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

Green and Sustainable Supply Chain Management

Environmental changes across the world have generated a movement to identify the causes of global warming and develop solutions to end it before it is too late. In an effort to achive this, many countries are creating laws and regulations with the specific aim to reduce carbon emissions and greenhouse gas effect. The truth is that environmental change is upon us. Not only do we have climate problems but we are also dealing with a resource depletion issue. With economies like India and China growing at near double digit rates, the population of the world continues to grow creating shortages of many resources that we use to take for granted. Many consumers, stakeholders and businesses are becoming more involved in the growing green movement. Influenced by customer loyalty shifting towards environmentally friendly products, businesses are trying more and more to make their supply chains greener by introducing sustainability strategies throughout Continue reading

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Alcar Model of Value Based Management

The Alcar model, developed by the Alcar Group Inc., a company into management education and software development, uses the discounted cash flow analysis to identify value adding strategies. According to Alcar Model  of Value Based Management, there are seven ‘value drivers’ that affect a firm’s value. These are The growth rate of sales Operating profit margin Income tax rate Incremental investment in working capital Incremental investment in fixed assets Value growth duration Cost of capital. Value growth duration refers to the time period for which a strategy is expected to result in a higher than normal growth rate for the firm. The first six factors affect the value of the strategy for the firm by determining the cash flows generated by a strategy. The last term, i.e. the cost of capital, affects the value of the strategy by determining the present value of these cash flows. The following figure represents Continue reading

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Data Warehouse Architecture – Concept and Models

According to William Inmon, data warehouse is a subject-oriented, integrated, time-variant, and non-volatile collection of data in support of the management’s decision-making process. Data warehouse is a database containing data that usually represents the business history of an organization. This historical data is used for analysis that supports business decisions at many levels, from strategic planning to performance evaluation of a discrete organizational unit. It provides an effective integration of operational databases into an environment that enables strategic use of data. These technologies include relational and MDDB management systems, client/server architecture, meta-data modelling and repositories, graphical user interface and much more. The emergence of cross discipline domain such as knowledge management in finance, health and e-commerce have proved that vast amount of data need to be analyzed. The evolution of data in data warehouse can provide multiple dataset dimensions to solve various problems. Thus, critical decision making process of this dataset Continue reading

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Objectives of Performance Appraisal

Performance appraisal may be defined as a structured formal interaction between a subordinate and supervisor, that usually takes the form of a periodic interview (annual or semi-annual), in which the work performance of the subordinate is examined and discussed, with a view to identifying weaknesses and strengths as well as opportunities for improvement and skills development. In many organizations – but not all – appraisal results are used, either directly or indirectly, to help determine reward outcomes. That is, the appraisal results are used to identify the better performing employees who should get the majority of available merit pay increases, bonuses, and promotions. By the same token, appraisal results are used to identify the poorer performers who may require some form of counseling, or in extreme cases, demotion, dismissal or decreases in pay. (Organizations need to be aware of laws in their country that might restrict their capacity to dismiss Continue reading

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Participative Management – Concept, Principles, Implementation, Benefits, and Challenges

Participative management is a management approach that involves employees in decision-making processes and encourages them to take an active role in the organization. It is also known as employee involvement, employee participation, or democratic management. Participative management is a form of empowerment that enables employees to contribute their ideas, knowledge, and skills to improve the organization’s performance. This article will discuss the concept of participative management, its benefits, challenges, and implementation strategies. Concept of Participative Management Participative management is a management style that aims to involve employees in the decision-making process. It is based on the principle that employees who are directly involved in the work processes are best suited to make decisions that affect their work. Participative management recognizes that employees have a wealth of knowledge and experience that can be tapped to improve organizational performance. By involving employees in decision-making, organizations can harness the creativity and innovative potential Continue reading

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The Operational Approach to Management

Management is referred to as the science of using people and resources to achieve goals. Sometimes managers are involved in supervision and, therefore, management can further be interpreted as making sure people do their duties as assigned to them. This means that managers are mandated to ensure that productivity is realized in an organization. An operational approach is an approach that is borrowed from Bridgman’s work; this approach attempts to bring together the knowledge of management that is related to functions of management. The operational approach brings together management concepts, principles and techniques in the management practice. According to Koontz and Weihrich, management involves designing and maintaining a working environment where individuals or people working in groups achieve their objectives efficiently. This means that management cannot be successful without a strategic plan, proper coordination of activities and direction, as well as a reasonable control of decision-making processes; therefore, managers should be Continue reading

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