History and Background of Porsche

Porsche, with over 12,000 employees in 2008, is the smallest German automobile builder, but the largest sports car specialist in the world. The company was founded in December 1930, when Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, with 12 close associates, established an office in Stuttgart for “design and consultation on engines and vehicles.” By 1932, Porsche’s design office had developed the torsion bar suspension element that is still in use in automobiles around the world. In 1934, the Porsche Company was commissioned by the manufacturers association to design “a utilitarian car of normal dimensions but relatively low weight, to be achieved by new basic measures.” Prototypes of this car were on the road by the end of 1935 but World War II postponed mass production of the vehicle. After the war, Volkswagen started production of the car, which came to be known as the VW Beetle. In 1972, when the 15,007,034th unit left Continue reading

Henri Fayol’s Principles of Management

Henri Fayol (1841-1925) who is known as the Father of Modern Management, was a French industrialist who developed a framework for studying management. He wrote “General and Industrial Management”. His five functions of managers were plan, organize, command, coordinate, and control. Classification of Business Activities According to Fayol, all activities could be classified into Technical (manufacturing or production) Commercial (buying, selling and exchange) Financial (search for and optimum use of capital) Security (protection of property and persons) Accounting (including statistics) and Managerial Henri Fayol’s Principles of Management His fourteen principles of management included division of work, authority and responsibility, discipline, unity of command, unity of direction, and subordination of individual interests to general interests, remuneration of personnel, centralization, scalar chain, order, equity, and stability of tenure of personnel, initiative, and esprit de corps (union is strength). 1. Division of Work The work of every person in the organization should be Continue reading

Flexible Working Arrangements – The Future of Work

Flexibility in the organisations is driven by many contributing internal and external components since it has got the popularity of linkage with good people management practices and better performance objectives. Flexible working has been achieving a greater pace in its development and wider usage in small businesses and MNC’s. The society in which we live has seen many radical changes in the last 2-3 decades and it certainly has its impact on the life style of people and the organisations they work (in context of technological and demographic factors). The demographical changes have a heavy influence on the size and composition of the work force the labor market now-a-days consist of an equal composition of male to female work force as opposed to earlier traditional workforce. The issue of women in the work force have become more pertinent due to the potential labor shortages in some sectors even with all Continue reading

Referencing a Research Report

References must be explicitly given in the research report. Bibliography is one type of referencing a research report and this has been already dealt. Other type of referencing is the foot notes. Referencing using Footnotes Footnotes are meant to give complete bibliographical references and to provide the reader with information to enable him consult sources independently. These may be placed at the foot of a page or at the end of every chapter. When footnotes are given at the foot of the page, they are to be separated from the text by a fifteen space solid line drawn from the left margin and one double space below the last line of the text. If given at the end of a chapter, a centered heading ‘FOOTNOTES’ is necessary. Reference to footnotes is made by the use of superscripts i.e., numerals raised by one-half space. Footnotes should be numbered consecutively through a Continue reading

Strategic Control and Operational Control

Strategic Control Strategic control focuses on the dual questions of whether: (1) the strategy is being implemented as planned; and (2) the results produced by the strategy are those intended.” Strategic control is “the critical evaluation of plans, activities, and results, thereby providing information for the future action”. There are four types of strategic control: premise control, implementation control, strategic surveillance, and special alert control Premise Control: Planning premises/assumptions are established early on in the strategic planning process and act as a basis for formulating strategies. Premise control has been designed to check systematically and continuously whether or not the premises set during the planning and implementation processes are still valid. It involves the checking of environmental conditions. Premises are primarily concerned with two types of factors: Environmental factors (for example, inflation, technology, interest rates, regulation, and demographic/social changes). Industry factors (for example, competitors, suppliers, substitutes, and barriers to entry). Continue reading

Modes of debt recovery other than normal debt recovery procedure

(1) Where a certificate has been issued to the Recovery Officer under Sub-section of section 19, the Recovery Officer may, without prejudice to the modes of recovery specified in section 25, recover the amount of debt by any one or more of the modes provided under this section. (2) If any amount is due from any person to the defendant, the Recovery Officer may require such person to deduct from the said amount, the amount of debt due from the defendant under this Act and such person shall comply with any such requisition and shall pay the sum so deducted to the credit of the Recovery Officer: Provided that nothing in this sub-section shall apply to any part of the amount exempt from attachment in execution of a decree of a civil court under section 60 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (5 of 1908). (3) (I) The Recovery Continue reading