Navigating Solutions and Darkness

Organisation:  Collective group of persons engaged in pursuing specified objectives. May be formal or informal.  Formal Organisation Structure:  Structure of jobs and positions with defined functions and relationships. This type of organization is built by management to realize the objectives of an enterprise. Can be classified as under: Line organization  Functional Organization  Line and staff organization  Project Management Organization  Matrix Organization  Line Organization:  Oldest pattern of organization.  Line functions refer to those employees who have direct responsibility for accomplishing the objective of the enterprise.  A supervisor exercises direct supervision over a subordinate and authority flows from the person at the top to the person at the lowest ring  Also known as military or scalar type of organization. It benefits from unified control and undivided loyalty, therefore gaining d...

A process whereby the relevant facts are collected and analyzed, the assumptions and premises are made for the future. In light of these assumptions and premises, a plan of action believed necessary to achieve the desired results is visualized and formulated. It involves choosing the proper course of action from among alternatives and calls for decision making. All other functions of management depend on planning. Furthermore, management is a dynamic process and therefore so is planning - the process is continuous in light of overlapping functions and changing environment. Importance: Makes personnel conscious of enterprise objectives Leads to economy in operations   Precedes control  Precious managerial instrument to provide for the future  Influences efficacy of other managerial functions  Types of Plans: Business plans - a formal statement of: largely enforced business goals the reasons why they are believed attainable  the plan for reachi...

The need for management arises because to maintain effectiveness alongside minimum adverse consequences, group efforts are properly organized, directed and coordinated. The group of people who accept the responsibility of running an organization and directing its activities form the management of that organization. Objectives of management: Achieving maximum output with minimum effort optimum use of resources  maximum prosperity  human betterment and social justice  Schools of management: Empirical approach: Understanding of management develops from the study and analysis of cases and from a comparative approach.  Interpersonal Behaviour Approach: Study of management should be based on interpersonal relations. Group Behaviour Approach: Closely related to the interpersonal behaviour approach, but centred on studying the behavioural pattern of members and groups in an organization.  Decision Theory Approach: Rational decision making is the ...

Entrepreneurship:  The process of making money, earning profits and increasing wealth while posing characteristics such as risk taking, management, leadership and innovation. Elements: Innovation Risk Taking Vision Organising skills  Attaining economic development within the shortest possible time. Characteristics of an entrepreneur: Mental Ability  Business Secrecy Clear Objectives Human Relations Communication Ability Intrapreneurship:  A person within a large corporation who takes direct responsibility for turning an idea into a profitable finished product through assertive risk taking and innovation. Involves a combination of entrepreneurship and management skills. Environment Scanning:   Careful monitoring of an organization's internal and external environments for detecting early signs of opportunities and threats that may influence its current and future plans.  Types of Environmental Scanning: Passive scanning:...

The term  key managerial personnel  is used to define the executive management - they are the point of first contact between the company and its stakeholders.  Chapter XIII, Companies Act, 2013  read with  Companies (Appointment and Remuneration of Managerial Personnel) Rules, 2014  deal with the legal and procedural aspects of appointment of Key Managerial Personnel. S. 2(51): 1. Chief Executive Officer/ Managing Director/ Manager 2. Company Secretary 3. Whole time director 4. Chief Financial Officer 5. Any other officer as may be prescribed. Managing Director S. 2(54):  entrusted with substantial powers of management of the affairs of the company. (Excluding administrative acts of a routine nature when so authorised by the Board such as the power to affix the common seal of hte company to any document or to draw and endorse any cheque on account of the company in any bank or to draw and endorse any negotiable instrument or to sign any cer...

Finance:  Represents long and short term requirements and requires optimal management of limited resources.   Business finance:  those business activities concerned with the acquisition and conservation of capital funds in meeting the financial needs and overall objectives of business enterprises. Financial Managment:  Task of providing funds needed by the business or enterprise on terms that are most favorable in the light of its objectives – almost exclusively concerned with procurement of funds, could include instruments, institutions and practices of fund raising; also includes legal and accounting relationship between a company and its sources of funds. - Concerned with cash – everything that takes place in the conduct of a business (Broader term) - Procurement of funds and effective utilization – widest accepted theory Classification: Financing decision Investment decision Fixed capital management Working capital management  Dividend dec...

