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

Organizational Innovation – Definition, Characteristics and Types

Organizational Innovation is a process of receiving and using new ideas to satisfy the stakeholders of an organization. It is the conversion of new knowledge into new products and services. Organizational  Innovation is about creating value and increasing efficiency, and therefore growing business. It is a spark that keeps organizations and people moving ever onward and upward. “Without innovation, new products, new services, and new ways of doing business would never emerge, and most organizations would be forever stuck doing the same old things the same old way. “Innovation here is defined broadly, to include both improvements in technology and better methods  or ways of doing things. It can be manifested in product changes, process changes, new approaches  to marketing, new forms of distribution, and new conceptions of scope.” (Porter, 1990, p. 45) The term organizational innovations covers a wide spectrum of innovations; for example, it can  mean innovations in Continue reading

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Learning Curve in an Organizational Context

A highly useful learning concept which is valid for a wide range of situation is the  organizational learning curve, a diagrammatic presentation of the amount learned in relation to time. A typical learning curve will show on the Y-axis the amount learnt and the X-axis the passage of time. Characteristics  of the Organizational Learning Curve Certain characteristics are common to all learning curves. One such feature is the initial spurt. At the beginning, it is natural that the rate of learning exhibits spurt. Usually, the graph levels off at some stage, indicating that maximum performance has been achieved. Apparently at the beginning of the learning process, the subject is highly motivated and seems to exhibit a significant surge of effort. Many experienced trainers exploit this initial spurt by selecting the most important items to be communicated and presenting them as a package to the students at the beginning of the Continue reading

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Types of Advertising Agencies

An  advertising agency  or  ad agency  is a service  business  dedicated to creating, planning and handling  advertising  (and sometimes other forms of  promotion) for its clients. Advertising Agencies can be classified by the range of services that they offer. Also, advertising agencies range in size from one man shows to large firms that employ thousands of people. Accordingly, different types of advertising agencies are: Full Service Agencies: As the name implies, a full service agency is one that handles all phases of advertising process for its clients: it plan, creates, produces and places advertisements for its clients. In addition, it might provide other marketing services such as sales promotion, trade shows, exhibits, newsletters and annual reports. One major point that differentiates a full service agency from other is that the personal work full time and the services provide are extensive. The services usually provided by a full service agency include Continue reading

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Unitary Perspective of Industrial Relations

The Unitary perspective  of industrial relations views the organisation as a team ‘unified by a common purpose’, namely the success of the organisation. This perspective views all the people in the organisation as part of one big team. Unitarists view everyone within the organisation as part of one team with one loyalty structure. This immediately says that there are no barriers between different groups and departments which could lead to poor communication and animosity, which would go against the notion of common values and common goals as that would not be advantageous to the common goal, of the success of the organisation. The set of common goals and values that are put in place are there to try to create and maintain the order within the organisation, the ‘common’ set of values and goals are important so that all of the employees are working in unison. This is important as Continue reading

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Management Accounting Best Practices – Cost Allocation

Cost allocation is the process of identifying and assigning the costs of services necessary for the operation of a business or other type of entity. Unlike a cost rating, the allocation is less concerned with the actual amount of the cost, and more concerned with allocating or assigning the cost to the correct unit within the organization. From this perspective, cost allocation can be seen as a tool that helps track all costs associated with the ongoing operation more efficiently, since each cost is associated with specific departments or groups of departments within the organization. A simple example of cost allocation would be the wages or salary of an employee assigned to work in a specific department. In a hospital, a nurse is normally assigned to a specific wing or floor, with the costs allocated to the general operation of that unit. As long as the nurse continues to work Continue reading

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Case Study: L’Oreal International Marketing Strategy

L’oreal is the world’s biggest cosmetics and beauty products company. Basically it’s a French based company and its headquartered in Paris. It is focusly engaged in the field of production and marketing of concentrating on hair colours, skin care, perfumes and fragrances, make up and styling products. L’oreal products also based on dermatological and pharmaceutical fields. Their products are made for Individual and professional customers. This company operates over 130 countries like Asia, America, East and West Europe through 25 international brands. The success of L’Oreal lies in the fact that the company succeeded in reaching out to the customers of different countries of the world, across different income ranges and cultural patterns, giving them the appropriate product they are worthy of. The area of expertise of L’Oreal being that it succeeded almost in every country that it entered. The strategies of L’Oreal was varied enough to help it and Continue reading

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