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

Recent Trends in Indian Banking Sector

Today, we are having a fairly well developed banking system with different classes of banks — public sector banks, foreign banks, private sector banks — both old and new generation, regional rural banks and co-operative banks with the Reserve Bank of India as the fountain Head of the system. In the banking field, there has been an unprecedented growth and diversification of banking industry has been so stupendous that it has no parallel in the annals of banking anywhere in the world. During the last 41 years since 1969, tremendous changes have taken place in the banking industry. The banks have shed their traditional functions and have been innovating, improving and coming out with new types of the services to cater to the emerging needs of their customers. Massive branch expansion in the rural and underdeveloped areas, mobilisation of savings and diversification of credit facilities to the either to neglected Continue reading

Abey Francis

Quality Management Tools: Ishikawa Diagrams or Fishbone Diagrams

Cause and Effect diagram  are a graphical method for finding the most likely causes for an undesired effect. The Cause and Effect diagram also known as the fishbone diagram or Ishikawa diagram after its creator Kaoru Ishikawa is used to systematically list all the different causes that can be attributed to a specific problem (or effect). A cause and effect diagram can help identify the reasons why a process goes out of control. The Ishikawa diagram is one of the seven basic tools of quality control, which include the histogram, Pareto chart, check sheet, control chart, cause-and-effect diagram, flowchart, and scatter diagram. The purpose of this diagram is to arrive at a few key sources that contribute most significantly to the problem being examined. These sources are then targeted for improvement. The diagram also illustrates the relationships among the wide variety of possible contributors to the effect. The basic concept Continue reading

Abey Francis

Confirmation Bias – Understanding Behavioral Biases in Finance

Confirmation bias is the inclination to seek or make sense of news or facts in a way that validates one’s preconceptions. So, during the decision making process for psychologist they will refer to information that supports their decision more favorably. They will rarely give the obvious negative much consideration and since our beliefs and postulations are definitely prejudiced so the tendency to give more attention and weight to data that support our beliefs than we do to contrary data will subtly but gradually have a harmful effect. An illustration of Confirmation Bias A very real manifestation of this tendency can be observed in the virtual world. For instance, investors are increasingly turning to message boards or virtual communities to search, clarify, and exchange information before making investment decisions. The volume of discussion on such portals is so intense that it has become possible to sense stock sentiments from here. These Continue reading

Abey Francis

Best Fit and Best Practice Approaches in Strategic HRM

The concepts of ‘best fit’ and ‘best practice’ are two well known approaches to human resource management. The ‘best fit’ perspective claims that HR strategy become more and more efficient when it is linked to its environment of the business. It explores the close link between strategic management and HRM by assessing the extend to which there is a vertical integration between an organizations business strategy and its HRM policies and practices. ‘Best practice’ approach claims that certain ‘best’ human resource practices would result in enhanced organizational performance, manifested in improved employee attitude, lower level of absenteeism and turnover, higher level of skills for higher productivity, enhanced quality and efficiency. That is why the ‘best practice’ model is also referred as high commitment models.  Best Fit Approach The best-fit model is considered as a variant from precedent models of Harvard, Michigan and York and is called “matching model” for HRM. Continue reading

Abey Francis

Co-operative Banks in India

The Co-operative bank has a history of almost 100 years. The Co-operative banks are an important constituent of the Indian Financial System, judging by the role assigned to them, the expectations they are supposed to fulfill, their number, and the number of offices they operate. The co-operative movement originated in the West, but the importance that such banks have assumed in India is rarely paralleled anywhere else in the world. Their role in rural financing continues to be important even today, and their business in the urban areas also has increased phenomenally in recent years mainly due to the sharp increase in the number of co-operative banks. While the co-operative banks in rural areas mainly finance agricultural based activities including farming, cattle, milk, hatchery, personal finance etc. along with some small scale industries and self-employment driven activities, the co-operative banks in urban areas mainly finance various categories of people for Continue reading

Abey Francis

Difference Between Administration and Management

The use of two terms Management and Administration  has been a controversial issue in the management literature. Some writers do not see any difference between the two terms, while others maintain that administration and management are two different functions. According to  those who held management and administration distinct, management is a lower-level function and is concerned primarily with the execution of policies laid down by administration. Dalton E.  McFarland  states: “in government agencies administration is preferred over management, although in recent years the term management has become widely used in government agencies.”  But some authors are of the opinion that management is a wider term including administration. This controversy of difference between administration and management  is discussed as under in three heads: Administration is concerned with the determination of policies and management with the implementation of policies. Thus, administration is a higher level function. Management is a generic term and Continue reading

Abey Francis