The Emergence of Frugal Innovation

The old innovation paradigm was called closed innovation which was based on the strict control of successful innovation. Under this view, organizations generate their own ideas, develop them, finance them and support them on their own. In short, companies maintain complete control of all aspects of the innovation process and inventions are kept highly secretive. Traditionally many organizations followed this model and it worked well for most of the twentieth century. However, over the years a number of factors have led to the erosion of the closed innovation approach. First, due to an increase in the mobility and availability of highly educated people, large amounts of knowledge leave the research laboratories of many companies. Second, the availability of venture capital has increased significantly in the recent past making it possible for promising ideas and technologies to be further developed outside the organization. Third, other firms in the supply chain began Continue reading

The Impact of Rising NPA Levels in Banks

Profitability: NPA means booking of money in terms of bad asset, which occurred due to wrong choice of client. Because of the money getting blocked the prodigality of bank decreases not only by the amount of NPA but NPA lead to opportunity cost also as that much of profit invested in     some return earning project/asset. So NPA doesn’t affect current profit but also future stream of profit, which may lead to loss of some long-term beneficial opportunity. Another impact of reduction in profitability is low ROI (return on investment), which adversely affect current earning of bank. Liquidity: Money is getting blocked, decreased profit lead to lack of enough cash at hand which lead to borrowing money for shot\rtes period of time which lead to additional cost to the company. Difficulty in operating the functions of bank is another cause of NPA due to lack of money.   Routine Continue reading

How Innovation Contributes to Competitive Advantage?

From competitive environment, products within the same marketing from each provider are quite similar and difficult for customers to realize the difference. Innovation capability is the key productivity that creates competitive advantage by perceiving or discovering the new or better way to compete in an industry and launch them into the market. One of success factor depends on innovation’s relative advantage. Innovation has become the most important asset that creates competitive advantage for company, and the first mover advantage when getting magnitude of market acceptance. In the long run, maintaining product innovation is the way to sustain competitive advantage and drive the growth of productivity for further competitiveness of the company. However, product innovation always comes along with new process technology. Around half of the Fortune 500 in 1980s was disappeared from the list in 1990s because of three fundamental forces; wealth, fashion and invention. From this information, it showed Continue reading

Stages in Budgeting Process

In preparation of a budgeting process, the procedures in creating the budget differs from one organization to another and should be presented to the budget committee before it is finally agreed. The budget committee consists of high level executives in charge of various functions (i.e. sales, production and purchasing). In financial procedure the functional head obtain an approval by presenting their budget to the committee, if the level of budget doesn’t contain a reasonable performance, the functional head will required further changes in order to obtain an approval. The budget committee appoints a budget officer known as the accountant, whose take actions and coordinates the individual budgets of a company. Some important stages in the budgeting process are as follows: Communicating details of budget policy and guidelines: A long term planning process is the starting point in the preparation of a company’s annual budget, the manager are responsible for preparing Continue reading

Best Practices in Recruitment and Selection

A company with the right people with the right skills at the helm can achieve wonders. Conversely, poor or uniformed hiring and recruitment decisions at the top most level can cost a company not only financially, but will have a negative bearing on the organization’s reputation with the stakeholders. Keeping this in mind, the likelihood of future problems can be eliminated if best practices are followed for recruitment and selection activities. Successful businesses are only built by establishing a robust recruitment process as hiring mistakes can be extremely costly and time consuming. The use of best practices in   recruitment and selection helps furnish an organization with highly skilled, flexible and motivated employees. The best practices in recruitment and selection processes bring forth systems that are modern, proficient, professional and effective, and ensure that individuals who are recruited demonstrate commitment, ethics, and motivation, eagerness to grow and develop and most Continue reading

Organization Design

Designing organizations is a complex exercise. Organization Design involves making choices about how to group individuals and structure their tasks. According to Harvard Business School professor Robert Simons, in his article  “How Risky is your Company?”, organization design must take into account the company’s strategy, competitive environment, stage of the life-cycle and various other factors. In short, it is a fine balancing act. In the early days of an organization, organization design receives little attention. But over time, problems emerge as the charisma of the founders becomes insufficient to manage a larger enterprise. Systems and processes become important. This is when a functional structure is typically chosen. After some time, the functional structure becomes inadequate to respond to the needs of the market place because of centralized decision making. At that point, a divisional structure becomes necessary. But with time, a divisional structure leads to fiefdoms. Coordination becomes difficult, resources Continue reading