6 Strategies to Recession-Proof Your Startup

With debate continuing to rage over whether the economy is on the verge or even in the grip of a recession, many entrepreneurs in startup mode may be getting a crippling case of cold feet. Even seasoned business owners tend to panic when they hear the "R" word. But the truth is this: new companies can prosper in hard times.

For one thing, small companies are more agile and can move quickly to cut costs or switch strategies. For another, they frequently can hire experienced employees laid off by bigger firms who would not be available in an upmarket. They can often step in to supply outsourcing services embraced by larger businesses during economic downturns. Opportunity still knocks for those who know how to take advantage of it.

I have seen this phenomenon first-hand. I started my business coaching business in Australia in the early '90s when that country was staggering under the fallout of the U.S. savings and loan collapse. I expanded to Asia in 1997 just two weeks before Hong Kong's Hang Seng stock index plummeted 23 percent over a four-day period. Clearly, given the size of my company today, I was not adversely affected over the long term.

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Strategic Research
Taco Time
Homes and Land
Unshippers Global
American Leak Detection

That said, anyone launching a business in today's economy must take the right steps to weather the storm. Here are some recommendations:

1. Focus on selling necessity-based products or services. Even in a downmarket, consumers and businesses need staples like computer services, and food and trash collection. Ironically, luxury items like boats and designer shoes can succeed if you can hang on long enough for the business to catch fire. The trick is to avoid the middle market, whether it's a mid-priced restaurant or a picture framing service in a modest neighborhood. If people can opt for a less expensive alternative or delay a purchase while times are tough, that's not the business to be in.
   
2. Use guerrilla marketing techniques to get the word out. There are dozens or even hundreds of free or inexpensive ways to promote your business without sinking a fortune into advertising. A new coffee shop, for example, could give away 1,000 coffees for the first five days with relatively little expense to help publicize the business as well as attract people who might become repeat customers. You can also paint a car to advertise a local business, write a column for a local newspaper and so on. Jay Conrad Levinson's guerrilla marketing books and column are filled with other ideas.
   
3. Sign a few big customers at a discount. Many kinds of businesses can cover their overhead with one or two big contracts, so it's worth it to give those customers a price break. If you're a one-man PR agency, having one or two major clients can pay the bills. If you're a swimming pool builder, striking a deal with a couple of building contractors might keep you going while you look for more profitable projects.
   
4. Minimize your full-time staff. Hire part-time employees or outsource part of your work to keep your costs in line. Sources like Guru.com can help you find freelancers who can take overflow work or specialty jobs so you don't have to invest resources employing people who will be underutilized. As your business grows, you can add more full-time employees.
   
5. Run a tight ship budget-wise. There's no reason to buy brand new furniture, for example. Go to an auction to outfit your office; it won't kill you to sit in someone else's chair for a few years. And limit your long-term commitments. You don't need to buy or lease a copier. That's what FedEx and Kinko's are for.
   
6. Buy a business instead of starting one. Many businesses that are for sale are perfectly viable, but the owner has run out of time or energy or simply isn't cut out to be an entrepreneur. If you buy the right business (and books like my Billionaire in Training can tell you how), you will already have a foundation and an income stream that can be nurtured rather than having to start from scratch. You may pay a little more to get off the ground, but you'll have money coming in from day one.

It all comes down to smart business. During the last recession after the internet bubble burst, First Union Corporation senior economist Mark Vitner was quoted as saying it was a misconception that small businesses fare poorly in economic slowdowns. He said that well-run businesses could hold their own in difficult times.

That principle is as true for startups as for established businesses. Be prepared, as the boy scouts say, and you stand a good chance of being a survivor.

Brad Sugars is Entrepreneur.com's Startup Basics columnist and the writer of 14 business books including The Business Coach, Instant Cashflow, Successful Franchising and Billionaire in Training. He is the founder of ActionCOACH, a business coaching franchise.

PRIYA KUSHWAHA

P.G.D.M

3rd SEM

NIRI ’09 Session: Understanding IR Strategies Behind XBRL – IROs Evolving Role

As usual, there were a lot of great sessions to choose from at NIRI’s Annual Conference from June 7-10 in Florida. The Q4 team attended as many as we could which meant we didn’t always have the time to do write a blog post that day. What follows is an overview of a session I attended on Tuesday, June 9th entitled “Understanding IR Strategies Behind XBRL – IROs Evolving Role”.

Moderator/Lead Speaker:

Mike Willis, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Chairman, XBRL International

Panelist(s)/Co-Speaker(s):
Michael Becker, VP, Global Disclosure & Financial Reporting Services
Business Wire

This session was quite comprehensive, so I thought it would be useful to discuss the agenda that was put forth:

WHY IS THIS RELEVANT?
Public companies push out a lot of IR content such as earnings releases, quarterly reports and annual reports. Once disseminated into the public domain, third party information intermediaries distill, transcribe and structure the company reported information into their proprietary taxonomies and sell that structured information to the analyst community. This third party intermediary information is also available through sources such as Yahoo! Finance, Google and MSN Money. From these publicly available sources IROs can directly observe the omissions, errors and other communication problems created by the third party intermediaries such as changing disclosure concepts and/or omitting key company specific unique disclosures. This intermediary distortion in turn can lead to inquiries that don’t make any sense or worse, no inquiries at all – which means the investment community is solely relying upon the data transcribed and rendered by third party sources, thereby diminishing the company’s opportunity to correct any errors.

If you are skeptical of the degree of errors and omissions to your company reports please take a minute right now and go to the public sites and review the data available for your company and compare that information to your company reports. “The data provided by intermediaries is incorrect as often as 30% of the time and incomplete 100% of the time“. The typical omission is the unique company specific disclosure, which is highly relevant to company IROs.

This is unfortunate, as preparing and finalizing material documents is typically a very time consuming and costly process, largely due to manual assembly and review processes that draws upon a lot of internal resources such as the finance, legal and IR department’s time to compile, review and publish – not to mention the costs associated with filing with the regulatory bodies and mailing out hard copies.

WHAT IS REQUIRED?
As some of you may know, in January 2009, the SEC introduced a phased mandate for filing in XBRL starting with the largest companies with a worldwide public float of greater than $5 billion – periods ending on or after June 15, 2009 and then extending to all sizes of companies over the next three years. The rules require companies to provide their financial statements on their corporate websites in an interactive data format using XBRL at the same time their financial statements are submitted to the SEC.

Content Requirements
In the first year of filing in XBRL format, issuers are required to tag each unique disclosure concept in the company primary tables (balance sheet, income statement, cash flows, changes in equity) and “block” tag (e.g. one tag per note) the financial statement footnotes and schedules.

In all subsequent years of XBRL formatted exhibits, issuers are required to tag the financial statement disclosures and also individually tag each significant accounting policy, table within a footnote and each quantitative amount within a footnote. It is this second year requirement that significantly enhances the volume and accuracy of company disclosures available to the analyst community in a very cost effective, accurate and timely manner.

