Mba iibm case study solutions & multiple answers
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The document provides a comprehensive overview of various business management disciplines and topics, covering a wide range of subjects such as accounting, marketing, corporate governance, and communication. It includes multiple-choice questions and case studies to illustrate concepts and encourage critical thinking in business scenarios. Additionally, the text touches on the challenges faced by call center operators and emphasizes the importance of effective communication and professionalism in business environments.
![leaving all other marketing and transportation issues aside we would have revenue of (say) $7 per [unit].
If you could collect on every cigarette and ignore the transportation, marketing, and advertising costs, this
comes to over $2 billion on Canadian sales and substantially more from an export tax, and you forego the
costs of enforcement and deploy your policing assets elsewhere. One interesting thing to note from such a
scheme is that the street price of marijuana stays exactly the same, so the quantity demanded should
remain the same as the price is unchanged. However, it's quite likely that the demand for marijuana would
change from legalization. We saw that there was a risk in selling marijuana, but since drug laws often
target both the buyer and the seller, there is also a risk (albeit smaller) to the consumer interested in
buying marijuana. Legalization would eliminate this risk, causing the demand to rise. This is a mixed bag
from a public policy standpoint: Increased marijuana use can have ill effects on the health of the
population but the increased sales bring in more revenue for the government. However, if legalized,
governments can control how much marijuana is consumed by increasing or decreasing the taxes on the
product. There is a limit to this, however, as setting taxes too high will cause marijuana growers to sell on
the black market to avoid excessive taxation. When considering legalizing marijuana, there are many
economic, health, and social issues we must analyze. One economic study will not be the basis of
Canada's public policy decisions, but Easton's research does conclusively show that there are economic
benefits in the legalization of marijuana. With governments scrambling to find new sources of revenue to
pay for important social objectives such as health care and education expect to see the idea raised in
Parliament sooner rather than later.
Questions
1. Plot the demand schedule and draw the demand curve for the data given for Marijuana in the case above.
2. On the basis of the analysis of the case above, what is your opinion about legalizing marijuana in Canada?
Case let 2
Companies that attend to productivity and growth simultaneously manage cost reductions very differently
from companies that focus on cost cutting alone and they drive growth very differently from companies
that are obsessed with growth alone. It is the ability to cook sweet and sour that under grids the
remarkable performance of companies likes Intel, GE, ABB and Canon. In the slow growth electrotechnical
business, ABB has doubled its revenues from $17 billion to $35 billion, largely by exploiting
new opportunities in emerging markets. For example, it has built up a 46,000 employee organization in
the Asia Pacific region, almost from scratch. But it has also reduced employment in North America and
Western Europe by 54,000 people. It is the hard squeeze in the north and the west that generated the
resources to support ABB's massive investments in the east and the south. Everyone knows about the
staggering ambition of the Ambanis, which has fuelled Reliance's evolution into the largest private
company in India. Reliance has built its spectacular rise on a similar ability to cook sweet and sour. What
people may not be equally familiar with is the relentless focus on cost reduction and productivity growth
that pervades the company. Reliance's employee cost is 4 per cent of revenues, against 15-20 per cent of
its competitors. Its sales and distribution cost, at 3 per cent of revenues, is about a third of global
standards. It has continuously pushed down its cost for energy and utilities to 3 per cent of revenues,
largely through 100 per cent captive power generation that costs the company 4.5 cents per kilowatt-hour;
well below Indian utility costs, and about 30 per cent lower than the global average. Similarly, its capital
cost is 25-30 per cent lower than its international peers due to its legendary speed in plant commissioning
and its relentless focus on reducing the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) that, at 13 per cent, is
the lowest of any major Indian firm.
A Bias for Growth
Comparing major Indian companies in key industries with their global competitors shows that Indian
companies are running a major risk. They suffer from a profound bias for growth. There is nothing wrong
with this bias, as Reliance has shown. The problem is most look more like Essar than Reliance. While
they love the sweet of growth, they are unwilling to face the sour of productivity improvement.
Nowhere is this more amply borne out than in the consumer goods industry where the Indian giant
Hindustan Lever has consolidated to grow at over 50 per cent while its labour productivity declined by
around 6 per cent per annum in the same period. Its strongest competitor, Nirma, also grew at over 25 per
cent per annum in revenues but maintained its labour productivity relatively stable. Unfortunately,
however, its return on capital employed (ROCE) suffered by over 17 per cent. In contrast, Coca Cola,
worldwide, grew at around 7 per cent, improved its labour productivity by 20 per cent and its return on](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/mbaiibmcasestudysolutionsmultipleanswers-140615071012-phpapp01/85/Mba-iibm-case-study-solutions-multiple-answers-34-320.jpg)
Mba iibm case study solutions & multiple answers
- 1. CASE STUDY ANSWERS ASSIGNMENT SOLUTIONS PROJECT REPORTS AND THESIS ISBM / IIBMS / IIBM / ISMS / KSBM / NIPM SMU / SYMBIOSIS / XAVIER / NIRM / PSBM / NSBM / ISM / IGNOU / IICT / ISBS / LPU / ISM&RC MBA - EMBA - BMS - GDM - MIS - MIB DMS - DBM - PGDM - DBM - DBA www.mbacasestudyanswers.com www.casestudysolution.in www.casestudies.co.in aravind.banakar@gmail.com ARAVIND 09901366442 - 09902787224
- 2. SUBJECTS A B C ACCOUNTING MANAGEMENT AUDIT MANAGEMENT ADVERTISING ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT AUTOMOBILE MANAGEMENT ASSET MANAGEMENT AVIATION MANAGEMENT AGRICULTURE MANAGEMENT ARCHITECTURAL MANAGEMENT AIR TRANSPORT MANAGEMENT BANKING MANAGEMENT BPO MANAGEMENT BANKING & FINANCIAL SERVICES MANAGEMENT BUSINESS MARKETING BUSINESS ETHICS BUSINESS COMMUNICATION BUSINESS LOGISTICS BIO TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION BUSINESS MANAGEMENT BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT BUSINESS PLANNING BUSINESS STRATEGY BOI-TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT CORPORATE LAW CONSUMER BEHAVIOR CORPORATE FINANCE COST MANAGEMENT & ACCOUNTANCY CORPORATE & FINANCE MANAGEMENT CORPORATE GOVERANCE COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT CLINICAL PHARMACOLGY CLINICAL RESEARCH CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT CUSTOMER CARE MANAGEMENT CALL CENTRE MANAGEMENT CO – OPERATIVE MANAGEMENT CONSUMER MANAGEMENT CORPORATE FINANCE MANAGEMENT CHARTERED FINANCE MANAGEMENT D E F DAIRY MANAGEMENT DISTRIBUTION LOGISTIC MANAGEMENT DATABASE MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY E-BUSINESS SYSTEM E-COMMERCE ENERGY MANAGEMENT EQUITY RESEARCH MANAGEMENT ENTREPRENEUR MANAGEMENT EVENT MANAGEMENT ENTREPRENEURSHIP MANAGEMENT EXPORT IMPORT MANAGEMENT EXPORT MANAGEMENT FINANCE FINACE MANAGEMENT FINACIAL & COST ACCOUNTING FINANCIAL ACCOUNTANCY FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS FASHION MANAGEMENT FOREIGN EXCHANGE MANAGEMENT G H I GENERAL MANAGEMENT GLOBAL MARKETING MANAGEMENT H R MANAGEMENT HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT HEALTHCARE MANAGEMENT HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT HOTEL MANAGEMENT HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATION HARDWARE MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL FINACE INTERNATIONAL FINACE MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL HR MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT INVESTMENT ANALYSIS MANAGEMENT INDUSTRIAL MARKETING INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS INFORMATION MANAGEMENT INDUSTRIAL SAFETY MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT INVENTORY MANAGEMENT INDUSTRIAL RELATION LABOUR LAW IT FOR MANAGEMENT INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
- 3. INTERIOR MANAGEMENT L M N LOGISTICS LOGISTIC MANAGEMENT LOGISTIC ENGINEERING MARKETING MARKETING MANAGEMENT MASS COMMUNICATION MEDIA MANAGEMENT MUTUAL FUND MANAGEMENT MARKET RISK MANAGEMENT MARKETING FINANCE MANAGEMENT MATERIAL MANAGEMENT MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM MANAGEMENT OF SALES FORCE MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS MANUFACTURING PLANNING & CONTROL MASS COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS MARKET RISK MANAGEMENT NETWORKING NETWORK MANAGEMENT NETWORKING MANAGEMENT O P Q OPERAIONS OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOR OPERATING SYSTEM OPERATION RESEARCH PRINCIPLE & PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT PROJECT MANAGEMENT PRODUCTION & OPERTION MANAGEMENT PROFFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION PURCHASING MANAGEMENT PETROLEUM MANAGEMENT PORTPOLIO MANAGEMENT PHARMACOLOGY MANAGEMENT PUBLIC RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION QUANTITATIVE METODS QUATITATIVE TECHNIQUES IN MANAGEMENT QUANTITATIVE MANAGEMENT R S T RESEARCH METHODOLOGY RETAIL MANAGEMENT RISK & SAFETY MANAGEMENT RISK & INSURANCE MANAGEMENT RURAL MANAGEMENT SALES & DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT SIX SIGMA MANAGEMENT SIX SIGMA GREEN BELT MANAGEMENT SIX SIGMA BLACK BELT MANAGEMENT STATICAL QUALITY CONTROL SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT STORE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT SHIPPING MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT TELECOM MANAGEMENT TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT TREASURY MANAGEMENT TOTAL SUPPLY MANAGEMENT TRAVEL & TOURISM TRAINING & DEVELOPING TAKE OVER AQUISATION TAXATION MANAGEMENT TEXTILE MANAGEMENT
- 4. SAP CONSUTANCY MANAGEMENT SALES MANAGEMENT Business Communication Multiple choice: 1. __________is an essential function of Business Organizations: a. Information b. Communication c. Power d. None of the above 2. Physiological Barriers of listening are: a. Hearing impairment b. Physical conditions c. Prejudices d. All of the above 3. Which presentation tend to make you speak more quickly than usual: a. Electronic b. Oral c. Both „a‟ and „b‟ d. None of the above 4. What is the main function of Business Communication: a. Sincerity b. Positive language c. Persuasion d. Ethical standard 5. The responsibilities of the office manager in a firm that produces electronics spares is: a. Everything in the office runs efficiently b. Furniture and other equipment in the office is adequate c. Processing all the incoming official mail and responding to some d. All of the above 6. Labov‟s Storytelling Model based on: a. Communication through speech b. Language learning c. Group Discussions d. None of the above 7. Diagonal Communication is basically the: a. Communication across boundaries b. Communication between the CEO and the managers c. Communication through body language d. Communication within a department 8. How to make Oral Communication Effective? a. By Clarity b. By Brevity c. By Right words d. All of the above 9. Direct Eye contact of more than 10 seconds can create: a. Discomfort & Anxiety b. Emotional relationship between listeners and speakers c. Excitement d. None of the above 10. Encoding means: a. Transmission
- 5. b. Perception c. Ideation d. None of the above Part Two: 1. Define 7C‟s of effective communication. 2. Explain „Space Language‟. 3. Differentiate between good listeners and bad listeners. 4. List the different types of business report. 5. Define „Kinesics‟. Business Communication Caselet 1 Mr. and Mrs. Sharma went to Woodlands Apparel to buy a shirt. Mr. Sharma did not read the price tag on the piece selected by him. At the counter, while making the payment he asked for the price. Rs. 950 was the answer. Meanwhile, Mrs. Sharma, who was still shopping came back and joined her husband. She was glad that he had selected a nice black shirt for himself. She pointed out that there was a 25% discount on that item. The counter person nodded in agreement. Mr. Sharma was thrilled to hear that “It means the price of this shirt is just Rs. 712. That‟s fantastic”, said Mr. Sharma. He decided to buy one more shirt in blue color. In no time, he returned with the second shirt and asked them to be packed. When he received the cash memo for payment, he was astonished to find that he had to pay Rs. 1,900 and Rs. 1,424. Mr. Sharma could hardly reconcile himself to the fact that the counter person had quoted the discounted price which was Rs. 950. The original price printed on the price tag was Rs. 1,266. Questions 1. What should Mr. Sharma have done to avoid the misunderstanding? 2. Discuss the main features involved in this case. Caselet 2 I don‟t want to speak to you. Connect me to your boss in the US,” hissed the American on the phone. The young girl at a Bangalore call centre tried to be as polite as she could. At another call centre, another day, another young girl had a Londoner unleashing himself on her, “Young lady, do you know that because of you Indians we are losing jobs?” The outsourcing backlash is getting ugly. Handling irate callers is the new brief for the young men and women taking calls at these outsourced job centres. Supervisors tell them to be „cool‟. Avinash Vashistha, managing partner of NEOIT, a leading US-based consultancy firm says, “Companies involved in outsourcing both in the US and India are already getting a lot of hate mail against outsourcing and it is hardly surprising that some people should behave like this on the telephone.” Vashistha says Indian call centre‟s should train their operators how to handle such calls. Indeed, the furor raised by the Western media over job losses because of outsourcing Examination Paper of Business Communication has made ordinary citizens there sensitive to the fact that their calls are being taken not from their midst, but in countries such as India and the Philippines. The angry outbursts the operators face border on the racist and sexist, says the manager of a call centre in Hyderabad. But operators and senior executives of call centres refuse to go on record for fear of kicking up a controversy that might result in their companies‟ losing clients overseas. “It‟s happening often enough and so let‟s face it,” says a senior executive of a Gurgaon call centre, adding, “This doesn‟t have any impact on business.” Questions 1. Suppose you are working as an operator in a call centre in India and receiving calls from Americans and Londoners. How would you handle such calls?
- 6. 2. Do you agree with the view such abusive happenings on the telephone do not have any impact on business? 1. What do you by Communication Barriers? How and why do they occur? What can be done to overcome the Barriers to Communication? 2. Define and explain the term Negotiation and also briefly explain the phases of Negotiation. Corporate Governance Professional 1. Corporate Governance is- a) About ethical conduct in business b) Direct or indirect concerns in the organization c) A manufacturing system d) None of the above 2. The term corporate governance is derived from the- a) Greek word b) English word c) French word d) Latin word 3. The definition “Corporate Governance is the system by which business directed and controlled” is given by- a) SEBI committee b) OECD committee c) Cadbury committee d) All of the above 4. Internal control is implemented by the- a) Board of directors b) Audit committee c) Management d) All of the above 5. OECD stands for__________________ 6. Which of the following have the power to hire fire and compensate the top management? a) Board of directors b) Audit committee c) Shareholders d) Management 7. CII stands for ____________________ 8. The managers are expected to act in the interest of- a) Audit committee b) Stakeholders
- 7. c) Employees d) Customers 9. To endorse the organization strategy, develop directional policy, appoint, supervise and remunerate senior executives and to ensure accountability of the organization to its owners and authorities is the responsibility of a) CEO b) Manager c) Top management d) Board of directors 10. SEBI stands for_________________ 11. The role of corporate governance is- a) To ensure the efficient use of resources b) It increases the shareholders value c) Reduce the procurement and inventory cost d) All of the above 12. Which of the following is not the issue of corporate governance? a) Internal control b) Compensation of CEO and other directors c) Management of risk d) Rights of corporation 13. The annual report should not include- a) How decision are taken by the board b) The name of the chairman, CEO and other directors c) Ability to hire management d) The number of meeting 14. _____________________ is equal to the market price of his holding in shares. a) Stakeholders wealth b) Ethical conduct c) Shareholder’s wealth Corporate Governance Professional 15. The key element of good corporate governance principle include- a) Honesty b) Mutual respect c) Performance orientation d) All of the above 16. SOX stands for_____________________ 17. The commonly accepted principle of corporate governance are-
- 8. a) Protection of shareholders right b) Role and responsibilities of board c) Interest of other stakeholders d) All of the above 18. CII developed code of corporate governance in_____________________ a) 1997 b) 1996 c) 1994 d) 1878 19. The property right is views simply as ____________________ a) Planning right b) Control right c) Both a&b d) None 20. In which type of model the supervisory board is elected by shareholders and labor unions a) Japanese model b) Anglo American model c) German model d) The Indian perspective 21. Which of the following come under the five principles of ethical power for organization? a) Purpose b) Pride c) Patience d) All of the above 22. Which of the following are the theories of corporate governance? a) Shareholders theory vs. stakeholders theory b) Stewardship theory c) Property right theory d) All of the above Corporate Governance Professional 23. The stewardship theory is- a) Control oriented b) Involvement oriented c) Both a&b d) None of these 24. ____________________ include government nominees and representatives of financial institutions
- 9. a) Board of directors b) Creditors, suppliers c) Nominee directors d) Chief executive officer 25. The ____________________ oversees internal control and disclosure controls and procedures for financial reporting. a) Nominating committee b) Audit committee c) Board committee d) Higgs committee 26. MDAR stands for_______________ 27. Liaison committee designed to make a link between two groups or committees. a) True b) False 28. Cadbury committee established in______________ a) 1999 b) 1995 c) 1992 d) 2002 29. How many recommendation is made by CII code- a) 17 b) 18 c) 16 d) 19 30. Kumar mangalam committee is appointed by the- a) CII b) SEBI c) Government d) None 31. The remuneration of the non-executive directors should be decided by the- Corporate Governance Professional a) Board of directors b) Top management c) Stakeholders d) Entire board 32. Which of the following committee was appointed by the SEBI to make recommendations on the representation of independent directors on company board and the composition of audit committee
- 10. a) Cadbury committee b) Kumar mangalam committee c) Naresh Chandra committee d) Board committee 33. Basic shareholders rights include the right to- a) Secure methods of ownership b) Convey or transfer shares c) Participate and vote in general shareholder meetings d) All of the above 34. Which of the following is use to ensure that the takeover bids are serious? a) Disclosure b) Trigger c) Escrow d) Creeping acquisition 35. Which of the following are the natures of complaints by shareholders? a) Non receipt of dividend b) Change of address c) Transmission of shares d) All of the above 36. The word “transmission” means- a) Transfer by operation of law b) Transfer by operation c) Both a&b d) None of the above 37. Competition, debt covenants, takeover and media pressure are the- a) Internal corporate governance controls b) External corporate governance control c) Both a&b d) None 38. Simple directors who attends board meeting of a company and participate of a company and participate in the matters before the board is- Corporate Governance Professional a) Ordinary directors b) Managing directors c) Executive directors d) Shadow directors
- 11. 39. The director who perform a specific role in a company under a service contract which requires a regular, possibly daily, involvement in management is known as- a) Non-executive director b) Additional director c) Executive director d) Ordinary director 40. Which of the following is the duty of directors? a) Statutory duties b) Duties of general nature c) Both a&b d) None 41. Which of the following are the not the general duty of directors? a) Duty of good faith b) Duty of care c) Duty not to delegate d) To disclose interest 42. A document that specifies the regulations for a company’s operation is known as- a) Memorandum of association b) Articles of association c) Both a&b d) None 43. Any person, company, or other institution that owns at least one share in a company is known as- a) Stakeholder b) Employees c) Shareholder d) Customer 44. Nomination committee is appointed by the- a) CEO b) Board of directors c) Management d) Audit committee 45. The profit earned by the company with reference to the cost of capital in terms of economic profit is referred to as- Corporate Governance Professional a) Pay-performance b) Organization bylaws c) Economic value added d) None of the above
- 12. 46. Which of the following are the types of the auditor? a) Internal b) External c) Government d) All of the above 47. The auditors specialize in crimes and are used by law enforcement organization when financial documents are involved in a crime is known as- a) Forensic auditor b) Government auditor c) External auditor d) Internal auditor 48. Set of standards against which the quality of audits is performed and may be judges is- a) Generally accepted accounting principles b) General accepted auditing standards c) Audit d) None 49. A ______________ audit is a review in which an auditor analyzes and verifies various records and processes relating to a company’s quality programs. a) Cost audit b) Forensic audit c) Quality audit d) none 50. The important aspects of cost audit are: a) Property audit b) Efficiency audit c) Both a&b d) Government audit 51. SICA stands for_______________ 52. BIFR stands for_______________ 53. Basic principles of audit are_______________ a) Integrity, objectivity & independence Corporate Governance Professional b) Confidentiality c) Documentation d) All of the above
- 13. 54. As per the SEBI guidelines, the audit committee shall meet at least- a) Twice a year b) Thrice a year c) Once a year d) None 55. _________________ opined that the chairman of the audit committee should be an independent director. a) Cadbury committee b) Board committee c) KM Birla committee d) Audit committee 56. An audit committee should aware of technological changes, which is_________________ risk/condition. a) Internal b) External c) Both a&b d) None 57. The committees of the board involve_________________ a) Supervisory committee b) Risk management committee c) Shareholders’ redressal committee d) All of these 58. NBFCs stands for_________________ 59. CSR stands for_________________ 60. Which of the following is the essential of accord of Basel II? a) Capital adequacy b) Risk based supervision c) Market disclosure d) All of the above 61. Which of the following are the objectives of Basel II ? a) To promote adequate capitalization of banks b) To ensure better risk management c) To strengthen the stability of banking system d) All of the above Corporate Governance Professional
- 14. 62. The ganguly committee is of the view that the draft minutes of the board meeting should be forwarded to the director’s within_________________ hours of meeting. a) 56 b) 64 c) 48 d) 32 63. In which ethical principle of the business ethics are measured by rightness of an act and depend little on the results of this act? a) Teleological ethical system b) Deontological ethical system c) Hybrid theory d) Individual freedom 64. One of the major ethical issue in advertising is the use of______________ a) True b) False 65. Major social responsibilities of business involve- a) Optimum utilization of scarce national resources b) Responsibility no to make losses c) Improve quality of life d) All of above 66. Government is thinking of making it mandatory for the companies to spend_________________% of their net profits on CSR. a) 2 b) 4 c) 6 d) 8 67. It is the responsibility of the firm towards its________________ to avoid any type of cartel formation that a attempts to reap monopoly profits. a) Shareholders b) Customers c) Employees d) Management 68. Four important group that business are shareholders, employees, customers and_________________ a) Management b) Board of director c) Society d) Stakeholder
- 15. CASE STUDY ANSWERS ASSIGNMENT SOLUTIONS PROJECT REPORTS AND THESIS ISBM / IIBMS / IIBM / ISMS / KSBM / NIPM SMU / SYMBIOSIS / XAVIER / NIRM / PSBM / NSBM / ISM / IGNOU / IICT / ISBS / LPU / ISM&RC MBA - EMBA - BMS - GDM - MIS - MIB DMS - DBM - PGDM - DBM - DBA www.mbacasestudyanswers.com www.casestudysolution.in www.casestudies.co.in aravind.banakar@gmail.com ARAVIND 09901366442 - 09902787224
- 16. 69. NGO stands for_________________ 70. Employees should get_________________ wages a) Clear b) Minimum c) Maximum d) Fair 71. Objectives of environmental audit are-. a) Verification of legislative and regulatory compliance b) Assessment of internal policy and procedural conformamance c) Establishment of current practice status d) All of the above 72. Review of documents and records, Review of policies, interviews are comes under which stage- a) Pre-audit stage b) Post-audit stage c) Audit stage d) None 73. Environment protection act was passed in________________ for the protection of environment. a) 1988 b) 1999 c) 1986 d) 1990 74. The financial or non-financial support of an activity, used primarily to reach the given business goals is- a) Media b) finance c) Both a&b d) Sponsorship 75. A printed report giving news or information of interest to a special group. a) Newsletter b) Formal meeting c) Mailing list d) Media release 76. Media can be used to promote_______________ communication. a) One way b) Two way Corporate Governance Professional
- 17. c) Both a&b d) None 77. Businesses arrange for______________ meetings with powerful stakeholders. a) Information display b) Public forum c) Formal meeting d) Informal meeting 78. MRTP stands for_________________ 79. IRDA stands for_________________ 80. It is said to be exist where there is a large number of procedures (firms) producing a same kind of product. a) Monopoly competition b) Monopolistic competition c) Perfect competition d) None 81. Which of the following aspects of economic activity is not control by MRTP? a) Restrictive on buying/selling b) Unfair trade practices c) Concentration of economic power d) Restrictive trade practices 82. Price control is the restriction on maximum prices that is established and maintained by the government. a) True b) False 83. Public policy is an attempt by the government to address a private issue. a) True b) False 84. The SEBI was established on________________ a) March 12, 1992 b) September 14, 1992 c) April 12, 1992 d) June 15, 1993 85. The seller of the security is-. a) Bear b) Bull
- 19. c) Both a&b d) none 86. Insider trading can be defined as the sale or purchase of securities by persons who possess price sensitive information about the company. a) True b) False 87. _______________ makes a commitment to get the underwritten issue subscribed either by other or by them. a) Utilitarianism b) Underwriters c) Insider trading d) None 88. The board of SEBI consists of_______________ a) 8 b) 7 c) 4 d) 6 89. SEBI has three functions rolled into one body quasi-legislative, quasi-judicial, and quasi-executive. a) True b) False 90. SEBI is the regulator for the securities market in India. a) True b) False 91. AMFI stands for_________________. 92. Buying a commodity at a low price and instantly selling it for a higher price in another market is known as- a) Hedging b) Speculating c) Arbitrage d) Shifting of risk 93. An over-the-counter market where buyers and sellers conduct foreign exchange transaction. a) Commodity exchange b) Foreign direct investment c) FOREX d) None
- 21. 94. Licensing grant a permit to aloe the use of something or to allow a business activity to take place. a) True b) False 95. Government often uses quotas to restrict export. a) True b) False 96. Private companies can enjoy the right to transfer shares. a) True b) False 97. India has 22 stock exchanges. a) True b) False 98. Foreign companies are those, which have been incorporated outside India and conduct business in India. a) True b) False 99. Clause 49 has been prepared by the Reserve Bank of India. a) True b) False 100. Corporate Governance ensures easy access to capital. a) True b) False Distribution & Logistics Management Part One: Multiple Choices: 1. It deals with the movement of finished goods from the last point of production to the point of consumption. a. Marketing Channel Management b. Logistics Management c. Boundaries d. Relationships 2. Which conflict is one of the major bottleneck in the development & maintenance of partnering channel relationship a. Channel conflict
- 22. b. Management conflict c. Logistics conflict d. Distribution conflict 3. The phase of externally integrated business function era (1990s onwards) is recognized as the era of a. Logistics Management b. Human Resource Management c. Financial Management d. Supply Chain Management 4. ___________ may be conducted from time-to-time or at least once in a year to know about change in the expectation levels & actual performance a. Customer Service Monitoring cell b. Formal Customer Satisfaction Survey c. Customer Conference d. Customer Feedback System 5. The firm’s incomplete or inaccurate knowledge of customer’s service expectations is known as a. Market Information Gap b. Service Standards Gap c. Service Performance Gap d. Internal Communication Gap 6. This gap exist between the present level of customer service offered and the corporate vision about customer service a. Gap 1 b. Gap 2 c. Gap 3 d. Gap 4 7. This stock refers to window display of an inventory in order to stimulate demand and act as a silent salesman a. Decoupling stock b. Psychic stock c. Pipeline stock d. None 8. This stock is also known as cycle or lot size stock a. Working stock b. Safety stock c. Anticipation stock d. None 9. In this system manufacturer is given the responsibility for monitoring & controlling inventory levels at the retail store level a. Quick Response b. Continuous Replenishment c. Vendor-managed Inventory d. Customer Relationship
- 23. 10. This mode of transport is a very significant one but with a very restricted scope. It is used primarily for the shipment of liquid & gas a. Airways b. Railways c. Pipelines d. Seaways Part Two: 1. What is Containerization and also mention the main features of Containerization. 2. What is Third Party Logistics? 3. Differentiate between Public & Private Warehouse. 4. What is Logistics Information System? Caselete 1 Superior Medical Equipment Company supplies electrical equipment that is used as components in the assembly of MRI, CAT scanners, PET scanners, and other medical diagnostic equipment. Superior has production facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, and Monterrey, Mexico. Customers for the components are located in selected locations throughout the United States and Canada. Currently, a warehouse, that receives all components from the plants and redistributed them to customers, is located at Kansas City, Kansas. Superior’s management is concerned about location of its warehouse since its sales have declined due to increasing competition and shifting sales levels among the customers. The lease is about to expire on the current warehouse, and management wishes to examine whether it should be renewed or warehouse space at some other location should be leased. The warehouse owner has offered to renew the lease at an attractive rate of $2.75 per sq. ft. per year for the 200,000 sq. ft. facility. It is estimated that any other location would cost $3.25 per q. ft. for a similar-size warehouse. A new or renewed lease will be for five years. Moving the inventory, moving expenses for key personnel, and other location expenses would result in a one-time charge of $3, 00,000. Warehouse operating costs are expected to be similar at any location. In the most recent year, Superior was able to achieve sales of nearly $70 million. Transportation costs from the plants to the Kansa warehouse were $2,162,535, and from the warehouse to customers were $4,819,569. One million dollars was paid annually as warehouse lease expenses. To study the warehouse location question, data shown in Tables 1 and 2 were collected. Although transport costs are not usually expressed on a $/cwt./mile basis, given that the outbound transportation costs for the most recent year were $4,819,569, the weighted average distance of the shipments was 1128 miles, and the annual volume shipped was 182,100 cwt., the estimated average outbound rate from a warehouse is $0.0235/cwt./mile. Table 1 Volume, Rate, Distance, and Coordinate Data for Shipping from Plants ANNUAL VOLUME, CWT.b TRANSPORT RATE, $/CWT. DISTANCE, MILES GRID Coordinatesa X Y
- 24. to the Kansas City Warehouse in Truckload Quantities (Class 100) for the Most Recent Year. PLANT LOCATION Phoenix 61,500 16.73 1163 3.60 3.90 Monterrey 120,600 9.40 1188 6.90 1.00 Total 182,100 Enterprise Resource Planning Part One: Multiple Choices: 1. Enterprise Resource Planning is: a. Computer System b. Manufacturing organization c. Method of effective planning of all the resources in an organization d. None of the above 2. Enterprise Resource Planning vendors are those people: a. Who are experts in administration and management of projects b. Who have developed the ERP packages c. Who uses the ERP system d. None of the above 3. Interviewing and cost justification is tool and technique of: a. Design step of ERP b. Implementation step of ERP c. Requirement analysis of ERP d. Planning step of ERP 4. Support re-engineering processes to fit the software systems best practice is approach of: a. Re-engineering approach b. Customizing approach c. Rational approach d. None of the above 5. Process of tracking customer contacts and providing the customer with a price quote is: a. Inventory sourcing b. Sales order processing c. Pre-sales d. None of the above 6. The difficulty in creating an audit trial of transactions when multiple transactions use multiple database is associated with: a. Product profitability sub-system b. Finished goods inventory sub-system c. Management reporting sub-system d. Creating an audit trial sub-system 7. Differences occur between standard costs and actual costs is problem associated with: a. Accounting
- 25. b. Production c. Purchasing / Materials Management d. None of the above 8. MRP in Enterprise resource planning stands for: a. Maximum retail price b. Material requirement planning c. Management requirement planning d. None of the above 9. Process of providing status of purchase order comes in a category of: a. Purchase order follow-up b. Source determination c. Determine requirement d. Invoice verification 10. Resource failure occurs when: a. People clashes b. Inability to communicate with the system user c. Poor specification of requirements d. Conflicts of people, time and project scope due to insufficient personnel Part Two: 1. What are the advantages of the re-engineering method of implementing ERP? 2. What are the benefits reported from implementing ERP? 3. Write a short note on “Credit Management”. 4. Define Material Requirements Planning. Caselet 1 Tech Knowledge is a start-up founded in 1997 by Robert Thyer. The company is a distributer of presentation technologies, including computer based projection systems, video equipment, and display technologies. The firm has 25 employees and does $5 million in sales. It is growing rapidly. The owner, Robert Thyer, would like to net source the back-office functions of the firm because the company does not have an internal IT capability. The applications to be net sourced would include sales and distribution, financial accounting, and inventory management. Tech Knowledge would like to source SAP or another ERP vendor via a hosting arrangement. It does not expect to do much customization, and it does not have any legacy systems. Questions: 1. What factors should it use to evaluate each of these potential hosts? 2. What controls should be in place to monitor the hosting arrangement? Caselet 2 ITM is a company specializing in network implementation and management. It provides networking services to mid-sized companies, which do not have an internal networking analyst or IT, manager. These organizations include real estate companies, law offices, medical practices, architectural / engineering firms, construction companies, business services providers, country clubs, community organizations, and churches. ITM uses a legacy accounting system to handle its financial accounting and financial management functions. It has added on a billing package for client services. The next step is to obtain a CRM capability to manage information about current and prospective customers more effectively. You have been assigned to identify potential sources for a net-sourcing arrangement with an ERP vendor, which provides CRM capabilities. Questions: 1. Identify potential sources of software. 2. Determine five criteria you will recommend be used to evaluate each of alternative providers. 1. Explain in brief Sales and Marketing Modules in ERP System.
- 26. 2. What are the different development process in ERP systems and write a detailed note on it? Financial Management Multiple choices: 1. The approach focused mainly on the financial problems of corporate enterprise a. Ignored non-corporate enterprise b. Ignored working capital financing c. External approach d. Ignored routine problems 2. These are those shares, which can be redeemed or repaid to the holders after a lapse of the stipulated period a. Cumulative preference shares b. Non-cumulative preference shares c. Redeemable preference shares d. Perpetual shares 3. This type of risk arise from changes in environmental regulations, zoning requirements, fees, licenses and most frequently taxes a. Political risk b. Domestic risk c. International risk d. Industry risk 4. It is the cost of capital that is expected to raise funds to finance a capital budget or investment proposal a. Future cost b. Specific cost c. Spot cost d. Book cost 5. This concept is helpful in formulating a sound & economical capital structure for a firm a. Financial performance appraisal b. Investment evaluation c. Designing optimal corporate capital structure d. None Examination Paper Semester I: Financial Management IIBM Institute of Business Management 6. It is the minimum required rate of return needed to justify the use of capital a. From investors b. Firms point c. Capital expenditure point d. Cost of capital 7. It arises when there is a conflict of interest among owners, debenture holders and the management a. Seasonal variation b. Degree of competition c. Industry life cycle d. Agency costs 8. Some guidelines on shares & debentures issued by the government that are very important for the constitution of the capital structure are a. Legal requirement b. Purpose of finance c. Period of finance d. Requirement of investors 9. It is that portion of an investments total risk that results from change in the financial integrity of the investment a. Bull- bear market risk b. Default risk
- 27. c. International risk d. Liquidity risk 10. _____________ measure the systematic risk of a security that cannot be avoided through diversification a. Beta b. Gamma c. Probability distribution d. Alpha Part Two: 1. What is Annuity kind of cash flow? 2. What do understand by Portfolio risk? 3. What do you understand by ‘Loan Amortization’? 4. What is the Difference between NPV and IRR? Case let 1 This case provides the opportunity to match financing alternatives with the needs of different companies. It allows the reader to demonstrate a familiarity with different types of securities. George Thomas was finishing some weekend reports on a Friday afternoon in the downtown office of Wishart and Associates, an investment-banking firm. Meenda, a partner in the firm, had not been in the New York office since Monday. He was on a trip through Pennsylvania, visiting five potential clients, who were considering the flotation of securities with the assistance of Wishart and Associates. Meenda had called the office on Wednesday and told George's secretary that he would cable his recommendations on Friday afternoon. George was waiting for the cable. George knew that Meenda would be recommending different types of securities for each of the five clients to meet their individual needs. He also knew Meenda wanted him to call each of the clients to consider the recommendations over the weekend. George was prepared to make these calls as soon as the cable arrived. At 4:00 p.m. a secretary handed George the following telegram. George Thomas, Wishart and Associates STOP Taking advantage of offer to go skiing in Poconos STOP Recommendations as follows: (1) common stock, (2) preferred stock, (3) debt with warrants, (4) convertible bonds, (5) callable debentures STOP. See you Wednesday STOP Meenda. As George picked up the phone to make the first call, he suddenly realized that the potential clients were not matched with the investment alternatives. In Meenda's office, George found folders on each of the five firms seeking financing. In the front of each folder were some handwritten notes that Meenda had made on Monday before he left. George read each of the notes in turn. APT, Inc needs $8 million now and $4 million in four years. Packaging firm with high growth rate in tri-state area. Common stock trades over the counter. Stock is depressed but should rise in year to 18 months. Willing to accept any type of security. Good management. Expects moderate growth. New machinery should increase profits substantially. Recently retired $7 million in debt. Has virtually no debt remaining except short-term obligations. Sandford Enterprises Needs $16 million. Crusty management. Stock price depressed but expected to improve. Excellent growth and profits forecast in the next two year. Low debt-equity ratio, as the firm has record of retiring debt prior to maturity. Retains bulk of earnings and pays low dividends. Management not interested in surrendering voting control to outsiders. Money to be used to finance machinery for plumbing supplies. Sharma Brothers., Inc. Needs $20 million to expand cabinet and woodworking business. Started as family business but now has 1200 employees, $50 million in sales, and is traded over the counter. Seeks additional shareholder but not willing to stock at discount. Cannot raise more than $12 million with straight debt. Fair management. Good growth prospects. Very good earnings. Should spark investor's interest. Banks could be willing to lend money for long-term needs. Sacheetee Energy Systems The firm is well respected by liberal investing community near Boston area. Sound growth company. Stock selling for $16 per share. Management would like to sell common stock at $21 or more willing to Examination Paper Semester I: Financial Management IIBM Institute of Business Management use debt to raise $ 28 million, but this is second choice. Financing gimmicks and chance to turn quick profit on investment would appeal to those likely to invest in this company.
