm and over which it has little or no control. These external, environmental factors refer to government policy, laws and regulations, changing customer tastes, attitudes and values, increasing competitioiv etc. Protector &Gamble (p&g) is a subsidiary of a multinational company which, till some years ago, was manufacturing and marketing soaps (Hammam,marvel) and refined oils and agro products. Most of these are low technology lines being a foreign exchange regulation act (FERA) unless P&g diluted its foreign equity to 50 percent. P&G sold off its line of refined oils to Tata India and diversified into the production of into the production of basic chemical of high technology area where foreign are allowed to invest'and grow as per FERA. Thus by changeover from low-tech to hi-tech area P&G has ensured its future in India..
Efficiency is the ratio of output to the input. To produce results a manager requires inputs in the form of money, men, materials and machines. The more output that the manager can produce with the same input, the greater will be the profit generated. Profit is the surplus of difference the manager can generate between the value of inputs and outputs.
Profit is essential for the survival and growth of a business. A manager may decide to forego some profit today for
the profits, which he is seeking tomorrow but in the long run he must understand that no business can survive if it
does not make profits. Business activity is undertaken to satisfy a need of the society in a manner, which yields
profits. A business is not a philanthropic or charitable activity, which is run merely to provide some goods and
services irrespective of whether it is making a profit. '"'
Profit generated can be used for expansion, upgrading the technology, growth or paying dividends. Profits are one
of the cheapest sources of financing growth, as they involve no interest liability not putting the freedom at stake by
having representatives of financial institutions sit on your board of directors.
A profitable firm can turn unprofitable because of obsolete technology, inability to meet high fixed cost structures, high levels of wastage, or simply because the product is no longer in demand by customers. We have e.g. traditional garments mils became un profitable and the fate they eventually met. A similar fate awaits all nonprofitable businesses. The consistent failure of engineering products India, a public sector company, to generate profits and execute international projects within the time limits has threatened the very existence of this company.
In contrast companies such as pepsodents -marvel, Polaris software engineering and Ambrose limited etc. have been showing sufficiently good profits.
Competition is increasing in terms of more competitors, more products, wider variety of products, and better quality of products. The manager today has more potential customers to sell to and easy access to these customers yet the market is crowded with many competitors wooing the same customers.
Till a date ago, the Statesmen group of newspapers and magazines reigned supreme in the magazine market with its 'specimen weekly of India' being the only Indian family magazine and 'Manikchand' the only notable film magazine for people interested in films.
The introduction of 'Grahalaxmi today' and 'zee dust' brought about a redical change. Starting in a modest fashion. 'Grahalaxmi today' is probably the most widely read general interest magazine while 'Zeedust' has blazed its own unique trend-setting trail of popularity. In the wake of the success of these two magazines, many other magazines followed, such as general interest magazines, Art magazines, Men magazines children's magazines, special interest magazines, etc. All these new magazines have better reading content, more colour, better layout and are very glossy and attractive to look at. Unable to match these new magazines the circulation of the 'Illustrated Weekly of India' and "Manikchand' slumped. However, in the last years these two magazines have been attempting to regain the lost ground and have succeeded to some measure. But they can certainly never again enjoy the leading position, which they once did. In developed countries the concept of competition is very closely linked to that of obsolescence. Companies keep introducing successively new models of cars, washing machines, refrigerators, etc., with minor variations, and persuading the customers to discard their older models for the newer ones.