Case Study on Entrepreneurship: Larry Page

Business Analysis

The Boundaryless Career: Modern Contemperory Perspective on Career

Human Resource Management

Concepts of Throughput Accounting and Theory of Constraints

Financial Management

Gantt Charts – Tool for Project Planning and Scheduling

Project Management

Kaizen – Understanding the Japanese Business Philosophy of Continuous Improvement

Operations Management

Payment Terms in International Trade: Open Account, Barter Trade and Bank Guarantee

Open Account From the seller’s point of view the Open Account is the most unsatisfactory international business payment system. Under this payment system the arrangement is that the buyer pays at the end of an agreed period. The seller consigns the goods directly to the buyer or to his order and documents pertaining to the goods are sent directly to the buyer enabling him to take delivery of the goods. Under this payment system the seller after having supplied goods is purely at the mercy of the buyer. Such a payment is normally in those trading arrangements requiring a high degree or trust between the buyer and the seller and a regular continuous business relationship between the two parties. Advantage of this payment system, is that since there is no involvement of a bank, there is less paper work and consequently lesser costs. This system is more beneficial to a Continue reading

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Three Approaches to Working Capital Management

Working capital is said to be the life blood of a business. Working capital signifies funds required for day-to-day operation of the firm. In financial literature, there exist two concepts of working capital namely: gross and net. Accordingly, gross concept working capital refers to current assets viz: cash, marketable securities, inventories of raw materials, work-in-process, finished goods and receivables. According to net concept, working capital refers to the difference between current assets and current liabilities. Ordinarily, working capital can be classified into fixed or permanent and variable or fluctuating parts. The minimum level of investment in current assets regularly employed in business is called fixed or permanent working capital and the extra working capital needed to support the changing business activities is called variable or fluctuating working capital. There are broadly 3 working capital management strategies/ approaches to choose the mix of long and short-term funds for financing the net working Continue reading

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Shell’s Directional Policy Matrix (DPM)

The Shell Directional Policy Matrix (DPM) is another refinement upon the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix. Along the horizontal axis are prospects for business sector profitability, and along the vertical axis is a company’s competitive capability. Business sector profitability includes the size of the market, expected growth, lack of competition, profit margins within the market and other favorable political and socio-economic conditions. On the other hand company’s competitive capability  is determined by the sales volume, the products reputation, reliability of service and competitive pricing. As with the GE Business Screen the location of a Strategic Business Unit (SBU) in any cell of the matrix implies different strategic decisions. However decisions often span options and in practice the zones are an irregular shape and do not tend to be accommodated by box shapes. Instead they blend into each other. Each of the zones in  Shell’s Directional Policy Matrix is described as Continue reading

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Goal-Setting Theory of Motivation

This approach to motivation has been pioneered in the USA by Edwin Locke and his associates in 1960s and refined in 1980s. Goal-setting theory of motivation suggests that managers and subordinates should set goals for an individual on a regular basis, as suggested by Management by Objectives (MBO). These goals should be moderately difficult and very specific and of type that an employee will accept and make a commitment to accomplishing them. Rewards should be tied directly to accomplished goals. When involved in goal-settings, employees see how their effort will lead to performance, rewards and personal satisfaction. Salient features of Goal-setting theory of motivation    are as follows: Specific goal fixes the needs of resources and efforts. It increases performance. Difficult goals result higher performance than easy job. Better feedback of results leads to better performances than lack of feedback. Participation of employees in goal has mixed result. Participation of Continue reading

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Computerisation of Banks India – Issues & Events

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the industrial revolution brought profound changes in the life style of man. Many activities that were hitherto performed by man employing his hands and his finger skill came to be carried at great speed and efficiency by machines. Man continued to carry out only those functions that needed his thinking process to be involved. The Industrial Revolution on account of mass production of goods and services brought large commercial and business organizations, transcending national boundaries that employed several thousands of persons for performing routine, repetitive clerical tasks, relating to record keeping, maintaining accounts, attending/answering correspondence, preparing vouchers, invoices, bills and multiple of such other functions. This created white-collar employment for educated persons by leaps and bounds. Clerical task is defined as a routine and repetitive performance involving, adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing numbers, and duplicating data/information from one source to another. The tools employed are Continue reading

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Contingency Approach to Management

The contingency approach to management emerged from the real life experience of managers who found that no single approach worked consistently in every situation. The basic idea of this approach is that number management technique or theory is appropriate in all situations. The main determinants of a contingency are related to the external and internal environment of an organisation. The process, quantitative, behavioral, and systems approaches to management did not integrate the environment. The often assumed that their concepts and techniques have universal applicability. For example the process theorists often assumes that strategic planning applies to all situations; the quantitative experts generally feel that linear programming can be used under all conditions; the behavioral theorist usually advocates participative goal setting for all superior-subordinate pairs; and the system advocates tend to emphasize the need for computerized information flows in all situations. On the other hand practicing managers find out that a Continue reading

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