Technological Impact on Business Environment and Society The tremendous technological growth that is being witnessed is made possible through extensive programmes of technological research being conducted by many types of researchers working within universities, business, and non-profit research organizations. Technological developments are strong and all pervasive forces of the business environment. Technology is the scientific knowledge to practical problems. Technology feeds on itself and it affects business in two major ways: Through its impact on society in generalThrough its direct influence on business operations and activities. Technology and Economic Growth: Technology affects society. In fact, we feel its effect in our everyday lives. It affects economic growth, our standard of living and our culture. However, some of the effects of technology are highly beneficial and some detrimental. These effects on members of the society may in turn affect business practices. We are surrounded by so much of technology, that we take it for granted and usually do not realize how much it affects us until we have to do without electricity, water, transport or telephone. Technological developments have raised the standard of living. In spite of inflationary pressure and considerably a high degree of unemployment, generally families eat better, wear a wider variety of clothing, and live in more comfortable homes. Technology and Lifestyle: Technology also influences basic aspects of our culture, including religion, education, mobility, health care, art, language, laws and their enforcement. For example, technological advances in health care allow physicians to treat their patients in a virtual environment through video conferencing, which again is helpful in legal environment too for the judges to proceed with investigations on hard core criminals, who need not be produced before the court for security reasons. Creative Destruction: Every new technology is a force involved in creative destruction. Say, television hurts movies, synthetic fibers are considered rival for cotton fiber. The discovery of new technology even sometimes affects economic growth-TV with its high entertainment value takes away productive hours of mankind. Each new technology creates major long term consequences, which are not always foreseeable. How do you justify nations spending more money to develop missiles, nuclear weapons and bombs for the sake of security? Developing nations have to buy technology from foreign countries, as they are not resourceful in terms of capital needed for Research and Development, expertise, patents, licenses, and equipments and so on. This transfer of technology involves huge costs as a result of which a vicious circle is formed, in which weak technology creates dependence and dependence creates weakness. Conserve, Reduce, Recycle: The recent trend can be enumerated through this slogan, “Conserve, reduce and recycle”. The stress today is on clean production measures, advanced robotics, zero-emition vehicles, material recycling and alternative fuels and materials. This change towards love for environment by the technologists is a sure sign of positive...

Smart Retention Strategies: Before going into the details of how to handle attrition, the first thing you must understand and realize is this. Each person working for you will have different expectations, perspectives and demands about his job, work environment and compensation respectively. Right at the time of recruiting and selecting the employee, his ideas must be taken into consideration and then it becomes the prerogative of the management whether to hire the person for that particular job. So the first step will be the right person for the right job, giving due importance to the anticipation of the employee who is going to become a member of your business family. Udemy Best Sellers:New Manager Training in Essential SkillsLeadership: Practical Leadership Skills Need for Open Conversation: In case of a small firm or company, it is easy for the manager to have a one on one conversation with each employee to settle his score of grievances then and there. Managers must have an open conversation without room for any ambiguity in the minds of his workers. The manager should try to protect the interest of the employees by representing their demands to the management at the right time. Many employees quit their positions because they have a nagging feeling at the back of their minds that their immediate boss is not the right kind of person to whom they can look up to and ask for support. In big corporates it is not easy to go for a one on one approach. A unique corporate culture that Trains the employees to have an uniform approach to all the systems of routineLed by an effective leader who controls and monitors the behavior and attitude of the workersPossesses sound management practices that make the employees come out with their suggestions freely and induce them to participateProvides satisfactory compensationIncorporates an open door policy catering to the different needs of people and also to the different levels of management, will help the managers to have a healthy relationship with the employees. Human Wants and Needs: Human wants are unlimited and when one want is satisfied, we want more of the same or yet another of a higher order. Approach your workforce to satisfy their craving either in terms of compensation or recognition which will also help to retain your workforce to a greater extent. There should be room for growth, especially for entrepreneurial minds and minds that have parallel thinking. Pic Courtesy: CuteHR Self-Motivation is the Key: Although motivation brings cheer amongst your workforce, self-motivated employees produce better results. Job satisfaction is a relative term; it differs with individuals, some like challenges and some are easily satisfied with an increase in salary quotient. A comprehensive appraisal on the personality of your workforce will give you a clear picture of the IQ (Intelligence Quotient) and EI (Emotional Intelligence) range of your employees which helps in designating employees in the appropriate slots. Such human rationing saves you a lot of time, energy and money as the employees are guaranteed satisfaction in their jobs. Contracts and Agreements: Contracts and agreements bind the employees to the firm only legally. How is that going to help you in terms of productivity? If one of your employees is going to work with discontent, he becomes a problem source spreading the same kind of feeling to others working with him. So it is also necessary for the management to spot out these problem persons either to bring them back into the groove or fire them without any further delay. Rising costs of living and unemployment ratios are really of economic concern, but still we find employees just like that quitting...

What is Budget Planning and Why is it Important? Quantification of Objectives in the form of Budgets Effective and efficient management of a business enterprise is facilitated, when a firm charts its course of action in advance. The management function also includes decision-making supported by various managerial techniques and tools that integrate the activities of the employees of the organization. One such technique is having a budget planned that which is essential for a healthy future. The systematic approach to profit planning is budgeting. The prime concern of budgeting is to make profits by regulating the flow of funds and allocating the controlling function to various responsibility centers. Don’t know how to start budget planning ? Do you need to know how to make a budget ? This infographic will provide personal budget categories you can use to help you categorize expenses for budgeting purpose. This may or will save you time, money, and effort. Getting Your Budget Approved What is a Budget? A budget is a comprehensive and coordinated financial plan, charted for a specific period of time in the future, but well in advance. It facilitates to compare the actuals with the standards established and review or revise the plans accordingly in case of any deviations or variances. A budget is a plan that is concerned not only about the resources of a firm, but also its operations. It involves the control and manipulation of relevant variables-controllable and non-controllable, and reduces the impact of uncertainty. Economic Constraints in Developing Countries Problems of unemployment, inflation and crude oil prices touching a dangerous high, these countries can offer only piecemeal measures to sustain the momentum of economic growth. Pic Courtesy: Avail Talking about organizations going for the master budget at the start of the year, it comprises budgets for various segments of the enterprise and it forms the primary step in budget planning. Master Budget The budget for a segment or department will not have much significance unless it is a part of the total budget-the master budget. If the budgets for various segments are not prepared jointly and in harmony with each other, the master budget will lose much of its importance and may even prove to be harmful in realizing the firm’s expectations. A budget is always expressed in financial terms, either in rupees, dollars or pounds, for operational purposes. Say, in a production budget, you talk about units of raw material and finished product. In a labor budget, you talk about men and labor hours. So there must be a common denominator, which can express all these variable quantities in a common language for the comprehensive budget to be meaningful. This purpose is solved by money, which undoubtedly serves as the common denominator. Budget Mechanism A budget is a mechanism to plan for the firm’s operations and activities. It allocates resources as well as responsibilities to different operational centers like, revenue, cost, profit and investment centres. Time dimension must also be added to a budget. For example, a production target of ten thousand units or a profit target of ten million dollars has no meaning unless and until it is related to a specific time period, in which these targets have to be met. A firm may have its long-range and broad objectives, such as maximum sales, maximum profits, customer satisfaction, social responsibilities, etc., But, to achieve these qualitative objectives, a firm has to quantify the same in the form of short-term objectives or goals with a time period precisely specified. A budget is basically a control technique which also facilitates to measure the performance of individuals on the basis of which, corrective action can be taken. The crux...