The XBRL Exhibit is required to be filed concurrently except for the initial report in each of the first two years which would be due no later than 30 days subsequently.

For purposes of the company SEC exhibit, the MD&A, executive compensation, or other financial, statistical or narrative disclosure outside the financial statements is not permitted to be tagged.

Corporate Website Posting Requirements
The XBRL filing is to be posted on a company’s corporate website by the end of the calendar day submitted or required to be submitted to the SEC. The XBRL exhibit must remain on the website for at least one year; however, legal liability provisions are phased out over a two-year period with no “required” involvement by the auditor.

The US SEC rules will apply to public companies and foreign private issuers that prepare their financial statements in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (U.S. GAAP), and foreign private issuers that prepare their financial statements using International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).

WHAT IS IT?
XBRL is a freely available international information standardized format specifically designed for business information. As such, it is specifically designed to provide supply chain standardization to address pervasive process problems. XBRL is applicable to business information, related business rules, formulas and controls to not only to make financial information easier for investors to analyze, but also to assist in automating regulatory filings and business information processing.

As an Internet standard, XBRL can be used to create a common language for disparate proprietary software applications to more seamlessly communicate. This is sort of similar to html but in a more granular manner and specifically for business information.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR THE ISSUER?
There are many implications of using XBRL to improve processes. For example, issuers can implement using the bolt-on approach in which filings and reports are created following the existing process and converted to XBRL once finalized, either in-house or by a third party. There is also the embedded option, which would enable companies to map their disclosures to the XBRL US GAAP Taxonomy directly within their report writer or consolidation application. Pushing standardization further back into the business information supply chain provides structure for automation of downstream processes including the accurate rendering of XBRL-tagged SEC filings that can be accessed via your website with many interactive features.

Embedding XBRL in corporate reporting processes enables:

• Seamless exchange of information between software applications like your website and your analysts’ modeling applications,
• Automation of manual processes = lower costs, improved quality & timeliness like for your summary tables and graphs provided on your website,
• Enhanced transparency, access and control of information contained across a wide range of disparate internal data stores similar to the wide range of internal data stores that you are trying to access to address performance related inquiries,
• Improvements in data quality and access, and
• Better access to more relevant information for better decision-making, enhancing business intelligence and performance management information.

XBRL is more than a trend that IROs must be cognizant of – it will soon be mandatory for all U.S. based issuers and there is a voluntary program currently taking place in Canada to help the Canadian marketplace gain a greater understanding of this information standard. Therefore it is essential that there is a full understanding how communication between the investor community and IROs evolve with the XBRL standard. So stay tuned for additional blogs and presentations on XBRL.

priya kushwaha

P.G.D.M

3rd SEM

New Strategies in Emerging Markets

• • Once viewed as "less developed countries," emerging markets (EMs) now offer a significant growth opportunity for multinational corporations (MNCs). Because they differ dramatically from mature markets, however, they raise new strategic questions that traditional marketing frameworks do not resolve. While traditional models argue against first-mover advantages in EMs, additional sources of advantage ¿ favorable government relations, pent-up demand, marketing productivity, marketing resources, and consequent learning ¿ can make early market entry a desirable option. The authors provide a framework, oriented toward demand rather than risk, that enables companies to assess long-term market potential, identify business prospects, and predict potential benefits. Using the framework, companies can categorize EMs on the basis of short- and long-term potential.

    Once an MNC decides to enter a market, it needs new frameworks to guide product and partner policy decisions. The different patterns of market development in EMs imply that, contrary to conventional models, companies can expand the market rapidly, should offer a combination of global imported brands and locally made joint venture brands, and use EMs to test product innovations. The design and management of relationships with local distributor partners is the most critical challenge for executives. In the areas of industry experience, direct selling, local autonomy, and exclusivity, experienced MNCs are adapting the approaches employed in developed markets in ways that are appropriate for emerging markets.

    As MNCs continue to gain experience in EMs, marketing models will have to change to incorporate the new practices and new learning that are coming from markets.

POSTED BY: PALLAVI SINGH
PGDM III SEM ,'B'

Indians go in search of El Dorado

The Solvent Extractors Association , the Indian oil seeds industry body, has formed a consortium of 18 companie to acquire 10000 hectares of prime farmland in a $40-million deal in Uruguay and Paraguay to cultivate oilseeds and pulses. The association CEO B V Mehta said they are hamstrung only by access to finance, otherwise they have it all sewn up.

Simmarpal Singh of Olam International (based in Singapore and controlled by Sunny Varghese) went to Argentina in 2005 to buy peanuts for Olam, but ended up growing them on 12,000 hectares of land, earning him the sobriquet of Peanut Prince of Argentina . Thanks to his colourful turbans , and maybe the fact that he acquired 5,000 hectares to grow soya and corn, he’s now known on the night club circuit simply as the ‘Prince’ . His IIT-Delhi wife Harpreet Kaur smilingly dismisses stories that Simmarpal enjoys preferred client status at night clubs, saying he works too hard to find time to party hard (though he does have time for golf).

There are a whole lot of other Indians in Argentina (one of the world’s largest producers/exporters of peanuts, sunflower oil, soyabeans, biofuels) and other parts of Latin America who may not be as flamboyant as Simmarpal, but are no less driven. The Chennaibased Sterling Group has an olive farm over 1,700 hectares. Arumugam, a Tamil-Malaysian entrepreneur, owns 600,000 hectares of land in Argentina for production of oilseeds.

India’s growing presence abroad hasn’t gone unnoticed. The Guardian, in a recent article, wrote, “India has lent money to 80 companies to buy 350,000 hectares in Africa.” And there are reports that Indian companies are eyeing not just Africa and LatAm, but countries nearer home, such as Myanmar , as well as those further afield, like Australia and Canada.

Does India really need land other than its own for farming? After all, it has the second-largest area of arable land (160 million hectares) after the US (174 mha). But the picture turns bleak when you consider arable land per capita: we rank 104th with 146 hectares of arable land per 1000 people compared to Australia’s 2,430 ha). Also, remember that only about half our cultivable land has access to irrigation ; for the rest, farmers have no option but to put their faith in the rain gods, and that can make a difference of hundred per cent in terms of yield. Finally, there’s the problem of small and fragmented land holdings that deprives farming of economies of scale and makes it unproductive.

But China is in a tighter spot than India. It ranks No. 4 in terms of total arable land, but as a share of total land, it’s just 11% compared to India’s 56%. As for arable land per capita, it figures even further down the chart at No. 144.

Small wonder that China is among the frontrunners in the land race along with other food-importing countries like Saudi Arabia, the oil-rich Gulf states (Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain), South Korea and Japan. According to IFPRI, the food crisis of 2008, along with “increased pressures on natural resources, water scarcity and export restrictions imposed by major producers when food prices were high, and growing distrust in the functioning of regional and global markets” is driving these nations to seek arable land wherever available, preferably near ports.

