EQ or EI When we talk about IQ or Intelligence Quotient, another entity which is indispensable to the smooth running of your business comes into the picture. Yes, I’m talking about Emotional Quotient or EQ, also called as Emotional Intelligence or EI.  The concept of emotional intelligence is a blanket term that covers a broad collection of individual skills and dispositions, usually referred to as soft skills or inter and intra-personal skills. One must be adept at handling situations which warrant application of EI and at the same time strong in his/her basic IQ. Answer these simple questions and please don’t think way too extensively. Simple thinking will do… 1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator? The correct answer is: Open the refrigerator put in the giraffe and close the door. This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.  2. How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator? The wrong answer is: Open the refrigerator put in the elephant and close the door. The correct answer is: Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door. This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your actions. 3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference; all the animals attend except one. Which animal does not attend? The correct answer is: The Elephant. The Elephant is in the refrigerator. This tests your memory. OK, even if you did not answer the first three questions, correctly, you still have one more opportunity to show your abilities. 4. There is a broad, deep river you must cross. But it is inhabited by hungry crocodiles. How do you manage it? The correct answer is: You swim across. All the Crocodiles are attending the Animal Meeting! This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes. This EXERCISE is cited just to show that logic or reasoning is an important element in management; at workplace or home. Parallel Thinking Just that you have to prune your memory to enhance your parallel thinking. In general parallel thinking is a further development of the well-known lateral thinking processes, focusing even more on probabilities—looking for what can be rather than for what is. Be Mindful of Others’ emotions: Emotional intelligence can be defined as the ability to monitor one’s own and other people’s emotions, to discriminate between different emotions and label them appropriately and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior. Emotional intelligence involves being MINDFUL of emotions and how they can affect and interact with traditional intelligence (e.g., impair or enhance judgment, etc.). One must also be able to develop and maintain healthy interpersonal relationships apart from being intelligent. It involves a lot of psychology which is in-built in our mechanism and heightened by our exposure to various work situations and challenges. An examination of more than 300 top-level executives from fifteen global companies showed that six emotional competencies distinguished stars from the average. Influence Team leadership Organizational Awareness Self-confidence Achievement Drive  and Leadership Using Emotional Intelligence on the Job Emotional awareness is being in touch with the feelings of others. Well, if you say that “Emotions don’t go well with Logic”, and “Emotions can’t be mixed with Business”, I’d like to remind you “A controlled mind and cheerful spirit” are crucial when it comes to employee engagement and sustaining their morale. Even though your employees are well trained and technically experts in their own area, it takes that extra something for them to work whole-heartedly for their principals. They have to identify themselves with the organization and its objectives, in particular with the key persons...

I thought it would be helpful to create resource pages on some of the wonderful ‘Online Courses’ available. I recommend bookmarking these pages for your reference and convenience. Enjoy! Since our niche pertains to MANAGEMENT & BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, let me start with a list of courses on Human Resources, the indispensable organizational factor. Learn how to recruit, hire, train and manage Human Capital. Human Resource Outsourcing ( HRO) has become necessary TO NOT ONLY HIRE BEST TALENT but also to RETAIN THEM. Human Resource Management Courses Let me first list some courses on HUMAN RESOURCE CERIFICATE COURSES 👈 Follow this link These courses include, PMP certification exam prep Payroll management Vendor relations Scrum master certification Employment regulations and programs These courses give you the ease of learning from the comfort of your home at very reasonable prices and also give you an opportunity for passive income by publishing video lectures on Udemy. If you happen to be very successful, this platform might become your main source of income, since people are always hungry for more  information and knowledge. Don’t Miss Out On This Course HR Analytics using MS Excel for Human Resource Management Use Excel for HR Analytics, calculate HR metrics, build HR dashboards & ML models for Human Resource & People Analytics To Choose from over 210,000 online video courses with new additions published every month 👈 Follow this link Hope you enjoyed this post, and come back with your valuable feedback if you were benefited by enrolling in any one of these courses. Online learning has become the ‘ORDER OF THE DAY‘ and lot of universities and educational institutions are digitizing their teaching approach and if you happen to be an expert in your niche, ‘YOU ARE MOST WANTED‘. Disclosure:  Please note that some are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase.  Please understand that I have experience with all of these companies, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions I make if you decide to buy...