- 28. Ranbaxy Industry Needs $25 million. Manufactures boat canvas covers and needs funds to expand operations. Needs longterm money. Closely held ownership reluctant surrender control. Cannot issue debt without permission of bondholders and First National Bank of Philadelphia. Relatively low debt-equity ratio. Relatively high profits. Good prospects for growth Strong management with minor weaknesses in sales and promotion areas. As George was looking over the folders, Meenda's secretary entered the office. George said, "Did Meenda leave any other material here on Monday except for these notes?” She responded, "No, that's it, but I think those notes should be useful. Meenda called early this morning and said that he verified the facts in the folders. He also said that he learned nothing new on the trip and he sort of indicated that, he had wasted his week, except of course, that he was invited to go skiing at the company lodge up there". George pondered over the situation. He could always wait until next week, when he could be sure that he had the right recommendations and some of the considerations that outlined each client's needs and situation. If he could determine which firm matched each recommendation, he could still call the firms by 6:00 P.M. and meet the original deadline. George decided to return to his office and match each firm with the appropriate financing. Question: 1. Which type of financing is appropriate to each firm? 2. What types of securities must be issued by a firm which is on the growing stage in order to meet the financial requirements? Case let 2 This case has been framed in order to test the skills in evaluating a credit request and reaching a correct decision. Perluence International is large manufacturer of petroleum and rubber-based products used in a variety of commercial applications in the fields of transportation, electronics, and heavy manufacturing. In the northwestern United States, many of the Perluence products are marketed by a wholly-owned subsidiary, Bajaj Electronics Company. Operating from a headquarters and warehouse facility in San Antonio, Strand Electronics has 950 employees and handles a volume of $85 million in sales annually. About $6 million of the sales represents items manufactured by Perluence. Gupta is the credit manager at Bajaj electronics. He supervises five employees who handle credit application and collections on 4,600 accounts. The accounts range in size from $120 to $85,000. The firm sells on varied terms, with 2/10, net 30 mostly. Sales fluctuate seasonally and the average collection period tends to run 40 days. Bad-debt losses are less than 0.6 per cent of sales. Gupta is evaluating a credit application from Booth Plastics, Inc., a wholesale supply dealer serving the oil industry. The company was founded in 1977 by Neck A. Booth and has grown steadily since that time. Bajaj Electronics is not selling any products to Booth Plastics and had no previous contact with Neck Booth. Bajaj Electronics purchased goods from Perluence International under the same terms and conditions as Perluence used when it sold to independent customers. Although Bajaj Electronics generally followed Perluence in setting its prices, the subsidiary operated independently and could adjust price levels to meet its own marketing strategies. The Perluence's cost-accounting department estimated a 24 per cent markup as the average for items sold to Pucca Electronics. Bajaj Electronics, in turn, resold the items to yield a 17 per cent markup. It appeared that these percentages would hold on any sales to Booth Plastics. Bajaj Electronics incurred out-of pocket expenses that were not considered in calculating the 17 per cent markup on its items. For example, the contact with Booth Plastics had been made by James, the salesman who handled the Glaveston area. Examination Paper Semester I: Financial Management IIBM Institute of Business Management James would receive a 3 per cent commission on all sales made Booth Plastics, a commission that would be paid whether or not the receivable was collected. James would, of course, be willing to assist in collecting any accounts that he had sold. In addition to the sales commission, the company would incur variable costs as a result of handling the merchandise for the new account. As a general guideline, warehousing and other administrative variable costs would run 3 per cent sales. Gupta Holmstead approached all credit decisions in basically the same manner. First of all, he considered the potential profit from the account. James had estimated first-year sales to Booth Plastics of $65,000. Assuming that Neck Booth took the, 3 per cent discount. Bajaj Electronics would realize a 17 per cent markup on these sales since the average markup was calculated on the basis of the customer taking the discount. If Neck Booth did not take the discount, the markup would be slightly higher, as would the cost of financing the
- 29. receivable for the additional period of time. In addition to the potential profit from the account, Gupta was concerned about his company's exposure. He knew that weak customers could become bad debts at any time and therefore, required a vigorous collection effort whenever their accounts were overdue. His department probably spent three times as much money and effort managing a marginal account as compared to a strong account. He also figured that overdue and uncollected funds had to be financed by Bajaj Electronics at a rate of 18 per cent. All in all, slow -paying or marginal accounts were very costly to Bajaj Electronics. With these considerations in mind, Gupta began to review the credit application for Booth Plastics. Question: 1. How would you judge the potential profit of Bajaj Electronics on the first year of sales to Booth Plastics and give your views to increase the profit. 2. Suggestion regarding Credit limit. Should it be approved or not, what should be the amount of credit limit that electronics give to Booth Plastics. 1. Honey Well Company is contemplating to liberalize its collection effort. Its present sales are Rs. 10 lakh, its average collection period is 30 days, its expected variable cost to sales ratio is 85 per cent and its bad debt ratio is 5 per cent. The Company’s cost of capital is 10 per cent and tax are is 40 per cent. He proposed liberalization in collection effort increase sales to Rs. 12 lakh increases average collection period by 15 days, and increases the bad debt ratio to 7 percent. Determine the change in net profit. 2. Explain the concept of working capital. What are the factors which influence the working capital? Human Resource Management Multiple choices: 1. It is a cultural attitude marked by the tendency to regard one’s own culture as superior to others a. Geocentrism b. Polycentrism c. Ethnocentrism d. Egocentrism 2. It is the systemic study of job requirements & those factors that influence the performance of those job requirements a. Job analysis b. Job rotation c. Job circulation d. Job description 3. This Act provides an assistance for minimum statutory wages for scheduled employment a. Payment of Wages Act, 1936 b. Minimum Wages Act, 1948 c. Factories Act, 1948 d. Payment of Gratuity act, 1972 4. __________ is the actual posting of an employee to a specific job a. Induction b. Placement c. Attrition d. None 5. Broadening an individual’s knowledge, skills & abilities for future responsibilities is known as a. Training b. Development c. Education d. Mentoring Examination Paper Semester I: Human Resource Management IIBM Institute of Business Management 6. Change that is designed and implemented in an orderly and timely fashion in anticipation of
- 30. future events a. Planned change b. Technology change c. Structural change d. None 7. It is a process for setting goals and monitoring progress towards achieving those goals a. Performance appraisal b. Performance gap c. Performance factor d. Performance management system 8. A method which requires the rates to provide a subjective performance evaluation along a scale from low to high a. Assessment centre b. Checklist c. Rating scale d. Monitoring 9. It is the sum of knowledge, skills, attitudes, commitment, values and the liking of the people in an organization a. Human resources b. Personal management c. Human resource management d. Productivity 10. A learning exercise representing a real-life situation where trainees compete with each other to achieve specific objectives a. Executive development b. Management game c. Programmed learning d. Understudy Part Two: 1. Explain the importance of Career Planning in industry. 2. Write the features of HRM. 3. Briefly explain the concept of Performance Appraisal. 4. Explain On-Job and Off Job Training. Case let 1 Trust them with knee-jerk reactions," said Vikram Koshy, CEO, Delta Software India, as he looked at the quarterly report of Top Line Securities, a well-known equity research firm. The firm had announced a downgrade of Delta, a company listed both on Indian bourses and the NASDAQ. The reason? "One out of every six development engineers in the company is likely to be benched during the remaining part of the year." Three analysts from Top Line had spent some time at Delta three weeks ago. Koshy and his team had explained how benching was no different from the problems of excess inventory, idle time, and surplus capacity that firms in the manufacturing sector face on a regular basis, "Delta has witnessed a scorching pace of 30 per cent growth during the last five years in a row," Koshy had said, "What is happening is a corrective phase." But, evidently, the analysts were unconvinced. Why Bench? Clients suddenly decide to cut back on IT spends Project mix gets skewed, affecting work allocation Employee productivity is set to fall, creating slack working conditions. High degree of job specialization leads to redundancy What are the options? Quickly cut costs in areas which are non-core look for learning’s from the manufacturing sector Focus on alternative markets like Europe and Japan Move into products, where margins are better. Of course, the Top Line report went on to cite several other "signals," as it said: the rate of annual hike in salaries at Delta would come down to 5 per cent (from between 20 and 30 per cent last year); the entry-level intake
- 31. of engineers from campuses in June 2001, would decline to 5 per cent (unlike the traditional 30 per cent addition to manpower every year); and earnings for the next two years could dip by between 10 and 12 per cent. And the loftiest of them all: "The meltdown at Nasdaq is unlikely to reverse in the near future." "Some of the signals are no doubt valid. And ominous," said Koshy, addressing his A-Team, which had assembled for the routine morning meeting. "But, clearly, everyone is reading too much into this business of benching. In fact, benching is one of the many options that our principals in the US have been pursuing as part of cutting costs right since September, 2000. They are also expanding the share of off-shore jobs. Five of our principals have confirmed that they would outsource more from Delta in India-which is likely to hike their billings by about 30 per cent. At one level, this is an opportunity for us. At another, of course, I am not sure if we should be jubilant, because they have asked for a 25-30 per cent cut in billing rates. Our margins will take a hit, unless we cut costs and improve productivity." "Productivity is clearly a matter of priority now," said Vivek Varadan, Vice-President (Operations). "If you consider benching as a non-earning mode, we do have large patches of it at Delta. As you are aware, it has not been easy to secure 70 per cent utilization of our manpower, even in normal times. I think we need to look at why we have 30 per cent bench before examining how to turn it into an asset." "There are several reasons," remarked Achyut Patwardhan, Vice-President (HR). "And a lot of it has to do with the nature of our business, which is more project-driven than product-driven. When you are managing a number of overseas and domestic projects simultaneously, as we do at Delta, people tend to go on the bench. They wait, as they complete one project, and are assigned the next. There are problems of coordination between projects, related to the logistics of moving people and resources from one customer to another. In fact, I am fine-tuning our monthly manpower utilization report to provide a breakup of bench costs into Examination Paper Semester I: Human Resource Management IIBM Institute of Business Management specifics-leave period, training programmes, travel time, buffers, acclimatization period et al." "It would be worthwhile following the business model used by US principal Techno Inc," said Aveek Mohanty, Director (Finance). "The company has a pipeline of projects, but it does not manage project by project. What it does is to slice each project into what it calls 'activities'. For example, communication networking; user interface development; scheduling of processes are activities common to all projects. People move from one project to another. It is somewhat like the Activity Based Costing. It throws up the bench time straightaway, which helps us control costs and revenue better." "I also think we should reduce our dependence on projects and move into products," said Praveen Kumar, Director (Marketing). "That is where the opportunity for brand building lies. In fact, now is the time to get our technology guys involved in marketing. Multiskilling helps reduce the bench time." "Benching has an analogy in the manufacturing sector," said Girish Shahane, Vice-President (Services). "We could look for learning's there. Many firms have adopted Just-In-Time (JIT) inventory as part of eliminating idle time. It would be worthwhile exploring the possibility of JIT. But the real learning lies in standardization of work. It is linked to what Mohanty said about managing by activities." "At a broader level, I see several other opportunities," said Koshy, "We can fill in the space vacated by US firms and move up the value chain. But before we do so, Delta should consolidate its position as the premier outsourcing centre. Since there are only two ways in which we can generate revenue-sell expertise or sell products-we should move towards a mix of both. Tie-ups with global majors will help. Now is the time to look beyond the US and strike alliances with firms in Europe- and also Japan-as part of developing new products for global markets." Questions 1. Should benching be a matter of concern at Delta? 2. What are the risks involved in moving from a project-centric mode to a mix of projects and products? Case let 2 The contexts in which human resources are managed in today's organizations are constantly, changing. No longer do firms utilize one set of manufacturing processes, employ a homogeneous group of loyal employees for long periods of time or develop one set way of structuring how work is done and supervisory responsibility is assigned. Continuous changes in who organizations employ and what these employees do require HR practices and systems that are well conceived and effectively implemented to ensure high performance and continued success. 1. Automated technologies nowadays require more technically trained employees possessing multifarious skills to repair, adjust or improve existing processes. The firms can't expect these employees (Gen X
- 32. employees, possessing superior technical knowledge and skills, whose attitudes and perceptions toward work are significantly different from those of their predecessor organizations: like greater self control, less interest in job security; no expectations of long term employment; greater participation urge in work activities, demanding opportunities for personal growth and creativity) to stay on without attractive compensation packages and novel reward schemes. 2. Technology driven companies are led by project teams, possessing diverse skills, experience and expertise. Flexible and dynamic organizational structures are needed to take care of the expectations of managers, technicians and analysts who combine their skills, expertise and experience to meet changing customer needs and competitive pressures. 3. Cost cutting efforts have led to the decimation of unwanted layers in organizational hierarchy in recent times. This, in turn, has brought in the problem of managing plateau employees whose careers seem to have been hit by the delivering process. Organizations are, therefore, made to find alternative career paths for such employees. Examination Paper Semester I: Human Resource Management IIBM Institute of Business Management 4. Both young and old workers, these days, have values and attitudes that stress less loyalty to the company and more loyalty to oneself and one's career than those shown by employees in the past, Organizations, therefore, have to devise appropriate HR policies and strategies so as to prevent the flight of talented employees Question 1.Discuss that technological breakthrough has brought a radical changes in HRM. 1. Several types of interviews are commonly used depending on the nature & importance of the position to be filled within an organization. Explain the different types of Interviews. 2. Explain the legal provisions regarding safety of workers. Managerial Economics Multiple choices: 1. It is a study of economy as a whole a. Macroeconomics b. Microeconomics c. Recession d. Inflation 2. A comprehensive formulation which specifies the factors that influence the demand for the product a. Market demand b. Demand schedule c. Demand function d. Income effect 3. It is computed when the data is discrete and therefore incremental changes is measurable a. Substitution effect b. Arc elasticity c. Point elasticity d. Derived demand 4. Goods & services used for final consumption is called a. Demand b. Consumer goods c. Producer goods d. Perishable goods 5. The curve at which satisfaction is equal at each point a. Marginal utility b. Cardinal measure of utility c. The Indifference Curve
- 33. d. Budget line Examination Paper Semester I: Managerial Economics IIBM Institute of Business Management 6. Costs that are reasonably expected to be incurred in some future period or periods a. Future costs b. Past costs c. Incremental costs d. Sunk costs 7. Condition when the firm has no tendency either to increase or to contract its output a. Monopoly b. Profit c. Equilibrium d. Market 8. Total market value of all finished goods & services produced in a year by a country’s residents is known as a. National income b. Gross national product c. Gross domestic product d. Real GDP 9. The sum of net value of goods & services produced at market prices a. Government expenditure b. Product approach c. Income approach d. Expenditure approach 10. The market value of all the final goods & services made within the borders of a nation in an year a. Globalization b. Subsidies c. GDP d. GNP Part Two: 1. Define ‘Arc Elasticity’. 2. Explain the law of ‘Diminishing marginal returns’. 3. What is ‘Prisoner’s Dilemma’, of non cooperative game? 4. What is ‘Third degree Discrimation’? Case let 1 The war on drugs is an expensive battle, as a great deal of resources go into catching those who buy or sell illegal drugs on the black market, prosecuting them in court, and housing them in jail. These costs seem particularly exorbitant when dealing with the drug marijuana, as it is widely used, and is likely no more harmful than currently legal drugs such as tobacco and alcohol. There's another cost to the war on drugs, however, which is the revenue lost by governments who cannot collect taxes on illegal drugs. In a recent study for the Fraser Institute, Canada, Economist Stephen T. Easton attempted to calculate how much tax revenue the government of the country could gain by legalizing marijuana. The study estimates that the average price of 0.5 grams (a unit) of marijuana sold for $8.60 on the street, while its cost of production was only $1.70. In a free market, a $6.90 profit for a unit of marijuana would not last for long. Entrepreneurs noticing the great profits to be made in the marijuana market would start their own grow operations, increasing the supply of marijuana on the street, which would cause the street price of the drug to fall to a level much closer to the cost of production. Of course, this doesn't happen because the product is illegal; the prospect of jail time deters many entrepreneurs and the occasional drug bust ensures that the supply stays relatively low. We can consider much of this $6.90 per unit of marijuana profit a risk-premium for participating in the underground economy. Unfortunately, this risk premium is making a lot of criminals, many of whom have ties to organized crime, very wealthy. Stephen T. Easton argues that if marijuana was legalized, we could transfer these excess profits caused by the risk premium from these grow operations to the government: If we substitute a tax on marijuana cigarettes equal to the difference between the local production cost and the street price people currently pay – that is, transfer the revenue from the current producers and marketers (many of whom work with organized crime) to the government,
- 34. leaving all other marketing and transportation issues aside we would have revenue of (say) $7 per [unit]. If you could collect on every cigarette and ignore the transportation, marketing, and advertising costs, this comes to over $2 billion on Canadian sales and substantially more from an export tax, and you forego the costs of enforcement and deploy your policing assets elsewhere. One interesting thing to note from such a scheme is that the street price of marijuana stays exactly the same, so the quantity demanded should remain the same as the price is unchanged. However, it's quite likely that the demand for marijuana would change from legalization. We saw that there was a risk in selling marijuana, but since drug laws often target both the buyer and the seller, there is also a risk (albeit smaller) to the consumer interested in buying marijuana. Legalization would eliminate this risk, causing the demand to rise. This is a mixed bag from a public policy standpoint: Increased marijuana use can have ill effects on the health of the population but the increased sales bring in more revenue for the government. However, if legalized, governments can control how much marijuana is consumed by increasing or decreasing the taxes on the product. There is a limit to this, however, as setting taxes too high will cause marijuana growers to sell on the black market to avoid excessive taxation. When considering legalizing marijuana, there are many economic, health, and social issues we must analyze. One economic study will not be the basis of Canada's public policy decisions, but Easton's research does conclusively show that there are economic benefits in the legalization of marijuana. With governments scrambling to find new sources of revenue to pay for important social objectives such as health care and education expect to see the idea raised in Parliament sooner rather than later. Questions 1. Plot the demand schedule and draw the demand curve for the data given for Marijuana in the case above. 2. On the basis of the analysis of the case above, what is your opinion about legalizing marijuana in Canada? Case let 2 Companies that attend to productivity and growth simultaneously manage cost reductions very differently from companies that focus on cost cutting alone and they drive growth very differently from companies that are obsessed with growth alone. It is the ability to cook sweet and sour that under grids the remarkable performance of companies likes Intel, GE, ABB and Canon. In the slow growth electrotechnical business, ABB has doubled its revenues from $17 billion to $35 billion, largely by exploiting new opportunities in emerging markets. For example, it has built up a 46,000 employee organization in the Asia Pacific region, almost from scratch. But it has also reduced employment in North America and Western Europe by 54,000 people. It is the hard squeeze in the north and the west that generated the resources to support ABB's massive investments in the east and the south. Everyone knows about the staggering ambition of the Ambanis, which has fuelled Reliance's evolution into the largest private company in India. Reliance has built its spectacular rise on a similar ability to cook sweet and sour. What people may not be equally familiar with is the relentless focus on cost reduction and productivity growth that pervades the company. Reliance's employee cost is 4 per cent of revenues, against 15-20 per cent of its competitors. Its sales and distribution cost, at 3 per cent of revenues, is about a third of global standards. It has continuously pushed down its cost for energy and utilities to 3 per cent of revenues, largely through 100 per cent captive power generation that costs the company 4.5 cents per kilowatt-hour; well below Indian utility costs, and about 30 per cent lower than the global average. Similarly, its capital cost is 25-30 per cent lower than its international peers due to its legendary speed in plant commissioning and its relentless focus on reducing the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) that, at 13 per cent, is the lowest of any major Indian firm. A Bias for Growth Comparing major Indian companies in key industries with their global competitors shows that Indian companies are running a major risk. They suffer from a profound bias for growth. There is nothing wrong with this bias, as Reliance has shown. The problem is most look more like Essar than Reliance. While they love the sweet of growth, they are unwilling to face the sour of productivity improvement. Nowhere is this more amply borne out than in the consumer goods industry where the Indian giant Hindustan Lever has consolidated to grow at over 50 per cent while its labour productivity declined by around 6 per cent per annum in the same period. Its strongest competitor, Nirma, also grew at over 25 per cent per annum in revenues but maintained its labour productivity relatively stable. Unfortunately, however, its return on capital employed (ROCE) suffered by over 17 per cent. In contrast, Coca Cola, worldwide, grew at around 7 per cent, improved its labour productivity by 20 per cent and its return on
- 35. capital employed by 6.7 per cent. The story is very similar in the information technology sector where Infosys, NIIT and HCL achieve rates of growth of over 50 per cent which compares favorably with the world's best companies that grew at around 30 per cent between 1994-95. NIIT, for example, strongly believes that growth is an impetus in itself. Its focus on growth has helped it double revenues every two years. Sustaining profitability in the face of such expansion is an extremely challenging task. For now, this is a challenge Indian InfoTech companies seem to be losing. The ROCE for three Indian majors fell by 7 per cent annually over 1994-96. At the same time IBM Microsoft and SAP managed to improve this ratio by 17 per cent. There are some exceptions, however. The cement industry, which has focused on productivity rather than on growth, has done very well in this dimension when compared to their global Examination Paper Semester I: Managerial Economics IIBM Institute of Business Management counterparts. While Mexico's Cemex has grown about three times fast as India's ACC, Indian cement companies have consistently delivered better results, not only on absolute profitability ratios, but also on absolute profitability growth. They show a growth of 24 per cent in return on capital employed while international players show only 8.4 per cent. Labour productivity, which actually fell for most industries over 1994-96, has improved at 2.5 per cent per annum for cement. The engineering industry also matches up to the performance standards of the best in the world. Companies like Cummins India have always pushed for growth as is evidenced by its 27 per cent rate of growth, but not at the cost of present and future profitability. The company shows a healthy excess of almost 30 per cent over WACC, displaying great future promise. BHEL, the public sector giant, has seen similar success and the share price rose by 25 per cent despite an indecisive sensex. The only note of caution: Indian engineering companies have not been able to improve labour productivity over time, while international engineering companies like ABB, Siemens and Cummins Engines have achieved about 13.5 per cent growth in labour productivity, on an average, in the same period. The pharmaceuticals industry is where the problems seem to be the worst, with growth emphasized at the cost of all other performance. They have been growing at over 22 per cent, while their ROCE fell at 15.9 per cent per annum and labour productivity at 7 per cent. Compare this with some of the best pharmaceutical companies of the world – Glaxo Wellcome, SmithKline Beecham and Pfizer –who have consistently achieved growth of 15-20 per cent, while improving returns on capital employed at about 25 per cent and labour productivity at 8 per cent. Ranbaxy is not an exception; the bias for growth at the cost of labour and capital productivity is also manifest in the performance of other Indian Pharma companies. What makes this even worse is the Indian companies barely manage to cover their cost of capital, while their competitors worldwide such as Glaxo and Pfizer earn an average ROCE of 65 per cent. In the Indian textile industry, Arvind Mills was once the shining star. Like Reliance, it had learnt to cook sweet and sour. Between 1994 and 1996, it grew at an average of 30 per cent per annum to become the world's largest denim producer. At the same time, it also operated a tight ship, improving labour productivity by 20 per cent. Despite the excellent performance in the past, there are warning signals for Arvind's future. The excess over the WACC is only 1.5 per cent, implying it barely manages to satisfy its investor’s expectations of return and does not really have a surplus to re-invest in the business. Apparently, investors also think so, for Arvind's stock price has been falling since Q4 1994 despite such excellent results and, at the end of the first quarter of 1998, is less than Rs 70 compared to Rs 170 at the end of 1994. Unfortunately, Arvind's deteriorating financial returns over the last few years is also typical of the Indian textile industry. The top three Indian companies actually showed a decline in their return ratios in contrast to the international majors. Nike, VF Corp and Coats Viyella showed a growth in their returns on capital employed of 6.2 per cent, while the ROCE of Grasim and Coats Viyella (India) fell by almost 2 per cent per annum. Even in absolute returns on assets or on capital employed, Indian companies fare a lot worse. While Indian textile companies just about cover their WACC, their international rivals earn about 8 per cent in excess of their cost of capital. Questions 1. Is Indian companies running a risk by not giving attention to cost cutting? 2. Discuss whether Indian Consumer goods industry is growing at the cost of future profitability. 3. Discuss capital and labour productivity in engineering context and pharmaceutical industries in India. 4. Is textile industry in India performing better than its global competitors? 1. Free trade promotes a mutually profitable regional division of labour, greatly enhances the
- 36. potential real national product of all nations and makes possible higher standards of living all over the globe.” Critically explain and examine the statement. 2. What role does a decision tree play in business decision-making? Illustrate the choice between two investment projects with the help of a decision tree assuming hypothetical conditions about the states of nature, probability distribution, and corresponding pay-offs. CASE STUDY ANSWERS ASSIGNMENT SOLUTIONS PROJECT REPORTS AND THESIS ISBM / IIBMS / IIBM / ISMS / KSBM / NIPM SMU / SYMBIOSIS / XAVIER / NIRM / PSBM / NSBM / ISM / IGNOU / IICT / ISBS / LPU / ISM&RC MBA - EMBA - BMS - GDM - MIS - MIB DMS - DBM - PGDM - DBM - DBA www.mbacasestudyanswers.com www.casestudysolution.in www.casestudies.co.in aravind.banakar@gmail.com ARAVIND 09901366442 - 09902787224 Marketing Management Multiple choices: 1. It is a concept where goods are produced without taking into consideration the choices or tastes of
- 37. customers a. Marketing mix b. Production concept c. Marketing concept d. Relationship marketing 2. It involves individuals who buys products or services for personal use and not for manufacture or resale a. Environment analysis b. Macro environment c. Micro environment d. Consumer 3. It is the groups of people who interact formally or informally influencing each other’s attitudes& behavior a. Consumer behavior b. Culture c. Reference groups d. Primary groups 4. The concept of the product that passes through various changes in its total life known as a. Product life cycle b. Line stretching c. Consumer adoption d. Product 5. It refers to unique set of brand associations that brand strategist aspires to create or maintain a. Branding b. Packaging c. Brand identity d. Brand image Examination Paper Semester I: Marketing Management IIBM Institute of Business Management 6. It involves a pricing strategy that charges customers different prices for the same product or service a. Promotional pricing b. Price discrimination c. Non price competition d. None 7. It refers to an arrangement where another company through its own marketing channel sells the products of one producers a. End customer b. Wholesaler c. Retailing d. Strategic channel alliance 8. It involves facility consisting of the means & equipments necessary for the movement of passengers of goods a. Logistics b. Warehousing c. Transportation d. None 9. The advertising which is used to inform consumers about a new product or feature & to build primary demands is known as a. Advertising b. Informative advertising c. Persuasive advertising d. Advertising strategy 10. An art that predicts the likelihood of economic activity on the basis of certain assumptions a. Compensation b. Sales forecasting
- 38. c. Sales budgeting d. Selling policy Part Two: 1. Write a note on importance of consumer behavior for a business firm? 2. Define the term ‘Price’. 3. Distinguish between Marketing Concept and Selling Concept? 4. What are the new trends in advertisement? 5. Briefly explain the following : a) Socio –culture environment b) Marketing environment interface. Case let 1 Ask the company top brass what ‘almost there’ means. The answer: a premier Indian retail company that has come to be known as a specialty chain of apparel and accessories. With 52 product categories under one roof, Shoppers’ Stop has a line-up of 350 brands. Set up and headed by former Corona employee, B. S. Nagesh, Shoppers’ Stop is India’s answer to Selfridges and Printemps. As it proudly announces, ‘We don’t sell, we help you buy.’ Back in 1991, there was the question of what to retail. Should it be a supermarket or a departmental store? Even an electronics store was considered. Finally, common sense and understanding won out. The safest bet, for the all-male team was to retail men’s wear. They knew the male psyche and felt that they had discerning taste in men’s clothing. The concept would be that of a lifestyle store in a luxurious space, which would make for a great shopping experience. The first Shoppers’ Stop store took shape in Andheri, Mumbai, in October 1991, with an investment of nearly Rs. 20 lakh. The original concept that formed the basis of a successful marketing campaign for seven years is here to stay. And the result is an annual turnover of Rs. 160 crores and five stores, nine years later. Everything went right from the beginning, except for one strange happening. More than 60 per cent of the customers who walked into Shoppers’ Stop in Mumbai were women. This gave rise to ideas. Soon, the store set up its women’s section. Later, it expanded to include children’s wear and then, household accessories. The second store in Bangalore came in 1995. The store at Hyderabad followed in 1998 with the largest area of 60,000 sq. ft. The New Delhi and Jaipur stores were inaugurated in 1999. All this while, the product range kept increasing to suit customer needs. The most recent experiment was home furnishings. Secure in the knowledge that organised retailing in global brands was still in its infancy in India, Shoppers’ Stop laid the ground rules which the competition followed. The biggest advantage for Shoppers’ Stop is that it knows how the Indian consumer thinks and feels while shopping. Yes, feeling – for in India, shopping remains an outing. And how does it compare itself to foreign stores? While it is not modeled on any one foreign retailer, the ‘basic construct’ is taken from the experience of a number of successfully managed retail companies. It has leveraged expertise for a critical component like technology from all over the world, going as far as hiring expatriates from Littlewoods and using state-of-the-art ERP models. Shoppers’ Stop went a step further by even integrating its financial system with the ERP model. Expertise was imported wherever it felt that expertise available in-house was inadequate. But the store felt there was one acute problem. A shortage of the most important resource of them all was trained humans. Since Indian business institutes did not have professional courses in retail management, people were hired from different walks of life and the training programme was internalized. By 1994, the senior executives at Shoppers’ Stop were taking lectures at management institutes in Mumbai. The Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) even restructured its course to include retail management as a subject. Getting the company access to the latest global retail trends and exchange of information with business greats was an exclusive membership to the Intercontinental Group of Department Stores (IGDS). It allows membership by invitation to one company from a country and Shoppers’ Stop rubs shoulders with 29 of the hottest names in retailing – Selfridges from the UK, C.K. Tang from Singapore, Lamcy Plaza from Dubai and the like. With logistics I in place, the accent moved to the customer. Shoppers’ Stop conducted surveys with ORG-MARG and Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB) and undertook in-house wardrobe audits. The studies confirmed what it already knew. The Indian customer is still evolving and is very different from, say, a European customer, who knows exactly what he wants to purchase, walks up to a shelf, picks up the merchandise, pays and walks out. In India, customers like to touch and feel the Examination Paper Semester I: Marketing Management IIBM Institute of Business Management merchandise, and scout for options. Also, the majority of Indian shoppers still prefer to pay in cash. So,
- 39. transactions must be in cash as against plastic money used the world over. Additionally, the Indian customer likes being served – whether it is food, or otherwise. The company’s customer profile includes people who want the same salesperson each time they came to the store to walk them through the shop floors and assist in the purchase. Others came with families, kids and maids in tow and expected to be suitably attended to. Still others wanted someone to carry the bags. So, the shops have self-help counters, with an assistant at hand for queries or help. The in-house wardrobe audit also helped with another facet of the business. It enabled Shoppers’ Stop to work out which brands to stock, based on customer preferences. In fact, the USP of Shoppers’ Stop lies in judiciously selected global brands, displayed alongside an in-house range of affordable designer wear. The line-up includes Levi’s, Louis Philippe, Allen Solly, Walt Disney, Ray Ban and Reebok, besides in-house labels STOP and I. Brand selection is the same across the five locations, though the product mix may be somewhat city-based to accommodate cuts and styles in women’s wear, as well as allowing for seasonal variations (winter in Delhi, for instance, is a case in point). Stocking of brands is based on popular demand – recently, Provogue, MTV Style, and Benetton have been added. In-house labels are available at competitive prices and target the value-formoney customer and make up around 12 per cent of Shoppers’ Stop’s business. Sometimes in-house brands plug the price gap in certain product categories. To cash in on this, the company has big plans for its in-house brands: from re-branding to repositioning, to homing in on product categories where existing brands are not strong. Competition between brands is not an issue, because being a trading house, all brands get equal emphasis. The in-house brand shopper is one who places immense trust in the company and the quality of its goods and returns for repeat buys. And the company reposed its faith in regular customers by including them in a concept called the First Citizen’s Club (FCC). With 60,000 odd members, FCC customers account for 10 per cent of entries and for 34 per cent of the turnover. It was the sheer appeal of the experience that kept pulling these people back. Not one to let such an opportunity pass, the company ran a successful ad campaign (that talks about just this factor) in print for more than eight years. The theme is still the same. In 1999, a TV spot, which liked the shopping experience to the slowing down of one’s internal clock and the beauty of the whole experience, was aired. More recently, ads that spell out the store’s benefits (in a highly oblique manner) are being aired. The campaign is based on entries entered in the Visitors’ Book. None of the ads has a visual or text – or any heavy handedly direct reference to the store or the merchandise. The ads only show shoppers having the time of their lives in calm and serene locales, or elements that make shopping at the store a pleasure – quite the perfect getaway for a cosmopolitan shopper aged between 25 and 45. The brief to the agency, Contract, ensured that brand recall came in terms of the shopping experience, not the product. And it has worked wonders. Value-addition at each store also comes in the form of special care with car parks, power backup, customer paging, alteration service and gift-wrapping. To top it all, cafes and coffee bars make sure that the customer does not step out of the store. In Hyderabad, it has even created a Food Court. Although the food counter was not planned, it came about as there was extra space of 67,000 sq. ft. Carrying the perfect experience to the shop floor is an attempt to stack goods in vast open spaces neatly. Every store has a generic structure, though regional customer variances are accounted for. Each store is on lease, and this is clearly Shoppers’ Stop’s most expensive resource proposition – renting huge spaces in prime properties across metros, so far totaling 210,000 sq. ft of retail space. Getting that space was easy enough for Shoppers’ Stop, since its promoter is the Mumbai-based Raheja Group, which also owns 62 per cent of the share capital. Questions 1. What are the significant factors that have led to the success of Shoppers’ Stop? 2. Draw the typical profile(s) of Shoppers’ Stop customer segments. 3. How are Indian customers visiting Shoppers’ Stop any different from customers of developed western countries? 4. How should Shoppers’ Stop develop its demand forecasts? Case let 2 The rise of personal computers in the mid 1980s spurred interest in computer games. This caused a crash in home Video game market. Interest in Video games was rekindled when a number of different companies developed hardware consoles that provided graphics superior to the capabilities of computer games. By 1990, the Nintendo Entertainment System dominated the product category. Sega surpassed
- 40. Nintendo when it introduced its Genesis System. By 1993, Sega commanded almost 60 per cent of Video game market and was one of the most recognized brand names among the children. Sega’s success was short lived. In 1995, Saturn (a division of General Motors) launched a new 32-bit system. The product was a miserable failure for a number of reasons. Sega was the primary software developer for Saturn and it did not support efforts by outside game developers to design compatible games. In addition, Sega’s games were often delivered quite late to retailers. Finally, the price of the Saturn system was greater than other comparable game consoles. This situation of Saturn’s misstep benefited Nintendo and Sony greatly. Sony’s Play Station was unveiled in 1994 and was available in 70 million homes worldwide by the end of 1999. Its “Open design” encouraged the efforts of outside developers, resulting in almost 3,000 different games that were compatible with the PlayStation. It too featured 32-bit graphics that appealed to older audience. As a result, at one time, more than 30 per cent of PlayStation owners were over 30 years old. Nintendo 64 was introduced in 1996 and had eye-popping 64-bit graphics and entered in more than 28 million homes by 1999. Its primary users were between the age of 6 and 13 as a result of Nintendo’s efforts to limit the amount of violent and adult-oriented material featured on games that can be played on its systems. Because the company exercised considerable control over software development, Nintendo 64 had only one-tenth the number of compatible games as Sony’s PlayStation did. By 1999, Sony had captured 56 per cent of the video game market, followed by Nintendo with 42 per cent. Sega’s share had fallen to a low of 1%. Hence, Sega had two options, either to concede defeat or introduce an innovative video machine that would bring in huge sales. And Sega had to do so before either Nintendo or Sony could bring their next-generation console to market. The Sega Dreamcast arrived in stores in September 1999 with an initial price tag of $199. Anxious gamers placed 300,000 advance orders, and initial sales were quite encouraging. A total of 1.5 million Dreamcast machines were bought within the first four months, and initial reviews were positive. The 128-bit system was capable of generating 3-D visuals, and 40 different games were available within three months of Dream cast’s introduction. By the end of the year, Sega had captured a market share to 15 per cent. But the Dreamcast could not sustain its momentum. Although its game capabilities were impressive, the system did not deliver all the functionality Sega had promised. A 56K modem (which used a home phone line) and a Web browser were meant to allow access to the Internet so that gamers could play each other online, surf the Web, and visit the Dreamcast Network for product information and playing tips. Unfortunately, these features either were not immediately available or were disappointing in their execution. Sega was not the only one in having the strategy of adding functionality beyond games. Sony and Nintendo followed the same approach for their machines introduced in 1999. Both Nintendo’s Neptune and Sony’s PlayStation 2 (PS2) were built on a DVD platform and featured a 128-bit processor. Analysts applauded the move to DVD because it is less expensive to produce and allows more storage than CDs. It also gives buyers the ability to use the machine as CD music player and DVD movie player. As Sony marketing director commented, “The full entertainment offering from Play Station 2 definitely appeals to a much broader audience. I have friends in their 30s who bought it not only because it’s a gaming system for their kids, but also a DVD for them.” In addition, PlayStation 2 is able to play games developed for its earlier model that was CD-based. This gives the PS2 an enormous advantage in the number of compatible game titles Examination Paper Semester I: Marketing Management IIBM Institute of Business Management that were immediately available to gamers. Further enhancing the PS2’s appeal is its high-speed modem and allows the user’s easy access to the Internet through digital cable as well as over telephone lines. This gives Sony the ability to distribute movies, music, and games directly to PS2 consoles. “We are positioning this as an all-round entertainment player,” commented Ken Kutaragi, the head of Sony Computer Entertainment. However, some prospective customers were put off by the console’s initial price of $360. Shortly after the introduction of Neptune, Nintendo changed its strategies and announced the impending release of its newest game console, The GameCube. However, unlike the Neptune, the GameCube would not run on a DVD platform and also would not initially offer any online capabilities. It would be more attractively priced at $199. A marketing vice president for Nintendo explained the company’s change in direction, “We are the only competitor whose business is video games. We want to create the best gaming system.” Nintendo also made the GameCube friendly for outside developers and started adding games that included sports titles to attract an older audience. Best known for its extra ordinary successes with games aimed at the younger set, such as Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros, and Pokemon, Nintendo sought to attract older users, especially because the average video game player is 28. Youthful Nintendo users were particularly pleased to hear that they could use their handheld Game Boy
