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

Liquid Mutual Fund Schemes

The objective of liquid mutual fund schemes  is to invest in short-term money market instruments of good credit quality. The fund predominantly invests in money market instruments and provides investors the returns that are available on these instruments. The investment portfolio is very liquid, and enables investors to hold their investments for very short horizons of a day or more. The liquid funds are normally open-ended. It provides with the following options/schemes, which are sub-products within the liquid fund. Overnight Option (Growth): This option is meant to be used by investors with very short-term investment horizon and is fully invested in the call money market. Overnight Option (Dividend): This option is meant for investors who have short-term funds to deploy but would like to earn some income on such deployment. The portfolio in this option is invested in short-term floating rate instruments, call markets and in repos. The average maturity Continue reading

Abey Francis

Role Efficacy: Meaning, Aspects and Measurement

What is Role Efficacy? The performance of a person working in an organization depends on his own potential effectiveness, technical competence, managerial experience as well as the design of the role that he performs in the organization. It is the integration of the two that ensures a person’s effectiveness in the organization. Unless a person has the requisite knowledge, technical competence and the skills required for the role, he cannot be effective.   If the role does not allow the person to use his competence, and if he constantly feels frustrated in the role, his effectiveness is likely to be low. The integration of a person and the role comes about when the role is able to fulfill the needs of the individual, and when the individual in turn is able to contribute to the evolution of the role. The more we move from role taking to role making, the Continue reading

Abey Francis

Integrating Material and Financial Flows in a Supply Chain

Firms in the past have mainly focused on improving the material flow in a supply chain using various innovative methods like cross docking, Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI), Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR) etc. Firms have also used IT solutions to automate the material flow. Today, they have also begun to focus on improving the financial flow in the supply chain. Many firms have adopted best practices of cash flow management to improve the financial flow. One of the key elements which helps in efficient financial flow in a supply chain is the use of IT solutions in the purchase-to-pay and order-to-cash processes. By automating these processes firms can minimize inefficiencies and improve the effectiveness of the supply chain.Many firms have automated the same or all of the elements of the financial flow in a supply chain through implementing ERP systems and cash flow management solutions. However, most firms have Continue reading

Abey Francis

History of Derivatives Market in India

Interestingly, derivatives have been existed in India since long time in one form or the other. But, they were not liberalised nor efforts were put to enlighten the public. The area of existence of derivatives was in commodities, it was association by traders in Bombay which was named as Bombay Cotton Trade Association (BCTA) in 1875 and started dealing with the futures contracts. By the starting of 19th century derivatives in India crawled to top making India one of the worlds largest in futures industry. But, in the early 1952 Government banned trade in cash-settlements and option contracts. As a result derivatives’ trading was shifted to informal forward contracts which were a normal practice. Trading at that time was restricted to only few brokers, and their trading practice was typical located under the banyan tree in front of the town hall in Bombay. This practise was followed for long time Continue reading

Abey Francis

Understanding Inflation-Linked Bonds (ILBs)

The recent Monetary Policy released by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) laid its thrust on controlling the spiraling inflation, especially the food price inflation. One of the reasons behind the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) hike was to “curtail the rising inflationary expectations (higher expected price trends)” In the past RBI has been concerned about the fact that a common man does not have any protection against rising prices, vis No Inflation Hedge. The common man has to rely on traditional but inefficient methods to hedge the real inflation risks, such as Gold and real assets such as commodities or real estate or even excessive stocking of goods In developed markets like US, the government has issues “Treasury Inflation Protected Securities” known as TIPS. Globally more than USD 1 trillion worth inflation linked bonds must be outstanding. Inflation-linked bonds (ILB) securities give an opportunity to market participants and investors to hedge Continue reading

Abey Francis

Case Study: Advertising Strategies of The Times of India

The Times of India (TOI) is one of the leading newspapers in India. It is the largest circulated English newspaper in India. It represents the growing influence of Indian middleclass and the value of English education in the country. The Chief Manager of advertising at The Times of India was evaluating effectiveness of its campaign in building The Times of India as a national brand. Most of the advertising in the past has been functional in nature. It has concentrated on promoting Times of India as a brand with functional elements like ‘largest circulated‘ English newspaper; most upmarket newspaper; the newspaper with a grip on future and other relevant functional attributes which are common for a newspaper. Recently they have shifted to emotional platform where the newspaper is being projected as something that chronicles the aspirations of Indians. It reflects struggle, turbulence, success and failure in an Indian’s life. He Continue reading

Abey Francis