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

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

Abey Francis

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

Abey Francis

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

Abey Francis

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

Abey Francis

Motivating Employees with Stock Options

Employee stock options plan is a company wide incentives plan whereby the company contributes shares of its own stock or cash to be used to purchase such stock to a trust established to purchase shares of the firm’s stock for employees. The firm generally makes these contributions annually in proportion to total employee compensation, with a limit of 15% of compensation. The trust holds the stock in individual employee accounts, and distributes it to employees upon retirement, assuming the person has worked long enough to earn ownership of the stock. Many companies use employee stock options plans to retain and attract employees, the objective being to give employees an incentive to behave in ways that will boost the company’s stock price. By issuing employee stock options as compensation, organizations can preserve and generate cash flow. The cash flow comes when the organizations issues new shares and receives the exercise price Continue reading

Abey Francis

Administered Price Mechanism

The concept of Administered Price was first introduced by famous British Economist, John Maynard  Keynes for the prices charged by a monopolist. A monopolist can be a price maker and he consciously administered the price of his product irrespective of the cost of production. Competitive prices are determined by the interplay of forces of demand and supply in the market whereas administered prices according to Keynes were associated with monopolists’ decision regarding price fixation irrespective of the market forces of demand and supply. However, in India the meaning of Administered Price has been quite different. In India, Administered Prices refer to prices which are fixed and enforced by the Government. They acquire a statutory nature. They are the outcome of the price policy of the Government. The Government interferes in the price mechanism and fixes minimum and maximum prices of various commodities in the agricultural and non- agricultural sectors. Following Continue reading

Abey Francis