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  • The Market

    In our discussion on Demand and Supply, to which we would return pretty soon, we made a mention of “Market” where lemons were traded. We have used the term Market in the general understanding of common parlance, but it is interesting to see how Economics defines the term “Market”.

    A “market” refers to the collection of buyers and sellers that, through their actual or potential interactions, determine the price of a product or a set of products. It is interesting here to note the difference of the term “market” from that of “Industry” – An Industry is a collection of firms that sell the same or closely related products. In effect industry forms the supply side of the market.

    While defining a market; economist are generally concerned with the determination of the buyers, sellers and range of products that should be included in a particular market; this is of interest since the definition of the market essentially buts a boundary on the buyers and sellers – the potential and actual ones both are important. The difference in the definition of the Maker essentially leads to a possibility of “Arbitrage”. Arbitrage: Is the practice of buying at a low price at one location and selling at a higher price in another.

    Let’s take an example to make it clear:

    Let’s say Mr. X a resident of Hong Kong wants to purchase gold and that the price of gold is significantly lower in Chennai in India. If he intends to make use of this difference in price he would travel all the way from Hong Kong to Chennai and make the purchase at a lower price, take it back to Hong Kong and Sell it at a higher price. This is given that the transportation cost he incurs is much lower than the profit he would earn by entering into such an activity. Such activities would be detrimental on a large scale and hence the possibility of arbitrage is always checked across the globe for gold price.

    The example above also highlight the “importance of Information flow in business” – about which we made brief mention while discussing Information Asymmetry.

    Read in Kannada: http://somanagement.blogspot.com/2011/04/blog-post.html

  • Similar Choices – Entrepreneur and Traveler

    Entrepreneurship is akin to Traveling in many ways. Both begin with some basic questions being answered
    • Where am I now?
    • Where am I going?
    • How do I get there?

    When one beings a journey – (s)he begins with fixing the 2 ends – the source and the destination this is akin to the entrepreneur fixing the now and the future (s)he intends to achieve. There are numerous routes between the two ends. The Business Plan that one creates is like the road map that the entrepreneur chooses to follow. The road map would be defined based on the entrepreneurs choices of the time required, costs.

    Before freezing on the route map or the Business plan, the traveller or the Entrepreneur chooses is determined by many aspects which could be classified as external and internal factors.

    The external factors affecting the traveller would be the emergency repair shops, weather conditions, road conditions, the sightseeing spots and camping grounds. The entrepreneur’s external factors would include new regulations, competitions, and social changes, changes in consumer needs or new technologies. These external factors are ones on which the traveller or the entrepreneur has little control.

    The internal factors are one on that can be controlled or influenced. For the traveller these include his estimated budget, the time he intends to complete the journey in, the drivers in the team, the knowledge of highways etc. For the entrepreneur similarly would look at the amount with him/her, the resources at his disposal to accomplish the journey from here to the goal set out.

    In the coming blogs on entrepreneurship, we would look at the need for B-Plan and its creation.

  • The Undercover Economist – Tim Harford

    I began reading this book while traveling on my Business Development activities as part of my first start up – that was more than a year and half ago. I was only able to complete this book today through random bursts reading while on travel. I generally love reading books while traveling and not sitting at a place – this book was just perfect – Reading and relating to the surrounding I see is a very useful way of learning economics.

    When I was first suggested this book by my friend who had completed reading the book – I wasn’t very clear as to why “This” book on economics. Undercover Economist is just awesome! – for anyone with little economic sense like me this book is an eye-opener. The reviews on the hind cover are very true; as David Bodanis says – “is like spending an ordinary day wearing X-ray goggles”; this book really gives you valuable insights and gets one understanding the reasons behind the way things work.

    Beginning from a simple example highlighting the scarcity power and its relation to the coffee one could purchase, Tim moves on to highlight not just the daily activities and phenomena through economics but also deals with the externalities, taxation, globalization and finally ends with a very neat insight into the way China has risen to an economic super power of today. Free from details that could be got elsewhere from if one needs this gives a very useful reference frame for activities in our society.

    This book is worth being in the library of everyone who is interested in gaining an insight on the daily functioning of an organization with the best of economics being clarified in it. It’s definitely a “Must Read” for everyone.

