Team building

The subject I’d like to speak on is team building. What’s that? It’s group of methods which are to organize all work process in the firm. That’s why it is very important to create a real work collective which would realize plans, solve the problems and achieve the goals.

So, what are the main advantages and disadvantages of team work? The main plus is that people working together have one common goal and everybody knows his own role to achieve it and because of it they work faster and save the work time, and time is money as we know. The second plus is the friendly atmosphere - work stops being dull - it’s good for employees first of all.

But there are some disadvantages too. The main problem of team work is conflicts. The causes of those conflicts can be different - for example, misunderstanding: sometimes people don’t understand or don’t want to understand their common targets; they begin to dispute and so on… And, it’s not a secret, people don’t like each other - so, it’s a big problem especially when they are skilled professionals and know their business.

So, what must good manager do to create a real work team? Here are some secrets for managers, which belong to Vince Lombardi - football coach - it’s important to have a corporate culture that encourage people - also employees have to feel their contributions to the common business, they must feel themselves at home - a part pf big friendly family with one system of values. Manager must set one common aim for all team, but he also has to explain to people their individual tasks. And, of course, manager has to praise his stuff with the system of different bonuses and perks.

When manager fulfills all that terms his work team will be very effective!

Raising finance

The subject I’d like to speak on is raising finance. Everybody needs money - for different aims - but its fact. But we have to remember that money doesn’t grow on trees. So, one popular sour of getting money is borrowing. People very often borrow money from their friends and colleagues, a member of their family, etc. In recent time it’s becoming very popular to take money from the banks - the loans - this way is not very beneficial because of high interest rate. But what companies do to raise their finance?

In fact, it is very often when a company is growing rapidly and it needs to raise finance, but those financial resources are not enough and management of the company is to find external sources. And it is very important to strike the balance between equity and debts, and to keep the financial risk of the company at an optimal, necessary level - neither too high, no too low.

There are two main sources of additional money: equity and debt borrowing. With debt, banks require interest payments and capital repayments and also banks secure on company’s assets the borrowed money. With equity, the institution lending money has a stake in the business, and if the company succeeds the lender benefits and makes profits with the company, too. Now I’d like to tell you a few words about the types of finance.

The most common type of finance is loans - short, medium and long term loans; the loan is always secured on the company’s assets and the interest rate may be variable or fixed. The second one is bank overdraft - its sum of more money that company takes out from the bank than it has in it in fact; the interest cost is normally variable. The next type of finance is grants - money given to an organization for a particular purpose by government or local authorities. The fourth type of finance is invoice discounting - it is sum of money that is lending to the company equal to that owed to it by its suppliers or customers. And the last type of finance I’d like to mention in my answer is venture capital - it is money lending to entrepreneur to set up the business; the investing institution secures on the shares of future capital.

It is an interesting question - what type of finance is the best. But this question doesn’t have a right answer, because company has to choose the type of finance depending on the concrete business and economic situation it is in. And remember: money can’t buy you love or respect.