Effects of Self Reference Criterion in International Marketing

If you take a look around yourself you will find how many goods and services are solely produced in your own country around you? Your clothes might be produced in India, your cell phone from China, your computer in Taiwan; your Coffee might be from Latin America. Whatever we talk about music, clothes, movies or our soft drinks for everything there are good chances that most of these products are produced in somewhere else in the globe. This is the global market place where good price and quality is welcomed by consumers irrespective of the region of its origination. In this scenario the need is to adopt the marketing practices that are effective beyond the borders so the importance of international marketing cannot be denied. International marketing is not an easy task. The international marketer has to face many obstacles in the way to achieve his goals. One of the Continue reading

Case Study on Business Ethics: Satyam Scam – Corporate Accounting Fraud

The Satyam scandal was a corporate fraud that primarily affected an Indian-based computer service company known as Satyam as well as other partnering companies. The scandal started in 1999 and erupted in 2009 after Merrill Lynch exposed Satyam’s illegal financial practices. Ramalinga Raju, the company’s chairman, corroborated the allegations by revealing that he had been manipulating financial accounts for many years. The scandal shocked the whole world because Satyam was renowned for its exceptional corporate governance. Moreover, the ethics of conducting business, as well as those of the accounting profession, were challenged. For instance, the reputation of PricewaterhouseCoopers was tarnished as it was Satyam’s official accounting firm. The firm was fined highly by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for engaging in unethical accounting practices, violating the code of conduct, and disregarding the auditing standards. The magnitude of the fraud contributed to its comparison to the Enron scandal. Both scandals Continue reading

Indian Banking System: Co-Operative Banks

Co-operative banks in this country are a part of vast and powerful structure of co-operative institutions which are engaged in tasks of production, processing, marketing, distribution, servicing and banking in India. The beginning co-operative banking in this country dates back to about 1904, when official efforts were made to create a new type of institution based on principles of co-operative organization & management, which were considered to be suitable for solving the problems peculiar to Indian conditions. In rural areas, as far as the agricultural and related activities are concerned, the supply of credit was inadequate, and money lenders would exploit the poor people in rural areas providing them loans at higher rates. Co operative Banks in India are registered under the Co-operative Societies Act. The cooperative bank is also regulated by the RBI. They are governed by the Banking Regulations Act 1949 and Banking Laws (Co-operative Societies) Act, 1965. Continue reading

The Importance of SWOT Analysis

SWOT which stands for an abbreviation of (strength, weakness, opportunity and threat; is an analysis that defined as method to examine organization’s internal factors dealing with strengths and weaknesses, and its environmental opportunities and also the threats. SWOT analysis usually use in the preliminary phase of decision making as a general tool which it designed for being antecedent to strategic planning in different case and applications. SWOT Analysis can be used as a model, process, technique or framework to provide information about those factors strengths, of an organization by having many applications with possibility of being used in all the levels of the organization. SWOT analysis is a part of the strategic planning process. Companies have some internal and external forces in the business environment. As a first step of a strategic planning system, the strategic factors that are related with the potential of the company, should be identified and Continue reading

Successful Change Management: Principles and Processes

Managing the changes in an organization requires a broad set of skills like political skills, analytical skills, people skills, system skills, and business skills. Having good analytical skills will make you a good change agent. You should evaluate the financial and political impacts of the changes that can take place. You should know that following a particular process at that instant would fetch you immediate financial effects and start that process so that the change process is noted by the management. The workflow has to be changed in such a manner to reflect the financial changes that are taking place. Operations and systems in the organization should be reconfigured in such a manner that you get the desired financial impact. Successful management improvement efforts require the active involvement of managers and staff throughout the organization to provide ideas for improvements and supply the energy and expertise needed to implement changes. Continue reading

What is Enterprise Architecture (EA)?

The Evolution of Enterprise Architecture (EA) Enterprise Architecture evolution began as an idea in 1980 and was embodied in John Zachman’s early EA framework. Thus, informing the reference to John Zachman, as the father of EA. The evolution of Enterprise architecture was to address the increasing complexity of IT systems and difficulty of delivering business value using those systems. Enterprise architecture is characterized by a framework that supports the alignment of business and IT strategy. It was first defined in 1992 by Zachman and Sowa, resulting in its reference as the Zachman framework. It was then referred to as Information System Architecture but later changed in reference, to enterprise architecture in 1996 when Clinger-Cohen Act of the U.S. government directed all federal agencies to implement a holistic approach to incorporate IT to their business goals. Interest in adopting Enterprise architecture has increased as a result, as both government and private Continue reading