The Idea in Brief If you're like most managers, you frown on mistakes--yours and others. Why? Your organization demands optimum performance. And it rewards you based on the height of your successes, not the depth of your...
Nell Minow, editor of The Corporate Library, has been a gadfly and corporate critic for many years. Her No. 1 issue these days is compensation for chief executive officers. And she's right that mismanagement of CEO compensation played a role in what went wrong at the top of some of...
A solid and executable strategic planning process challenges the assumptions of those involved because when you are so busy working in the business your assumptions keeping you from working on the business. When you begin to gather all the information from market share to future market and product growth and...
A big source of managerial churn is lack of clarity around the decision process. The biggest source of confusion is the Team Decision. Does this mean that the boss wants lots of input and discussion before deciding or does it mean that a decision isn't made until everyone agrees? Either...
Humans have been solving problems since the beginning of time. Our problem-solving skills are responsible for spurring social and technological advancement. However, over time, our individual skills become less innovative. Oftentimes, as we gain experience, we resort to solutions that have worked in the past instead of broadening our scope...
Every year is different so you need to list any changing circumstances that could significantly affect your sales. These factors - known as the sales forecast assumptions - form the basis of your forecast. Wherever possible, put a figure against the change - as shown in the examples below. You...
A long term forecast is not a necessary part of a basic business plan. However, it is an excellent tool to help you open up your thinking about the company's future. Furthermore, venture capitalists will almost always want a long term forecast to get a feel for growth prospects. The...
This paper provides a range of expected discount rates based on economic indices as of November 2005, as well as some comments regarding the selection of discount rates, expected rates of return on assets, and inflation assumption for the purposes of complying with U.S. and/or international accounting standards. The discount...
Increased scrutiny and the challenging economic environment, as well as a new interest in mortality assumptions, mean that working through year-end pension disclosures will be as demanding as ever. The difficult economic environment and increasing auditor scrutiny seems to make each year end more challenging than the last, and 2005...
For most companies, naming and building an identity is almost an afterthought: the founder names the company, the first products are descriptively named; and branding means, for the most part, a logo, stationary, a brochure, maybe a web site and some advertising. The assumption is that the name doesn't matter...
This paper discusses the relationships among three assumptions that appear frequently in the pricing/revenue management literature. These assumptions are mostly needed for analytical tractability, and they have the common property of ensuring a well-behaved "Revenue function." The three assumptions are decreasing marginal revenue with respect to demand, decreasing marginal revenue...
With the ever-increasing importance of supply chain integration, a mathematical multi-objective programming model is put forward in this paper to integrate operational supplier selection and procurement lot sizing decisions. An additional assumption is that the supplier's lots simultaneously arrive at the beginning of each replenishment period. Finally, GA is applied...
Article provides some explanation of a technique of reducing stress and producing good contacts and prospects. The underlying assumption here is that someone in the business or company that is about to be cold called could have requested information about your product or service. This assumption could include Internet inquiries,...
Organizations around the world spend billions of dollars on sales training - most of which is wasted. A harsh statement? No, one soon will see why most so called "Sales Training" can't get results. If one assumes that the purpose of sales training is to equip salespeople to increase their...
This article provides a useful framework from which to develop your own common set of beliefs and assumptions. You can then build your Six Sigma effort on your own framework after analyzing the beliefs and assumptions talked about in this article. Read and know the purpose and the reaction...
For many companies, the process of naming and branding is almost an afterthought: the founder names the company, the first products are descriptively named, and branding means marketing, which means, for the most part, advertising. The assumption is that the names aren't that important, that the number of dollars you...
Every business faces strategic issues that involve critical decisions that affect the course and direction of a company. In most cases, the path to resolution of these dilemmas is not clear to all parties. In many situation clashes comes in between perspective of different people that leads to disagreement. Article...
Article looks at how leaders stifle and restrict thinking in their organizations - usually unintended but destructive nonetheless. It describes that a leader's perspective about how to lead is built from a set of assumptions. These assumptions result in a series of self-fulfilling prophecies. A leader whose management style is...
Article discusses that many pension plans have experienced losses due to the significant market downturn over the last three years. This downturn may call into question an entity’s discount rate and salary inflation assumptions and assumptions about the expected rate of return on plan assets. Since the assumptions on which...
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