How to effectively control the common problems of subsidiary group enterprises in the management and control of subsidiaries (subsidiaries)
Nowadays, the security industry has formed a large number of group enterprises represented by CSST China Security Co., Ltd., Jia Chuang Security, Hikvision, Tiandi Ye Wei, zhejiang dahua and Yongfa (Safe). These enterprises have not only achieved cross-regional distribution in China, even global distribution, but also formed multi-service group distribution in business distribution, not limited to the original single business. In this way, these enterprises not only carry out cross-regional operation of a single business, but also carry out balance and cooperation between different businesses. The superposition of the two dimensions leads to a significant increase in the management complexity of a single business enterprise. In addition, a large number of subsidiaries with cross-regional layout are enterprises with independent legal personality, which makes the problem of group management and control more prominent and faces more constraints and pressures.
Take CSST China Securities Co., Ltd. as an example, as a company listed on NYSE and NASDAQ Dubai, it has become a multi-department business layout. In the process of its development, by continuously integrating industrial resources and agglomerating well-known enterprises, the core technical level, manufacturing ability, system integration ability and comprehensive operation ability will be rapidly improved, and a dense national marketing system, technical service and guarantee service center will be built. Twelve functional sections have been further formed, which are mainly composed of investment, security integration, security intelligence, security services, security sales, security international, fire protection, energy conservation and emission reduction, perceived Internet of Things, security education, renewable resources and research institutes. It can be said that CSST is a typical representative of security industry group enterprises, and it will also be the development direction of a large number of leading security enterprises.
Based on management consulting and long-term cooperation with a large number of group enterprises, the author believes that the problem of holding subsidiaries of group enterprises is common and serious not only in the securities industry, but also in the whole enterprise group. The problems in group management and control are mainly manifested in two aspects:
On the one hand, it is a question of strategic coordination. As a cross-regional and cross-business group enterprise, it is very important for many subordinate enterprises to maintain a consistent development direction at the strategic level, which is also a common problem in company management and control. Especially when the subordinate enterprises are subsidiaries with independent legal personality, or are integrated into the group system through mergers and acquisitions, this problem is more prominent, and whether the strategic coordination can be effectively realized will greatly affect the stable development of the group.
On the other hand, it is the problem of business collaboration. As a large cross-regional operation group, its business operation department, finance department, sales department, production department and human resources department will also face cross-regional distribution. In what way, to ensure that production units and sales units in different regions can cooperate with each other and promote the stable development of business; How to ensure that the financial department, human resources department and other functional departments can maintain a high degree of consistency with the headquarters, and then ensure the full implementation of the management requirements of the headquarters, will also be a problem faced by the group enterprises.
The above-mentioned strategic collaboration and business collaboration are external appearance problems, but at the management level, the author thinks that they are mainly the core problems in the following aspects: 1, management ties.
Management ties, that is, the way to establish subordinate relations between headquarters and subordinate units in the group system. Generally speaking, the easiest way is to divide it into branches and subsidiaries. As far as subsidiaries are concerned, they can be divided into wholly-owned, absolute holding, relative holding and equity participation. This is the legal basis for realizing group control and the platform basis for operating group control. Many group enterprises have reasons such as rapid development and unclear strategy. On this basis, there are still some problems such as unclear property rights relationship and unclear property rights hierarchy, which fundamentally affect the effective implementation of group management and control.
2. Control mode.
Generally speaking, the simplest control mode is divided into financial control, strategic control and operational control. Among them, financial management and control is the most authorized mode for subordinate units, and operation management is the least authorized mode. What kind of control mode an enterprise chooses will determine how to further design its own management system in the future. However, there are also many enterprises whose management and control modes are unclear.
3, the headquarters positioning problem.
In the process of managing subordinate units by headquarters, many enterprises also have the problem of unclear positioning of headquarters. Headquarters positioning refers to the core functions undertaken by the headquarters, generally including strategic investment center, capital operation center, financial supervision center, and overall coordination center. , as the basis for the division of responsibilities between headquarters and subordinate units in the future, but now a large number of group enterprises lack a clear concept of this.
4. Governance structure.
From the perspective of jurisprudence, governance structure is the core foundation of management and control. On the basis of equity, the standardized operation of company management is realized through the division of labor among different roles such as board of directors, board of supervisors, special committees and managers. At present, the governance structure of most group enterprises needs to be further improved.
5. Division of powers and responsibilities.
Whether the division of powers and responsibilities between headquarters and subordinate institutions is clear can be said to be related to whether the group control can be implemented reasonably. Because, now the contradiction between headquarters and subordinate institutions focuses on the decision-making power of a large number of business development and functional management. In some management contents, sometimes the headquarters should manage and sometimes authorize subordinate institutions. If there is no clear division and confirmation, it will lead to management confusion between headquarters and subordinate institutions, which will not only affect efficiency, but even bring management confusion.
6. Corporate culture of the whole group.
Group management should also strive to establish a corporate culture that supports group management and group internal control. Now a large number of enterprises not only have no control culture, but even the most basic corporate culture is missing. The ultimate goal of management is people. If an effective culture can be established, so that employees can understand and support the management and control requirements of the group from the heart, it will also get twice the result with half the effort.
