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Business Strategies : Kingfisher Airlines

newuser — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:54:42 +0000

Kingfisher Airlines launched its domestic air service operations in May 2005.KFA was promoted by UB group and offered a single class- “Kingfisher Class”. KFA successfully leverage the youthful and vibrant image of its kingfisher beer brand and called its airlines as ‘Funliners’ to emphasize the fun-filled experience. Within the first six months of its launch, KFA managed to corner a 6% market share in the domestic air travel mark.

KFA started its operation in May 7, 2005, positioning itself as a budget carrier and not as Low Cost Carrier (LCC).
Following strategies were followed to make it one of the leading Airlines in India.
… click here to read more on Business Strategies by Kingfisher

What is SWOT Analysis

newuser — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:47:14 +0000

SWOT analysis is a simple framework for generating strategic alternatives from a situation analysis. It is applicable to either the corporate level or the business unit level and frequently appears in marketing plans.

SWOT (sometimes referred to as TOWS) stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. A SWOT analysis consists of the following two activities:

* An assessment of the organization’s internal Strengths and Weaknesses and
* An assessment of the Opportunities and Threats posed by its external environment

… click here to read ahead

Designing efficient supply chain management system of paper

newuser — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 13:14:47 +0000

Can the SCM for Paper be made more efficient? The answer is an obvious yes!
Some experts often use “from the forest to the door” to describe the scope of supply chain management, supply chain management, border paper should include the entire paper supply chain printing the main stakeholders, such as: paper mills, paper making equipment suppliers; publisher or other print clients; printing, Printing Equipment Manufacturers, suppliers, paper suppliers.

Demand Printing and timely delivery of a new printing company customer service goals, but also to bring their own paper, the printing industry and its major customers (such as books and printing companies main customers?? Press) is considering a reorganization of the paper supply chain in order to make themselves more focused their core business … click here to read ahead

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Synopsis of Business Etiquette

newuser — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 13:06:24 +0000

When a person gets into employment for the first time he gets confused with the corporate culture and finds it very difficult to learn the corporate etiquette which is otherwise also known as business etiquette. There will be vast cultural gaps from the background from where the individual has come and that of the organization he enters. He finds it very difficult to get along with new cultures, customs, norms and rules. There would certainly be a gap. It takes certain time to get adjusted and adapted to the corporate culture and learn the etiquette … click here to read ahead

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Corporate Social Responsibility : TESCO

newuser — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 12:57:14 +0000

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development in its publication “Making Good Business Sense” by Lord Holme and Richard Watts, used the following definition. “Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large”The same report gave some evidence of the different perceptions of what this should mean from a number of different societies across the world. Definitions as different as “CSR is about capacity building for sustainable livelihoods. It respects cultural differences and finds the business opportunities in building the skills of employees, the community and the government” from Ghana, through to “CSR is about business giving back to society” from the Phillipines.

Traditionally in the United States, CSR has been defined much more in terms of a philanthropic model. Companies make profits, unhindered except by fulfilling their duty to pay taxes. Then they donate a certain share of the profits to charitable causes. It is seen as tainting the act for the company to receive any benefit from the giving.

The European model is much more focused on operating the core business in a socially responsible way, complemented by investment in communities for solid business case reasons. Personally, I believe this model is more sustainable because:

1. Social responsibility becomes an integral part of the wealth creation process – which if managed properly should enhance the competitiveness of business and maximize the value of wealth creation to society.
2. When times get hard, there is the incentive to practice CSR more and better – if it is a philanthropic exercise which is peripheral to the main business, it will always be the first thing to go when push comes to shove.

Corporate scandals at Enron, WorldCom and others made people distrust big businesses and this increased government regulations. This apart, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) started criticizing and battling with MNCs. The trend of rankings and ratings also pressurized companies to report their non-financial performance along with financial results. And, of late, media is observing companies closely. Embarrassing news anywhere in the world – say, a child sewing a cloth with a company’s brand on it – can be broadcasted across the world instantly. Relatively, customers are increasingly concerned about the companies’ impact on society including that on the physical environment, impact of products on the consumers, etc., as customers have become more aware of these issues through mass media.

