Business, Marketing, and Management Principles for IT and Engineering

✍ Scribed by Dimitris N. Chorafas

• Publisher: Auerbach Publications
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 438
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

In order to achieve long-term profitability and assure survival for their companies, managers must be informed, imaginative, and capable of adapting to shifting circumstances. Practical decisions rather than theories hold the upper ground. Business, Marketing, and Management Principles for IT and Engineering supplies the understanding required to effectively manage an organization in an increasingly competitive global market.? Using case studies, the book illustrates the principles, policies, and management practices used by some of the most successful companies around the world. The real-world case studies supply valuable insight into the range of issues that confront decision makers in business. By explaining how to develop effective strategies and business plans, the text supplies both the concepts and the tools to stay on track with those plans. It also: Explains how to evaluate the pros and cons of your organizational policies and how to effect policies for maximum synergy Covers product development, sales, marketing, pricing, and financial analysis Illustrates the right and wrong ways to implement the principles discussed, with case studies of hi-tech companies such as Apple, Google, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, Toyota, ITT, and Bloomberg Dimitris N. Chorafas provides valuable insight garnered over half a century of advising financial institutions and multinational industrial corporations. Dr. Chorafas explains how to develop competitive products and use pricing strategies to achieve an edge over your competition. He also includes case studies that examine the price wars in the computer industry. This book supplies a realistic look into the positive and negative aspects of various policies and whether or not current practices related to forecasting, planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling have produced the synergy your company needs to achieve long-term success.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents......Page 6
Preface......Page 12
Acknowledgments......Page 18
Part One: Business Strategy......Page 20
1.1 Business Strategy Defined......Page 22
1.2 Sun Tzu and Machiavelli......Page 26
1.3 Strategic Crossroads......Page 29
1.4 Examining Cause and Effect......Page 34
1.5 Salient Issues in Industrial Strategy......Page 37
1.6 Devising a Strategy for Growth......Page 42
2.1 The First Syllable of "Management" is "MAN"......Page 48
2.2 Leadership......Page 51
2.3 The Manager of the Twenty-First Century......Page 55
2.4 Management Decisions......Page 59
2.5 Hard Work......Page 63
2.6 The Risk of Mismanagement......Page 66
3.1 Six Basic Functions......Page 72
3.2 Corporate Policy......Page 76
3.3 The Management of Change......Page 80
3.4 Responsibilities Commensurate with Authority......Page 83
3.5 Management by Objectives......Page 87
3.6 Management by Results......Page 90
Part Two: Management Principles......Page 96
4.1 Forecasting......Page 98
4.2 Assumptions Made in Forecasts......Page 100
4.3 Forecasts and Action Plans......Page 104
4.4 Forecasting Methodologies......Page 107
4.5 A Forecast That Was Not Heeded but That Proved Right......Page 110
4.6 Planning......Page 112
4.7 Planning Periods......Page 117
4.8 Integrative Planning: A Practical Example......Page 120
5.1 Structure Must Follow Strategy......Page 124
5.2 Radial, Spokelike Organizations......Page 128
5.3 The Span of Management......Page 132
5.4 Structural Prerequisites for Global Business......Page 137
5.5 The Job of Downsizing......Page 140
5.6 Reengineering the Enterprise......Page 144
6.1 Human Resources Strategy......Page 148
6.2 The Laws of Human Resources Are Asymmetrical......Page 151
6.3 Managing the Human Resources......Page 155
6.4 The Act of Directing......Page 159
6.5 Conceptual and Directive Personality Traits......Page 162
6.6 Managers Working under Stress......Page 166
6.7 Productivity......Page 169