Methods and means of effective management and control of subsidiaries by group enterprises
The author believes that on the basis of clarifying the possible problems in the process of group management and control, the group headquarters can adopt the following methods and means to achieve effective management of subsidiaries:
1. Clarify the overall development strategy of the Group.
First of all, group enterprises must have a clear development strategy. The purpose of headquarters' control over subordinate units is to achieve the overall development goal of the group, and the subsequent control mode and control system construction will be guided by the overall development strategy of the group. Therefore, a clear development strategy is the premise for the group headquarters to effectively control its subordinate units.
On the basis of clear strategy, further select the management and control mode. The differences among the three control modes are mainly as follows:
Financial control: the control mode with the highest degree of decentralization is generally applicable to unrelated diversified enterprises without obvious leading industries. With the pursuit of return on investment and capital appreciation as the sole goal, there is no clear industrial choice, and the company's value is maximized through the structural optimization of investment portfolio.
Strategic control: generally applicable to the business sectors of related industries. To pursue the development of core industries, we should have a clear industrial choice, pursue the strategic combination optimization and coordinated development of investment business, and cultivate strategic synergy.
Operational control: the control mode with the highest degree of centralization is generally applicable to enterprises in a single industry or in the early stage of diversification. Pursue the strict implementation of strategy and business ideas, have clear leading industries, emphasize the unity of business behavior of secondary companies, and coordinate the overall growth of the group.
In fact, the control mode is not fixed, but should be designed according to the actual situation of the enterprise. Financial model, strategic model and operation model are only representative models. In the practical application process of enterprises, they are not divided strictly according to the requirements of models, but form their own specific management and control models according to the current situation and development requirements of enterprises and combining the advantages and strengths of different models.
2, clear headquarters positioning
The positioning of the headquarters is the positioning of the content and function of key management in the future. Generally speaking, the headquarters of large groups mainly manage financial rights, personnel rights and strategic development rights, that is? Manage the money, manage the direction? . On this basis, according to the needs of the group headquarters, formulate corresponding management contents, such as investment and financing management, research and development management, etc. , to supplement, so as to eventually form a clear headquarters positioning, laying the foundation for the subsequent division of powers and responsibilities.
3. Straighten out the management relationship, improve the governance structure and build a clear and reasonable organizational structure.
Some people think that the difficulty in the management of subordinate units lies in having subsidiaries with independent legal persons. In fact, the easiest way to manage this subordinate institution is to improve its governance structure. Through the establishment of board of directors, board of supervisors, professional committees, managers, etc., to standardize management. In this way, the group headquarters can participate in the operation of subsidiaries from the board level through its own equity ownership relationship, thus determining the appointment and removal of major personnel and strategic planning. And fundamentally avoid the possibility that subsidiaries with independent legal personality will become independent kingdoms outside the group system.
4. Reasonably divide the responsibilities of the headquarters and subsidiaries.
Through a clear and reasonable division of responsibilities between the headquarters and subsidiaries, orderly and efficient management can be realized. Generally speaking, from the management dimensions of strategic planning, investment decision-making, major project implementation, R&D management, market development, financing and capital operation, financial management, economic operation, asset management, risk management and prevention, and human resource management, it is necessary to clarify the responsibilities and obligations undertaken by the headquarters and subordinate units, and clarify the decision-making power, approval power and suggestion power of different management contents, so as to achieve effective coordination between the headquarters and subordinate units and prevent management confusion.
5. Strengthen performance management and improve the system management system.
On the basis of building a series of management platforms, performance management needs to be strengthened. That is, through a clear performance appraisal mechanism, it restricts and guides the business operation of subordinate units; Moreover, through the establishment of a perfect system management system, we can gradually realize the transformation from rule by man to system governance, so that the daily management work has rules to follow and laws to follow, and the efficiency can be improved from the system level.
6. Strengthen the construction of corporate culture.
A good corporate culture can change employees' behavior from passive to active. Building a good management and control culture within the enterprise is also helpful for the headquarters to effectively manage subordinate business units. Specifically, it can be constructed and improved from different levels and dimensions, such as strategic guidance, organizational identity and code of conduct, to form a multi-level and multi-dimensional three-dimensional cultural system, so that employees of the headquarters and subordinate units can form positive behaviors in cooperation, coordination, execution and operation, thus ensuring the efficient and orderly implementation of the overall control requirements.
To sum up, with the continuous development of the security industry, more and more enterprises in the industry will become cross-regional and cross-business group enterprises. It will be the choice of more and more enterprises to further sort out their own group management system so that it can better avoid management risks and improve management efficiency. I believe that as long as enterprises can fully understand the possible problems in group management and control, as long as enterprises attach great importance to the methods and means in group management and control, and can reasonably build a group management and control system according to their own actual conditions, a large number of group security enterprises will further enhance their competitiveness, help enterprises to develop by leaps and bounds, and realize their new development at a new level.