What is Financial Capability? The availability, usage and management of funds have a bearing on the financial capability of an organization and ability to implement its strategies. A financial manager has to pool, deploy and allocate financial resources taking into consideration the capital or long term investments, working capital or short-term liabilities and repayment capacities.     Factors that influence financial capability of an organization: 1. Factors related to source of funds: Capital structure, procurement of capital, controllership, financing pattern, working capital availability, borrowing, capital and credit availability, reserves and surplus, and relationship with lenders, banks and financial institutions. 2. Factors related to usage of funds: Capital investment, fixed asset acquisition, current assets, loans and advances, dividend distribution and relationship with shareholders. 3. Factors related to #management of funds: Financial accounting and budgeting systems, management control system, state of financial health, cash, inflation, return and risk management, cost reduction and control, and tax planning and advantages.     Typical Strengths that Support Financial Capability: • Access to financial resources • Amicable relationship with financial institutions • High level of credit worthiness • Efficient capital budgeting system • Low cost of capital as compared to competitors • High level of shareholder’s confidence • Effective management control system • Tax benefits due to various government policies The examples given below show how strengths and weakness affect the financial capability of organizations: • A company faced many problems due to instability in the top management, an unfavorable public image, unfavorable government relations etc., but it had inherent strengths like a huge amount- to the tune of Rs.1000 crores invested in fixed assets which the company used for funding its diversification plans. Here we see one particular strength over-shadowing all other weaknesses which can be rectified in due course of time. • A scooter company had collected nearly Rs.1150 crores as advance for booking of scooters, but within five years, its cash position deteriorated owing to sudden and unforeseen cancellation of bookings and withdrawal of deposits, resulting in a huge interest burden. Had the company had a strong financial backup, it would have survived the trouble. Matching strengths and weaknesses with opportunities and threats requires that a firm should direct its strengths towards exploiting opportunities and blocking threats while minimizing exposure of its weaknesses at the same...

Making It to B-School of Your Choice Without having the right knowledge, right from preparing for competitive exams through filling out applications and landing on the right business school, might prove to be a tough journey. This article focuses on throwing some light on the pre-requisites and procedures involved in applying for B-Schools… In Case you have admits from multiple business schools, what will be the criteria of selection?  Teaching methodology  Approach  Reputation or Brand value Specializations on offer Location Please understand that every business school has its own strength and it is up to you to go for the one that best suits your needs and budget. Now let us look at some of the pre-requisites needed for admission into B-Schools. Academics: 1. Undergraduate or Graduate GPA (Graded Point Average) 2. Academic Excellence 3. GMAT score Work Experience: You level of performance at work speaks for you during your admission. Business schools love to know about your career advancement, leadership qualities, various positions handled and the ability to handle a group. Goals: Try to chart out a list of goals which are in line with what the school has to offer in order to facilitate your position in the job market after the course. Extracurricular activities: Those qualities that you have developed and specialized over a period of time will distinguish you from the rest of the pool and give you an edge. Say, if you are an extempore speaker, you stand a chance to impress your interviewers in GD (group discussion). GMAT Preparation:  You need a systemized study plan and practice  Aim for a high GMAT score to secure your admission  Get yourself enrolled in a reputed coaching center Filling out Applications: You should take some professional help when it comes to strengthening your resume and create poignant #essays to catch the attention of admission committees. Social media has its say to help you find a professional coach and having a fruitful conversation. Interview stage: This by far is an achievement in itself, especially if you are planning to go abroad. Call for an interview implies that the admission committee is impressed with your profile and keen to know more about you. You should research on interview experiences of past students and seek feedback from a trusted friend or a professional coach. A wait list may come as a rude shock but you need not lose hope. Try to follow the instructions stated by the school and go for additional recommendations if they encourage you to update them with changes in your profile. Handling Rejects: Connect with the associated person in the admission office to know the reason for rejection. Work on those weak areas and revise your plan. Gear up to beat the competition and never lose hope. Connecting with an Overseas Educational Consultant: This will help you in knowing the procedures pertaining to each institution of your choice. You would have heard of SOP – Statement of Purpose which is the key to getting admission or visa even if your academic averages are below par. A consultant comes into picture when you have zero knowledge about international application process, visa application, SOP, passport clearance, visa medicals and so on… AK CONSULTANTS – THE CAREER DESIGNERS It might be a little overwhelming if you don’t have a supporting hand because there will be lot of application filling and email transactions back and forth. The author Shyama Shankar is an expert academic content writer on business and management. Being a HR specialist, She likes to supplement information on job interviews, compensation, entrepreneurship and motivation to the readers. The following infographic gives you a clear idea on the...

