Outline key management challenges in contemporary business.Discuss how the management challenges identified above can be overcomed.

The major challenges facing business managers today are described below.

• Increasing customer demands: Customer today are much more demanding than in the past. They demand goods and services of ever improving quality. Plus they want to have a wide variety to choose from. Also they demand high levels of service and assurance from the suppliers.


• Increasing competition: Competition today is much more intense than in the past. There are many more companies supplying alternate brands of same products as well as substitute products. These products are of superior quality, which are supplied at very competitive prices and with high level of customer service.


• Globalization: The business is becoming more and more globalized in terms of design, procurement, manufacture and marketing. This opens up new opportunities as well as challenges.


• Complex technology: The technology in all fields of business including product design, manufacture, logistics, and business processes has become more complex. This also presents new opportunities as well as new challenges.


• Increasing pace of change: The pace of change in business is now very high and increasing further. Many more new products are being introduced in the market, and old products are being faced out a an ever increasing rate. Consumer tastes and requirements is changing. Newer and better technologies are replacing the old ones. Managers face greater challenges to keep up with all these changes and to cash on new opportunities presented by them.

To overcome these challenges managers need to be more innovative and proactive. They need to be more aware of what changes are taking place within their companies as well as in the environment. They, then need to take proactive action to handle likely problems and benefit from the new opportunities that are likely to open up. To be able to do this more effectively, managers of today have a wide range of new management tools and techniques to help them.