  • ವ್ಯವಹಾರಿಕ ಉನ್ನತಿ (ಓರ್ಗನೈಜೆಶ್ನಲ್ ಡೆವಲಪ್ಮೆಂಟ್)

    ವ್ಯವಹಾರಗಳು ಸದಾಕಾಲ ಬದಲಾವಣೆಗಳನ್ನು ಕಾಣುತ್ತಲೇ ಇರುತ್ತವೆ. ಇಂದಿನ ಪರಿಸರ ನಾಳೆ ಇರುವುದೆಂದು ಯಾವುದೇ ಖಾತರಿ ಇಲ್ಲ. ಇಂದಿನ ಅವಿಷ್ಕಾರ ನಾಳೆ ಹಳೆಯದಾಗಬಹುದು, ಇಂದಿನ ಆದಾಯದ ಮೂಲ ನಾಳೆ ಇಲ್ಲದಿರಬಹುದು. ಇಂತಹ ಪರಿವರ್ತನೆಯ ಸಮಯದಲ್ಲಿ ವ್ಯವಹಾರಿಕ ಉನ್ನತಿಯ ಪರಿಣತರ ಕಾರ್ಯ ಮುಖ್ಯವಾಗುತ್ತದೆ.


    ವ್ಯವಹಾರಿಕ ಉನ್ನತಿಯು ತನ್ನ ಮೂಲವನ್ನು ಬಹು ವಿಷಯಗಳಿಂದ ಕಂಡುಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದು; ಅದು ಯಾವುದೇ ವ್ಯವಹಾರವನ್ನು ತನ್ನ ಪೂರ್ಣತೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ನೋಡುತ್ತದೆ. ವ್ಯವಹಾರದಾದ್ಯಂತ ಯಾವುದೇ ಸಕಾರಾತ್ಮಕ ಬದಲಾವಣೆಯನ್ನು ತರಬೇಕಾದಲ್ಲಿ ವ್ಯವಹಾರದ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಅಂಗಗಳಿಂದಲೂ ಸಹಕಾರ ಬೇಕಾಗುತ್ತದೆ.

    ಇಂತಹ ಪರಿವರ್ತನಾ ಪ್ರಿಯವಾದ ವ್ಯವಹಾರಿಕ ಉನ್ನತಿಯ ಕಾರ್ಯ ಕ್ಷೇತ್ರವನ್ನು ಕೂಲಂಕುಷವಾಗಿ ತಿಳಿಯಬೇಕಾದಲ್ಲಿ ನಾವು ಸಾದಾಕಾಲ ವ್ಯವಹಾರವು ಕಾರ್ಯನಿರ್ವಹಿಸುತ್ತಿರುವ ಪರಿಸರದ ಬಗ್ಗೆಯೂ ಸರಿಯಾಗಿ ತಿಳಿದುಕೊಳ್ಳಬೇಕಾಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಈ ವ್ಯವಹಾರಿಕ ಉನ್ನತಿಯ ಕ್ಷೇತ್ರವನ್ನು ಇನ್ನಷ್ಟು ಸರಿಯಾಗಿ ಮುಂಬರುವ ಅಂಕಣಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ತಿಳಿದುಕೊಳ್ಳೋಣ.

  • Organizational Development

    An organization once set up face the constant challenges of change, managing the change is the best way to prepare to dominate the next wave. Organizations grapple with change to develop into better organizations. Knowingly or unknowingly they undertake the process of organizational development, but it is generally when they face an unexpected change that the significance of Organizational Development consultants and change managers becomes most evident.

    Organizational Development (OD) is generally accompanied with change management. OD has been generally defined as an ongoing, systematic process or implementation that changes an organizational effectively. Similar to Organizational Behavior; OD is both a field of applied behavioral science focused on understanding and managing organizational change as a field of scientific study in inquiry.

    OD considers all the constituents of an organization functioning as a unit. The ultimate goal of OD is to improve the organization as a whole.