- 41. Advance systems as controllers for the GameCube. Nintendo scrambled to ensure there would be an adequate supply of Game Cubes on the date in November 2001, when they were scheduled to be available to customers. It also budgeted $450 million to market its new product, as it anticipated stiff competition during the holiday shopping season. With more than 20 million PlayStation 2 sold worldwide, the GameCube as a new entry in the video game market would make the battle for market share even more intense. For almost a decade, the video game industry had only Sega, Nintendo, and Sony; just three players. Because of strong brand loyalty and high product development costs, newcomers faced a daunting task in entering this race and being competitive. In November 2001, Microsoft began selling its new Xbox, just three days before the GameCube made its debut. Some observers felt the Xbox was aimed to rival PlayStation 2, which has similar functions that rival Microsoft’s Web TV system and even some lower level PCs. Like the Sony’s PlayStation 2, Xbox was also built using a DVD platform, but it used an Intel processor in its construction. This open design allowed Microsoft to develop the Xbox in just two years, and gave developers the option of using standard PC tool for creating compatible games. In addition, Microsoft also sought the advice of successful game developers and even incorporated some of their feedback into the design of the console and its controllers. As a result of developers’ efforts, Microsoft had about 20 games ready when the Xbox became available. By contrast, the GameCube had only eight games available. Microsoft online strategy was another feature that differentiated of the Xbox from the GameCube. Whereas Nintendo had no immediate plans for Web-based play, the Xbox came equipped with an Ethernet port for broadband access to Internet. Microsoft also announced its own Webbased network on which gamers can come together for online head-to head play and for organised online matches and tournaments. Subscribers to this service were to pay a small monthly fee and must have high-speed access to the Internet. This is a potential drawback considering that a very low percentage of households world over currently have broadband connections. By contrast Sony promoted an open network, which allows software developers to manage their own games, including associated fees charged to users. However, interested players must purchase a network adapter for an additional $39.99. Although game companies are not keen on the prospect of submitting to the control of a Microsoft-controlled network, it would require a significant investment for them to manage their own service on the Sonybased network. Initially the price of Microsoft’s Xbox was $299. Prior to the introduction of Xbox, in a competitive move Sony dropped the price of the PlayStation 2 to $299. Nintendo’s GameCube already enjoyed a significant price advantage, as it was selling for $100 less than either Microsoft or Sony products. Gamers eagerly snapped up the new consoles and made 2001 the best year ever for video game sales. For the first time, consumers spent $9.4 billion on video game equipment, which was more than they did at the box office. By the end of 2001 holiday season, 6.6 million PlayStation 2 consoles had been sold in North America alone, followed by 1.5 million Xbox units and 1.2 million Game Cubes. What ensued was an all out price war. This started when Sony decided to put even more pressure on the Microsoft’s Xbox by cutting the PlayStation 2 price to $199. Microsoft quickly matched that price. Examination Paper Semester I: Marketing Management IIBM Institute of Business Management Wanting to maintain its low-price status, Nintendo in turn responded by reducing the price of its the GameCube by $50, to $149. By mid 2002, Microsoft Xbox had sold between 3.5 and 4 million units worldwide. However, Nintendo had surpassed Xbox sales by selling 4.5 million Game Cubes. Sony had the benefit of healthy head start, and had shipped 32 million PlayStation 2s. However, seven years after the introduction of original PlayStation, it was being sold in retail outlets for a mere $49. It had a significant lead in terms of numbers of units in homes around the world with a 43 per cent share. Nintendo 64 was second with 30 per cent, followed by Sony PlayStation 2 with 14 per cent. The Xbox and GameCube each claimed about 3 per cent of the market, with Sega Dreamcast comprising the last and least market share of 4.7 per cent. Sega, once an industry leader, announced in 2001 that it had decided to stop producing the Dreamcast and other video game hardware components. The company said it would develop games for its competitors’ consoles. Thus Sega slashed the price of the Dreamcast to just $99 in an effort to liquidate its piled up inventory of more than 2 million units and immediately began developing 11 new games for the Xbox, four for PlayStation 2, and three for Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance. As the prices of video game consoles have dropped, consoles and games have become the equivalent of razors and blades. This means the consoles generate little if any profit, but the games are a highly profitable proposition. The profit margins on games are highly attractive, affected to some degree by whether the content is developed by the console maker (such as Sony) or by an independent game publisher (such as Electronic Arts). Thus, the competition to develop appealing, or perhaps even
- 42. addictive, games may be even more intense than the battle among players to produce the best console. In particular, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft want games that are exclusive to their own systems. With that in mind, they not only rely on large in-house staffs that design games but they also pay added fees to independent publishers for exclusive rights to new games. The sales of video games in 2001 rose to 43 per cent, compared to just 4 per cent increase for computer-based games. But computer game players are believed to be a loyal bunch, as they see many advantages in playing games on their computers rather than consoles. For one thing, they have a big advantage of having access to a mouse and a keyboard that allow them to play far more sophisticated games. In addition, they have been utilizing the Internet for years to receive game updates and modifications and to play each other over the Web. Sony and Microsoft are intent on capturing a portion of the online gaming opportunity. Even Nintendo has decided to make available a modem that will allow GameCube users to play online. As prices continue to fall and technology becomes increasingly more sophisticated, it remains to be seen whether these three companies can keep their names on the industry’s list of “high scorers”. Questions 1. Considering the concept of product life cycle, where would you put video games in their life cycle? 2. Should video game companies continue to alter their products to include other functions, such as e-mail? 1. What is meant by sales promotion? Describe briefly the various methods of sales promotional tools used by business organizations to boost the sales. Explain any four methods of sales promotion? 2. Write notes on the fowling : a) Explain right to safety. b) What is right to consumer protection? Organizational Behavior Multiple choices: 1. It is the degree to which a person identifies with a particular organization and its goals, & wishes to maintain membership in the organization a. Job involvement b. Terminal value c. Attitude d. Value 2. _________ means moving information from the hidden area to the open area a. blind area b. unknown area c. public area d. self disclosure 3. An approach in which the goals of one party are in direct conflict with the goals of the other party a. Negotiation b. Distributive bargaining c. Stress d. None 4. The measure of a person’s ability to operate within business organizations through social communication & interactions a. Transactional analysis b. Interpersonal skill c. Life position d. Johari window 5. Where the source of power is in person’s control over rewarding outcomes, that power is called a. Coercive power b. Referent power c. Legitimate power
- 43. d. Reward power Examination Paper Semester I: Organizational Behaviour IIBM Institute of Business Management 6. It means melting resistance to change; the people who will be affected by the change come to accept the need for it a. Organization b. Unfreezing c. Changing d. Refreezing 7. This training is also known as laboratory training, encounter groups & T-groups a. Sensitivity b. Survey c. Process d. Team building 8. They are the things that come together to define a culture & reveal that the culture is about to those who pay attention to them a. Culture b. Espoused value c. Artifacts d. Organizational culture 9. This stage encompasses all the learning that occurs before a new member joins the organizations a. Socialization b. The Pre-arrival stage c. Encounter stage d. Metamorphosis stage 10. It refers to the behavior pattern adopted by a leader to influence the behavior of his subordinate for attaining the organizational goal a. Leadership b. Traits of leadership c. Leadership grid d. Leadership style Part Two: 1. Define Informal groups. 2. What do you understand by the term ‘Emotion’? 3. Write a note on ‘Reinforcement theory’. 4. Explain the terms ‘Attitudes and Values’. Case let 1 M/s. ABC Ltd is a medium-sized engineering company producing a large-range of product lines according to customer requirements. It has earned a good reputation as a quick and reliable supplier to its customers because of which its volume of business kept on increasing. However, over the past one year, the Managing Director of the company has been receiving customer complaints due to delays in dispatch of products and at times the company has to pay substantial penalty for not meeting the schedule in time. The Managing Director convened an urgent meeting of various functional managers to discuss the issue. The marketing manager questioned the arbitrary manner of giving priority to products in manufacturing line, causing delays in wanted products and over-stocking of products which are not required immediately. Production Control Manager complained that he does not have adequate staff to plan and control the production function; and whatever little planning he does, is generally overlooked by shop floor manager. Shop floor managers complained of unrealistic planning, excessive machine breakdowns, power failure, and shortage of materials for scheduled products because of which it is impossible to stick to the schedule. Maintenance manager says that he does not get important spares required for equipmentmaintenance because of which he cannot repair machines at a faster rate. Inventory control manager says that on one hand the company often accuses him of carrying too much stock and on other hand people are grumbling over shortages. Fed up by mutual mud-slinging, the Managing Director decided to appoint
- 44. you, a bright management consultant with training in business management to suggest ways and means to put his “house in order”. Questions 1. How would you examine if there is any merit in the remarks of various functional managers? 2. What, in your opinion, could be the reasons for different Managerial thinking in this case? 3. How would you design a system of getting correct information about job status to identify delays quickly? 4. What would you suggest to promote co-ordinate interaction of various people to meet the scheduled dates? Case let 2 Rajender Kumar was a production worker at competent Motors Limited (CML) which made components and accessories for the automotive industry. He had worked at CML for almost seven years as a welder, along with fifteen other men in the plant. All had received training in welding both on the job and through company sponsored external programmes. They had friendly relations and got along very well with one another. They played Volleyball in the playground regularly before retiring to the quarters allotted by the company. They work together in the company canteen, cutting Jokes on each other and making fun of everyone who dared to step into their privacy during lunch hour. Most of the fellows had been there for some length of time, except for two men who had joined the ranks only two months back. Rajender was generally considered to be the leader of the group, so it was no surprise that when the foreman of the new was transferred and his job was posted, Rajender applied for the job and got it. There were only four other applicants for the job, two from mechanical section and two from outside, when there was a formal announcement of the appointment on a Friday afternoon, everyone in the group congratulated Rajender. They literally carried him on their shoulders, and bought him snacks and celebrated. On Monday morning, Rajender joined duty as Foreman. It was company practice for all foremen to wear blue jacket and a white shirt. Each man’s coat had his name badge sewn onto the left side pocket. The company had given two pairs to Rajender. He was proud to wear the coat to work on Monday. People who saw him from a distance went up to him and admired the new blue coat. There was a lot of kidding around calling Rajender as ‘Hero’, ‘Raja Babu’ and ‘Officer’ etc. One of the guys went back to his locker and returned with a long brush and acted as though he were removing dust particles on the new coat. After about five minutes of horseplay, all the men went back to work. Rajender went to his office to familiarize himself with the new job and environment. At noon, all the men broke for Lunch and went to the canteen to eat and take a break as usual. Rajender was busy when they left but followed after them a few minutes later. He bought the food coupon, took the snacks and tea and turned to face the open canteen. On the left-side corner of the room was his old work group; on the right-hand side of the canteen sat the other entire foreman in the plant—all in their smart blue coats. At that point of time, silence descended on the canteen. Both groups looked at Rajender anxiously, waiting to see which group he would choose to eat with. Questions 1. Whom do you think Rajender will eat with? Why? 2. If you were one of the other foremen, what could you do to make Rajinder’s transition easier? 1. A large unit manufacturing electrical goods which has been known for its liberal personnel policies and fringe benefits is facing the problem of low productivity and high absenteeism. How should the management improve the organizational climate? 2. The leader is expected to play many roles & therefore he must be qualified to guide others to organizational achievement. On the basis of this explain the leadership skills & leadership traits. Principles and Practice of Management Multiple Choices: 1. A plan is a trap laid to capture the ________.
- 45. a. Future b. Past c. Policy d. Procedure 2. It is the function of employing suitable person for the enterprise a. Organizing b. Staffing c. Directing d. Controlling 3. ___________ means “ group of activities & employees into departments” a. Orientation b. Standardization c. Process d. Departmentation 4. This theory states that authority is the power that is accepted by others a. Acceptance theory b. Competence theory c. Formal authority theory d. Informal authority theory 5. It means dispersal of decision-making power to the lower levels of the organization a. Decentralization b. Centralization c. Dispersion d. Delegation Examination Paper Semester I: Principles and Practice of Management IIBM Institute of Business Management 6. This chart is the basic document of the organizational structure a. Functional chart b. Posts chart c. Master chart d. Departmental chart 7. Communication which flow from the superiors to subordinates with the help of scalar chain is known as a. Informal communication b. Downward communication c. Upward communication d. Oral communication 8. Needs for belongingness, friendship, love, affection, attention & social acceptance are a. Physiological needs b. Safety needs c. Ego needs d. Social needs 9. A management function which ensures “jobs to be filled with the right people, with the right knowledge, skill & attitude” a. Staffing defined b. Job analysis c. Manpower planning d. Recruitment 10. It is a process that enables a person to sort out issues and reach to a decisions affecting their life a. Selection
- 46. b. Raining c. Reward d. Counseling Part Two: 1. Differentiate between ‘Administration’ and ‘Management’. 2. What were the common drawbacks in classical and Neo classical theories of management? 3. Write a short note on “Line Organization.” 4. Write a short note on ‘Acceptance theory’. Case let 1 Mr. Vincent, the Manager of a large supermarket, was taking a management course in the evening programme at the local college. The Professor had given an interesting but disturbing lecture the previous night on the various approaches to management. Vincent had always thought that management involved just planning, organizing and controlling. Now this Professor was saying that management could also be thought of as quantitative models, systems theory and analysis, and even something called contingency relationships. Vincent had always considered himself a good manager, and his record with the supermarket chain had proved it. He thought of himself, “I have never used operations research models, thought of my store as an open system, or developed or utilized any contingency relationship. By doing a little planning ahead, organizing the store, and making some things got done, I have been a successful manager. That other stuff just does not make sense. All the professor was trying to do was complicate things. I guess I will have to know it for the test, but I am sticking with my old plan, organize and control approach to managing my store.” Questions 1. Critically analyze Mr. Vincent’s reasoning. 2. If you were the professor and you knew what was going through Vincent’s mind, what would you say to Vincent? Case let 2 The Regional Administration Office of a company was hastily set up. Victor D’Cuhna a young executive was directly recruited to take charge of Data Processing Cell of this office. The data processing was to help the administrative office in planning and monitoring. The officer cadre of the administrative office was a mix of directly recruited officers and promotee officers (promotion from within the organization). Females dominated the junior clerical cadre. This cadre was not formally trained. The administrative office had decided to give these fresh recruits on-the-job training because when results were not upto the expectations blame was brought on the Data Processing Cell. Victor D’Cuhna realized that the administrative office was heading for trouble. He knew that his task would not be easy and that he had been selected because of his experience, background and abilities. He also realized that certain functional aspects of the administrative office were not clearly understood by various functionaries, and systems and procedures were blindly and randomly followed. Feedback was random, scanty and controversial, and Data Processing Cell had to verify every item of feedback. Delays were inevitable. D’Cuhna sought the permission of senior management to conduct a seminar on communication and feedback of which he was an expert. The permission was grudgingly given by the senior management. Everyone appreciated the seminar. Following the first seminar, D’Cuhna conducted a one week training course for the clerical Examination Paper Semester I: Principles and Practice of Management IIBM Institute of Business Management cadre, especially for the junior, freshly recruited clerks. Amongst other topics, D’Cuhna laid emphasis on filing system, information tracking, communication, and feedback. This helped reorient attitudes to some extent. But the female clerks preferred to ignore the theme and widely circulated the belief that D’Cuhna was an upstart and a show off. Within a short time, considerable friction had been generated in the administrative office While directly recruited officers supported D’Cuhna’s initiative and the specialist officers admired him, senior management became cautious and uncomfortable. The junior promotee officers were prejudiced against him. The grand finale followed swiftly. D’Cuhna happened to get
- 47. annoyed with a female clerk. During the absence of her officer, who was on sick leave and had not been substituted by another officer, she began submitting nil returns. D’Cuhna took pains to explain to her that for certain topics a nil feedback was not tenable. The current status had to be reported— the stage at which the matter was pending, what had been done, and what would be done about it? The lady reported that it was none of his business to tell her this. He should talk to her officer when the officer reports back from leave. D’Cuhna said he would, but in the meanwhile she should present the correct picture. When D’Cuhna called for the files, she refused to part with them. D’Cuhna fired her and reported the situation to the Chief Regional Manager. The other ladies were up in the arms against D’Cuhna. The lady also complained to higher management that D’Cuhna had made passes at her. Other ladies supported her complaint. She also complained that D’Cuhna had no business to scold her. D’Cuhna countered that had there been a male clerk in her place he would have scolded him too. When females enjoyed equal rights with males, D’Cuhna felt he must remain impartial. Nevertheless, D’Cuhna was transferred to another place. The transfer to another place, rather than to another department in same place, was particularly humiliating to him. A shocked and disillusioned D’Cuhna quit the enterprise. Questions 1. Diagnose the problem and enumerate the reasons for the failure of D’Cuhna? 2. What could D’Cuhna have done to avoid the situation in which he found himself? Detailed information should form the part of your answer (Word limit 200-250 words). 1. What is Training? Explain the different methods of training? 2. Explain Decision-Making process of an organization? Financial Management Part one: Multiple choices: 1. The approach focused mainly on the financial problems of corporate enterprise a. Ignored non-corporate enterprise b. Ignored working capital financing c. External approach d. Ignored routine problems 2. These are those shares, which can be redeemed or repaid to the holders after a lapse of the stipulated period a. Cumulative preference shares b. Non-cumulative preference shares c. Redeemable preference shares d. Perpetual shares 3. This type of risk arise from changes in environmental regulations, zoning requirements, fees, licenses and most frequently taxes a. Political risk b. Domestic risk c. International risk d. Industry risk 4. It is the cost of capital that is expected to raise funds to finance a capital budget or investment proposal a. Future cost b. Specific cost c. Spot cost d. Book cost 5. This concept is helpful in formulating a sound & economical capital structure for a firm a. Financial performance appraisal b. Investment evaluation c. Designing optimal corporate capital structure d. None
- 48. 6. It is the minimum required rate of return needed to justify the use of capital a. From investors b. Firms point c. Capital expenditure point d. Cost of capital 7. It arises when there is a conflict of interest among owners, debenture holders and the management a. Seasonal variation b. Degree of competition c. Industry life cycle d. Agency costs 8. Some guidelines on shares & debentures issued by the government that are very important for the constitution of the capital structure are a. Legal requirement b. Purpose of finance c. Period of finance d. Requirement of investors 9. It is that portion of an investments total risk that results from change in the financial integrity of the investment a. Bull- bear market risk b. Default risk c. International risk d. Liquidity risk 10. _____________ measure the systematic risk of a security that cannot be avoided through diversification a. Beta b. Gamma c. Probability distribution d. Alpha Part Two: 1. What is Annuity kind of cash flow? 2. What do understand by Portfolio risk? 3. What do you understand by ‘Loan Amortization’? 4. What is the Difference between NPV and IRR? Case let 1 This case provides the opportunity to match financing alternatives with the needs of different companies. It allows the reader to demonstrate a familiarity with different types of securities. George Thomas was finishing some weekend reports on a Friday afternoon in the downtown office of Wishart and Associates, an investment-banking firm. Meenda, a partner in the firm, had not been in the New York office since Monday. He was on a trip through Pennsylvania, visiting five potential clients, who were considering the flotation of securities with the assistance of Wishart and Associates. Meenda had called the office on Wednesday and told George's secretary that he would cable his recommendations on Friday afternoon. George was waiting for the cable. George knew that Meenda would be recommending different types of securities for each of the five clients to meet their individual needs. He also knew Meenda wanted him to call each of the clients to consider the recommendations over the weekend. George was prepared to make these calls as soon as the cable arrived. At 4:00 p.m. a secretary handed George the following telegram. George Thomas, Wishart and Associates STOP Taking advantage of offer to go skiing in Poconos STOP Recommendations as follows: (1) common stock, (2) preferred stock, (3) debt with warrants, (4) convertible bonds, (5) callable debentures STOP. See you Wednesday STOP Meenda. As George picked up the phone to make the first call, he suddenly realized that the potential clients were not matched with the investment alternatives. In Meenda's office, George found folders on each of the five firms seeking financing. In the front of each folder were some handwritten notes that Meenda had made on Monday before he left. George read each of the notes in turn. APT, Inc needs $8 million now and $4 million in four years. Packaging firm with high growth rate in tri-state area. Common stock trades over the counter. Stock is depressed but should rise in year to 18 months. Willing to accept any type of security. Good management. Expects moderate growth. New machinery should increase profits substantially. Recently
- 49. retired $7 million in debt. Has virtually no debt remaining except short-term obligations. Sandford Enterprises Needs $16 million. Crusty management. Stock price depressed but expected to improve. Excellent growth and profits forecast in the next two year. Low debt-equity ratio, as the firm has record of retiring debt prior to maturity. Retains bulk of earnings and pays low dividends. Management not interested in surrendering voting control to outsiders. Money to be used to finance machinery for plumbing supplies. Sharma Brothers., Inc. Needs $20 million to expand cabinet and woodworking business. Started as family business but now has 1200 employees, $50 million in sales, and is traded over the counter. Seeks additional shareholder but not willing to stock at discount. Cannot raise more than $12 million with straight debt. Fair management. Good growth prospects. Very good earnings. Should spark investor's interest. Banks could be willing to lend money for long-term needs. Sacheetee Energy Systems The firm is well respected by liberal investing community near Boston area. Sound growth company. Stock selling for $16 per share. Management would like to sell common stock at $21 or more willing to Examination Paper Semester I: Financial Management IIBM Institute of Business Management use debt to raise $ 28 million, but this is second choice. Financing gimmicks and chance to turn quick profit on investment would appeal to those likely to invest in this company. Ranbaxy Industry Needs $25 million. Manufactures boat canvas covers and needs funds to expand operations. Needs longterm money. Closely held ownership reluctant surrender control. Cannot issue debt without permission of bondholders and First National Bank of Philadelphia. Relatively low debt-equity ratio. Relatively high profits. Good prospects for growth Strong management with minor weaknesses in sales and promotion areas. As George was looking over the folders, Meenda's secretary entered the office. George said, "Did Meenda leave any other material here on Monday except for these notes?” She responded, "No, that's it, but I think those notes should be useful. Meenda called early this morning and said that he verified the facts in the folders. He also said that he learned nothing new on the trip and he sort of indicated that, he had wasted his week, except of course, that he was invited to go skiing at the company lodge up there". George pondered over the situation. He could always wait until next week, when he could be sure that he had the right recommendations and some of the considerations that outlined each client's needs and situation. If he could determine which firm matched each recommendation, he could still call the firms by 6:00 P.M. and meet the original deadline. George decided to return to his office and match each firm with the appropriate financing. Question: 1. Which type of financing is appropriate to each firm? 2. What types of securities must be issued by a firm which is on the growing stage in order to meet the financial requirements? Case let 2 This case has been framed in order to test the skills in evaluating a credit request and reaching a correct decision. Perluence International is large manufacturer of petroleum and rubber-based products used in a variety of commercial applications in the fields of transportation, electronics, and heavy manufacturing. In the northwestern United States, many of the Perluence products are marketed by a wholly-owned subsidiary, Bajaj Electronics Company. Operating from a headquarters and warehouse facility in San Antonio, Strand Electronics has 950 employees and handles a volume of $85 million in sales annually. About $6 million of the sales represents items manufactured by Perluence. Gupta is the credit manager at Bajaj electronics. He supervises five employees who handle credit application and collections on 4,600 accounts. The accounts range in size from $120 to $85,000. The firm sells on varied terms, with 2/10, net 30 mostly. Sales fluctuate seasonally and the average collection period tends to run 40 days. Bad-debt losses are less than 0.6 per cent of sales. Gupta is evaluating a credit application from Booth Plastics, Inc., a wholesale supply dealer serving the oil industry. The company was founded in 1977 by Neck A. Booth and has grown steadily since that time. Bajaj Electronics is not selling any products to Booth Plastics and had no previous contact with Neck Booth. Bajaj Electronics purchased goods from Perluence International under the same terms and conditions as Perluence used when it sold to independent
- 50. customers. Although Bajaj Electronics generally followed Perluence in setting its prices, the subsidiary operated independently and could adjust price levels to meet its own marketing strategies. The Perluence's cost-accounting department estimated a 24 per cent markup as the average for items sold to Pucca Electronics. Bajaj Electronics, in turn, resold the items to yield a 17 per cent markup. It appeared that these percentages would hold on any sales to Booth Plastics. Bajaj Electronics incurred out-of pocket expenses that were not considered in calculating the 17 per cent markup on its items. For example, the contact with Booth Plastics had been made by James, the salesman who handled the Glaveston area. Examination Paper Semester I: Financial Management IIBM Institute of Business Management James would receive a 3 per cent commission on all sales made Booth Plastics, a commission that would be paid whether or not the receivable was collected. James would, of course, be willing to assist in collecting any accounts that he had sold. In addition to the sales commission, the company would incur variable costs as a result of handling the merchandise for the new account. As a general guideline, warehousing and other administrative variable costs would run 3 per cent sales. Gupta Holmstead approached all credit decisions in basically the same manner. First of all, he considered the potential profit from the account. James had estimated first-year sales to Booth Plastics of $65,000. Assuming that Neck Booth took the, 3 per cent discount. Bajaj Electronics would realize a 17 per cent markup on these sales since the average markup was calculated on the basis of the customer taking the discount. If Neck Booth did not take the discount, the markup would be slightly higher, as would the cost of financing the receivable for the additional period of time. In addition to the potential profit from the account, Gupta was concerned about his company's exposure. He knew that weak customers could become bad debts at any time and therefore, required a vigorous collection effort whenever their accounts were overdue. His department probably spent three times as much money and effort managing a marginal account as compared to a strong account. He also figured that overdue and uncollected funds had to be financed by Bajaj Electronics at a rate of 18 per cent. All in all, slow -paying or marginal accounts were very costly to Bajaj Electronics. With these considerations in mind, Gupta began to review the credit application for Booth Plastics. Question: 1. How would you judge the potential profit of Bajaj Electronics on the first year of sales to Booth Plastics and give your views to increase the profit. 2. Suggestion regarding Credit limit. Should it be approved or not, what should be the amount of credit limit that electronics give to Booth Plastics. 1. Honey Well Company is contemplating to liberalize its collection effort. Its present sales are Rs. 10 lakh, its average collection period is 30 days, its expected variable cost to sales ratio is 85 per cent and its bad debt ratio is 5 per cent. The Company’s cost of capital is 10 per cent and tax are is 40 per cent. He proposed liberalization in collection effort increase sales to Rs. 12 lakh increases average collection period by 15 days, and increases the bad debt ratio to 7 percent. Determine the change in net profit. 2. Explain the concept of working capital. What are the factors which influence the working capital? CASE STUDY ANSWERS
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- 52. Multiple choices: 1. It is a cultural attitude marked by the tendency to regard one’s own culture as superior to others a. Geocentrism b. Polycentrism c. Ethnocentrism d. Egocentrism 2. It is the systemic study of job requirements & those factors that influence the performance of those job requirements a. Job analysis b. Job rotation c. Job circulation d. Job description 3. This Act provides an assistance for minimum statutory wages for scheduled employment a. Payment of Wages Act, 1936 b. Minimum Wages Act, 1948 c. Factories Act, 1948 d. Payment of Gratuity act, 1972 4. __________ is the actual posting of an employee to a specific job a. Induction b. Placement c. Attrition d. None 5. Broadening an individual’s knowledge, skills & abilities for future responsibilities is known as a. Training b. Development c. Education d. Mentoring Examination Paper Semester I: Human Resource Management IIBM Institute of Business Management 6. Change that is designed and implemented in an orderly and timely fashion in anticipation of future events a. Planned change b. Technology change c. Structural change d. None 7. It is a process for setting goals and monitoring progress towards achieving those goals a. Performance appraisal b. Performance gap c. Performance factor d. Performance management system 8. A method which requires the rates to provide a subjective performance evaluation along a scale from low to high a. Assessment centre b. Checklist c. Rating scale d. Monitoring 9. It is the sum of knowledge, skills, attitudes, commitment, values and the liking of the people in an organization a. Human resources b. Personal management c. Human resource management d. Productivity 10. A learning exercise representing a real-life situation where trainees compete with each other to achieve specific objectives a. Executive development
- 53. b. Management game c. Programmed learning d. Understudy Part Two: 1. Explain the importance of Career Planning in industry. 2. Write the features of HRM. 3. Briefly explain the concept of Performance Appraisal. 4. Explain On-Job and Off Job Training. Case let 1 Trust them with knee-jerk reactions," said Vikram Koshy, CEO, Delta Software India, as he looked at the quarterly report of Top Line Securities, a well-known equity research firm. The firm had announced a downgrade of Delta, a company listed both on Indian bourses and the NASDAQ. The reason? "One out of every six development engineers in the company is likely to be benched during the remaining part of the year." Three analysts from Top Line had spent some time at Delta three weeks ago. Koshy and his team had explained how benching was no different from the problems of excess inventory, idle time, and surplus capacity that firms in the manufacturing sector face on a regular basis, "Delta has witnessed a scorching pace of 30 per cent growth during the last five years in a row," Koshy had said, "What is happening is a corrective phase." But, evidently, the analysts were unconvinced. Why Bench? Clients suddenly decide to cut back on IT spends Project mix gets skewed, affecting work allocation Employee productivity is set to fall, creating slack working conditions. High degree of job specialization leads to redundancy What are the options? Quickly cut costs in areas which are non-core look for learning’s from the manufacturing sector Focus on alternative markets like Europe and Japan Move into products, where margins are better. Of course, the Top Line report went on to cite several other "signals," as it said: the rate of annual hike in salaries at Delta would come down to 5 per cent (from between 20 and 30 per cent last year); the entry-level intake of engineers from campuses in June 2001, would decline to 5 per cent (unlike the traditional 30 per cent addition to manpower every year); and earnings for the next two years could dip by between 10 and 12 per cent. And the loftiest of them all: "The meltdown at Nasdaq is unlikely to reverse in the near future." "Some of the signals are no doubt valid. And ominous," said Koshy, addressing his A-Team, which had assembled for the routine morning meeting. "But, clearly, everyone is reading too much into this business of benching. In fact, benching is one of the many options that our principals in the US have been pursuing as part of cutting costs right since September, 2000. They are also expanding the share of off-shore jobs. Five of our principals have confirmed that they would outsource more from Delta in India-which is likely to hike their billings by about 30 per cent. At one level, this is an opportunity for us. At another, of course, I am not sure if we should be jubilant, because they have asked for a 25-30 per cent cut in billing rates. Our margins will take a hit, unless we cut costs and improve productivity." "Productivity is clearly a matter of priority now," said Vivek Varadan, Vice-President (Operations). "If you consider benching as a non-earning mode, we do have large patches of it at Delta. As you are aware, it has not been easy to secure 70 per cent utilization of our manpower, even in normal times. I think we need to look at why we have 30 per cent bench before examining how to turn it into an asset." "There are several reasons," remarked Achyut Patwardhan, Vice-President (HR). "And a lot of it has to do with the nature of our business, which is more project-driven than product-driven. When you are managing a number of overseas and domestic projects simultaneously, as we do at Delta, people tend to go on the bench. They wait, as they complete one project, and are assigned the next. There are problems of coordination between projects, related to the logistics of moving people and resources from one customer to another. In fact, I am fine-tuning our monthly manpower utilization report to provide a breakup of bench costs into Examination Paper Semester I: Human Resource Management IIBM Institute of Business Management specifics-leave period, training programmes, travel time, buffers, acclimatization period et al." "It would be worthwhile following the business model used by US principal Techno Inc," said Aveek Mohanty, Director (Finance). "The company has a pipeline of projects, but it does not manage project by project. What it does is to slice each project into what it calls 'activities'. For example, communication
- 54. networking; user interface development; scheduling of processes are activities common to all projects. People move from one project to another. It is somewhat like the Activity Based Costing. It throws up the bench time straightaway, which helps us control costs and revenue better." "I also think we should reduce our dependence on projects and move into products," said Praveen Kumar, Director (Marketing). "That is where the opportunity for brand building lies. In fact, now is the time to get our technology guys involved in marketing. Multiskilling helps reduce the bench time." "Benching has an analogy in the manufacturing sector," said Girish Shahane, Vice-President (Services). "We could look for learning's there. Many firms have adopted Just-In-Time (JIT) inventory as part of eliminating idle time. It would be worthwhile exploring the possibility of JIT. But the real learning lies in standardization of work. It is linked to what Mohanty said about managing by activities." "At a broader level, I see several other opportunities," said Koshy, "We can fill in the space vacated by US firms and move up the value chain. But before we do so, Delta should consolidate its position as the premier outsourcing centre. Since there are only two ways in which we can generate revenue-sell expertise or sell products-we should move towards a mix of both. Tie-ups with global majors will help. Now is the time to look beyond the US and strike alliances with firms in Europe- and also Japan-as part of developing new products for global markets." Questions 1. Should benching be a matter of concern at Delta? 2. What are the risks involved in moving from a project-centric mode to a mix of projects and products? Case let 2 The contexts in which human resources are managed in today's organizations are constantly, changing. No longer do firms utilize one set of manufacturing processes, employ a homogeneous group of loyal employees for long periods of time or develop one set way of structuring how work is done and supervisory responsibility is assigned. Continuous changes in who organizations employ and what these employees do require HR practices and systems that are well conceived and effectively implemented to ensure high performance and continued success. 1. Automated technologies nowadays require more technically trained employees possessing multifarious skills to repair, adjust or improve existing processes. The firms can't expect these employees (Gen X employees, possessing superior technical knowledge and skills, whose attitudes and perceptions toward work are significantly different from those of their predecessor organizations: like greater self control, less interest in job security; no expectations of long term employment; greater participation urge in work activities, demanding opportunities for personal growth and creativity) to stay on without attractive compensation packages and novel reward schemes. 2. Technology driven companies are led by project teams, possessing diverse skills, experience and expertise. Flexible and dynamic organizational structures are needed to take care of the expectations of managers, technicians and analysts who combine their skills, expertise and experience to meet changing customer needs and competitive pressures. 3. Cost cutting efforts have led to the decimation of unwanted layers in organizational hierarchy in recent times. This, in turn, has brought in the problem of managing plateau employees whose careers seem to have been hit by the delivering process. Organizations are, therefore, made to find alternative career paths for such employees. 4. Both young and old workers, these days, have values and attitudes that stress less loyalty to the company and more loyalty to oneself and one's career than those shown by employees in the past, Organizations, therefore, have to devise appropriate HR policies and strategies so as to prevent the flight of talented employees Question 1. Discuss that technological breakthrough has brought a radical changes in HRM. 1. Several types of interviews are commonly used depending on the nature & importance of the position to be filled within an organization. Explain the different types of Interviews. 2. Explain the legal provisions regarding safety of workers. Examination Paper Semester I: Marketing Management IIBM Institute of Business Management
- 55. Marketing Management Multiple choices: 1. It is a concept where goods are produced without taking into consideration the choices or tastes of customers a. Marketing mix b. Production concept c. Marketing concept d. Relationship marketing 2. It involves individuals who buys products or services for personal use and not for manufacture or resale a. Environment analysis b. Macro environment c. Micro environment d. Consumer 3. It is the groups of people who interact formally or informally influencing each other’s attitudes& behavior a. Consumer behavior b. Culture c. Reference groups d. Primary groups 4. The concept of the product that passes through various changes in its total life known as a. Product life cycle b. Line stretching c. Consumer adoption d. Product 5. It refers to unique set of brand associations that brand strategist aspires to create or maintain a. Branding b. Packaging c. Brand identity d. Brand image Examination Paper Semester I: Marketing Management IIBM Institute of Business Management 6. It involves a pricing strategy that charges customers different prices for the same product or service a. Promotional pricing b. Price discrimination c. Non price competition d. None 7. It refers to an arrangement where another company through its own marketing channel sells the products of one producers a. End customer b. Wholesaler c. Retailing d. Strategic channel alliance 8. It involves facility consisting of the means & equipments necessary for the movement of passengers of goods a. Logistics b. Warehousing c. Transportation d. None 9. The advertising which is used to inform consumers about a new product or feature & to build primary demands is known as a. Advertising b. Informative advertising c. Persuasive advertising
