Best practice in business

Management is a key area of business. Following management best practices can help ensure clear direction, staff motivation and adaptability in driving business success.

Examples of management best practice

Management best practice involves:

• communicating a clear mission and strategy
• leadership by example
• setting realistic and achievable targets
• using an open and communicative management style
• clear and careful strategic planning

Tools to help achieve management best practice

You can use several business tools to achieve management best practice, including:

• benchmarking against competitors
• forecasting and financial planning
• strategic planning for growth
• performance monitoring with KPIs

See more on strategic planning for business growth.

Sharing objectives and strategies with staff through a strong communications approach is an essential part of management best practice. It help everyone understand where the business is heading, and how they (individually and as part of a team) fit into this picture.

Measure business performance

Use key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure progress in achieving varied business objectives (for example, sales, profitability, staff turnover) and identify areas that need attention. Tools such as benchmarking, business planning and performance monitoring will help you measure your performance and compare it with that of your peers and competitors and against your own objectives.

Where necessary, introduce new ways of working to improve competitiveness and business efficiency. Having accurate and up-to-date information about your business performance will also help you with any future planning.

Change management best practice

You can apply management practices in change initiatives as well. These can help provide structure and control to planning and implementing change in a business. Learn more about best practices in change management.