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

Procurement Methods in Project Management

The development of procurement strategy follows the stages in the life of a project. Initially, a preliminary strategy is determined. It is based on a broad definition of objectives and is an essential step in establishing the way forward for the project. It encourages the client to consider strategy early. The preliminary procurement strategy is usually developed with help from the client’s adviser and possibly other consultants. Procurement strategy development has three components: Analysis – assessing and setting the priorities of the project objectives and requirements; Choice – considering possible options, evaluating them and selecting the most appropriate; and Implementation – putting the chosen strategy into effect. During strategy preparation, it may be necessary to seek specialist advice from other consultants, for example, in relation to expected costs for the project. The adviser should advise the client on this. Specialist advice should besought when developing the strategy for novel or Continue reading

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Managing the Innovation Process

Innovation in nowadays is the most important competitive advantage for a company. The future of many businesses depends on their ability to innovate, to be ahead of their competitors. Organisations have to go through a process of practice, mistakes and to bring together different knowledge, skills and ideas to manage innovation process to success. The word innovation comes from the Latin word “innovare”, which means “to make something new”. Innovation is a deceptive thing. People usually relate it to a development of a new or better product or process, but it is only one part of process called innovation. Innovation is a process, which has to be established in the company for continued enhancement. In reality, a view of innovation as a single action can never make the company to succeed in the long run. There are two different types of innovation; radical and incremental. Incremental innovation consists of small Continue reading

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Distribution Center Decisions

When deciding upon locational decision a manager basically decides upon suppliers, plants, ware houses and markets. There may also be other facilities such as super stockists, consolidation centers or transit points. Besides locating the facilities a manager must also decide how market may be allocated to ware houses and how ware houses will be allocated to plants. The allocation decision can be altered on a regular basis as different costs change and markets evolve. When designing the network, both location and allocation decisions are made jointly. In some cases, companies want to design supply chain networks, in which a market is supplied from only one factory. This is commonly known as the capacitated plant location model with single sources. Companies may impose this constraint because it lower the complexity of coordinating the network and requires less flexibility from each Facility. A much more general form of the plant location model Continue reading

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Multinational Corporations and Home Country Relations

Public attitudes toward Multinational Corporations (MNCs) are biased by a nation’s position as a home or  host country. Historically, home countries have perceived MNC activities as  desirable extensions of their domestic business systems. Conversely host  countries have viewed MNCs as agents of foreign influenced and exploitation.  This historic dichotomy is now shot through with conflicting perceptions of the  MNCs. Different segments of society, such as labor, investors, consumers,  traders, and farmers, see their interests affected in different ways. As a result, a  multi-sided controversy about the societal merits and demerits of MNCs has  grown in both host and home countries. The most aggressive challenge to the traditionally supportive home country  policies towards MNCs has come from organized labor. Labor Conflict Multi-nationalization has created for management new mobility and flexibility  that have greatly enhanced its bargaining power vis-à-vis labor. Since the  sourcing base of the multinational firm knows no national boundaries Continue reading

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Case Study: Human Resource Management at BMW

BMW (Bayerische Motoren Werke  in German, or  Bavarian Motor Works  in English) is basically a German company with vast experience in the field of cars and was introduced in 1916. This company spends more money on its human inputs to add value and also its complex contribution of human resources creates its competitive advantage. BMW’s specialized staff which are able to offer superior quality of product and services in the market with the customer experience. Human resources plays important role in the BMW even in the time of recession as they have invest on the human inputs. But this depends on the financial condition and capabilities of the market as they had invested in training development and recruitment of the new management teams in their organisation. Earlier BMW was not giving importance to its customer services and its staff only focusing on its products and places for its expansion but Continue reading

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3 Important Roles of Organizational Hierarchy

Hierarchy refers to a system of organization that respects the chain of command whereby each agency is under supervision of a higher office. In many organizations, a group of managers is always above other employees in terms of knowledge and experience and is placed at the top while others follow based on their experience and the understanding of the organizational functions. Hierarchy is mostly present in government and other governmental institutions whereby each unit has its own powers, authority, and levels of management. Based on the chain of command, an individual communicates or reports to the immediate supervisor or the authority above him. Hierarchy was adopted mainly because it allows information flow given the fact that a junior officer cannot surpass the authority above him or her to report to the senior manager, unless it is necessary. Hierarchy plays an important role in any organization because it benefits the company Continue reading

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