7.1 Management Control Defined......Page 174
7.2 Business Reputation......Page 178
7.3 The Span of Internal Control......Page 181
7.4 Promoting Dissention......Page 185
7.5 Firing a Bad Executive and Swamping Malfeasance......Page 189
7.6 Internal Control Assessment......Page 193
Part Three: Marketing and Sales......Page 198
8.1 Marketing Functions......Page 200
8.2 A Marketing Organization's Best Efforts......Page 204
8.3 The Longer-Term Marketing Perspective......Page 209
8.4 The Marketing Mission: Case Study on Wrong-Way Market Research......Page 212
8.5 Case Study on Global Marketing by a Multinational Company......Page 216
8.6 Challenges of a Global Marketing Strategy......Page 220
8.7 Apple, Google, and the Power of Regulators......Page 223
9.1 The Annual Marketing Plan......Page 226
9.2 Making the Marketing Plan......Page 229
9.3 Bloomberg Financial Markets: A Case Study......Page 233
9.4 Marketing the Use of Reverse Innovation......Page 236
9.5 Conquering the Market through Empire Building: Geneen and Chambers......Page 240
9.6 Gates and Microsoft's Hollywood Marketing Machine......Page 243
9.7 Microsoft's Marketing Methods: The Empire Struck Back......Page 246
10.1 Sales Tactics of the Masters......Page 252
10.2 Results Expected from the Sales Force......Page 255
10.3 Establishing Quantitative Objectives......Page 259
10.4 To Be Ahead of the Curve, Use Knowledge Engineering, Not Arm-Twisting......Page 263
10.5 Brand Recognition......Page 266
10.6 Salesmanship and Entrepreneurship Correlate: Reichmann and the Canary Wharf......Page 270
10.7 Deeper and Deeper in Debt Is Poor Financial Salesmanship......Page 273
Part Four: Innovation......Page 278
11.1 Research and Development......Page 280
11.2 Strategic and Tactical Products......Page 283
11.3 Return on Investment Should Not Be Taken for Granted......Page 288
11.4 Planning for Innovation......Page 291
11.5 Don't Sell Quality to Buy Market Share: Toyota's Failure......Page 294
11.6 Securum: Using Technology to Build up Defenses......Page 298
11.7 The Right Feedback on Product Information......Page 302
12.1 The Product Planner......Page 304
12.2 Product Planning and Business Opportunity......Page 309
12.3 New Product Planning Methodology: A Practical Example......Page 312
12.4 Product Pricing through Reverse Engineering......Page 317
12.5 Product Pricing Is Not a Scientific Discipline......Page 321
12.6 The Need for Formal Profit Planning......Page 325
13.1 An Inflection Point in the Computer Industry......Page 330
13.2 Price Wars and the Stock Market......Page 333
13.3 Tough Cost Control Is the Best Way to Field off Competitors......Page 336
13.4 Warehousing, Inventories, Supply Chain, Channels of Distribution, and Maintenance......Page 340
13.5 Half-Baked Solutions Have Short Legs......Page 342
13.6 Users Don't Always Appreciate That They Are Getting Semitechnical Products......Page 345
13.7 The Dark Age of Mainframe Mentality Enters Cloud Computing......Page 349
Part Five: Financial Staying Power......Page 354
14.1 Financial Administration......Page 356
14.2 A General Electric Case Study on Financial Management......Page 360
14.3 Improving Financial Performance through Diversification: Amadeo Giannini......Page 364
14.4 The Budget......Page 367
14.5 The Interest and Noninterest Budget......Page 370
14.6 Cash Flow......Page 374
14.7 Cash Flow Management......Page 377
15.1 Profit Centers and Cost Centers......Page 382
15.2 Cost Control......Page 386
15.3 Fixed, Semivariable, and Variable Costs......Page 389
15.4 Costing Culture and Profitability......Page 393
15.5 Standard Costs......Page 397
16.1 Longer-Range Financial Planning......Page 402
16.2 Debt versus Equity......Page 405
16.3 Overhead Costs......Page 408
16.4 Something Can Go Wrong with Profit Planning......Page 411
16.5 A Profit Planning Methodology......Page 413
16.6 Th e Planning, Programming, and Budgeting Method......Page 416
16.7 Management Accounting and Virtual Financial Statements......Page 419
B......Page 424
C......Page 425
E......Page 427
G......Page 428
I......Page 429
L......Page 430
M......Page 431
P......Page 433
Q......Page 434
S......Page 435
T......Page 436
W......Page 437
Z......Page 438