Saudi Arabia, after the huge spike in food prices in 2007-08 , decided that it couldn’t possibly eat oil, and is venturing into Pakistan, among other obliging nations. Pakistan has offered thousands of hectares of farmland in all its four provinces to Saudi Arabia to grow wheat, fruits and vegetables. The Saudi deal was announced by Pakistan PM Yousuf Raza Gilani after a June visit to the desert kingdom, and the deal is expected to be sealed in the next few months. Not just that, there are reports that the land given to the Saudis will be protected by the Pakistan army. Pakistan is also in talks with Qatar to offer land in Punjab, its most fertile province. Some reports say that 25,000 villages will be displaced if the deal goes through. And just as we were going to press, South Korea announced a deal to develop 1,000 sq km of land for cultivation in Tanzania.

What has provided a tailwind to this global shopping trip is the entry of private investment funds. After the ruinous downturn in stock and derivative-based wealth last year, several fund managers began to think of agricultural land as the promised land. According to a Rabobank report, over 90 funds are currently active in investing in agriculture. These funds have snapped up land in Africa, South America, and the steppes of Russia and Ukraine. Leading investment firms like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have even moved to livestock and invested in Chinese poultry and pig farms. But as farmland becomes a strategic resource along with oil, water and minerals, it’s opening the door to political and social unrest. There is already opposition from Cambodia, Thailand , Ethiopia and Mozambique; in Pakistan, the Balochis have forced their government to tear up a farm deal with the UAE.

Since most of the land-fertile countries are poor and politically fragile — and often not able to feed their own people — the parcelling out of land to the highest foreign bidder gives a new meaning to the term ‘banana republic’ , the derogatory sobriquet originally used for servile dictatorships who abetted the exploitation of plantation agriculture by MNCs like United Fruit Co in Honduras. Africa, squatting always at the bottom of the food chain, is rapidly being turned into a giant land mall. The irony of a famine-prone continent being used to bail out the world's food crisis is lost on no one. David Hillam, deputy director of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), brought these fears up front when he told a conference in Washington , “Imagine empty trucks being driven into, say Ethiopia, at the time of food shortages caused by war or drought, and being drive out again, full of grain to feed people overseas ... Can you imagine the political consequences?”

Those who see the trend as a positive argue that hitherto under-utilized land is coming under modern agriculture, thus making it far more productive and increasing the food-production base. Counters Devinder Sharma, an analyst with the Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security: “Outsourcing food production will ensure food security for investing countries but will leave behind a trail of hunger for local populations ... The environmental tab of highly intensive farming — devastated soils, dry aquifer, and ruined ecology from chemical infestation — will be left for the host country to pick up.” That’s quite apart from the fact that locals do not gain from the increased productivity since the output doesn’t accrue to them.

Proponents of this new land rush also say foreign investments in land will create jobs for locals, improve living conditions and increase GDP. The facts don’t support such claims. For instance, in Ethiopia, one of the world’s poorest countries, over 600,000 hectares have been leased out to investors at about $3 to $10 per hectare per year. The average landholding size is about 2 hectares. Thus over 300,000 families are displaced . But only about 20,000 people are expected to get jobs in the highly mechanised farms. The Chinese have tried to contain opposition to their surge overseas with the same strategy they have used for acquiring mineral rights. They throw in a lot of sweeteners like building roads, hospitals , bridges, dams and ports.

Clearly, there’s a growing and insatiable appetite for land. The trajectory is exciting and could change the contours of global commodity markets, land economics and geopolitical equations. For the one billion under-nourished people, the implications will be profound: those in countries with arable land may well wish they had oil instead of water under their feet.

As for India, a time may soon come when it will need to take a call on whether it should join the race in real earnest or continue to provide quiet support to its growing band of peanut princes. Funding of overseas land acquisitions remains an obstacle. “We are trying to persuade the Exim Bank to lend us Rs 250 crore for this,” said Mehta, who’s heading the consortium that plans to acquire land in South America. But the Indian banking system has not yet figured out a way to facilitate the acquisition of such land. Top officials at Exim Bank said that while there was no bar on Indians acquiring land overseas, domestic banks had no way of financing such deals. But given the growing interest in this sector, bankers are even willing to look at innovative solutions to the financing crunch. As one official explained, on condition of anonymity, “You won’t be able to get your bank branch in Connaught Place to finance such ventures, but the branch in Mayfair, London, might be able to.”

posted by : PREETI KUMARI
PGDM III SEM, 'B'

REPORT: Fiat surprised by Chrysler's condition, new business plan coming in November
Bad news travels fast. That old adage was first coined hundreds of years before the Internet, and we'd say the phrase holds more true than ever in the age of Twitter, Facebook and, well, Autoblog. We're but one of many car sites that have mentioned the dearth of new product coming out of Auburn Hills, Michigan over the next couple years, but someone forgot to tell Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne. The Pentastar's new chief executive reportedly told reporters in Frankfurt this week that he was "surprised" at how little was going on over at Chrysler the past 24 months. Surprised? Really? Did Marchionne actually ask Chrysler brass which new products were hitting the streets in 2010 and 2011?As a result of the dearth of product, Marchionne and his team are going back to work on Chrysler's business plan, with a new plan to be announced sometime in November. Marchionne told Automotive News that the management team had to be "absolutely clear about what we want to do with Chrysler and where the organization is going to be in five years." Car Concepts Automotive analyst Todd Turner told CNN that he too had a hard time believing that Marchionne was blissfully unaware of Chrysler's plight, adding that Marchionne is using the extra time to announce drastic actions to right the Pentastar ship. Turner went as far as to say that Chrysler could pull the plug on the slow-selling Chrysler brand all together within the next five years or perhaps simply rebadge Fiat models as Chrysler products. That would leave Fiat's Detroit operations with the Dodge and Jeep brands. Chrysler's newest beast master paid precisely zero dollars (or Euros or Lira or gold cougerans) for its pet project, and Marchionne reiterated that Fiat intended to keep it that way. Marchionne added that he didn't plan any outside investments for Chrysler but added that if total sales in the U.S. market don't hit about 11 million units in 2010, Chrysler may have to close more plants. We're just hoping Chrysler can make it through the next couple of years to actually get to the point where it is selling rebadged Fiats.
POSTED BY:-
SHILPI KUMARI
PGDM-3rd SEM

