Project Planning and Scheduling

Project planning is the process of identifying all the activities necessary to successfully complete the project.   Project scheduling is the process of determining the sequential order of the planned activities, assigning realistic duration’s to each activity, and determining the start and finish dates for each activity.   Thus, project planning is a prerequisite to project scheduling because there is no way to determine the sequence or start and finish dates of activities until they are identified. Techniques for Project Planning and Scheduling The technique used for project planning and scheduling will vary depending upon the project’s size, complexity, duration, personnel, and owner requirements.   The project manager must choose a scheduling technique that is simple to use and is easily interpreted by all project participants.   There are two methods that are commonly used in project management for the purpose of project planning and scheduling: the bar chart (sometimes Continue reading

Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) – Meaning and Importance

Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) is a concept in the Supply Chain Management, which considered in the aspect of establishing and sustaining the business relationship along the supply chain. Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) concerns the practical processes to integrate the communication and coordination between organizations and their suppliers. Supplier chain relationship was considered to be one of the important factors in most business, since it can influence the potential of supply chain concept. Now, the modern business seems to be more complex with high competition. Due to the information has more valuable in the supply chain management, firms then need to re-design the ways of managing and sharing information among each others. Organizations cannot independently run the business by themselves. Not only good relationship can help companies to have more competitive advantage to survive in the market, but it can also help companies expands the market too. Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) Continue reading

Ecological Business Strategies

Ecological business strategies consist on the firm’s position vis- à-vis the natural environment; they define the firm’s relationship with nature. They describe strategies for use of environmental resources and acceptable environmental impacts of the company’s activities. Ecological strategies try to minimize long-term environmental damages by managing the company’s inputs, throughput’s, and outputs. Just as “Total Quality Management” in corporation demands attention to each stage of the design and production process, a “Total Environmental Management” perspective can optimize the performance of the total system. Every organization requires materials and energy as inputs to its production process. Primary industries such as mining, forest products, pulp and paper, and oil and gas are particularly oriented toward extraction and utilization of raw materials. Secondary (manufacturing) industries such as steel, construction, automobiles, and petrochemicals are important users of materials and energy. Service industries (e.g. health care, education, legal, consulting, etc.) maker fewer demands for materials Continue reading

What is Strategic Innovation?

Innovative thinking can be applied to the strategic planning of an organization to create new opportunities and boost market performance. Strategic Innovation is the creation of growth strategies, new product categories, services, or business models that change the market and generate significant new value for consumers, customers, and the organization. Strategic Innovation takes the road less traveled – it challenges an organization to look beyond its established business boundaries and to create possibilities in an open-minded and creative environment. It has been seen that focusing on the short-term aspects typically yields short-term results, however, firms seeking to make significant breakthroughs identify both, big and innovative ideas. Strategic Innovation calls for a holistic approach that operates on multiple levels. First, it blends non-traditional and traditional approaches to business strategy, deploying the practices of “Industry Foresight”, “Consumer/Customer Insight” and “Strategic Alignment” as a foundation, and supplementing them with more conventional approaches and Continue reading

Behavioural Issues in Strategy Implementation

It is vital to bear in mind that organizational change is not an intellectual process concerned with the design of ever-more-complex and elegant organization structures. It is to do with the human side of enterprise and is essentially about changing people’s attitudes, feelings and – above all else – their behavior. The behavioral of the employees affect the success of the organization. Strategic implementation requires support, discipline, motivation and hard work from all manager and employees. Influence Tactics: The organizational leaders have to successfully implement the strategies and achieve the objectives. Therefore the leader has to change the behavior of superiors, peers or subordinates. For this they must develop and communicate the vision of the future and motivate organizational members to move into that direction. Power: it is the potential ability to influence the behavior of others. Leaders often use their power to influence others and implement strategy. Formal authority Continue reading

A comparative study of Value System of Japan, China , America and India

In order to understand the members of a particular society, it is required to have some idea of their daily lives , their tradition , their beliefs , their way of looking at the world , their value system. Values determine what is right and what is wrong for an individual , for a group of people ,for the people living in a particular nation. Individual’s value system decide the dos and the don’ts in their life. It forms the foundations of their characters. Depending on their value system   , in a given situation they behave in a particular manner. The culture of various countries differ. There may be some similarity, but they are not the same. The values, beliefs and   notions of Japan differ that of America, china or India. An organization is a part of the society . therefore, as far as an organization in a Continue reading