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

Introduction to Neo-Classical Economics

Neo-classical economics began around the turn of the century. It provided more analysis on the processes through which the market system allocates   economic resources. The application of supply and demand curves, micro-economics and price theory helped to calm many of the disquieting aspects that Marx had created around classical economics. It accomplished this by ignoring the class division and working from the assumption of the existence of the “autonomous” rational wealth maximizer as subject for study. Alfred Marshall was a professor at Cambridge in the late 1890’s. He created the idea that supply and demand can be used to determine a fair price for the exchange of commodities in an industrialized society. These mathematical equilibrium curves assume that people act as rational agents pursuing economic ends. Another assumption required was formulated in Say’s Law, which says that all income must be spent. Hoarding was seen as irrational, and the Continue reading

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Need for Advertising Agencies in Industrial Marketing

An Advertising agency is an organisation whose business consists in the acquisition of  the right to use space of time in advertising media and the administration of behalf of the  advertisers of advertising appropriations made by them. It renders advice and creative  services for its clients. It does not sell any tangible products, but sells creative talents  and past experience. Thus it is an organisation specially created for rendering services  in advertising. The services of an advertising agency in general can be  summarized  as follows: It makes the advertisements pleasant and serves the purpose. It can get the advertisements published at the appropriate times. It can help the advertiser in the preparation of the advertising budget. It can free the advertiser from the botheration of contacting the media  owners of all types as and when necessary. It can do market research for the advertiser at a lesser cost. It can Continue reading

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Project Risk Management

Risk can be defined as uncertainty of outcome, whether positive opportunity or negative impact. Some amount of risk-taking is inevitable, whatever the project. There has to be a deliberate acceptance of some degree of risk because the value to the business makes it worthwhile.  Project risk management includes the processes concerned about conducting risk management planning, identification, analysis (both qualitative and quantitative), responses, and monitoring and control on a project; most of these processes are updated throughout the project. Risk management in projects involves identifying and assessing the risks in terms of impact and probability, establishing and maintaining a joint risk register, agreed by the integrated project team, establishing procedures for actively managing and monitoring risks throughout the project and during occupation on completion, ensuring that members of the team have the opportunity to engage in a dialogue that will promote agreement of an appropriate allocation of risk, updating risk Continue reading

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What is Price Control?

Price control refers to a direct measure on the part of the Government in fixing the prices for achieving certain macro economic goals like social welfare, efficient resource allocation, prevention of exploitation of the consumers etc. The Price Control may be informal or formal. In case of informal price control the producers voluntarily agree to regulate the prices which are within limits suggested by the Government whereas under formal price control, the prices are statutorily fixed by the Government and have to be accepted by the producers.  The government regulation that makes it illegal to charge a price higher than a specified level is Price ceiling. There are two types of price ceilings: one is set above the equilibrium price and one that is set underneath. The one that is set above the equilibrium has no effect because it does not constrain the market forces. The one that is set Continue reading

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High Performance Work Teams

Managing projects, setting goals, clarifying roles, and solving problems in teams are skills that must be developed. New organizational skills must be developed if teams are to operate effectively and efficiently. Teamwork as a form of organizing work will vary in its manifestation between societies. Nevertheless teamwork is a recognizable approach to the organization of work. Thus, teamwork forms one of the underlying dimensions of work organization and employee involvement that we use to characterize high performance work organizations (HPWOs). At a broader range we may include employee satisfaction, employee stress, labor turnover rates, customer satisfaction, client retention and so on in HPWOs. Practices like developing higher levels of commitment to the organization, higher levels of motivation and using employees knowledge to introduce continuous improvements, etc. will increase the productivity and other organizational outcomes. We have heard much about the benefits with implementing team approaches to improve organizational effectiveness and Continue reading

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Value Creation – Definition, Implementation and Principles

The idea of value creation is to capitalise on what, as an organisation, you already possess. The organisation may be a business, a school, a corporation, a government department — anywhere, in fact, where the main asset of the company is the people within it. Establishing value creation as a way of life for both managers and workers can help define the role of each more precisely, whilst simultaneously making both feel more integrated and involved within the day to day running of a place of work. Making everyone within an organisation feel that they are more than just ‘cogs in a wheel’ establishes a new feeling of unity and cooperation in organisations and can be a great asset in moving a company or other organisation forward because if everyone feels that they are part of the decision-making process then carrying out the aftermath of those decisions is more likely Continue reading

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