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

Roles of Managerial Economist in Business

A managerial economist can play a very important role by assisting the management in using the increasingly specialized skills and sophisticated techniques, required to solve the difficult problems of successful decision-making and forward planning. In business concerns, the importance of the managerial economist is therefore recognized a lot today. In advanced countries, large companies employ one or more economists. A managerial economist can contribute to decision-making in business in specific terms. Different roles of managerial economist in business as follows: Environmental Studies of a Business Firm An analysis and forecast of external factors constituting general business conditions, for example, prices, national income and output, volume of trade, etc., are of great significance since they affect every business firm. Certain important relevant factors to be considered in this connection are as follows: The outlook for the national economy, the most important local, regional or worldwide economic trends, the nature of phase Continue reading

Abey Francis

Industrial Disputes Settlement Machineries: Mediation and Conciliation

Mediation Mediation’s is a process available to the parties involved in contract negotiations by which an outside party is called in by union and management to help them reach a settlement. The neutral mediator does not ultimately resolve the dispute, but instead tries to move the parties towards agreement by maintaining communication and suggesting alternative solutions to dead-locked issues. The mediator’s function is to provide a positive environment for dispute resolution by drawing on extensive professional experience in the field of labor management interaction. The mediator must possess thorough knowledge of the issues, and an ability to innovate solutions to problems. The mediator must be an effective communicator, know the importance of timing and most of all, have the confidence and trust of the parties. A mediator must possess attributes such as integrity, impartiality and fairness. Conciliation Conciliation is a process by which representatives of workers and employers are brought Continue reading

Abey Francis

Case Study of Jack Welch: Leadership that Creates Innovation

When Jack Welch became CEO of General Electric in 1981, he was only the 11th CEO the company had seen in its 120 years of existence. Although GE was a $13 billion a year company, it began showing signs of necessary change as it had reached the stage between maturity and decline. After 20 years at the helm, Jack Welch had turned General Electric (GE) into one of the world’s most successful companies. Welch increased GE’s market value from $13 billion to over $300 billion in 2001. He guided the once struggling company to what was then the biggest corporation in the entire world as well as the most profitable. Through the use of goal setting, empowerment, and communication Welch transformed the gigantic and complacent company into an energized multi-national organization ready to face world competition. Through an analysis of the techniques employed by Welch, one can gain a better Continue reading

Abey Francis

Debt Recovery Agent

The phrase “Debt Recovery Agent” comprises three terms- Debt, Recovery and Agent.   Let us understand the meaning of these terms separately, before we explain the meaning of Debt Recovery Agent. Debt: It refers to a sum of money owed by one person or entity (debtor) to another person or entity (creditor).   Thus there are two parties to a debt- debtor who receives money by way of a debt; and creditor who lends money to the debtor.   To illustrate, if Ram takes a loan of Rs. 3 lacs from a bank for purchasing a car, Ram becomes the debtor (or borrower), the bank is the creditor (or lender) and the loan of Rs. 3 laces is the debt (principal).   Ram would be required to repay the loan in equated monthly installment (EMI),comprising the principal and interest, spread over the repayment period of, say, 3 years ( debt Continue reading

Abey Francis

Lean Supply Chain Management

Even though Toyota – the Japanese company – was the one who made the lean concept widely well-known with the Toyota production system (TPS), there is a fact shows that lean did not just emerging but it was partially used in the United States. For example in 1908, “Scientific management” made by Frederick W. Taylor was the concept of using scientific method such as standardization to apply with the working process. This scientific idea was criticized to be the initial stage of developing the lean concept, since it helped workers to work in system and ignored the unnecessary jobs. However, Henry Ford is considered to be the first person, who used the lean principles. In 1910, Ford has developed the concept of continuous flow – called Ford’s model T production system (MTPS) – for manufacturing assembly line. This MTPS was to have workers focusing on their individual jobs and moving Continue reading

Abey Francis

Managerial Skills and Roles

Managerial Skills Managers at every level in the management hierarchy must exercise three basic types of skills: technical, human, and conceptual. All managers must acquire these skills in varying proportions, although the importance of each category of skill changes at different management levels. Technical skills: Technical skills refer to the ability and knowledge in using the equipment, techniques and procedure involved in performing specific tasks. These skills require specialized knowledge and proficiency in the mechanics of a particular. Technical skills lose relative importance at higher levels of the management hierarchy, but most top executives started out as technical experts. Human skills: Human skills refer to the ability of a manager to work effectively with other people both as individual and as members of a group. Human skills are concerned with understanding of people. These are required to win cooperation of others and to build effective work teams. Conceptual skills: Conceptual Continue reading

Abey Francis