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GE Nine Cell Matrix

GE Nine Cell Matrix
A popular “Corporate Portfolio Analysis” technique is the result of pioneering effort of General Electric Company along with McKinsey Consultants which is known as the GE NINE CELL MATRIX. GE Nine-Box Matrix  This is a strategy tool that offers a systematic approach for the multi business enterprises. It helps them to prioritize their investments among the various business units. It is a framework that evaluates business portfolio and  provides further strategic implications. Each business is appraised in terms of two major dimensions – Market Attractiveness and Business Strength. If one of these factors is missing, then the business will not produce desired results. Neither a strong company operating in an unattractive market, nor a weak company operating in an attractive market will do very well. The vertical axis denotes industry attractiveness, which is a weighted composite rating based on eight different factors. They are: Market size and growth rateIndustry profit margins Intensity of Competition Seasonality Product Life Cycle Changes Economies of scale Technology Social, Environmental, Legal and Human Impacts What Does the Horizontal Axis Represent? It indicates business strength or in other words competitive position, which is again a weighted composite rating based on seven factors as listed below: Relative Market ShareProfit margins Ability to compete on price and qualityKnowledge of customer and market Competitive strength and weakness Technological capability Caliber of management The two composite values for industry attractiveness and competitive position are plotted for each strategic business unit (SBU) in a COMPANY’S PORTFOLIO. The PIE chart (circles) denotes the proportional size of the industry and the dark segments denote the company’s respective market share. The green zone suggests you to ‘go ahead’, to grow and build, pushing you through expansion strategies. Businesses in the green zone attract major investment. Red indicates that you have to adopt turnover strategies of divestment and liquidation or rebuilding approach. Advantages Helps to prioritize the limited resources in order to achieve the best returns.The performance of  products or business units becomes evident. It’s more sophisticated business portfolio framework than the BCG matrix. Determines the strategic steps the company needs to adopt to improve the performance of its business portfolio. Disadvantages Needs a consultant or an expert to determine industry’s attractiveness and business unit strength as accurately as possible.It is expensive to conduct. It doesn’t take into account the harmony that could exist between two or more business units. PORTER’S FIVE FORCES-INDUSTRY...
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Contributions of Entrepreneurs to the Society

Contributions of Entrepreneurs to the Society
Entrepreneurs are the mechanism by which our economy turns demand into supply. They create new ventures that provide new, improved products and services. Here we list some of the principal qualities of entrepreneurs and how those qualities help in shaping up our economy. Productivity Accelerators: Entrepreneurship raises productivity through technical and other forms of innovation. Entrepreneurs as risk bearers find resources and fill market gaps that would be missed by larger, more bureaucratic organizations. They allow a country to extract every last bit of marginal capacity out of whatever resources exist within the society. Brilliant Tips on Productivity by some Popular Entrepreneurs: Focus on one thing at a time: It may seem like a no-brainer, but multitasking can actually cut back on your productivity. Instead of juggling multiple projects at once, schedule out blocks of time — or even entire days — during which you only focus on one task or one project. Steph Auteri, @stephauteri, Word Nerd Pro Outsource, outsource, outsource: Everything may be a priority, but you are not equally brilliant at everything. Eliminate the unnecessary tasks and outsource your weaknesses so your time and focus is directed to where you’ll make the biggest impact for the business. Kelly Azevedo, @krazevedo, She’s Got Systems Define roles and divide work: Make sure everyone on the team has distinct roles defined, and divide work accordingly. Everyone on a proactive team will want to do everything, and clearly defined roles make it clear who should do what. David Gardner, @david_gardner, ColorJar Job Creators: It is a powerful tool of job creation –Entrepreneurship as a whole contributes to social wealth by creating new markets, new industries, new technology, new institutional forms, new jobs and net increases in real productivity. The jobs constructed through their activities in turn lead to equitable distribution of income which leads to higher standards of living for the population. Entrepreneurship facilitates the transfer of technology. Entrepreneurs play a strategic role in commercializing new inventions and products. They play a critical role in the restructuring and transformation of economy. Their behavior breathes vitality into the life of large corporations and governmental enterprises. Market Competitiveness: They make the markets more competitive and thereby reduce both static and dynamic market inefficiencies. Micro-preneurs working in the informal sector circumvent established government authority when governments and their programmes inhibit economic development. They stimulate redistribution of wealth, income and political power within societies in ways that are economically positive and without being politically disruptive. Social Welfare: They improve social welfare of a country harnessing dormant, previously overlooked talent. They create new markets and help in expansion into international markets. The unique feature of entrepreneurship – that it is a low cost strategy of economic development, job creation and technical innovations. Technology Innovation: Technology entrepreneurship is also important for sustainable development as Nobel Prize Laureate prof. Dan Schechtman puts it: “Technological entrepreneurship is a key to the well-being of the world”. India has been the first among the few developing countries to have assigned a significant and categorical state role to small scale industries from the first Five Year Plan itself, and the small scale sector has emerged as a dynamic and vibrant sector of the economy during the eighties. If the country develops pucca infrastructure and removes the hurdles in the operative environment politically and legally, no doubt the Indian economy will be scaling to greater heights. Surplus manpower (educated and un-educated), which has been a great liability can become an asset once those with potential are selectively groomed for self-employment and enterprise formation, leading to further job...
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Basic Trends in HRD