Click here to read the Corporate Social Responsibility at TESCO

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Style Of Training

admin — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 17:00:35 +0000

You can find them almost everywhere. Myers-Briggs, Enneagrams, leadership styles, learning styles, communication styles, teaching styles, conflict management styles…all designed to classify or label people so they can better understand themselves and others. More and more training vendors are using style questionnaires as a basis for training and development. The question is: are they really useful, or are they just fun exercises akin to astrology?

Overview
Style questionnaires usually consist of a number of items. Format may vary. In some, you may be asked to choose one of two activities (forced choice), while in others you may choose one option from a set of four or five. After you have completed all of the questions, you tally up your scores to determine which category of style is your most dominant. If it’s a decision making/ leadership style instrument, you may fall into one of the following categories: autocratic, consultative, participative or laissez faire. If it’s a conflict
management style instrument, you may fall into the following: avoider, confronter, compromiser, or co-operator. Generally, your results will give you a “reading” of your preferred style, a secondary style, and your least preferred style. Things You Should Know

1. Psychological research indicates that people’s behaviour is not very consistent. It is naturally situational specific. For example, you may use one conflict management style with a subordinate, and an entirely different one with your boss, regardless of what your “preferred style” might be. Your behaviour, in any given situation, is largely determined by the situation, NOT your preferred style. So, style questionnaires are a relatively poor predictor of what you (or someone else) will do in the real world.

2. There is a tendency for people completing these types of questionnaires to respond in a way that is consistent with how they would like to be, rather than the way they actually behave. For example, few people want to see themselves as wimpy conflict avoiders, so it isn’t surprising that you don’t come across too many people that fall into this category. Since many instruments are pretty easy to “figure out”, there is a tendency for people to respond in ways that they feel will present themselves in a positive light.

3. In many cases, the descriptions you receive as part of the interpretation of your score(s) are sufficiently general as to fit almost anyone. At least some of it is going to fit, much like the astrology predictions one finds in the newspaper.

4. Many trainers, or test administrators know that people are interested in themselves, and will become highly motivated when they are given the opportunity to “find out about themselves”. Taking a test about oneself is fun, and exciting, and often this excitement will obscure the fact that the instrument is poor, and the interpretations overly general.

5. Many trainers or test administrators have had little training in the use of instruments. Almost anyone can purchase questionnaires and offer them to clients. As a result trainers may not be aware of the limitations of the instruments or the interpretations, having had little or no education in test theory, or psychology.

On The Negative Side The negative side of training based on these instruments is that things appear scientific. The limitations of the approach are not always explained, and it is possible to take the enterprise far too seriously. In the hands of an unqualified trainer or consultant, the process becomes more of a fun parlour game, rather than a useful one. The primary danger here is that we will take the results far too seriously. Human behaviour is so complicated that a quick style assessment instrument simply cannot do justice to human complexity. In the hands of trainers with a limited background in testing or psychology, the results can be “oversold”.
Finally, there is no guarantee that a person’s behaviour will change as a result of taking one of these courses, or instruments. There is no guarantee that they will become better team members, more tolerant, or more effective. What they will be able to do is label themselves or others as being of a particular style. They may learn to explain a person’s behaviour (or their own) as being a result of a style preference, and that explanation will almost always be overly simplistic.

On The Positive Side

Besides being fun, these kinds of instruments have one primary benefit. They encourage people to be reflective about themselves and others. Even if the results of these instruments are totally bogus, and have no relationship with real world behaviour, people tend to look at themselves a bit more carefully. This is good. Whenever people think about themselves and their own behaviour, there is a chance that they will find better or different ways to behave.

Recommendations

1. Approach test results as suggestive at best. Be aware that your behaviour is determined by many factors, and that most tests are very general.

2. If you are contemplating attending a training course based on style identification, inquire as to where the trainer learned to administer the test. If they “learned it from a book”, then it is likely that they will have insufficient background to use the test properly. Look for people that have some form of formal training or certification. This is no guarantee that they will have the breadth of knowledge to point out the test limitations, but at least they will understand the instrument they are using.

