8 Branches of Business Management

What is business management?

Business managers work through challenges and make decisions so a company can maintain stability and achieve growth. They determine the necessary resources, coordinate all activities and make decisions that will steer the ship in the right direction. In business management, you are overseeing the road map, making plans, training, delegating and guiding leaders in the company to carry out the mission and meet each goal. Handling these responsibilities effectively requires strong strategizing, critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Business management is often people-focused, so good business managers should be empathetic, have strong conflict resolution abilities and be able to communicate clearly and effectively across the company. They will also need strong mentorship and personnel development skills so that they can place the right people in each role and on specific projects for the best chance of success.

Types of business management

There are many branches of business management. Here is an overview of the eight sectors in this wide field.

1. Financial management

Financial management involves budget planning and cash flow management as well as the oversight of all financial procedures, such as invoice processing and data distribution. This type of business management involves planning, directing and coordinating the accounting, investing, banking, insurance, securities and other financial activities of a business and often overlaps with human resources management when determining payroll and benefits budgets. 

The three key elements of financial management are financial planning, financial control and financial decision-making. Short-term financial management is often referred to as “working capital management,” and it relates to cash management, inventory management and debtor management. Both the assessment and technique of financial decisions fall under this type of business management. 

Financial management also deals with finding a healthy balance between profit and risk so that even with a setback, the business is profitable in the long term. According to Lizette Fallon, director of finance and operations at Wellspring Center for Prevention, cash flow management is the most important activity her department handles.

“We have to make sure we have enough money to pay our staff and vendors upfront, even if our agency isn’t getting paid until 30 to 60 days later,” said Fallon.

2. Marketing management

Marketing management focuses on the practical application of marketing techniques and the management of a company’s marketing resources and activities. The four major areas of marketing management are company analysis, collaborator analysis, competitor analysis and customer analysis. Marketing management includes brand management as well as marketing strategy and pricing.

Marisa Sanfilippo, a marketing director and consultant, said that while driving company revenue is an important function of marketing, managers also need to take ownership of the brand, especially brand messaging and cross-departmental alignment. 

“Sales will talk about the brand one way, customer success will talk about it another and then marketing has their own way of talking about it,” she explained. “Marketing needs to own that brand messaging and ensure every single message that goes out to customers and prospects is in alignment to what is true to the brand.”

Sanfilippo said clear, open and frequent communication with the team is the key to effective marketing management. “I had weekly one-on-ones and impromptu meetings as my team needed them [to ensure] that each team member had clear goals and expectations, and there was open communication on what was possible as far as achieving them,” she said. 

3. Sales management 

Sales management involves leading sales teams to foster strong relationships with prospects, convert them to leads and move them through the sales pipeline. Sales management often works hand in hand with marketing management to ensure consistent messaging and goal alignment when generating new business.

Sales management also involves determining the metrics for success and assessing key performance indicators to report on the company’s performance. Tools like Salesforce offer powerful sales management tools to help your business with tracking, reporting and customer relationship management (CRM). [See our Salesforce CRM review.] 

In small businesses, founders and CEOs can play a critical role in leading sales efforts. “Sharing ideas, stepping out of our comfort zone, including people in key decision-making and trying out new ideas even if we fail are some of the practices that have grown our [business],” said Abhijeet Narvekar, CEO of The FerVID Group.

4. Human resource management

Human resource management (HRM) focuses on the recruitment and management of an organization’s employees. This includes total compensation, hiring, safety and wellness, benefits and other aspects of employee administration.

Effective HRM enables employees to contribute effectively and productively to the overall direction and goals of the company. The modern approach to human resources uses employee programs to make a positive impact on both the staff and the business as a whole.

According to Kris Kildahl, chief people officer of Certinia, HRM’s core function is connecting people to strategy. “People are our most valuable asset,” said Kildahl. “They partner with our customers to deliver value, they drive innovation and they are the heartbeat of our culture. They also represent the highest cost to the business, so making sure that we have the right people highly engaged and doing the most important work is key to success.”

Kildahl noted that effective HRM ensures that the organization’s processes and programs are driving key results. “Building repeatable processes and playbooks and automating where possible, allows us to more quickly respond to the changing needs of the business and to focus our interactions with employees on the things that are most meaningful,” said Kildahl. 

