Case Study of Walmart: Procurement and Distribution

Wal-Mart always emphasized the need to reduce its purchasing costs and offer the best price to its customers. The company procured goods directly from manufacturers, bypassing all intermediaries. Wal-Mart was a tough negotiator on prices and finalized a purchase deal only when it was fully confident that the products being bought were not available elsewhere at a lower price. According to Claude Harris, one of the earliest employees, “Every buyer has to be tough. That is the job. I always told the buyers: ‘You are negotiating for your customer. And your customer deserves the best prices that you can get. Don’t ever feel sorry for a vendor. He always knows what he can sell, and we want his bottom price. ‘We would tell the vendors,’ Don’t leave in any room for a kickback because we don’t do it here. And we don’t want your advertising program or delivery program. Our Continue reading

Case Study of Dell: Driving for Industry Leadership

In 1984, at the age of 19, Michael Dell founded Dell Computer with a simple vision and business concept–that personal computers could be built to order and sold directly to customers. Michael Dell believed his approach to the PC business had two advantages: (1) bypassing distributors and retail dealers eliminated the markups of resellers and (2) building to order greatly reduced the costs and risks associated with carrying large stocks of parts, components, and finished goods. While the company sometimes struggled during the 1986-1993 period trying to refine its strategy, build an adequate infrastructure, and establish market credibility against better-known rivals, Dell’s strategy started to click into full gear in the late 1990s. Going into 2003, Dell’s sell-direct and build-to-order business model and strategy had provided the company with the most efficient procurement, manufacturing, and distribution capabilities in the global PC industry and given Dell a substantial cost and profit Continue reading

Legal Aspects of Marine Insurance

A contract of marine insurance is a contract whereby the insurer undertakes to indemnify the  insured, against marine losses, that is to say, the losses incidental to marine adventure. It is a contract of indemnity. It is a contract ‘uberrimae fidei”. It must have insurable interest. The doctrine of  subrogation applies to it. Read More: Marine Insurance Marine Insurance Claims Marine Adventure: There is a marine adventure when; Any ship, goods or movable property(i.e. insurable property) is exposed to maritime perils; The earning or acquisition of any freight, passage money, commission, profit or other pecuniary  benefit, or the security for any advances, loans or disbursements is endangered by the exposure of  insurable property to maritime perils; Any inability to a third party maybe incurred by the owner of, or other person interested in, insurable  property by reason of maritime perils. ‘Insurable property’ means any ship, goods or other movables which Continue reading

Work-Life Balance – Definition, Significance and Importance

Work-life balance is a very broader term in Human Resource Management and often referred to finding the right equilibrium between the different aspects and roles in a life of a person. Although there are different views and concepts about work-life balance but it is generally coupled with maintaining an overall balance in different aspects of life. During the last decade technological revolution has stormed all aspects of life and there were different debates about the future of work. Different scenarios predicted a rising trend in un-employment and economic insecurity. Industrial restructuring and emergence of latest technology no only affected the importance of workforce but it was also felt that employees will be treated as superfluous overheads. History of Work-Life Balance In 1986, the term “Work-Life Balance” was first identified, but it’s usage in everyday language was still sporadic for a certain number of years. Although, interestingly work-life programs existed in Continue reading

Case Study on Financial Ethics: The Bernie Madoff Case

On December 11, 2008, as the arrest of Benard Madoff, the former non-executive chairman of NASDAQ and chairman of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, many investors, big firms, banks, charities, universities and even governments were in panic, realizing that they were involved in a giant financial fraud, ‘all just one big lie’. According to an official document on March 12, 2009 from the Department of Justice of United States, Madoff pleaded guilty to eleven felony counts related to a massive Ponzi scheme and faced a statutory maximum sentence of 150 years in prison. Actually, what Mr. Madoff did was simple; He continually paid high returns to existing clients with the funds injected by new investors without engaging in any form of legitimate investment activity and this is what people call ‘the Ponzi scheme’, named after Charles Ponzi who did such kind of financial fraud in 1920’s. However, it is Continue reading

Cross-Cultural Preparation in Employee Training Programmes

“Cross-Cultural Preparation is the process of educating employees (and their families) who are given an assignment in a foreign country”. Cross cultural preparation educates employees (expatriates) and their families who are to be sent to a foreign country To successful conduct business in the global marketplace, employees must understand the business practices and the cultural norms of difference countries. Steps in cross-cultural preparation. To prepare employees for cross-cultural assignments, companies need to provide cross-cultural training. Most U.S companies send employees overseas without any preparation. As a result, the number of employees who return home before completing their assignments is higher for u.s. companies than for European and Japanese companies. U.S companies lose more than $2 billion a year as a result of failed overseas assignments. To succeed overseas, expatriates (employees on foreign assignments) need to be. Competent in their areas of expertise. Able to communicate verbally and non-verbally in the Continue reading