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

Co-Branding – Meaning, Strategies and Benefits

Nowadays, one of the highly valued assets for a company are its brands, with branding being every company’s top priority. But it often costs the companies huge amount of money and takes them a long time to build their brand. Today’s market is suffering from a syndrome of sameness where all the products offered to the customers look very similar both in terms of sameness in the physical brand element and in the symbolic value proposition offered to the market. Thus it has become difficult to establish a unique position for new products with markets cluttered with competing brands. Even innovative differentiated products can be imitated quickly, leaving no strategic edge. As globalization phenomenon continues to elevate competition in the marketplace, product introduction has become highly fraught with risk. One reason of such risk is the incredibly high cost of building brands for a product and another is that firms Continue reading

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General Obligations and Responsibilities of Portfolio Managers

Recommended reading:   Definition of Portfolio Managers General obligations and responsibilities of portfolio managers are: 1. Code of Conduct:- A portfolio manger has to, in the conduct of business; observe high standards of integrity and fairness in all his dealing with his clients and other portfolio managers. The money received by him from a client for an investment purpose should be deployed as soon as possible and money due and payable to a client should be paid forthwith. A portfolio manager has to render at all times high standards of services, exercise due diligence, ensure proper-care and exercise independent professional judgment. He should either avoid any conflict of interest in his investment or disinvestment decision, or where any conflict of interest arises; ensure fair treatment of all his customers. He must disclose to the client, possible sources of conflict of duties and interest, while providing unbiased services. A portfolio manger Continue reading

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Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Challenges

Emotional intelligence skills provide developing leaders with an increased understanding of the impacts of emotions within a team or organization. Caruso and Salovey (2004) demonstrated the advantages EI has with respect to six common challenges in leadership: (a) building effective teams, (b) planning and deciding effectively, (c) motivating people, (d) communicating a vision, (e) promoting change, and (f) creating effective interpersonal relationships. Throughout Caruso and Salovey’s descriptions of the six challenges, they cited a connection with Kouzes and Posner’s Effective Leadership Practices Model. 1. Building effective teams The first challenge was building an effective team. Caruso and Salovey discussed the need for clarifying personal values before attempting to formulate team values. Like Kouzes and Posner’s model, Caruso and Salovey explained that leaders must identify their own values before clarifying team values. A significant level of trust is important for leading teams, and a leader must generate positive opportunities for meaningful Continue reading

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Concept of Double Taxation

Double taxation is a situation that affects mainly multinational corporations when business profits are taxed at both the corporate and personal levels. The corporation has to pay income tax at the corporate rate before any profits are to be paid to shareholders. Profits are distributed to shareholders through dividends are subject to income tax again at the individual rate according to tax regime of the country. This way corporate profit are counted as twice income taxes. The outcome of double taxation does not affect smaller corporations, which can distribute the earnings straight to shareholders without the intermediate step of paying dividends. On the other hand, many other smaller corporations are able to avoid double taxation by distributing earnings to their employee or shareholders as wages. There are two types of double taxation: economical and juridical (international). Double economical taxation is related to the taxation of two and more taxes from Continue reading

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Different Approaches to Training Needs Assessment

What is Training Need Assessment? “A training need exists when an employee lacks the knowledge or skill to perform an assigned task satisfactorily. It arises when there is a variation between what the employee is expected to do on the job and what the actual job performance is.” To pinpoint the range of training needs and define their content, the HR department uses different approaches to needs assessment. 1. Survey: Survey the potential trainees to identify specific topics about which they want to learn more. It suggests that trainees are more likely to be receptive to the resulting programs when they are viewed as relevant. The group’s expertise may be tapped through a group discussion, a questionnaire, the Delphi procedure, or a nominal group meeting. 2. Group recommendation: The group’s expertise may be tapped through a group discussion, a questionnaire, the Delphi procedure, or a nominal group meeting. i. Group Continue reading

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Import Process

Importing refers to the purchase of foreign products for use or sale in the home market. Importing involves searching foreign markets for acceptable products and sources of supply, providing for transfer of the product to the home market, arranging financing, negotiating the import documentation and customers procedure, and developing plans for use or for resale of the item of service. Thus, successful importing depends on more than good buying; it requires planning for acceptance of the product and delivery of the promised benefits. The importing firm has the responsibility to determine whether the foreign product or service will meet the needs to the home market. Essentially the import process comprise the following five stages: Determining market demand and purchases motivation. Locating and negotiating with sources of supply. Securing physical distribution. Preparing documentation and customs processing to facilitate movement among countries and organizations. Development a plan for resale or use. 1. Continue reading

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