Category: General / Interesting

Strategies and policies are closely related. Both give direction, both are in the framework for plans, both are the basis of operational plans, and both affect all areas of managing. The term   strategy has been used in different ways. Authors differ in at least one major aspect about strategies. Some writers focus on both the end points (purpose, mission, goals, and objectives) and the means of achieving them (policies and plans). Others emphasize the means to the ends in the strategic process rather than the ends per se. Strategy refers to the determination of the purpose (or mission) and the

Because of the importance of rapid ramp up and high volume, it often makes sense for an information-intensive company to encourage others to join with it in providing services through a common network. Once a network is in place for one purposes (think of a telephone system again), it gains value as other products or services (e.g. fax, machines and Internet access providers) are added to it. This increased value, in turn stimulates the growth of the network and the cumulative volume through it. Joining with others to promote and exploit a network may even be advantageous if those same

The word strategy (derived from the Greek word for general ship) was initially applied only to warfare. When applied to business “wars” it similarly refers to the establishment  of objectives,  the setting  of direction, and the development and implementation of plans, with the goal  (in place of military victory)  of achieving ascendancy over one’s adversaries. In order to have the desired competitive impact, therefore a strategy has to operate over an extended time horizon and embrace a broad spectrum of activities, ranging from resource allocation processes to day-to-day operations. It must hold decisions affecting these different sets of activities into

Today, strategy designers have been aided by a number of matrices showing the relationships of critical variables. For example the Boston Consulting Group developed the Business Portfolio matrix, which will be discussed later. For many years, the SWOT analysis has been used to identify a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. However, this kind of analysis is static and seldom leads to the development of distinct alternative strategies based on such an analysis. Therefore,   the TOWS Matrix has been introduced for analysing the competitive situation of the company or even of a nation leading to the development of four distinct

Once appropriate alternatives have been found, the next step in planning is to evaluate them and select the one that will best contribute to the goal. This is the point of ultimate decision making although decisions must also be made in the other steps of planning in selecting goals, in choosing critical premises and even in selecting alternatives. In comparing alternative plans for achieving an objective people are likely to think exclusively of quantitative factors. These are factors that can be measured in numerical terms, such as time or various fixed and operating costs. No one would question the importance

Transnational Corporation: Just operating in different countries is not enough for large corporations. Nor is the establishment of manufacturing plants in several countries (as Exxon and General Motors have done) sufficient to be competitive in the world market. The shift is towards the global or transactional corporation, which views the whole world as one market. This means, however, that a corporation also has to adapt to national and even local needs. American Express for example, has an overall advertising strategy– Membership has its privileges – but it adjusts its message for individual countries and even specific cities.  In Japan, the

Today, strategy designers have been aided by a number of matrices showing the relationships of critical variables. For example the Boston Consulting Group developed the Business Portfolio matrix, which will be discussed later. For many years, the SWOT analysis has been used to identify a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. However, this kind of analysis is static and seldom leads to the development of distinct alternative strategies based on such an analysis. Therefore,   the TOWS Matrix has been introduced for analysing the competitive situation of the company or even of a nation leading to the development of four distinct

What would you want to do on a Saturday afternoon ? Take a little nap or meet a friend? How about spending the same amount of time to learn how to build a product, find its market, patent it and connect with a VC to complete the picture? Sounds jolly good! Exactly, here’s what happened on 26th May 2012. This was in IIT Powai , where Your Story organised Tech Sparks2012 This event was for every one in the ecosystem, starting from an entrepreneur, media and investors, necessarily. The platform was created to provide the visibility , not merely to

Indian HR Convention 2012 – Destination Hyderabad presents “Preparing HR for Global Challenges” , on 29 June 2012, at Hotel Katriya, Raj Bhawan Road. We thank you for the brilliant  support and the great interest shown towards the Indian HR Convention 2012 – Destination Hyderabad. Join us to be mentored by Vikas Gupta,Vice President, Deloitte Consulting India Pvt Ltd, on the global challenges & role of Human Resource Managers. Learn how to unleash the human potential from K.K Ravishankar, Country Head, HA India, who says “Don’t Hire people for Jobs – Hire them by their PASSION for the Job”. Are you prepared for India

Japan, one of the leading industrial nations in the world, has adopted managerial practices that are quite different from those of other economically advanced countries in the Western world. The discussion below deals with two common Japanese practices: lifetime employment and consensus decision making. Then it compares and contrasts Japanese and US managerial practices, including Theory Z. Important features of Japanese management practice are lifelong employment for permanent employees (related to the staffing function), great concern for the individual employee, and emphasis on seniority. Typically, employees spend their working life with a single enterprise which in turn gives employees security