The Boundaryless Career: Modern Contemperory Perspective on Career

Human Resource Management

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

Strategies of Futures Contracts

A futures contract is an agreement between two parties to buy or sell an asset at a certain time in the future at a certain price. Futures contracts are special types of forward contracts in the sense that the former are standardized exchange-traded contracts. Futures  Trading  Strategies We look here at some strategies of futures contracts. We refer to single stock futures. However since the index is nothing but a security whose price or level is a weighted average of securities constituting an index, all strategies that can be implemented using stock futures can also be implemented using index futures. Hedging: Long security, sell futures Speculation: Bullish security, buy futures Speculation: Bearish security, sell futures Arbitrage: Overpriced futures: buy spot, sell futures Arbitrage: Under-priced futures: buy futures, sell spot 1. Hedging: Long security, sell futures Futures can be used as an effective risk–management tool. Take the case of an investor Continue reading

Abey Francis

Important Considerations in Determining Capital Structure of a Company

The determination of capital structure involves additional considerations in addition to the concerns about EPS, value and cash flow. A firm may have enough debt servicing ability but it may not have assets to offer as collateral. Some of the most important considerations are discussed below: 1. Assets – The form of assets held by a company are important determinants of its capital structure. Tangible fixed assets serve as collateral to debt. In the event of financial distress, the lenders can access these assets and liquidate them to realize funds lent by them. Companies with higher tangible fixed assets will have less expected costs of financial distress and hence, higher debt ratios. Companies have intangible assets in the form of human capital, relations with stakeholders, brands, reputation etc., and their values start eroding as the firm faces financial difficulties and its financial risk increases. 2. Growth Opportunities – The nature Continue reading

Abey Francis

Modularity – Definition and Advantages

Modularity is a degree to which a system’s component maybe separated and recombined. However, it can be used in different contexts and its definition changes accordingly. For example. In Biology, it is the concept that organisms or metabolic pathways are composed of modules. In Nature, modularity refers to the construction of a cellular organism by joining together standardized units to form larger compositions. In cognitive science, the idea of modularity of mind holds that the mind is composed of independent, closed, domain-specific processing modules, etc. But here we will be concentrating on Modularity in operations management, which refers to an engineering technique that builds larger systems by combining smaller subsystems. The growing concern for the environment has spurred a great interest in environmentally aware design and manufacturing amongst designers worldwide. Introducing Modularity in consumer products can help bring multiple manufactures come together creating differentiated assembly lines that can decrease the Continue reading

Abey Francis

Case Study on Entrepreneurship: Walt Disney

Animation is the allusion of movement through the persistence of vision. It dates back to as early as 1650 in Paleolithic cave painting, where animals were often drawn with multiple sets of overlapping legs. Although some argue that this could simply represent the artists’ changing their minds about leg position, most perceive these paintings as early attempts to portray motion. The zoetrope, a cylinder with vertical slits in the sides, is another example of early animation, as the inner surface of the cylinder has a band of sequenced pictures that produce the illusion of motion as the user looks at the pictures through the slits as it spins. Since cave paintings and the zoetrope, other forms of animation have been established, including stop motion, 3D animation, motion capture, rotoscope, film, etc. Numerous people have contributed to the world of animation and amongst those is Walt Disney. Just to name a Continue reading

Abey Francis

Blockchain Technology – Features, Types and Benefits

A Short History of the Blockchain Technology When an unknown scientist under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto published his white paper about Bitcoin – a “purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash”– in 2008, it was not the cryptocurrency itself but its underlying mechanism, known today as the blockchain, that was considered revolutionary.  But overall awareness of the blockchain technology remained rather limited, as Bitcoin itself was not yet widely known. Starting in the year 2012, increasing activity surrounding Bitcoin could be observed, as the cryptocurrency’s market capitalization grew and start-ups in the field of payments and coin wallets started to emerge. But still, Bitcoin and the underlying blockchain remained subject to a general scepticism, being associated mainly with the financing of rather sketchy online activities and other misconceptions. Nonetheless, by the year 2014, over 80 uses of blockchains had been reported. Slowly, the initial scepticism gave way to the increasing efforts of Continue reading

Abey Francis

Levels of Planned Organizational Change

A planned change is a change planned by the organisation, it does not  happen by itself. It is affected by the organisation with the purpose of achieving  something that might otherwise by unattainable or attainable with great  difficulty. Through planned change, an organisation can achieve its goals  rapidly. The basic reasons for planned change are: To improve the means for satisfying economic needs of members. To increase profitability. To promote human work for human beings. To contribute to individual satisfaction and social well being. Levels of Planned Organizational Change Planned organizational change is normally targeted at improving  effectiveness at one or more of four different levels : human resources,  functional resources, technological capabilities, and organizational capabilities. 1. Human Resources Human resources are an organization’s most important  asset. Ultimately, an organization’s distinctive competencies lie in the skills and  abilities of its employees. Because these skills and abilities give an organization  a Continue reading

Abey Francis