Core Competencies – Competitive Base for Organizational Success

Competence is considered as the most important attribute without which a business cannot enter or survive in an industry. Competences develop from resources and skills, technology and know-how all together makes up competences. For example in the pharma industry in order to survive or operate successfully a very specific understanding of the special equipment’s needed to manufacture medicines and how a medicine works on the human body is important. That is every player in the industry needs to possess each of these competences in order for it to survive long term. Core Competences are the skills and abilities by which resources are deployed through an organisations activities and processes such as to achieve competitive advantage in ways that others cannot imitate or obtain.  Core competence is a distinctive capability that enables an organisation to perform above the average industry performance. In the 1990s this concept gained momentum after the introduction Continue reading

Methods of Pricing a New Product

We will address the following questions after new product development: How should a company price a new good or service? How should the price be adapted to meet varying circumstances and opportunities? When should the company initiate a price change, and how should it respond to competitive price changes? In the entire marketing mix, price is the one element that produces revenue; the others produce costs. Price is also one of the most flexible elements: It can be changed quickly, unlike product features and channel commitments. Although price competition is a major problem facing companies, many do not handle pricing well. The most common mistakes are these: Pricing is too cost-oriented; price is not revised often enough to capitalize on market changes; price is set independent of the rest of the marketing mix rather than as an intrinsic element of market-positioning strategy; and price is not varied enough for different Continue reading

Obstacles to Effective Organizational Performance

Over the past decade there is an abundance of evidence, which could be produced to say that successful organizations are managed by efficient managers. Success in the long run can be ensured only through effective management. Successful managers foster sustainable growth through their skills, attributes and personal qualities. There is a distinction between common sense and common knowledge. Knowing things is different from doing things. Being able to analyze a case, identify a problem, and suggest a correct solution makes a manager more effective. Out of all the characteristics that make an effective organization, the most important factor is the quality and alignment of the human resources. The main obstacles to effective organizational performance  are discussed below. 1. Working Conditions Ergonomics does matter for job performance. Not only the furniture and fixtures but also the colors of the rooms and the objects with which people work influence people’s attitudes and Continue reading

The Depositories Act, 1996

The Depositories Act, 1996 was enacted to provide for regulation of depositories in securities and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. It came into force from 20th September, 1995. The terms used in The Depositories Act,1996 are defined as under: (1) “Beneficial owner” means a person whose name is recorded as such with a depository. (2) “Depository” means a company, formed and registered under the Companies Act, 1956 and which has been granted a certificate of registration under sub-section (1A) of section 12 of the SEBI Act, 1992. (3) “Issuer” means any person making an issue of securities. (4) “Participant” means a person registered as such under sub-section (1A) of section 12 of the SEBI Act, 1992. (5) “Registered owner” means a depository whose name is entered as such in the register of the issuer. Agreement between depository and participant A depository shall enter into an agreement in the Continue reading

Seven Basic Tools of Quality

For the reason of human factor and human reliability, it is inevitable that there could be occurred some kind of faults and errors even in well planned and technically equipped organizations and systems. The errors or unplanned risks that might be happened during the project, can lead the customer to have negative opinion about the management team. Also some faults and risks might not being able to fix or might be too expensive to overcome it. Therefore a well prepared quality management plan is essential for an organization in order to ensure that the management plan that the project team works on, meet the customer satisfaction and their needs. At this stage Ishikawa’s seven quality tools are quite helpful to determine, identify and evaluate the problems, their causes and suggestions for a continuous improvement process. These tools can be listed as; Histogram, Flow Chart, Scatter Diagram, Pareto Chart, Cause and Continue reading

Efficient Use of Human Resources

The Human Resources of an organization represent one of its largest investments. The term human resources at the macro level indicate the sum of all the components (like skill, creative ability) possessed by all the people. Human resources at the organizational level include all the component resources of all employees from rank and file to top level management. So, it includes the resource, of all people who contribute their services to the attainment of organizational goals. Human resources play a crucial role in the development process of the present economy. It is often felt that though the exploitation of natural resources, availability of physical and financial resources and international aid play prominent roles in the growth of modern economies, none of these factors is more significant than efficient and committed manpower. A country with abundance of physical resources will not benefit itself unless human resources make use of them. Only Continue reading