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

Meaning of Capital Structure

Capital structure refers to the portfolio of different sources of capital employed by a business. It is the mix of capital. It is the portfolio of liabilities of business. It is the structure of long term liabilities of a business. Short term liabilities being fluctuating type, for structure analysis, which is some what long term in nature, are not considered for capital structure analysis. There is another concept viz., financial structure which studies the structure of whole of the liabilities of business including both short term and long term capital. In final analysis, capital structure analysis is considered with the equity and debt composition of capital of a business. The capital structure for a business should be planned. The debt-equity proposition, mix of equity sources, mix of debt sources and the like need to be planned. To plan capital structure, therefore, means determining the debt-equity proportion and mix of individual Continue reading

Abey Francis

Price Component of the Global Marketing Mix

In any country, three basic factors determine the boundaries within which market prices should be set. The first is product cost, which establishes a price floor, or minimum price. While it is certainly possible to price a product below the cost boundary, few firms can afford to do this for extended periods of time. Second, competitive prices for comparable products create a price ceiling or upper boundary. International competition almost always puts pressure on the prices of domestic companies. A widespread effect of international trade is to lower prices. Indeed, one of the major arguments favoring international business is the favorable impact of international competition upon national price levels and, in turn, upon a country’s rate of inflation. Between the lower and upper boundaries for every product there is an optimum price, which is a function of the demand for the product as determined by the willingness and ability of Continue reading

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Bond Duration and Portfolio Immunization

Bond Duration Duration is a significant measurement of how sensitivity the change in price of a bond in the change of interest rate. It is broadly linked to the length of time before the bond is mature. Duration assists investors during the investment decision making process by expressing the relation between interest rate and price variables of the bond. Therefore, duration is useful measurement for investors because it protects investment from interest rate risk. When the duration of bond is lower that means investors can obtain the cash earlier and reinvest it at prevailing interest rate. As a result, the lower the duration of a bond, the lesser sensitive changes in the interest rate. Majority of investors are familiar with maturity which is the point of time when investors get back the principal of bond. However, duration is defined as the length of time before the maturity of the bond. Therefore, the Continue reading

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Carroll’s Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility

In the past, the common perception of a business responsibility was to maximize their firm’s profit. This is because businesses were perceived to always put the shareholder interests first. However, businesses are moving towards impacting the socials and environments. Several studies have found that businesses now have direct responsibilities to various other stakeholders which include preventing the harm of human rights and ensuring that there are solutions available if abuses occur. The modern view of business responsibility demands companies to help in problems relating to public welfare. As firms have no utmost responsibility for these unpleasant situations, philanthropic responsibilities are still not mandatory. However, due to a decrease of social institutions that provide help to the communities, people have higher expectations towards company and believe that they should take part in filling up the shortages. Carroll has proposed a CSR concept,  Carroll’s Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility, which states the Continue reading

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Techniques of Demand Forecasting

Broadly speaking, there are two approaches to demand forecasting– one is to obtain information about the likely purchase behavior of the buyer through collecting expert’s opinion or by conducting interviews with consumers, the other is to use past experience as a guide through a set of statistical techniques. Both these techniques of demand forecasting  rely on varying degrees of judgment. The first method is usually found suitable for short-term forecasting, the latter for long-term forecasting. There are specific techniques which fall under each of these broad methods. Judgmental Approaches to Forecasting By their nature, judgment-based forecasts use subjective and qualitative data to  forecast future outcomes. They inherently rely on expert opinion, experience, judgment, intuition, conjecture, and other “soft” data. Such techniques are often used when historical data are not available, as is the case with the introduction of a new product or service, and in forecasting the impact of fundamental Continue reading

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Talent Retention Best Practices

Talent retention is not a new problem, but it seems to be ever more critical. The question of attracting the brightest and best talents is a key issue for successful companies. Today with large signing bonuses and very attractive salaries and benefits, the more perplexing question is how to best build the loyalty of the talented people. The more talents organizations retain, the more talents they’ll attract. Organizations should focus on designing a sustainable career package that supports a graduate’s continuous professional and personal development. It is important that an organization keeps track of each individual’s changing needs and priorities. This will be down to the job of a coach or a mentor who should carry the long-term and important responsibility of coaching and mentoring the graduates. Being new to the organization, graduates require continuous feedback and coaching to help them to assimilate well and be successful in their role. Continue reading

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