3. If you think that having your team identify their particular styles is going to increase tolerance and team effectiveness, think again. On its own, it can create as many problems as it solves. It is possible that people will understand each other, but it is just as likely that they will use style labels to justify their intolerance.

4. Find out how the particular test was developed. Ask how the validity of the test was determined, and whether it is reliable. Validity and reliability of tests are very technical topics. However, if the trainer can’t answer your questions, or doesn’t understand them, then you can pretty much assume that he or she is not competent to use the instrument.

5. Finally, approach these forms of tests as fun exercises that may encourage reflection. Don’t get fooled by the appearance of science here unless the instrument has been thoroughly tested, and take the interpretations with a grain of salt. They should be seen as suggestive, not absolute, and can be used to stimulate discussion and thinking. Remember that no test can capture the complexity and flexibility of human behaviour.
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Is There A Secret To Success?

admin — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 16:43:26 +0000

Everyone wants to do well and thus everyone loves to know the secret of success. What will allow me to be first? How can I be guaranteed that this song will be a hit? What should I do so that this presentation is going to be loved? The fact of the matter is that there is no instant recipe for success. If you follow a number of steps, you can increase your chances of being successful but there are no guarantees.

Because there are no guarantees other than hard work, many people are attracted by the lure of short cuts and cheating. Some people think trading in the stock markets is an easy way to success, so we see a no. of intraday traders with their hopes high sitting in front of the computer screen every day but only 10% of them are able to succeed, others just loose out in the rat race. This is why steroids are so popular in athletics and why doping is so horribly rife in cycling. The horse racing industry has been beset by scandal of people taking unfair means in order to take an advantage. With the millions of dollars at stake, people feel the risk of being caught is worth it. Also the horse, doesn’t get much of a say in the matter. So what can you do which is allowed? You can be organized, prepared and methodical. You can wake up early, go to bed late and in between put in the hours to make sure that you can do everything you can possibly do to have the best chances of being successful. This isn’t as glamorous nor does it have the thrill of doing something which is illegal. That’s just the way things work.
Unfortunately many people are put off by the thought of putting in the hours and working hard. Hard work is just something that most people want to avoid, but on the contrary this is the easiest way to success. On the flip side, it means that if you are prepared to do it, you can come out on top. Glory via cheating is short-term.
Eventually you are caught and then have to live with the shame and the guilt. This is a huge difference from success that comes via hard work – here you are left with a sense of achievement and pride that never goes away.
Marion Jones may have been the darling of the 2000 Olympics which took place in Sydney but now she is disgraced. Her medals were taken away and she went to prison. A similar thing happened in baseball with Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds who will never go into the Hall of Fame. The greyhound racing world was shocked when a highly successful trainer was found out to be cheating. He went into hiding and hasn’t been heard of since.
In the corporate world, there isn’t enough punishment for those who break the rules. People who embezzle and are guilty of insider trading are given a slap on the wrist. The classic example is Bernie Madoff but what could happen to him where the punishment truly fits the crime. The magnitude of his crime means nothing could ever fit the bill.
Now let’s look at a few examples of how hard work has paid off in life. Remember Lance Armstrong?? On October 2, 1996, at age 25, Armstrong was diagnosed with stage three testicular cancer. The cancer spread to his lungs, abdomen and brain. On that first visit to a urologist in Austin, Texas, for his cancer symptoms he was coughing up blood and had a large, painful testicular tumour. Immediate surgery and chemotherapy were required to save his life. Armstrong had an orchiectomy to remove his diseased testicle. After his surgery, his doctor stated that he had less than a 40% survival chance. Before his cancer treatment, Armstrong had won two Tour de France stages. In 1993, he won the 8th stage and in 1995 he took stage 18 in honour of teammate Fabio Casartelli who crashed and died on stage 15. Armstrong dropped out of the 1996 Tour on the 7th stage after becoming ill, a few months before his diagnosis. Armstrong’s cycling comeback began in 1998 when he finished fourth in the Vuelta a España. In 1999 he won the Tour de France, including four stages. He beat the second rider, Alex Zülle, by 7 minutes 37 seconds. However, the absence of Jan Ullrich (injury) and Marco Pantani (drug allegations) meant Armstrong had not yet proven himself against the biggest names. Stage wins included the prologue, stage eight, an individual time trial in Metz, an Alpine stage on stage nine, and the second individual time trial on stage 19. In 2000, Ullrich and Pantani returned to challenge Armstrong. The race that began a six-year rivalry between Ullrich and Armstrong ended in victory for Armstrong by 6 minutes 2 seconds over Ullrich. Armstrong took one stage in the 2000 Tour, the second individual time trial on stage 19. In 2001, Armstrong again took top honours, beating Ullrich by 6 minutes 44 seconds. In 2002, Ullrich did not participate due to suspension, and Armstrong won by seven minutes over Joseba Beloki.
Now this is what we call hard work, dedication, perseverance etc. It can be unanimously said that there is no substitute for hard work. Gambling, cheating will only get you success 1 out of 10 times. Some would say that the cheaters are just given us what we want. We want people to cheer and support and that is what they are providing us. This seems like a weak rationalization for doing something which is

