In 1996 two computer science PhD students at Stanford University, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, were wondering how they could sort through the massive amount of information that was starting to appear on the Web to find specific and useful information on a topic. Although there were several different technologies, or search engines, available to search the Web for information, none of them seemed particularly useful to Brin and Page because they failed to distinguish between useful and trivial Web sites. Brin and Page decided to build a search engine that not only would examine the words on Web pages and then index them as other search engines did, but also would look at how and where these words were being used and at the number of other Web sites linked to a page. The goal was to have the search engine return a list of Web pages with the Continue reading
Strategic Management Concepts
Role and Functions of Organization Culture in an Organization
The organizational culture is the general term for organizations of all members of the commonly accepted values, codes of conduct, team spirit, way of thinking, work style, psychological expectations and feelings of belonging sense of community. The corporate culture is the traditional atmosphere of a company culture, it means that the company values, such as aggressive, defensive or flexible – these values constitute of company employees vitality, opinions and behavior norms. Managers personally, these norms and instill in employees from generation to generation. Also the corporate culture is a mix of economic significance and cultural significance, refers to the formation of values in the corporate world, the code of conduct in the crowd and community cultural influences. It does not refer to the cultivation of knowledge, but rather refers to the attitude of the people of knowledge; than profit, but profit mental; than interpersonal relationships, but interpersonal life skills embodied Continue reading
Prescriptive and Emergent Approaches to Corporate Strategy
The concept of corporate strategy battles with the perennial issue of determining the overall purpose and scope of an organisation. From a contemporary perspective, it involves the specification of long-term goals and objectives that will add value to the business and cope with the uncertainty of modern times. As a practice, it consists of adopting courses of action and allocating resources in ways necessary for carrying out the overall objectives. Widely recognized as the most principal theories for strategy development, the prescriptive and emergent approaches must be examined within the context of an increasingly dynamic, highly competitive and global business environment. Powerful external forces are driving organisations to reduce costs, enhance processes and identify new opportunities for growth. Many businesses are compelled to make dramatic improvements not only to compete and prosper but also merely to survive. This brings to the fore the importance of determining how effectively the prescriptive Continue reading
Evolution of Corporate Governance in India
The focus has shifted to Corporate Governance (CG) time and again on account of repeat emergence of financial crises across the global, as well as frequent instances of financial reporting failures. In competitive markets, Corporate Governance is a reflection of market disciplines, and forms the cornerstone for efficient allocation of resources. CG enables managements to take decisions, while at the same time being accountable for the decisions taken. Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) appointed the Committee on Corporate Governance in May, 1999 under the Chairmanship of Kumar Mangalam Birla, to promote and raise the standards of Corporate Governance, in the particular context of companies of the Committee included (i) to suggest measures to improve Corporate Governance in the listed companies, in areas such as continuous disclosure of material information, both financial and non financial, manner and frequency of such disclosures, and the responsibilities of independent Continue reading
Multidivisional Organizational Structure
In Multidivisional Organizational Structure, each business unit is placed in a self-contained division and supplied with all support functions. Thus each part essentially operates separately from the other parts of the company. The office of corporate headquarters is created to control and oversee the divisions. Headquarters also provides corporate support functions, such as finance and R&D. Divisional managers have operating responsibility; corporate managers have strategic responsibility. Each division is treated as a profit center and can adopt the structure and control systems that best serve its strategy. A multidivisional structure has several advantages. Enhanced corporate financial control is one advantage of the multidivisional structure. The profitability of the different divisions is very clear, allowing the corporate staff to readily determine the best resource allocation scheme. Enhanced strategic control is another benefit, because corporate staffs are freed from operating responsibilities, and can concentrate on corporate strategy. The structure overcomes limits to Continue reading
Stakeholder Expectations and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Stakeholders can be primary or secondary. Primary stakeholder groups comprise of employees, customers, investors, suppliers, government, and community with whom the corporation may have a formal, official or anybody who has claimed on the firm’s even though it is not significant. They consist of both internal and external stakeholder groups. Internal stakeholders comprise of employees and investors which are shareholder or bondholder, external stakeholders are the customers, communities, suppliers, government, and the environment which claimed on the firm’s if any damage occurs. Secondary stakeholders are media and special interest groups towards a firm where they didn’t have any contact with the firm, they just act like a spectators. Stakeholder theory has a number of strengths and weaknesses in its capacity to address issues of low-wage work. Classifying a group as a stakeholder has moral import and significant outcomes which means that the classifying the stakeholder can ensure that their problems Continue reading