Concepts of Throughput Accounting and Theory of Constraints

Financial Management

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

Goal Congruence in Management Control Systems

Each individual has his personal goals. He joins an organization to achieve then goals. The personal goal may just be to get a job that assures safety and monetary rewards. The organization, through its top management, sets for itself pals that are desired to achieve. At times there is a conflict between individual goals and organizational goals. Such conflict is more clearly evident in nonprofit organizations such as research and development institutions, and educational institutions. Top management wants these organizational goals to be attained, out other participants have their own personal goals that they want to achieve. These personal goals are the satisfaction of their needs. In other words, participants act in their own self- interest. Here individuals may grow bigger than the organization and this may lead to goal conflict. The control system should be designed so as to integrate the personal goals with organizational goals, and thereby achieve Continue reading

Abey Francis

Buy Back of Securities

Buy Back of Securities  means the purchase by the company of its own shares. Buy-back of equity shares is an important mode of capital restructuring. It is a corporate financial strategy which involves capital restructuring and is prevalent globally with the underlying objectives of increasing earnings per share, averting hostile takeovers, improving returns to the stakeholders and realigning the capital structure. Buy Back of Securities is done by the company with the purpose to improve liquidity in its shares and enhance the shareholders’ wealth. Under the SEBI (Buy Back of Securities) Regulations, 1998, a company is permitted to buy back its shares from: existing shareholders on a proportionate basis through the offer document; open market through stock exchanges using book building process; and  shareholders holding odd lot shares. The company has to disclose the pre and post-buy back holdings of the promoters. To ensure completion of the buy back process Continue reading

Abey Francis

Investment Decisions based on the Economic Cycle

Countries go through the business or economic cycle and the stage of the cycle at which a country has a direct impact both on industry and individual companies. It affects investment decisions, employment, demand and the profitability of companies. While some industries such as shipping or consumer durable goods are greatly affected by the business cycle, others such as the food or health industry are not affected to the same extent. This is because in regard to certain products consumers can postpone their purchase decisions, whereas in certain others they cannot. The four stages of an economic cycle are: Depression: At the time of depression, demand is low and falling. Inflation is high and so are interest rates. Companies, crippled by high borrowing and falling sales, are forced to curtail production, close down plants built at times of higher demand, and let workers go. Recovery: During this phase, the economy Continue reading

Abey Francis

Retail Site Evaluation and Selection

Retail Site Evaluation Methods Experts and analysts have at their disposal several methods to evaluate retail site alternatives. These are broadly classified as subjective and objective. Again some are quite simple and some are sophisticated. It suffices to take two most commonly used methods namely, checklist method and quantitative methods. 1. Checklist Method It provides a retail site evaluator with a set of procedural steps for arriving at a subjective yet quantitative expression of a sites value. First, the evaluator enumerates the general factors that are usually considered in any site evaluation. A typical list of factors includes all or most of the site-evaluation principles~ interruption, cumulative attraction, compatibility and accessibility. Secondly, for each general factor, the evaluator identifies several attribute measurements that reflect the location needs of the proposed operation. For instance, interception which is a key location attribute for most convenience retailers, can be divided into the volume Continue reading

Abey Francis

Roles and Responsibilities of Human Resource Management

Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization’s most valued assets of the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business. The terms “human resource management” and “human resources” (HR) have largely replaced the term “personnel management” as a description of the processes involved in managing people in organizations. In simple words, HRM means employing people, developing their capacities, utilizing, maintaining and compensating their services in tune with the job and organizational requirement. Human resource management (HRM)  is based primarily on the assumption that employees are individuals with varying goals and needs, and as such should not be thought of as basic business resources, such as trucks and filing cabinets. The field takes a positive view of workers, assuming that virtually all wish to contribute to the enterprise productively, and that the main Continue reading

Abey Francis

Case Study: Turbulent History of Chrysler Corporation

In 1920, the president of Buick and Vice President of General Motors (GM) resigned his positions in the GM Corporation following political differences with founder and then-president of General Motors William Durant. This former automotive Vice President was promptly approached by a group of investors to focus his business acumen in the fledgling automotive industry on a small, financially troubled New York company called Maxwell Motor Corporation. The one-time automotive vice president was installed as president of Maxwell Motor Company. The man’s name was Walter Percy Chrysler. In short order, Walter Chrysler brought the Maxwell Motor Corporation out of bankruptcy. The financial improvement was due in large part to Mr. Chrysler introducing a new Maxwell model- the Chrysler Six. This car was very well received by the automobile buying public and went on to sell 32,000 units in its first year, generating a profit of over $4 million for the Continue reading

Abey Francis