- 56. d. Advertising strategy 10. An art that predicts the likelihood of economic activity on the basis of certain assumptions a. Compensation b. Sales forecasting c. Sales budgeting d. Selling policy Part Two: 1. Write a note on importance of consumer behavior for a business firm? 2. Define the term ‘Price’. 3. Distinguish between Marketing Concept and Selling Concept? 4. What are the new trends in advertisement? 5. Briefly explain the following : a) Socio –culture environment b) Marketing environment interface. Case let 1 Ask the company top brass what ‘almost there’ means. The answer: a premier Indian retail company that has come to be known as a specialty chain of apparel and accessories. With 52 product categories under one roof, Shoppers’ Stop has a line-up of 350 brands. Set up and headed by former Corona employee, B. S. Nagesh, Shoppers’ Stop is India’s answer to Selfridges and Printemps. As it proudly announces, ‘We don’t sell, we help you buy.’ Back in 1991, there was the question of what to retail. Should it be a supermarket or a departmental store? Even an electronics store was considered. Finally, common sense and understanding won out. The safest bet, for the all-male team was to retail men’s wear. They knew the male psyche and felt that they had discerning taste in men’s clothing. The concept would be that of a lifestyle store in a luxurious space, which would make for a great shopping experience. The first Shoppers’ Stop store took shape in Andheri, Mumbai, in October 1991, with an investment of nearly Rs. 20 lakh. The original concept that formed the basis of a successful marketing campaign for seven years is here to stay. And the result is an annual turnover of Rs. 160 crores and five stores, nine years later. Everything went right from the beginning, except for one strange happening. More than 60 per cent of the customers who walked into Shoppers’ Stop in Mumbai were women. This gave rise to ideas. Soon, the store set up its women’s section. Later, it expanded to include children’s wear and then, household accessories. The second store in Bangalore came in 1995. The store at Hyderabad followed in 1998 with the largest area of 60,000 sq. ft. The New Delhi and Jaipur stores were inaugurated in 1999. All this while, the product range kept increasing to suit customer needs. The most recent experiment was home furnishings. Secure in the knowledge that organised retailing in global brands was still in its infancy in India, Shoppers’ Stop laid the ground rules which the competition followed. The biggest advantage for Shoppers’ Stop is that it knows how the Indian consumer thinks and feels while shopping. Yes, feeling – for in India, shopping remains an outing. And how does it compare itself to foreign stores? While it is not modeled on any one foreign retailer, the ‘basic construct’ is taken from the experience of a number of successfully managed retail companies. It has leveraged expertise for a critical component like technology from all over the world, going as far as hiring expatriates from Littlewoods and using state-of-the-art ERP models. Shoppers’ Stop went a step further by even integrating its financial system with the ERP model. Expertise was imported wherever it felt that expertise available in-house was inadequate. But the store felt there was one acute problem. A shortage of the most important resource of them all was trained humans. Since Indian business institutes did not have professional courses in retail management, people were hired from different walks of life and the training programme was internalized. By 1994, the senior executives at Shoppers’ Stop were taking lectures at management institutes in Mumbai. The Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) even restructured its course to include retail management as a subject. Getting the company access to the latest global retail trends and exchange of information with business greats was an exclusive membership to the Intercontinental Group of Department Stores (IGDS). It allows membership by invitation to one company from a country and Shoppers’ Stop rubs shoulders with 29 of the hottest names in retailing – Selfridges from the UK, C.K. Tang from Singapore, Lamcy Plaza from Dubai and the like. With logistics I in place, the accent moved to the customer. Shoppers’ Stop conducted surveys with ORG-MARG and Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB) and undertook in-house wardrobe audits. The studies confirmed what it already knew. The Indian customer is still evolving and is very different from, say, a European customer, who knows exactly what he wants to purchase, walks up
- 57. to a shelf, picks up the merchandise, pays and walks out. In India, customers like to touch and feel the Examination Paper Semester I: Marketing Management IIBM Institute of Business Management merchandise, and scout for options. Also, the majority of Indian shoppers still prefer to pay in cash. So, transactions must be in cash as against plastic money used the world over. Additionally, the Indian customer likes being served – whether it is food, or otherwise. The company’s customer profile includes people who want the same salesperson each time they came to the store to walk them through the shop floors and assist in the purchase. Others came with families, kids and maids in tow and expected to be suitably attended to. Still others wanted someone to carry the bags. So, the shops have self-help counters, with an assistant at hand for queries or help. The in-house wardrobe audit also helped with another facet of the business. It enabled Shoppers’ Stop to work out which brands to stock, based on customer preferences. In fact, the USP of Shoppers’ Stop lies in judiciously selected global brands, displayed alongside an in-house range of affordable designer wear. The line-up includes Levi’s, Louis Philippe, Allen Solly, Walt Disney, Ray Ban and Reebok, besides in-house labels STOP and I. Brand selection is the same across the five locations, though the product mix may be somewhat city-based to accommodate cuts and styles in women’s wear, as well as allowing for seasonal variations (winter in Delhi, for instance, is a case in point). Stocking of brands is based on popular demand – recently, Provogue, MTV Style, and Benetton have been added. In-house labels are available at competitive prices and target the value-formoney customer and make up around 12 per cent of Shoppers’ Stop’s business. Sometimes in-house brands plug the price gap in certain product categories. To cash in on this, the company has big plans for its in-house brands: from re-branding to repositioning, to homing in on product categories where existing brands are not strong. Competition between brands is not an issue, because being a trading house, all brands get equal emphasis. The in-house brand shopper is one who places immense trust in the company and the quality of its goods and returns for repeat buys. And the company reposed its faith in regular customers by including them in a concept called the First Citizen’s Club (FCC). With 60,000 odd members, FCC customers account for 10 per cent of entries and for 34 per cent of the turnover. It was the sheer appeal of the experience that kept pulling these people back. Not one to let such an opportunity pass, the company ran a successful ad campaign (that talks about just this factor) in print for more than eight years. The theme is still the same. In 1999, a TV spot, which liked the shopping experience to the slowing down of one’s internal clock and the beauty of the whole experience, was aired. More recently, ads that spell out the store’s benefits (in a highly oblique manner) are being aired. The campaign is based on entries entered in the Visitors’ Book. None of the ads has a visual or text – or any heavy handedly direct reference to the store or the merchandise. The ads only show shoppers having the time of their lives in calm and serene locales, or elements that make shopping at the store a pleasure – quite the perfect getaway for a cosmopolitan shopper aged between 25 and 45. The brief to the agency, Contract, ensured that brand recall came in terms of the shopping experience, not the product. And it has worked wonders. Value-addition at each store also comes in the form of special care with car parks, power backup, customer paging, alteration service and gift-wrapping. To top it all, cafes and coffee bars make sure that the customer does not step out of the store. In Hyderabad, it has even created a Food Court. Although the food counter was not planned, it came about as there was extra space of 67,000 sq. ft. Carrying the perfect experience to the shop floor is an attempt to stack goods in vast open spaces neatly. Every store has a generic structure, though regional customer variances are accounted for. Each store is on lease, and this is clearly Shoppers’ Stop’s most expensive resource proposition – renting huge spaces in prime properties across metros, so far totaling 210,000 sq. ft of retail space. Getting that space was easy enough for Shoppers’ Stop, since its promoter is the Mumbai-based Raheja Group, which also owns 62 per cent of the share capital. Questions 1. What are the significant factors that have led to the success of Shoppers’ Stop? 2. Draw the typical profile(s) of Shoppers’ Stop customer segments. 3. How are Indian customers visiting Shoppers’ Stop any different from customers of developed western countries? 4. How should Shoppers’ Stop develop its demand forecasts? Case let 2 The rise of personal computers in the mid 1980s spurred interest in computer games. This caused a crash in home Video game market. Interest in Video games was rekindled when a number of different companies developed hardware consoles that provided graphics superior to the capabilities of computer
- 58. games. By 1990, the Nintendo Entertainment System dominated the product category. Sega surpassed Nintendo when it introduced its Genesis System. By 1993, Sega commanded almost 60 per cent of Video game market and was one of the most recognized brand names among the children. Sega’s success was short lived. In 1995, Saturn (a division of General Motors) launched a new 32-bit system. The product was a miserable failure for a number of reasons. Sega was the primary software developer for Saturn and it did not support efforts by outside game developers to design compatible games. In addition, Sega’s games were often delivered quite late to retailers. Finally, the price of the Saturn system was greater than other comparable game consoles. This situation of Saturn’s misstep benefited Nintendo and Sony greatly. Sony’s Play Station was unveiled in 1994 and was available in 70 million homes worldwide by the end of 1999. Its “Open design” encouraged the efforts of outside developers, resulting in almost 3,000 different games that were compatible with the PlayStation. It too featured 32-bit graphics that appealed to older audience. As a result, at one time, more than 30 per cent of PlayStation owners were over 30 years old. Nintendo 64 was introduced in 1996 and had eye-popping 64-bit graphics and entered in more than 28 million homes by 1999. Its primary users were between the age of 6 and 13 as a result of Nintendo’s efforts to limit the amount of violent and adult-oriented material featured on games that can be played on its systems. Because the company exercised considerable control over software development, Nintendo 64 had only one-tenth the number of compatible games as Sony’s PlayStation did. By 1999, Sony had captured 56 per cent of the video game market, followed by Nintendo with 42 per cent. Sega’s share had fallen to a low of 1%. Hence, Sega had two options, either to concede defeat or introduce an innovative video machine that would bring in huge sales. And Sega had to do so before either Nintendo or Sony could bring their next-generation console to market. The Sega Dreamcast arrived in stores in September 1999 with an initial price tag of $199. Anxious gamers placed 300,000 advance orders, and initial sales were quite encouraging. A total of 1.5 million Dreamcast machines were bought within the first four months, and initial reviews were positive. The 128-bit system was capable of generating 3-D visuals, and 40 different games were available within three months of Dream cast’s introduction. By the end of the year, Sega had captured a market share to 15 per cent. But the Dreamcast could not sustain its momentum. Although its game capabilities were impressive, the system did not deliver all the functionality Sega had promised. A 56K modem (which used a home phone line) and a Web browser were meant to allow access to the Internet so that gamers could play each other online, surf the Web, and visit the Dreamcast Network for product information and playing tips. Unfortunately, these features either were not immediately available or were disappointing in their execution. Sega was not the only one in having the strategy of adding functionality beyond games. Sony and Nintendo followed the same approach for their machines introduced in 1999. Both Nintendo’s Neptune and Sony’s PlayStation 2 (PS2) were built on a DVD platform and featured a 128-bit processor. Analysts applauded the move to DVD because it is less expensive to produce and allows more storage than CDs. It also gives buyers the ability to use the machine as CD music player and DVD movie player. As Sony marketing director commented, “The full entertainment offering from Play Station 2 definitely appeals to a much broader audience. I have friends in their 30s who bought it not only because it’s a gaming system for their kids, but also a DVD for them.” In addition, PlayStation 2 is able to play games developed for its earlier model that was CD-based. This gives the PS2 an enormous advantage in the number of compatible game titles Examination Paper Semester I: Marketing Management IIBM Institute of Business Management that were immediately available to gamers. Further enhancing the PS2’s appeal is its high-speed modem and allows the user’s easy access to the Internet through digital cable as well as over telephone lines. This gives Sony the ability to distribute movies, music, and games directly to PS2 consoles. “We are positioning this as an all-round entertainment player,” commented Ken Kutaragi, the head of Sony Computer Entertainment. However, some prospective customers were put off by the console’s initial price of $360. Shortly after the introduction of Neptune, Nintendo changed its strategies and announced the impending release of its newest game console, The GameCube. However, unlike the Neptune, the GameCube would not run on a DVD platform and also would not initially offer any online capabilities. It would be more attractively priced at $199. A marketing vice president for Nintendo explained the company’s change in direction, “We are the only competitor whose business is video games. We want to create the best gaming system.” Nintendo also made the GameCube friendly for outside developers and started adding games that included sports titles to attract an older audience. Best known for its extra ordinary successes with games aimed at the younger set, such as Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros, and Pokemon, Nintendo sought to attract older users, especially because the average video game player is 28.
- 59. Youthful Nintendo users were particularly pleased to hear that they could use their handheld Game Boy Advance systems as controllers for the GameCube. Nintendo scrambled to ensure there would be an adequate supply of Game Cubes on the date in November 2001, when they were scheduled to be available to customers. It also budgeted $450 million to market its new product, as it anticipated stiff competition during the holiday shopping season. With more than 20 million PlayStation 2 sold worldwide, the GameCube as a new entry in the video game market would make the battle for market share even more intense. For almost a decade, the video game industry had only Sega, Nintendo, and Sony; just three players. Because of strong brand loyalty and high product development costs, newcomers faced a daunting task in entering this race and being competitive. In November 2001, Microsoft began selling its new Xbox, just three days before the GameCube made its debut. Some observers felt the Xbox was aimed to rival PlayStation 2, which has similar functions that rival Microsoft’s Web TV system and even some lower level PCs. Like the Sony’s PlayStation 2, Xbox was also built using a DVD platform, but it used an Intel processor in its construction. This open design allowed Microsoft to develop the Xbox in just two years, and gave developers the option of using standard PC tool for creating compatible games. In addition, Microsoft also sought the advice of successful game developers and even incorporated some of their feedback into the design of the console and its controllers. As a result of developers’ efforts, Microsoft had about 20 games ready when the Xbox became available. By contrast, the GameCube had only eight games available. Microsoft online strategy was another feature that differentiated of the Xbox from the GameCube. Whereas Nintendo had no immediate plans for Web-based play, the Xbox came equipped with an Ethernet port for broadband access to Internet. Microsoft also announced its own Webbased network on which gamers can come together for online head-to head play and for organised online matches and tournaments. Subscribers to this service were to pay a small monthly fee and must have high-speed access to the Internet. This is a potential drawback considering that a very low percentage of households world over currently have broadband connections. By contrast Sony promoted an open network, which allows software developers to manage their own games, including associated fees charged to users. However, interested players must purchase a network adapter for an additional $39.99. Although game companies are not keen on the prospect of submitting to the control of a Microsoft-controlled network, it would require a significant investment for them to manage their own service on the Sonybased network. Initially the price of Microsoft’s Xbox was $299. Prior to the introduction of Xbox, in a competitive move Sony dropped the price of the PlayStation 2 to $299. Nintendo’s GameCube already enjoyed a significant price advantage, as it was selling for $100 less than either Microsoft or Sony products. Gamers eagerly snapped up the new consoles and made 2001 the best year ever for video game sales. For the first time, consumers spent $9.4 billion on video game equipment, which was more than they did at the box office. By the end of 2001 holiday season, 6.6 million PlayStation 2 consoles had been sold in North America alone, followed by 1.5 million Xbox units and 1.2 million Game Cubes. What ensued was an all out price war. This started when Sony decided to put even more pressure on the Microsoft’s Xbox by cutting the PlayStation 2 price to $199. Microsoft quickly matched that price. Examination Paper Semester I: Marketing Management IIBM Institute of Business Management Wanting to maintain its low-price status, Nintendo in turn responded by reducing the price of its the GameCube by $50, to $149. By mid 2002, Microsoft Xbox had sold between 3.5 and 4 million units worldwide. However, Nintendo had surpassed Xbox sales by selling 4.5 million Game Cubes. Sony had the benefit of healthy head start, and had shipped 32 million PlayStation 2s. However, seven years after the introduction of original PlayStation, it was being sold in retail outlets for a mere $49. It had a significant lead in terms of numbers of units in homes around the world with a 43 per cent share. Nintendo 64 was second with 30 per cent, followed by Sony PlayStation 2 with 14 per cent. The Xbox and GameCube each claimed about 3 per cent of the market, with Sega Dreamcast comprising the last and least market share of 4.7 per cent. Sega, once an industry leader, announced in 2001 that it had decided to stop producing the Dreamcast and other video game hardware components. The company said it would develop games for its competitors’ consoles. Thus Sega slashed the price of the Dreamcast to just $99 in an effort to liquidate its piled up inventory of more than 2 million units and immediately began developing 11 new games for the Xbox, four for PlayStation 2, and three for Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance. As the prices of video game consoles have dropped, consoles and games have become the equivalent of razors and blades. This means the consoles generate little if any profit, but the games are a highly profitable proposition. The profit margins on games are highly attractive, affected to some degree by whether the content is developed by the console maker (such as Sony) or by an independent game
- 60. publisher (such as Electronic Arts). Thus, the competition to develop appealing, or perhaps even addictive, games may be even more intense than the battle among players to produce the best console. In particular, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft want games that are exclusive to their own systems. With that in mind, they not only rely on large in-house staffs that design games but they also pay added fees to independent publishers for exclusive rights to new games. The sales of video games in 2001 rose to 43 per cent, compared to just 4 per cent increase for computer-based games. But computer game players are believed to be a loyal bunch, as they see many advantages in playing games on their computers rather than consoles. For one thing, they have a big advantage of having access to a mouse and a keyboard that allow them to play far more sophisticated games. In addition, they have been utilizing the Internet for years to receive game updates and modifications and to play each other over the Web. Sony and Microsoft are intent on capturing a portion of the online gaming opportunity. Even Nintendo has decided to make available a modem that will allow GameCube users to play online. As prices continue to fall and technology becomes increasingly more sophisticated, it remains to be seen whether these three companies can keep their names on the industry’s list of “high scorers”. Questions 1. Considering the concept of product life cycle, where would you put video games in their life cycle? 2. Should video game companies continue to alter their products to include other functions, such as e-mail? 1. What is meant by sales promotion? Describe briefly the various methods of sales promotional tools used by business organizations to boost the sales. Explain any four methods of sales promotion? 2. Write notes on the fowling : a) Explain right to safety. b) What is right to consumer protection? Organizational Behavior Multiple choices: 1. It is the degree to which a person identifies with a particular organization and its goals, & wishes to maintain membership in the organization a. Job involvement b. Terminal value c. Attitude d. Value 2. _________ means moving information from the hidden area to the open area a. blind area b. unknown area c. public area d. self disclosure 3. An approach in which the goals of one party are in direct conflict with the goals of the other party a. Negotiation b. Distributive bargaining c. Stress d. None 4. The measure of a person’s ability to operate within business organizations through social communication & interactions a. Transactional analysis b. Interpersonal skill c. Life position d. Johari window 5. Where the source of power is in person’s control over rewarding outcomes, that power is called a. Coercive power
- 61. b. Referent power c. Legitimate power d. Reward power Examination Paper Semester I: Organizational Behaviour IIBM Institute of Business Management 6. It means melting resistance to change; the people who will be affected by the change come to accept the need for it a. Organization b. Unfreezing c. Changing d. Refreezing 7. This training is also known as laboratory training, encounter groups & T-groups a. Sensitivity b. Survey c. Process d. Team building 8. They are the things that come together to define a culture & reveal that the culture is about to those who pay attention to them a. Culture b. Espoused value c. Artifacts d. Organizational culture 9. This stage encompasses all the learning that occurs before a new member joins the organizations a. Socialization b. The Pre-arrival stage c. Encounter stage d. Metamorphosis stage 10. It refers to the behavior pattern adopted by a leader to influence the behavior of his subordinate for attaining the organizational goal a. Leadership b. Traits of leadership c. Leadership grid d. Leadership style Part Two: 1. Define Informal groups. 2. What do you understand by the term ‘Emotion’? 3. Write a note on ‘Reinforcement theory’. 4. Explain the terms ‘Attitudes and Values’. Case let 1 M/s. ABC Ltd is a medium-sized engineering company producing a large-range of product lines according to customer requirements. It has earned a good reputation as a quick and reliable supplier to its customers because of which its volume of business kept on increasing. However, over the past one year, the Managing Director of the company has been receiving customer complaints due to delays in dispatch of products and at times the company has to pay substantial penalty for not meeting the schedule in time. The Managing Director convened an urgent meeting of various functional managers to discuss the issue. The marketing manager questioned the arbitrary manner of giving priority to products in manufacturing line, causing delays in wanted products and over-stocking of products which are not required immediately. Production Control Manager complained that he does not have adequate staff to plan and control the production function; and whatever little planning he does, is generally overlooked by shop floor manager. Shop floor managers complained of unrealistic planning, excessive machine breakdowns, power failure, and shortage of materials for scheduled products because of which it is impossible to stick to the schedule. Maintenance manager says that he does not get important spares required for equipmentmaintenance because of which he cannot repair machines at a faster rate. Inventory control manager says that on one hand the company often accuses him of carrying too much stock and on other hand people are
- 62. grumbling over shortages. Fed up by mutual mud-slinging, the Managing Director decided to appoint you, a bright management consultant with training in business management to suggest ways and means to put his “house in order”. Questions 1. How would you examine if there is any merit in the remarks of various functional managers? 2. What, in your opinion, could be the reasons for different Managerial thinking in this case? 3. How would you design a system of getting correct information about job status to identify delays quickly? 4. What would you suggest to promote co-ordinate interaction of various people to meet the scheduled dates? Case let 2 Rajender Kumar was a production worker at competent Motors Limited (CML) which made components and accessories for the automotive industry. He had worked at CML for almost seven years as a welder, along with fifteen other men in the plant. All had received training in welding both on the job and through company sponsored external programmes. They had friendly relations and got along very well with one another. They played Volleyball in the playground regularly before retiring to the quarters allotted by the company. They work together in the company canteen, cutting Jokes on each other and making fun of everyone who dared to step into their privacy during lunch hour. Most of the fellows had been there for some length of time, except for two men who had joined the ranks only two months back. Rajender was generally considered to be the leader of the group, so it was no surprise that when the foreman of the new was transferred and his job was posted, Rajender applied for the job and got it. There were only four other applicants for the job, two from mechanical section and two from outside, when there was a formal announcement of the appointment on a Friday afternoon, everyone in the group congratulated Rajender. They literally carried him on their shoulders, and bought him snacks and celebrated. On Monday morning, Rajender joined duty as Foreman. It was company practice for all foremen to wear blue jacket and a white shirt. Each man’s coat had his name badge sewn onto the left side pocket. The company had given two pairs to Rajender. He was proud to wear the coat to work on Monday. People who saw him from a distance went up to him and admired the new blue coat. There was a lot of kidding around calling Rajender as ‘Hero’, ‘Raja Babu’ and ‘Officer’ etc. One of the guys went back to his locker and returned with a long brush and acted as though he were removing dust particles on the new coat. After about five minutes of horseplay, all the men went back to work. Rajender went to his office to familiarize himself with the new job and environment. At noon, all the men broke for Lunch and went to the canteen to eat and take a break as usual. Rajender was busy when they left but followed after them a few minutes later. He bought the food coupon, took the snacks and tea and turned to face the open canteen. On the left-side corner of the room was his old work group; on the right-hand side of the canteen sat the other entire foreman in the plant—all in their smart blue coats. At that point of time, silence descended on the canteen. Both groups looked at Rajender anxiously, waiting to see which group he would choose to eat with. Questions 1. Whom do you think Rajender will eat with? Why? 2. If you were one of the other foremen, what could you do to make Rajinder’s transition easier? 1. A large unit manufacturing electrical goods which has been known for its liberal personnel policies and fringe benefits is facing the problem of low productivity and high absenteeism. How should the management improve the organizational climate? 2. The leader is expected to play many roles & therefore he must be qualified to guide others to organizational achievement. On the basis of this explain the leadership skills & leadership traits. Strategic Management 1. A plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal is: a. Tactic b. Strategy c. Financial benefits d. None of the above 2. It is important to develop mission statement for: a. Allocating organizational resources
- 63. b. Provide useful criteria c. Company creed d. Customer orientation 3. The five forces model was developed by : a. Airbus b. Karin Larsson c. Michael E.Porter d. Boeing 4. How many elements are involve in developing in an organizational strategy: a. Six b. Two c. Four d. Nine 5. The three important steps in SWOT analysis are: a. Identification, Conclusion, Translation b. Opportunities, Threats, Strengths c. People, Corporate cultures, Labour d. Power, Role, Task 6. GE matrix consists of how many cells? a. Nine cells b. Six cells c. Eight cells d. Three cells 7. Which of these is the type of Games: a. Simultaneous Games b. Sequential Games c. Repeated Games d. All of the above 8. SBU stands fora. Simple Basic Unit b. Strategic Basic Unit c. Strategic Business Unit d. Speed Business Unit 9. The BCG matrix is known as: a. Growth share matrix b. Directional policy matrix c. GE nine-cell matrix d. Space matrix 10. ______________ specifies sales revenues and selling distribution and marketing costs. a. Financial budget b. Sales budget c. Operating budget d. Expenses budget Part Two: 1. What are the dimensions of Strategic management? 2. Critically analyze the concept of BCG Matrix. 3. What is SWOT analysis? 4. What are the characteristics of Short-term Objectives? Case let 1 National Competitive Advantage of IKEA Group, a Swedish company founded in 1943 with its
- 64. headquarters in Denmark, is a multinational operator of a chain of stores for home furnishing and furniture. It is the world’s largest retailer, which specializes, in stylish but inexpensive Scandinavian designed furniture. At the end of 2005 the IKEA Group of Companies had a total of 175 stores in 31 countries. In addition there are 19 IKEA stores owned and run by franchisees, outside the IKEA store around the world. In Sweden, nature and a home both play a big part in people’s life. In fact one of the best ways to describe the Swedish home furnishing style is to describe nature-full of light and fresh air, yet restrained and unpretentious. To match up the artist Carl and Karin Larsson combined classical influences with warmer Swedish folk styles .They created a model of Swedish home furnishing design that today enjoys world-wide renown. In the 1950s the styles of modernism and functionalism developed at the same time as Sweden established a society founded on social equality .The IKEA product range –The IKEA product range- modern but not trendy, functional yet attractive, human-centered and child friendly – carries on these various Swedish home furnishing traditions. The IKEA Concept, like lots founder, was born in Samaland. This is a part of Southern Sweden where the soil is thin and poor. The people are famous for working hard, living on small means and using their heads to make the best possible use of the limited resources they have. This way of doing things is at the heart of the IKEA approach to keeping prices low. IKEA was founded when Sweden was fast becoming an example of the caring society, where rich and poor alike were well looked after. This is also a theme that fits well with the IKEA vision. In order to give the many people a better everyday life, IKEA asks the customer to work as a partner. The product range is child-friendly and covers the need of the whole family, young and old. So together we can a better everyday life for everyone. In addition to working about around 1,800 different suppliers across the world, IKEA produces many of its own products through sawmills and factories in the IKEA industrial group, Swedwood. Swedwood also has a duty to transfer knowledge to other suppliers, for example by educating them in issues such as efficiency, quality and environmental work. Swedwood has 35 industrial units in 11 countries. Examination Paper: Semester II IIBM Institute of Business Management Purchasing: IKEA has 42 Trading Service Offices (TSO’s) in 33 countries. Proximity to their suppliers
- 65. is the key to rational, long term cooperation. That’s why TSO co-workers visit suppliers regularly to monitor production, test new ideas, negotiate prices and carry out quality audits and inspection. Distribution: The route from supplier to customer must be as direct, cost- effective and environmentally friendly as possible. Flat packs are important aspects of this work: eliminating wasted space means we can transport and store goods more efficiently. Since efficient distribution plays a key role in the work of creating the low price, goods routing and logistics are a focus for constant development. The business Idea: The IKEA business idea is to offer a wide range of home furnishings with good design and function at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them. And still have many left! The company targets the customer who is looking for value and is willing to do a little bit of work serving themselves, transporting the items home and assembling the furniture for a better price. The typical IKEA customer is young low to middle income family. The Competition Advantage: The competition advantage strategy of IKEA’s product is reflected through IKEA’s success in the real industry. It can be attributed to its vast experience in the retail market, product differentiation, and cost leadership. IKEA Product Differentiation: A wide product range The IKEA product range is wide and versatile in several ways. First, it’s versatile in function. Because IKEA think customer, shouldn’t have to run from one small specialty shop to another to furnish their home, IKEA gather plants, living room furnishings, toys , frying pans, whole kitchens i.e.; everything which in a functional way helps to build a home – in one place , at IKEA stores. Second, it’s wide in style. The romantic at heart will find choices just as many as the minimalist at IKEA. But There is only one thing IKEA don’t have, and that is, the far- out or the over-decorated. They only have what helps build a home that has room for good living. Third, by being coordinated, the range is wide in function and style at the same time. No matter which style you prefer, there’s an armchair that goes with the bookcase that goes with the new extending table that goes with the armchair. So their range is wide in a variety of ways. Cost Leadership: A wide range with good form and function is only half the story. Affordability has a part to play – the largest part. A wide range with good form and function is only half the story. Affordability has a part to play- the largest part. And the joy of being able to own it without having to forsake everything else. And the customers help, too, by choosing the furniture, getting it at the warehouse,
- 66. transporting it home and assembling it themselves , to keep the price low. Questions 1. Do you think that IKEA has been successful to utilize Porter’s Five force analysis? Give reasons. 2. Where do you think can IKEA improve? Case let 2 For ITC Ltd., 2007-2008 continued to be year of quiet growth. Just more launches in its relatively new segment of non-cigarettes fast moving consumer goods, and solid growth. As in the past few years, ITC’s non-cigarettes businesses continued to grow at a scorching pace, accounting for a bigger share of overall revenues. “The non-cigarette portfolio grew by 37.6% during 2006-2007 and accounted during that year for 52.3% of the company’s net turnover.” An ITC spokesman said. In fact, over the first three quarters of 2007-08, ITC’s non-cigarette FMCG businesses have grown by 48% on the same period last year, “Indicating that its plans for increasing market share and standing are succeeding.” The branded packaged foods business continued to expand rapidly, with the focus on snacks range Bingo. The biscuit category continued its growth momentum with the ‘Sun feast’ range of biscuits launching ‘Coconut’ and ‘Nice’ variants and the addition of ‘ Sunfeast BenneVita Flaxseed’ biscuits. Aashirwad atta and kitchen ingredients retained their top slots at the national level, with the spices category adding an organic range. In the confectionery category which grew by 38% in the third quarter, ITC cited AC Nielsen data it claims market leader status in throat lozenges. Instant mixes and pasta powdered the sales of its ready to eat foods under the kitchens of India and Aashirwad brands. In Lifestyle apparel, ITC launched Miss Players fashion wear for young women to compliment its range for men. Overall, the biscuit category grew by 58% during the last quarter, ready to eat foods under the kitchens of India and Aashirwad brands by 63% and the lifestyle business by 26%. For the Industry, the most significant initiative to watch the ITC foray into premium personal care products with its Fiama Di Wills range of shampoos , conditioners, shower gels, and soaps. In the popular segment, ITC has launched a range of soaps and shampoos under the brand name Superia. Ravi Naware, Chief executive of ITC’s food business was quoted recently as saying that the business will make a positive contribution to ITC’s bottom line in the next two to three years. In hotels, ITC’s Fortune Park brand was making the news during the year, with a rapid rollout of first class business hotels. In the agri-business segment, the e-choupal network is trying out a pilot in retailing fresh fruits and
- 67. vegetables. The e-choupals have already specialized in feeding ITC high quality wheat and potato, among other commodities grown by farmers with help from e-choupal. Questions: Q1. Do you think the progress of ITC Ltd. is realistic? Q2. After analyzing the above case, do you think every company should aim at cost leadership with high quality product? 1. What are the basic principles of Organizational structure? What are the types of Organizational structures? 2. Though BCG matrix can be very helpful in forcing decisions in managing a portfolio of products, it can be employed as a sole men of determining strategies for a portfolio of the product. Do you agree with this statement or not? Why or why not? Enterprise Resource Planning 1. Enterprise Resource Planning is a. Computer System b. Manufacturing organization c. Method of effective planning of all the resources in an organization d. None of the above 2. Enterprise Resource Panning vendors are those people a. Who are experts in administration and management of projects b. Who have developed the ERP packages c. Who uses the ERP system d. None of the above 3. Interviewing and cost justification is tool and technique of a. Design step of ERP b. Implementation step of ERP c. Requirement analysis of ERP d. Planning step of ERP 4. Support re-engineering processes to fit the software systems best practice is approach of a. Re-engineering approach b. Customizing approach c. Rational approach d. None of the above 5. Process of tracking customer contacts and providing the customer with a price quote is a. Inventory sourcing b. Sales order processing c. Pre-sales d. None of the above 6. The difficulty in creating an audit trial of transactions when multiple transactions use multiple database is associated with a. Product profitability sub-system b. Finished goods inventory sub-system c. Management reporting sub-system d. Creating an audit trial sub-system 7. Differences occur between standard costs and actual costs is problem associated with a. Accounting
- 68. b. Production c. Purchasing / Materials Management d. None of the above 8. MRP in Enterprise resource planning stands for a. Maximum retail price b. Material requirement planning c. Management requirement planning d. None of the above 9. Process of providing status of purchase order comes in a category of a. Purchase order follow-up b. Source determination c. Determine requirement d. Invoice verification 10. Resource failure occurs when a. People clashes b. Inability to communicate with the system user c. Poor specification of requirements d. Conflicts of people, time and project scope due to insufficient personnel Part Two: 1. What are the advantages of the re-engineering method of implementing ERP? 2. What are the benefits reported from implementing ERP? 3. Write a short note on “Credit Management”? 4. Define Material Requirements Planning? Caselet 1 Tech Knowledge is a start-up founded in 1997 by Robert Thyer. The company is a distributer of presentation technologies, including computer based projection systems, video equipment, and display technologies. The firm has 25 employees and does $5 million in sales. It is growing rapidly. The owner, Robert Thyer, would like to netsource the back-office functions of the firm because the company does not have an internal IT capability. The applications to be netsourced would include sales and distribution, financial accounting, and inventory management. TechKnowledge would like to source SAP or another ERP vendor via a hosting arrangement. It does not expect to do much customization, and it does not have any legacy systems. 1. What factors should it use to evaluate each of these potential hosts? 2. What controls should be in place to monitor the hosting arrangement? Caselet 2 ITM is a company specializing in network implementation and management. It provides networking services to mid-sized companies, which do not have an internal networking analyst or IT manager. These organizations include real estate companies, law offices, medical practices, architectural / engineering firms, construction companies, business services providers, country clubs, community organizations, and churches. ITM uses a legacy accounting system to handle its financial accounting and financial management functions. It has added on a billing package for client services. The next step is to
- 69. obtain a CRM capability to manage information about current and prospective customers more effectively. You have been assigned to identify potential sources for a net-sourcing arrangement with an ERP vendor, which provides CRM capabilities. 1. Identify potential sources of software? 2. Determine five criteria you will recommend be used to evaluate each of alternative providers? 1. Explain in brief Sales and Marketing Modules in ERP System? 2. What are the different development process in ERP systems and write a detailed note on it? Material Management 1. Season Index = a. =Period average demand / deseasonalized demand b. =deseasonalized demand / period average demand c. =Period average demand / average demand for all periods d. = average demand for all periods / period average demand 2. Poke-yoke was first introduce by a. Edger Schein of America b. Lawrence D. Miles of U.S.A c. Shigeo Shingo of Japan d. None of the above 3. Utilization is the consolidation of several units into large units, called a. Units loads b. Unit system c. Unit wait d. None of the above 4. Mean Absolute Deviation a. = sum of forecast error / number of observations b. = algebraic sum of forecast errors / number of observations c. = sum of absolute deviations / number of observations d. None of the above 5. How many variations of network used a. One b. Three c. Two d. None of the above Examination Paper IIBM Institute of Business Management 2 6. Housing starts and gasoline consumption are called a. Economic indicators b. Nonleading indicator c. Leading indicator d. None of the above 7. The capability of manufacturing to produce goods and services is called a. Capacity b. Priority c. Strategy d. Production 8. APICS stands for a. The American Property and Investment Control Society b. The American Production and Inventory Control Society
- 70. c. The America Product and Inventory Control Society d. None of the above 9. The bill provides a list of the parts needed to make or assemble a product is a. Planning b. Manufacturing c. Product definition d. None of the above 10. Which file contains a record for each part manufactured a. The routing file b. The product structure file c. Item master file d. Work center master file Part Two: 1. Write a note on “ERP” (Enterprise Resource Planning). 2. What do you understand by ‘Operation Overloading’? 3. What is “Two –Bin System”. 4. Explain the “Just in time” philosophy. 1. Calculate the available to promise (ATP) using the following data. There are 100 units on hand. Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 Customer Orders 70 70 20 40 10 MPS 100 100 100 ATP 2. Given the following data, can an order for 30 more units delivery in week 5 be accepted? If not, what do you suggest can be done? Week 1 2 3 4 Forecast 80 80 80 70 Customer Orders 100 90 50 40 Projected Available Balance 140 MPS 3. Given the following parents and components, construct a product tree. Figures in parentheses show the quantities per item. How many Gs are needed to make one A? Parent A B C E Component B(2) E(2) G(2) G(4) C(4) F(1) F(3) D(4) H(2) 4. An order for 100 of a product is processed on operations A and operations B. the setup time on A is 50 minutes, and the run time per piece is 9 minutes. The setup time on B is 30 minutes, and the run time is 6 minutes per piece. It takes 20 minutes to move a lot between A and B. since this is a rush order, it is given top priority (president’s edict) and is run as soon as it arrives at either workstation. It is decided to overlap the two operations and to split the lot of 100 into two lots of 60 and 40.
