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

Why do Firms Go Green?

Environmental issues have gained importance in business as well as in public life through out the world. It is not like that a few leaders of different countries or few big renowned business houses are concerned about the day to day deterioration of oxygen level in our atmosphere but every common citizen of our country and the world is concerned about this common threat of global warming. So in this scenario of global concern, corporate houses has taken green-marketing as a part of their strategy to promote products by employing environmental claims either about their attributes or about the systems, policies and processes of the firms that manufacture or sell them. Clearly green marketing is part and parcel of over all corporate strategy; along with manipulating the traditional marketing mix (product, price, promotion and place), it require an understanding of public policy process. So we can say green marketing covers Continue reading

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Performance Management Process

Various authors propose various steps for performance management process. The typical performance management process includes some or all of the following steps, whether in performance management of organizations, subsystems, processes, etc. Note that how the steps are carried out can vary widely, depending on the focus of the performance efforts and who is in charge of carrying it out. For example, an economist might identify financial results, such as return on investment, profit rate, etc. An industrial psychologist might identify more human-based results, such as employee productivity. Performance management process is composed of four main stages: Planning Performance Managing Performance Reviewing Performance Rewarding Performance 1. Planning Performance As with the introduction of any process, there first needs to be clarity about the primary reason for introducing performance management and a clear view about what it is expected to deliver in terms of results. There also needs to be strong commitment Continue reading

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Learning Styles

Learning style refers to the ability of an individual to learn. A manager’s long-term success depends more on the ability to learn than on the mastery of the specific skills or technical knowledge. Kolb’s Learning Styles Model Kolb’s model of learning styles is one of the best-known and widely used learning style theories.  Kolb’s learning theory sets out  four distinct learning styles  (or preferences), which are based on  a four-stage learning cycle.  Much of Kolb’s theory is concerned with the learner’s internal cognitive processes. “Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. Knowledge results from the combination of grasping experience and transforming it.” (David A. Kolb, 1984). These four learning styles are: accommodation, divergence, assimilation and convergence. The four learning styles are based on dimensions: feeling versus thinking and doing versus observing. Accommodator: An accommodator learns by doing and feeling. He tends to learn primarily Continue reading

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Key Indicators in Cash Management

Cash management is the process of forecasting, collecting, disbursing, investing, and planning for cash a company needs to operate smoothly. Cash management is a vital task because it is the most important yet least productive asset that a small business owns. A business must have enough cash to meet its obligations or it will be declared bankrupt. Creditors, employees and lenders expect to be paid on time and cash is the required medium of exchange. However, some firm retain an excessive amount of cash to meet any unexpected circumstances that might arise. These dormant cash have an income-earning potential that owners are ignoring and this restricts a firm’s growth and lowers its profitability. Investing cash, even for a short time, can add to company’s earning. Proper cash management permits the owner to adequately meet cash demands of the business, avoid retaining unnecessarily large cash balances and stretch the profit generating Continue reading

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Indian Financial Network (INFINET) and It’s Impact on Indian Banking System

It had been widely felt earlier that one of the biggest bottlenecks in the banking system in the country was the lack of a system that ensures fast, safe and secure intra-bank and inter-bank communication. In fact, this deficiency had been hampering to a large extent the development of a modern, integrated payment system in the nineties. Most of the cases of complaint against banks, in those days related to the time taken for transfer of funds across banks and between cities and to the delays in the collection of outstation cheques. Clearly, the non-availability of a reliable communication backbone had been one of the main contributors to this state of affairs. The functioning of the terrestrial line networks was hardly optimal in terms of efficiency, although of late, there has been some change in this area for the better. But, the wide geographical spread of branches of banks and Continue reading

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Opportunity Cost – Definition, Advantages and Disadvantages

Opportunity cost  analysis  is an important part of a company’s  decision-making processes, but is not treated as an  actual cost  in any  financial statement. While the term  opportunity cost  has its roots in economics, it’s also a very important concept in the investment world.   It’s a model that can be applied to our everyday decisions, as we’re faced with making a choice between the many options we encounter each day. It is a very powerful concept when someone has to make a decision to select a particular product or making a choice. In simple words, opportunity cost means choosing or making a best decision from different option. When one has to make a decision in between various actions to select only one particular work at a time is called opportunity cost. When faced with a decision, the opportunity cost is the value assigned to the next best choice. The Continue reading

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