Set to create significant number of jobs in India

BANGALORE: Just a week after the $3.9-billion Perot Systems buyout by Dell, even bigger a deal has hit market on monday with xerox corporation announcing its acquisiyion of Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), a BPO provider, for $6.4 billion. The deal is expected to create ‘‘significant number’’ of additional jobs in India as cost optimisation is going to be great focus for Xerox. In fact, Xerox expects to achieve annualised cost synergies in the range of $300-$400 million in the first three years by using ACS’ back-office expertise to handle latter’s internal functions. Aman Mustafa, country manager (India), ACS Global Operations Support, told TOI: ‘‘There will be a greater flow in the back-office work related to document management space. The coming together of Xerox and ACS will throw up significantly higher job opportunities in the country.’’ ACS is a 74,000-people company with global revenues of $6.5 billion. It employs 5,500 people in India across Bangalore, Kochi, Chennai and Noida. ACS will now on be called a Xerox company. Xerox currently has 500 people in the country, mostly in the marketing, sales and support functions. In a letter addressed to employees, analysts and advisors across the globe, ACS president & CEO Lynn Blodgett said, ‘‘You may know Xerox because of its industry-leading printing technologies, but you may not know that its services expertise is just as strong, generating $3.5 billion in annuity revenues. Together with Xerox, ACS will be able to grow and scale in incredible ways.’’ The combined entity would create a $22-billion global enterprise for document technology and business process management. It will establish a solutions provider that surpasses every competitor and sets a new standard for document technology and BPO management. Blodgett said, ‘‘We anticipate that this transaction will close in the first quarter of 2010. As we approach that date, I will keep you updated on the integration process.’’ Commenting on the deal, BPO exponent Raman Roy said, ‘‘We are yet to know how big an offshore play it is. However, India is already the largest handler of outsourced digitised data/images, a few trillion every hour. Xerox is a leader in document solutions.’’ POSTED BY : SHUBHAM AGARWAL PGDM III SEM, 'A'

How to write strategic marketing plans, business plans and sales plans
Business planning definitions
A plan - a statement of intent - a calculated intention to organize effort and resource to achieve an outcome - in this context a plan is in written form, comprising explanation, justification and relevant numerical and financial statistical data. In a business context a plan's numerical data - costs and revenues - are normally scheduled over at least one trading year, broken down weekly, monthly quarterly and cumulatively.
A business - an activity or entity, irrespective of size and autonomy, which is engaged in an activity, normally the provision of products and/or services, to produce commercial gain, extending to non-commercial organizations whose aim may or may not be profit (hence why public service sector schools and hospitals are in this context referred to as 'businesses').
business plan - this is now rightly a very general and flexible term, applicable to the planned activities and aims of any entity, individual group or organization where effort is being converted into results, for example: a small company; a large company; a corner shop; a local window-cleaning business; a regional business; a multi-million pound multi-national corporation; a charity; a school; a hospital; a local council; a government agency or department; a joint-venture; a project within a business or department; a business unit, division, or department within another organization or company, a profit centre or cost centre within an an organization or business; the responsibility of a team or group or an individual. The business entity could also be a proposed start-up, a new business development within an existing organization, a new joint-venture, or any new organizational or business project which aims to convert action into results. The extent to which a business plan includes costs and overheads activities and resources (eg., production, research and development, warehouse, storage, transport, distribution, wastage, shrinkage, head office, training, bad debts, etc) depends on the needs of the business and the purpose of the plan. Large 'executive-level' business plans therefore look rather like a 'predictive profit and loss account', fully itemised down to the 'bottom line'. Business plans written at business unit or departmental level do not generally include financial data outside the department concerned. Most business plans are in effect sales plans or marketing plans or departmental plans, which form the main bias of this guide.
strategy - originally a military term, in a business planning context strategy/strategic means/pertains to why and how the plan will work, in relation to all factors of influence upon the business entity and activity, particularly including competitors (thus the use of a military combative term), customers and demographics, technology and communications.
Marketing - believed by many to mean the same as advertising or sales promotion, marketing actually means and covers everything from company culture and positioning, through market research, new business/product development, advertising and promotion, PR (public/press relations), and arguably all of the sales functions as well. Marketing is the process by which a business decides what it will sell, to whom, when and how, and then does it.
Marketing plan - logically a plan which details what a business will sell, to whom, when and how, implicitly including the business/marketing strategy. The extent to which financial and commercial numerical data is included depends on the needs of the business. The extent to which this details the sales plan also depends on the needs of the business.
Sales - the transactions between the business and its customers whereby services and/or products are provided in return for payment. Sales (sales department/sales team) also describes the activities and resources that enable this process, and sales also describes the revenues that the business derives from the sales activities.
Sales plan - a plan describing, quantifying and phased over time, how the the sales will be made and to whom. Some organizations interpret this to be the same as a business plan or a marketing plan.
Business strategy - see 'strategy' - it's the same.
Marketing strategy - see 'strategy' - it's the same.
Service contract - a formal document usually drawn up by the supplier by which the trading arrangement is agreed with the customer. See the section on service contracts and trading agreements.
Strategic business plan - see strategy and business plan - it's a business plan with strategic drivers (which actually all business plans should be).
Strategic business planning - developing and writing a strategic business plan.
philosophy, values, ethics, vision - these are the fundamentals of business planning, and determine the spirit and integrity of the business or organisation - see the guide to how philosophical and ethical factors fit into the planning process, and also the principles and materials relating to corporate responsibility and ethical leadership.
You can see that many of these terms are interchangeable, so it's important to clarify what needs to be planned for rather than assuming or inferring a meaning from the name given to the task.
Other useful and relevant business planning definitions are in the glossary on the sales techniques section; some are also in the financial terms section, and various are among the business and training acronyms section, which could provide some welcome light relief if this business planning gets a little dry (be warned, the acronym section contains some adult content).
POSTED BY:-
SHILPI KUMARI
PGDM-3rd SEM

Business plans and marketing strategy
Planning a new business or business project must at some stage address a few financial details, and challenges and opportunities relating to modern technology, the internet, websites, etc. However the techniques of how to write strategic business plans (or a strategic marketing plan) remain basically straight-forward. Business planning and marketing strategy are mostly common-sense and logic, based on cause and effect. Here are tips, examples, techniques, tools and a process for writing a marketing strategy, business and sales plans, to produce effective results. This free online guide explains how to put together a marketing strategy, basic business plan, and a sales plan, including free templates and examples, such as the Ansoff and Boston matrix tools. New pages are being added soon on advertising, sales promotion, PR (public relations) and press releases, sales enquiry lead generation, advertising copy-writing, internet and website marketing, in the meanwhile see the marketing tips page for free marketing and advertising techniques and advice.
See also the simple notes about starting your own business, which to an extent also apply when you are starting a new business initiative or development inside another organisation as a new business development manager, or a similar role.
Here's a free MSExcel profit and loss account template tool for incorporating these factors and financials into a more formal phased business trading plan, which also serves as a business forecasting and reporting tool too.
Adapt it to suit your purposes. This plan example is also available as a PDF, see the Profit and Loss Account (P&L) Small Enterprise Business Plan Example (PDF). The numbers could be anything: ten times less, ten times more, a hundred times more - the principle is the same.
Towards the end of this article there is also a simple template/framework for a feasibility study or justification report, such as might be required to win funding, authorisation or approval for starting a project, or the continuation of a project or group, in a commercial or voluntary situation.
If you are starting a new business you might also find the tips and information about buying a franchise business to be helpful, since they cover many basic points about choice of business activity and early planning.
posted by:-
shilpi kumari
PGDM-3rd sem