- 71. When the first lot is finished on operation A, it is moved to operation B where it is set up and run. Meanwhile, operation A completes the balance of the 100 units (40) and sends the units over to operation B. These 40 units should arrive as operation B is completing the first batch of 60; thus, operation B can continue without interruption until all 100 are completed. a. Calculate the total manufacturing lead time for operation A and for B without overlapping. b. Calculate the manufacturing lead time if the operations are overlapped. How much time is saved? 1. Suppose a manufacturer makes wagons composed of a box body, a handle assembly, and two wheel assemblies. Demand for the wagons is 500 a week. The wheel assembly capacity is 1200 sets a week, the handle assembly capacity is 450 a week, and final assembly can produce 550 wagons a week. a. What is the capacity of the factory? b. What limits the throughput of the factory? c. How many wheel assemblies should be made each week? d. What is the utilization of the wheel assembly operation? e. What happens if the wheel assembly utilization is increased to 100? 2. If the annual cost of goods sold is $12 million and the average inventory is $2.5 million: a. What is the inventory turns ratio? b. What would be the reduction in average inventory if, through better materials management, inventory turns were increased to 10 times per year? c. If the cost of carrying inventory is 20% of the average inventory, what is the annual savings? 3. Suppose management stated that it could tolerate only one stock out per year for a specific item. For this particular item, the annual demand is 52,000 units, it is ordered in quantities of 2600, and the standard deviation of demand during the lead time is 100 units. The lead time is one week. Calculate: a. Number of orders per year. b. Service level. c. Safety stock. d. Order point. 4. Delivery of goods from a supplier is in transit for ten days. If the annual demand is 4200 units, what is the average annual inventory in transit? Production and Operation Management Multiple choices: 1. If the number of restrictions on sources be ‘a’ and the number of restrictions on destinations be ‘b’ then with the use of ‘stepping stone procedure’, the number of ‘used cells’ will be a. a+b+1 b. a+b+2 c. a-b-1 d. a+b-1 2. Value of smoothing coefficient ‘α’ lies a. Between 1 and ∞ b. Between 0 and 1
- 72. c. Between -1 and 1 d. Between 1 and 2 3. Forecasting error is a. The difference between forecasted demand and actual demand b. The ratio of forecasted demand and actual demand c. The difference between the standard forecast demand and the evaluated forecast demand d. Ratio of standard forecast demand and the evaluated forecast demand 4. For forecasting the analyzers plot the demand data on a time scale, study the plot and then look for the consistent patterns. Now what does the high noise mean to these patterns a. Many of the point lie away from the pattern b. Most of the points lie close to the pattern c. All the points lie on the pattern d. None 5. Payback period is a. The length of time after which the production starts b. The length of time after which the selling starts c. The length of time required to recover the investment d. The length of time for which firm bears replacement of the good. Semester II Examination Papers IIBM Institute of Business Management 6. Salvage value is the income from a. Selling an asset b. Buying an asset c. Bargaining in selling d. Price raised stock 7. On total factor basis ‘Productivity’ is given by x/y, where ‘y’ is a. Labor + Capital +Materials b. Labor + Capital + Materials + Energy c. Capital d. Capital + Materials 8. Economic efficiency is given by a. Input /output b. Input /100 c. (Output-input)/input d. Output /input 9. This implies an effective management that ensures an organization’s long-term commitment to the continuous improvement of quality. a. Quality management b. Strategic management c. Total quality management d. Operations management 10. This techniques for improving productivity involves analyzing the operations of the product or service, estimate the value of each operation, and modifying (or) improving that operation so that the cost is lowered. a. Value engineering b. Time-event network c. Work simplifications d. Quality circles
- 73. Part Two: 1. What are the different types of models in production and operation management? 2. Define ‘Depreciation’. 3. What do you understand by ‘Bias’? 4. What are ‘Learning curves’? Caselet 1 COMPANY BACKGROUND The Bronson Insurance Group was originally founded in 1900 in Auxvasse, Missouri, by James Bronson. The Bronson Group owns a variety of companies that underwrite personal and commercial insurance policies. Annual sales of the Bronson Group are $100 million. In recent years, the company has suffered operating losses. In 1990, the company was heavily invested in computer hardware and software. One of the problems the Bronson Group faced (as well as many insurance companies) was a conflict between established manual procedures and the relatively recent (within the past 20 years) introduction of computer equipment. This conflict was illustrated by the fact that much information was captured on computer but paper files were still kept for practical and legal reasons. FILE CLERKS The file department employed 20 file clerks who pulled files from stacks, refilled used files, and delivered files to various departments including commercial lines, personal lines, and claims. Once a file clerk received the file. Clerks delivered files to underwriters on an hourly basis throughout the day. The average file clerk was paid $8,300 per year. One special file clerk was used full time to search for requested files that another file clerk had not been able to find in the expected place. It was estimated that 40 percent of the requested files were these “no hit” files requiring a search. Often these “no hit” files were eventually found stacked in the requester’s office. The primary “customers” of the file clerks were underwriters and claims attorneys. UNDERWRITING Company management and operations analysts were consistently told that the greatest problem in the company was the inability of file clerks to supply files in a speedy fashion. The entire company from top to bottom viewed the productivity and effectiveness of the department as unacceptable. An underwriter used 20-50 files per day. Because of their distrust of the files department, underwriters tended to hoard often used files. A count by operations analysts found that each underwriter kept from 100-200 files in his or her office at any one time. An underwriter would request a file by computer and work on other business until the file was received. Benson employed 25 underwriters. MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM
- 74. Upper management was deeply concerned about this problem. The MIS department had suggested using video disks as a possible solution. A video disk system was found that would be sufficient for the Semester II Examination Papers IIBM Institute of Business Management companies needs at a cost of about $12 million. It was estimated that the system would take two years to install and make compatible with existing information systems. Another, less attractive was using microfilm. A microfilm system would require underwriters to go to a single keyboard to request paper copies of files. The cost of a microfilm system was $5 million. 1. What do you recommend? Should the company implement one of the new technologies? Why or why not? 2. An operations analyst suggested that company employees shared a “dump on the clerks” mentality. Explain. Caselet 2 Harrison T. Wenk III is 43, married, and has two children, ages 10 and 14. He has a master’s degree in education and teachers junior high school music in a small town in Ohio. Harrison’s father passed away two months ago, leaving his only child an unusual business opportunity. According to his father’s will, Harrison has 12 months to become active in the family food-catering business, Kare- Full Katering, Inc., or it will be sold to two key employees for a reasonable and fair price. If Harrison becomes involved, the two employees have the option to purchase a significant, but less than majority, interest in the firm. Harrison’s only involvement with this business, which his grandfather established, was as an hourly employee during high school and college summers. He is confident that he could learn and perhaps enjoy the marketing side of the business, and that he could retain the long-time head of accounting/finance. But he would never really enjoy day-to-day operations. In fact, he doesn’t understand what operations management really involves. In 1991 Kare-Full Katering, Inc. had $3.75 million in sales in central Ohio. Net profit after taxes was $ 105,000, the eleventh consecutive year of profitable operations and the seventeenth in the last 20 years. There are 210 employees in this labor-intense business. Institutional contracts account for over 70 percent of sales and include partial food services for three colleges, six commercial establishments) primarily manufacturing plants and banks), two long -term care facilities, and five grade schools. Some customer location employs a permanent operations manager; others are served from the main kitchens of Kare-Full Katering. Harrison believes that if he becomes active in the business, one of the two key employees, the vice president of operations, will leave the
- 75. firm.Harrison has decided to complete the final two months of this school year and then spend the summer around Kare-Full Katering – as well as institutions with their own food services – to assess whether he wants to become involved in the business. He is particularly interested in finding out as much as possible about operations. Harrison believes he owes it to his wife and children to fairly evaluate this opportunity. 1. Prepare a worksheet of operations activities that Harrison should inquire about this summer. 2. If you were Harrison, what would you do? Why? 1. Productivity is an important tool for mangers as it helps them to track progress toward the more efficient use of resources in producing goods and services. Elucidate. 2. In additional to operations research, what are the other tools and techniques used by organizations to improve productivity? Project Management Multiple Choices: Total Marks: 100 1. A ________________ is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. a) Program b) Process c) Project d) Portfolio 2. Which of the following is not a potential advantage of using good project management? a) Shorter development times b) Higher worker morale c) Lower cost of capital d) Higher profit margins 3. Which of the following is not an attribute of a project? a) Projects are unique b) Projects are developed using progressive elaboration c) Projects have a primary customer or sponsor d) Projects involve little uncertainty 4. Which of the following is not part of the triple constraint of project management? a) Meeting scope goals b) Meeting time goals c) Meeting communications goals d) Meeting cost goals 5. The first stage of any project is a) Proposal b) Conceptualization c) Implementation d) Management 6. __________________ is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements. a) Project management
- 76. b) Program management c) Project portfolio management d) Requirements management 7. Project portfolio management addresses ____________________ goals of an organization, while project management addresses _________________ goals. a) Strategic, tactical b) Tactical, strategic c) Internal, external d) External, internal 8. Several application development projects done for the same functional group might best be managed as part of a a) Portfolio b) Program c) Investment d) Collaborative 9. Which of the following is not one of the top ten skills or competencies of an effective project manager? a) People skills b) Leadership c) Integrity d) Technical skills 10. What is the certification program called that the Project Management Institute provides? a) Microsoft Certified Project Manager (MCPM) b) Project Manager Professional (PMP) c) Project Management Expert (PME) d) Project Management Mentor (PMM) 11. A _________________ is a series of actions directed towards a particular result. a) Goal b) Process c) Plan d) Project 12. ____________________ Processes include coordinating people and other resource to carry out the project plans and produce the products, service, or results of the project or phase. a) Initiating b) Planning c) Executing d) Monitoring & controlling 13. Which process group normally requires the most resources and time? a) Initiating b) Planning c) Executing d) Monitoring and controlling 14. A work breakdown structure, project schedule, and cost estimates are outputs of the process. a) Initiating b) Planning c) Executing d) Monitoring and controlling 15. Which process group includes activities from each of the nine knowledge areas? a) Initiating b) Planning
- 77. c) Executing d) Monitoring and controlling 16. Project management as a profession is almost unique in having institutions concerned with its development who promote what they term their a) Body of language b) Body of knowledge c) Strategy d) Work 17. Initiating involves developing a project charter and preliminary project scope statement, which are part of the project _____________________ management knowledge. a) Integration b) Scope c) Communications d) Risk 18. A ________________ describes how things should be done, and different organizations often have different ways of doing things. a) Regulation b) Process c) Standard d) Methodology 19. ___________________ involves measuring progress toward project objectives and talking corrective actions. a) Initiating b) Planning c) Executing d) Monitoring and controlling 20. What type of report do project teams create to reflect on what went right with the project? a) Lessons – learned report b) Status report c) Final project report d) Business case 21. Project manager is responsible for a) Overseeing change b) Cross functional activities c) Ever changing set of tasks d) All above 22. Many people use ________________ to have a standard format for preparing various project management documents. a) Methodologies b) Templates c) Project management software d) Standards 23. What is the last step in the four – stage planning process for selecting information technology projects? a) Information technology strategy planning b) Business area analysis c) Project planning d) Resource allocation 24. A new government law requires an organization to report data in anew way. Under which
- 78. category would a new information system project to provide this data fall? a) Problem b) Opportunity c) Directive d) Regulation 25. A __________________ is a document that formally recognizes the existence of a project and provides direction on the project’s objectives and management. a) Project charter b) Preliminary scope statement c) Business case d) Project management plan 26. ICOM model, which is one of the major roles of project manager, stand for a) Integrated Constraint of Mechanism b) Inputs, Outputs, Constraints & Mechanism c) Inputs, Outputs, Constraints & Money d) None 27. A _______________ often includes sensitive information, so it should not be part of the overall project plan for anyone to see. a) Business case b) Project charter c) Personnel chart d) Stakeholder analysis 28. Which of the following is not a suggestion for performing integrated change control? a) Use good configuration management b) Minimize change c) Establish a formal change control system d) View project management as a process of constant communication and negotiation 29. _______________ refer(s) to all the work involved in creating the products of the projects and processes used to create them. a) Deliverables b) Milestones c) Scope d) Product development 30. Assume you have a project with major categories called planning, analysis, design, and testing. What level of the WBS would these items fall under? a) 0 b) 1 c) 2 d) 3 31. Which of the following is not a best practice that can help in avoiding scope problems on information technology projects? a) Keep the scope realistic b) Use off-the-shelf hardware and software whenever possible c) Follow good project management processes d) Don’t involve too many users in scope management 32. Having ascertains the portfolio of projects obtained objectives for each of them, we have to move to the next stage of the strategy process to balance the objectives a) Policy deployment
- 79. b) Strategy matrix c) Project performance measurement d) None 33. What major restaurant chain terminated a large project after spending $170 million on it, primarily because they realized the project scope was too much to handle? a) Burger King b) Pizza Hut c) McDonalds d) Taco Bell 34. Scope ____________________ is often achieved by a customer inspection and then sign – off on key deliverables. a) Verification b) Validation c) Completion d) Close – out 35. Project management software helps you develop a _________________, which serves as a basis for creating Gantt charts, assigning resources, and allocating costs. a) Project plan b) Schedule c) WBS d) Deliverable 36. WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) is also known as a) Chunking b) Unbundling c) Both (a) & (b) d) None 37. What is the first process in planning a project schedule? a) Milestone definition b) Activity definition c) Activity resource estimation d) Activity sequencing 38. Predecessors, successes, logical relationships, leads and lags, resource requirements, constraints, imposed dates, and assumptions are all examples of ___________________. a) Items in an activity list b) Items on a Gantt chart c) Milestone attributes d) Activity attributes 39. As the project manager for a software development project, you are helping to develop its schedule. You decide that writing code for a system cannot start until sign off on the analysis work. What type of dependency is this? a) Technical b) Mandatory c) Discretionary d) External 40. You cannot start editing a technical report until someone else completes the first draft. What type of dependency does this represent? a) Finish – to – start b) Start – to – start c) Finish – to – finish
- 80. d) Start – to – finish 41. …………………. Involves going through the cycle several times to test the effects of the changes make on the outcomes. a) Planning b) Strategy c) Iterative d) None 42. Above figure shows two activities A & B; B cannot start until A finished and the times for A & B are 5 and 7 days respectively. This logic is known as a) Dependency b) Precedence c) Freedom d) None 43. In the above figure calculate the EET (earliest event time) at 20. a) 10 b) 20 c) 5 d) 25 10 0 20 0 A 5Days 1 2 3 A B 5Days 7Days 44. What symbol on a Gantt chart represents a slipped milestone? a) A black arrow b) A white arrow c) A black diamond d) A white diamond 45. What type of diagram shows planned and actual project schedule information? a) A network b) A Gantt chart c) A Tracking d) A milestone chart 46. ____________________ is a network diagramming technique used to predict total project duration. a) PERT b) A Gantt chart c) Critical path method d) Crashing 47. Which of the following statement is false? a) “Growing grass” was on the critical path for a large theme park project. b) The critical path is the series of activities that determine the earliest time by which a project can be completed. c) A forward pass through a project network diagram determines the early start and early finish dates for each activity.
- 81. d) Fast tracking is a technique for marking cost and schedule trade-offs to obtain the obtain the greatest amount of schedule comparison for the least incremental cost. 48. _____________________ is a method of scheduling that considers limited resources when creating a project schedule and includes buffers to protect the project completion date. a) Parkinson’s Law b) Murphy’s Law c) Critical path analysis d) Critical chain scheduling 49. _______________ is a resource scarified or foregone to achieve a specific objective or something given up in exchange. a) Money b) Liability c) Trade d) Cost 50. What is main goal of project cost management? a) To complete a project for as little cost as possible b) To complete a project within an approved budget c) To provide truthful and accurate cost information on projects d) To ensure that an organization’s money is used widely 51. A fundamental of ‘Theory of Constraints’ (TOC) is to manage systems by focusing on the constraints, termed as a) Watermark b) Bottleneck c) Tick-sheet d) None 52. “An activity will expand to fill the time available”; it is a) Newton’s Law b) Parkinson’s Law c) Einstein’s Law d) None 53. Which of the following is not a key output of project cost management? a) A cost estimate b) A cost management plan c) Updates to the cost management plan d) A cost baseline 54. If a company loses $5 for every $100 in revenue for a certain product, what is profit margin for that product? a) -5 percent b) 5 percent c) -$5 d) $5 55. __________________ reserves allow for future situations that are unpredictable. a) Contingency b) Financial c) Management d) Baseline 56. You are preparing a cost estimate for a building based on its location, purpose, number of square feet, and other characteristics. What cost estimating technique are you using? a) Parametric
- 82. b) Analogous c) Bottom – up d) Top – down 57. ______________ involves allocating the project cost estimate to individual work items over time. a) Reserve analysis b) Life cycle costing c) Project cost budgeting d) Earned value analysis 58. _________________ is a project performance measurement technique that integrates scope time, and cost data. a) Reserve analysis b) Life cycle costing c) Project cost budgeting d) Earned value analysis 59. If the actual cost for a WBS item is $1500 and its earned value was $2000, what is its cost variance, and is it under or over budget? a) The cost variance is -$500, which is over budget b) The cost variance is -$500, which is under budget c) The cost variance is $500, which is over budget d) The cost variance is $500, which is under budget 60. If a project is halfway completed and its schedule performance index is 110% and its cost performance index is 95%, how is it progressing? a) It is ahead of schedule and under budget b) It is ahead of schedule and over budget c) It is behind schedule and under budget d) It is behind schedule and over budget 61. To determine the cost of particular element in advance of the project, which technique can be employed? a) Parametric estimating b) As…………but…………s c) Forecasts d) All above 62. _______________ is the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements. a) Quality b) Conformance to requirements c) Fitness for use d) Reliability 63. What is the purpose of project quality management? a) To produce the highest quality products and services possible b) To ensure that appropriate quality standards are met c) To ensure that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken d) All of the above 64. _______________ generates ideas for quality improvements by comparing specific project practices or product characteristics to those of other projects or products within or outside the performing organization. a) Quality audits b) Design of experiments
- 83. c) Six Sigma d) Benchmarking 65. What tool could you use to determine whether a process is in control or out of control? a) A cause – and – effect diagram b) A control chart c) A run chart d) A scatter chart 66. Complication to the critical path represents the formation of compound series of activities often involving different paths which has been termed a) The critical chain b) The critical path c) TOC d) Resource path 67. Six Sigma’s target for perfection is the achievement of no more than ________________ defects, errors, or mistakes per million opportunities. a) 6 b) 9 c) 3.4 d) 1 68. The seven run rule states that if seven data points in a row on a control chart are all below the mean, above the means, or all increasing or decreasing, then the process needs to be examined for _________________ problems. a) Random b) Non – random c) Six Sigma d) Quality 69. What is the preferred order for performing testing on information technology projects? a) Unit testing, integration testing, system testing, user acceptance testing b) Unit testing, system testing, integration testing, user acceptance testing c) Unit testing, system testing, user acceptance testing, integration testing d) Unit testing, integration testing, user acceptance testing, system testing 70. ___________________ is known for his work on quality control in Japan and developed the 14 points for Management in his text Out of the Crisis. a) Juran b) Deming c) Crosby d) Ishikawa 71. The theory of constraints (TOC) is successfully applied in a) Planning b) Checking c) Manufacturing d) Controlling 72. PMI’s OPM3 is an example of a ____________________ model or framework for helping organization improve their processes and systems. a) Benchmarking b) Six Sigma c) Maturity d) Quality
- 84. 73. Which of the following is not part of project human resource management? a) Resource estimating b) Acquiring the project team c) Developing the project team d) Managing the project team 74. _________________ causes people to participate in an activity for their own enjoyment. a) Intrinsic motivation b) Extrinsic motivation c) Self motivation d) Social motivation 75. At the bottom of Maslow’s pyramid or hierarchy of needs are _____________ needs. a) Self – actualization b) Esteem c) Safety d) Physiological 76. ________________ power is based on a person’s individual charisma. a) Affiliation b) Referent c) Personality d) Legitimate 77. What technique can you use to resolve resource conflicts by delaying tasks? a) Resource loading b) Resource leveling c) Critical path analysis d) Over allocation 78. Which of the following is not a tool or technique for managing project team? a) Observation and conversation b) Project performance appraisals c) Issue logs d) Social Styles Profile 79. What do many experts agree is the greatest threat to the success of any project? a) Lack of proper funding b) A failure to communicate c) Poor listening skills d) Inadequate staffing 80. Which communication skill is most important for information technology professionals for career advancement? a) Writing b) Listening c) Speaking d) Using communication technologies 81. Which of the following is not a process in project communication management? a) Information planning b) Information distribution c) Performance reporting d) Managing stakeholders 82. A building may not be constructed unless the planning permission for it has been obtained, this is the a) Legal constraint b) Quality constraint
- 85. c) Cost constraint d) Logic constraint 83. A ________________ report describes where the project stands at a specific point in time. a) Status b) Performance c) Forecast d) Earned value 84. __________________ is an uncertainly that can have a negative or positive effect on meeting project objectives. a) Risk utility b) Risk tolerance c) Risk management d) Risk 85. A person who is a risk - ______________ receives greater satisfaction when more payoffs is at stake and is willing to pay a penalty to take risks. a) Averse b) Seeking c) Neutral d) Aware 86. Which risk management process involves prioritizing based on their probability and impact of occurrence? a) Risk management planning b) Risk identification c) Qualitative risk analysis d) Quantitative risk analysis 87. The 7-S framework of project management issues was promoted by a) McJonald and Co. b) McKinsly and Co. c) J & K Co. d) None 88. Your project involves using a new release of a software application, but if that release is not available, your team has ______________ plans to use the current release. a) Contingency b) Fallback c) Reserve d) Mitigation 89. A risk _________________ is a document that contains results of various risk management processes, often displayed in a table or spreadsheet format. a) Management plan b) Register c) Breakdown structure d) Probability / impact matrix 90. Your project team has decided not to use an upcoming release of software because it might cause your schedule to slip. Which negative risk response strategy are you using? a) Avoidance b) Acceptance c) Transference d) Mitigation
- 86. 91. For non critical activities, network diagrams build in …………………………. at the start of activities. a) Temporary b) Buffer c) Slack d) Anywhere 92. If a project being undertaken by a particular project team, then these are referred as a) Resource capability b) Resource capacity c) Resource calendar d) Resource pool 93. The term ‘hedgehog syndrome’ means a) Management problem b) Solving problem c) Repetition of problem d) Find out a problem 94. What is the first procurement process? a) Planning contracting b) Planning purchasing and acquisitions c) Requesting seller responses d) Procurement management planning 95. The _____________ is the point at which the contractor assumes total responsibility for each additional dollar of contract cost. a) A breakeven point b) Share ratio point c) Point of reconciliation d) Point of total assumption 96. We’re standing on this hill here. We want to be on that hill over there, this is a) View b) Vision c) Mission d) Aim 97. A ______________________ is a document prepared by a seller when there are different approaches for meeting buyer needs. a) RFP b) RFQ c) Proposal d) Quote 98. Buyers often prepare a ______________________ list when selecting a seller to make this process more manageable. a) Preferred b) Short c) Qualified suppliers d) BAFO 99. A proposal evaluation sheet is an example of a(n) ______________________. a) RFP b) NPV analysis c) Earned value analysis d) Weighted scoring model 100. __________________ is a term used to describe various procurement functions that are
- 87. now done electronically. a) E – procurement b) eBay c) E – commerce d) EMV Export Import Management Part One Multiple Choices 1. In case of goods being rejected or wrong shipments which section of customer act provides drawback facility on the customer’s duty? a. Section 47 b. Section 88 c. Section 74 d. Section 40 2. Risks arising out of foreign law due to________________. a. Lack of knowledge about foreign market b. Expensive and complex litigation c. A & B both d. None of these 3. Import LC is also known as ______________________. a. Letter of Debt b. Bills of exchange c. Open account d. Letter of credit 4. How much digits are there in IEC number? a. 8 b. 10 c. 12 d. 15 5. What is the full form of RFID? a. Rural fund information development b. Request for international development c. Radio frequency identification system d. Radio frequency internal system 6. The Export Inspection Council is a _____________________ b. Responsible for the enforcement of QC c. Administrative control of the ministry of Commerce & industry d. Provides consultancy to export organization 7. The World Trade Organization was formed in_________________. a. 1994 b. 1995 c. 1996 d. 1997 8. Government policies are related to__________________________. a. Income tax b. Sales tax c. A & B both
- 88. d. None 9. Clearing and forwarding agents are an important link between_______________. a. The exporter and various other agencies b. The importer and various other agencies c. Import and export of goods d. All of the above 10. Which Regional issues are important to commercial success? a. Taxation matters b. Importance of negotiations c. Degree of market risk d. All of the above Part Two 1. Define EDI procedure? 2. Differentiation between “Measurement Rules” and “Pallet Rules”? 3. Explain the Benefits of Electronic Procurement? 4. What is DGCI$S? 5. Define the role of intermediaries in Shipping Industry? Case let 1 “Large Package Meal” is a full-package meals service company, a large hotel by the Shanghai Li Yang couple of laid-off workers, was founded in 1994 and now has developed into a small Suxichang and Hangjiahu area famous food service businesses.“Popular Package Meal” service is divided into two categories: lunch and package delivery services. Lunch mainly by the meat dish, vegetables, Lu Cai, popular soup and fruit composition of normal. Available for customers to choose menu: six kinds of meat dish, vegetables, 10 species of Lu Cai 4, three kinds of soup and the general public three kinds of fruit can also be adorned with custom-made drinks. Despite little change in the menu, but the annual report on the point of view, the overall level of demand for this service fairly stable, the old customers will call to order a day usually. However, as facilities and equipment reasons, the “public packet meals” will ask the customers at 10 am before the telephone booking, in order to ensure that the day of delivery in place. In the package of services, the company’s core competency is to provide enterprises buffet reception, large gatherings, as well as the average family feast and celebration dinner. Customers need a variety of food and services can be pre-booking, but because of the service highly seasonal, but also with a variety of community festivals and national holidays related to the demand fluctuated, with high season and low season, so ask the customer a few weeks or even a month ahead of schedule to come to book. Volkswagen meal package layout is similar to the company’s facilities in a processing plant. There are five work areas: thermal system for food work areas, cold dish work area, Lu Cai preparation area, soups and fruit preparation area, as well as a work area catering specifically for the installation of the sets of dishes lunch box and book Zhuangpen share. In addition, there are three small refrigerators for storing frozen foods, a large dry storage rooms for non-perishable materials. As the facilities and equipment limitations and the risk of food spoilage constrained plant mass the size of the company’s development package meals. While the drinks and fruit can be purchased, and some stores are willing to deliver door, but the overall package on the limits of human congregation offers flexible meal service. Li Yang couples employed 10 staff: two chefs and eight food preparation workers, part-time employment during the peak season other attendants.
- 89. Packet meals sector, competition is very intense, high-quality food products, reliable delivery, flexible service and low-cost carriers are all in this line of survival and development is fundamental. Recently, the public packet meals from the company has began to feel more and more discerning customers and several new packages meal providers of professional competition. Customers increasingly need to diversify the menu of services, flexible, and the response-time. Li Yang wife recently attended knowledge of modern logistics training courses, on the time of the operation and the concept of third-party logistics services, was impressed by careful consideration of these concepts is the public packet meals company to maintain its competitiveness need. But they are puzzled, popular package Meals Company’s ability to help third-party logistics services 1. The public package meal companies implement service-time availability of difficulties, please explain? 2. The introduction of third-party logistics services to the public packet meals would you put forward any firm recommendations? Case let 2 UPS is a large international express delivery company, has hundreds of planes in addition to its own cargo planes, he also rented hundreds of aircraft cargo aircraft, the transport capacity of more than 1,000 a day. UPS in this world has established more than 10 air transport transit center in more than 200 countries and regions of the tens of thousands of delivery centers. UPS’s employees to reach hundreds of thousands. Annual turnover of the amount could reach tens of billions of dollars; express delivery companies in the world enjoy a high reputation. UPS Company is engaged in correspondence, documents and parcel delivery business, the company quickly. It is the world’s countries and regions have made access to the air traffic rights. In the China, which established a number of delivery centers. A company to take advantage of high-tech means to achieve rapid and safe, is a wide range of logistics services, image perfect. Questions 1. Why do we say UPS is an international logistics business, and general transport logistics Company? 3. To describe the international express logistics enterprises in the development prospects? 1. Discuss the role of Banks in an export-import transaction? 2. Describe briefly the steps involved in export business to succeed in the era of Globalization? International Trade Part One: Multiple Choices: 1. _________is beneficial between two nations that have strong markets in two different sectors. a. Economic Growth b. International Trade c. Trade Integration d. Trade Diversion 2. What is the full form of UNCTAD? a. United Nation Conference on Trade and Development b. Union Nations Committee of Trade and Development c. Union Nations Conference on Trade and Development d. None of the above
- 90. 3. ______is fixed through negotiation between the importing country and the exporting country. a. Tariff Quota b. Bilateral Quota c. Mixing Quota d. Unilateral Quota 4. Under which Act Reserve Code Number is required? a. Foreign Exchange Regulation Act b. Custom Act c. Export Import Control Act d. Foreign Trade Act 5. Which policy of the government will have a direct bearing on the exchange rate of the country? a. Fiscal Policy b. Instrument of Trade Policy c. Monetary Policy d. A and C both Examination Paper of Export Import Management
- 91. 6. Which scheme helps the exporters in procuring imported raw materials? a. IES b. C.C.S. c. IRS d. None of the above 7. Which of the following factor affecting the Exchange rate? a. Purchasing power Parity b. Exchange Control c. Balance of Payments d. All of the above 8. The system of permitting the currencies to move within a band is called___________ a. Snake in the tunnel b. Turtle Device c. UNCTAD d. None of the above 9. Periodic, as often as daily devaluations of pre-announced magnitude means________ Managed Float Regime b. The crawling Peg Regime c. Single currency Peg d. Composite currency Peg 10. The Export Policy of Government of India can be divided into_______ distinct phases. a. 2 b. 3 c. 4 d. 5 Part Two: 1. Write a brief note on “INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND”? 2. Write the components of the Uruguay Round Agreement? 3. Differentiate between Export Expansion and Import Substitution. 4. Explain the Term:- a. Bill of Landing b. Marine Insurance Policy Case let 1 India’s tea export rose to 46.74 million kg during the first quarter of the current financial year from 35.47 million kg in the previous comparable period. Export earnings from this item aggregates Rs. 81.61 crores during April-June 1981, against Rs. 68.03 crores in the corresponding period last year. Thus, although in terms of quantity our tea exports have looked upon this year, the unit value realization dropped from Rs. 19.8 per kg, to Rs 17.46 per kg. The drop in unit value realization is attributed to the slackness in the international tea market due to the global oversupply in this commodity. Since 1975, world tea production has gone up by 41 percent whereas increase in consumption by the tea importing countries has been only of the order of the 9 percent. Naturally, the prospects of a revival in international tea price are dim at least in the immediate future. The recommendations made by the recent national meet on tea; ‘revitalize’ the tea industry in the country have to be viewed in this context. The national meet on tea, organized by the Union Commerce Ministry, was held in the first week of August to take a close look at the various problems confronting the tea industry the meeting which was attended by the representatives of the Central Government, tea producing states, planter’s associations and small growers, has recommended a package of fiscal reliefs –both at the Central and State levels.
