In a complex, dynamic, fast-changing environment, companies must strive for superiority in order to survive. Competitive edge cannot be achieved or maintained by setting goals based on past or even present performance. Benchmarking is a management practice that can be used to pursue excellence. It does this by identifying, comparing and emulating best practice wherever it occurs. Read More: Benchmarking as a Strategic Business Tool Benchmarking is defined as a continuous systematic process of evaluating companies recognized as industry leaders, to determine business and work processes that represent best practices and establish rational performance goals. It is a search for industry best practices that lead to superior performance. It illustrates how good a company currently is in comparison to its competitors, that is benchmarking analysis demonstrates what others are doing as well as what others are achieving. Benchmarking analysis is an integral part of the organizational improvement process and it Continue reading
Modern Management Concepts
Differences Between Social Entrepreneurship and Business Entrepreneurship
Before understanding the term social entrepreneurship, we need to firstly understand what traditional business entrepreneur itself is. An entrepreneur is an individual who owns a firm, business, or venture, and is responsible for its development. In order to do so, he or she will manage the resources he had. The aim of a traditional business entrepreneur or commercial entrepreneur is to generate profits from the risks and opportunities he or she is willing to take. A business enterprise therefore would be an entity that is owned by the business entrepreneur to achieve business goals that have been set by the entrepreneur. Social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. The definition of social entrepreneurship varies from a narrow definition to a wide one. Under the narrow definition, social entrepreneurship is basically the action of Continue reading
Role of Service Industries in Economic Growth
The pursuit of service economy, which dictates the specialization in the service industries, is one of the newest economic concepts that ensure the realization of the economic growth. The adoption of this form of economy will allow countries to transform the dimensions of their economic standards in a positive way. In this regard, countries would need to develop more service industries rather than manufacturing industries due to flexibility in the international trade. Similarly, the concept of service economy incorporates the need for improvement of services and product provision. Based on these factors, service industries should mainly focus on financial services, health, education, tourism, and distribution. The degree of mobility of these services is high, and they can be cheaply transferred from one location to another. Additionally, geographical factors do not hinder the performance of these services. As a result, industries should focus on service delivery to their customers, which increases their Continue reading
Advantages and Disadvantages of Starting Up a Business
Currently, the development of market relations implies a free and equal coexistence of various forms of entrepreneurship and sectors within each type of ownership. A special place in the international economy at this stage belongs to start-up businesses. These are small enterprises that do not require large initial investments and guarantee a high rate of turnover of resources that can quickly and economically solve the problems of economic restructuring. The formation and saturation of the consumer markets are the key elements in the current destabilization of the economy. It should be noted that for a highly monopolized economy, the small business acquires paramount importance since it makes a significant contribution to the development of a competitive environment. However, there are both rewarding advantages and serious disadvantages of starting a business, which need consideration. If a person plans to open a business, it is important to consider the upcoming possible gains Continue reading
5 Essential Skills Needed to Be an Entrepreneur
Entrepreneurs need to have a wide variety of skills to run a successful business. Unlike personal characteristics and attitudes, which can often be hard or impossible to change, entrepreneurs can acquire skills if they are willing to learn them. Additionally, they can hire people to work for them who have the needed skills. The following skills are very important if the entrepreneur want to succeed in his business: Problem solving: Every customer have to deal with problems and every entrepreneur has find solutions to them. The successful entrepreneur sees opportunities in these problems where many of the rest of us only see difficulties. A lot of time, the best new ideas come from the need to solve a problem. The entrepreneur has to be good in identifying the problem, and then has to be able to identify solutions that can be good from the customer perspective. Communication: Entrepreneurs have to Continue reading
Concepts of Ethical Consumerism and Consumer Activism
Concept of Ethical Consumerism Over the last ten or twenty years, more and more people around the world, primarily in industrialized countries, have become better informed and more aware of the origins of the goods they purchase on a day-to-day basis, the buying policies and practices of the shops they visit and the policies and principles of the services they buy. In a growing number of cases, this increased awareness and knowledge is affecting consumer practices and may be the difference between someone buying a particular product or service or not. There are a number of reasons for this development, which is commonly referred to as “ethical consumerism”, or also “ethical consumption”, “ethical purchasing”, “moral purchasing”, “ethical sourcing”, “ethical shopping” or “green consumerism”. Fundamentally, ethical consumerism is consumers taking responsibility for their decisions in purchasing goods and services. Two key elements that have contributed to this development and that are Continue reading