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  • Perfectly Competitive Market

    As we proceeded with the blog, it becomes very important to understand the concept of market thoroughly. With this in mind, we would take a detour from the normal course and get a bit further on the concept of market.

    We began with defining the concept of market in the earlier blog. In this blog we would move a bit further and look into some important flavors that economists give to the market. This understanding is important since these flavors encapsulate many common features of the market its competitiveness in the market. We begin with defining the “Perfectly Competitive Market“.

    A Perfectly Competitive Market is one that has many buyers and sellers, so that no single buyer or seller has a significant impact on price.

    As an Example we could imagine the market for food grains like rice. There are many sellers and many buyers – the choice of any single buyer or seller wouldn’t really affect the overall impact of the market and the price that is defined in the market.

    While defining perfectly competitive market the underlying assumption with the large number of buyers and sellers being present is that they would be very competitive with each other. So even if the numbers are not really large but there is very huge competition amongst these sellers or buyers; then too we could assume such a market as a perfectly competitive one for any analysis.

    Read in Kannada: http://somanagement.blogspot.com/2011/04/blog-post_04.html

  • ಮಾರುಕಟ್ಟೆ

    ಬೇಡಿಕೆ ಮತ್ತು ಪೂರೈಕೆಯ ಚರ್ಚೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಹಲವುಬಾರಿ ಈಗಾಗಲೇ ಮಾರುಕಟ್ಟೆಯೆಂಬ ಪದವನ್ನು ತುಂಬಾ ಬಾರಿ ಉಪಯೋಗಿಸಿದ್ದೇವೆ – ಆದರೆ ಆ ಅಂಕಣಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಉಪಯೋಗಿಸಿರುವ ಪದವು ಕೇವಲ ಸಾಮಾನ್ಯ ಬಳಕೆಯದ್ದಾಗಿದೆ – ಆರ್ಥಶಾಸ್ತ್ರದಲ್ಲಿ ಬಳಕೆಯಾಗುವಂತಹ ಪದಕ್ಕೆ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ವಿಭಿನ್ನ ಅರ್ಥ ಇರುವುದು.

    “ಮಾರ್ಕೆಟ್” ಯೆಂದರೆ ಗ್ರಾಹಕರು ಮತ್ತು ವರ್ತಕರು ತಮ್ಮ ನೈಜ ಅಥವಾ ಸಂಭಾವನೀಯ ವಹಿವಾಟಿನ ಮೂಲಕ ವ್ಯವಹಾರಕೆಂದಿಟ್ಟ ವಸ್ತುವಿಗೆ ಬೆಲೆ ನಿಗದಿಪಡಿಸುವುದು. “ಮಾರ್ಕೆಟ್” ಮತ್ತು “ಇಂಡಸ್ಟ್ರಿ”(ಉದ್ಯಮ) ಇವೆರಡರ ಅಂತರ ಅರಿತುಕೊಳ್ಳುವುದು ಕುತೂಹಲಕಾರಿಯಾಗಿದೆ – ಇಂಡಸ್ಟ್ರಿಯು ಸಮಾನ ಅಥವಾ ಒಂದೇ ವಸ್ತುವನ್ನು ನಿರ್ಮಿಸುವ ಉದ್ಯೋಗಳ ಕೂಟ. ಈ ಇಂಡಸ್ಟ್ರಿಗಳು ಸಾಮಾನ್ಯವಾಗಿ “ಮಾರ್ಕೆಟ್”ನ ಪೂರೈಕೆಯ ಕಡೆಗೆ ಇರುವುದೇ ಹೆಚ್ಚು (ಕೆಲವು ಸಂದಭದಲ್ಲಿ ಬೇಡಿಕೆಯ ಬದಿಗೂ ಇರುವ ಸಾದ್ಯತೆ ಇದೆ).
    ಅರ್ಥಶಾಸ್ತ್ರಜ್ಞರು “ಮಾರ್ಕೆಟ್” ಅನ್ನು ನಿಶ್ಚಯಿಸುವಾಗ ಅದರಲ್ಲಿ ಮೂರು ಅಂಶಗಳನ್ನು ನೋಡುತ್ತರೆ – ಗ್ರಾಹಕ, ವರ್ತಕ, ಮತ್ತು ವ್ಯವ್ಯಹಾರದ ವಿಷಯ. ಒಂದುವೇಳೆ ಈ ಮೂರೂ ಅಂಶಗಳು ಸರಿಯಾಗಿ ನಿಗದಿತವಾಗದೇ ಇದ್ದಲ್ಲಿ, ಆ ವಸ್ತುವನ್ನು ಅತಿಯಾಗಿ ಲಾಭ ಪಡೆಯುವ ಅಪೇಕ್ಷೆಯುಳ್ಳ ವರ್ತಕನು, ಕಡಿಮೆ ಮೊತ್ತಕ್ಕೆ ಯಾವುದಾದರೂ ದೇಶದಲ್ಲಿ ವಸ್ತುವನ್ನು ಖರೀದಿಸಿ ಇನ್ನೊಂದು ದೇಶದಲ್ಲಿ ಮಾರುವ ಸಾಧ್ಯತೆಯನ್ನು ಅಲ್ಲಗಳೆಯಲು ಸಾಧ್ಯವಿಲ್ಲ. ಈ ಅಭ್ಯಾಸ ಅತಿಯಗಿದ್ದಲ್ಲಿ ಆರ್ಥಿಕ ವ್ಯವಸ್ತೆಯ ಮೇಲೆ ದುಷ್ಟ ಪ್ರಭಾವ ಬೀರುತ್ತದೆ – ಇದನ್ನು “ಆರ್ಬಿಟ್ರಜ್” ಎಂದು ಕರೆಯುತ್ತಾರೆ.

    “ಆರ್ಬಿಟ್ರಜ್”ಗೆ ಪ್ರಮುಖ ಕಾರಣದಲ್ಲಿ ನಾವು ಹಿಂದೆ ಚರ್ಚಿಸಿದ ಮಾಹಿತಿಯ ಕೊರತೆ.

  • 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.