Business Function:  Concept used to define the role of the enterprise. Strategy -  The direction and scope of an organization over the long term. Exists at different levels: 1. Corporate strategy 2. Business unit strategy 3. Operational strategy Planning -  Mapping out exactly how to achieve a particular goal. Primary function of management. Budget:  A financial and/ or quantitative statement prepared and approved prior to a defined period of time of the policy to be pursued during that period for the purpose of attaining a given objective. May include income, expenditure and employment of capital. Budgeting:  The formulation of plans for a given future period in numerical terms. Budgetary control:  certain standards of performance are laid down, and used to monitor, measure and regulate actual performance. - Specific and time bound targets - Facilitates management by exception by stressing on those operations which deviate from budgeted s...

Network Marketing aka Multilevel Marketing (MLM) Direct marketing by the manufacturer by recruiting independent business persons who act as distributors of company’s products. Can reach potential customers that a company otherwise wouldn’t reach with traditional online or offline marketing methods. The distributors purchase products at wholesale prices and may either use discounted products themselves or retail the products to others for a profit. They receive a commission on their personal volume – the value of every product they personally buy or sell. Also receive a net commission on the total turnover they created from their group personal volume. The network grows continually. The distribution channel is at zero level where the firm is selling goods to distributors directly – reducing additional overheads of the firm. Lower overhead costs as no infrastructure is required. However, sales forecasting is difficult, and distributors may also become the largest customers and tak...

Scales of business  refers to the size of the business.  Micro:  The sector most encouraged in low income countries as it shows most promise for sustainable development, is potentially most viable for micro entrepreneurs and fills the most necessary niche in the economy is the initial processing of agricultural products.  Where investment in plant and machinery doesn’t exceed 25 lakhs, or where service sector is concerned, 10 lakhs. Small scale:  Industries organized on a small scale and which produce goods with the help of small machines, hired labour and power. Capital resources invested on plant and machinery buildings have been the primary criteria to differentiate SSI from large and medium scale industries.  Can be classified into  registered  and  unregistered SSI. Large scale:  Those industries which require huge infrastructure, man power and influx of capital assets. Fixed asset of more than 100,000,000 rupees. Public:...

Ideally speaking, a business organization ought to have the following characteristics: Ease of formation Adequacy of capital - when raising capital from the public, the conditions involved are  safety of investment, fair return on investment and transferability of holding. Limited liability Direct relationship between ownership, control and management. Continuity and stability  Flexibility of operations Distinct ownership Lawful business Separate legal personality Dealing in goods and services  Forms of business organization: Sole Proprietorship -  single ownership, no sharing of either profit or loss, unlimited liability, minimal formality. HUF - Hindu Undivided Family, unique to India  - All members (co-parceners) own the business jointly, and it is managed by the " karta" , or head of the family. Governed by Hindu inheritance laws. Partnership  - 2-20 members; governed by the  Indian Partnership Act, 1932 .  Unlimited liabi...

Crossposted from Ditzy Derivatives here . Business:  An organized activity to achieve certain predetermined goals. Predetermined  goals of business  can include:   Making profit Important position in society Supply of goods and services Creation of job opportunities Offering better quality of life Contributing to the economic growth of society Change is an important part of business, and the  success of every business depends on adaptation . Specific and general forces  affect enterprises - the former (investors, customers, competitors) affect the day to day functioning of enterprises, whereas the latter (sociopolitical conditions, laws) are common to all enterprises and are probably indirect in nature. First mover advantage:  early recognition of opportunities  Threat identification:  corrective and improvement measures to survive competition. Adaptability : coping with rapid changes caused by the dynamic natur...