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

Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) – Meaning, Types, Benefits and Risks

Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs), investment vehicles of Governments are increasingly seen in action through acquisition of either natural resources like oil and gas fields or equity holdings in MNCs. While the reasons for establishing a SWF may vary from commercial to strategic ones, SWFs’ influence on the countries and corporate is substantial. Since they mostly stay invested for a long-term they do not pose threat of pulling out in the short term and creating huge volatility in the financial markets. Since their investment corpus run to billions, by staying invested for a long time, they have a stabilizing effect on the capital market even during crashes and short term fluctuations. However, regulations and guidelines of the SWF also needs to be put in place in order to avoid it from exercising any soft control or strategic moves that may affect the sovereignty of the country allowing investments. Sovereign Wealth Funds Continue reading

Abey Francis

Business and Globalization: National Differences Facing Operations

Working in another country or with an organization from another countries demands knowledge and consideration of their environmental forces in order to create a good strategic plan. To be successful in international business manager must be aware  of the culture with which they deal. International operating companies must have a strategic management plan that takes in to consideration the real and potential forces in a foreign environment, as well as the forces at work in the domestic environment. A manager has to understand the new environment, which means understanding the people and their culture. Physical forces and geographic factors determine transportation and production cost. Mountains and deserts are barriers to the movement of people; ideas goods and services can be an advantage if the infrastructure is good. However, it can also be a disadvantage, because real estate and labor are more expensive. Another important area is legal considerations, both domestic Continue reading

Abey Francis

Technology Transfer in International Business

Technology is a new variable in the equation of economic relations. Traditional  theories of international business assumes that all nations have equal access to technology and, therefore,  that there is no need to transfer technology from one county to another. Recent  research findings have invalidated this assumption. In addition, they point to  technology differences as primary cause of international inequalities in  economic achievements. To reduce the inequalities, technology capabilities of  the backward nations must be strengthened. The quickest way to do so is to  transfer technology from the developed to the developing nations. Technology is any device or process used for productive purposes. In its  broadest sense, it is the sum of the ways in which a given group provides itself  with good and services, the group being a nation, an industry, or a single firm.  There is a fundamental characteristic of technology that demands clear  recognition. Q unites unlike Continue reading

Abey Francis

Responsibility Reporting

The essence of responsibility accounting   is the collection of costs according to responsibility centers in order that variances from standard costs and budgets can be identified with persons, and based on the causes of variances, corrective actions may be initiated. Reports are prepared to inform a responsibility center manager how well he has performed in terms of costs. The purpose is not to indicate failure or to find fault. Responsibility reporting is the crucial phase of responsibility accounting. Responsibility reporting requires grouping and defining responsibility within an organization structure, determining and assigning costs to appropriate levels and activities and placing a strong emphasis on cost controllability. Reports prepared under responsibility accounting may be known as performance reports. These reports are prepared with the purpose of: informing each manager of his achievement in controlling costs of his center; pointing out each manager’s accountability for costs incurred; and presenting cost information Continue reading

Abey Francis

Payback Period Method of Capital Budgeting

Payback Period Method The Payback period method of  capital budgeting  is popularly known as pay-off, pay out or replacement period methods also. It is the most popular and widely recognized traditional method of evaluating capital projects. Payback period method represents the number of years required to recover the original cash outlay invested in a project. It is based on the principle that every capital expenditure pays itself back over a number of years. It attempts to measure the period of time, it takes for the original cost of a project to be recovered from the additional earnings of the project. It means where the total earnings (or net cash inflow) from investment equals the total outlay, that period is the pay-back period. The standard recoupment period is fixed the management taking into account number of considerations. In making a comparison between two or more projects, the project having the lesser Continue reading

Abey Francis

Importance of International HRM

Various threats generated by the liberalization of an economy can be met only through bringing corresponding changes in management practices including practices related to International HRM. In the newer management practices, more emphasis has been given to International HRM because of the following factors: 1. Emphasis on Core Competency. Post-liberalization, many organizations have started focusing on their core competence and businesses are being organized around that. Core competence is a unique strength of an organization that may not be shared by others. This may be in the form of unique financial resources (finance available at a much lower cost), manpower resources, marketing capability, or technological capability. If the business is organized on the basis of core competency, it is likely to generate competitive advantages. Because of this reason, many organizations have restructured their businesses-divesting those businesses which do not match core competence such as Tata Group divesting many businesses and Continue reading

Abey Francis