    The OD process is generally initiated when there is a gap, or dissatisfaction within the organization – either from the top management or from the employee body. The process involves the organization in its entirety and evidently would rely on the support from top management and all the members at every level in the organization. Without such a commitment the success of the OD intervention wouldn’t be useful.

    In the coming blogs we explore OD and its concepts in a bit more details. Since OD is multi-disciplinary one would need to relate the subject with every other aspect that has a bearing on the business and the organization.

  • ವ್ಯವಹಾರ ಪ್ರತಿಕೃತಿ ಚರ್ಚೆ – ಮಧ್ಯವರ್ತಿಗಳ ಕಡಿತ (ಡಿಸ್-ಇಂಟರ್ಮೀಡಿಯೇಷನ್)

    ವಿತರಣೆಯ ಈ ಹಿಂದಿನ ಅಂಕಣದಲ್ಲಿ ಅದರ ಮಹತ್ವವನ್ನು ತಿಳಿದುಕೊಂಡೆವು. ವಿತರಣೆಯ ಈ ಮಹತ್ವವನ್ನು ಕಂಡಾಗ, ಕಂಪನಿಗಳ ಸಪ್ಲೈ ಚೈನ್ ಮೇಲೆ ಅದು ಬೀರುವ ಪ್ರಭಾವವೂ ಹೆಚ್ಚಿರುತ್ತದೆ. ಹೀಗಿದ್ದಾಗ ತಯಾರಿಸಿದ ವಸ್ತುವನ್ನು ಖರೀದಿಸಲು ಬರುವ ಗ್ರಾಹಕರು ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಖರ್ಚು ಮಾಡಬೇಕಾಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಹೀಗಿದ್ದಲ್ಲಿ ಈ ವಿತರಣಾ ಪ್ರಕ್ರಿಯೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಮಧ್ಯವರ್ತಿಗಳನ್ನು ಆದಷ್ಟು ಕಡಿಮೆ ಮಾಡಿದರೆ ಗ್ರಾಹಕರೂ ಕಡಿಮೆ ವ್ಯಯ ಮಾಡುವ ಹಾಗಾಗುತ್ತದೆ.

    ಡೆಲ್ – ಇಂತಹ ಮಧ್ಯವರ್ತಿಗಳನ್ನು ಹೊರಹಾಕಿ ಗ್ರಾಹಕರಿಗೆ ಕೇವಲ ಲಾಭವನ್ನಷ್ಟೇ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಡಲಿಲ್ಲ, ಅದರೊಂದಿಗೆ ಅವರಿಗೆ ಬೇಕಾಗುವ ಬಣ್ಣ, ರಚನೆ, ಮತ್ತು ವಿನ್ಯಾಸಗಳನ್ನು ನೀಡುವಲ್ಲಿ ಸಫಲವಾಗಿದೆ. ಇದರಿಂದ ಗ್ರಾಹಕರು ತೃಪ್ತಿಯನ್ನು ವ್ಯಕ್ತಪಡಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ.

    ಮಧ್ಯವರ್ತಿಗಳ ಕಡಿತಗೊಳಿಸಿರುವ ವ್ಯವಹಾರ ಪ್ರತಿಕೃತಿಗಳು ಹಲವಾರಿವೆ, ಇದನ್ನು ನಾವು ಅತ್ಯಂತ ನಿಗಾವಹಿಸಿ ಮಾಡತಕ್ಕದ್ದು ಇಲ್ಲದಿದ್ದಲ್ಲಿ ಮಧ್ಯವರ್ತಿಗಳು ತಿರುಗು ಬೀಳುವ ಸಂಭವ ಹೆಚ್ಚಿರುತ್ತದೆ.

  • Business models – Disintermediation

    In our earlier blog on Business Models we discussed about Distribution and its criticality for the success of the supply chain of any product. Given its significance to the supply of most of the product, it is but evident that the companies which act as distributors have a very high say in allowing or not allowing the products to reach the destination. Given this super high influence on the supply chain it some of these distributors could have a very large margin in the products they distribute and hence make it costlier for the user.

    Some companies who realized this decided to do away with these costly distributors and make it direct to the user – One such glorious example has been that of DELL computers. Dell computer’s supply-chain innovation doing away with the distributor and assembling the various computer components just a few miles before it reaches the consumer has been greatly talked about by the management communities.