- 92. The package includes, among other things, a substantial reduction in excise duty on tea, refund of indirect taxes paid on tea exports, simplification of drawback procedures, substantial reduction or removal of the exercise duty on packet tea until further review,, suspension of sales tax an auction teas, concessional credit and a significant cut in the agriculture income tax and other local taxed by the respective state governments. It was also recommended that the state government should consider grant of exemption from rural employment cess to all export sales of tea and teas used for packaging by the procedures themselves. According to the available information these recommendations are being considered by the central and states concerned by the central and states concerned for implementation. The basic problem that confronts the tea industry in the international sphere is one of depressed price. More and more black tea is coming into the international markets from several new tea producing export countries leading to oversupply, lower realization. Among the tea producing nations area realizing without greater cooperation among them, to bring a better equilibrium between demand and supply, they cannot get incentives for tea exports. Because of lower production cost, some of our competitors have an edge over us in export makers, and incentives may be necessary to an extent for offsetting this price disadvantage. Similarly, assistance for exports of non-traditional items such as tea bags and packet tea would be advantageous for establishing markets for these high value added items whose share in our overall a tea exports is small at present
- 93. Questions 1. Discuss the problem that comforts the Tea Industry in the International sphere? 2. How you asses would the Tea producing states has recommended a package of fiscal reliefs. Case let 2 August 12, 1992 was a really bad day for John Martin. That was the day Canada, Mexico and the United States announced an agreement, in principle, to the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Under the plan, all tariffs between the three countries would be eliminated within the next 10 to 15 years, with most being cut in five years. What disturbed Martin most was the plan’s provision that all tariffs on trade of textiles among the three countries are to be removed within 10 years. Under the proposed agreement, Mexico and Canada would also be allowed to ship a specific amount of clothing and textiles made from foreign materials to the United States each year, and this quota would raise slightly over the first five years of the agreement. “My God!” thought Martin. Martin is the CEO of a New York based textile company, Martin’s Textiles. The company has been in the Martin family for four generations, having been founded by his great grandfather in 1910. Today, the company employs 1500 people in three New York plants that produce cotton based clothes, primarily underwear. All production employees are union members and the company has a long history of good labour relations. The company has never had a labour dispute and Martin, like his father, grandfather, and great -grandfather before him, regards the workforce as part of the "Martin family". Martin prides himself not only in knowing many of the employees by name, but also in knowing a great deal about the family circumstances of many of the long time employees. Over the past 20 years the company has experienced increasingly tough competition, both from overseas and at home. The mid 1980s was particularly difficult. The strength of the dollar on the foreign exchange market during that period enabled Asian producers to enter the US market with very low prices. Since then, although the dollar has weakened against many major currencies, the Asian producers have not raised their prices in response to the falling driven by wage rates and labour productivity. Not surprisingly, most of Martin’s competitors in the north-eastern United States respond to the intense cost competition by moving production south, first to states such as South Carolina and Mississippi where non –union labour could be hired for significantly less than in the unionized North-east, and then to Mexico, where labour costs for textile workers were less than $2 per hour. In contrast, wage rates are $12.50 per hour at Martin’s New York plant and $8 to $10 per hour at non-union textile plants in the south eastern United States. The last three years have been particularly tough at Martin’s Textiles. The company has registers a small loss each year, and Martin knows the company cannot go on like this. His major customers, while praising the quality of Martin’s products, have worried him that his prices are getting too high and they may not be able to continue to do business with him, His long-time banker has told him he must get his labour costs down. Martin agrees, but he knows of only one surefire way to do that, to move production south, way south, to Mexico. He has always been reluctant to do that, but now he seems to have little choice. Examination Paper of Export Import Management
- 94. He fear as that in a5 years the Us market will be flooded with cheap imports from Asian, US and Mexican companies, all producing in Mexico. It looks like the only way for Martin’s Textiles to survive is to close the New York plant and move production to Mexico. All that would be left in the United States would be the Sales force. Martin’s mind was spinning. How could something that throws good honest people out of work be good for the country? The politicians said it would be good for trade, good for economic growth and good for the three countries. Martin could not see it that way. What about Mary Morgan who has worked for Martin’s for 30 years? She is now 54 year as old. How will she and others like her find another job? What about his moral obligation to his workers? What about the loyalty his workers have shown his family over the years? Is this a good way to repay it? How would he break the news to his employees, many of whom have worked for the company for 10 to 20 years? And what about the Mexican workers? Could they be as loyal and production in Mexico, he had heard stories of low productivity, poor workmanship high turnover and high absenteeism. Is this true? If so, how could be ever cope with that? Martin has always felt that the success of Martin’s textiles was partly due to the family atmosphere, which encourages worker loyalty, productivity and attention to quality, an atmosphere that has been built up over four generations. How could he replicate that in Mexico with a bunch of foreign workers who speak a language he doesn’t even understand? Questions 1. What are the social costs of benefits to Martin’s Textiles of shifting production to Mexica? 2. What seems to be the most ethical action? 1. Describe the current issues affecting the Exchange Rate of India? 2. Explain briefly “New Trade Theory”? Examination Paper of Foreign Trade management IIBM Institute of Business Management 1 IIBM Institute of Business Management Examination Paper MM.100 Indian Foreign Trade Section A: Objective Type (30 Marks) Answer all the questions Part one carry 1 mark each and Part Two questions carry 5 marks each. Part One: Multiple choices: 1. Which of the following is NOT an initiative for attracting a higher Quantum of FDI? a. Further Liberalization of Foreign Trade Policy b. Rationalization of Labour Policy c. Development of Infrastructure d. Increase in Joint ventures 2. ECB stands for ______________________________ 3. The textile and garment exports have been affected due to __________________
- 95. 4. _____ is a popular export inductive scheme. 5. To overcome many of the problems associated with the advance licensing system this scheme was introduced a. Passbook Scheme b. EPGC Scheme c. Post Export Duty Exemption Scheme d. Duty Drawback Scheme 6. Which of the following is a potential Export product a. Automobile Products c. Agricultural Products b. Leather Products d. Engineering Products 7. To give a special trust for export of computer software which of the following scheme was developed a. DEPB Scheme c. EOU/EPI Scheme b. EPCG Scheme d. Duty Exemption scheme 8. It is a bilateral agreement between two countries to purchase specific amounts of each other’s products over a specified period of time a. Swap c. Clearing Examination Paper of Foreign Trade management IIBM Institute of Business Management 2
- 96. b. Switch d. Evidence Accounts 9. TRIPS stands for ____________________________ 10. Foreign Investment Promotion Board does not consist which of the following member a. Secretary Minister of External Affairs b. Industry Secretary - Chairman c. Foreign Investment Minister d. Finance Secretary Part Two: 1. Write a short note on ‘Globalization’? 2. Differentiate between Current Account Convertibility and Capital Account Convertibility? 3. Define ‘Deemed Exports’? 4. Discus the measures announced in the Union Budget 1990 – 00 for Trade Policy Reforms? END OF SECTION A Section B: Caselets (40 Marks) Caselet 1 An American World Wide Corporation has decided to expand aggressively in Asia. It plans to source much of its raw materials and subcontracting there and manufacture and market throughout Asia, from Japan in the north to New Zealand in the South. You were appointed to organize and direct this major new effort and one question was where to locate the regional headquarters for the Asian Division (ADR). After considerable study, you selected the island nation of Luau. Luau’s advantages are several. It is about equidistant between New Zealand and Japan. It was a British Colony, so the main language is English. It has a relatively efficient telephone and telegraph system and Examination Paper of Foreign Trade management IIBM Institute of Business Management 3
- 97. good air service to all the major Asian destinations in which you are interested and to the United states, as well. Not least important, the Luau government is delighted to have your company locate and invest there. It has made very attractive tax concessions to the company and to its personnel who will move there. The company moves in, leases one large building and puts out invitations to bid on the construction of a large building which will be its permanent headquarters. Now as you begin to work much more with the private banking and business people of luau and less with government officials, you begin to be more aware of luau characteristics about which you had not thought much previously. Almost all of the middle and upper management personnel in the business and finance sector are of Chinese extraction. The native population of luau, which is the majority, is a Micronesian race. On enquiry why the Chinese are dominant in banking and business; while the Micronesians stay with farming, fishing, government and manual labor, you are told that this is the way it developed historically. The Chinese enjoy and are good at banking and business; while the native Luauans do not like those activities and have stayed with their traditional pastimes. The two groups buy and sell from and to each other, but there are almost no social relations and very little business or professional overlap between the groups. Occasionally, some of the Micronesians study abroad and some work abroad for periods; when they return they frequently go to work in a bank or business or take a government position. You must staff your headquarters with middle and lower management people and with clerical help. You find that the only applicants for the jobs are Chinese, and you select the best available. They are quite satisfactory, and the operation gets off to a good start. Then as the months pass, you notice a gradual change of attitude towards you and the company among the government officials and among the people in general. They have become less friendly, more evasive, and less co-operative. You ask your Chinese staff about it, but they have noticed nothing unusual. Required Q. Give some suggestions to improve the Government and Public Relations? Caselet 2 Vertex, the tenth largest bank in the world has promoted world – class institutions in India. A few of such institutions built by Vertex are National Stock Exchange, The National Securities Depository Services Limited, Stock Holding Corporation of India etc. vertex is a strategic investor in a plethora of institutions, which have revolutionized the Indian Financial Markets. Vertex promoted Vertex Bank to make the formal foray of the Vertex group into commercial banking. The birth of Vertex Bank took place after RBI issued guidelines to for the entry of new private sector banks in January 19, 1993. Subsequently, Vertex as promoters sought permission to establish a commercial bank and retained Examination Paper of Foreign Trade management IIBM Institute of Business Management 4
- 98. KPMG a management consultant of international repute to prepare the groundwork for establishing a commercial Bank. Vertex successfully completed its public issue in February 1999, which led to its paid – up capital expanding to Rs. 1400 million. The promoters holding consequent to this public issue stood reduced to 71% with Vertex holding 57% and SIDBI 14% of the paid –up capital of Vertex Bank. This was in line with the requirement of RBI which stipulated that eventually the promoters holding should be bought down to 40%. Banking as a whole was undergoing a change in India. With the retail – banking sector expected to grow at a rate of 30%, players were focusing more and more on the retail sector. In 2000, there was a corporate shift in the emphasis of Vertex bank from corporate banking to retail Banking. This shift was mainly initiated due to the change in the top management at corporate office and also due to a paradigm shift in the global banking industry from corporate banking to retail Banking. The bank felt the need to provide its retail clients with complete banking solutions under one roof top penetrate the retail sector. In line with the change in emphasis, Vertex Bank decided to divide the functions of Rajendra Pillai who was earlier looking after both corporate and retail services, by appointing a young and dynamic management graduate Sanjay Singh to head the retail banking segment. The following were some of the measures adopted by the bank for promoting its retail products. Product: The bank introduced a wide array of retail banking products in order to penetrate the retail – banking segment. Earlier, the bank had concentrated on big retail clients. Only clients having a minimum balance of Rs. 25,000 were allowed to open a savings account. However, the minimum balance requirement was lowered to Rs. 5,000. The first category consisted of clients having an average quarterly balance of Rs 5 lakh and above, and the second category consisted of customers having an average quarterly balance of Rs. 25 lakh and above. These preferred customers were provided special facilities like home delivery of demand drafts. The facilities were higher in the first category of clients. State – of –the – art technology was used in the banking services by introducing ATMs, Internet banking, demat services, International debit cards with multiple currency facility options available globally etc. transactions pertaining to the Central and State Government ministries and non – civil ministers e.g. Indian Railways Income tax etc. insurance policies etc. k had set up 7 ATMs in Indore at prominent locations to facilitate better customer service. The cost of availing an ATM card facility entailed an annual charge of Rs. 99. From their inception, ATMs were being used merely as cash dispensing machines. Just four years back, people were apprehensive of using ATMs for cheque/cash deposit. They feared the loss/ misuse of their cheques/cash, if they deposited it in the ATMs. mat account took care of all customers worries involved in portfolio management which was facilitated electronically. ATM transactions and for payment of the purchase made at several retail outlets. The bank did not provide any Credit Card facilities. Examination Paper of Foreign Trade management IIBM Institute of Business Management 5
- 99. World Currency Card: This card was exclusively designed for international travelers’ needs. From a single card, customers can make payments/withdrawls in five foreign currencies. Gift Cards: This card was issued to Vertex saving Account holders and had a minimum limit of Rs. 51,000. The card enabled clients to make payment at various gift stores throughout the country. Home Loans: The bank offered home loans at a competitive interest rates for purchase, construction, refinance, extension etc. Phone Banking and Mobile Phone Banking: Banking services such as updated balance, details of last five transactions, request for cheque book etc, were offered free of cost. Internet Banking: All banking solutions were offered on the Vertex Website www.vertexbank.com. The bank believed in providing anywhere anytime banking to its customers. Promotion: The corporate office was promoting the retail products through nationwide ad campaigns. These campaigns used billboards and hoardings mounted on kiosks. These campaigns were highly innovative using animals for promoting major themes of customized services. The bank was, however, not using any electronic media for advertising and used sales promotion for selling some of the products like gift cards. Initially, the branch was allowed a promotional budget of Rs. 2 – 3 lacs in order to establish itself in the market. Distribution: In order to support Sanjay Singh, a marketing team was appointed which consisted of two young sales managers and 20 marketing executives who operated in the field. These marketing representatives engaged in direct marketing included personal selling. The sales force was totally target – oriented and various incentives were provided to the star performers. HR Policies: In order to develop and motivate the sales force the bank had come up with key result areas like budgets, star performance incentives etc. under this activity each employee’s performance was appraised through a unique five – tier performance appraisal system. The employee was also given a certificate of appreciation for his excellent performance. For creating a sense of belongingness, the birthdays of employees were celebrated by flashing their name and birthday greetings on the Intranet. The employee was also presented with a bouquet. The bank had been able to increase its retail customers from 20,000 to 40,000 in Indore. The contribution of retail services to the annual profits had increased from Rs. 73 Crores to Rs. 123 Crores nationwide and from 1.50 Crores to 3.5 Crores for the Indore branch. Vertex bank as a whole had the lowest Non Performing Assets (NPA) amongst private banks namely 0.2% and was known for its efficiency. The Indore branch had established itself as number one private banks in terms of overall profitability. In the present scenario, Sanjay Singh wondered whether the strategies adopted for penetrating the retail market were sufficient to retain current customers and attract new ones. With aggressive promotional strategies followed by other banks and the proposed entry of Citicorp, he pondered on whether the current strategies would continue to be effective in the long run. Questions Q 1. Discuss the measures adopted by the bank for promoting its retail products? Q2. Evaluate the impact of strategies on financial performance of the firm? Examination Paper of Foreign Trade management IIBM Institute of Business Management 6
- 100. END OF SECTION B Section C: Applied Theory (30 Marks) 1. What are the major features of EXIM policy 1992 - 97? 2. Discuss the elements of the Capital Account? 3. Describe the state’s role in Export Promotion? CASE STUDY ANSWERS ASSIGNMENT SOLUTIONS PROJECT REPORTS AND THESIS ISBM / IIBMS / IIBM / ISMS / KSBM / NIPM SMU / SYMBIOSIS / XAVIER / NIRM / PSBM / NSBM / ISM / IGNOU / IICT / ISBS / LPU / ISM&RC MBA - EMBA - BMS - GDM - MIS - MIB DMS - DBM - PGDM - DBM - DBA www.mbacasestudyanswers.com www.casestudysolution.in www.casestudies.co.in aravind.banakar@gmail.com ARAVIND 09901366442 - 09902787224 Foreign Exchange Management Multiple choices:
- 101. 1. It is established to help countries in reconstructing their economies in the post World War II? a. International Monetary Fund b. World Bank c. International Finance Corporation d. International Development Association 2. The exchange rates which is variable between currencies and determined by demand and supply a. Floating Exchange Rate System c. Fixed Exchange Rate System b. Free Float d. Managed float 3. The branches which do not maintain independent foreign currency accounts but have powers to operate the accounts falls under a. Category A c. Category B b. Category C d. Category D 4. _____ quote is given by a bank to its retail customers a. Merchant Quote c. Interbank Quote b. American Quote d. European Quote 5. To take the base rate and add the appropriate margin to it is an a. Spot TT Buying Rate c. Spot TT Selling Rate b. Forward TT Buying Rate d. Forward TT Selling Rate 6. Which of the following is not an assumption to Law of One Price a. Movement of Goods c. No Transaction Costs b. No Tariffs d. Relative Form of PPP 7. The approach in which the value of a currency is determined by the relative demand and supply of money and, the relative demand and supply of bonds is
- 102. a. The Monetary Approach c. Exchange Rate Volatility Approach c. The Asset Approach d. The Portfolio Balance Approach 8. Which of the following is the most important currency in the world after the collapse of Bretten Woods a. Yen c. US Dollar b. Sterling d. DM 9. Option Forward is a a. Forward Contract entered along with buying a call option. b. Forward Contract entered along with writing a put option c. Forward Contract entered by buying or selling at a future date. d. Forward Contract entered by buying or selling over a period. 10. Hedging aims to a. Increase Profits c. Reduce Costs b. Maximize Profits d. Minimize Risk Part Two: 1. Differentiate between Forward Rates and Expected Spot Rates? 2. Write a note on ‘Swaps’? 3. Differentiate between Bid Rate and Ask Rate? 4. Write a note on ‘Interest Rate Parity’? Caselet 1 International asset swaps can be used to achieve international diversification without eroding the level of foreign exchange reserves and weakening local market development. These asset swaps demand limited foreign currency flows, which implies that there is a need for only net gains or losses to be exchanged. Asset swaps protect foreign investors from market manipulation and expropriation risk and have much lower transaction costs than outright investments. In spite of all this, asset swaps are constrained by the attractiveness of local markets to foreign investors, and by various regulatory issues covering counter- party risk, collateral considerations, accounting, valuation, and reporting rules. Examination Paper of Foreign Trade management
- 103. Institutional investors, especially pension funds and life insurance companies, are becoming the major participants in the financial systems of many developing countries. In some cases like Egypt, Malaysia or Sri Lanka, the sector is dominated by public agencies, but in several countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cyprus, Hungary, Mauritius and especially South Africa private institutions play a prominent role in the accumulation of long-term financial resources. But in most developing countries, pension funds and other institutional investors operate under strict limitations on their foreign investments, mainly because of the shortage of foreign exchange reserves and the fear of capital flight. The imposition of exchange controls on investment in foreign assets affects the financial performance of pension funds and insurance companies. Exchange controls prevent an international diversification of risk and a reduction in the exposure of contractual savings institutions to domestic currency and market risk. Pension funds and other institutional investors in most developing countries are not generally allowed to invest overseas. Even OECD countries, until the early 1980s, used to apply tight quantitative restrictions on overseas investments by local institutions. The most common rationale for such restrictions is to reduce the risk of capital ‘flight’, especially institutionalized capital flight. Another rationale is to invest the locally mobilized long-term savings ‘at home’ to stimulate the development of local capital markets and enhance employment opportunities for the same workers. Even in the absence of legal limitations on foreign investing by local institutional investors, there are other significant barriers—the most important are risk of expropriation by foreign governments and transaction costs. These costs can be so large that they may offset any diversification benefits that would otherwise accrue, especially when relatively low volumes of funds are involved. International diversification improves the risk/return trade-off of investment portfolios by reducing the exposure to cyclical and long-term structural shifts in local economic performance. In the US, where the large local economy is highly diversified and where presence of global corporations provides an indirect avenue of international diversification, overseas assets are less than 12% of total assets, although this represents a significant increase over time. Removing exchange controls and fully integrating with international capital markets should be the ultimate objective of policy in all developing countries. However, complete removal of exchange controls is often constrained by the paucity of foreign exchange reserves and the fear of stimulating capital flight, especially if confidence in future stability is low. Asset swaps are clearly a second best option compared to the lifting of exchange controls. Developing countries should consider authorizing their institutional investors to engage in international asset swaps. But they should authorize to use properly designed swap contracts, preferably based on the basket of liquid securities, permit only global investment banks to act as counter-parties, require use of global custodians, properly monitor credit risk, maintain adequate collateral, and adopt market-to-market valuation rules. Questions Q 1. How does the international asset swap mechanism work? Explain. Q2. Discuss the various benefits of international asset swaps. Caselet 2 The RBI held the view, for long, that strong exchange reserves need to be maintained, due to the bad experience India had to go through in 1991. It has been a widely known policy of the RBI to keep Examination Paper of Foreign Trade management
- 104. accumulating dollar reserves, whenever there are strong inflows of foreign funds, which also ensures that the rupee does not appreciate much. The policy has, over the years, resulted in the foreign exchange reserves increasing to over $100 billion. However, this policy has also led to the RBI being criticized for interfering in the foreign exchange markets too often. Several justifications have been given for this policy. The first one, as mentioned in the opening sentence, is the lack of confidence in the international architecture. That is, the liquidity support available to a country when it suffers from Balance of Payments problems could be inadequate, not available when needed urgently, or be set with political preconditions not acceptable to the country facing the problems. The second reason is often the desire to contain the risks that may arise from external shocks. External private capital often comes in when the country is doing well and exits at the first indication of trouble. Having large reserves is essential to contain the panic conditions that prevail in the markets in such situations. The third reason is the opportunity created by the current excessive liquidity in the international financial markets and the associated low interest rates. If the interest rates escalate later, capital may again reverse its direction, and flow to the markets in the developed countries. Reserves accumulated at present will be helpful to withstand such shocks later. The final reason, which is no less important, is that foreign currency reserves are required to withstand the periodical volatility in the foreign exchange markets. The markets of emerging economies are less efficient and cannot be depended upon to make automatic adjustments to correct the volatility in the markets. Similarly, a politically sensitive event like the Pokhran blasts or skirmishes with Pakistan on the border can cause a lot of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) who are currently pumping money into the country to withdraw it over night. Such swings in sentiment can play havoc with the exchange rates, and the government will be called on to play a stabilizing role in such a situation. The consistent accumulation of dollars has been often stopping the rupee from appreciating, though there have been strong inflows of the dollar, on numerable counts in the past. The resultant liquidity released into the system used to be sterilized by the RBI through issue of government securities. To an extent, the inclination of the banks to invest in government securities beyond the statutory requirements has come in handy for the RBI in achieving stability in the exchange rate of the rupee. However, the situation changed from early last year (2003), when the rupee started appreciating against the dollar. At the same time, the rupee has been depreciating against other major currencies like the Euro and Yen, indicating that the appreciation is basically due to the weakness of the dollar against these currencies. The RBI, this time, chose to allow some amount of appreciation of the rupee, against dollar. The appreciation gained momentum due to inflows of dollars continuing, with the NRIs encouraged by the gain of the rupee. Added to this, the prices of crude oil fell, easing the pressure on the need for payments for oil imports. With the fear of losing out due to further improvement in the rupee exchange rate, exporters also rushed to remit the dollars to India, pushing the exchange rate further up. The sustained positive current account balance also appears to have had its impact in generating positive sentiments for the rupee. It has been alleged, however, that most of the fund flows to India are to gain from the arbitrage. Investors always prefer to invest in a currency that is appreciating, so that they can gain from the interest and also from the appreciation if the currency. However, this argument is refuted on several counts. The spread on the NRI deposits is capped at 2.5% and is often not more than forward premium on the dollar in the Indian market. The investment by the FIIs in debt funds is limited to $1 billion, all the FIIs put together. This cap prevents them from making any meaningful arbitrage gains. The variability in interest rates in the two currencies involved, keeping in view the narrow spreads, can add risk to the seemingly risk-less arbitrage. In view of these arguments, it Examination Paper of Foreign Trade management
- 105. can be said that the flow of dollars into India is driven by factors other than the strength of the rupee and the resultant opportunities for arbitrage. Questions - Q 1. What measures according to you the RBI should take to manage rupee-dollar exchange rates? Q2. Do you think appreciation of rupee against dollar have any significant adverse impact on the Indian economy? Discuss. 1. How many types of Exposures are there in terms of Exchange Risk? 2. Write a note on Information Technology & Management Part One: Multiple Choices: 1. Computer crime is defined by a. AITP b. SWAT c. Both (a) & (b) d. None of the above 2. Prototyping is sometimes called a. ASD b. RSD c. RAD d. None of the above 3. Virtual reality is also called a. Computer-simulated reality b. Neurons c. Software robots d. Telepresence 4. A trackball is a stationary device related to the a. Keyboard b. Joystick c. Mouse d. All of the above 5. Hand-held microcomputer devices known as a. Personal digital assistance b. Super computers c. Both (a) & (b) d. None of the above 6. KMS stands for a. Knowledge memory systems
- 106. b. Knowledge making system c. Knowledge management systems d. None of the above 7. A basic system component of information systems is a. Memory b. Processing c. Storage d. All of the above 8. How many characters uses the MICR system a. 15 characters b. 18 characters c. 24 characters d. 14 characters 9. EBCDIC stands for a. Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code b. Extended Binary Coded Decimal Instruction Code c. Extended Binary Coded Data Interchange Code d. Electronic Binary Coded Data Interchange Code 10. The smallest element of data is called a. Byte b. Bit c. Giga byte d. None of the above Part Two: 1. Write a note on ‘Cache Memory’. 2. What do know about ‘Assembler’? 3. Write a note on ‘Optical Character Recognition’. 4. Explain the term ‘Electronic commerce’.
- 107. Caselet 1 It began as a trading site for nerds, the newly jobless, home-bound housewives, and bored retirees to sell subprime goods: collectibles and attic trash. But eBay (www.ebay.com) quickly grew into a teeming marketplace of 30 million, with its own laws and norms, such as a feedback system in which buyers and sellers rate each other on each transaction. When that wasn’t quite enough, eBay formed its own police force to patrol the listings for fraud and kick out offenders. The company even has something akin to a bank: Its Paypal payment-processing unit allows buyers to make electronic payments to eBay sellers who can’t afford a merchant credit card account. “eBay is creating a second, virtual economy,” says W. Brian Arthur, an economist at think tank Santa Fe Institute. “It’s opening up a whole new medium of exchange.” eBay’s powerful vortex is drawing diverse products and players into its profitable economy, driving its sellers into the heart of traditional retailing, a $2 trillion market. Among eBay’s 12 million daily listings are products from giants such as Sears Roebuck, Home Depot, Walt Disney, and even IBM. More than a quarter of the offerings are listed at fixed prices. The result, says Bernard H. Tenenbaum, president of a retail buyout firm, is “They‘re coming right for the mainstream of the retail business.” So what started out as a pure consumer auction market-place is now also becoming a big time business-to-consumer and even business-to-business bazaar that is earning record profits for eBay’s stockholders. And as the eBay economy expands, CEO Meg Whitman and her team may find that managing it could get a lot tougher, especially because eBay’s millions of passionate and clamorous users demand a voice in all major decisions. This process is clear in one of eBay’s most cherished institutions: the voice of the Customer program. Every couple of months, the executives of eBay bring in as many as a dozen sellers and buyers, especially its high selling “Power Sellers,” to ask them questions about how they work and what else eBay needs to do. And at least twice a week, it holds hour-long teleconferences to poll users on almost every new feature or policy, no matter how small. The result is that users feel like owners, and they take the initiative to expand the eBay economy – often beyond management’s wildest dreams. Stung by an aerospace down-turn, for instance, machine-tool shop Reliable Tools Inc., tried listing a few items on eBay in late 1998. Some were huge, hulking chunks of metal, such as a $7,000 2,300-pound milling machine. Yet they sold like ice cream in August. Since then, says Reliable’s auction manager, Richard Smith, the company’s eBay business has “turned into a monster.” Now the Irwindale (California) shop’s $1 million in monthly eBay sales constitutes 75% of its overall business. Pioneers such as Reliable promoted eBay to set up an industrial products marketplace in January that’s on track to top $500 million in gross sales this year.Then there is eBay Motors. When eBay manager Simon Rothman first recognized a market for cars on cars on eBay in early 1999, he quickly realized that such high-ticket items would require a different strategy than simply opening a new category. To jump-start its supply of cars and customers, eBay immediately bought a collector-car auction company, Kruse International, for $150 million in stock, and later did a deal to include listings from online classifieds site, AutoTrader.com. Rothman also arranged insurance and warranty plans, an escrow service, and shipping and inspection services.This approach worked wonder. Sales of cars and car parts, at a $5 billion-plus annual clip, are eBay's single largest market. That has catapulted eBay in front of No. 1 U.S. auto dealer AutoNation in number of used cars sold. About half of the sellers are brick-and-mortar dealers who now have a much larger audience than their local area. “eBay is by far one of my better sources for buyers,” says Bradley Bonifacius, Internet sales director at Dean Stallings Ford in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. And for now, the big corporations, which still account for under 5 percent of eBay’s gross sales, seem to be bringing in more customers then they steal. Motorola Inc., for example, helped kick off a new wholesale business for eBay last year, selling excess and returned cell phones in large lots. Thanks to the initiative of established companies such as Motorola, eBay’s wholesale business jumped ninefold, to $23 million, in the first quarter.As businesses on eBay grow larger, they spur the creation of even more businesses. A new army of merchants, for example, is making a Examination Paper of Information Technology
- 108. business out of selling on eBay for other people. From almost none a couple of years ago, these so called Trading Assistants now number nearly 23,000. This kind of organic growth makes it exceedingly though to predict how far the eBay economy can go. Whitman professes not to know. “We don’t actually control this,” she admits. “We are not building this company by ourselves. We have a unique partner – million of people.” 1. Why has eBay become such a successful and diverse online marketplace? Visit the eBay website to help you answer, and check out their many trading categories, specialty sites, international sites, and other features. 2. Why do you think eBay has become the largest online/offline seller of used cars, and the largest online seller of certain other products, like computers and photographic equipment? Caselet 2 It’s no secret that somewhere in a back room in the typical Fortune 500 company, there’s a team of analytical wizards running sophisticated data mining queries that mine for gems such as data about about the company’s best customers – those top 20 percent of clients that produce 80 percent of the company’s profits. These jewels can be a business’s most valuable intellectual property, which makes them very valuable to competitors. What’s to prevent that data set from walking out the door or falling into the wrong hands? Some times, not much. Many companies lack the internal controls to prevent that information from leaking. The problem is that such data is as hard to protect as it is to find. Owens & Minor Inc. (www.ownes- minor.com), a $4 billion medical supplies distributor, counts some of the nation’s largest health care organizations among its customers. In late 1996, it started mining data internally using business intelligence software from Business Objects SA. “From the beginning, we were aware of security issues around this strategic information about our operations,” says Don Stoller, senior director of information systems at Owens & Minor. “For example, a sales executive in Dallas should only have access to analyses from his region.” It is always possible that someone who has legitimate access will abuse that trust, but companies can minimize that potential by strictly limiting access to only those who need it. thus, Owens & Minor uses role-level security functions that clearly define who has access to which data. “This meant we had to build a separate security table in our Oracle database,” says Stoller. A few years later, when the company wanted to open its systems to suppliers and customers, security became even more important. In 1998, Owens & Minor moved quickly to take advantage of Web-intelligence software from Business Objects that’s designed to Web-enable business intelligence systems. The result was Wisdom, an extranet Web portal that lets Owens & Minor’s suppliers and customers access their own transactional data and generate sophisticated analyses and reports from it.“It business-to-business transactions, security is key,” says Stoller. “We had to make absolutely sure that Jhonson & Jhonson, for example, could not see any 3M’s information. This meant we had to set up specific customer and supplier security tables, and we had to maintain new, secured database views using the Oracle DBMS and Business Objects.”Wisdom was such a success that Owens & Minor decided to go into the intelligence business with the launch of wisdom2 in the spring of 2000. “We capture data out of a hospital’s materials management system and load it into our data warehouse,” Stoller explains. A hospital can then make full use of its business-intelligence software to mine and analyze purchasing data. Owens & Minor receives a licensing and maintenance fee for the services.Layers of security and encryption require a considerable amount of overhead data for systems administration. Both Stoller and Michael Rasmussen, an analyst at Giga Information Group, say that’s the main reason security concerns about business intelligence are often swept under the carpet. The issues of authentication (identifying the user) and authorization (what things the user is allowed to do) must be addressed, usually across different applications, Rasmussen says, adding, “Systems Examination Paper of Information Technology
- 109. administration can be a real nightmare.”“We are going through some of this,” says David Merager, director of Web services and corporate applications at Vivendi Universal Games Inc. (www.vugames.com). “Our business intelligence needs more security attention.” Business intelligence reports come from two systems: an Oracle-based for budgets on a Microsoft SQL Server database. The heart of the business intelligence system consists of Microsoft’s OLAP application and software from Comshare Inc. that provides the Web- based front end for the analytics. “Our budget teams use these reports to do real-time analyses,” says Merager. Rodger Sayles, manager of data warehousing at Vivendi Universal, says one way to secure such a system is to assign roles to all users within the Microsoft application. Roles determine precisely what a user is allowed to see and do and are usually managed within a directory. If your computing architecture is amenable to a single, centralized directory that supports roles, this may be an attractive solution. “The problem is that once you have over 40 distinct roles, you run into performance issues, and we have identified about 70 user roles,” Sayles explains. He says there’s way around this difficulty. “I think we are going to use a combination of Web portals and user roles. A user would sign on through a particular Web portal, which would effectively place the user in a role category. This reduces the overhead burden on the application,” says Sayles. 1. Why have developments in IT helped to increase the value of the data resources of many companies? 2. How can companies use IT to meet the challenges of data resources security? 1. What potential security problems do you see in the increasing use of intranets and extranets in business? What might be done to solve such problems? Give several examples? 2. Suppose you are a manager being asked to develop e-business and e-commerce applications to gain a competitive advantage in an important market for your company. What reservations might you have about doing so? Why? Database Management Systems Part One: Multiple choices: 1. The normal language of database is a. PHP b. SQL c. C++ d. Java 2. DDL, a database system language a. Creates table b. Manipulates table c. Cannot work with table d. None 3. Symbol for one to one relationship is……………………………………………………… 4. HDBMS stands for a. Hello DBMS b. Hierarchical DBMS c. Hyper DBMS
- 110. d. High DBMS 5. In Anti joining of R►S means …………………………………………………………… Part Two: 1. What are “Foreign Keys”? 2. Differentiate between ‘DBMS’ and ‘RDBMS’. 3. Write the syntax to Insert charts into a table from another table. 4. What are ‘Armstrong’s Axioms’. 5. Write short ‘Boyce-Codd Normal Form (BCNF)’. 1. Elaborate the testing of Serializability techniques with example. 2. Explain the working of lock manager. 3. What is deadlock? How is a deadlock detected? Enumerate the method for recovery from the deadlock. 4. Explain why a transaction execution should be atomic. Explain ACID properties, considering the following transaction. Ti: read (A); A : = A- 50; Write (A); Read (B); B : = B + 50; Write (B) 1. The HR manager has decided to raise the salary for all the employees in department number 30 by 0.25. Whenever any such raise is given to the EMPLOYEES, a record for the same is maintained in the EMP-RAISE table. It includes the employee number, the date when the raise was given and the actual raise. Write a PL/SQL block to update the salary of each employee and insert a record in the EMP- RAISE table. 2. Retrieve the salesman name in ‘New Delhi’ whose efforts have resulted into atleast one sales transaction. Table Name : SALES-MAST Salesman-no Name City B0001 B0002 B0003 B0004 B0005 Puneet Kumar Pravin Kumar Radha Krishna Brijesh Kumar Tushar Kumar Varanasi Varanasi New Delhi New Delhi Allahabad
- 111. B0006 B0007 Nitin Kumar Mahesh Kumar Allahabad Gr. Noida International Business Management Part One: Multiple choices: 1. What is the series consideration for strategy implementation? a. Strategic orientation b. Location c. Dimensions d. Both (a) & (b) 2. The major activity in global marketing is a. Pricing policies b. Product lines c. Market assessment d. All of the above 3. The third ‘P’ in the international marketing mix is a. Product b. Price c. Promotion d. Place 4. The European Economic Community was established a. 1958 b. 1975 c. 1967 d. 1957 5. Environment Protection Act a. 1986 b. 1967 c. 1990 d. None of the above 6. People’s attitude toward time depend on a. Language b. Relationship c. Culture d. All of the above 7. Culture necessitates adaption of a. Product b. Price c. Promotion d. Place 8. The legal term for brand is a. Symbol
- 112. b. Name c. Trade mark d. All of the above 9. FDI flows are often a reflection of rivalry among firms in a. Global market b. Indian market c. International market d. None of the above 10. ISO certification is a. Expensive process b. Elaborate process c. Evaluative Process d. Both (a) & (b) Part Two: 1. What do understand by ‘Inward-oriented Policies’? 2. What is ‘Factor Endowments Theory’? 3. Explain the term ‘Totalitarianism’. 4. Write about ‘Persistent Dumping’.
