Case Study on Entrepreneurship: Larry Page

Business Analysis

The Boundaryless Career: Modern Contemperory Perspective on Career

Human Resource Management

Concepts of Throughput Accounting and Theory of Constraints

Financial Management

Kaizen – Understanding the Japanese Business Philosophy of Continuous Improvement

Operations Management

Role of Leaders in Shaping Organizational Culture

Management Principles

Floating Exchange Rate Systems Era

The Floating Rate Exchange Systems Era: 1973-onwards This period of floating rates experienced a relatively high volatility of the exchange rates.   The US dollar surged ahead against all major currencies till 1984 and then the intervention of G-10 countries helped the sliding down of the dollar.   The period also witnessed two quick shocks due to the excessive hike of the petroleum prices in 1973 and 1977 and that induced inflation in the world and changed the terms of trade of the petroleum importing countries.   The major characteristics of this period can be put in order. The USA experienced a large current deficit, which touched $ 100 billion in 1990 with a very low saving-income ratio at the domestic level.   On the other hand Germany and Japan experienced large current account surplus. There has been a global insolvency problem as a large number of countries became unable Continue reading

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Benchmarking as a Strategic Business Tool

Benchmarking  is the process of continuously measuring and comparing the business processes against comparable process of the leading organization to obtain the information that will help the organization   to identify and implement improvement programs. Benchmarking as a tool stems  from the early 1980s when organisational specialists from  Xerox were discussing the big performance gaps between  Xerox and its competitors. These specialists found two major  applications for the process. First, benchmarking can be used  to understand competitors and any other organisation by  isolating and analyzing common functions and comparing  the company’s own practices with them. Second, benchmarking can be used to compare the details of processes  used in design, manufacture, marketing and services, as opposed to just the finished result In simple words, benchmarking is an approach of setting goals and measuring productivity based on best industry practices. It developed out of need to have information against which performances can Continue reading

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Transformation of The European Union From a Political and Economic Union to a Monetary Union

The basis of the European Monetary Union was to build a united Europe after the World War II. This was initiated by when the European nations created the European Coal and Steel community, with a view to freeing trade in these two sectors. The pricing policies and commercial practices of the member nations of this community were regulated by a supranational agency. In 1957, the Treaty of Rome was signed by Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxemburg and the Netherlands to form the European Economic Community (EEC), whereby they agreed to make Europe a common market. While they agreed to lift restrictions on movements of all factors of production and to harmonize domestic policies, the ultimate aim was economic integration. The EEC achieved the status of a customs union by 1968. In the same year, it adopted a Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), under which uniform prices were set for farm products Continue reading

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Zara’s Lean Operation: Source of Competitive Advantage

Fashion giant, Zara, forms part of the retail group ‘Grupo Inditex’ which is one of the “largest, fastest growing and successful” clothing retailers across Europe. Grupo Inditex is formulated by an amalgamation of major high street names from across Europe, including Zara, Pull and Bear and Bershka, in total boasting 3,825 stores across 68 countries.Zara’s success story begins by offering a product range capable of catering for men, women and children, providing affordable and stylish clothes whatever the season. Coupled with this, is their keen eye for discovering new fashion trends and translating these trends from the catwalk to the high street, both quickly and affordably. Zara boasts a marketing strategy of firstly product variety with a focal point of ensuring speed to market. At present, Zara launch 10,000 new articles per year across their portfolio of stores. Finally, store location, as any marketing is left to store location rather Continue reading

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Case Study: Disney’s Diversification Strategy

The story of Disney is that of a company founded in 1923 by the Disney brothers, Walt and Roy. In the beginning, the company was referred to as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio and later incorporated as Walt Disney Productions in 1929. Walt Disney Productions made its mark for many years in the animation industry before venturing into television and live-action film production. Something else also happened before Walt had the breakthrough with Mickey Mouse. Before Mickey, there was Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit. But because he didn’t own the copyright, Walt lost the rights to Oswald, a bitter lesson that was to shape his company positively in the future. That experience thought him very early the value of intellectual property and Disney has used that knowledge to tighten controls over its properties as well as build defense against entrants and competing incumbents. The characters at Disney are well protected and Continue reading

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Baumol’s Sales Revenue Maximization Model

Sales maximization model is an alternative model for profit maximization. This model is developed by Prof. Boumol, an American economist. This  alternative goal has assumed greater significance in the context of the growth of Oligopolistic firms. Baumol’s sales revenue maximization model  highlights that the primary objective of a firm is to maximize its sales rather than profit maximization. It states that the goal of the firm is maximization of sales revenue subject to a minimum profit constraint. The minimum profit constraint is determined by the expectations of the share holders. This is because no company can displease the share holders. “Though businessmen are interested in the scale of their operations partly because they see some connection between scale and profits, I think management’s concern with the level of sales goes considerably further. In my dealings with them I have been struck with the importance the oligopolistic enterprises attach to the Continue reading

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