Banks woo elderly with special products

CHENNAI: They don’t have mega salaries or fancy designations. Nevertheless, India’s seniors who account for 7% of the population are increasingly becoming an important target base for banks. They are being wooed with customized products and services. While term deposits have been the preferred source of savings for seniors, (as banks offer 0.5% more for senior citizens), there is a growing interest for other schemes as well. “We have started giving special offers to senior citizens on products like demat accounts, online trading accounts, forex transactions and even on credit cards,” says Anindya Mitra, senior vice-president (retail liabilities), HDFC Bank, He says seniors are aware of new investment opportunities and with private banks providing investment planning services, many elders are up to date on their portfolios. In the case of demand deposits, the share of senior citizens to the total customer base is approximately 10% which increases to 33% for fixed deposits, for HDFC Bank. But they are not restricted to conservative instruments. Many wealthy seniors are opting for private banking services. “They have a larger investible surplus. They want to grow their wealth and maybe even leave behind targeted sums to their successors even after maintaining their lifestyles,” says K V S Manian, group head (retail liabilities) of Kotak Mahindra Bank. Such people end up allocating a portion of their assets to equities. “Many of them also do SIP (systematic investment planning) in mutual funds in favour of their children and grand children,” says Manian. Around 12% of Kotak’s customers comprise senior citizens. The latest offering by banks for seniors is reverse mortgage. Reverse mortgage involves borrowers mortgaging their property to a lender who then makes periodic payments to the borrowers. But this feature hasn’t found many takers as inheritance runs deep in the Indian blood. Seniors are known for conservative asset allocation and this explains why FD (fixed deposits) perhaps still remains the first and in many cases, the preferred choice of investment. “Such term deposits help them manage their liquidity better. Many other financial instruments have a lock-in clause and therefore money can’t be withdrawn in case of an exigency. But FDs allow for such break-ups,” says Ananthakrishna, who recently retired as chairman of Karnataka Bank. Some banks have launched saving account variants that are specifically targeted at the elders. Features include hospitalisation cover and lower balance requirements. Many nationalised banks have pensioners who have opened accounts with the bank. “We offer demand loan products (loan against deposits) for senior citizens,” says Mathur Nanjunda of State Bank of Travancore. POSTED BY: PALLAVI SINGH PGDM III SEM,'B'

One engaged in the pursuits of learning; a learned person; one versed in any branch, or in many branches, of knowledge; a person of high literary or scientific attainments; a savant.

What is a Scholar

The minute you try to talk business with him he takes the attitude that he is a gentleman and a scholar, and the moment you try to approach him on the level of his moral integrity he starts to talk business.

Scholar

One who attends a school; one who learns of a teacher; one under the tuition of a preceptor; a pupil; a disciple; a learner.
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NAIROBI, KENYA - The Ministry of Public Works is working on plans to introduce a National Construction Authority Bill in Parliament.The bill aims to guide registration of contractors, enhance professionalism and build more capacity among contractors to competitively bid for contracts locally and regionally.
The move is part of reforms earmarked upon by the ministry to bring order and coordination in the entire building industry.
Citing lack of technical and financial capacity among local contractors to win major contracts, the infiltration of the industry by quacks and rogue contractors as well as poor quality work, the ministry says the anticipated reforms are critical if Kenya is to realize the Kenya Vision 2030 targets.
Speaking when he led a high-profile team in a meeting with Crown Berger Kenya Limited at a Nairobi Hotel, Public Works Minister, Hon. Chris Obure said the move was in tandem with last year's launch of an Infrastructure Bond which will facilitate the financing of road, power lines and housing developments projects.

ASHOK VERMA
PGDM 1 ST YEAR

Experts Share Latest Strategies To Optimize Performance Of White Papers, Lead Gen Offers

