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

Organizational Culture – Development and Importance

Management Principles

Five Important Organizational Cultural Models

Management Principles

Global Geographic Division Structure of MNE’s

With large foreign operations that are not dominated by a single country or area including the headquarters, but well spread out geographically Multinational  Enterprises  use geographic divisions. Global Geographic (Region/Nation/Area) Division Structure is more common to European MNEs, such as Nestle. Nestle uses this structure because no one region dominates its operations. Merits of Global Geographic Division Structure The structure is useful when maximum economies in production can be gained on a regional rather than a global basis because of market size or the production technologies for the industry. A global geographic structure puts managers closer to the scene of operations than are managers at central headquarters. Regional managers are well positioned to be responsive to local situations such as the needs of regional customers and to fluctuations in resources. Thus regional divisions are often able to find solutions to region-specific problems and to use available resources more effectively than Continue reading

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Collective Bargaining Goals of Trade Unions

Trade unions have a wide range of economic and non-economic goals. All goals of them can not be won in one instance. All collective bargaining goals of trade unions  are in conflict with each other since employers are willing to make only limited number of concessions at any particular bargaining session. Therefore, unions have to determine priorities, are five factors which affect the priority of collective bargaining goals. Economic conditions relevant to the bargaining relationship Precedent of recent major agreements, Inter-union rivalry, Influence of international situation, Intra-union influence. The relative importance of these factors varies from one bargaining situation to another. 1. Economic Conditions The cost of living is used by trade unions as an argument for higher wages during periods of rising prices. Although unions generally give more attention to money wages than real wages, a decline in real wages, resulting from cost of living, is always used as Continue reading

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Financial Market Regulation: Meaning and Objectives

Financial Market Regulation The nature of securities markets is such that they are inherently susceptible to failures due to the existence of information asymmetries and existence of high transaction costs. It needs to be emphasized that when securities markets come into existence, the interest of the member brokers are taken care of through margin requirements, barriers to entry of membership, listing agreements. However the investors/clients who buy and sell via their brokers are not able to form an organization to safeguard their interests due to the cost of creation of such organizations and free rider problems. The distinctive nature of the market can be observed with reference to the commodity, its quality, the system of transactions and the participants in the market, as follows: (a) the commodity(the security)has a life to perpetuity. (b) while the outcome of the contract say the redemption of debt is certain, in the case of Continue reading

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Michael Porter’s Four Corners Model

Profiling a specific competitor is often important to management. However, many competitive profiles will fail to give management insights into how competitors will respond to your own strategy. Understanding this inter-relationship is important for knowing how to position your company in relation to the competition. One of the most popular models for this type of competitor analysis is the so-called Four Corners Analysis. The Four Corners Analysis developed by Harvard Business School professor and strategy guru Michael Porter is a model well designed to help company strategists assess a competitor’s intent and objectives, and the strengths it is using to achieve them. By examining a competitor’s current strategy, future goals, assumptions about the market, and core capabilities, the Four Corners Model helps analysts address four core questions:   What drives the competitor? Look for drivers at various levels and dimensions so you can gain insights into future goals. What is Continue reading

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Case Study: Reasons behind the Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers

The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers was a result of the investment bank’s exposure to the 2007-2010 financial crisis. In fact, the demise of the investment bank would come to symbolize the crisis. Therefore, in order to understand the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, a consummate understanding of the 2007-2010 financial crisis is requisite. As such, an examination of crisis will serve as introductory. Several factors contributed to the fall of Lehman Brothers. Perhaps most important, however, was the period of deregulation that preceded the crisis. Arguably, the period of deregulation started during the Reagan Era. Reaganomics, the lassiez faire economic policies advocated by the former president, may have served as the starting point for the deregulatory climate that ensued for the following two decades. Either way, the following two decades witnessed an overriding belief in the virtues of deregulation. In 1999, President Clinton signed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act into Continue reading

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Employee Selection Process

There is no hard and fast rule regarding the steps involved in the process of selection. The number of selection steps depends upon many factors like the size of the organization, level of job, nature of job, philosophy of management, availability of time, number of applicants, etc. Some organizations follow a long chain of steps, eliminating unsuitable candidates at every step, finally left with the candidates who are to be employed on the other hand, some organizations select their employees just in one go through ‘Walk-in-interviews’. Large organizations, usually consider the following steps in the employee selection process: 1. Application Blank An application blank is a columnar Performa which constrains information like address, physical characteristics, educational qualifications, experience, necessary personal information, references, etc. On the basis of information collected from the application blank, should be simple and should not contain unnecessary questions. 2. Preliminary Interview This interview is a brief Continue reading

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