Business Administration and Management's Role in Achieving Organizational Goals

Summary: Business administration and management are the two sides of the same coin. They work in tandem to plan and conduct the operations of a fashion brand within the ambit of a company’s policies. While the administration restricts itself to the top tier of decision-making, the management gets things done by executing the plans. 

The management of a business is at the heart of its operations, while the administration is at its mind. Together they work in tandem to keep the operations healthy and profitable while ensuring the manpower needs are adjusted, optimized, and fulfilled daily. The roles of business administration and management in a fashion brand, even if overlapping, are complementary. They cannot work in isolation. 

The former plans and the latter executes. Business administration takes policy-level decisions, then takes out executive orders in line with those policies. Each has a role to play in a small, medium, or large-scale business and comes with a dedicated set of responsibilities. Before we introduce you to them, let us first understand the thin line that separates business management from business administration. 

Business Administration and Management are Two Sides of a Coin

Business administration and business management can be confusing. Because of their overlapping interests and sphere of work that extends practically to the entire organization, sometimes they are used interchangeably. So, is there any difference between the two? Yes, there is a subtle but defining difference between both. 

Consider them as two wheels of a bicycle. The front wheel represents the business administration. It determines the path and leads the way. But without the back wheel, it can go nowhere. The second wheel is the business management that drives the daily operations and strives to take the organization towards its goal. In a more generic explanation, business administration is visionary, sets goals through policy-making, and engages directly with the market. On the other hand, business management is more internalized and takes care of the operations while keeping an eye on market developments. 

Roles of Business Administration 

Business administration in fashion houses has to lead from the front. Fashion brands should have excellent leadership and communication skills to be able to strategize and optimize their operations by converting creative ideas into profitable ventures. Here are some of the key roles of business administration in the clothing business. 

• Planning and strategizing: Business administration plans and functions like an aggregator of all resources to build and sustain an operation. 
• Determine the type of business: Every clothing brand has a business model. This model, whether online or offline, wholesale or retail, is decided by the administrators.
• Scale and scope of business: When it comes to scaling, liquidity is an essential component. Business administration takes a call on whether procurement for a fashion brand will be local or global. During disruptions, it decides on scaling down operations or diverting procurement channels.  
• Marketing and brand positioning: Reaching out to a buyer through brand positioning, targeted advertising, and marketing strategy falls under an organization's administration role. 
• Human resource planning: Business administration takes care of hiring at the top-tier (essentially business managers) and decides on the staff hierarchy and hiring budget in an organization.   

Functions of Business Management 

Business management is the crack team of an organization. Business and operations managers make things happen. Here’s how:

• Supply chain management: Operations managers fall under business management; they handle sock positions and procurement, negotiate with suppliers, and deal with logistics partners for transportation.   
• Profit margins and bottom lines: Once the bottom lines are decided by the business administration team, managers work towards retaining them and making the company profitable.  
• Communication and coordination: An essential component of business leaders is timely communication and transparency. They communicate the decisions taken by the administration to the employees and stakeholders such as suppliers.  
• Wage distribution and staffing: Once the hiring policy is in place, business management decides on the staffing pattern, salaries, and incentives. This is usually centric to employees in mid-level and lower-level workers. 
• Technology and equipment: technology is an integral part of major fashion brands, It drives their data analytics and forecasting as well as customer spending patterns and logistics. Business management decides on switching to newer technologies and investing in equipment on a need-basis system for streamlining operations.  

When it comes to fashion business, the job profiles of executive heads can be that of business managers or operations managers. These are the on-grounds team of an organization that keeps the operations on track set by business administration. The managers work through all levels of an organization while the administrators are mostly confined to the top tier of policy-level decision-making. All in all, both must work together to achieve organizational goals. 

Key takeaways

• Business administration leans more towards the legislative side of operations. This includes planning, policy-making, and determining the business structure such as a B2B or B2C. 
• Business management refers to the executive team that ensures the daily operations adhere to the goals set by the administrators. They are the ones managing the business at all levels. 

Brands with global procurement chains must check out Fashinza’s resourceful network of manufacturers and suppliers. Fashinza's integrated data analytics and AI-powered logistics will take the headache off the business administration team and ensure the delivery of quality materials at economical price points. To find out how it works, drop us a message at https://fashinza.com/.