Written by Amanda Ferrante

Tuesday, 18 August 2009 13:48

White papers have become established as a cornerstone for most lead generation campaigns, and the content format continues to be one of the most successful response drivers during the recent economic downturn. For example, the 2009 Media Consumption Report from TechTarget showed white papers continued to be the top content source (cited by 66% of respondents) buyers turn to when evaluating new technology. The content format also continues to have strong viral impact—one with 93% of buyers passing along up to half of the white papers they read/download, according to InformationWeek’s Best Practices Research Series on white papers. However, in order for white paper offers to stand out and succeed in a crowded field of lead gen offers, cutting edge marketers are realizing the need to stand out from the crowd by trying new approaches and integrating outside tools and tactics to optimize their content messaging. Michael A. Stelzner, author of the book Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged, and Executive Editor at WhitePaperSource.com, stresses that white papers with quality content, and supported by well structured landing pages and email offers can still deliver huge numbers and have a long shelf life. For example, one gated white paper Stelzner released in 2002 has yielded more than 70,000 leads to date, and has continued to deliver 50 qualified leads each day since its original launch. While a separate white paper offering from Stelzner, which offered without a registration requirement, was read by 40,000 people in four weeks, producing substantial exposure despite fewer qualified leads. “If [your goal is] lead gen, then you have to consider gating the content in some way,” says Ardath Albee, author of the Marketing Interactions Blog. “If the goal is to gain wider exposure for your company’s thought leadership, let it rip. Where the compromise comes in is in how you choose to gate. Long forms will decrease your downloads. Shorter forms make the choice to complete them easier.” Up to 95% of your audience will abandon content gated with a Web form, according to data from Vitrium Systems. “Of the 5% that remains and fills out the Web form, many provide inaccurate, bogus data,” says Peter Nieforth, CEO, Vitrium Systems, the parent company of docmetrics, a Web-based application designed to allow marketers to enhance standard PDF files with dynamic features like qualifying data and document analytics technology. Keeping the viral impact of white papers in mind, experts offer some unique strategies to innovate and optimize content offerings: • eBooks: The unique twist on the white paper format has proven successful for many BtoB marketers. The format can provide a more engaging experience for the reader, typically more lengthy than a white paper and landscape in format with more graphics. “eBooks borrow heavily from the content models of good white papers,” notes Stelzner. Howard Sewell, President of demand generation consultancy Connect Direct Inc. points to a recent eBook from Marketo, the “Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing,” as an example of well- packaged though leadership which is driving results. “It’s 38 pages, yet it generated 1,000 downloads within 24 hours of its launch,” says Sewell. “It’s full of very practical advice without any promotion of the Marketo product. It’s not a brochure posing as a white paper, as so many are.” • Integrated Packaging: Sometimes readers need to give more to get more, but asking prospects to share more data requires marketers to give them an offer they can’t refuse. In order to sweeten their offers, some marketers are integrating video and other digital media into their white paper offerings. As an example one industry insider pointed to a recent white paper offering from SAP/Business Objects, which required a 27-step registration process, but provides the registrant with access to a video white paper and a link to download the white paper in PDF form. “A better approach would be to embed the video component inside the PDF version as one package and leave the content open for download,” says Nieforth. “We believe embedding video inside PDF content is a powerful white paper delivery method that will grow in popularity over time.” • Making It Easy To Share: Joe Pulizzi, Founder & Chief Content Officer of the custom content portal Junta42, points to a recent white paper/eBook designed to support the launch of a new Web site called Authority Rules as a model for making content easy to access and share. “This white paper/eBook is available on its own microsite, in PDF form and in HTML form,” explains Pulizzi. “It’s set up to share from the moment you get there. I like that model and I think it has legs.” Vitrium Systems CEO Nieforth points out that one of the key payoffs his customers are seeing is the ability to place the gate for content in the middle of the document. “One of the benefits of embedding lead generation forms inside your content is their ability to capture pass along leads,” says Nieforth. “The lead generation form travels with the PDF and continues to generate leads from all readers, well after the initial download.” • Social Bookmarking: To increase the circulation of content on the Web, marketers are leveraging additional tactics in addition to tweeting and blogging about content offerings. “If someone writes about your white paper (or your product, for that matter), be sure to recommend/bookmark that review on social bookmarking networks and Stumbleupon in particular,” says Sewell, Founder & President, “If it gets ‘picked up’ by one of the networks, the increase in traffic (and downloads) can be phenomenal.” Albee also suggests marketers start a conversation with a provocative thought starter when posting a white paper on a site like LinkedIn. • Content Packaging: While many white papers are in fact promotional tools, marketers run the risk of sounding too product-centric, when value should be focused on solving a particular business problem. “You need to have a certain number of pages upfront to be able to educate that reader and fulfill the goal of the white paper,” says Jonathan Kantor, Author of the forthcoming book Crafting White Paper 2.0: Next Generation Information for Today’s Time and Attention-Challenged Business Reader and Founder & President, The @ppum Group. “Companies that are choosing to produce smaller white papers are kind of defeating that purpose and in the end they end up reading like a sales brochure or product overview.” Marketers can work the Web endlessly to promote a white paper, but it’s important to keep business objectives top of mind and to hone in on your desired audience(s). “[Syndicated] sites are usually broken down by vertical,” says Kantor. “They’re a great way to get exposure and visibility. Just like you have with just about every medium on the Internet, it starts at the broad [level], and then we start to go down to these niche markets and communities around content.” Kantor notes that the current economic conditions are causing companies to revisit all of their marketing budgets, and as a result organizations are producing smaller-sized white papers, which in most cases are focusing just on a solution and its attributes. “But what makes white papers successful is that educational approach to inform that non-informed reader,” he says. “A well written and constructed white paper with a targeted audience can realize anywhere between a 10-40% increase in lead generation from that white paper, though the effort is more than just producing a white paper,” he says. Kantor advises marketers to supplement the white paper offering, like mentioning it in your email signature, corporate newsletter and social networks like Twitter for maximum impact. PRIYA KUSHWAHA P.G.D.M 3rd SEM

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Economics as Framework for Corporate Strategy in 2010

U.S. Review

Economics as Framework for Corporate Strategy in 2010

• Despite all the news we receive, there are four economic issues that must be addressed before a corporate strategy can be rationally formulated. For the real economy, the challenge is the post-recovery pace of consumer spending and housing.

• From the regional perspective, has the era of California/Florida dreaming come to an end?

• Finally, what are the Federal Reserve’s and the Obama Administration’s exit strategies for monetary and fiscal policy?

Corporate Strategy in an Era of Uncertainty

Since World War II, the pace and character of consumer spending has defined the U.S. economy. Going forward, will this all change and what are the implications? What about housing? Finally, has the era of California/Florida dreaming come to an end?

If the American consumer has truly changed her spots and become a greater saving, less credit-using, more bargain-hunting species, then what will be the character of this recovery and the longer-run pace of economic growth? With consumer spending approximately 70 percent of the economy, this issue is in the forefront of corporate strategy discussions as the annual review of corporate direction begins this time each year.

Historically, corporate strategy for the year ahead has been a fairly perfunctory straight-line projection based on recent business performance. However, both the cyclical and secular character of consumer spending and housing are likely to be far different in the year(s) ahead and so straight-line projections are likely to lead straight to corporate underperformance.

Consumer spending is and will continue to be hampered by income and credit constraints and low consumer confidence. The jobless recovery has already started—we will see three percent plus growth in the economy for the third quarter along with continued job losses. In addition, the average workweek remains low and wage growth very weak. Thus, income gains are modest at best for most workers and will likely remain so for 2010, a sharp contrast to traditional economic recoveries and straight-line forecasts of a rebound in many corporate plans. Meanwhile, consumer credit remains constrained and limited. Consumer and residential credit delinquencies have yet to turn around from the rising rate of the past two years. We remain cautious on recent improvement in the consumer confidence index, as the current conditions component has barely risen off its lows. Weekly first-time unemployment claims have clearly peaked, but the absolute level of claims remains relatively high, and the number of people exhausting their unemployment insurance and filing for extended benefits has surged.

Despite improvement in home sales and new construction, the question of the pace of housing construction if/when the Federal programs are removed remains. Historically, housing has helped lead the economy out of recession as sharply lower interest rates attracted buyers. Moreover, if household expectations for home price appreciation are permanently downshifted, and with the rise in sales and income taxes reducing disposable personal income, then the demand for both housing and remodeling will likely be permanently downshifted.

Dreams of endless summers in California and luxurious retirement in Florida now appear to be under a cloud of home price depreciation and wealth losses on retirement funds. In addition, the limits of congestion, water supply and high baseline housing costs are likely to change the patterns of in-migration. For corporate strategy making, the straight-line prosperity forecasts for both states are likely a relic of the past.

Global Review

The Roaring Brazilian Economy

• The Brazilian economy came roaring back during the second quarter of the year through an important expansion of monetary and fiscal policy that pushed domestic consumption higher. While the economy dropped on a year-earlier basis, it grew by 1.9 percent compared to the first quarter, seasonally adjusted.

• The central bank will have to keep a watchful eye on the price level. Right now foreign consumption (exports) is weak while domestic consumption is strong. If exports begin to grow the country will start to experience supply constraints that could put pressure on inflation.

Brazilian Economy: Thank Active Economic Policies

When the worldwide financial crisis hit last year, the Brazilian economy was riding high as the fairly recent decision to transform the country into a major world exporter was yielding impressive results. The Chinese were buying everything the Brazilians could produce, from raw materials to manufactured goods, while the Europeans were buying diesel-powered motors. The result was the Brazilian economy was able to grow at a 5.1 percent rate in 2008. Growth would have been stronger except that the performance during the fourth quarter was very weak.

