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

Global Supply Chain Management – Drivers and Activities of Global Supply Chain

Nowadays with globalization, global supply chain management is becoming a very important issue for most of businesses. The main reasons of this trend are procurement cost reduction, purchasing risks control, revenues increasing and etc. For instance, companies may set up overseas factories to benefit from tariff and trade concessions, lower labor cost, capital subsidies, and reduced logistics costs in foreign markets. Moreover, easy access to abroad markets and close proximity to customers result better organizational learning. On the other hand, improved reliability can be obtained as a consequence of closer relationship with suppliers. There are some issues that should be considered in managing a global supply chain. First of all, the company should decide about its general outsourcing plan. For whatever reason, businesses may prefer to keep some aspects of supply chain nearer to home. The second issue that must be incorporated into a global supply chain management strategy is Continue reading

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Background of Lean Manufacturing

Lean is a philosophy that spurred from the Toyota Production System (TPS). TPS was created by Toyota’s founder Sakichi Toyodo, Kiichiro Toyoda, and Taiichi Ohno. Much of TPS was also influenced by W. Edwards Deming’s statistic process control (SPC) and Henry Ford’s mass production lines. However, the Japanese were not impressed with Ford’s approach because it was filled with over-production, lots of inventory, and much waiting. Toyota identified these weaknesses in Ford’s production line and adapted the production line to create a more productive and reliable production line. TPS and lean also use just-in-time inventory where only small amounts of inventory were ordered and very little inventory was left waiting in the production line. This also was very different from Ford’s production line which usually bought high volumes of materials and had high inventory levels to lower costs. After TPS proved to be successful for Toyota, many companies adapted their Continue reading

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Introduction to E-Business

Due to Internet capabilities and web technology, traditional business organization definition has undergone a change where scope of the enterprise now includes other company locations, business partners, customers and vendors. It has no geographic boundaries as it can extend its operations where Internet works. All this is possible due to Internet and web moving traditional paper driven organization to information driven Internet enabled E-business enterprise. E-business enterprise is open twenty-four hours, and being independent, managers, vendors, customers transact business any time from anywhere. Internet capabilities have given E-business enterprise a cutting edge capability advantage to increase the business value. It has opened new channels of business as buying and selling can be done on Internet. It enables to reach new markets across the world anywhere due to communication capabilities. It has empowered customers and vendors / suppliers through secured access to information to act, wherever necessary. The cost of business Continue reading

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Team Based Compensation System

Teams have become a popular way to organize business because they offer companies the flexibility needed to meet the demands of the changing business environment. While many companies have been quick to organize their workforce into teams, they have not been as eager to implement team-based compensation systems. However, if team-based organizations continue to utilize old, individually-oriented pay systems, they will not fully realize the benefit of highly cooperative and motivated work teams. Team compensation is a way of rewarding performance in team settings. That is, individuals are rewarded based on the performance of the team as opposed to individual performance. There are different kinds of compensation such as a portion of base pay, other financial rewards such as gain-sharing, and non-financial rewards such as movie passes and gift certificates. Teams are defined as groups of individuals who work together to develop products or deliver services for which they are Continue reading

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Credit Default Swaps (CDS)

The credit default swap (CDS) is the cornerstone of credit derivatives market. A credit default swap is a swap contract in which protection buyer (buyer of CDS) makes a series of payments over the maturity of CDS to the protection seller & in exchange receives a payment which is contingent on the happening of default by third party (reference entity). In short, it is a credit derivative contract between two parties in order to exchange the credit risk of an issuer (reference entity). The underlying (reference) asset can be bond or loan of any corporation known as reference entity. The reference entity is not a party to the contract. Reference entity refers to the party on which protection is written. The protection buyer makes quarterly premium payments (spreads) to the protection seller. This premium is usually some percent of notional value of CDS contract, expressed in basis points. If the Continue reading

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Case Study: PepsiCo’s International Marketing Strategy

Pepsi was created by chemist named Caleb Bradham. He was inspired to experiment with various products and ingredients to create a suitable summer drink that became highly sought after way back in the summer of 1898. It was this summer inspiration that later evolved into what we now know as Pepsi Cola. The company was launched officially in the year 1902. The beginning of Pepsi Cola was in the back room of his pharmacy, but recognizing its potential, Caleb soon started bottling the product so that people all over can enjoy it. As the years passed, Caleb started franchising the bottling of the drink to different people in different locations. Soon Pepsi Cola was being sold in 24 states across the United States. When World War I broke out, the company went bankrupt and Caleb had to sell the trademark to a stock broker from North Carolina. But he too Continue reading

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