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

The Customer Satisfaction Model – Based on American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)

Marketing Management

The Payment of Wages Act, 1936

The Payment of Wages Act, 1936 is a central legislation which has been enacted to regulate the payment of wages to workers employed in certain specified industries and to ensure a speedy and effective remedy to them against illegal deductions and/or unjustified delay caused in paying wages to them. It applies to the persons employed in a factory, industrial or other establishment, whether directly or indirectly, through a sub-contractor. The Central Government is responsible for enforcement of the Act in railways, mines, oilfields and air transport services, while the State Governments are responsible for it in factories and other industrial establishments. The basic provisions of the Act are as follows: The person responsible for payment of wages shall fix the wage period up to which wage payment is to be made. No wage-period shall exceed one month. All wages shall be paid in current legal tender, that is, in current Continue reading

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Lending procedures of development banks

Development banks follow a procedure for evaluating a proposal for a project. The basic objective is to check whether the applicant fulfils various conditions prescribed by the lending institution and the project is viable. The acceptance of a wrong proposal will result in the wastage of scarce resources. These banks adopt the following procedure for lending: 1. Project Appraisal and Eligibility of Applicant Every financial institution serves a particular area of activity or there are certain limits prescribed beyond which they cannot go. Before processing the application, it is important to find out whether the applicant is eligible under the norms of the institution or not. The second aspect which is looked into is to determine whether the enterprise has fulfilled various conditions prescribed by the government. In case some license is required from the government. It should have been taken or an assurance is received from the licensing authority. Continue reading

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Introduction to Branding Concepts- Brand Advertising and Brand Promotion

A brand is a term used to identify its products; while branding is the practice of identifying a product or line of products by a special name or symbol. Its use goes back to the middle ages for promoting sales. It is said that Egyptians were using some or other identification to market their pottery. The continued use of brands to the present times in business has been largely due to: Growth in competition. Growth of national and local advertising. Growth of packaging and The development of consumer brand consciousness. Such sales promotion devices are intended: To gain recognition for their products. To bring about a certain amount of consumers preference and To so firmly fix the product in the mind of the buyer that he will believe that it is the only one which will satisfy his wants and as a result will refuse to accept a substitute. Definition Continue reading

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The Transition From the Transactional Marketing to Relationship Marketing

The approach to marketing between the 1950s and 1980s changed drastically through various theories and practices, which changed the way organisations viewed marketing as a whole. The 1950s saw the influence of the marketing mix, including the 4Ps model of marketing. This model consists of; product, price, place and promotion. The idea is to help organisations understand how to satisfy their target market. A product can be seen as tangible or intangible, as it can be in the form of services or goods. For a product to create revenue there has to be a need and demand for it. Therefore, organisations must carry out research into the market, so that they have a true understanding of the product life cycle they could potentially go through. It is vital that organisations reinvent their product or service, if or when it reaches a point in time where the sales have started to Continue reading

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Junk Bonds in India

Sharp movements in the Indian equity market may be par for the course. But when it comes to the market for corporate bonds, it’s constantly stagnant. The reason is, we don’t have a corporate bond market. But this is overwhelmingly dominated by government securities (about 80% of the total). Of the remaining, close to 80% again comprises privately placed debt of public financial institutions. An efficient bond market helps corporate reduce their financing costs. It enables companies to borrow directly from investors, bypassing the major intermediary role of a commercial bank. One of the important instruments in corporate market is Junk Bonds which could be great source of financing for countries like India where markets are not much regulated. A speculative bond rated BB or below, “Junk bonds” are generally issued by corporations of questionable financial strength or without proven track records. They tend to be more volatile and higher Continue reading

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Financial Derivative Types: Swaps

Swap is yet another exciting trading instrument. In fact, it is a combination of forwards by two counter-parties. It is arranged to reap the benefits arising from the fluctuation in the market — either currency market or interest rate market or any other market for that matter. Features of Swap The following are the important features of swap: Basically a forward: A swap is nothing but a combination of forwards. So, it has all the properties of a forward contract discussed above. Double coincidence of wants: Swap requires that two parties with equal and opposite needs must come into contact with each other. As stated earlier, it is a combination of forwards by two counterparties with opposite but matching needs. For instance, the rate of interest differs from market to market and within the market itself. It varies from borrowers to borrowers due to the relative credit worthiness of borrowers. Continue reading

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