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

Risks Associated with Payment Systems and Risk Mitigation Measures

Risks in payment systems In any payment transaction, there will be a time lag between the time payment instructions are issued and final settlement of these claims (either on gross or net basis). This time lag exposes the entire system to various risks which are given below: Credit Risk: the risk that a party within the system will be unable fully to meet its financial obligations within the system either when due or at any time in the future Liquidity Risk: the risk that a party within the system will have insufficient funds to meet financial obligations within the system as and when expected although it may be able to do so at sometime in the future Legal Risk: the risk that a poor legal framework or legal uncertainties will cause or exacerbate credit or liquidity risks Operational Risk: the risk that operational factors such as technical malfunctions or operational Continue reading

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In-Depth Interviewing Techniques

In-depth interview  is an intensive and searching interview aiming at studying the respondent’s opinion, emotions or convictions on the basis of an interview guide. Conducting an in-depth interview requires much more training on inter-personal skills than structured interview. This deliberately aims to elicit unconscious as well as extremely personal feelings and emotions. In-depth interview  is generally a lengthy procedure designed to encourage free expression of affectively charged information. It requires probing. The interviewer should totally avoid advising or showing disagreement. Of course, he should use encouraging expressions like “uh-huh” or “I see” to motivate the respondent to continue narration. Some times the interviewer has to face the problem of affections, i.e. the respondent may hide expressing affective feelings. The interviewer should handle such situation with great care. Many researchers don’t know how to conduct an in-depth interview well. Here are some tips for conducting more effective in-depth interviews. Start the Continue reading

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Elements of Retail Store Interior Design

The retail store’s exterior is responsible for attracting the passers by both actual and potential customers to induce them to enter the store. The store’s interior is much more important than the exterior as it welcomes the actual consumer. The layout and design of a retail store communicate a significant amount of  information about the retailer to the consumer. The retail store’s interior must contribute to the retailer’s fundamental objectives of  minimizing  operational expenses and  maximize  sales and consumer satisfaction, therefore,  profits.  To attain these goals, the store’s interior not only must be inviting, comfortable and convenient for the consumer. It must also permit the retailer to use the interior space efficiency and effectively.  Let us try to touch up on the basic elements of the retail store interior design. 1. Fixtures A major consideration in developing an appropriate store design involves  the use of fixtures. They are used to Continue reading

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Advantages and Disadvantages of having a Mission Statement

Mission statement is a summary statement of a company’s or organization’s purpose about what it wants to accomplish in the larger environment. Mission statement is playing an important role with the overall strategic planning of an organization. All of the strategic planning of an organization should base on the mission of an organization that had been set. Strategic planning include all the long-range plans, strategic plans and also annual plans which include decision making about the human resource management, production and operation, finance and it is also concerned about the marketing planning. A well-defined mission statement is very important to guide people in the organization, clearly defines who the customer is and what services and products the businesses are intended to provide. A good mission statement should contain some criteria. First, a good mission statement should be market-oriented. A market-oriented mission statement focuses on satisfying customer’s needs. A mission statement Continue reading

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Retrenchment Strategies Followed by Organizations

A retrenchment grand strategy is followed when an organization aims at a contraction of its activities through substantial reduction or the elimination of the scope of one or more of its businesses in terms of their respective customer groups, customer functions, or alternative technologies either singly or jointly in order to improve its overall performance. Eg: A corporate hospital decides to focus only on special treatment and realize higher revenues by reducing its commitment to general case which is less profitable. The growth of industries and markets are threatened by various external and internal developments (External developments – government policies, demand saturation, emergence of substitute products, or changing customer needs. Internal Developments — poor management, wrong strategies, poor quality of functional management and so on.) In these situations the industries and markets and consequently the companies face the danger of decline and will go for adopting retrenchment strategies. Eg: fountain Continue reading

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Porter’s Five Forces and Three Generic Strategies

The long development of Porter’s Five Forces Analysis has brought to the fact that those forces become the determinants of the industry’s competition. These five forces are treat of new entry, rivalry among existing firms, treat from substitute products, bargaining power of buyers, and bargaining power of suppliers. Furthermore, five forces analysis is treated by the organization to measure the level of competition, besides that, it is used as a strong first step in understanding how one industry compares to another and also to determine industry profitability because they influence the prices, costs, and required investment of firm in an industry. In order to be competitive enough, a normal company that seeks profitability would have to understand how they work in its industry and how they affect the company in its particular situation. Therefore, Three Generic Strategies were implemented to establish a strategic agenda for dealing with these five forces. Continue reading

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