1. Marketing
1.1. Marketing Research
1.1.1. Marketing research is related with collecting facts and figures from the market to assist the managers to make correct decisions. Market research collects two types of data: Quantitative data: finding the quantity or ‘how many’ Qualitative data: finding out the opinions and judgement or reasons for particular action.
1.2. Wholesaler
1.2.1. A person or a firm, who buys in bulk from the manufacture, breaks it into smaller quantities and supplies it to small retailers.
1.3. Objectives of Marketing
1.3.1. To increase sales revenue To improve and maintain image of the product or the business To increase market share To target a new market To target a new market segment
1.4. advertising
1.4.1. Increasing the usage of a certain product and hence acquiring more orders. Creating new customers and increasing brand recognition. To obtain feedback from customers regarding a certain product. To indicate introduction of new products or replacement of old ones.
1.5. Marketing Mix
1.5.1. Product - A tangible object or an intangible service that is mass produced or manufactured on a large scale with a specific volume of units.
1.5.2. Price – The price is the amount a customer pays for the product. It is determined by a number of factors including market share, competition, material costs, product identity and the customer's perceived value of the product.
1.5.3. Place – Place represents the location where a product can be purchased.
1.5.4. Promotion – Promotion represents all of the communications that a marketer may use in the marketplace.
2. Operations Management
2.1. Stock control
2.1.1. Stock control chart is one of the methods to maintain optimum level of stock at all times.
2.2. Capital Intensive
2.2.1. A business is capital intensive if it requires heavy capital investment in buying assets relative to the level of sales or profits that those assets can generate.
2.3. Labour Intensive
2.3.1. A labour intensive business is one in which the main cost is that of labour, and it is high compared to sales or value added.
2.4. Productivity
2.4.1. Productivity is the ratio of outputs to inputs. It refers to the volume of output produced from a given volume of inputs or resources. If the firm becomes more productive, then it has become more efficient, since productivity is an efficiency measure.
2.5. Diseconomies of Scale
2.5.1. These are the drawbacks of being a big business. In other words, all the factors those lead to an increase in average costs as a business grows.
3. Finance
3.1. Working Capital
3.1.1. Working Capital is the cash available to the business for carrying out its day to day activities. It might include paying for labour wages, purchasing stock, paying short term creditors etc.
3.1.2. A healthy working capital position is a measure of both a company's efficiency and its short-term financial health.
3.2. Fixed Cost and Variable cost
3.2.1. Fixed costs are expenses that do not change in proportion to the activity of a business, within the relevant period or scale of production. For example, a retailer must pay rent and utility bills irrespective of sales.
3.2.2. Variable costs by contrast change in relation to the activity of a business such as sales or production volume. In the example of the retailer, variable costs may primarily be composed of inventory (goods purchased for sale), and the cost of goods is therefore almost entirely variable. In manufacturing, direct material costs are an example of a variable cost. An example of variable costs are the prices of the supplies needed to produce a product.
3.3. Cash flow
3.3.1. Cash flow refers to the money which comes into and goes out of a business over a period of time. In other words it is the cash inflow and cash outflow out of a business.
3.4. Why business needs finance?
3.4.1. Startup Capital Business might need finance to at the start in the form of Capital. Startup capital is used up for initial investment such as land, building, machinery, employee people etc. Expansion A business might need additional source of finance when it needs to expand. This expansion may include extension of present facilities such as purchasing additional machinery and extending capacities. Research and Development Businesses need finance to develop new products. Multinational businesses usually spend millions of dollars every year in Research and Development purposes. R & D is carried out regularly in big businesses as a mean to get a competitive edge over its competitors.
3.5. External Sources of Finance
3.5.1. Bank overdraft: Bank overdraft is a facility given by banks to its business customers, people having current accounts. Through this facility the customers can overdraw their accounts to a greater value than the balance in the account. To overdrawn amount is agreed in advance with the bank manager. The bank assigns a limit to overdraw from the account and the business can meet its short term liabilities by writing cheques to the extent of limit allowed.