    Eliminating the distributors in between doesn’t just save the extra tax on the pocket of the user but also accrues alternate benefits and in fact the best of all these benefits has been Customer Delight. The process of doing away with the distributors and ensuring that the computer could be assembled just a few miles away from the user enables a greater customization and thereby enhancing the customer delight.

    Read in Kannada: http://somanagement.blogspot.com/2011/03/blog-post_5833.html

  • ಬೇಡಿಕೆ ಮತ್ತು ಪೂರೈಕೆ ಚರ್ಚೆ – ಈ ವರೆಗೆ

    ನಾವು ಆರು ವಾರಗಳಿಂದ ಬೇಡಿಕೆ ಮತ್ತು ಪೂರೈಕೆ ಚರ್ಚೆಯನ್ನು ನಡೆಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದೇವೆ – ಇಲ್ಲಿಯವರೆಗಿನ ಚರ್ಚೆಯ ಮೇಲೆ ಹಿನ್ನೋಟ ಬೀರುವುದು ಅತ್ಯಗತ್ಯ ಎನಿಸಿತು; ಆದ್ದರಿಂದ ಈ ಅಂಕಣವನ್ನು ಬರೆಯುತ್ತಿದ್ದೇನೆ.

    ಬೇಡಿಕೆ ಮತ್ತು ಪೂರೈಕೆಯ ಚರ್ಚೆಯನ್ನು ಅವುಗಳ ಅರ್ಥವನ್ನು ತಿಳಿಯುವುದರೊಂದಿಗೆ ಪ್ರಾರಂಭಿಸಿ, ನಂತರ ಸಮಾನಾಂತರ ಬೆಲೆಯ ಅರ್ಥ ತಿಳಿದು ಇವುಗಳ ನಡುವಿನ ಸಂಬಂಧವನ್ನು ನಿಯಮಗಳನ್ನಾಗಿ ದಾಖಲಿಸುತ್ತಾ ಹೋದೆವು. ಇವುಗಳ ಸಾರಂಶವು ಈ ಕೆಳಗಿನಂತಿದೆ:
    ಈ ವರೆಗಿನ ಚರ್ಚೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ನಾವು ಹೊರಗಿನ ಮೂಲಗಳನ್ನು ತಕ್ಕ ಪ್ರಮಾಣಕ್ಕೆ ಲೆಕ್ಕಿಸಿಲ್ಲ; ಮುಂಬರುವ ಅಂಕಣಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಇವುಗಳ ಕುರಿತು ಚರ್ಚಿಸೋಣ. ಅದಕ್ಕೂ ಮುಂಚೆ, ಈ ಮೇಲಿನ ನಿಯಮಗಳ ಉಪ ನಿಯಮವನ್ನು ತಿಳಿಯೋದು ಸೂಕ್ತ. ಮುಂದಿನ ಅಂಕಣದಲ್ಲಿ ಈ ಉಪನಿಯಮವನ್ನು ತಿಳಿದು ಮತ್ತು ಬಾಹ್ಯ ಪರಿಸರವನ್ನು ನಮ್ಮ ಚರ್ಚೆಗೆ ಸೇರಿಸೋಣ.

  • Supply and Demand Discussion – This far

    It has been a journey of six weeks into the Discussion on Demand and Supply. As stated earlier, it is good to occasionally summarize the proceedings and give a perspective in hindsight so that we understand how much of the subject we have covered.

    We began our discussion with having a basic understanding of the Demand and Supply and the laws that govern them. We then understood the concept of equilibrium price and began deriving the relation between the equilibrium price, the supply and the demand – We could summarize the relation in the following four laws which were essentially the summary of the blogs that succeeded the equilibrium price blog:

    If you would have noticed, we have stuck with a major understanding that the only subject in the study is one object (lemon in our earlier case); in the process we have ignored some of the every essential factors which have a bearing on the demand and supply equations. In the upcoming blogs we would look at inter-relating these and creating a good understanding for the same.

    However, there is one important corollary of these laws that we need to understand before we proceed with the relating to the other aspects by involving the external environment.