Is There A Secret To Success? wrong. They want to succeed and are prepared to do so at any cost. Well is it worth this much?
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Investing In Real Estate

admin — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:56:14 +0000

Everything is fair in love and war! The war of superiority and the love of immortality!
The competition between stock market investing and real estate has been going on since the mid 1960s, in order to prove to be the best source of investment returns. The stock market was regarded as a place to invest, whereas the realty was considered to be more reliable in the past. The present scenario is more of a revolutionized kind. It showed visible signs of change in the mid 1990s and kept on changing since then.
At present real estate, especially the residential realty that is purchase, renting, reselling and holding of realty assets is the matter of investment choice for the most of investors. Money generally flows as a direct consequence of low interest rates. Mortgaging assets is safer than high-risk speculative stock investments. Residential realty demands have increased manifold throughout the urban areas in North America and to some extent Europe. This generally affects the condominiums and town homes located inside the urban cores but prove to be a boon for single-family assets. Real estate has been compared to gold, which in historical times was considered as a tangible store of value.

The primary reason of the investment revolution is the tangibility of assets. More often than not this is guided by the psychological reasons. Most of the investors would opt for real estate investment where they would be able to see, touch, paint and above all feel the sense of security and possession, rather than the purchase of a share into a distant company over which the investor cannot access any control. Apart from
psychological reasons it can be supported by a very valid reason, the reason of availability of financing. In the stock market, there is a constant fear of being severely affected by its loss, as millions of investors have been the victims of such losses, earlier. But, only a few buyers and sellers have been affected in the scandals relating to Real Estate. Lenders have become more comfortable with the purchase of realty
market values than that of stocks and bonds. Banks generally give loans on appraised values, and an appraiser of a residential realty determines its real market value with a relatively higher degree of accuracy. This is easier than a stock analyst trying to evaluate the books of a corporation accurately.

Buying real estate is about more than just finding a place to call home. Investing in real estate has become increasingly popular over the last fifty years and has become a common investment vehicle. Although the real estate market has plenty of opportunities for making big gains, buying and owning real estate is a lot more complicated than investing in stocks and bonds. In this article, we’ll go beyond buying a home and introduce you to real estate as an investment.
This is an investment as old as the practice of landownership. A person will buy a property and rent it out to a tenant. The owner, the landlord, is responsible for paying the mortgage, taxes and costs of maintaining the property. Ideally, the landlord charges enough rent to cover all of the aforementioned costs. A landlord may also charge more in order to produce a monthly profit, but the most common strategy is to be patient and only charge enough rent to cover expenses until the mortgage has been paid, at which time the majority of the rent becomes profit. Furthermore, the property may also have appreciated in value over the course of the mortgage (according to the U.S. Census Bureau, real estate has consistently increased in value since 1940), leaving the landlord with a more valuable asset.
A financial institution would lend money far more easily to a qualified real estate buyer than to a stock market investor. This is mainly because real estate assets could be of similar values if they are of similar infrastructure, located at the same place and having similar furniture. However, the same reasoning cannot be applied to different corporations because of several variables, such as location, number of employees, performance, technology, market sector, politics, taxes, rapid growth in population, density, age and other relevant factors in current context of Real Estate over the Stock Market.
People have grown smarter these days. They buy a house generally below the market price, and let the value grow and then capitalize in hundreds and thousands of different ways. Real estate investment is being considered more rewarding as compared to the stock market investment, as people just not believe in spinning money but also securing values…
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Social marketing communication in a multicultural environment

