Kaizen – Understanding the Japanese Business Philosophy of Continuous Improvement

Operations Management

Role of Leaders in Shaping Organizational Culture

Management Principles

Organizational Culture – Development and Importance

Management Principles

Five Important Organizational Cultural Models

Management Principles

The Customer Satisfaction Model – Based on American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)

Marketing Management

Receivable Management – Meaning, Significance and Purpose

Introduction to Receivable Management Receivables, also termed as trade credit or debtors are component of current assets. When a firm sells its product in credit, account receivables are created. Account receivable are the money receivable in some future date for the credit sale of goods and services at present. These days, most business transactions are in credit. Most companies, when they face competition, use credit sales as an important tool for sales promotion. As a sales promotion tool, credit sale enhances firm’s sales revenue and ultimately pushes up the profitability. But after the credit sale has been made, the actual collection of cash may be delayed for months. As these late payments stretch out over time, they may cause substantial drop in a company’s profit margin. Since the extension of credit involves both cost and benefits, the firm’s manager must be able to measure them to determine the ultimate effect of credits sales. In Continue reading

Abey Francis

What is International Advertising?

International Advertising, generally speaking, is the promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas, usually in more than one country performed by an identified sponsor. Marketers see advertising as part of an overall promotional strategy. Other components of the promotional mix include publicity, public relations, personal selling, and sales promotion. Advertising is a cogent communication attempt to change or reinforce ones’ prior attitude that is predictable of future behavior. It can be viewed as a communication process that takes place in multiple cultures that differ in terms of values, communication styles, and consumption patterns. It is also a business activity involving advertisers and the advertising agencies that create ads and buy media in different countries. The sum total of these activities constitutes a worldwide industry that is growing in importance. International advertising is also a major force that both reflects social values, and propagates certain values worldwide. International advertising involves recognizing Continue reading

Abey Francis

Measures of Central Tendency and Variability

Central tendency is a statistical measure that identifies a single score as representative of an entire distribution of scores. The goal of central tendency is to find the single score that is most typical or most representative of the entire distribution. Unfortunately, there is no single, standard procedure for determining central tendency. The problem is that there is no single measure that will always produce a central, representative value in every situation. There are three main measures of central tendency: the arithmetical mean, the median and the mode. The mean of a set of scores (abbreviated M) is the most common and useful measure of central tendency.   The mean is the sum of the scores divided by the total number of scores. The mean is commonly known as the arithmetic average. The mean can only be used for variables at the interval or ratio levels of measurement. The mean Continue reading

Abey Francis

Mintzberg Cultural and Environmental Schools of Thought

Henry Mintzberg had arranged strategy approaches into ten school of thoughts, each had its own strategy characteristic toward organization. Two of these schools: “cultural” school and “environmental” school are going to be taken into consideration. The main features of each school will be introduced firstly before going on their differences and similarities. Nowadays, culture within a business is necessary to preserve its own power and imagine. It groups individuals effectively into an organization. Mintzberg considered organizational culture as key resource of competitive advantage. It also affects to business changes in decision making style or dominating the value of service, quality, and innovation and so on. Environmental school, on the other hand, Mintzberg, 1998 noticed that “Environmental school first grew out of so-called: contingency theory, which described the relationships between particular dimensions of the environment and specific attributes of the organization”. It means that, in contingency view, environmental reacts to the Continue reading

Abey Francis

Gilt-Edged (Government) Securities Market

Government securities refer to the marketable debt issued by the government of semi-government bodies. A government security is a claim on the government. It is a totally securer financial instrument ensuring safety of both capital and income. That is why it is called gilt-edged security or stock. Central Government securities are the safest  among  all securities.  Government securities are issues by: Central Government State Government Semi-Government authorities like local government authorities, e.g., city corporations and municipalities Autonomous institutions, such as metropolitan authorities, port trusts, development trusts, state electricity boards. Public Sector Corporations Other governmental agencies, such as SFCs, NABARD, LDBs, SIDCs, housing boards etc. Characteristics of Gilt-edged Securities Market Gilt-edged securities market is one of the oldest market in India. The market in these securities is a significant part of Indian stock market. Main characteristics of government securities market are as follows: Supply of government securities in the market arises Continue reading

Abey Francis

Factors Affecting Pricing Decisions

Pricing the product is one of the important element in marketing mix. Until recently it has been one of the most neglected areas. Even today, pricing in some firms is simply based on the concepts of cost, market position, competition and necessary profits. Most important Factors affecting Pricing Decisions Objectives of the Business : There may be various objectives of the firm such as getting a reasonable rate of return, to capture the market, maintenance of control over sales and profits etc. A pricing policy thus, should be established only after proper consideration of the objectives of the firm. Cost of the Product: Cost and price of a product are closely related. Normally, the price cannot or shall not fixed below its cost (including the product, administrative and selling costs). Price also determines the cost. Market Position. The prices of the products of different producers are different either because of Continue reading

Abey Francis