User:Catwoman caw/sandbox

Applicable for Australia

Are Commercial Managers needed to sustain a business?
According to the Institute of Commercial Managers, Commercial Management is “The identification and development of business opportunities and the profitable management of projects and contracts, from inception to completion.”

Personally, my view is that the core function of a Commercial Manager is to protect the sustainability of the business.

Commercial management and the role of a Commercial Manager is a commonly misunderstood and widely misused term, and the following titles are often, incorrectly, considered as synonyms: Sales Manager, Business Development Manager, Finance Manager (Commercial) and Contracts Manager. Protecting the sustainability of the business is not the core function of any of these roles.

The role often includes:
 * ensuring that sales and business development activities are undertaken ethically to ensure the business's reputation is protected,
 * reviewing proposed agreements or bids to confirm that the business does not sign agreements which are illegal, reduce business goodwill unacceptably, expose the business to unacceptable risks without having taken appropriate mitigation measures, including arranging insurances, negotiating amendments to terms or withdrawing from the activity,
 * providing advice and administration to operational/delivery personnel to ensure the business delivers on its commitments whilst making a profit, including managing client expectations, identifying and reducing scope creep [link to defn], ensuring that risks and opportunities are identified, reported and addressed,
 * providing guidance on when there is both a legal entitlement and commercially viable disagreement for escalating to dispute,
 * providing governance, policy and procedure,
 * review and audit,
 * strategy, proposals and planning.

To deliver this [expand], Commercial Managers require the following skills:
 * analysis -
 * estimating and forecasting -
 * finance - ability to review and interrogate financial data
 * legal - contract and letter drafting
 * communication
 * negotiation
 * influence
 * technical literacy [discuss and expand each point]

As a result of the mix of skills required, depending on the individual and the business needs, a Commercial Manager or Commercial Director will often oversea other functions including but not limited to: - legal - finance - estimating - planning - contracts - subcontracts - procurement - bids - reporting - cost control - marketing - business development - administration - IT - strategy

Due to ongoing marketing by the Australian Accounting bodies [ref] in recent years that accountants are leaders, there is an increasing trend for businesses to either Accountants, Finance Managers or Finance and Administration Managers to be capable of protecting a businesses interests, or for the Commercial Management function to be placed in the organizational structure beneath either the CFO/Finance Director, or the General Counsel. Both of these organizational structures are fundamentally flawed because:

Catwoman caw (talk) 06:06, 24 January 2014 (UTC)