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 Political Environment Concept in Marketing

The political environment can be one of the less predictable elements in an organization’s marketing environment. Marketers need to monitor the changing political environment because political change can profoundly affect a firm’s marketing. Consider the following effects of politicians on marketing. At the most general level, the stability of the political system affects the attractiveness of a particular national market. While western Europe is generally politically stable, the instability of many governments in less developed countries has led a number of companies to question the wisdom of marketing in those countries. Governments pass legislation that directly and indirectly affects firms’ marketing opportunities. There are many examples of the direct effects on marketers, for example laws giving consumers rights against the seller of faulty goods. At other times the effects of legislative changes are less direct, as where legislation outlawing anti- competitive practices changes the nature of competition between firms within Continue reading

Abey Francis

Project Scope Management

Scope is the description of the boundaries of the project. It defines what the project will deliver and what it will not deliver. Scope is the view all stakeholders have from the project; it is a definition of the limits of the project. Project Scope Management includes the processes required to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required to complete the project successfully. Project scope management’s primary concern is with defining and controlling what is and is not included in the project. One of the leading causes for project failures is poor management of the project scope, either because the project manager did not spend enough time defining the work, there was not an agreement on the scope by stakeholders, or there was a lack of scope management which leads to adding work not authorized or budgeted to the project, this is known Continue reading

Abey Francis

Rural Banking in India

ECONOMICALLY empowering, i.e. access to inexpensive credit and other micro-finance services, including savings and insurance, India’s rural population will have a significant impact on India’s economic growth. Economic empowerment is defined here as.   The modern banking system has failed to deliver inexpensive credit to India’s 600,000 villages – despite several expensive attempts to do so. Do we need to rethink the appropriate institutional structure for rural banking in India? The problems of widespread poverty, growing inequality, rapid population growth and rising unemployment all find their origins in the stagnation of economic life in rural areas. Since the days of the Rural Credit Survey Committee (1954), India has come a long way in its search for an appropriate rural banking set-up. Though there has been some improvement, the problem remains. There has been tremendous progress in quantitative terms but quality has suffered, progress has been slow and halting and significant Continue reading

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Marketing Myopia – Definition, Causes, and Examples

Most of the major industries today were once considered as growth industry’s. However some of the industries that are on the rise up the mountain or undergoing a boom in business may very much be in the shadow of downfall. Other industries which are considered as veteran growth industries have in reality ceased to grow. In every case the reason for this stint is not because the market is impregnated, it is because of the failure of management as they have fallen prey to a phenomenon called ‘Marketing Myopia’. Defining Marketing Myopia ‘Marketing myopia’ is a term made up of two words: Marketing and Myopia which is used to describe the short sighted (myopic) approach adopted by organizations which often leads to their premature decay. The term was coined by ‘Theodore Levitt’ in a paper which was published in the Harvard Business Review in the year 1960. This paper has Continue reading

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Case Study: America Online (AOL) Merger with Time Warner (TWX)

A merger between America Online (AOL) and Time Warner (TWX) was announced on January 10, 2000. A new company named AOL Time Warner Incorporated was planned outcome of the merger. AOL shareholders would receive 1 new share for each AOL share, and TWX shareholders would receive 1.5 new shares for each TWX share. The merger captured the imagination of the public. AOL agreed to pay stock worth about $165 billion for Time Warner, a 70% premium. At the announcement, it was estimated that the market value of the combined companies would be $350 billion. As important as the large value of the deal was the combination of “new economy” and “old economy” companies. AOL’s stock prices boomed in the late 1990s as a hot Internet stock. Investors saw its potential for the significant future earnings growth based on its implementation of technology. Meanwhile, Time Warner (TWX) was a leader of Continue reading

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Terms commonly used with reference to capital market

There are several terms which are commonly used with reference to capital market. Several such terms have already been discussed in the previous articles. Understanding of following terms (given in alphabetical order) will help the readers in better grasping the structure and trading system in the capital market in India : Arbitrage: Arbitrage refers to taking advantage of price differential in a particular security on to different stock exchanges. An investor/speculator can sell at one stock exchange and buy the same at lower price at other stock exchange. The difference in prices is the profit of the investor/speculator. Categories of Shares at BSE: At the Mumbai Stock Exchange, the shares have been categorised in different categories  such as A, B1, B2, S, T, TS and Z. Categories A , B1 and B2 depend upon the volume and turnover of different shares on the BSE. S group is called BSE Indonext, Continue reading

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