Channel Evaluation

Channel evaluation is a multidimensional construct and includes both performance measures of the channel and measures of contribution to consumers by th channel. These measures of channel performance have been grouped under three main dimensions also known as 3Es, i.e., Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Equity. Effectiveness is further subdivided into delivery and stimulation.

• Delivery is defined as a short term measure of how well the channel meets the demand for service outputs placed on it by the consumption sector.
• Stimulation is defined as a long term, goal oriented measure of how well the channel member stimulate latent demand to reach optimum levels of demand.

Efficiency is further subdivided into productivity and profitability:

• Productivity is defined as the efficiency with which output is generated from resources and inputs used. In essence, productivity is a measure of physical efficiency.
• Profitability is a general measure of financial efficiency of channel member, in terms of return on investment, liquidity, leverage, growth patterns in sales and profits, growth potential in sales and profits, market share, average inventory maintained, etc.

Equity is the extent to which marketing channels serve problem-ridden markets and market segments, such a disadvantaged or geographically isolated consumers.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures

Price Differentiation

A common response during slow demand is to discount the price of the service. This strategy relies on basic economics of supply and demand. To be effective, however, a price differentiation strategy depends on solid understanding of customer price sensitivity and demand curves.

Heave use of price differentiation to smooth demand can be a risky strategy. Over –reliance on price can result in price wars in any industry where eventually all competitors suffer. Price wars are well known in the airline industry, where total industry profits suffered as a result of airlines simultaneously trying to attract customers through price discounting.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Judges as Social Engineers

Our courts still follow the idea of stare decisis. This adherence to precedent furnishes a system whereby a businessman or businesswoman may act in a certain way, confident that this action will have a known legal effect. At times, however, some modern judges feel that it is their duty to engage in the practice that lawyers term social engineering—shaping the law to the judge’s own individual social and economic beliefs.

When a judge tailors a decision to personal ideas about how society should operate, the holding of the court may be directly opposite to what the legislature intended by the passage of the law. Many legal observers feel that this social engineering by judges is an outright usurpation of the privileges and responsibilities of the legislature. Many critics feel that the laws should be made by the legislative branch of government, not by the holding of a court. Business and trade interests usually favor the idea of permitting the legislature to enact the laws.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Misrepresentation

The basic idea of misrepresentation is that one of the parties to a contract created in the mind of the other party a mistaken impression about an important fact about the subject of the contract. Acting in reliance upon this mistaken belief, the victimized party entered into a contract he or she would not otherwise have entered if the full truth had been known. The elements of misrepresentation are ordinarily given as misrepresentation of material fact justifiably relied upon to the detriment of (causing harm to) the person  relying.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Use of Material

In his book, Today and Tomorrow, Henry Ford reveals with regard to the nature of waste in industry. Ford suggests that ‘it is use – not conservation – that interests us. We want to use material to its utmost in order that the time of men may not be lost.’ Therefore if something has labor expended upon it, and it is subsequently wasted (‘we do not put it to its full value’), then the time and energy of men are wasted. Therefore Ford suggests that ‘we will use material more carefully if we think of it as labor’. The fundamental driver behind eliminating  waste is true efficiency, which Ford said is simply a matter of doing work using the best methods known, not the worst.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Foreign Licensing

The method of going global through the use of contractual agreements is foreign licensing. Such an agreement grants foreign marketers the right to distribute a firm’s merchandise or use its trademark, patent, or process in a specified geographic area. These arrangements usually set certain time limits, after which agreements are revised or renewed.

Licensing offers several advantages over exporting, including access to local partners’ marketing information and distribution channels and protection from various legal barriers. Because licensing does not require capital outlays, many firms, both small and large, regard it as attractive entry strategy. Like franchising, licensing allows a firm to quickly enter a foreign market with a known product or concept. The arrangement also may provide entry into a market, which government restrictions close to imports or international direct investment.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Need Theories of Motivation

Need theories represent the starting point for most contemporary thought on motivation, although these theories too attracted critics. The basic premise of need theories is that human motivation is caused primarily by deficiencies in one or more important needs or need categories. Need theorists have attempted to identify and categorize the most salient needs, that is, those that are most important to people. The best known need theories are Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Murray’s manifest needs, and Alderfer’s ERG theory.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

 

Agency Theory

Whenever there is a separation of the owners (principals) and the managers (agents) of a firm, the potential exists for the wishes of the owners to be ignored. This fact, and the recognition that agents are expensive, established the basis for a set of complex but helpful ideas known as agency theory. Whenever owners (or managers) delegate decision-making authority to others, an agency relationship exists between the two parties. Agency relationships, such as those between stakeholders and managers, can be effective as long as managers make investment decisions in ways that are consistent with stakeholders’ interests. However, when the interests of managers diverge from those of owners, then managers’ decisions are more likely to reflect the managers’ preferences than the owners’ preferences.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

 

A Socially Responsive Company

Executive leaders of largest corporations have been confronted with an unprecedented increase in the social issues impinging upon their business policies and practices. Not only have a variety of social regulations have been developed that apply universally to all industries, but each industry has also experienced to varying degrees a proliferation of industry-specific challenges for the corporate social environment.

In response to the pressures, businesses have increased their efforts to manage for corporate social environment. The social environment encompasses business activities influenced by various community and government groups. Many chief executives spend more time on the external affairs of the business than any other activity. Most executives allocate significant personnel, time, and budget to the creation of elaborate staff groups to help them understand and manage this environment and its challenges.

Some firms may be more vulnerable to social group pressure and social regulation than others. A number of factors have been identified as contributing to this vulnerability. A firm may be more vulnerable to social forces if the firm is:

• A large-sized or well-known company thus presenting a big target.
• Located in an urban area and under increased scrutiny by the media and social groups.
• Producing a consumer-oriented product viewed as a necessity by the public.
• Providing a product or service that may cause harm or injury to the user.
• Part of a heavily regulated industry that is expected to meet high public expectations.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

 

Divulging on Resources

The level of want satisfaction that an economy can achieve is limited partly by the quantities and qualities of its known resources. Resources are the means available for producing goods that are used to satisfy wants. Hundreds of different kinds of resources exist in the economy. Among these are labor of all kinds, raw materials of all kinds, machinery, buildings, semi-finished materials, fuel, power, transportation, and the like.

Resources can be classified conveniently into two categories: a) labor or human resources, and b) capital or nonhuman resources. Labor resources consist of labor power or the capacity for human effort, both of mind and of muscle, used in producing goods. The term capital can be misleading since it is used in several different ways not only by non-economists as well. But here it is used to include all non-human resources that can contribute toward placing goods in the hands of the ultimate consumer. Specific examples are buildings, machinery, land, available mineral resources, raw materials, semi-finished materials, business inventories, and any other non-human tangible items used in the productive process.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.