admin — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:42:56 +0000

Social marketing communication (social marcom) campaign production can be more challenging when the audience includes individuals from ‘culturally and linguistically diverse’ (CALD) communities. Additional issues such as culturally related values, practices, and attitudes need consideration. Normally, social marcoms campaigns for CALD audiences involve directly translating mainstream campaign material into various ethnic groups’ languages. However, little is understood about the issues beyond translation that confront practitioners adapting mainstream campaigns. This article presents a case study analysis of work undertaken by the New South Wales Multicultural Health Communication Service (MHCS).
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COMMODITY MARKETS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD

admin — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 09:12:21 +0000

Every day, commodities are traded on the more than one dozen major commodity exchanges that are situated worldwide.
Chicago houses two exchanges, the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). The CBOT was established in 1848 to bring farmers and merchants together. Initially its main task was to standardise the quantities and qualities of the grains that were traded. Within a few years the first futures-type contract was developed. It was known as the to-arrive contract. Speculators soon became interested in the contract and found trading in the contract to be an attractive alternative to trading the underlying grain itself. In 1919, another exchange, the CME was established. Now futures exchanges exist all over the world. On these exchanges, a wide range of commodities and financial assets form the underlying assets in various contracts. The commodities include pork bellies, live cattle, sugar, wool, lumber, copper, aluminium, gold and tin. Between these two exchanges, a wide array of commodities are traded, bought and sold.
The CBOT has a very diverse collection of commodity types. These include agriculture such as corn, soybeans, wheat and oats but the diversity extends to include metal contracts such as 100 oz gold, 5,000 oz silver and mini contracts for both of these. Mini contracts allow for a lower initial investment as well as smaller ticks (price increments). This is because the amount that is included in the original contract is smaller than the traditional amount.

The CBOT also has several non physical commodities futures contracts. There are government bonds, including 30 year bonds, 10 year notes, 5 year swaps and others. A swap, whose primary use is for hedging, is a blend of a forward and a cash trade. They are similar to futures. Other trades on the CBOT include major indexes as the Dow AIG Index (a commodity index) and the Big Dow (a stocks index).

The CME, also in Chicago, has been trading commodities for more than one hundred years. Trades such as live as well as feeder cattle, hogs, pork bellies and others have been executed on this exchange. However, lumber, milk, butter and fertilizer are also traded there. However, the CME can also shift gears to offer an E-mini S&P 500 contracts for trading on the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index. For those who prefer the ever popular NASDAQ, there is E-mini NASDAQ 100 for trading futures contracts.
Some of the more unusual trades made on the CME include Eurodollar futures and the Weather derivative which is a futures contract that predicts weather conditions during different seasons for areas around the world.

