This course, run by Australian Management Essentials, is ideal for anyone who has an interest (vested or otherwise) in developing practical business management skills
Australian Management Essentials
This course, run by Australian Management Essentials, is ideal for anyone who has an interest (vested or otherwise) in developing practical business management skills. We all display skill preferences in our professional lives which can hinder our efforts to progress or develop, but failing to understand how a business operates can often be an underlying cause.
As an educational consultant, AME’s Warwick Marx has a strong business and sales management track record. He has helped some major companies, including BHP Billiton, Fuji Xerox, GM Holden, Microsoft and NSW Roads and Traffic Authority achieve their business objectives.
Through the use of practical exercises and simple explanations, he outlines the importance of things such as sales and marketing, business operations, budgeting and cash flow. As Marx says himself, Management in a Day “isn’t a warm fuzzy course in leadership”. It is about the functional aspects of running a business.
The content
Marx sets a cracking pace in getting through the well set out course material – some of which is dry as a bone and just as hard to swallow if you are not inclined towards numbers and figures. But his confident use of illustrative examples and real life situations helps to keep participants engaged. Taking the example of setting up a small pizza shop business, he deftly moves through the functions of management from setting achievable objectives to arranging tasks, people and resources. He then looks at how to lead people to achieve high performance, examines how to measure performance and take action to reach goals.
He is also a skilled people reader, and practices what he preaches: “We have two ears and only one mouth, so they should be used in proportion.” A useful trait in any trainer, particularly when you have a room of people from different areas of a company (in our case HR, sales, production and editorial).
If product life cycles, pricing strategies, price elasticity, back of envelope calculations, sales funnels and pipelines all leave you cold, then the sales and marketing section will be particularly enlightening. While the legal content is covered very generally, looking at the business operations agenda (such as the Trade Practices Act, Privacy Act, contracts and operating terms and conditions) it is relevant and good to know.
For HR professionals
Where Management in a Day is most useful, especially for HR professionals, is in the budget and cash flow section. This covers all the critical, fiscal aspects of running a company – from pricing models, GST, revenue, expenditure and profit to the all important cash flow and return on investment. So if your role has anything to do with forecasting, customer management, budgeting, benchmarking and law, or if you are thinking of setting up a small business then this is a day well spent getting up to speed.
For anyone else it is worth it for the comprehensive business overview alone – just try not to tune out during the dull bits.
Presented by Warwick Marx
Cost: Between $300-450 per person depending on group size