5. Strategic management 

Strategic management, which is typically the responsibility of a company’s top executive leaders, is the application of strategic thinking to the job of leading an organization. Many of the other branches of business management revolve around strategic management because the success of a business is often determined by financial, marketing and operational strategies.

Ronak Sheth, CEO of Pricefx, said the most important function of strategic or executive management is building a strong leadership team with people who are talented, proactive and have a passion for excellence. 

“I prioritize selecting those who embody our core values of being fast, flexible, friendly and fair,” said Sheth. “This combination of skill, passion and alignment with our values ensures that we operate efficiently and are well-equipped to overcome challenges with resilience and drive.”

Sheth ensures strategic operations run smoothly by spending quality time with his leadership team, both professionally and personally. “This time allows us to connect on a deeper level, share personal experiences and enjoy activities [together],” he told Business.com. “These sessions not only ensure alignment on projects and targets … but they also help build meaningful relationships that strengthen trust and long-term commitment within the team.”

There are five phases of strategic management: goal formation, SWOT analysis, strategy development, implementation and evaluation. These activities help leaders determine resource procurement and allocation, how success will be measured and who will be accountable for each task. 

Strategic management is ongoing work, as you should regularly evaluate and adjust strategies as needed.

6. Product management

Companies that sell physical or digital products need product managers to coordinate efforts among departments to develop, launch and continuously improve their offerings. 

Effective product management requires leaders to think strategically and apply both market research and a technical product understanding to their work. Using customer data and feedback, a product manager has to prioritize features that maximize the product’s value to consumers while ensuring production is efficient. This  may include collaborating with other departments on inventory control, research and development (R&D), and employee training.

“It [is] critical for product departments to know their customers and markets inside and out,” said Brendan Fortune, director of product management at Customer.io. “We can only afford to aim product development at the most valuable opportunities.”

Fortune said feedback loops should be an integral part of a product leader’s approach to managing their department. This means ensuring product managers get qualitative feedback from customers, quantitative feedback from internal analytics reports, general feedback from market publications and performance feedback from their colleagues and peers.

“In the product world, the most important job is synthesizing feedback from all directions,” Fortune explained. “Feedback is the fuel that lets us aim product development with accuracy.”

7. Operations management

Operations management involves overseeing and designing operational processes to make a business more efficient. The goal of this department is to balance cost efficiency with quality so a company can deliver its products or services as effectively and profitably as possible.

Effective operations management requires a deep understanding of how different processes within a company interact and contribute to overall business goals. James Nartey, a member of the business operations team at Hiedberg, defined operations management as a broad category ranging from project management to strategy to day-to-day business operations.

The most important function for operations management, said Nartey, is setting a company up for success. “Ultimately, everything we do ensures that our sales and delivery teams have the tools, guidance and support to give their best to our customers,” he said.

Operations leaders should feel comfortable with failing, and use it to learn, grow and pivot, according to Nartey. “Our team experiments with tools and techniques to find what works best for our company,” he said. “By being open to new ideas, you find new processes and workflows that increase efficiency and overall productivity.”

8. Information technology (IT) and service management

IT and service management both work to align a business’s technology and services with its strategic goals and customer expectations.

IT management focuses on overseeing and optimizing technology resources to ensure they support the company’s objectives. IT managers are responsible for planning, designing, implementing and administering the company’s technology infrastructure to meet current and future demands. Service management can overlap with IT management but may also encompass the development and delivery of non-IT services. 

IT and service management involve managing workflows, which often means combining automated systems and skilled labor to make processes and decision-making more efficient. Leaders in this branch of management may also collaborate with product managers, especially on customer-facing technologies.

Mike Finley, CTO and co-founder of AnswerRocket, approaches IT management in the age of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) by balancing tactical and strategic approaches. “I button up the tactical side by having the right leaders in place to own execution of client deliverables, with metrics and processes to tie it all together,” said Finley. 

“On the strategic side, the pace of change in GenAI finds us focused on the ‘R’ in R&D with many ongoing experiments and some of those hatch into ‘D’ features that build business value for clients and partners,” he added. “We find our edge at the intersection of change in AI technology, database platforms and evolving user experience.”

Sean Peek and Max Freedman contributed to this article.