Masonry Magazine October 1993 Page. 35
BUSINESS OPERATIONS
Continued from Page 11
Furthermore, the project team (which includes field personnel) should make a diligent effort in scheduling the completion of a job. Each project manager should have a formal, company-wide standardized system for project planning. Jobs should be broken down into logical, identifiable and discrete phases to facilitate management and proper cost and billings control.
Weekly coordination meetings should be held. Labor and equipment resource coordination should be discussed among the project managers, superintendents and foremen. Field managers should be able to feel secure about not having to hoard resources on their projects.
In addition, accurate, relevant and concise cost reporting should be utilized by both project management and field foremen. Without regular feedback on job progress, field personnel are unable to initiate changes to improve performance on the job. Effective procedures for obtaining permits and certifying materials should also be established to eliminate inefficient scheduling and planning.
Financial Management
On the strategic side, poor financial management often reflects the state of the entire company. Monthly accounts receivable and payable reports entered manually are not enough. Budgets, cash flow projections, written procedures and auditable processing must be put in place.
Today, an automated accounting system is imperative for tracking your financial progress. The president should share financial statements with top managers. Restricting financial information prevents key managers from understanding how their work affects the company as a whole.
Plans should be made to develop an annual operating budget. Sales volume can be projected, direct cost percentage and dollars determined, and fixed overhead dollars allocated by department. These actions result in a financial target that management can identify and reach.
Measurement of wide perspective allows planning efforts to address critical areas in several arenas: organization, marketing, budgeting, financial projection, employee productivity and so on. Secondly, it mandates and encourages planning and responsibility and clarifies accountability for specific targets.
Marketplace Opportunities
Many opportunities are missed by companies that fail to effectively market their services. This is a result of often failing to understand what market opportunities actually exist. All work should not necessarily be secured through public bid opportunities. By analyzing the threats and opportunities in the marketplace, a company can create a marketing plan which capitalizes on the strengths of the organization.
By the same token, understanding market threats and prioritizing opportunities will help prevent ineffective marketing efforts. The company should outline goals, objectives, particular strategies and tasks that spec-
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MASONRY-SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER, 1993 35