How Does International Business Differ From Domestic Business?

It is almost commonplace today to find businesses venturing into international markets. Thanks to advancements in communication and information technology, this trend will most certainly persist for the predictable future. The most domestic organization’s when considering expansion will usually look outside their geographical location. This usually means looking at opportunities in international markets. It is believed that managing and running a domestic business is less complex than undertaking international business for a number of reasons. Nation-states typically have unique laws governing trade and investment, variations in business ethics and culture, different political systems, monetary policies, currencies, and so on. And these are all possible factors that could make international business more complicated and therefore, riskier than doing business at home. In discussing the differences between international business and domestic business, it will make sense to discuss issues involved in doing business internationally that will not otherwise be present or prove Continue reading

Event Management – A Modern Strategic Marketing Tool

Event marketing is a promotional strategy linking a firm to an event, sponsorship of a sports competition, festival, etc. It is an attempt to coordinate communications around a self-created or sponsored event. The event is an activity that gathers the target group in time in a room, a meeting where a message is communicated and a happening is created. Thus, we can say that event marketing plays a major role in the promotional strategy of firms. With the ever rising promotional costs associated with the traditional channels of corporate communications, with customers’ attention being diverted by many channels and modes of communication, the rising importance of experiential marketing and the ability of events to have a better face-to-face interaction with the target group of customers are promoting many firms to increasingly depend on event marketing for better results. Events like tradeshows, exhibitions, executive meets, road-shows, corporate-customer meets, dealer meets, etc., Continue reading

Durability of Competitive Advantage

Durability of competitive advantage  determines how long the competitive advantage can be sustained and is considered in terms of the ability of competitors to imitate through gaining access to the resources on which the competitive advantage is built. The key to investing is not assessing how much an industry is going to affect society, or how much it will grow, but rather determining the competitive advantage of any given company and, above all, the durability of that advantage. The products or services that have wide, sustainable moats around them are the ones that deliver rewards to investors. —Warren Buffett (1999) The durability of competitive advantage of a company is a function of three factors: the height of barriers to imitation, the capability of competitors, and the general dynamism of the industry environment. 1. Barriers to Imitation Barriers to imitation are factors that make it difficult for a competitor to copy Continue reading

Financial Derivative Types: Options – Definition, Types and Benefits

In the volatile environment, risk of heavy fluctuations in the prices assets is very heavy. Option is yet another tool to manage such risks. As the very name implies, an option contract gives the buyer an option to buy or sell an underlying asset (stock, bond, currency, commodity etc.) at a predetermined price on or before a specified date in future. The price so predetermined is called the ‘strike price’ or ‘exercise price’. Option is a contract that provides a right but does not impose any obligation to buy or sell a financial instrument, say a share or security. It can be exercised by the owner. Option offers the buyer, profits from favorable movement of prices say of shares or foreign exchange. Writer: In an options contract, the seller is usually referred to as a “writer” since he is said to write the contract. It is similar to the seller Continue reading

Types of small groups in business scenario

There are two major types of small groups, primary and discussion groups. The primary group is more informal in nature. Members get together daily or very regularly. The primary group is less goal-oriented and often there is conversation on general topics and not discussion on specific topic. Primary groups are not bound by any rules and are highly flexible. Discussion groups are highly formal. These are characterized by face-to-face interactions where group members respond, react and adapt to the communication of other participants. A discussion group has one or more leaders. Members of discussion groups have common characteristics-geographic location, social class, economic level, life style, education level, etc. finally, members of a discussion group have a common purpose or goal. The strength cohesiveness and longevity of the group depends upon the type of goal. One important type of discussion groups is the problem-solving group. Such groups are of four types Continue reading

Professionalism in Human Resources Planning

Human resource planning determines the human resources required by the organization to achieve its strategic goals.  Human resource planning is the process for ensuring that the human resource requirements of an organization are identified and plans are made for satisfying those requirements. In human resource planning people are the most important strategic resource for an organization. Whereas HR Planning generally concerned with matching resources to business needs in the longer term, although sometime address shorter-term requirements as well. HR Planning also looks at broader issues relating to the ways in which the people are employed and developed in order to improve organizational effectiveness. So HR Planning plays an important role in strategic human resource management. Professionalism in HR planning The first part of professionalism  in HR Planning is understanding the customer, the customer requirements and providing customer satisfaction. HR is increasingly viewed as a service; a service both to employees Continue reading