Can a Department Head work as Profit Center Head?

The word accountability is given least importance in India. Employees work hard at their work place but they don’t care how much contribution their hard work is adding to their organization profit. The concern of “profit” merely remains till the promoters and the finance department. The marketing and manufacturing department primarily contribute to business and product generation. While other departments of any organization identify themselves as a support function, which is not correct. Be it be HR Department, supply chain department or the marketing department, each department and its head must act as profit-center head for their organization.

 What should be the role of the head of the department and how they can work as profit centric head, let’s take a look. It is usually the head of the Department who has to look up to the administrative affairs of his department. Generally, what a head of department does is that he monitors his department and employees working under him perform better than other departments of the company. Often, it is also possible that the head of the department is superior to all of his employees just to show to the management, to resort to internal constraints and policies and to compete with others. A healthy competition between the two departments offers good productivity in the company, but in the competition to prove themselves superior an atmosphere of internal clashes and stress is created.

When we say that the head of the department should act as the profit center head, the meaning of the concept is to change the whole mindset and perspective of the department towards the company. The day when the departmental heads start working considering the point of view of the top managements and focus on how their departments can contribute to the company's direct growth, they can be called the best departmental head. The head of the department should work with the employees of their department in such a way that each and every employee of the department can share their contribution and show involvement in the company's growth. Let’s consider an example

Henry Ford, who was the owner of the world famous Ford Company, had a different vision and way of working from that of other promoters. He used to hold regular meetings with all the heads of departments, his lessons were special for all the employees. He also sometime used to interact directly with the employees and said, "Life is the Ocean of Experiences!” every experience teach and inspire us to do something new. He also used to say to his employees, do whatever you want to do it with your heart and full dedication. By doing things with heart special contributions can be made to the organization.

Henry always advised his departmental heads that if they are able to give long-term and positive vision to the employees and show them how they can contribute and be a partner in company’s growth then you are an excellent leader. The easiest way to achieve this is to create a sense of ownership spirit in every employee. Every work profile should be respected and every work should be done from heart will full dedication. And the person who works with proper dedication will become a partner in the company's growth in true senses.

The heads of each department should recognize the strengths of their employees and distribute the work accordingly. Henry always advised employees saying, “Divide your wok into small targets, this will make easy for you to reach the goal. This will help you achieve big targets.” If you take a look away from your goal then it means that you have lost control to reach your goal and you need to focus. The most difficult and effortful work is to make every employee of your team to work in team. If this is an easy task for you then you come out as a good leader but if you are weak leader then employees will not associate themselves with your vision. 

The conclusion of the discussion comes out to be that the head of the department should make every employee of his team participate in the company’s work keeping in mind their vision and goals. Some tips.

1. The head of each department should check their employees to work in a team.

2. The head of the department should work together with other heads and participate equally in the company’s growth.

3. The head of the department should check how each employee can participate in the company's growth and distribute the work accordingly.

4. It is the responsibility of the departmental head to see that every employee looks after their work and works towards progress.