In the process of enterprise development, there are three pairs of contradictions that must be faced. Planned management unifies and coordinates these contradictions by establishing goals. Planned management holds that senior managers are responsible for strategic (company) goals, including long-term development, return on investment, and market share growth. What are the respective responsibilities of senior, middle, and grassroots managers? From this, we can see that senior managers are responsible for the long term and change; in other words, whether the company has a future and can continuously change depends on senior managers. Planned management holds that middle managers are responsible for functional goals, including medium-term development, productivity levels, and human resource development. From this, we know that middle managers are responsible for the stability and efficiency of the enterprise; that is, whether the company has high efficiency and whether it has an appropriate talent team depends on the level of middle managers. Planned management holds that grassroots managers are responsible for daily operational goals, including short-term development, work arrangements (task-oriented), sales quotas, cost control, and productivity standards. From this, we can conclude that grassroots managers are responsible for the short term and benefits; that is, whether the company has profitability, whether it can reduce costs and ensure quality, depends on the ability and level of grassroots managers. Why can many enterprises not balance long-term and short-term, change and stability, efficiency and benefits? The main reason is that they do not give play to the function of planned management, but instead let senior managers bear all responsibilities. Whether it is cost, quality, profitability, human resource management, or efficiency, all are attributed to managers' responsibilities, without clearly dividing different managers to bear different responsibilities and goals. We even make a very big mistake without knowing it: our senior managers do the work of middle managers and even grassroots managers, constantly spending energy on cost, quality, and efficiency. They do not promote change, pay attention to return on investment, or focus on the future of the enterprise. This is the current management state in China. Human resources should be managed by middle managers I often communicate with many senior managers and even business owners, but many times I am asked about management efficiency and human resource issues, and even discuss internal organizational friction. In fact, whether an enterprise can cultivate people, give play to the effectiveness of human resource management, and maintain the stability of the enterprise requires the efforts and dedication of middle managers. It can be more directly understood that human resource work should be the responsibility of all middle managers, not the responsibility of the human resources department. The responsibility of the human resources department is business division, while cultivating and selecting people is the work of middle managers themselves. Regarding the part about people, that is, human resource management, it is not done by the human resources department but by the entire middle management of the enterprise. Why is human resource work the responsibility of middle managers rather than senior managers? Because only middle managers face all employees of the enterprise. Senior managers can only contact a limited number of employees; only middle managers can broadly face all employees. The main function of human resource management is to give play to everyone's abilities, cultivate people, and appoint people. At the same time, if middle managers can cultivate many people, it is certain that the company is stable. Therefore, the most important contribution of middle managers is the stability and efficiency of the company. Quality and cost should be determined by grassroots managers, not senior managers The same situation is also reflected in the completion of quality and cost quotas. When we have quality problems, cost out of control, or quotas not completed, there must be problems with grassroots managers. Either the ability of grassroots managers is insufficient, or the energy of grassroots managers is insufficient. Therefore, we need to pay attention to the cultivation and promotion of grassroots managers at this time. But in daily management, there are the most problems here. Many times, quality issues are raised by senior management. The requirements and standards for cost are also proposed by senior management of the company. The company regards cost and quality as important management content, which is not wrong. The mistake is that as the most important management work of the company—cost and quality control—must be undertaken by grassroots managers, not by senior managers, because senior managers are powerless on these two issues. No matter how capable senior managers are, it is grassroots managers who determine quality and cost. Only when grassroots managers themselves pay attention to these two issues and are willing to make efforts for them can cost and quality be controlled. But in actual management, I see the opposite situation: it is often senior managers who have cost and quality awareness, while grassroots managers do not have the habit of cost and quality. I once saw such an interesting phenomenon. When chatting with a business owner, he gave me a few pages to read. I was quite impressed because the boss printed them on waste paper and told me the reverse side of the documents were no longer useful, so this could save paper. I appreciated the boss's approach. In the afternoon, I happened to need to print some documents for the boss to see, and needed his secretary to type and print them. But I saw the opposite phenomenon: the secretary, who types and prints every day, would waste the entire sheet of paper if she made a small mistake, and take out a new sheet to print. I was surprised by this phenomenon: a boss who rarely prints cherishes every piece of paper, while a person who prints every day does not cherish paper at all. Therefore, the key is that management related to cost and quality must be undertaken by grassroots managers. Otherwise, no matter how much the company emphasizes it, and no matter how senior managers lead by example, the effect will not be too good. As long as grassroots managers play their role, cost and quality can definitely be controlled. So as a senior manager, although you pay great attention to cost and quality, it has no direct significance, because senior managers have no direct contribution to cost and quality. Those who have direct contribution to cost and quality are grassroots managers. Therefore, it is necessary to cultivate grassroots managers to have cost and quality awareness. If cost is out of control, quality is insufficient, and profit cannot be completed, it must be that grassroots managers are unqualified. Each level manages its own responsibilities, and the enterprise can continue to grow Senior managers contribute to the growth and long-term development of the enterprise, middle managers contribute to the stability and efficiency of the enterprise, and grassroots managers contribute to the cost, quality, and short-term benefits of the enterprise. When all managers can make contributions, the three pairs of contradictions in enterprise development are unified and coordinated, and the enterprise can achieve stable and sustained growth. This is the benefit of planned management. I often tell my students not to be promoted too quickly. Once promoted to the position of president, it is very dangerous, because "president" means "the person who can always be laid off." Although this is a joke, it does tell a truth: the president can always be laid off because the president has no direct contribution to short-term profitability, so he can be laid off. A positive understanding is that we need to give sufficient attention to grassroots managers, because grassroots managers determine our quality, cost, and profitability. The function of planned management is extremely important. In practical application, the responsibilities of senior, middle, and grassroots managers cannot replace each other, and even more so, senior managers cannot bear all responsibilities. On the surface, it seems that senior managers are very responsible, but in fact it is harmful to the enterprise. The easiest mistake we make is that senior executives bear the achievement of all goals: cost, cultivation, talent, quality, management efficiency, etc. The result is that middle managers and grassroots managers become employees, receiving the salary of middle and grassroots managers but doing the work of employees. In this case, middle and grassroots managers also feel depressed, they have no sense of achievement, as if they have done nothing. It is really not worth the loss. (Text: Chen Chunhua) Reply with the following keywords to classify and read related professional articles: Sales Supervisor, Second-tier Management, Regional Manager, Distributor Management, New Channels, City Manager, Competition, 2015, Manufacturer-Dealer Game, Product Stagnation, Terminal Visit Management, Route Management, Deep Distribution, Internal Management, Sales Skills, Profit Improvement, Recruitment, Distribution, Daily Management, Team Motivation, Channel Promotion, Sales Misconceptions, New Product Launch, Township Market, New Product Pricing, Sales Target Achievement, Forcing Orders, Market Visit and Inspection, Baijiu, Beer, Sales Increase, Agency Products, Channel Crossing, KA, Terminal Merchandising, New Market, Market Operation, Learning, Book Recommendations, Inventory Management, New Salespeople, Consumer Promotion, Execution, Old Products, Expired Product Handling, Model Market, Investment Promotion, New Media, Distributor Development, Performance Appraisal, Assessment, Annual Planning, Shopping Guide, Morning Meeting, Display, Transformation, Inventory Pressure, Holidays, Distributor Cost Control Channel Operation, Marketing Theory and Laws, Brand Truth, Order Meeting, Team Management, Training, Debriefing, Debriefing Report.