Introduction to People Capability Maturity Model (PCMM)

The People Capability Maturity Model framework was developed by Carnegie Mellon University, Software Engineering Institute to define the organizational maturity of people processes and practices. It helps the businesses to manage knowledge workers across global borders, as well as between graying and millennial generations. It is the framework that addresses the needs of employees, their competencies and the processes that need to be in place to ensure an organization is continuously improving and able to meet business needs effectively and efficiently and ranks on a scale 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest achievable maturity level. The People Capability Maturity Model (PCMM) is a well documented set of practices that enable growing original workforce competencies. It is more of a strategic management framework for building and growing original competencies. The PCMM practices help to retain, grow and nurture competent individuals. PCMM is an evolutionary framework that guides organizations in Continue reading

Cost Control Techniques in Business

During the 1990’s cost control initiatives received paramount attention from corporate America. Often taking the form of  corporate restructuring, divestment  of peripheral activities, mass  layoffs,  or  outsourcing,  cost control techniques were seen as necessary to preserve – or boost – corporate profits and to maintain – or gain – a competitive advantage. The objective was often to be the low-cost producer in a given industry, which would typically allow the company to take a greater profit per unit of sales than its competitors at a given price level. Cost control and reduction refers to the efforts business managers make to monitor, evaluate, and trim expenditures. These efforts might be part of a formal, company-wide program or might be informal in nature and limited to a single individual or department. In either case, however, cost control is a particularly important area of focus for small businesses, which often have limited amounts Continue reading

The Difference Between Efficiency and Effectiveness

Efficiency and Effectiveness as stated by Peter Drucker “Efficiency is doing things right; Effectiveness is doing the right thing.” An organization survives based on the efficiency and effectiveness of a manager/management. Efficiency is the use of financial, human, physical and information resources such that output is maximized for any given set of resource inputs, or input is minimized for any given quantity and quality of output. An efficient manager might be doing the right job but not the job right. Doing the right job does not require much time or resource. A job can be done very quickly and efficiently within time. In this case, the manager’s main aim is to get the job done within the allocated time using the given resources. But doing a job effectively involves time and planning the right strategy. In this case the manager concentrates more on the outcome rather than just the input. Continue reading

Blue Ocean Strategy – Shift from Red Oceans to Blue Oceans

“Blue Ocean Strategy” by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne is a strategy that challenges companies to distance itself away from fierce competition by establishing uncontested market space that makes existing competition irrelevant. One of the reasons why the authors have used the colors red and blue is to describe the market. Red ocean is the market space where industry boundaries are defined and known. The red ocean contains a massive conflict between companies where they are constantly trying to outperform each other to achieve a greater share or demand. When market spaces become crowded with competitors, companies try out perform each other and profits and growth is greatly reduced due to cutthroat style competition which turns the red ocean bloody. In contrast, blue oceans is the unknown market space where it is unaffected by competition and demand is created rather than fought for. In blue oceans, competition is not Continue reading

Knowledge Management Cycle

In today’s business scenario where there is lot of competition, only source of lasting is Knowledge. It is argued that knowledge management is a necessity due to changes in the environment such as increasing globalization of competition, speed of information and knowledge aging, dynamics of both product and process innovations, and competition through buyer markets. Knowledge management promises to help companies to be faster, more efficient, or more innovative than the competition. Also, the term ‘‘management” implies that knowledge management deals with the interactions between the organization and the environment and the ability of the organization to react and act Various researchers then gave the various definitions on Knowledge Management and still it’s the buzzword today. Knowledge management is the process through which we can manage human centered assets efficiently and effectively. The function of knowledge management is to guard and grow knowledge owned by individuals, and where possible, transfer Continue reading

Value Analysis – Definition, Mechanism and Process

Value Analysis (VA) was established by Lawrence D. Miles of General Electric in America. The basic fundamental of value analysis can be implemented in any product to optimize its value. In more details, value analysis is actually a process of systematic review that is applied to existing product designs in order to compare the function of the product required by a customer to meet their requirements at the lowest cost by eliminating unnecessary costs that consistent with the specified performance and reliability needed. First of all, value analysis (and value engineering) is a formal and organized process of analysis and evaluation which required management activities including planning, control and coordination. These analysis concerns the function of a product such as utility, guarantee, or safety performance to meet the demands needed or required by a customer. Thus, to meet this functional requirement the review process must include an understanding of the Continue reading