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

Receiving and Shipping Function of Materials Management

The principal function of receiving and shipping include deliveries of inbound and outbound freight, inspection, and transfer to and from storage.   Efficient processing of materials at these points is essential for effective stock control, production, and customer satisfaction. Receiving takes delivery of inbound shipments and releases and materials to inventory.   The major responsibilities include: Control and scheduling of deliveries. Accurate checking and recording of shipments received. Preparation for handling and storage. Whenever possible, deliveries should be scheduled to balance the workload throughout the day.   For instance, deliveries from local vendors should be requested for the morning hours so that sufficient personnel and equipment are available for processing outbound shipments, which normally peak later in the day. To plan for receiving activities, supervisors should review information due in from purchase orders, bills of lading, or vendor notices of shipment to determine approximate dates of arrival.   This enables Continue reading

Abey Francis

International Marketing Research – Definition, Categories and Process

International marketing managers make the same basic types of decisions as do those who operate in only one country. Of course, they make these decisions in a more complicated environment. As with marketing decisions, the basic function of marketing research and the research process does not differentiate between domestic and multinational research. However, the process is complicated almost exponentially as more and more countries are involved in the same decision. Marketing research practices and techniques have become truly global. For example, the world’s largest research firm, Nielsen, is headquartered in the U.S. but derives almost two-thirds of its revenue from outside the U.S. It is standardizing much of the data it routinely collects in 27 different countries. The main factors which influence marketing research in different countries are; Cultural differences. Culture refers to widely shared norms or patterns of behavior of a large group of people. It is the values, attitudes, Continue reading

Abey Francis

The Role of Asset Securitization in Financial Crisis

The financial crisis showed its first signs in the first quarter of 2006 when the housing market turned. A number of subprime mortgages, that were designed with a high interest payment began to default. Many of the loans were highly risky and only possible due to the clever creation of products like “2/28” and “3/27” adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs). These loans offered a fixed rate for the first two or three years, and then adjustable rates for the remaining twenty- eight or twenty-seven years, respectively. After the first two or three years, the adjustment of rates would be substantial enough as to be unaffordable for the subprime borrowers; thus, the mortgages were designed to be refinanced. But for the most part, this would be possible for subprime borrowers only if the collateral on the loan had increased in value, otherwise, they would default. Because these mortgages were all originated around Continue reading

Abey Francis

Brand Hierarchy

A brand hierarchy is a means of summarizing the branding strategy by displaying the number and nature of common and distinctive brand elements across the firm’s products, revealing the explicit ordering of brand elements. By capturing the potential branding rela ­tionships among the different products sold by the firm, a brand hierarchy is a useful means of graphically portraying a firm’s branding strategy. Specifically, a brand hierarchy is based on the realization that a product can be branded in different ways depending on how many new and existing brand elements are used and how they are combined for any one product. Because certain brand elements are used to make more than one brand, a hierarchy can be constructed to represent how (if at all) products are nested with other prod ­ucts because of their common brand elements. Some brand elements may be shared by many products (e.g., Ford); other brand Continue reading

Abey Francis

Strategic Importance of Mission Statements

Mission statement is the description of an organization’s reasons for existence, its fundamental purpose. It is the guiding principle that drives the processes of goal and action plan formulation, “a pervasive, although general, expression of the philosophical objectives of the enterprise.” Mission should focus on long-range economic potentials, attitudes toward customers, product and service quality, employee relations, and attitudes toward owners. “A mission statement is an enduring statement of purpose for an organization that identifies the scope of its operations in product and market terms, and reflects its values and priorities…..Every company no matter how big or small, needs a mission statement as a source of direction, a kind of compass, that lets its employees, its customer, and even its stockholders know what it stands for and where its headed.” – Abrahams, 1995. From the above definition its clear that Mission statement  is an enduring statement of a firm’s purpose, Continue reading

Abey Francis

Article on Indian Banking Sector: “The challenges that the banking sector in India faces”

It is by now well recognized that India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Evidence from across the world suggests that a sound and evolved banking system is required for sustained economic development. India has a better banking system in place vis a vis other developing countries, but there are several issues that need to be ironed out. In this article, we try and look into the challenges that the banking sector in India faces. Interest Rate Risk: Interest rate risk can be defined as exposure of bank’s net interest income to adverse movements in interest rates. A bank’s balance sheet consists mainly of rupee assets and liabilities. Any movement in domestic interest rate is the main source of interest rate risk. Over the last few years the treasury departments of banks have been responsible for a substantial part of profits made by banks. Between July Continue reading

Abey Francis