Finance. We all have heard this word somewhere or another in our lives. But what exactly is finance? Is it limited to just its practitioners? Or does its implication affect all of us in one way or another? In this article, I am going to look to answer all these questions and many more. A quick google search on the word finance tells us that “Finance is the study of money and how it is used. Specifically, it deals with the questions of how an individual, company or government acquires the money needed – called capital in the company context
GUIDED MASTERY
The whole world is facing a pandemic and the extent to which this would cause damage is a mystery. This phase will go away soon and things will start to resume leading to normalcy. When we get back to normalcy what became an only option during lockdown could well become the norm of the day. More and more people may work from Home and more and more people may go back to their native towns and not stay in Metropolitan Cities. “Survival of the fittest” will become the norm forever. To stay as the fittest organisation you need to stay
Education and technology
Technology. It needs no introduction. For a little less than a half-century, we have been surrounded by huge leaps taking place in this field, be it the development of the first computer, or the first PC or the mobile phone or the smartphone, you name it. Today we live in an age where the size of the world has considerably reduced just because of the advents in technology. Travelling time has become lesser, communication happens within seconds and all of this happens at a reduced cost than what was before. There is no doubt about the benefits that technology has
Continuous improvement
Elephants and ants have been living the same way for the last several centuries. We human beings have not lived the same way for even a few decades. We have been constantly looking to improve on everything and hence the way of life has undergone changes. Change is the only thing that is constant in our lives. With the advancement of technology, change itself is frequently changing through continuous improvement. For instance, cars, trains and buses have all been constantly improved over the years. Aircraft and ships have also undergone changes and improvements over the years. The house in which
Business Continuity Plan to tackle the coronavirus
The Coronavirus infection (COVID 19) which started in a small town in Wuhan, China has been making headlines for more than a month now, with one optimistic estimate stating that the cure for the virus is at least 18 months away. This virus has led to massive panic with the financial markets across the world returning the biggest losses since the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. Reports of big companies shutting down offices (such as Nike which did so in their EU headquarters) are starting to turn up. Situations like this are unpredictable and if unprepared for, could lead to serious
Process mapping the way to success
What is a process map? It is nothing but a management tool that describes the flow of work on paper. It shows what work is done, who and what is involved in the process and as a result provides a holistic view of the entire organisation, process by process. This effectively reveals processes in the organisation that may have been duplicated, redundant or simply could be done in a better way. The first part of solving a problem is to figure out the problem accurately. A process map helps to diagnose such problems in the process flow of the organisation.
A Common habit among old companies
Before we begin, let me ask you a question that recently crossed my mind, “How old is your Company? How long do Companies live in this world?” I read that most companies live from anywhere between 20 to 40 years. Another interesting fact I came across was that a third of the Fortune 500 companies of 1970 were gone by 1983 as they were either merged with or acquired by some other company and the rest simply went bankrupt. This led me to another question which is, “Whilst human beings can live for about 80 years why is it that
Strategic management
Strategic management – The means to achieving your business goals What is strategic management? To understand strategic management better, it is wise to start at its root, which the word “strategy”. A strategy is the long term plan of action designed to achieve a set of goals or objectives. It is a top- level management plan designed to strengthen the performance of the organisation. A strategy is different from tactic as a strategy is the top-level directions whereas tactic is the method in which the objectives of the strategy are completed. The table below should give an idea of how
Achieving Business Excellence
Achieving Business Excellence – through the EFQM model What do big businesses do right that small businesses don’t? Are the knowledge and know-how used by big businesses available to small businesses? How can small and medium businesses achieve excellence that their bigger counterparts achieve? First, let’s answer the question, what is business excellence? Business Excellence is described as outstanding practices in managing the organization and achieving results, all based on a set of fundamental concepts or values. These practices have evolved into models for how a world class organisation should operate. EFQM is one such model developed for achieving business