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

Building Effective Teams

An effective team is one which contributes to the achievement of organizational objectives by performing the task assigned to it and providing satisfaction to its members. Team effectiveness depends on the complementary of team members, other factors remaining the same. From this statement, it appears that there are many factors in  effective teams. These factors are skills and role clarity, supportive environment, super-ordinate goals and team rewards. Let us see how these factors make effective teams. Skills and Role Clarity: For an effective team, two things are required from its members; skills which are complementary to the team requirement and understanding of one’s own role as well as roles of other members. While skills are relevant for job performance, understanding of roles helps members to meet the requirement of one another thereby solving the problems which the team faces. Thus, team members may tend to contribute positively to the teamwork. Continue reading

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Adoption of Blue Ocean Strategies in Business

Strategy involves standing out from the competition and making choices that give the company a unique and valuable position by offering distinctive products and services. Competitive advantage and profitability can be achieved simultaneously by approaches that create consistent internal synergies and combine a company’s operational activities efficiently. Strategies are formed at various levels of the organization. However, a typical organizational structure incorporates strategies at 3 specific levels: corporate, business and functional.  Corporate strategy defines a company’s holistic growth and management direction pertaining to its various businesses, products and services. Business strategies, on the other hand, are established at the divisional levels and typically focus on enhancing the strategic business unit’s competitive position in its industry. Functional strategies aim to maximize resource productivity and are typically set by functional departments within each SBU to improve competencies and performance. Blue Ocean strategies are a form of business level strategies that enable firms Continue reading

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Case Study: General Electrics “Imagination At Work” Ad Campaign

Throughout its history General Electric Co. enjoyed the benefits of a consistent marketing message. From the 1930s to the 1950s the company relied on the slogan ‘‘Live better electrically,’’ which was followed by two decades of variations on the word ‘‘progress,’’ such as ‘‘Progress is our most important product.’’ In 1979 GE unveiled ‘‘We bring good things to life,’’ a cornerstone to one of the most successful corporate branding campaigns in history, backed by about $1 billion in advertising. The company also had consistent leadership in the form of John F. ‘‘Jack’’ Welch, who became chairman and CEO in 1981. The charismatic leader sought to build up GE’s status in all of the technology, service, and manufacturing areas that the company participated in. By the time Welch announced that he would retiring in 2001, GE, fast growing and profitable, had a market capitalization of $505 billion, making it second only Continue reading

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Innovator’s Dilemma – Sustaining vs Disruptive Technologies

The Innovator’s Dilemma, the strategic term first articulated in a classic business book, The Innovator’s Dilemma,  by the innovation guru, Clayton Christensen of Harvard Business School.  It states that a company’s successes and strengths can actually become obstacles when faced with changing markets and technologies. “The innovator’s dilemma [is] that ‘good’ companies often begin their descent into failure by aggressively investing in the products and services that their most profitable customers want.” –  Clayton Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma. The innovator’s dilemma is the dilemma of recognizing when to respond to technological change in a way that is fundamentally different from that which usually works for large, successful businesses. The dilemma is that of recognizing which of two types of technological innovations are looming on the horizon for a particular industry. The two types of technological innovations are sustaining technologies and disruptive technologies. For each of these, the “threats” posed to Continue reading

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Job Analysis in Human Resources Management

Human resources management has to plan their activity to reach maximum level of organizational objective. Human resources personnel must have knowledge regarding skills required to perform various organizational jobs. Job analysis is done to get information regarding the requirement of skill, knowledge, experience, ability and other work related requirement. Definitions of job analysis by eminent scholars as; Edwin B. Flippo defined Job Analysis as the process of studying and collecting information relating to the operations and responsibilities of a specific job. According to Michael J. Jucius, “Job Analysis refers to the process of studying the operations, duties and organisational aspects of jobs in order to derive specification or job description “. According to Blum, “A job Analysis is an accurate study of the various job components. It is concerned not only with an analysis of the duties and conditions of work, but also with the individual qualifications of the worker.” Continue reading

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Business Combination Strategies

A combination strategy is the pursuit of two or more of the previous strategies simultaneously. For example, one business in the company may be pursuing growth while another in the same company is contracting. In the spring of 1989, for instance, Texas Air was rapidly expanding its Continental Airlines unit. But its Eastern Airlines operation was being consolidated. Eastern’s management was selling off routes and planes, cutting back the number of cities served, and making plans for operating a much smaller airline. A combination strategy simultaneously employs more than one of the other strategies. This often reflects different strategic approaches among subsystems. For example, an M-form conglomerate like General Electric might seek growth overall, but it may do so by pursuing growth in some divisions, stability in others, and retrenchment in still others. Combination strategies are common, especially for complex organizations operating in dynamic and highly competitive environments. Many,   Continue reading

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