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

Functional and Dysfunctional Aspects of Budget System

Like other management control methods, budgets have the potential to help management reach their goal. How useful budgets are, in practice depends on how they are conceived and implemented. It is also important that the, process is clear and acceptable to the people whose activities it controls. Potentially Functional Aspects of Budgets Some of the potentially functional  aspects of budgets as follows : Motivation. Budgets can have a positive impact on motivation and morale. Most individuals in an organization desire to achieve things and recognition by groups to which they belong. Budgets can activate these motivational factors by creating common goals and the feeling that everyone is working towards them. Coordination. Budgets make it possible to coordinate the work of the organization. A comprehensive budget is a blueprint of an organization’s plans for the future and the top management can, therefore, use it to together the activities of every unit. Continue reading

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Relationship Between Operating Leverage and Financial Risk

All strategic investment decisions are going to involve some degree of risk. Risk entails not only the profitable versus unprofitable dichotomy, but also the variability in earnings or losses emanating from an investment project. One dimension of the risk-management question is captured in the concept of operating leverage. Operating leverage is the degree of magnification of earnings or losses (expressed as cash flows or profits) set off by different levels of output. The magnification results from the variable cost versus fixed cost mix in an investment period. Generally the higher the level of fixed commitment in relation to variable costs, the greater is the leverage (and magnification). This, of course, is the central notion in the familiar break-even analysis, where concern is given not only to the break-even point, but also the levels of earnings or losses around it. Operating leverage is a double-edged sword, however. Like financial leverage, operating Continue reading

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Concepts and Process of Book Building

Book building is a method of price discovery. In this method, offer price of securities is determined on the basis of real demand for the shares at various price levels in the market. As defined by SEBI guidelines, 1995, “book building is a process undertaken by which a demand for the securities proposed to be issued by a body corporate is elicited and built up and the price for such securities is assessed for the determination of the quantum of such securities to be issued by means of a notice, circular, advertisement, document or information memoranda of offer document.” In book building method, the final issue price is not known in advance. Only a price band is determined and made public before opening of the bidding process. The spread of price between floor price and cap in the price band should not be more than 20%. It means that the Continue reading

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Coordination – Meaning, Definition, Features and Importance

Although Henri Fayol, James Mooney, Ordway Tead, Lyndall F. Urwick, Luther Gullick and Louis A. Allen, all consider coordination as a separate function of management, it seems more accurate to treat coordination as the essence of managing because the achievement of harmony of individual efforts towards the accomplishment of group goals is the very purpose of management. Coordination is inherent in all managerial functions. Each of the managerial functions is an exercise in coordination.   A manager achieves coordination through the management process and co-ordination is the outcome of managerial functions.   In fact, coordination makes planning more purposeful, organization better-knit and control more regulative, it is the key to the process of management.   Coordination is the result of the process of management. Meaning and Definition of Coordination Coordination implies an orderly pattern or arrangement of group efforts to ensure unity of action in pursuit of common objectives.   Continue reading

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Introduction to Stress Management

In today’s changing and competitive work environment, stress level is increasing both in the workers as well as the managers. As a result of this work stress, more and more managers are showing signs of chronic fatigue and burnout. Research has concluded that stressed out managers are not good for their companies or shareholders. In most cases, stress leads to reduced efficiency in even the best of individuals, which in turn leads to reduced productivity. Stress is a problem in almost all the countries of the world, irrespective of whether the economy is strong or weak. Therefore, it become very essential to include “work stress” as one of the chapters in studying human behavior, because we must know what is actually stress, what are the causes of stress, what are its consequences and then, what should be done to reduce it. Considered from an individual’s point of view, stress is Continue reading

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The Benchmarking Process

Benchmarking  is the process of comparing ones business processes and  performance metrics  to industry bests or  best practices from other industries. Dimensions typically measured are quality, time and cost. In the benchmarking process, management identifies the best firms in their industry, or in another industry where similar processes exist, and compare the results and processes of those studied (the “targets”) to one’s own results and processes. In this way, they learn how well the targets perform and, more importantly, the business processes that explain why these firms are successful. Benchmarking is used to measure performance using a specific  indicator  (cost per unit of measure, productivity per unit of measure, cycle time of x per unit of measure or defects per unit of measure) resulting in a metric of performance that is then compared to others. Also referred to as “best practice benchmarking” or “process benchmarking”, this process is used in Continue reading

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