Basic Trends in HRD
Basic Trends in HRD – #Human Resource Development The basic motive of HRD would be to develop an enduring and healthy #work culture. It should also take into its fold the #training and developmental aspects of the workforce that forms the significant segment of the organization. It is a means to improve the overall organizational effectiveness but not an end in itself. HRD Philosophy: The philosophy of an organization is understood through #policies and operations and not merely through its programmes. HRD policies, #plans and action must commence from business #strategy. The key to the success of HRD is undoubtedly good industrial relations enhanced by effective #employee participation and existence of good #collective bargaining machinery. A Source of Motivation: Though #man power planning, training and #appraisal seem to be the core activities of HRD, it must also be used as an instrument for changing the work culture and motivating the workforce. This considerably improves the network of communication resulting in a sea change or turn around in terms of employee participation and #commitment. Concept of HRD: The #business environment is dynamic and so are the demands of the market. It is but important to review the organization structure to meet these demands of the changed environment. To establish and endure a #productive work culture to bring about improvements in organizational as well as technological disciplines. To train and develop employees in new skills for new #technology advanced operations and effective #performance. To bring about progress in the motivational #climate of the organization To bring the systems and procedures in line to deliver the expected results To reinforce participative culture and safety systems To maintain peaceful industrial relations in the production environment To revamp man power planning in order to match the individuals with jobs to #optimize utilization of available skills. Changing Environment: The process of HRD is directly linked to OD to facilitate the development of an organization in totality. To restructure organization in terms of #physical resource, #monetary resource and technology, one has to first understand the changes happening and challenges existing in the immediate external environment. Some of them would be #Competitor Pressure #Globalization of markets Rising aspirations of people at large Governmental policies etc., How has HR used #social media? A relatively late-adaptor, HR has largely used social media in recruitment…and indeed how!!! – In 2010 in US, only 6% of companies were using social media for recruitment, now that has exploded to 89% – 82 of the Fortune 100 companies uses the corporate hiring solutions of #LinkedIn – About 21% of working professionals are looking for a job – social media helps companies tap into the other 79% as well. Bullhorn’s 2012 Social Recruiting Activity Report says:“A #Twitter follower is almost 3 times more likely to apply to a job posting than a LinkedIn connection and 8 times more likely to apply than a #Facebook friend.” Human Resources professionals understand that social media ishere to stay…That’s the easy answer!!!The challenge is integrating use of a cohesive, relevant andeffective social media strategy aligned to the overall HR & business strategy of the organization. Information Courtesy – by National HRD...
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Redesigning Your Workplace