Stability Strategy in Management  The Concept: A stable strategy arises out of a basic perception by the management that the firm should concentrate on using its present resources for developing its competitive strength in particular market areas. In simple words, stability strategy refers to the company’s policy of continuing the same business and with the same objectives.     When a product is well accepted and has a brand value in the market, the company would want to expand its market base in that particular product segment to win over its competitors. For example, ‘Old Cinthol’ from Godrej, continues to be the trusted choice of most customers and one of the top most brands in soaps. Especially in rural areas, people prefer Cinthol which comes in different sizes in lieu of customer preference.     Panneer Soda manufactured by Kalimark, a soft drink available only in southern parts of Tamilnadu is again a long-standing brand preferred by customers belonging to middle class and lower middle class. This indigenous brand is a direct competitor for coke and pepsi, the soft drink giants in the industry. The same applies to “BOVONTO” again a kalimark product whose growth terrorised giants in the likes of COKE and PEPSI. It is said that some of the multi-national companies tried to crush this small but indigenous and successful company by buying all the glass bottles used for bottling the drink from small retailers. All done by paying high price for old bottles and breaking them so that those bottles were not available for the kalimark manufacturers. Putting up a brave fight, Kalimark has introduced pet bottles (plastic containers) and for managing the dearth of containers they have erected a bottling plant also. Recently Kalimark group has reinvented itself with modern technology for production. The shape of Bovonto pet bottle was redesigned and production was increased. Related Posts: TURNAROUND STRATEGY STRATEGY EVALUATION TACTICS OR STRATEGY The Need for Stability Strategy: It continues to serve the customers in the same product or service, market and functional sectors. Its main strategic decisions  focus on incremental improvement of functional performance.’ The focus is on maintaining and developing competitive advantages consistent with the present resources and market requirements. Say, if your business is doing well and you are able to factorize the economies of scale with a fairly decent profit, you would not want to go for expansion in the immediate future; instead you would go for, Sustenance Competitor management and Market share Maintenance Man has an inbuilt fear of change and only very few take that extra step to rage forward by being risk-aversive. Stability strategy suits medium-sized growing firms which have to first get well established in the market and wait for the right time to invest and divest. Companies do not go beyond what they are presently doing; they serve the same market with the present products using the existing technology. The essence of stability strategy is, therefore, not doing anything but sustaining a moderate growth in line with the existing trends. Advantages of Stability Strategy: The firm is successfully run and the objectives are achieved and there is satisfactory performance. Therefore, the management may want to continue with the same activities. A stability strategy is less risky. Unless the conditions are really bad, a firm need not take any additional risks. The management doesn’t foresee any change in the environment or opportunity in the market or any threat. When pursuing this strategy, there is no disruption in routine work. The down side of this strategy may be “setting of boredom” where you tend to do routine stuff, but the brighter side is the continuous positive response...