Then the financial crisis hit, affecting trade through two sources: lack of credit and a worldwide collapse in demand. The severity of the decline in the auto manufacturing sector was impressive due to the fact that while the Brazilian auto sector produces diesel motors for European consumption, Brazilian laws prohibits diesel-powered cars for its internal market, a policy that was born out of the development of sugar cane ethanol as an alternative fuel. Thus, not only were the Europeans not buying, but firms could not redirect that production to the domestic market.

The collapse in external demand pushed the da Silva administration to come up with plan B: rely more on the domestic consumer market until the rest of the world recovers. Thus, the administration went back to the drawing board and designed fiscal programs to increase domestic consumption that seem to have worked reasonably well, at least temporarily. At the same time, the Brazilian central bank took notice and produced an impressive about-face in terms of monetary policy, helped by the collapse in commodity prices. In fact, the central bank increased the benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points, from 13.0 percent to 13.75 percent in September 2008 (just as the crisis was hitting the world economy) and kept it there until December of that year. However, by January, it had recognized the problems in the economy and started to lower interest rates, taking the benchmark Selic rate from 13.75 percent in December 2008 to 8.75 percent today.

All these measures, fiscal and monetary, plus the stabilization of the international markets, have allowed the Brazilian economy to grow by 1.9 percent during the second quarter of the year compared to the first quarter, while dropping by only 1.2 percent compared to the second quarter of last year. Thus, monetary and fiscal policies have done the trick, at least temporarily, as domestic consumption was strong in the second quarter of the year, increasing by 2.1 percent on a quarter-0ver-quarter basis after posting a 0.6 percent growth rate during the first quarter.

With the international market stabilizing and growing again, foreign consumption will start competing with domestic consumption and could start creating problems for prices. This has always been the Brazilian economy’s Achilles heel due to lack of infrastructure to support both foreign and domestic consumption, that is, supply constraints. But this problem will probably be something for next year. Right now, inflationary pressures are reassuring, and the central bank will stay put for the time being and probably into early next year.

PRIYA KUSHWAHA

P.G.D.M

3rd SEM.

NASA'S STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

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The Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) passed by Congress and signed by the President in 1993 provides a new tool to improve the efficiency of all Federal agencies. The Act directs Executive Branch agencies to develop a customer-focused strategic plan, align agency activities with concrete missions and goals, manage and measure results to justify appropriations and authorizations, and design budgets that reflect strategic missions. The purposes of GPRA are to improve citizen confidence in Government performance, improve Federal program management, effectiveness, and public accountability, and improve congressional decision making on where to commit the NationÕs financial and human resources. The Act requires that, beginning with the fiscal year 1999 budget request, agencies submit to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and to Congress a strategic plan for program activities and an annual performance plan covering those activities set forth in the budget. Six months after the completion of a fiscal year, agencies are further required to submit a report of program performance that reviews the success in achieving the goals and performance measures defined in the strategic and performance plans. NASA established a Strategic Management System to provide the information and results to fulfill the planning and reporting requirements of the Act. The System is defined in the NASA Strategic Management Handbook (NASA Procedures and Guidelines 1000.2). This Strategic Plan, which will be submitted to OMB, leads a series of documents that defines why the Agency exists and what goals we propose to accomplish over the next 25 years. How we will implement activities to accomplish these goals is further defined in documents developed by Headquarters program offices, functional/staff offices, Centers, program and project managers, and individual employees. In addition to this Strategic Plan, we will submit our resource requirements to OMB in the annual budget request and a 5-year budget plan. We will also submit a Performance Plan that defines how we intend to measure the results and contributions of our programs to the Nation. The graphic on page 7 illustrates the documents that support the Strategic Management System. NASA's Strategic Management System Documents The Strategic Plan defines the AgencyÕs vision, three-part mission, and fundamental questions of science and research that provide the reason for why we exist and the foundation for our goals. The Plan further describes four Strategic Enterprises to manage the programs and activities that will implement our mission, be responsible for answering specific fundamental questions, and satisfy the requirements of our customers. Goals are also described for four Crosscutting Processes that provide the support systems that enable each Strategic Enterprise to develop and deliver our products and services to internal and external customers. The AgencyÕs goals have been grouped in three timeframes spanning a 25-year period and are displayed on the Roadmap on pages 8 and 9. Each timeframe is defined by a unifying theme that characterizes the primary focus of activity for that period. The initial timeframe for the Roadmap (1998Ð2002) presents the near-term goals that correlate to NASAÕs fiscal year 1998 budget and the PresidentÕs 5-year budget plan. Mid- and long-term goals are presented in the 2003Ð2009 and 2010Ð2023 timeframes, respectively. These goals represent a balanced set of science, exploration, and technology development outcomes that we believe can be accomplished over the next 25 years. While the mid- and long-term goals will be executed in timeframes that exceed current budget authority, they represent a strategic direction that is consistent with our vision and mission. Specific resource requirements to achieve these goals will be requested in subsequent budget cycles. The ultimate outcome of achieving our vision, implementing our legislated mission, answering fundamental questions, and accomplishing our goals is our contribution to national science and technology priorities. The investment in our programs contributes to increased understanding of science and technology, sustainable development of the environment, educational excellence, peaceful exploration and discovery, and economic growth and security. Within this Plan, we also present Roadmaps for each of the four Strategic Enterprises, which define the objectives to meet the AgencyÕs goals. These Enterprise objectives and the objectives of our Crosscutting Processes form the basis for NASAÕs Performance Plan and our performance evaluation process. PRIYA KUSHWAHA P.G.D.M 3rd SEM.

India to lead second wave of IT adoption: IBM

Mumbai: India may lead the second wave of IT (information technology) adoption as companies here kept up investments despite the recession and seemed more forward-looking than their counterparts globally, according to IBM Corp.

40 per cent of Indian companies, surveyed by IBM in July, said they wanted to be first to adopt a new technology, while only 11 per cent said they would wait till technology was widely available.

"In India, companies have cut back less and have really continued their investments. I think India is poised to lead the second wave of IT adoption and small-and-medium businesses (SMBs) are the engines driving this economic growth," IBM Corp's Vice President General Business and Marketing, Surjit Channa, said in Mumbai.

"I know of many companies that suffered from the recession but Indian companies have continued and survived...because they seem to be more forward-looking than their counterparts in the West and round the world," Channa said.

The recession had forced 37 per cent companies world-wide to slash their IT budgets compared to only 15 per cent in India, the survey said.

The US-based multinational has identified India as one of its major growth markets and will continue to invest here along with Brazil, China and Russia.

P.G.D.M

3rd SEM

PRIYA KUSHWAHA

Young foreigners look at China for good jobs

BEIJING: When the best job Mikala Reasbeck could find after college in Boston was counting pills part-time in a drugstore for $7 an hour, she took the drastic step of jumpingon a plane to Beijing in February to look for work. A week after she started looking, the 23-year-old from Wheeling, West Virginia, had a full-time job teaching English. ‘‘I applied for jobs all over the US There just weren’t any,’’ said Reasbeck, who speaks no Chinese but had volunteered at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In China, she said, ‘‘the jobs are so easy to find. And there are so many.’’