The New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) is one of the oldest in the United States. Among the wide variety of petroleum and metal commodities and futures that are traded are Brent and mini crude (CL, WS), Natural Gas (NG), Gasoline (HU), Heating Oil (HO, BH) and many others. Other offerings are Gold (GC), Silver (SI), Copper (HG) and Aluminum (AL). You may have noticed that the commodity abbreviation does not match the common chemical element abbreviation. This is because futures contracts are listed second and have their own abbreviations.
New York houses yet another major exchange, the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT). The NYBOT is New York’s original futures exchange. Offerings on this exchange include cocoa, coffee, sugar, FCOJ (frozen concentrate of orange juice), cotton and many other products that are of an agricultural nature. Non physical items are also offered for trade such as currency pairs, the United States Dollar Index and the NYSE Composite. A unique and convenient feature of the NYBOT is that it also offers live price info that can even be accessed by a Blackberry or other PA.
However, the commodity and futures exchanges are not confined to the United States. In fact, one of the most active exchanges in the world is found in London. Liffe, once known as the London Fox (London Futures and Options Exchange), has merged with euronext. Trades such as cocoa, sugar, coffee, wheat, barley, potatoes and a variety of other agricultural products are conducted on Liffe.
The London Metal Exchange is not far from Liffe. This historic exchange is one of the grandfathers of precious metals trading. Naturally, trades such as copper, lead and aluminum are made here, but plastics are traded here as well.
A major exchange also resides in Japan. The Central Japan Commodity Exchange (C-COM) is based in Nagoya, Japan. It was formed in 1996 when three major exchanges merged, allowing such diverse commodities as eggs, gasoline, kerosene and ferrous scrap.

Africa’s most active and important commodity exchange is the South African Futures Exchange (SAFEX). It was informally launched in 1987. SAFEX only traded financial futures and gold futures for a long time, but the creation of the Agricultural Markets Division (as of 2002, the Agricultural Derivatives Division) led to the introduction of a range of agricultural futures contracts for commodities, in which trade was liberalised, namely, white and yellow maize, bread milling wheat and sunflower seeds.
China’s first commodity exchange was established in 1990 and at least forty had appeared by 1993. The main commodities traded were agricultural staples such as wheat, corn and in particularly soybeans. In late 1994, more than half of China’s exchanges were closed down or reverted to being wholesale markets, while only 15 restructured exchanges received formal government approval. At the beginning of 1999, the China Securities Regulatory Committee began a nationwide consolidation process which resulted in three commodity exchanges emerging; the Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE), the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange and the Shanghai futures Exchange, formed in 1999 after the merger of three exchanges: Shanghai Metal, Commodity, Cereals & Oils Exchanges. The Taiwan Futures Exchange was launched in 1998. Malaysia and Singapore have active commodity futures exchanges. Malaysia hosts one futures and options exchange. Singapore is home to the Singapore Exchange (SGX), which was formed in 1999 by the merger of two well-established exchanges, the Stock Exchange of Singapore (SES) and Singapore International Monetary Exchange (SIMEX).
Latin America’s largest commodity exchange is the Bolsa de Mercadorias & Futures, (BM&F) in Brazil. Although this exchange was only created in 1985, it was the 8th largest exchange by 2001, with 98 million contracts traded. There are also many other commodity exchanges operating in Brazil, spread throughout the country. Argentina’s futures market Mercado a Termino de Buenos Aires, founded in 1909, ranks as the world’s 51st largest exchange. Mexico has only recently introduced a futures exchange to its markets. The Mercado Mexicano de Derivados (Mexder) was launched in 1998.
Bombay Cotton Trade Association Ltd., set up in 1875, was the first organised futures market. Bombay Cotton Exchange Ltd. was established in 1893 following the widespread discontent amongst leading cotton mill owners and merchants over functioning of Bombay Cotton Trade Association. The Futures trading in oilseeds started in 1900 with the establishment of the Gujarati Vyapari Mandali, which carried on futures trading in groundnut, castor seed and cotton. Futures trading in wheat was existent at several places in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. But the most notable futures exchange for wheat was chamber of commerce at Hapur set up in 1913. Futures trading in bullion began in Mumbai in 1920. Calcutta Hessian Exchange Ltd. was established in 1919 for futures trading in rawjute and jute goods. But organised futures trading in raw jute began only in 1927 with the establishment of East Indian Jute Association Ltd. These two associations amalgamated in 1945 to form the East India Jute & Hessian Ltd. to conduct organised trading in both Raw Jute and Jute goods. Forward Contracts (Regulation) Act was enacted in 1952 and the Forwards Markets Commission (FMC) was established in 1953 under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution. In due course, several other exchanges were created in the country to trade in diverse commodities.
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