    Read in Kannada: http://somanagement.blogspot.com/2011/03/blog-post_29.html

  • ವ್ಯವಹಾರ ಮತ್ತು ಕಾನೂನು

    ಸಾಮಾನ್ಯವಾಗಿ ವ್ಯವಹಾರವು ಕೇವಲ ಲಾಭಕ್ಕೆಂದೇ ಇರುವುದೆಂದು ಕೇಳಿರುತ್ತೇವೆ – ಈ ನಂಬಿಕೆಯನ್ನೇ ನಾವು ಹಿಂದಿನ ಅಂಕಣದಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಶ್ನಿಸಿ – ವ್ಯವಹಾರಕ್ಕೆ ಸಾಮಾಜಿಕ ಹೊಣೆಗಾರಿಕೆಯೂ ಅತ್ಯಾಗತ್ಯ ಎಂದು ತಿಳಿಸಿದ್ದೇವೆ. ಇದೇ ಹಿನ್ನಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ನಾವು ವ್ಯವಹಾರಕ್ಕೆ ಕಾನೂನಿನ ಚೌಕಟ್ಟು ಅಗತ್ಯ ಎಂದು ಈ ಅಂಕಣ ದಲ್ಲಿ ತಿಳಿದುಕೊಳ್ಳೋಣ.

    ವ್ಯವಹಾರವು ಸಮಾಜದೊಂದಿಗೆ ಎಷ್ಟೊ ಮಟ್ಟಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಸಂಪರ್ಕಕ್ಕೆ ಒಳಗಾಗುತ್ತದೆ, ಕಂಪನಿಯು ರಾಜ್ಯದ್ದಲ್ಲಿ ಸಿಗುವ ಸಂಪನ್ಮೂಲಗಳನ್ನು ಉಪಯೋಗಿಸುತ್ತದೆ, ಸಮಾಜದಲ್ಲಿಂದ ತನ್ನ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮಗಳಿಗೆ ಬೇಕದ ಕಾರ್ಮಿಕರನ್ನು ಕೆಲಸಕ್ಕೆಂದು ತಿಗೆದುಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತದೆ. ಈ ರೀತಿ ಸಮಾಜದೊಂದಿಗೆ ಹಲವಾರು ಮಟ್ಟದಲ್ಲಿ ಸಂಪರ್ಕದಲ್ಲಿದ್ದಾಗ ಕರ್ಯಗಳಾನ್ನು ನಡೆಸಲು ಸ್ಥಿರಮತ್ತು ಧ್ರುಡ ಅಡಿಪಾಯವೊಂದು ಬೇಕಾಗುತ್ತದೆ – ಕಾನೂನು ಈ ಅಡಿಪಾಯವನ್ನು ನೀಡಿ ಸುಗಮ ವ್ಯವಹಾರಕ್ಕೆ ಅನುಕೂಲ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಡುತ್ತದೆ.

    ಕಾನೂನನ್ನು ಸಾಮಾನ್ಯವಾಗಿ ದುಷ್ಟವ್ಯಕ್ತಿಯನ್ನು ತನ್ನ ವಿಶಯವನ್ನಾಗಿಸಿ ವಿವಿಧ ನಿಯಮಗಳನ್ನು ಮಾಡಿರುತ್ತದೆ; ವ್ಯವಹಾರ ಜಗತ್ತಿನಲ್ಲೂ ಇಂತಹ ಹಲವಾರು ಸನ್ನಿವೇಶಗಳನ್ನು ನೊಡಿರುತ್ತೇವೆ – ಇದನ್ನೇ ವ್ಯವಹಾರ ಕಾನೂನುಗಳು ನಿಯಂತ್ರಿಸಲು ಪ್ರಯತ್ನ ಪಡುತ್ತವೆ.

    ಮುಂಬರುವ ಅಂಕಣಗಳನ್ನು ವ್ಯವಹಾರ ಮತ್ತು ಕಾನೂನನ್ನು ಇನ್ನೂ ನಿಕಟವಾಗಿ ಅರ್ಠೈಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವ ಪ್ರಯತ್ನ ಮಾಡೋಣ.