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

Benefits of Performance Appraisal

Perhaps the most significant benefit of performance appraisal is that, in the rush and bustle of daily working life, it offers a rare chance for a supervisor and subordinate to have “time out” for a one-on-one discussion of important work issues that might not otherwise be addresses. Performance Appraisal offers a valuable opportunity to focus on work activities and goals, to identify and correct existing problems, and to encourage better future performance. Thus the performance of the whole organization is enhanced. For many employees, an “official” appraisal interview may be the only time they get to have exclusive, uninterrupted access to their supervisor. Said one employee of a large organization after his first formal performance appraisal, “In twenty years of work, that’s the first time anyone has ever bothered to sit down and tell me how I’m doing.” The value of this intense and purposeful interaction between a supervisors and Continue reading

Abey Francis

Performance-Based Budgeting – Meaning, Working, Pros, and Cons

Performance-based budgeting has been the center of reforms in both the private and the public sectors. However, a substantial ambiguity still remains on how to define and implement performance-based budgeting. A somewhat close definition is that performance-based budgeting apportions resources in accordance with specific achievement or quantifiable results. Performance budgeting can also be defined as systems of planning, budgeting, and appraisal that focuses the link between budgeted funds and the expected outcome. Therefore, performance-based budgeting links measurable performance and allocation of resources, with the capacity to state the level of achievable output with the injection of additional resources. Nevertheless, the output can never be measured accurately. Performance budgeting is result oriented in that it holds different divisions accountable to specific performance standards. This form of budgeting enhances awareness of the kind of services expected by the taxpayer. This type of budgeting is flexible since it allocates resources in a lump sum Continue reading

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Understanding Different Eras of Data Analytics

Back in the 1950’s and 1970’s, the role of information systems (IS) was to support operational functions within the organization. IS was primarily used in transaction applications, involving accounting transactions. The focus was on IS efficiency and IS effectiveness. With the advent of internet and as information technology (IT) advanced over time, the methods to assess the data and the amount that could be processed increased significantly. Data became more quickly accessible and could be processed at greater speeds. This assisted organizations and managers to report and run data more effectively. Information systems have helped organizations improve their decision making process and help managers reduce the risk involved. The way in which Data Analytics field has evolved in terms of capabilities and volume is of significance. Analytics has evolved and has been perceived differently across different periods in time or eras. ANALYTICS 1.0 – THE ERA OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND TRADITIONAL Continue reading

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Concepts of Ethical Consumerism and Consumer Activism

Concept of Ethical Consumerism Over the last ten or twenty years, more and more people around the world, primarily in industrialized countries, have become better informed and more aware of the origins of the goods they purchase on a day-to-day basis, the buying policies and practices of the shops they visit and the policies and principles of the services they buy. In a growing number of cases, this increased awareness and knowledge is affecting consumer practices and may be the difference between someone buying a particular product or service or not. There are a number of reasons for this development, which is commonly referred to as “ethical consumerism”, or also “ethical consumption”, “ethical purchasing”, “moral purchasing”, “ethical sourcing”, “ethical shopping” or “green consumerism”. Fundamentally, ethical consumerism is consumers taking responsibility for their decisions in purchasing goods and services. Two key elements that have contributed to this development and that are Continue reading

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Design and Placement of the Corporate Communication Function

The need to centralize or decentralize usually comes down to weighing the considerations of company size, product, or service diversity, and geographic spread. For a company as diverse and large as General Electric, for example, the question was moot. Such a huge, diverse organization involved in activities as different as aerospace and network television cannot possibly remain completely centralized in all of its communication activities. Perhaps then, the best structure for large companies is some combination of a strong, centralized, functional area plus a network of decentralized operatives helping to keep communications consistent throughout the organization while adapting the function to the special needs of the independent business unit. Despite its advantages, the mix of centralized and decentralized activities presents problems for organizations in terms of reporting relationships. If the communications operatives report to their local managers, as they inevitably would, they will run into problems when the manager from Continue reading

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Financial Leverage and the Shareholders Risk

It has is seen that financial leverage magnifies the shareholder’s earnings. It has also been observed that the variability of EBIT causes EPS to fluctuate within wider ranges with debt in the capital structure. That is, with more debt, EPS rises and falls faster than the rise and fall of EBIT. Thus, financial leverage not only magnifies EPS but also increases its variability. The variability of EBIT and EPS distinguish between two types of risk- operating risk and financial risk. 1. Operating Risk- Operating risk can be defined as the variability of EBIT (or return on assets). The environment- internal and external- in which a firm operates determines the variability of EBIT. So long as the environment is given to the firm, operating risk is an unavoidable risk. A firm is better placed to face such risk if it can predict it with a fair degree of accuracy. The variability Continue reading

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