- 113. Caselet 1 THE EU’S LAGGING COMPETITIVENESS In a report produced for the European Commission, published in November 1998, it was argued that the EU lags behind the USA and Japan on most measures of international competitiveness. Gross domestic product per capita, sometimes used as an indicator of international competitiveness at the country level, was 33 per cent lower in the EU as a whole than in the USA and 13 per cent lower than in Japan. The EU’s poor record in creating employment was singled out for particular criticism. As this appeared to apply across the board in most industrial sectors, it suggested that the EU’s poor performance related to the business environment in general and, in particular, to the inflexibility of Europe’s labour markets for goods and services. A shortage of risk capital for advanced technological development and high cost and inefficiency of Europe’s financial services were also highlighted by the report. For one reason or another, European industries generally lag behind in technology industries. If measured by the number of inventions patented in at least two countries, the USA is well ahead of most European countries, as well as Japan. Despite these shortcomings, the report’s authors focus attention on flexible markets, market liberalisation, and the creation of a competitive business environment rather than on targeted intervention by the EU or national authorities. 1. Is gross domestic product per capita a useful indicator of International competitiveness in the EU? 2. Is it fair to point the blame for the EU’s poor international competitiveness at inflexible labour markets, regulated goods and services markets, and a general lack of competition? What alternative explanations might be suggested? Caselet 2 PERU Peru is located on the west coast of South America. It is the third largest nation of the continent (after Brazil and Argentina), and covers almost 500,000 square miles (about 14 per cent of the size of the United States). The land has enormous contrasts, with a desert (drier than the Sahara), the towering snow-capped Andes mountains, sparkling grass-covered plateaus, and thick rain forests. Peru has approximately 27 million people, of which about 20 per cent live in Lima, the capital. More Indians (one half of the population) live in Peru than in any other country in the western hemisphere. The ancestors of Peru’s Indians were the famous Incas, who built a great empire. The rest of the population is mixed and a small percentage is white. The economy depends heavily on agriculture, fishing, mining, and services. GDP is approximately $115 billion and per capita income in recent years has been around $4,300. In recent years the economy has gained some relative strength and multinationals are now beginning to consider investing in the country. One of these potential investors is a large New York based that is considering a $25 million loan to the owner of a Peruvian fishing fleet. The owner wants to refurbish the fleet and add one more ship. During the 1970s, the Peruvian government nationalised a number of industries and factories and began running them for the profit of the state. In most cases, these state-run ventures became disasters. In the late 1970s, the fishing fleet owner was given back his ships and are getting old and he needs an influx of capital to make repairs and add new technology. As he explained it to the NEW YORK banker: “fishing is no longer just un art. There is a great deal of technology involved. And to keep costs low and be competitive on the world market , you have to have the latest equipment for both locating as well Examination Paper of International Business Management
- 114. as catching and then loading and unloading the fish.”Having reviewed the fleet owner’ operation, the large multinational bank believes that the loan is justified. The financial institution is concerned , however , that the Peruvian government might step in during the next couple of years and again take over the business . If this were to happen, it might take an additional decade, for the loan to be repaid. If the government were to allow the fleet owner to operate the fleet the way he has over the last decade, the loan could be rapid within seven years. Right now, the bank is deciding on the specific terms of the agreement. Once these have been worked out , either a loan officer will fly down to lima and close the deal or the owner will be asked to come to NEW YORK for the signing. Whichever approach is used, the bank realize that final adjustments in the agreement will have to be made on the spot. Therefore, if the bank sends a representative to Lima, the individual will have to the authority to commit the bank to specific terms. These final matters should be worked out within the next ten days. 1. What are some current issues Facing Peru? What is the climate for doing business in Peru today? 2. Would the bank be better off negotiating the loan in New York or in Lima? Why? 1. Imagine that you are the director of a major international lending institution supported by funds from member countries. What one area in newly industrialized and developing economics would be your priority for receiving development aid? Do you suspect that any member country will be politically opposed to aid in this area? Why or Why not? 2. The principle problem in analysing different forms of export financing is the distribution of risks between the exporter and the importer. Analyse the following export financing instruments in this respect: (a) Letter of Credit (b) Cash in advance (c) Draft (d) Consignment (e) Open Account Global Marketing Management Part One: Multiple Choices: 1. All the ethnocentric orientations are collectively called……………………………………………………………. 2. Presently number of members countries in OECD are a. 12 b. 20 c. 24 d. 29 3. If the value be ‘a’ , benefit be ‘b’ and the price be ‘c’ then relation between the threes is given by a. a=b/c b. a=c/b c. a=b+c d. none 4. If the confidence limit be ‘t’ standard deviation be ‘b’ and the error limit be ‘c’ then the sample size will be given by a. n=t+b/c b. n=t*b/c
- 115. c. n=t*c/b d. none 5. According to Backer spielvogel and Bates’s global scan the segment content of Achiever is a. 26 b. 22 c. 13 d. 18 6. CAT stands for ………………………………………………………………………….… 7. Cave dwellers are………………………………………………………………………… 8. LIFO stands for life in fire option.(T/F) Examination Paper of International Business Management
- 116. 9. Starbursts are ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 10. Name one of the common wealth of independent States (CIS)…………………………………………….. Part Two: 1. Write short “Hofstede’s Cultural Typology”. 2. Write a short note on “Diffusion Theory”. 3. According to “D’arcy Massius Benton & Bowles’s Euroconsumer Study”. Who are disaffected survivors. 4. What do you understand by “Piggyback Marketing”. Caselet 1 Which Company Is Transnational? Four senior executives of companies operating in many countries speaks: COMPANY A We are transnational company. We sell our products in over 80 countries, and we manufacturer in 14 countries. Our overseas subsidiaries manage our business in their respective countries. They have complete responsibility for their country operations including strategy formulation. Most of the key executives in our subsidiaries are host-country nationals, although we still rely on home-country persons for the CEO and often the CFO (chief financial officer) slots. Recently, we have divided the world regions and the United States. Each of the world regions reports to our world trade organization, which is responsible for all of our business outside United States. The overseas companies are responsible for adapting to the unique market preferences that exist in their country or region and are quite autonomous. We are proud of our international reach: We manufacture not only in the United States but also in Europe and the United Kingdom, Latin America, and Australia. We have done very well in overseas markets, especially in the high-income countries with the exception of Japan. We would like to enter the Japanese market, but let’s face it, Japan is a protected country. There is no level playing field, and as you no doubt know, the Japanese have taken advantage of the protection they enjoy in their home country to launch an export drive that has been a Examination Paper of International Business Management
- 117. curse for us. Our industry and our home country (the United States) has been a principle target of the Japanese, who have taken a real bite out of our market share here in the United States. We are currently lobbying for more protection from Japanese competition. COMPANY B We are a unique transnational media company. We do not dominate any particular area, but we have an important presence on three continents in magazines, newspapers, and television. We have a global strategy. We are a global communications and entertainment company. We’re in the business of informing people around the world on the widest possible basis. We know how to serve the needs of our customers who are readers, viewers, and advertisers. We transfer people and money across national boundaries, and we know how to acquire and integrate properties as well as how to start up a new business. We started out as Australian, and then the weight of our main effort is in the United States. We go where the opportunity is because we are market driven. Sure, there are lots of Australians in the top management of this company, but we started in Australia, and those Aussies know our business and the company from the ground up. Look around and you’ll see more and more Americans and Brits taking the top jobs. We stick to English because I don’t believe that we could really succeed in foreign print or broadcast. We know English, and so far the English-speaking world is big enough for us. The world is shrinking faster than we all realize, and to be in communications is to at the center of all change. That’s the excitement of what we’re doing – and also the importance. COMPANY C We’re a transnational company. We are committed do being the number-one company in our industry worldwide. We do all of our manufacturing in our home country because we have been able to achieve the lowest cost and the highest quality in the world by keeping all engineering and manufacturing in order to maintain our cost advantage. We are doing this reluctantly but we believe that the essence of being global is dominating markets and we plan to do whatever we must do in order to maintain our position of leadership. It is true that all of our senior managers at home and in most of our foreign markets are home-country nationals. We feel more comfortable with our own nationals in key jobs because they speak our language and they understand the history and the culture of our company and our country. It would be difficult for an outsider to have this knowledge, which is so important to smooth-working relationships. COMPANY D We are a transnational company. We have 24 nationalities represented on our headquarters staff, we manufacture in 28 countries, we market in 92 countries, and we are committed to leadership in our industry. It is true that we are backing off on our commitment to develop business in the Third World. We have found it extremely difficult to increase sales and earnings in the Third World, and we have been criticized for our aggressive marketing in these countries. It is also true that only home-country nationals may own voting shares in our company. So, even though we are global, we do have a home and a history and we respect the traditions and sensibilities of our home country. We want to maintain our number-one position in Europe, and over time achieve the same position of leadership in our target markets in North America and Japan. We are also keeping a close eye on the developing countries of the world, and whenever we see a country making the move from low income to lower middle, or from lower middle to upper middle, or from upper middle to high income we commit our best effort to expand our positions, or, if we don’t have a positions, to establish a position. Since our objective is to achieve an undisputed leadership position in our industry, we simply cannot afford not to be in every growing market in the world. We have always had a European CEO, and this will probably not change. The executives in this company from Europe tend to serve all over the world, whereas the executives from the United States Examination Paper of International Business Management
- 118. and Japan serve only in their home countries. They are very able and valuable executives, but they lack the necessary perspective of the world required for the top jobs here at headquarters. 1. Which company is transnational? 2. What are the attributes of a transnational company? 3. What is the difference between a domestic, international, multinational, global, and transnational company? 4. At what stage of development is your company and your line of business today? Where should you be? Caselet 2 Parker Pen Co. (A) INTRODUCTION The meeting at sunny Palm Beach concluded with nary a whimper of dissent from its participants. After years of being run as a completely decentralized company whose managers in all corners of the world enjoyed a high degree of flexibility, Parker Pen Co., Janesville, Wisconsin, was forced to reexamine itself. The company had enjoyed decade after decade of success until the early 1980s. By this time, Parker faced strong competitive threats and a deteriorating internal situation. A new management team was bought in from outside the company – an unprecedented step for what had been until then an essentially family-run business. At the March 1984 Palm Beach meeting, this new group of decision makers would outline a course of action that would hopefully set Parker back on a path to success. The men behind the new strategy were supremely confident of its chances for success – and with good reason. Each was recognized as a highly skilled practitioner of international business and their combined extensive experience gave them an air of invincibility. They had been recruited from larger companies, had left high-paying, rewarding jobs, and each had come to Janesville with a grand sense of purpose. For decades, Parker had been a dominant player in the pen industry. In the early 1980s, hoe-ever, the company had seen its market share dwindle to a mere 6 percent and, in 1982, net income plunged a whopping 60 percent. To reverse this decline, Parker recruited James Peterson, an executive vice president at R.L. Reynolds, as the new president and CEO. Peterson hired Manville Smith as president of the writing instruments group at Parker Smith, who was born in Ecuador and had a broad international background, came from 3M where he had been appointed division president at the tender age of 30. Richard Swart was vice president/marketing of the writing instruments group. He spent 11 years at the advertising agency BBDO and was an expert on marketing planning and theory. Jack Marks was head of writing instruments advertising. Marks came to Parker from Gillette, where, among other things, he assisted in the worldwide marketing of Paper Mate pens. Rounding out the team was Carlos Del Nero, manager of global marketing planning, who brought with him considerable international experience at Fisher-Price. Each of these men was convinced that Parker would right itself by following the plan they unveiled at Palm Beach. A BRIEF HISTORY OF PARKER PEN The “Rolls Royce” of the Pen Industry The Parker name has been identified with pens since 1888 when George S. Parker delighted ink-splotched pen users everywhere by introducing a leakproof fountain model called the Parker Lucky Curve. Parker Pen would eventually blossom into America’s, if not the world’s, largest and best-known pen market. Parker’s products, which would eventually include ballpoint pens, felt-tip pens, Examination Paper of International Business Management
- 119. desk sets, mechanical pencils, inks, leads, erasers, and, of course, the fountain pen, were also known for their price tags. In 1921, for example, Parker introduced the Duofold pen. The Duofold, even though it was comparable to other $3 pens on the market, was extravagantly priced at $7. Parker was able to charge a premium price because of its reputation for quality and style, and its skill in positioning products in the top price segment. Parker’s position as America’s leading pen marker was solidified during the years when the pen was mainly viewed as a gift item. High school and college graduates in the 1940s and 1950s, for example, were quite likely to receive a Parker “51” fountain pen (priced at & 12.50) commemorating their achievement. Indeed, it was with a “51” that General Douglas MacArthur signed the Japanese Peace Treaty in 1945. Parker’s stylish products and high profile name would keep it at the top of the pen market until the late sixties as well as a few foreign brands, knocked them out of first place once and for all. Of course, Parker would not have lost its hold on the market had it not made some oversights along the way. In addition to a more competitive environment, Parker failed to come to terms with a fundamental change in the pen market – the development of the disposable, ballpoint market. When Parker unveiled the $25 “75” pen in 1963, it showed that it remained committed to supplying high showed that it remained committed to supplying high priced pens to the upper end of the market. As the 1960s wore on, a clear trend toward cheap ballpoint and soft-tip pens developed. Meanwhile, Parker’s only ultimately successful addition to its product range in the late sixties was the “75” Classic line, yet another high-priced pen. A Brie Flirtation with Low-Priced Pens Parker did, however, make an effort to compete in the lower price segment of the market in the late 1960s only to see it fail. In an attempt to capitalize on the trend toward inexpensive pens, Parker introduced the T- Ball Jotter, priced at $1. 98. The success of the Jotter led it to move even further down the price ladder when it acquired Eversharp. Whereas the Jotter had given Parker reason to believe it could make the shift from pricy pens to cheap pens with little or no difficulty, the Eversharp experience proved to be different. George Parker, a grandnephew of the company’s founder and president of Parker at the time, stated the reasons for the Eversharp failure, as well as its consequences: All the market research surveys said go lower, go lower, go lower, that’s where the business is. So I said, ‘Go lower? Fine. But we don’t know how.’ We bought Eversharp and tried to run it ourselves, and we couldn’t do it. our people just couldn’t think in terms of big units, and they didn’t know how to sell people on the lower-priced end of the business – grocers, supermarkets, rack jobbers. The result was, Bic and Paper Mate were cleaning up in the lower-priced end, Cross in the high, and Parker was getting up, but our costs went up faster, and our profits were squeezed. The 1970s: The Illusion of Success Despite the difficulties Parker encountered when it left its niche in the upper end of the pen market, the company experienced a healthy period of growth and profitability for most of the 1970s. Demand for its products remained strong, and its worldwide markets expanded significantly due to a rise in consumer income and increasing literacy rates in much of the Third World. Parker also chose to diversify during this decade, and its most noteworthy acquisition, Manpower, Inc., proved to be a temporary-help firm, Parker was the slightly more profitable of the two. With the boom in temporary services in the late seventies and early eighties, however, Manpower eclipsed Parker in sales and earnings and eventually subsidized its parent company during down periods. Why did parker fall from its position of leadership in the writing instrument market” there were many reasons, and one of the most important was the weakening of the U.S. dollars. At its peak, Parker accounted for half of all U.S. exports of writing instruments and 80 percent of its total sales Examination Paper of International Business Management
- 120. came from 154 foreign countries. Parker was especially strong in Europe, most particularly in the United Kingdome. When sales in the strong European currencies were translated into dollars, Parker earned huge profits. The downside of a weak dollar, however, was that it gave Parker the illusion that it was a well-run company. In fact, throughout the 1970s, Parker was a model of inefficiency. Manufacturing facilities were dated and inefficient. Production was so erratic that the marketing department often had no idea what type of pens they would be selling from year to year or even month to month. Under the leadership of George Parker, nothing was done by company headquarters to update these facilities or to develop new products. As a result, subsidiaries and distributors around the world saw fit to develop their own products. By the end of George Parker’s reign, the company’s product line included 500 writing instruments. That distant subsidiaries would have the leeway to make such decisions was not at all unusual at Parker, for it had long been known as one of the most globally decentralized companies in the world. Decentralization , in fact, was something that Parker took pride in and considered to be vital to its success as a multinational. Yet it was this very concept that Peterson and his new management team would hold to be responsible for much of what ailed Parker Pen. PARKER’S GLOBAL OPERATIONS BEFORE PETERSON In addition to having a hand in manufacturing and product-line decisions, Parker’s subsidiaries developed their own marketing strategies. More than 40 different advertising agencies promoted Parker pens in all the corners of the globe. When Peterson came to Parker, he was proudly informed that the company was a “federation” of autonomous geographical units. The downside to the “federation” concept, Peterson though, was that home country management often lacked the information needed to make and coordinate basic business decisions. Control was so completely decentralized that Parker didn’t even know how many pens it was selling by the time Peterson and his group arrived. On the other hand, decentralization obviously had its positive aspects, most noticeably in the field of advertising. Pens mean different things to different people. Whereas Europeans are more likely to choose a pen based on its style and feel, a consumer from a lesser-developed country in the seventies viewed the pen as nothing less than a badge of literacy. In additional, tastes varied widely from country to country. The French, for example, remained attached to the fountain pen. Scandinavians, for their part, showed a market preference for the ballpoint. The logic behind having so many different advertising agencies was that, even if it appeared to be somewhat inefficient, in the end the company was better off from a sales standpoint. Some of the individual advertising agencies were able to devise excellent, imaginative campaigns that struck a responsive chord among their local audiences. One example was the Lowe Howard-Spink agency in London. The Parker U.K. division became the company’s most profitable during the tenure of the Lowe agency. An example of its creativity is an ad is a picture of a dead plumber, on his back, with a giant Parker pen protruding from his heart. Part of the text is as follows: Do you know plumbers who never turn up? Hairdressers who missed their vocations as butchers? Drycleaners who make your stains disappear – and your clothes with them? Today, we at Parker give you the chance to get your own back. Examination Paper of International Business Management
- 121. Not only are we offering a beautiful new pen called the Leque which owes its deep luster to a Chinese technique 2000 years old, but we are attempting to revive something that went out when the telephone came in. The well-armed, witty, malicious dart. Although the Parker U.K. division was a success, however, the company’s general inefficiencies, loss of market share, and lack of strategic direction were finally revealed in the early 1980s with the rise of the U.S. dollar. Parker’s financial decline was even more precipitous than the dollar’s increase. When the huge 1982 losses were registered, Peterson was brought in from R.J. Reynolds to try and turn things around for Parker. He decided that every aspect of the company needed to be closely examined, not the least of which was Parker’s decentralization of global operations. 1. What would you do if you were in James Peterson’s shoes in January 1982? 2. What changes, if any, would you make in Parker’s marketing strategy? 3. Which aspects of Parker’s structure would you discard? Which would you keep? 4. Assume that you are James Peterson and you have just hired a new management team composed of highly qualified executives from outside companies. You and your new team are convinced that you have the solution to Parker’s problems but there are many hold overs who disagree with you. How would you implement your plan? To what extent would you incorporate the views of Parker management into your plan? 1. Consider the equation Y=f(A,B,C,D,E,F,G), where Y stands for consumption of soft drinks and D is the variable for cultural elements. How would this equation help a soft-drink marketer understand demand for soft drinks in global markets? 2. The president of XYZ Manufacturing Company of Buffalo, New York, comes to you with a license offer from a company in Osaka. In return for sharing the company’s patents and know-how, the Japanese company will pay a license fee of 5percent of the ex-factory price of all products sold based on the U.S. company’s license. The president wants your advice what would you tell him? International Financial Management Part One: Multiple choices: 1. Foreign exchange market in India is relatively very: a. Big b. Small c. Medium d. None of the above 2. Balance of payment is a systematic record of all _______ during a given period of time. a. Political transactions b. Social transactions c. Economic transactions d. None of the above 3. Merchandise trade balance, services balance & balance on unilateral transfer are the part of ________ account a. Current account b. Capital account c. Official account d. None of the above 4. Interest rate swaps can be explained as an agreement between _________ parties a. One b. Two c. Three
- 122. d. None of the above 5. Capital account convertibility in India evolved in August a. 1996 b. 1995 c. 1994 d. None of the above 6. Interest rate parity is an economic concept, expressed as a basic algebraic identity that relates a. Capital rate & interest rate b. Interest rate & exchange rate c. Currency rate & exchange rate d. None of the above 7. The two kind of swap in the forward market are a. Forward & reverse swap b. Reverse swap & option swap c. Forward & option less swap d. Forward swap & option swap 8. FEMA stands for a. Forward exchange market b. Future exchange market c. Foreign exchange management act d. None of the above 9. Exchange rate quotation methods are a. Direct and direct b. Indirect and indirect c. Direct and indirect d. None of the above 10. International Fisher effect or generalized version of the Fisher effect is a combination of a. PPP theory and Fisher‟s open proposition b. Fisher‟s open and closed proposition c. PPP theory and Fisher‟s closed proposition d. None of the above Part Two: 1. Write a short note on „Interest Rate Parity System‟ for exchange rates. 2. What are Direct & Indirect Quotes of exchange rates? 3. What is „International Mutual Fund‟? 4. Briefly describe „swaps in foreign exchanges markets‟. Case let 1 Managing Exchange Rate Risk Mahindra International (India) imported spares of an engine from a US manufacturer for $ 5,000 per annum at a price of $ 2.5 per piece. The average exchange rate during 2001-02 was Rs. 47.70/$. The Indian company imported the spares also from a British manufacturer. In fact, it had diversified its import in view of reducing the risk associated with the supply. The import from the USA was competitive in view of the fact the same spares imported from the UK was slightly costlier. The American spares cost Rs. 119.25 per piece, while the British spares cost Rs. 120.00 per piece. In 2002-03, US dollar appreciated to Rs. 48.40 with the result that the cost of American spares turned higher than the British spares. In the sequel of the appreciation of US dollar, the Indian importer cut its demand from 2,000 pieces to 500 pieces. The loss to the US exporter was colossal. But at the same time, the Indian Importer suffered a lot. It had to pay a higher price for the US spares in terms of rupee. And also, it had to divert its import from the USA to the UK insofar as the pound sterling did not appreciate during this period. All this happened in the wake of the exchange rate changes. Questions: 1. Mention the loss borne by the US exporter in the sequel of appreciation of dollar. 2. What strategy the Indian importer needs to follow to hedge the exchange rate risk?
- 123. Case let 2 ABN Amro Bank and Correspondent Banking in India ABN AMRO bank has emerged as a major correspondent bank owing to a large network. In India, it operates in six major cities, viz. Baroda, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi and Pune. Being a correspondence bank, its product offerings are found primarily in the area of trade and clearing. It is doing well in these owing to strong tie-up with local Indian banks reaching 350 centres across the country. As a result, payments are effected speedily and effectively. Cash Management The customized products in the area of cash management include cheques payable at par at all its branches across the country, apart from traditional collection services, such as collection of outstation/upcountry cheques drawn on other banks. ABN AMRO is a member of all major clearing centers in the major financial centers. It has an electronic delivery system and structures multilateral netting of cash. Trade Services Under trade services, the Bank offers a comprehensive range of products, such as: 1. LC reimbursement 2. Indian rupee trade payments 3. Handling documentary bills for collection 4. Bills negotiation 5. Letter of credit advising 6. Letter of credit confirmation 7. Guarantees Treasury Services Treasury services at ABN AMRO Bank (India) are available round-the-clock. Rupee funding at its treasury desk is provided at competitive rates along with advice on market trends and rates. It provides also advisory services on the request of financial institutions and corporate in the area of regulatory, economic and financial matters including depository services. Questions: 1. Describe the network of ABN AMRO Bank in India. 2. What role does it play for global cash management? 1. Discuss the factors that affect foreign exchange market. Explain the different types of foreign exchange quotations. 2. What do you mean by balance of payment? What are the key components of balance of Payment This section consists of Multiple choice questions & Short Answer type questions. Answer all the questions. Part One questions carry 1 mark each & Part Two questions carry 5 marks each. Part One: Multiple choices: 1. Beta is useful for comparing the relative _____________ of different stocks. a. Business risk b. Systematic risk c. Liquidity risk d. Country risk 2. The price prevailing in market is called a. Market security b. Market value c. Market price d. None of the above 3. Line charts, Bar charts, Candles tic charts are the parts of a. Fundamental analysis
- 124. b. Technical analysis c. Company analysis d. None of the above 4. A market portfolio is a portfolio consisting of a weighted __________ in the market. a. Sum of every equity b. Sum of every liabilities c. Sum of every assets d. None of the above 5. The date on the option contract is called the ___________ a. Expiration date b. Date of maturity c. Both a) & b) d. None of the above Examination Paper of Finance Management 6 IIBM Institute of Business Management 6. A forward contract is an agreement made today between a ___________ to exchange the commodity a. Buyer & buyer b. Buyer & seller c. Seller & seller d. None of the above 7. Portfolio means a collection or combination of financial assets such as a. Shares b. Debentures c. Government securities d. All of the above 8. CAPM is the abbreviation of a. Capital Asset Pricing Measure b. Capital Average Pricing Model c. Capital Asset Pricing Model d. None of the above 9. In India the secondary market for shares is regulated by a. RBI b. SEBI c. Company law board d. There is no regulatory authority 10. The risk of the whole market as measured by „Beta‟ is a. 1 b. 0 c. -1 d. None of the above Part Two: 1. What does „β‟ (Beta) mean in risk management? 2. Write a note on „options‟ & „future‟ derivatives. 3. Define Capital market theory. 4. Write a short note on CAPM. Case let 1 TOUAX is a French company and is currently Europe‟s no. 1 in shipping containers and river barges, and no. 2 in modular building and freight railcars. The group provides operating leases to customers around the world, both on its own account and for third-party investors. On June 24, 2009, TOUAX announced that its capital increased by waiving preferential subscription rights but with priority for existing shareholders, launched on 18 June 2009 for a total of E17, 851,519.76 (gross)
- 125. through the issue of 936,596 new shares which were subscribed in the entirely. Following partial application of the extension clause, 952,747 shares were placed or 101.72% of the issue; total proceeds were E18, 159,357.82. This rights issue has enabled the Group to strengthen its financial structure, to position itself with advantage for possible acquisitions of tangible stock, and to grasp opportunities thrown up by the crisis (purchase of shipping containers, modular buildings, river barges and railcars, for hiring out on mainly long-term leases). 370,062 new shares allotted under absolute entitlement were subscribed or 39.51% of the total number of new shares issue. Another 555,685 shares were applied for subject to cutting back in the event of over subscription, and orders for these were all filled. Another 27,000 shares had been applied for by the general public, and following partial application of the extension clause it proved possible to fill orders for all of these. All the result of the right issue, TOUAX is well placed to respond to the boom in corporate outsourcing of non-core assets, and every day provides over 5,000 customers with quick and flexible leasing solutions. TOUAX is now listed on Euronext in Paris – NYSE Euronext Compartment C (ISIN Code FR0000033003), and features in the SBF 250 Index. Questions: 1. After analyzing the case, do you think all the companies that can afford, should opt for right issue to improve their financial status? 2. What do you analyze as the two main advantages of the right issue? Case let 2 In mid-February 1994, the British paper, the Sunday times ran on article that alleged that a 1 billion sterling ($ 750 M) sale of equipment by British companies to Malaysia was secured only after bribes had been paid to Malaysian government officials and after the British overseas development administration (ODA) had agreed to approve a 234 million sterling grant to the Malaysian government for a hydroelectric dam of (according to the Sunday times) dubious economic value. The clear implication was that UK officials, in their enthusiasm to see British companies win a large defence contract, had yield to pressures from “corrupt” Malaysian officials for bribes – both personal and in the form of the 234 million sterling development grants. What happened next took everyone by surprise. The Malaysian government promptly announced a an on the impact of all British goods and services into Malaysia and demanded an apology from British Government. Officially the ban applied only to government orders for British goods and services; the private sector was free to busy as it chose. However, British companies with experience in the region were nervous that the private sector would follow the government‟s lead in shunning British products. At stake was as much as 4 billion sterling in British exports and construction activities in Malaysia and a presence in one of the world‟s fastest growing developing economies (Malaysia‟s economic growth has averaged 8% per annum since 1989). In announcing the ban, Malaysia‟s Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohammad, noted that the British media portrays Malaysians as corrupt because “ They are not British and not white”…And “we believe the foreign media must learn the fact that developing countries, including a country led by brown Moslem, have the ability to manage their own affairs successfully”. The British government responded by stating, it could not tell the British press what and what not to publish, to which Dr Mahathir replied there would be “no contracts for British press freedom to tell lies”. At the same time, the British government came under attack from members of parliament in Britain, who suspected the government acted unethically and approved the ODA hydroelectric grant to help British companies win orders in Malaysia. Questions: 1. If you are the CEO of a British company that now faces the loss of a lucrative contract in Malaysia because of the dispute. What action should you take? 2. How do you think British government should respond to the Malaysian action? 1. What do you mean by risk management? Elaborate the various kinds of systematic and nonsystematic risks. 2. What do you mean by Portfolio management? What are the methods of calculating portfolio performance evaluation?
- 126. International Marketing Management 1. International marketing includes activities that direct the flow of goods from a. One country to one country b. One country to another country c. One country to multiple country d. All of the above 2. ETC stands for a. Expert trading companies b. Essential trading companies c. Export trading companies d. None of the above 3. Till 1950-56 there was no clear exim policy and no _________ restrictions of any kind a. Import b. Export c. Both a) & b) d. None of the above 4. Tariffs have been one of the classical methods of regulating ________ trade a. International b. National c. Domestic d. None of the above 5. The world trade organization (WTO) was established on 1st January a. 1996 b. 1995 c. 1997 d. None of the above This section consists of Multiple choice questions & Short Answer type questions. Answer all the questions. Part One questions carry 1 mark each & Part Two questions carry 5 marks each. Examination Paper of Marketing Management IIBM Institute of Business Management 2 6. Export documentation is a very important area in _______ management a. International b. Import c. Export d. None of the above 7. Methods of export pricing are a. Cost plus pricing b. Competitive pricing c. Marginal pricing d. All of the above 8. OCED has been a destination of a major portion of _______ exports a. Japan b. USA c. India d. UK 9. Psychographic segmentation involves grouping people in terms of a. Attitudes b. Life styles c. Values d. All of the above
- 127. 10. Foreign direct investment would be permitted up to ________ in the development of the zones a. 100% b. 90% c. 38% d. 48% Part Two: 1. Differentiate between domestic & international marketing. 2. Write a short note on World trade organization (WTO). 3. Briefly describe the exim policy of India (one part of India‟s export import policy). 4. Write a short note on tariff and non tariff barriers of international trade. Case let 1 Export Marketing: The trade in black pepper is unhappy that exports may not show a sign of revival in prices in the immediate future. World prices have been showing a downward trend for eighteen months and this has resulted in much lower earnings for exporters. The UK, West Germany and the Netherlands have cut their import requirement though the American demand has shown some growth. Brazil has been resorting to aggressive selling at lower prices and the expectations are that its exports will reach an all-time peak of 32,000 tones in the 1981-82 season. The 1981-82 Indian season is only about six weeks away. The Brazilian offensive has forced India to withdraw so to any from the US and West European markets and increase its reliance on communist buyers. As many as 1980-81.the Soviet Union alone accounting for 12,647 tones. But exporters are concerned at the diversion on such a scale of this trade. Questions: 1. Had you been the pepper exporter, what would be your short term and medium-term export marketing strategy in the above environment? 2. Could you examine the weak points in this case study? Case let 2 SMART KIDS – SELLING EDUCATIONAL GAMES AND RESOURCES TO THE WORLD Smart Kids Ltd. An Auckland company that makes educational games and resources to read and understand math‟s has won a Trade New Zealand Export Award for its success in international markets in 2003.Established eight years ago in the family home basement, Smart Kids is led by husband and wife team, joint chief executives David and Sun Milne and their sons Duncan and Frase. She Milne, an ex-teacher, says from just 30 products when it started, the company produces more than 200 produces catering for student‟s activities, grammar concepts and numeracy. She says the international appeal of Smart Kids products was highlighted recently, when company‟s SMART PHONICS was listed amongst the top five products out of almost 100 in the education trade show in the United Kingdom. The key requirement for every new Smart Kids products is that it stimulates student‟s minds in the classroom, teaches them a specific concept easily, enjoyably and permanently and enables problem solving. David Milne says Smart Kids started selling its educational games and Examination Paper of Marketing Management IIBM Institute of Business Management 4 resources to New Zealand schools in 1995, drawings an immediate and strong response. It quickly became apartment that the New Zealand market was not large enough to sustain considerable investment in product development, and secondly, that their products have done so well that they deserved wider exposure.”Our export research came down to two options. Find educational distributors in other countries or set-up our own operations. The first option was less risky and easy to manage but it meant that Smart Kids products were lost in a wide range of materials. So we went for the second option and over the next few years established offices in Australia, in UK and Canada”. This has successfully branded Smart Kids as a leading supplier of educational resources in these countries. Mr. Milne says the Smart Kids product catalogue is now sent regularly to teachers in more than 50,000 schools across the UK, Ireland, Canada and Australia. “We also sell to schools in the US.
- 128. In that market we elected to work through a distributor, we didn‟t have the financial resources to setup an operation that could cover almost 70,000 schools and compete with every established educational publisher”. He says annual exports now exceed $2.2 million and account for more than 90% of turnover. In order to grow the business, surplus profits are reinvested back into product development, infrastructure – the company recently moved its Auckland operation into new 20,000 square feet premises in Ellerslie. Mr. Milne says the Smart Kids brand is now well established internationally with the company enjoying many competitive advantages, including its New Zealand origin. New Zealand education is highly regarded overseas and we find that international teachers to get hold of educational products made in this country. Questions: 1. What are the major considerations for a firm in order to while deciding its markets entry strategy? 2. To what extent direct control and ownership are critical for Smart kids export distribution strategy? 1. What do mean by International marketing? Discuss the scope of International marketing. 2. Describe the export documentation framework in India in detail. Research Methodology This section consists of Multiple choice questions & Short Answer type questions. Answer all the questions. Part One questions carry 1 marks each & Part Two questions carry 5 marks each. Part One: Multiple Choices: 1. Research is an art of _________ investigation a. Technological b. Scientific c. Political d. None of the above 2. Exploratory research is flexible and very ________ research a. Variable b. Visuals c. Versatile d. None of the above 3. Frame error, chance error and response error are collectively called a. Total error b. Non sampling error c. Sampling error d. Universal error 4. Hypothesis testing is sometimes called _________ analysis a. Exploratory data b. Confirmatory data c. Experimental data d. Both a) & b) 5. Execution of the project is a very important step in the ________ process a. Questions b. Identification c. Research d. None of the above Examination Paper of Marketing Management IIBM Institute of Business Management 6 6. Thurstone scale is also known as _________ scale a. Equal appearing interval b. Equal alternatives interval c. Equal alternatives item
- 129. d. None of the above 7. A ratio in which the units of numerator & denominator are not the same is termed as a a. Class b. Rate c. Data d. None of the above 8. ANOVA stands for a. Analysis of automobiles b. Analysis of variable c. Analysis of variance d. None of the above 9. One tailed & two tailed test are the part of _________ test a. Null b. Hypothesis c. Alternative d. None of the above 10. Chi – square is an important ______ test a. Parametric b. Probability c. Non – parametric d. None the above Part Two: 1. What is „Sequential sampling‟? 2. Write a short note on „nominal scale‟. 3. Write a note on „Z – Test‟. (One of the parametric test for hypothesis). 4. What are the cautions to be taken on χ2 (chi square) test? Case let 1 Swastika Computer System was established in 1981 at Delhi to provide computer training. In 1980s computer education was relatively new in India. Personal computers 286 existed and MS DOS was the operating system. Languages like Basic, Pascal, COBOL, FORTRAN were used in programming. Swastika Computer Systems was established with their support departments namely computer assembly, faculty training and computer servicing department. In the first financial year, it recorded a turnover of Rs 11.5 lakhs. Within a few years of its existence, Swastik Computer System opened its branches in eight major cities of India and had a gross annual turnover of Rs 86 lakhs. The organization was highly centralized. The head office at Delhi handled all accounts, recruitment, and placement of students and servicing of computers. The Bhopal branch of Swastik Computer Systems was set up in May 1987. The branch was headed by a dynamic branch manager Hemant Gupta. He was a BSc in computers and had previously worked in the data processing department of a manufacturing concern. To establish the Bhopal branch, Hemant Gupta realized the need for making Swastik Computer Systems, Bhopal known to the younger generation. With this in mind he introduced some innovative promotional schemes like offering scholarships to students doing well in the intelligence tests administered by the branch, giving personal computers to students to deposit term fees at their convenience. Hemant Gupta also ensured that teaching standards were high and computers at the branch were well maintained, so a student once enrolled felt that he had made the right decision by joining Swastik Computer Systems. He also made himself available from 8.00 am to 7.00 p.m at the branch. Students were free to go to him with their problems, which he took pains to solve. Soon Swastik Computer Systems was one of the leading computer training centres in Bhopal. As the Bhopal branch prospered, the head office at Delhi started taking an active interest in the running of this branch. The Regional Manager who visited Bhopal once a month started making frequent visits. During one of his visits, his attention was drawn to rumors that branch funds were being misappropriated. When the Regional Manager informed the Delhi office about the rumor, a team was sent to the Bhopal Branch to look into the matter. On investigation, the term was convinced that the rumors had some truth in them. It was found that a larger number of students attended the
- 130. classes than were enrolled. It was felt that this fraud was not possible without the consent of Hemant Gupta, and without any further inquiry a decision was taken to remove him forthwith. Amit Verma who was a senior faculty at Swastik Computer Systems, Delhi was asked to take over the Bhopal branch as Manager. He was an MCA and had been associated with the organization since its inception. Amit Verma‟s appointment at Bhopal was welcomed at the Bhopal branch by both, staff and faculty as he had the reputation of being an easy going person. After he joined the Bhopal, it was observed that Amit Verma, although academically sound, was not an effective administrator. His approach towards staff and faculty was lenient. He was not particular about punctuality and was not Examination Paper of Marketing Management IIBM Institute of Business Management 8 available during office hours. This had an adverse effect on faculty in general and classes in particular. Not only did classes suffer but even administrative work was affected. Monthly reports to the head office were not sent on time, as a result requisitions for computer servicing, reading material and funds were unduly delayed. Due to lack of maintenance, computer breakdowns became common, students did not receive their reading material on time and payment of building rent, and telephone bills etc were unnecessarily delayed. The symptoms of deterioration at the Bhopal branch were obvious. The branch which had an annual turnover of Rs 30.7 lakhs fell to Rs. 4 lakhs. As enrollments decreased the head office at Delhi started feeling the pinch. It started delaying transfer of funds to the Bhopal branch. As a result faculty salaries were unduly delayed. The faculty started leaving for greener pastures. Worried by the number of faculty turnover, the head office started a practice of recruiting only those faculties willing to sign a bond of 3 years. The organization started a practice of taking a deposit of Rupees 5000 from the joining faculty, which would be refunded after 3 years. In case the faculty left before this duration, the deposit stood forfeited. This policy further reduced the quality of faculty joining Swastik Computer Systems, Bhopal. Questions: 1. What according to you went wrong at the Bhopal branch? 2. What can be done to revive the Bhopal branch? Case let 2 Mind tree which was founded in 1999 in India by a group of IT professionals who wanted to chart a somewhat distinctive path. Today, it has a top line of $269 million and is rated as one of the most promising mid-sized IT services companies. Creditable as that is, Mind Tree does not want to be just that. There is an element of serendipity about what it has been doing over the last year. In 2008, it designated one of its founders Subroto Bagchi „Gardener‟, a gimmicky signal, intended to declare that he was moving out of the day-to-day running of the company to nurture talent which would run the company in the future. He has now a report card ready on a year as gardener. During this one year, he has also spent around 45 days travelling round the world talking to clients and prospective ones which has yield remarkable insights into what firms are doing in these traumatic times. Lastly, Mind Tree as a whole has spent the last year going through the exercise of redefining its mission statement and vision for the next five years. Quite fortuitously these processes have come together with a unifying thread, presenting a coherent big picture. Mind Tree wants to seed the future while still young, and executive chairman Ashok Soota has declared that by 2020, it will be led by a nonfounder. So a year ago the gardener Bagchi set out to “touch” 100 top people in the organization, with a goal of doing 50 in a year so as to eventually identify the top 20 by 2015. From among them will emerge not just the leader but a team of ten who would eventually, as group heads, deliver $200 million of turnover each. That will give a turnover of $2 billion. To put it in perspective, one one VC-funded company, which has not closed or been bought over, has been able to get to $2 billion and that is Google. But to get there it has to periodically redefine its mission (why we exist) and its vision – measurable goals for the next five years. Its redefined mission is built around “successful Examination Paper of Marketing Management customers, happy people, and innovative solution”. Its new vision targets a turnover of $1 billion by 2014. It wants to be among the globally 20 most profitable IT services companies and also among the 20 globally most admired ones. Admired in terms of customer satisfaction (pay for the course),
- 131. people practices (creditable), knowledge management (exciting) and corporate governance (the Enron-Satyam effect). The really interesting bit about Mind Tree in the last one year is what Bagchi has been up to. He has been embedding himself in the 50 lives, working in a personal private continuum, making it a rich learning process “which has helped connect so many dots.” Of the hundred who will be engaged, may be 50 will leave, of them 25 may better themselves only marginally, and from the remaining 25 ten will emerge who will carry the company forward. Questions: 1. What do you analyse as the main reason behind the success of Mind tree? 2. Do you think that redefining the mission statement shows the lacunae on the part of the founder members of an organization? Why? 1. What are the various methods of collecting statistical data? Explain in brief their merits and demerits. 2. What do mean by Research design. What are basic types of research design?
