Risk Management Within an Organization

Risk management is a identification process of upcoming threats and danger to an organization. In an organization risk can enter through many ways, it can come from project failure, financial market, an accident in organisation such as flood, earthquake, cyclone, power failure, public health and safety and legal risk etc. Risk can be low to medium, or medium to high. It is difficult to say that an organisation can solve all the upcoming risks to the organisation like earthquake, we can just assume that earthquake can damage the business, but we cannot say how much, but there are some alternatives of upcoming threats like in power failure we can use generator to keep running the business. The purpose of risk management within an organization to identify problems before they enter and create problems in the organisation, so that risk management handling process may be planed. It is a continuous looking Continue reading

Case Study: IBM’s Turnaround Under Lou Gerstner

“Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance” describes how Louis Gerstner lead the organizational turnaround at IBM when it was at the verge of extinction. Louis Gerstner was the chairman and CEO of IBM from April 1993 to March 2002. Before joining IBM, he had worked on various consulting assignments at McKinsey and led successful organizational changes at American Express and RJR Nabisco. During the early nineties, IBM was rapidly losing its market share in most of the markets it catered to its competitors. The management was planning to break the organization into individual businesses. Soon after his appointment as CEO, Gerstner identified that the unique competitive advantage of IBM was due to its scale and broad-based capabilities, and therefore advocated that “keeping the company together” will help IBM to utilize this unique advantage by positioning itself as software integrator. Gerstner was instrumental in shifting the mental model of employees from self-centric Continue reading

The Concept of Business Growth

Meaning of  Business Growth Business growth is a natural process of adaptation and development that occurs under favorable conditions. The growth of a business firm is similar to that of a human being who passes through the stages of infancy, childhood, adulthood and maturity. Many business firms started small and have become big through continuous growth. However, business growth is not a  homogeneous process. The rate and pattern of growth varies from firm to firm. Some firms grow at a fast rate while others grow slowly. Also, not all enterprises survive to grow big. This may be due either to the nature of the firm or the entrepreneur. Some entrepreneurs do not want to grow their ventures, choosing instead to pursue other interest, spend more time with family or develop other business activities. Generally, the term ‘business growth’ is used to refer to various things such as increase in the Continue reading

Case Study: An Analysis of Apple’s Product Development Process

New product development is a high risk proposition for firms to start as it involves high level of risk in targeting a budding market segment where customer wants are hidden and service or product requirements are implicit. On the other hand, new products often create considerable opportunities for firms to differentiate their offering (product or service) and helps in attaining a lead from competitors through differentiation. This lead can be termed competitive advantage. A successful new product launch creates industry wise unique standards, which may become barriers of entry for new firms trying to penetrate. It also helps in refreshing the minds of the engineering personnel; sales force and give them a sense of accomplishment. It also provides opportunity for corporate renewal and redirection to the firm for its long run planning. A study of the US market reveals that nearly 30,000 products are introduced yearly in the packaged goods Continue reading

Important Elements of Merger Procedure – Scheme and Valuation

Scheme of Merger The scheme of any arrangement or proposal for a merger is the heart of the process and has to be drafted with care. There is no specific form prescribed for the scheme. It is designed to suit the terms and conditions relevant to the proposal but it should generally contain the following information as per the requirements of sec. 394 of the companies Act, 1956: Particulars about transferor and transferee companies Appointed date of merger Terms of transfer of assets and liabilities from transferor company to transferee company Effective date when scheme will came into effect Treatment of specified properties or rights of transferor company Terms and conditions of carrying business by transferor company between appointed date and effective date Share capital of Transferor Company and Transferee Company specifying authorized, issued, subscribed and paid up capital. Proposed share exchange ratio, any condition attached thereto and the fractional Continue reading

What is Strategic Innovation?

Innovative thinking can be applied to the strategic planning of an organization to create new opportunities and boost market performance. Strategic Innovation is the creation of growth strategies, new product categories, services, or business models that change the market and generate significant new value for consumers, customers, and the organization. Strategic Innovation takes the road less traveled – it challenges an organization to look beyond its established business boundaries and to create possibilities in an open-minded and creative environment. It has been seen that focusing on the short-term aspects typically yields short-term results, however, firms seeking to make significant breakthroughs identify both, big and innovative ideas. Strategic Innovation calls for a holistic approach that operates on multiple levels. First, it blends non-traditional and traditional approaches to business strategy, deploying the practices of “Industry Foresight”, “Consumer/Customer Insight” and “Strategic Alignment” as a foundation, and supplementing them with more conventional approaches and Continue reading