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

Organizational Culture – Development and Importance

Management Principles

Five Important Organizational Cultural Models

Management Principles

Relationship Between Firm Performance and Competitive Advantage

The firm performance is a complex term which may include different shadows of meaning as long as it relates to organizational performance, functioning of the firm and outcomes of its operations. Normally, the firm performance implies the organizational performance, including manufacturing of products and services, functioning of different units of the firm, performance of its employees and outcomes of their work in total. At the same time, the firm performance can be viewed in a broader context as a part of the business development of the firm. What is meant here is the fact that the business development mirrors the firm’s performance and allows to assess the extent to which the organizational performance is effective. At this point, it is important to place emphasis on the fact that the firm’s performance is basically measured in terms of efficiency of the firm’s operations. In fact, the more effective the firm’s operations Continue reading

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Marketing Logistics – Meaning, Components and Importance

Logistics is a military term that refers to the management of various activities like transportation, inventory, warehousing right from the stage of processing  the raw materials by the manufacturer to convert it into finished goods till they  are made available to the customer for use. While logistics management helps to  optimize the flow of material within the organization, supply chain management crosses the boundaries of organization extending material flow integration upwards to suppliers and also descending down to customers. Logistics basically represents two primary product movements, (i) Physical  supply, concerned with supply of raw materials, component parts, and other  related supplies necessary for the manufacturing process. This comes under the  purchase function (Materials Management) and (ii) Physical distribution,  concerned with delivering the finished product to customers and the middlemen.  This comes under the marketing management that is also called as Marketing  Logistics. From the point of view of management, marketing Continue reading

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Case Study: Management Information System at Dell

Management information system involves the information system and the organization. MIS begins where computer science ends. Computer scientists deserve accolades for developing and delivering even more advanced forms of information technology: hardware technology; software technology; and network technology. Yet because no technology implements itself, there is more to MIS than just information technology. MIS has dimensions. The four interrelated dimensions of MIS are as follows: First, MIS involves not just information technology, but also its instantiation; second, MIS involves, as reactive and inextricable elements, both an information system and its organizational context; third, MIS involves information technology as a form of intellectual technology; and fourth, MIS involves the activities of a profession or corporate function which are integral to the essence of what MIS is. Dell Computer Corporation: Company Background Dell Computer Corporation is a major manufacturer of personal computers, computer peripherals, and software. Among the leading producers of computers Continue reading

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Sustaining and Disruptive Technologies

In 1997, the best-selling book, “The Innovator’s Dilemma” Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen came up with two basic categories of technologies: sustaining and disruptive. Christensen in his sequel, “The Innovators Solution” has changed the term disruptive technology to “disruptive innovation” to accentuate that it is not exactly the technology that is disruptive but the strategy of the innovation that leads to disruption. Read More:  The Innovator’s Dilemma Sustaining Technologies Sustaining Technologies is an incremental increase in the features or performance for an established product. Some sustaining technologies can be discontinuous or radical in nature, while others are of incremental nature. They basically rely on improvements along with the dimensions of performance in an already established technology. We can see some significant percentages of the innovations we come across are sustaining innovations. We can consider an example of desktop computers. The significant natures of computers have not changed since Continue reading

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Case Study: Nick Leeson and the Collapse of Barings Bank

In 1985, Nick Leeson had a job as a clerical work at Coutts & Co. The Coutts & Co is a private banking house in United Kingdom which own by aristocrat. This bank was a subsidiary of the National Westminster Bank. During that period, the stock markets were rising for several years and the bank were expanding into a new financial instruments coming in and demand for labor was high. During that time, Nick Leeson was the person who had many working class young men. After two years, Nick Leeson moved to Morgan Stanley, one of the US investment bank. Nick Leeson be a settlements clerk at that bank. Nick Leeson can absorb more knowledge about new derivatives market from that bank. In 1989, Nick Leeson was applying a for job at Baring Securities due to his own knowledge with trading in Japan, that time Nick Leeson was 22 years Continue reading

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Emerging Trends in International Capital Markets

Three interrelated developments in global capital markets are: The sustained rise in gross capital flows relative to net flows; The increasing importance of securitized forms of capital flows; and The growing concentration of financial institutions and financial markets. Taken together these trends may signal what some others have  referred to as a ‘quiet opening’ of the capital account of the balance of  payments, which is resulting in the development, strengthening and growing  integration of domestic financial systems within the international financial  system. Finance is being rationalized across national borders, resulting in a  breakdown in many countries in the distinction between onshore and offshore  finance. It is particularly evident and most advanced in the wholesale side of  the financial industry, and is becoming increasingly apparent in the retail side  as well. Taken together these three effects have contributed to a sharp rise in  volatility — in both capital flows and asset Continue reading

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