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

Case Study on Apple’s Business Strategies

Apple was founded by Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak in 1976;  Apple Computers  revolutionized the personal computer industry.  Apple Computers Inc is considered to be one of the innovators in the computer industry. It brought about different changes to the industry; these changes are still visible in the present.   The company’s products were used as a basis by other computer company’s in designing the specifications and physical characteristics of their product. It also serves as a meter of how products are designed. The company offers various products for the different market it targets. The products made by the company offer something different. We can describe Apple’s business strategy in terms of product differentiation and strategic alliances. Product Differentiation Apple prides itself on its innovation.   When reviewing the history of Apple, it is evident that this attitude permeated the company during its peaks of success. For instance, Apple pioneered Continue reading

Abey Francis

Purchase Systems and Importance of Source

In an organization all activities are carried out according to systems and procedures for reducing variations and errors arising out of individuality. This makes performing the function simple and less prone to errors. Purchase organization also consists of such systems established for smooth running of purchasing function. These systems are pre purchase system, ordering system, post purchase system. Pre Purchase System: This system lays down how purchase activity is initiated. Various activities controlled by this system are requisitioning, selection of suppliers and obtaining & evaluating quotations. Requisitions: Requisition for an item may be made by anyone in the organization. Pre purchase system prescribes separate requisition form for capital equipment as this purchase activity is controlled by a separate system. Requisition for an item shall be made in a standard format. This format ensures that indenting person furnishes all relevant information like quantity, specifications, etc. and gets the purchase authorized by Continue reading

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Diversification of Risk in Portfolio Management

Average investors are risk averse. Therefore, they will be ready to invest into securities under the presumption of an adequate compensation for risk taking. The compensation for the risk taken should be in the form of minimal rate of return for the invested financial assets, and the rate is named the required rate of return. It has two components: Delayed consumption compensation (investors could have purchased goods and services with the assets they are to invest) and Risk acceptance compensation. Diversification is used to stabilize the potential return, and thus increase the value of the investment. Diversification stands for he investment of capital into several different securities or projects, all together called the portfolio. Each security or project entails certain risk; however, the only thing that matters to the investors who diversify their investments is the total risk (portfolio risk) and the portfolio return. There are two types of risks Continue reading

Abey Francis

Strategy Diamond – The Five Elements of Strategy

All organizations have strategies. The real question for a business is not whether it has a  strategy but rather whether its strategy is effective or ineffective, and whether the elements  of the strategy are chosen by managers, luck, or by default. You have probably heard the  saying, “luck is a matter of being in the right place at the right time”–well, the key to  making sure you are in the right place at the right time is preparation, and in many ways,  strategizing provides that type of preparation. Luck is not a bad thing.    The challenge is to  recognize luck when you see it, capitalize on luck, and put the organization repeatedly in  luck’s path. The strategy diamond model was developed by strategy researchers Don Hambrick and Jim  Fredrickson as a framework for checking and communicating a strategy.  The strategy diamond framework can be used systematically to examine a Continue reading

Abey Francis

Retail Selling Process – Personal Selling Process

Retail selling as the name suggests involves personal contacts. Advertising, on the other hand, involves no personal contact. Sales promotion is different from both these techniques. Now let us briefly explain about the Retail selling, its definition, qualities of retail seller and objectives . Salesmanship and Retail Selling The success of a marketing firm really depends on its effectiveness in creating a demand for its products and how effectively it satisfies its customers. To create a demand for the product, usually three techniques are employed by the marketing firms, namely, Personal Selling, Advertising and Sales Promotion. Of them personal selling has assumed an ever increasing importance than other techniques. The number of people employed in advertising is in thousands whereas in personal selling (retail selling) the number is in millions. Personal selling occurs where an individual salesperson sells a product, service or solution to a client. Salespeople match  the benefits Continue reading

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What is Activity Based Costing (ABC)?

Changing external business environment has resulted in further developments in the tools and techniques used for management accounting. Traditional management accounting techniques had certain limitations associated with them, for instance, absorption costing methods have been found to be inappropriate in the modern environment. Similarly, standard costing’ suitability with respect to its general philosophy and detailed operations has come under severe criticism. It is believed that traditional management accounting performance measures can produce the wrong type of response. As a response to the limitations of traditional accounting techniques, activity based approaches has gained significant repute. In the case of activity based approaches, the focus is on the activities that the business carries out as opposed to how the activities have traditionally been organised into separate functions. Activity based costing was thus developed because it was realized that older methods like absorption costing, which used labor hours as the basis for absorbing Continue reading

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