Redesigning Your Workplace
Effective people are preferred to rather than efficient people as the former does the right thing and the latter does things right. Redesigning your workplace not only refers to the infrastructure but also the internal factors that might affect the productivity of your firm. Big corporate firms generally face challenges in the form of Lack of co-operation between subunitsIncreasing complaints from the customersRising Operating costsDip in the moraleMajor changes in technology All these signs are indications of a not so enterprising organizational climate. And it calls for quick decision making regarding introducing some changes that bring some positive development in terms of improved efficiency and increase in productivity. Redesigning Workplace in Response to Exogenous Factors Growth of Organizations The challenges mentioned above may make an organization’s existing structure, management practice or its culture obsolete for the new situation. Growth of an organization should be a result of collaborative effort of all the units of an organization and it is objective and not subjective. An organization is comprised of different elements which interact in deciding the organizational effectiveness. The task or goal, technology, structure, people and the internal and external environment of the firm; all these coexist and hold the firm together. Be it a school, a hospital, a union, a club or a business enterprise the interactive nature of these elements make the process of managing very difficult. Medical tourism and business travel are becoming more popular in Asian countries as it increases the scope of collaboration of industries that can coexist to enjoy a win-win situation. Who is an Effective Manager ? An effective manager anticipates these challenges and proactively initializes a planned change. He strategically prepares the organization to be subject to planned change by manipulating the structure, technology and behavior. Understanding the dimensions of change helps him to manage change better as people are always resistant to change. Modern enterprises right from the start have to install and implement “systems” that are technologically most modern and hire suitable people who are techno-savvy; Because technology rules the world and the development of new software programmes and hardware components feed on themselves every day. Developing an Organization as a Whole Behavior of people is unpredictable but controllable. Individually oriented training and development programmes does not prove much to the benefit of the organization as it creates apprehensions in the minds of the individual that are related to the culture and attitude of his superior and subordinates. The idea of developing the organization as a whole through team building is a better perspective as it renews the enthusiasm of people working for you and as a team they feel more cohesive and adhered. Synergy plays its role in improving the interpersonal relationship amongst the team members. Firms are becoming more modern in their outlook. For instance, a showroom whose purpose is to showcase your products also provides entertainment by its aesthetic value. Only if the customer is impressed by the artistic way of your exhibit, will he enter your showroom. Change is inevitable and it improves the health of an organization. The focus should be on “total system change” and the orientation is towards achieving desired results as a consequence of planned activities. Flat Organizational Structure You would have come across the latest buzz word “flat organizational structure”. This is designed in order to bridge the gap between front line employees and the executive level. If there is only few levels of management, the process of communication is more effective, the art of delegation becomes mandatory and need for participation in the decision making process involves all the employees which in turn reduces bureaucracy. There is no set pattern...
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Transfer of Technology

Transfer of Technology
Transfer of Technology- Commercialisation Vs.Benefit The total influx of technology in underdeveloped countries is from the advanced capitalist countries for obvious reasons, which will be the highlight of this discussion. Multinational corporations play a vital part in technology transfer, the motive being profit maximization for the parent company through their subsidiaries. These corporations act as the principal instrument of technology transfer, either through their subsidiaries or through contractual agreements made with developing countries. The idea is to bring mechanized processes and equipments that are not locally available. Dominance of Technology Supplier: The technology supplier usually takes the upper hand owing to his monopolistic strength that arises from the patent protection for differentiated products and processes. Very often, the terms and conditions of transfer are arbitrarily settled under highly imperfect market conditions by the technology supplying multinationals. Advanced nations have the advantages of reduced population density, even distribution of national wealth, high standard of living, more infusion of capital into research and development, availability of skilled personnel inclined towards research etc. Dependency of Developing Nations: Developing nations on the other hand are subject to the pressures of high population density, uneven distribution of economic wealth (poor people become more poor and the rich even richer), moderate or low living standards etc. Capital drain occurs due to heavy borrowings from the World Bank which leads to increase in the social overheads. In such a situation, it is next to impossible for a developing nation to pump capital into activities concerning research. Bargaining Power of Developing Nations: The bargaining power of developing nations is weak, as they have no access to information about alternate technologies and their sources nor the necessary infrastructure to evaluate the appropriateness of equipments, intermediates and processes. Moreover, the large part of the influx of technology in developing countries is in response to the policy of industrialization through import substitution. Transfer of technology from the developed to the underdeveloped countries is made in a number of ways. They are classified into two broad categories, viz., direct mechanism and indirect mechanism. The direct mechanism includes transfer of technology through banks, journals, industrial fairs, technical co-operation, movement of skilled people etc. Here there is a choice for the developing nation to select the appropriate technology that best suits their requirement. However, this is not the principal form of technology transfer that advanced nations would prefer. Price of Technology: The indirect mechanism implies technology transfer in a “package” or a “bundle” containing technology-embodying equipments, industrial properties like patents and trademark, skill, equity capital, etc. In this system, a local enterprise negotiates with multinational corporations for transport of the required elements of technology, and the terms and conditions are settled through a process of commercial transaction. Since the trading partners are unequal, the terms of contract are invariably restrictive and the price extended for the technology unreasonably high. All the underdeveloped countries, which have opted for growth along the classical path of capitalist development, are in a position to invite multinational corporations, if for no other reason than at least for the diffusion of...
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