Working Capital Management – Definition, Significance, Objectives, and Importance

Working Capital is the part of the firm’s capital which is required for financing short term or current assets such as stock, receivables, marketable securities and cash. Money invested in these current assets keep revolving with relative rapidity and is being constantly converted into cash. These cash flows rotate again in exchange of other such assets. Working Capital is also called as “short term capital”. “Liquid Capital”, “Circulating or revolving capital”, The Working Capital management refers to management of the working capital or to be more precise the management of current assets and current liabilities. Working capital management is a very important to ensure that the company has enough funds to carry on with its day-to-day operations  smoothly. A business should not have a very long Cash Conversion Cycle. A cash Conversion Cycle measures the time period for which a firm will be deprived of funds if it increases its Continue reading

Advergaming – New Trend in Marketing Strategy

The question of what advergaming is can be approximated in different ways. In the manner of linguistic portmanteau it is of advertising and gaming. Technically, it is the practice of using video games to advertise a product, organization or viewpoint.   As a term, it was coined by Anthony Giallourakis. Later on it was mentioned by Wired’s “Jargon Watch” column in 2001. An advergame is an online video game that has brand related images and/or themes embedded within it. As marketers have begun to catch on to the idea, websites containing advergames have been published by a diverse variety of corporations and non-profit organizations. Besides the usages of product placement within a game, a more effective and innovative way of designing a game only for the purpose of advertising a brand or a product is recently being used by advertiser in order to reach to targets on an online platform. Continue reading

Reasons for Liquidity Fluctuations in Indian Banking System

Liquidity risk is inherent in bank’s core business because banking organizations employ a significant amount of leverage in their business activities and need to meet contractual obligations in order to maintain the confidence of customers and fund providers. The first step in measuring and managing liquidity risk is the identification of the most important sources of risk. In the Indian context of banking, unexpected liquidity fluctuations are driven mainly by the following items: Behavior of non-maturity deposits: A large fraction of deposits, in an Indian bank, consists of low-cost current and savings deposits which do not have any contractual maturity. Moreover, the depositor has the option to introduce or withdraw funds at any point of time. This makes the analysis of future cash inflows and outflows quite difficult. However, it is extremely crucial because the main reason for the closure of banks has been the inability to pay depositors on Continue reading

Strategic Human Resource Management Process

Human resource management (HRM) is that part of management process which makes, enhances, manages and develops the human element of the enterprise measuring their resourcefulness in terms of talents, abilities, total skills, creative, knowledge, and potentialities for effectively contributing to the organizational objectives. Human resources are precious and a source of competitive advantage. Human resources may be tapped most effective by mutually standard policies which promote promise and foster an inclination in employees to act flexibly in the interests of the adaptive organization’s pursuit of excellence. Human resource policies can be joined with planned business and used to reinforce appropriate culture. Human resources play a critical role in enabling the organization to effectively deal with the external environment challenges. The human resource management has been accepted as a strategic partner in the formulation of organization’s strategies and in the implementation of such strategies through human resource planning, employment, training, appraisal Continue reading

Stages of New Product Development

New products are the lifeblood of the organization but they are extremely vulnerable and the majority never reach commercialization. In competitive markets, the best and strongest firms sustain growth through the introduction of new products and services to meet the changing needs of the consumers. All products have a finite life span and this is influenced by the type of product, its innovativeness, the management of the product through its life cycle, as well as the markets in which it is sold. All products will eventually decline and need to be replaced by new ones and companies need to be adept at adapting marketing strategies to respond to the dynamics of the environment, so as to manage the product through its life cycle effectively. New product development is the process of developing a product from initial stage of Design to Physical Reality using concept of Designing, manufacturing processes and other Continue reading

Special Pricing Approaches Used in Business

A variety of approaches are employed by businessmen in setting prices. These approaches are not mutually exclusive but sometimes they complement or supplement one another. Some of them are: Intuitive Pricing: It is a psychological method of pricing in which prices are based on the ‘feel of the market’. The system is more subjective rather than objective in nature. Initially the price is estimated on the basis of cost plus method with flexible mark-up pricing. This method is fairly common. Experimental Pricing: It is a trial and error method of pricing. This method is widely used in pricing of new products especially at retail level. Initiative Pricing: In this method a firm decides to follow a price fixing policy of a price leader. Backward Cost Pricing: Certain industries target price as the starting point for strategic calculations. The selling price is determined first and by working backwards the firm arrives Continue reading