Singapore Entrepreneur - Some Corporate Tips

I have been preoccupied with my work that I have been unable to update my blog for the past 2 months. Usually, we are quite busy in the last quarter of the year as most corporates are clearing their budgets before their financial year closes. Existing projects must be completed and signed for clearing of invoices and new projects are quickly awarded to exhaust their remaining funds. If these finance departments do not finish up their funds for the year, the board of directors will start questioning on unfinished funds and will consider cutting budget for the next financial year. So, as a Division Director of an enterprise, who would want budget to be cut? This is a common practice amongst corporations. Vendors like us would certainly stand to benefit from such a culture.

Although it sounds like business is good at this time of the year, there are many internal issues that need to be sorted to face the surge in projects. It is a good problem to solve. But if things are not managed and planned properly, then disaster will befall. Sales people must keep the other departments informed of incoming or potential deals, technical people must prepare for logistics and resources and project budgets must be well-defined. When orders start pouring in, it is expected that things may get quite messy and people getting frustrated. Such unpleasant matters must be managed and contained. Regular meetings must be conducted to keep everyone updated and team leaders to keep tabs on members. Ultimately, with a proper system carried out, usually problems will be solved along the way. But most importantly, customers must not feel neglected and marginalized. If a problem cannot be fixed in time, it should be made known to the customer. It should be discussed and proposed to the customer on any alternative solution. This is called managing customer's expectation.