Case Study on Entrepreneurship: Larry Page

Business Analysis

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

Concept of Workplace Spirituality

Workplace spirituality has recently emerged as a significant aspect of organizations and hence, a significant topic of inquiry in the organizational science. Since the late 1990s, publications such as Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Fortune and others have reported a growing desire among employees for meaning and purpose at work, for a spiritual dimension to organizational life. Spirituality is the state of intimate relationship with the inner self of higher values and morality as well as recognizing the truth of inner nature of people. The concept of spirituality at workplace can be explained as an experience of interconnectedness, shared by all those involved in the work process, initially triggered by the awareness that each is individually driven by an inner power, which raises and maintains his/her sense of honesty, kindness, and courage, consequently leading to the collective creation of an aesthetically motivational environment characterized by a sense of purpose, high Continue reading

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Objectives and Principles of a Good Plant Layout

Plant layout is a plan for effective utilization of facilities for the manufacture of products; involving a most efficient and economical arrangement of machines, materials, personnel, storage space and all supporting services, within available floor space. A good rather an ideal layout is one which provides maximum satisfaction to all concerned i.e. shareholders, management employees and consumers. Objectives of a Good Plant Layout Only through an efficient layout, the organization can attain the following objectives: Economy in handling of materials, work-in-process and finished goods. Minimization of product delays. Lesser work-in-progress and minimum manufacturing cycle time. Efficient utilization of available space. Easy supervision and better production control. Greater flexibility for changes in product design and for future expansion. Better working conditions by eliminating causes of excessive noise, objectionable odor smoke etc. Principles of a Good Plant Layout Overall integration of factors: A good layout is one that integrates men, materials, machines Continue reading

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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

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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

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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

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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

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