Impact of Foreign Exchange Rate on Balance of Payments (BOP)

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) defines the Balance of Payments (BOP) as a statistical statement that systematically summarizes, for a specific time period, the economic transactions of an economy with the rest of the world. BOP data measures economic transactions include exports and imports of goods and services, income flows, capital flows, and gifts and similar one-sided transfer payments. The net of all these transactions is matched by a change in the country‘s international monetary reserves. The significance of a deficit or surplus in the BOP has changed since the advent of floating exchange rates. Traditionally, BOP measures were used as evidence of pressure on a country‘s foreign exchange rate. This pressure led to governmental transactions that were compensatory in nature, forced on the government by its need to settle the deficit or face a devaluation. Impact of Foreign Exchange Rate on Balance of Payments (BOP) The relationship between the Continue reading

The Concept of New Product Development

Product development is the process of finding out the possibilities for producing a product. It is necessary to find out the technical and financial feasibility, sales potential and profitability of the product. Thus, it can be said that the product development is concerned with the development and commercialization of new products. Definitions of New Product Development New Product Development is a process which is designed to develop, test and consider the viability of products which are new to the market in order to ensure the growth or survival of the organization. New Product Development can be defined as the process of innovating and inventing new ideas and concepts, with a view to developing a successful new product in the anticipation of customer needs. The new product development can be defined as the term used to describe the complete process of bringing a new product or service to market. There are Continue reading

Intuition and Analysis in Strategic Decision Making

In the global marketplace, intuition and rational process both play a crucial role in effective strategic decision making. In various firms, intuitive process is used under the strategic management to develop effective decisions for attaining organizational goals and objectives. Intuition indicates to solve the problem with the help of using sensing and without using rational process. It can be discussed as a process to reach at the conclusion with the help of fewer information those are required for taking appropriate decisions. It is a built-in capacity that is used by the individuals to reach at the solution of the problem effectively. At the same time, it is negatively related with the stable competitive environment. Intuition is used as a business tool in many organizations to conduct and run the business successfully. Intuition is a psychological function supports to individuals for using her/his experiences and knowledge to isolate and integrate the Continue reading

Money Market – Definition, Features and Instruments

As per the definition of Reserve Bank of India, money market is “a market for short terms financial assets that are close substitute for money, facilitates the exchange of money in primary and secondary market”. Indian money market was highly regulated and was characterized by limited number of participants. The limited variety and instruments were available. Interest rate on the instruments was under the regulation of Reserve Bank of India. The sincere efforts for developing the money market were made when the financial sector reforms were started by the government. Money markets are the markets for short-term, highly liquid debt securities. Examples of these include bankers’ acceptances, repos, negotiable certificates of deposit, and Treasury Bills with maturity of one year or less and often 30 days or less. Money market securities are generally very safe investments, which return relatively; low interest rate that is most appropriate for temporary cash storage Continue reading

Case Study of Global Knowledge: Technology as an Effective Ingredient of Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Case Summary: Global Knowledge, a worldwide leader in IT education and enterprise training solutions, needed a solid and scalable platform for delivering its virtual classroom e-Learning training programs. The company currently offers over 700 courses in 21 countries and in 13 languages every day for such leading companies as Cisco, Microsoft, Nortel, Oracle, Legato, Enterasys and Compaq in addition to a broad array of industry curriculum and certifications.   Over the last 2 years, Global Knowledge has begun offering a broad menu of these classes as instructor-led, virtual e-Learning courses but needed a technology platform to effectively address their customers’ virtual training needs around the world. Global Knowledge customers, located throughout the world, attend virtual classes through various connections — dial up modem, DSL, cable modem and corporate LANs behind firewalls.   The courses are equivalent to traditional instructor-led classroom courses — complete with subject matter experts as instructors; live Continue reading

Concepts of Merchandising and Merchandise Planning in Retail

Retail Merchandising Merchandising is a process involving developing, securing and managing the merchandise mix to meet the firm’s marketing objectives. The merchandise ­mix stands for the retailer’s total offering, be it goods or services or both. The merchandising process is a three tier structural set of activities. The following configuration gives the idea of merchandising process. The first stage or tier is to do with developing the merchandise-mix which is composed of two elements namely product and service-mix. The second stage or tier is securing the merchandise-mix which involves two highly skillful and  specialized  activities namely the buying process and the procurement process. Here, the retailer determines “from where”, “when” and “how” to get products into the stores. The third and the final stage or tier in the merchandising process is managing the merchandising-mix which is to do with planning and controlling the merchandise to ensure efficient, profitable operations. Retail Continue reading