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

Understanding Decreasing Term Life Insurance: A Guide to Protecting Your Loved Ones

Life insurance is a crucial aspect of financial planning. It provides financial support to your loved ones in case of your untimely death. Different types of life insurance policies are available in the market, including term life insurance, whole life insurance, and universal life insurance. One of the most popular types of term life insurance is decreasing term life insurance. What is Decreasing Term Life Insurance? Decreasing term life insurance is a type of term life insurance where the death benefit decreases over the policy term. It’s designed to cover a specific debt or liability that decreases over time, such as a mortgage or a business loan. The premium stays the same throughout the policy term, but the death benefit reduces at a predetermined rate. For example, suppose you take out a decreasing term life insurance policy to cover your mortgage. The policy term is 30 years, and the death Continue reading

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Case Study on Business Strategies: The Downfall of Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems has been described as “the last standing, fully integrated computing company adding its own value at the chip, OS and systems level.”   The product line of Sun Microsystems include servers and workstations, Solaris operating system software for client-server networks, UltraSPARC and Java microprocessors, Java Internet software, and enterprise-wide support services.   The major competitors of Sun Microsystems in the technical and scientific markets were primarily Hewlett-Packard (HP), IBM, Compaq, and Silicon Graphics. The information technology industry was extremely competitive and characterized by rapid and continuous change, frequent product improvements, short life cycles, and price reductions.     This environment was forcing Sun Microsystems to rapidly and continuously develop quality products and services at competitive prices.   By 1998, Sun was the leading provider of UNIX-based servers with a U.S. market share of 26% of all web servers in use.     Sun was also a strong force Continue reading

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Negative Aspects of Material Handling Systems

It is bad engineering and worse management practice to look only at benefits and to ignore limitations. Handling systems, at times, have consequences that may be distinctly negative. These too, should be evaluated before the changes are adopted. Some such possible disadvantages are 1) Additional capital investment: It must be verified that the cost of the handling system is more attractively invested in the system under consideration than in any other part of the business. It should be assured that the gains expected are not based upon a more mechanized system v/s present practice, but rather the proposed new system v/s the best version of present practice. 2) Loss of flexibility Proposed system must be flexible enough to be economically and quickly adapted to the likely range of changes in the product or production techniques. If not, change over cost and time loss must be included in the evaluation, or Continue reading

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Current Situation of Credit Card Business

The previous (current) financial crisis has severe effects on the business of companies in the credit card business. For a long time, the credit card business has been regarded as one of the most profitable businesses in the financial services industry. MasterCard was one of the most successful companies with its business model differing in one important point from its competitors. Most of the companies in the credit card business issue their cards on their own (including market leader American Express), whereas MasterCard and its main competitor VISA operate through a franchise system which allows its partners (banks) to issue cards of MasterCard. The company is therefore not a direct business partner of cardholders but with the banks which have the right to issue its cards. MasterCard itself states that it is more a franchisor than an issuer of cards. It is therefore not directly exposed to the possibility of Continue reading

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Requirements for an Effective Management Control System

The following are the essential or basic requirements of an effective management control system: Suitable: The control system must be suitable for the kind of activity intended to serve. Apart from differences in the systems of control in different business, they also vary from department to department and from one level in the organization to the other. A system of control useful at a higher level of management will be different in scope and nature from that in use at the operative level. Several techniques are available for control purposes such as budgets, break-even points, financial ratios and so on. The manager must be sure that he is using the technique appropriate for control of the specific activity involved. The tool appropriate are not necessarily the same as between different departments or between two different organizations. For example, the sales department and production department may use different tools of control. Continue reading

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How Options are Used to Cover Foreign Exchange Risks?

Currency options provide corporate treasurer another tool for hedging foreign exchange risks arising out of firms operations. Unlike forward contract, options allow the hedger to gain from favorable exchange rate movements, while been unprotected from unfavorable movements. However forward contracts are costless while options involve up front premium cost. Examples are: a) Hedging a Foreign Currency with calls. In late February an American importer anticipates a yen payment of JYP 100 million to a Japanese supplier sometime late in May. The current USD/JYP spot is 0.007739 (which implies a JYP/USD rate of 129.22.). A June yen call option on the PHLX, with strike price of $0.0078 per yen is available for a premium of 0.0108 cents per yen or $0.000108 per yen. Each yen contract is for JPY 6.25 million. Premium per contract is therefore: $(0.000108 * 6250000) = $675. The firm decides to purchase 16 calls for a premium Continue reading

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