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

Guidelines for Preparing a Proper Strategy for Debt Recovery

Devising a strategy helps in achieving a set goal or objective.   Recovery agents should therefore devise a strategy for debt recovery.   The following guidelines would help in preparing proper strategy for debt recovery. The collection process should be compliant to the bank-specific recovery norms and also regulatory guidelines. The collection timing should be synchronized to the cash inflow pattern of the debtors: For example, recovery from salaried employees should be timed when salary is received by or credited to the debtor’s account, normally at the moth-end.   In case of SME borrowers the effort should coincide with cash flow on account of sales.   In case a collection from agriculturist should be made, then it should be soon after the crops are sold.   This will call for knowledge of bank products on the part of agents.   It should be the endeavour of the agent that collection Continue reading

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Harmonization of Accounting Standards

Many authors have put together different definitions for accounting harmonization in various ways. It would seem not an easy word to define, as neither the European Commission nor other organs of the commission have explicitly defined the concept of accounting harmonization. Some have even complicated the whole concept, by attempting to substitute harmonization with standardization, as if to mean that the process is the same, rather than making it more compatible. In practice, harmonization of accounting standards tends to mean the process of increasing the compatibility of accounting practices by setting bounds for the degree of variations. This can be accepted to be the most suitable definition of the concept. Harmonization of accounting standards has become a highly demanded issue of discussion and debate among accounting professionals around the globe. Accounting Standards are the authoritative statements of best accounting practices issued by recognized expert accountancy bodies relating to various aspects Continue reading

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Energy Value-Stream Mapping (EVSM)

A typical Value Stream Mapping (VSM) tool classifies the various industrial processes into value adding and non-value adding with a goal to identify and eliminate the non-value added (waste) activities. Based on the concept of Value-Stream Methodology, Energy Value-Stream mapping (EVSM) is being developed where energy components along with cost are added to evaluate with respect to time.  Energy Value-Stream mapping (EVSM) identifies the level of energy utilization and wastage in each step and hence determines the opportunities for energy conservations. Implementing this tool by incorporating electrical energy and fuel consumption provides with an ability to view the impact that process improvements have on reducing energy consumption and vice versa. Additionally, it can also deliver tangible and sustained results when used as a part of company’s improvement strategy and a structured analysis with a balanced set of data can reveal areas of energy improvements and optimization. In order to generate Continue reading

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Money Market in India – Development, Features and Instruments

Money market is an important segment of the financial market (system) as it provides avenue for equilibrating the short term (ranging from overnight up to an year) demand for and supply of funds. It also plays an important role in the transmission mechanism of monetary policy, as it acts as a medium through which the central bank can influence the short term liquidity and interest rates in the financial system. As per Reserve Bank of India (RBI) definition, a Money market is “a market for short terms financial assets that are close substitute for money, facilitates the exchange of money in primary and secondary market”. Indian money market was highly regulated and was characterized by limited number of participants. The limited variety and instruments were available. Interest rate on the instruments was under the regulation of Reserve Bank of India. The sincere efforts for developing the money market were made when the Continue reading

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Mckinsey’s 7S Framework

The Mckinsey’s 7S Framework  suggests that there is a multiplicity of factors that influence an organization’s ability to change and its proper mode of change. Because of the interconnections of the variables, it would be difficult to make significant progress in one area without making progress in the others as well. There is no starting point or implied hierarchy in the shape of the diagram, and it is not obvious which of the seven factors would be the driving force in changing a particular organization at a certain point of time. The critical variables would be different across organizations and in the same organizations at different points of time. History  of Mckinsey’s 7S Framework The 7S Framework was first mentioned in “The Art Of Japanese Management” by  Richard Pascale  and  Anthony Athos  in 1981. They had been investigating how Japanese industry had been so successful. At around the same time Continue reading

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Concept of Distribution Channels in Marketing

The Importance of Distribution Most producers use intermediaries to bring their products to market. They try to develop a distribution channel (marketing channel) to do this. A distribution channel is a set of interdependent organizations that help make a product available for use or consumption by the consumer or business user. Channel intermediaries are firms or individuals such as wholesalers, agents, brokers, or retailers who help move a product from the producer to the consumer or business user. A company’s channel decisions directly affect every other marketing decision. Place decisions, for example, affect pricing. Marketers that distribute products through mass merchandisers such as Wal-Mart will have different pricing objectives and strategies than will those that sell to specialty stores. Distribution decisions can sometimes give a product a distinct position in the market. The choice of retailers and other intermediaries is strongly tied to the product itself. Manufacturers select mass merchandisers Continue reading

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