3.5.2. Trade Credit: Usually in business dealing supplier give a grace period to their customers to pay for the purchases. This can range from 1 week to 90 days depending upon the type of business and industry.
4. business and its environment
4.1. social enterprises
4.1.1. Have a clear social and/or environmental mission set out in their governing documents Generate the majority of their income through trade Reinvest the majority of their profits Be autonomous of state Be majority controlled in the interests of the social mission Be accountable and transparent
4.2. Business Measurement
4.2.1. The number of employees The amount of capital invested The sales turnover Market capitalisation Market share
4.3. Levels of business activity
4.3.1. Primary Sector
4.3.1.1. All those businesses which are related with extraction of raw material such as mining, fishing, farming, and logging.
4.3.2. Secondary Sector
4.3.2.1. All businesses which manufacture and process the raw materials which can be used by the end consumers. These include building, construction, compute assembly, shoes factories, textile factories etc.
4.3.3. Tertiary Sector
4.3.3.1. Whereas all the businesses which provide services and assist both the primary and secondary sector businesses. These include transportation, insurance, hospitals, educational institutes, showrooms etc.
4.4. Stakeholders and their objectives
4.4.1. People are involved in running a business. Some have direct interest while others have indirect interest in the running of the business. These individuals or groups are known as stakeholders.
4.4.2. People in business
4.4.2.1. Owner
4.4.2.2. Workers
4.4.2.3. Managers
4.4.2.4. Consumers
4.4.2.5. Government
4.4.2.6. The community
4.5. Business objectives
4.5.1. Maximise profit Grow or expand Survival Provide a service To increase added value.
5. People in Organisations
5.1. Qualities of Good Leaders
5.1.1. -Clear Vision: of what has to be achieved -Integrity: the integration of outward actions and inner values. -Dedication: spending whatever time or energy is necessary to accomplish the task at hand. -Magnanimity: giving credit where it is due. -Humility: recognize that they are no better or worse than other members of the team -Openness: able to listen to new ideas -Creativity: the ability to think differently, to get outside of the box that constrains solutions -Fairness: dealing with others consistently and justly. -Assertiveness is not the same as aggressiveness. -Sense of humor: Effective leaders know how to use humor to energize followers.
5.2. Leadership Roles in an Organisation
5.2.1. A General Manager has broad, overall responsibility for a business or organization. General Managers manage through subordinate manager. Senior Manager is responsible for planning and directing the work of a group of individuals, monitoring their work, and taking corrective action when necessary. The Senior Manager often supervises the largest or most important group in a company. A Manager is the person responsible for planning and directing the work of a group of individuals, monitoring their work, and taking corrective action when necessary. Managers may direct workers directly or they may direct several supervisors who direct the workers. The manager must be familiar with the work of all the groups he/she supervises. A supervisor is the lowest, or most-junior, management position. A supervisor is responsible for the day-to-day performance of a small group. It may be a team, or a shift. The supervisor has experience in what the group does, but is not necessarily better at it than everyone he/she supervises. The supervisor's job is to guide the group toward its goals, see that all members of the team are productive, and resolve problems as they arise.
5.3. Motivation
5.3.1. A positive motivation philosophy and practice should improve productivity, quality, and service. Motivation helps people achieve goals. -improves efficiency -Less wastage of raw material and time -Motivated staff is less resistant to change and thus less conflicts. -More feedback and better ideas from staff can be very helpful in improving the quality of products and customer service. -Less supervision required as workers are self motivated, saves money.
5.4. Human Resource Department
5.4.1. The Human Resources Management (HRM) function includes a variety of activities, and key among them is deciding what staffing needs you have and whether to use independent contractors or hire employees to fill these needs, recruiting and training the best employees, ensuring they are high performers, dealing with performance issues, and ensuring your personnel and management practices conform to various regulations. Activities also include managing your approach to employee benefits and compensation, employee records and personnel policies.