- 132. IIBM Institute of Business Management Examination Paper MM.100 Financial Services Section A: Objective Type (30 marks) This section consists of Multiple Choice questions & Short Answer type questions. Answer all the questions. Part One questions carries 1 mark each & Part Two questions carries 5 marks each. Part One: Multiple Choices: 1. NBFS stands for ………………………………………………………………………… 2. ALCO is a decision making unit responsible for balance sheet planning from risk return perspective. (T/F) 3. A contract of ‘Indemnity’ is one whereby a. A person tries to use the other’s property b. A person promises to save the other’s property from loss caused. c. A person tries to trick the property of other for some other person. d. None 4. The transaction between the lassor and the lessee being a demand sale is called a. First sale b. Second sale c. Third sale d. Fourth sale 5. If the net present value of leasing be ‘a’ and net advantage of leasing be ‘b’ then decision criterion is given by a. a/b b. a+b c. b/a d. a-b 6. Break even lease rental BERL has NAL value equal to a. 1 b. 2 c. 0 d. 0.5 7. The right under which an unpaid seller who is in possession of the goods is entitled to retain them until payment of the price is done is termed as ……………………………………… Examination Paper of Banking & Financial Services Management 6 IIBM Institute of Business Management
- 133. 8. If the no of level investments be ‘t’, total no of level installments be ‘n’ and total charge for credit be ‘c’ then the interest rebate is given by………………………………………… 9. The practice of discounting accommodation bills is known as ……………………….. 10. HUDCO stands for ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… Part Two: 1. What do you understand by “Lock-in period”. 2. Write a short note “Hybrid Debt Capital Instruments”. 3. What do you understand by “Bipartite Lease”. 4. What is “Suit for Quantum Meruit”? END OF SECTION A Section B: Caselets (40 marks) This section consists of Caselets. Answer all the questions. Each caselet carries 20 marks. Detailed information should form the part of your answer (Word limit 200 to 250 words). Caselet 1 Sunlight Industries Ltd manages its accounts receivables internally by its sales and credit department. The cost of sales ledger administration stands at Rs 9 crore annually. It supplies chemicals to heavy industries. These chemicals are used as raw material for further use of are directly sold to industrial units for consumption. There is good demand for both the types of uses. For the direct consumers, the company has a credit policy of 2/10, net 30. Past experience of the company has been that on average 40 per cent of the customers avail of the discount while the balance of the receivables are collected on average 75 days after the invoice date. Sunlight Industries also has small dealer networks that sell the chemicals. Bad debts of the company are currently 1.5 per cent of total sales. Sunlight Industries finances its investment in debtors through a mix of bank credit and own long-term funds in the ratio of 60:40. The current cost of bank credit and long-term funds are 12 per cent and 15 per cent respectively. There has been a consistent rise in the sales of the company due to its proactive measures in cost reduction and maintaining good relations with dealers and customers. The projected sales for the next year are Rs 800 crore, up 15 per cent from last year. Gross profiles have been maintained at a healthy 22 per cent over the years and are expected to continue in future. With escalating cost associated with the in-house management of debtors coupled with the need to unburden the management with the task so as to focus on sales promotion, the CEO of Sunlight Industries is examining the possibility of outsourcing its factoring service for managing its Examination Paper of Banking & Financial Services Management 7 IIBM Institute of Business Management
- 134. receivables. He assigns the responsibility of Anita Guha, the CFO of Sunlight. Two proposals, the details of which are given below, are available for Anita’s consideration. Proposal from Canbank Factors Ltd: The main elements of the proposal are: (i) Guaranteed payment within 30 days (i) Advance, 88 per cent and 84 per cent for the resource and non-recourse arrangements respectively (iii) discount charge in advance, 21 per cent for with resource and 22 per cent without resource (iv) Commission, 4.5 per cent without resources 2.5 per cent and with resource. Proposal from Indbank Factors: (i) Guaranteed payment within 30 days (ii) Advance, 84 per cent with resource and 80 per cent without resource (iii) Discount charge upfront, without resource 21 per cent and with resource, 20 per cent and (iv) Commission upfront, without resource 3.6 per cent and with resource 1.8 per cent. The opinion of the Chief Marketing Manager is that in the context of the factoring arrangement, his staff would be able to exclusively focus on sales promotion which would result in additional sales of Rs 75 crore. Required The CFO of Sunlight Industries seeks your advice as a financial consultants on the alternative proposals. What advice would you give? Why? Calculations can be upto one digit only. Caselet 2 Following are the financial statements for A Ltd and T Ltd for the current financial year. Both firms operate in the same industry. BALANCE SHEETS Particulars Firm A Firm B Total current assets Rs 14,00,000 Rs 10,00,000 Total fixed assets (net) 10,00,000 5,00,000 _____________ __________ Total assets 24,00,000 15,00,000 _____________ ___________ Equity capital (of Rs 10 each) 10,00,000 8,00,000 Retained earnings 2,00,000 _ 14% Long-term debt 5,00,000 3,00,000 Total current liabilities 7,00,000 4,00,000 _____________ ___________ 24,00,000 15,00,000 CASE STUDY ANSWERS ASSIGNMENT SOLUTIONS PROJECT REPORTS AND THESIS ISBM / IIBMS / IIBM / ISMS / KSBM / NIPM SMU / SYMBIOSIS / XAVIER / NIRM / PSBM / NSBM / ISM / IGNOU / IICT / ISBS / LPU / ISM&RC MBA - EMBA - BMS - GDM - MIS - MIB DMS - DBM - PGDM - DBM - DBA
- 135. www.mbacasestudyanswers.com www.casestudysolution.in www.casestudies.co.in aravind.banakar@gmail.com ARAVIND 09901366442 - 09902787224 Aviation Management 1. Which of the following is comes under „Air safety topic‟? a. Lightning b. Ice & snow c. Fire d. All of the above 2. JATO stands for _______ 3. Beam movement, location of beam related to airport and loser stability comes under which of the following of analyzing the hazard? a. Situational factor b. Operational factor c. Laser/bright factor d. Pilot/aircraft factor 4. Which of the following-is not the aviation standard? a. ARINC 429 b. ARIN 424 c. ARINC 653 d. ARINC 444. 5. The total weight of the passengers,: their luggage, and cargo is known as: a. Payload b. Ramp weight c. Brake release weight d. Landing weight 6. Which of the following are not the primary areas of concern? a. Eye damage b. Temporary flash blindness
- 136. c. Glare & disruption d. none of these 7. STOL stands for_______ 8. A landing by an aircraft made under factor outside the pilot‟s control such as the failure of engine, system component or weather, is known as__________ a. Hard landing b. Forced landing c. Water landing d. Belly landing 9. De-crab is the technique of __________ a. Crosswind landing b. Belly landing c. Deadstick landing d. Emergency landing 10. RATO stands for___________ Part Two: 1.Discus the areas of concern in „Aviation‟. 2.Describe classifications of „Indian Aviation Sector‟ 3.Define sources from which aircraft noise originates. 4.Write short note on “Global Air Traffic Management”. 1. Identify the challenges faced by the Aus Airlines in a run to survive. 2. What type of strategy helps in increasing the revenues of the Aviation Industry? 3. What strategy should Air India follow to satisfy its „Price- sensitive‟ customers without losing money? Comment. Suggest some features that Air India could adopt to differentiate itself from its competitors. Define landing, and also explain the types of landing? Explain aviation industry in India, and list the challenges faced by aviation industry Hospitality and Tourism Marketing 1. In SMERF, ‘S’ stands for: a. Social b. Service c. Sale d. None of the above 2. If the Question Mark businesses are successful then they become Stars.(T/F)
- 137. 3. Customers can be considered under: a. Micro environment forces b. Macro environment forces c. None of the above d. depending on the area of consideration any of the above 4. Demography is the study of……………………………………………………………………… 5. Generation X consist of the people born between: a. 1946 to 1964 b. 1965 to 1976 c. 1977 to 1994 d. None of the above 6. In ‘SMERF’ M stands for: a. Money b. Model c. Military d. Market 7. Aural dimensions of environment are volume and pitch.(T/F) 8. NAM stands for: a. National Account Management b. National Accounting Market c. National Autonomous Market d. Both (a) & (b) 9. Fixed costs are also known as ‘Overheads’.(T/F) 10. Lobbying is dealing with legislators and government officials to promote or defeat legislation and regulation.(T/F) Part Two: 1. What do you understand by ‘Hospitality Marketing’? 2. Write a note on ‘Servuction model’. 3. What are ‘Cash Cows’? 4. What do understand by ‘Vertical conflict’ in case channel behavior? . What can be done to encourage the sales force to engage in more cross-selling? 2. Discuss what is needed in terms of sales incentives and sales controls to achieve the objectives of International Travel Agency. 1. The county commissioners need information to make a decision on the golf tournament. Using the marketing research process, develop a research plan that will provide the commissioners with the information they need. 2. Explain why it is important on the economic contribution of social events, both before and after the event.
- 138. 1. A “hot” concept in fast-food marketing is home delivery of everything from pizza to hamburgers to fried chicken. Why do you think the demand for this service is growing? How can marketers gain a competitive advantage by satisfying the growing demand for increased services? 2. Identify a restaurant or hotel market segment in your community that you feel would be a good market segment to target. Explain the marketing mix you would put together to go after this market segment. Managing the Lodging Operations 1. are usually in a suburban or isolated rural location, with special recreation facilities a. Convention Hotels c. Resort Hotels b. Suite Hotels d. Full‐ Service Hotels 2. Which of the following is not a part of Court‐ Mandated Security Standards a. Physical or property related c. Operational related b. Personal related d. Administrative related 3. LEARN stands for a. Listen, Empathize, Apologize, React, Notify b. Learn, Empathize, Apologize, React, Notify c. Learn, Empathize, Apologize, Reward, Notify d. Listen, Evaluate, Apologize, Reward, Notify 4. is a maintenance that requires advance planning, significant time, specialized equipment and co‐ordination between several departments a. Routine maintenance c. Preventive maintenance b. Contract maintenance d. Scheduled maintenance 5. Which of the following is not a component to Linen cost control a. Replacement cost c. Purchasing cost b. Loss and Theft d. Processing cost 6. Is a result of employees being given insufficient information or training to perform their jobs a. Role Ambiguity c. Role Conflict b. Self‐Monitoring d. Job Unfit 7. A leadership setup having 10‐ year vision to be “the Premier Worldwide Provider of Luxury Travel and Hospitability Products and Services” is a definition proposed by a. NIST c. The Ritz‐Carlton b. Baldrige d. Maslow 8. Which method is used to promote the most expensive or high priced rooms to the customers a. Bottom‐up Method c. Cross Method b. Rate‐category Alternatives d. Top‐down Method
- 139. 9. involves passing on some of the traditional functions of management to the employee a. Management by functions c. Job Enrichment b. Job Design d. Delegation of Authority 10. Which of the following is a Performance Dimension a. Teamwork c. Responsibility b. Recognition d. Commitment Part Two: 1. Discuss about the steps involved in ‘Budgetary Control processes? 2. Define ‘Capital Budgeting’? 3. Differentiate between Suggestive Selling and Cross‐Selling? 4. Define ‘Employee Empowerment’? 1. Would this kind of plan work for any sort of hotel chain? 2. Does this type of strategy helps in increasing the revenues of the hotel. 1. How does the organizational climate in a hotel translate into total satisfaction of guests? 2. What can managers do to ensure that such a climate is being created in his or her operations? 1. What are the elements of the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award Program? 2. Describe the terms: • Management by objectives • Job Redesign • Positive Reinforcement • Teamwork 3. Describe the steps involved in developing a marketing plan? Quality Control 1. Write short note on “Group Chart”. 2. What is “Measures of Dispersion”.
- 140. 3. What is “Collection of Data”. 4. Write short note on “Binomial Probability Distribution”. 1. If you were a part of the top management at M&M FES, how would you have involved the workers in the Deming programme? 2. Do you think that M&M FES has a strategic quality management system in place? 1. What lessons can Indian companies take from FedEx? 2. What are the factors that have gone against India and why did FedEx not start its operations here? 1. An electrician testing the incoming the voltage for a residential house obtains 5 readings: 115, 113, 121, 115, 116. What is the average? 2. A single sampling plan is desired with a consumer’s risk of 0.10 of accepting 3.0% nonconforming product and a producer’s risk of 0.05 of not accepting 0.7% nonconforming product. Select the plan with the lowest sample size. Risk Management and Financial Institutions Part One: Multiple Choices: 1. The options that come into existence or disappear when the price of the underlying asset reaches a certain barrier. a. Asian Options b. Barrier options c. Basket Options d. Binary Options 2. The volatility of this model is changes with the passage of time: a. EMWA Model b. GAMMA Model c. VEGA Model d. GARCH Model 3. The office which consists of risk managers who are monitoring the risks being is taken is called a. Front Office b. Middle Office c. Back Office d. None of the above 4. A separate issue from the number of exceptions is: a. Bunching b. Grouping c. Stress testing d. None 5. This simulation is a very popular approach for estimating VaR: a. Historical Simulation
- 141. b. Accuracy c. Extensions d. None of the above Examination Paper: Risk Management IIBM Institute of Business Management 8 6. Out of the following which rate is defined as the square of the volatility? a. Standard Deviation b. Variance c. Mean d. Median 7. Risk measures satisfying all four conditions are referred to as: a. Time Horizon b. Auto Correlation c. Confidence level d. Coherent 8. Only bonds with ratings of Baa or above are considered to be: a. Investment grade b. Internal Credit Ratings c. Altman’s Z- Score d. None of the above 9. The by- product of any program to measure & understand operational risk is likely to be the development of: a. Risk & Control self assessment b. Key Risk Indicators c. Operational risk Capital d. Casual Relationship 10. The Securities that are subject to a discount are known as a: a. Collateralization b. Downgrade Trigger c. Haircut d. None of the above Part Two: 1. Explain ‘Collateralization’. 2. Briefly explain the ‘Linear Model’. 3. Explain the ‘GARCH-MODEL’. 4. Explain the Concept of ‘Exchange-Traded Markets’. 5. Differentiate between the Systematic vs. Nonsystematic Risk. Each Question carries 10 marks.• 1. In the 1980s, Bankers Trust developed index currency option notes (ICONs). These are bonds in which the amount received by the holder at maturity varies with a foreign exchange rate. One example was its trade at maturity varies with a foreign exchange rate. One example was its trade with the Long Term Credit Bank of Japan. The ICON specified that if the yen/US dollar exchange rate, ST , is greater than 169 yen per dollar at maturity (in 1995), the holder of the bond receives $1,000. If it is less than 169 yen per dollar, the amount received by the holder of the bond is 1,000- max [0, 1,000 (169 - 1) ST When the exchange rate is below 84.5, nothing is received by the holder at maturity. Show that this ICON is a combination of a regular bond and two options.
- 142. 2. Suppose that the risk-free zero curves is flat at 7% per annum with continuous compounding and that defaults can occur halfway through each year in a new 5- year credit default swap. Suppose that the recovery rate is 30% and the default probabilities each year conditional on no earlier default are 3%. Estimate the credit default swap spread. Assume payments are made annually. 3. Suppose that 6- month, 12-month, 18-month, 24-month, and 30-month zero rates are 4%, 4.2%, 4.4%, 4.6%, and 4.8% per annum, respectively, with continuous compounding. Estimate the cash price of a bond with a face value of 100 that will mature in 30 months and pays a coupon of 4% per annum semiannually. 4. Suppose that the economic capital estimates for two business units are as follows: Business Unit 1 2 Market risk 10 50 Credit risk 30 30 Operational risk 50 10 The correlation between market risk and credit risk in the same business unit is 0.3. the correlation between credit risk in one business unit and credit risk in another is 0.7. the correlation between market risk in one business unit and market risk in the other is 0.2. All other correlations are zero. Calculate the total economic capital. How much should be allocated to each business unit? END OF SECTION B Detailed information should from the part of your answer (Word limit 200 to 250 words).• 1. A Bank is considering expanding its asset management operations. The main risk is operational risk. It estimates that the expected operational risk loss from the new venture in one year is $2 million and the 99.97% worst-case loss (arising from a large investor law suit) is $40 million. The expected fees it will receive from investors for the funds under administration are $12 million per year and administrative costs are expected to be $5 million per year. Estimate the before-tax RAROC? Also explain the two different ways in which RAROC can be used? 2. Why is there an add-on amount in Basel I for derivatives transactions? “Basel I could be improved if the add-on amount for a derivatives transaction depended on the value of the transaction.” How would you argue this viewpoint? 3. “A long forward contract subject to credit risk is a combination of a short position in a no-default put and a long position in a call subject to credit risk.” Explain this statement. S-2-210311 Sales Management Section A: Objective Type (30 marks)
- 143. Part One: Multiple Choices: 1. Sales executives have responsibilities for coordination which involves a. Individual b. The organization c. The company d. None of the above 2. Who researched buyer-seller Dyads in the Life Insurance business a. Hanri Tosi b. McMurry c. Arnold d. Franklin Evans 3. Formula for calculating Gross Margin is a. Sales – Cost of sales b. Gross profit – Cost of sales c. Sales – Expenses d. None of the above 4. Coach- and – pupil method is a. Company Information b. Sales Technique c. On – the – just Training d. Both (a) & (c) 5. Term in which ratio measures the effectiveness of sales personnel in securing order a. “Lowering Average” b. “Batting Average” c. “Multiple Average” d. None of the average 6. District sales manager and planning report is called a. Manager plan b. District plan c. District sales plan d. None of the above 7. Numerical expression indicating the degree to which one or more factor associated with a given products demand is a. Sales Index b. Product Index c. Market Index d. Company Index 8. Event that strengthens the buyers tendency to make a particular response is called a. Reinforcement b. Cue c. Drives d. Both (a) & (b) 9. 2 Types of drive in learning process are
- 144. a. Innate and learned drive b. Mutual and learned drive c. Innate and mutual drive d. None of the above 10. The weak stimuli which determine when the buyer will respond a. Cue b. Response c. Drive d. None of the above Part Two: 1. Write a short note on “Sales Resistance”? 2. What is “Controlling Selling Expenses”? 3. Write short note on “Product Line Policy”? 4. What do you understand by “Straight-Commission Plan”? 1. Evaluate the Allen Specialty Company’s organization and plan for coordinating sales and advertising? 2. How should Biggerstaff answer Halloram’s complaint? 1. Evaluate Holden’s recruiting program, suggesting whether or not the company should have continued its college recruiting of sales engineers? 2. What criteria should a good sales engineer should implement to uplift the company sales? 1. Write in brief about motivation of sales personnel? 2. Write in brief about setting up a sales organization? SAP Consultancy This section consists of Multiple Choice Questions• & True/False. Answer all the Questions.• Each question carries 1 Mark.• Part one: Multiple choices: 1. Which feature or element not found on every screen of the SAP application window? a. Title bar b. Central work area c. Standard toolbar d. None of the above 2. SAP Easy Access Screen contains a set of folders called________________. a. Favorites Menu
- 145. b. System Menu c. Environment Menu d. Standard Toolbar 3. What will be display when the system shortcut menu icon clicked? a. Service order b. Short menu of command c. System menu d. Small application bar 4. How much buttons contain in application toolbar for issuing commands that are related to these screen elements? a. 6 b. 7 c. 8 d. 9 5. The ____________allows to adjust the size & shape of the application window by clicking & dragging it into a new position. a. Frame grabber b. Panel c. Frames d. Selection box 6. What will be highlight when a selection box is clicked? a. Selected box b. Object codes c. List icon d. Frame Examination Paper: SAP Consultancy IIBM Institute of Business Management 5 7. The procedure begins at the ____________in the application toolbar of the table. a. Delete button b. Choose layout screen c. Layout setting button d. None of the above 8. ___________are created in SAP 4.7 to track the activities & cost of installing and maintaining technical equipment. a. Maintenance Processing b. Logistics c. Plant maintenance d. All of the above 9. Which screen contains seven data fields in which the e-mail & its attached documents are described? a. Document content sub screen b. Attribute sub screen c. Create & send document screen d. Recipient sub screen 10. The Links for all the transaction in the financial and controlling modules which are use to manage budgets and costs are hold by________. a. Accounting folder b. User menu folder c. Favorites folder
- 146. d. Logistics folder True & False: 1. Root folder is known as SAP menu. 2. Click the customizing of local layout button to display its menu, then follow the menu path (customizing of local layout < new visual design) 3. The title bar displays the name of the screen in the application window. 4. The command buttons execute internal tasks. 5. SAP R/3 is a package of integrated application. 6. The reporting transaction creates & change objects in their database records. 7. Business workplace screen helps to create and send new email. 8. The create document and send screen appears when click the mail recipient button. 9. In saving a display variant, second step of procedure is optional. 10. Line item fields are strings of fields in which you can enter several bits of coded & short text data about an object. 1. What is SAP R/3? 2. Explain “Central Work Area”. 3. How many formats of Data entry field appears on initial screen? 4. Define Plant Maintenance. Attempt any 3 Questions.• 1. How can you change the names of folders & links in your favorites folders at any time? 2. How can you use keystrokes to execute commands on objects in your favourites folders? 3. How to customizing the SAP easy access screen? 4. What is a procedure to filtering a line item report? Explain with example. 1. With the help of proper diagram explain the steps use to customizing with the new visual design command. 2. Explain the elements which are found on every screen of the SAP application window.
- 147. SAP Consultancy Section A: Objective Type (20 marks) This section consists of Multiple Choice Questions• & True/False. Answer all the Questions.• Each Question carries 1 Mark.• Multiple choices: 1. Which one of the following is a key component of SAP Web application system? a. J2EE b. VB.Net c. Java d. SQL 2. SAP has optimized the data flow between the _______and the _______servers. a. SPDD, SPAU b. Presentation , application c. QAS, PRD d. None of the above 3. ___________ is the SAP transaction that is used to generate the ABAP loads. a. SGEN b. IMG c. QAS d. SPAU 4. __________ are areas of temporary storage that help to access more rapidly data and execute ABAP programs faster. a. RAM b. Buffer c. ROM d. All of the above 5. Which Roadmap provides a methodology for the implementation of global customer solution? a. Technical Roadmap b. Solution Roadmap c. Implementation Roadmap d. Global Template Roadmap 6. The rectangular boxes that are found on nearly every initial and output screen in the SAP system are referred as_______________ a. Storage Folder b. Central Work Area. c. Check Boxes d. Data Fields Examination Paper: SAP Consultancy IIBM Institute of Business Management 2 7. While entering user profile data, the third step is to____________ a. Go to the menu bar b. Clicks the defaults tab c. Maintain user profile popup screen d. Click the save button 8. SAP R/3 is packages of integrated applications called _______ that record and track the activities and costs of doing business. a. Module
- 148. b. Tracker c. Project d. Controller 9. What allows you to adjust the size and shape of the applications window by clicking and dragging it into a new position? a. System Data Field b. Frame Grabber c. Message Field d. None of the above 10. The wait time should fall under 10% of the total _______. a. Load Time b. Response Time c. Database Time d. Enqueue Time True & False: 1. SAP’s standard smart-card authentication allows a “safer” authentication process. 2. Proof of obligation is not necessary for confirming and guaranteeing. 3. A digital signature is equivalent to the traditional hand written signature on paper documents. 4. The purpose of the project preparation is to provide initial planning and preparation for SAP project. 5. CCMs stand for Common Center Management System. 6. HTTP is the default protocol for transferring files on the World Wide Web. 7. To send a short message to another SAP user on the same system, select system short message from any screen. 8. ABAP processor is a free work process, making optimal use of system resources and balancing the system load. 9. Debugger is a task similar to running a program. 10. Application Link & Enables (ALE) not allows integration between applications in distributed Systems. Each Question carries 5 marks.• 1. Explain the Process for starting & stopping SAP systems. 2. Distinguish between SPADD and SPAPU. 3. Define ‘Lightweight Directory Access Protocol’. 4. Explain the Repository Information System? 1. Explain Installation and Planning Concepts of SAP. 2. Describe the ABAP dictionary in SAP System. 3. What is SAP upgrade Project & explain its key success factors? 4. Explain the different types of buffering table. 1. Explain the steps for the creation process of a Web Dynpro Application. 2. Explain the User Master Record Fids and its available options. Briefly. Services Marketing Multiple Choices: 1. The extent to which customers recognize and willing to accept this variation is called: a. Zone of tolerance
- 149. b. Zone of fitness c. Zone of acceptance d. None of the above 2. SERVQUAL is used to measure service quality. (T/F) 3. SWICS stands for……………………………………………………………………………… 4. Real /perceived and monetary/non monetary costs are termed as switching costs.(T/F) 5. TARP stands for ………………………………………………………………………………. 6. If the direct cost be ‘a’, overhead cost be ‘b’ and profit margin be ‘c’ then the cost based pricing can be calculated by: a. a+b+c b. a-b+c c. a/b*c d. None of the above 7. If the percentage change in quality purchased be ‘a’ and the percentage change in price be ’b’ then elasticity is given by: a. a*b b. a/b c. a+b d. a-b 8. If the actual revenue be ‘a’ and the potential revenue be ‘b’ then the yield can be given by: a. a-b b. a+b c. a/b Examination Paper: Customer Relationship Management 8 IIBM Institute of Business Management d. b/a 9. Reactors make adjustments unless forced to do so by environmental pressures.(T/F) 10. Least profitable customers are categorized in: a. Platinum b. Gold c. Iron d. Lead Part Two: 1. What do you understand by “Customer Gap”? 2. Write the difference between perceptions of service quality and customer satisfaction. 3. Write short “SERVQUAL” survey. 4. What are different types of “Complainer”? 1. How do you think Giordano had/would have to adapt its marketing and operations strategies and tactics when entering and penetrating your country? 2. What general lessons can be learned from Giordano for other major clothing retailers in your country? 1. What did Jyske Bank change to enable it to deliver its new competitive positioning? 2. How did Jyske Bank implement those changes? 1. Choose a firm you are familiar with. Describe how you would design an ideal service recovery strategy for that organization. 2. Discuss the customer’s role as a productive resource for the firm. Describe a time when you played this role. What did you do and how feel? Did the firm help you perform your role effectively? How?
- 150. Strategic Management Section A: Objective Type (30 marks) Part one: Multiple choices: 1. These are the plans formulated to achieve strategic goals. a. Tactical plans b. Strategic plans c. Operational plans d. Standing plans 2. This strategy facilities specialization by establishing a position of overall cost leadership, differentiation, or both, but only within a particular segment, in an entire market. a. Specific b. Focus c. Directive d. Differentiation 3. This plan basically defines the actions of major departments and other sub-units that are required in the execution of a strategic plan. a. Tactical plan b. Operational plan c. Single-use plan d. Long-term plan 4. This is a distinctive business or collection of related business, that can be managed relatively independent of other businesses within the organization a. Functional unit b. Department unit c. Organizational unit d. Strategic business unit 5. These strategic plans of the organization have a time-frame exceeding five years. a. Short-terms plans b. Single-use plans c. Long-term plans d. Intermediate plans Semester II Examination Papers IIBM Institute of Business Management 6. Operational plans are mainly oriented towards issues that usually have a time horizon of a. About five years b. 3 to 5 years c. 1 to 2 years d. One year or less 7. These refer to the determination of the purpose and the basic long-term objectives of an enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and allocation of resources necessary to achieve these aims. a. Strategies b. Plans c. Policies d. Procedures 8. These strategies provide guidelines for organizational growth a. Organizational
- 151. b. Finance c. Marketing d. Growth 9. There are the three major kinds of standing plans: policies, rules, and a. Projects b. Programs c. Procedures d. Standards 10. This step in the planning process involves putting the plan into action. a. Implementation b. Selection c. Evaluation d. Review Part Two: 1. Explain the ‘Adaptive mode’ of strategic management. 2. What is ‘Behavioral theory’? 3. Write about ‘Delphi technique’ of forecasting. 4. What are the basic steps one should follow for the ‘Value chain analysis’? 1. If you were appointed as a CEO of AEL, Would you like to go for a separate design division? 2. Critically evaluate the future plans of AEL. 3. Do you think the target set by AEL was realistic? Comment. 4. Comment on the management strategies adopted by AEL. 1. As Kartik, what would have been your strategies to deal with the defaulters? 2. What steps should Kartik adopt before expansion and diversification? Would it be a wise decision to diversify at this stage? 1. Strategic planning involves both, the development of organizational objectives and the laying down of specifications about how they will be accomplished. In this context, outline the major steps in the strategic planning process. 2. Implementing strategies effectively is of great importance. The success of a strategy depends on how effectively it is implemented. Elucidate. Telecom Management Telecom Technologies Multiple Choices: 1. Which technology is among the early starter in providing VoWiFi solutions for enterprises with wireless networks? a. Symbol Technologies b. Vocera Technologies c. Spectra link Technologies d. None of the above 2. In wireless networks ___________ refers to the measure of the performance for a system reflecting its transmission quality & service availability. a. Internet speeds b. Quality of Service (QOS) c. Interoperability
- 152. d. Line of Sight 3. A single IP-based core network handling the full range of telecom services. a. Power line Communication (PLC) b. VOIP c. OFCOM d. Next Generation Networks 4. Which country has the strong competitive broadband market with a penetration of 16%? a. India b. USA c. Japan d. China 5. Out of the following which project aims to substantially replace all of Bt’s existing network platform (PSTDN, ISDN etc) with a single unified IP platform. a. ADSL2 b. 21CN c. ATM d. SHDS Examination paper: Telecom Management IIBM Institute of Business Management 7 6. Which generation of mobile telephony will serve both voice & data applications? a. 1G b. 2G c. 3G d. 4G 7. This is a high bandwidth wireless networking service that operates in the frequency spectrum of 28-31 GHz range. a. MMDS b. LMDS c. BW d. None 8. Which management establishes the right architecture to deliver more products, better leveraging development & deployment expenditures? a. Product Portfolio Management b. Partner Management c. Platform Management d. None of the above 9. ___________ Frequencies allow multiple service providers to utilize the same section of the spectrum & compete with each other for customers. a. Licensed b. Unlicensed c. Both d. None of the above 10. LAS-CDMA stands for ____________________. Part Two: 1. What is Backhauling solution? 2. What is Broadband? 3. What is WiMAX? 4. What is THIPON? 5. What is a VOWiFi?
- 153. 1. Comment on the strategy which is adopted by the FCC “broadband wire line Internet access services” is fruitful or not? 1. Explain the concept of ATDI. 2. What are the measures which are behind the success of the ATDI methodology? 3. What is GSM/3G technology? 4. Write down the steps which are to be known in auto planning. 1. WiFi/mobile roaming and VoWiFi may play an important role for fixed-mobile convergence. Explain. 2. Does a ‘light touch’ regulation regime make sense within the NGN environment? What benefits & risks do you see with a ‘light-touch’? Telecom Management Section A: Objective Type (30 Marks) Part One: Multiple Choices: 1. This band transmits uplink around the 6GHz range & downlink around the 4GHz range. a. C-Band b. Ku-Band c. Ka-Band d. L-Band 2. On these trunks, traffic flows in both the incoming & outgoing directions. a. DOD trunks b. DID trunks c. Two-way local exchange trunks d. None of the above 3. As networks become more digitized, fewer conversions take place, and voice can be carried at a higher quality over fewer flower bits per second. a. PCM b. ADPCM c. DCSs d. DLCs 4. _____________ is a standard for storage & retrieval of moving pictures & audio on storage media. a. MPEG-1 b. MPEG-2 c. MPEG-4 d. MPEG-7 5. It is an open standard for digital video transmission over cable that was defined by ETSI & ratified in 1994. a. DVB-H b. DVB-T c. DVB-C d. DVB-S & DVB-S2 6. It is the oldest of DSL technologies & a symmetrical service, measuring that it provides equal bandwidth in the both directions. a. HDSL b. SDSL
- 154. c. G. SHDSL d. ADSL 7. It is the newest spread spectrum technique, and its main purpose is to resolve the problems. a. CDMA b. TDMA c. OFDM d. ADPCM 8. It is a new concept in multimedia mobile broadcasting service, converging broadcasting and telecommunications. a. DMB b. OFDM c. VF d. None of the above 9. It is a Niche broadband wireless technology that at first appears to complete for market share with mobile WiMax & Mobile-Fi. a. HiperAccess b. HiperMan c. iBursrt d. ETSI BRAN 10. In-FUSIO’s (www. Infusion.com) __________ is best known for its business model, which supports a variety of revenue models, including pay-per-level and SMS high scores. a. JavaME b. BREW c. EXEn d. Mophun Part Two: 1. State the protocols & implementations which are associated with Mesh Network. 2. Write a short note on HFC Architecture and draw the topology of an HFC network. 3. What is the IP multimedia system? 4. What is Symmetric Encryptions? 5. Briefly explain the major layers of IPT network taxonomy. 1. How does this case demonstrate the importance of data transmission rates in business? Does it imply that people in Japan are willing to accept lower data rates than people in the U.S.? 2. Some people say that the Internet fosters globalization by providing world wide access to the Web. Discuss arguments for and against this statement 1. Why might portable computing and desktop computing call for different types of microprocessors? 2. Review the performance variables. In which areas did the Transmeta chip try to excel 1. DNS is a distributed database system that operates on the basis of a hierarchy of names. Explain the statement & also explain how DNS servers work. 2. Explain the workings of GSM, UWC, CdmaOne & PDC technologies of digital cellular. CASE STUDY ANSWERS ASSIGNMENT SOLUTIONS PROJECT REPORTS AND THESIS
- 155. ISBM / IIBMS / IIBM / ISMS / KSBM / NIPM SMU / SYMBIOSIS / XAVIER / NIRM / PSBM / NSBM / ISM / IGNOU / IICT / ISBS / LPU / ISM&RC MBA - EMBA - BMS - GDM - MIS - MIB DMS - DBM - PGDM - DBM - DBA www.mbacasestudyanswers.com www.casestudysolution.in www.casestudies.co.in aravind.banakar@gmail.com ARAVIND 09901366442 - 09902787224