Young foreigners like Reasbeck are coming to China to look for work in its unfamiliar but less bleak economy, driven by the worst job markets in decades in the US, Europe and some Asian countries. Many do basic work such as teaching English, a service in demand from Chinese business people and students. But a growing number are arriving with skills and experience in computers, finance and other fields. ‘‘China is really the land of opportunity now, compared to their home countries,’’ said Chris Watkins, manager for China and Hong Kong of MRI China Group, a headhunting firm.

‘‘This includes college graduates as well as maybe more established businesspeople, entrepreneurs and executives from companies around the world.’’ Watkins said the number of resumes his company receives from abroad has tripled over the past 18 months. China’s job market has been propped up by Beijing’s $586 billion stimulus, which helped to boost growth to 7.9% in the quarter that ended June 30, up from 6.1% previous quarter.

The government says millions of jobs will be created this year. Andrew Carr, a 23-year-old Cornell University graduate, saw China as a safer alternative after classmates’ offers of Wall Street jobs were withdrawn due to the economic turmoil.

Passing up opportunities in New York, San Francisco and Boston, Carr started work in August at bangyibang.com, a web site in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen that lets the public or companies advertise and pay for help in carrying out business research, getting into schools, finding people and other tasks. ‘‘I noticed the turn the economy was taking, and decided it would be best to go directly to China,’’ said Carr, who studied Chinese for eight years. Most of his classmates stayed in US and have taken some unusual jobs — one as a fishing guide in Alaska.

China can be more accessible to job hunters than economies where getting work permits is harder, such as Russia and some EU countries. Employers need government permission to hire foreigners, but authorities promise an answer within 15 working days, compared with a wait of months or longer that might be required in some other countries. An employer has to explain why it needs to hire a foreigner instead of a Chinese national, but the government says it gives special consideration to people with technical or management skills.

Reasbeck said it took her two months to find the drugstore job after she graduated from Boston’s Emerson College with a degree in writing, literature and publishing. She said she applied to as many as 50 employers nationwide. Today, on top of her teaching job, she works part-time recruiting other native English-speaking teachers. She makes 14,000 to 16,000 yuan ($2,000 to $2,300) a month. ‘‘I could have a pretty comfortable life here on not a very high salary. English teachers are in high demand,’’ she said.

Konstantin Schamber, a 27-year-old German, passed up possible jobs at home to become business manager for a Beijing law firm, where he is the only foreign employee. ‘‘I believe China is the same place as US used to be in the 1930s that attracts a lot of people who’d like to have either money or career opportunities,’’ Schamber said.

POSTED BY: SHUBHAM AGARWAL
PGDM III SEM, 'A'

Post offices to enter into core banking system by March 2010

JALANDHAR: Post office would not more limit its banking system to old and traditional technology and would adopt core banking system, on pattern of other commercial banks by the end of current financial year.

"All branches of post office banks will be connected through national computer server for which data scanning and signatures entry was nearing completion", P R Kumar, chief postmaster general, Punjab & Union Territory (Chandigarh) told reporters here on Monday.

At present there were 150 lakh branches with the deposits of Rs 5.60 lakh crore of deposits, Kumar said claiming that no other government organisation could match such a huge customer network.

"The deposits in post office banks are not being used for any commercial purposes like extending loans to people and all the deposits were being utilised by the government of India for welfare schemes only", Kumar said while revealing the differentiation between the commercial banks and post offices.

Apart from banking sector, postal department would emphasise on insurance sector especially in rural areas, Kumar said adding that within one year it has been targeted that over two lakh policies would be issued in Punjab only to reach the number of two crore policies at national level by March 2010.

POSTED BY: PALLAVI SINGH
PGDM III SEM,'B'

How to Create an Effective Risk Management Plan

The goal of risk management is to essentially decrease the various risks which are associated with reaching any specific goal. Threats can come in a wide variety of different forms, and some of them include threats involving the environment, humans, technology, and politics. Your risk management strategy may not be effective if you use the wrong plan.

The goal of risk management is to create an approach which is structured when it comes to handling uncertainty, especially those which are related to threats. An effective risk management plan must be comprised of a number of important things, and these things include risk assessment, along with strategies that are designed to mitigate risk. Much of this will be done through the usage of managerial tools.

An effective risk management plan can use a number of different strategies in order to handle risk in an effective way. The risk management plan can transfer risk to another group, or it can avoid the risk altogether. It can also be designed in such a way that the impact of the risk is decreased in case it does occur.

There are other risk management strategies which are designed to accept a few or perhaps even all of the consequences that may come with a given risk. Many risk management strategies place a heavy emphasis on risks that come from things which are related to either legal issues or physical issues. Examples of physical threats are fires or natural disasters, while legal issues will in all likelihood denote things such as lawsuits.

Financial risk plans place a heavy emphasis on protecting the financial assets and resources of the organization. Financial risks will generally be managed through the usage of financial instruments which are traded. When it comes to risk management planning, it is crucial to make use of a process for prioritization, one in which the risks which have the greatest losses and highest probability of occurring are addressed first, while the risks which have a lower impact and probability of occurring are given a lower level of importance. The problem with low probability risks is that they are often mishandled, and this can lead to problems down the road.

How Risk Management Plans Should be Structured

A risk management plan must be capable of identifying new risks. Another type of risk to be mindful of are relationship risks. These risks will often result in situations where a collaboration occurs which is ineffective. A risk involving process engagement may occur in situations where procedures or methods are used which are not effective.

The danger that comes with these risks is that they lower the productive level of the employees, and they also reduce the effectiveness of cost, as well as service and reputation. Intangible risk management must be incorporated into risk management plans since it allows immediate value to be created via the identification and decrease of any risks that may lower productivity.

Another challenge that organizations will face when developing risk management plans is being able to properly allocate their resources. This is closely connected to the concept of opportunity cost. Any resources which are used for the purpose of risk management may also be used for other activities which may be much more profitable.

The goal of your risk management plan should be to reduce the amount of spending to the lowest level possible will maximizing the reduction level of risks at the same time. No matter what your organization specializes in, there are a number of features that your risk management plan should have. First, risk management must be capable of creating value.

Features Your RMP Should Have

Your risk management plan must also be a vital part of the internal processes of the organization. The risk management plan that you establish should play an important role in the decision making process. The plan must also be capable of clearly addressing uncertainty.

All good risk management plans must be structured, and this should be done in a manner which is systematic. No risk management plan should be created which isn't dependent on the absolute best information which is available. It is also important for your risk management plan to be tailored properly, and it should be both transparent and inclusive at the same time.

POSTED BY :-

SHWETA RANI

PGDM - 3RD SEM