Resource Centre

Management - Think About It

Welcome to Wales Management Council's new monthly digest of thoughts and opinions on management and leadership.

Its aim is to give you succinct but stimulating material, which helps you focus on how you might boost aspects of your personal and corporate performance.

Your views are very much part of this, so please email them to gwyneth.stroud@crc-wmc.org.uk

What Do We Mean By Management?

The term management applies to any individual or team of individuals with decision-making responsibility for the use of resources in any business.

Those resources may relate to people, finance, property, logistics, infrastructure or anything else.

Management doesn't necessarily mean leadership although many management jobs require strong leadership so it is vital to cultivate this quality as much as possible.

More people in Wales than ever before have a management element to their jobs and the number appears to be increasing.

WMC aims to ensure that anyone with a management role or who is likely to be given such a role in the future receives the support to perform to the highest standards - adding greatest value to the business in which they work.

Where Wales Stands Today

If we use Gross Domestic Product per head as the yardstick, Wales lags well behind the rest of the UK and Europe.

Most recent figures show that, on average, Wales produces less than 80 per cent as much wealth per head as the UK in general. This gap is widening.

In many parts of Wales the figure is closer to 70 per cent of the UK norm. That's why many areas have been earmarked to receive Convergence Fund support - the highest level of support available from the European Union.

Much of the disparity arises from the historic profile of industry in Wales.

Traditionally primary industries made up a higher proportion of the economy and many lower value added activities have tended to be located in Wales.

To close the gap Wales needs to achieve higher economic growth year on year than the UK.

This requires higher value added enterprises and the cultivation of more sophisticated and effective management.

The Wales Management Council will be at the forefront of the drive to establish the calibre of management needed to achieve this higher performing economy.