Corporate/Executive MBA

MBA is an MBA course meant for working managers and executive. Unlike regular MBA which open for graduates with or without work experience, Corporate MBA admits only those who have some ( 2-3 years) of experience in domain ( say finance). It is also called executive MBA

Here is an example http://tars.rollins.edu/crummer/emba/

In India, also Corporate/Executive MBA are available

Neural Network ( Neurocomputing)

Neural networks ( or neurocomputing) is an attempt to build computers that are designed a little bit like the brain, and that possible can do a few of things the brain can do. Brains are particularly good at things such as patten recognition ( you identify your schoolmate in a bus stand after many years) motor control ( you can move and twist your hand) perception,flexible inference ( conclude a couple of things), intuition ( arrive at a conclusion without conscious thinking) and go0d guessing. These are the features that are expected of a artificial system built on the idea of neural networks. A nervous system does computation in a very general sense. It receives sensory inputs and it does thing with them to generate motor outputs. ( You touch a hot thing and withdraw hand immediately). Neural networks have a ability to under go supervised learning which ths basis of building complex neural systems. Here are some references.

• An Introduction to Neural Networks
• Neural Networks
• A Tutorial on Neural Network

Supply Chain Management (SCM)

We know from our first computer course that "computer is a data processing device" which takes input and gives information. When computers were made affordable in 1960's business started using computers. Each department such as marketing, production, accounting developed separate application to process data generated in thier respective domains. Hence they developed systems such as material management system(MMS), Payroll system, accounting systems ( such as Tally etc). However this approach led to creation of "islands of information". One department can not access the information residing in other department for various reasons such as applications used by different departments were different and data formats were not compatible. Business realised the need for seamless integration of information residing in various department application. This led to the creation of Enterprise Resource Planning ( ERP). You may read more on ERP here

Supply chain management (SCM) is the extension of this principle in which departments outside of the an enterprise are also connected. For instance, SCM may be used to connect a car manufactures with tyre manufacture who in turn may be connected to rubber manufacture etc. The advantage of SCM is that every participant in the business process has access to most updated information so that delays can be avoided in supply of raw material needed for production process.

Japanese car companies harnessed the power of SCM so well that they come out with a revolution production system called JIT ( Just in Time) production. In this once the order is captured, each supplier is altered to supply item to produce the required car in time

Virtualization of the Design and Structure of IT applications

Virtualization is spreading. Now virtualization is impacting design and structure of IT applications. Business Process Management(BPM) is a new kind of software systems that combine application systems and business process underlying them. By doing so they not only help companies to conduct business but also help them monitor them. For instance, BPM will help say an executive to do his work and at the same time monitors his productivity. For example, it will help a ticketing clerk to issue tickets and also records all the actions initiated by him during the issuing of tickets. This information will help both the employee and employer to know productivity parameters. BPM represents a higher level of application view. In the past systems were developed only to get work done- usually called "automating" manual processes. Activites such as procurement, admissions were the focus of application systems. However, the advent of BPR concept in 90's demanded more focus on underlying process rather than activities. The new virtualization is enabling the easy integration of transactions ( ie activties) across multiple applications.
Important Implications
1. Virtualization of the design and structure of IT applications breaks the rigidity of tightly coupled legacy business applications, creating in their place the flexibility of loosely coupled processes.

Forms of Virtualization: Virtualization of Server

Virtualization is a big wave today. Earlier we had mentioned Virtualization: A boon in hetergeneous computing environment. Here we discuss about different virtualizations that have huge potential to shape our future.

Virtualization of Server:

Classically, server has been run on one operating system- be it a proprietory such as Windows. Mac Os or open system such as Linux and applications running on them have been accordingly customised. In practical terms server virtualization means that different operating systems and the applications that run on them can now be managed on a single machine -or set of machines. The virtualization software manages the computing power available in highly flexible manner against operating rules designed to optimize the use of capacity.

Important implications of Server Virtualization

1. Server virtualization basically converts the computing engine from a rigid to a highly flexible resource. It makes it much more able to respond to a rapidly changing environment without loosing productivity targets.
2. Computing engine has now transformed into more open resource than earlier designed framework of tightly coupled products and processes.
3. As a consequence, new computing paradigm has emerged in which processes can be coupled and de-coupled (loosely coupled) in flexible manner. This enables us to deliver both agility and productivity demands.
   
   Next blog is on Virtualization of the design and structure of IT applications

Negotiation

Negotiation can be defined as process by which two or more parties agree for terms and conditions about an issue of mutual concern. At the end of successful negotiation parties may agree to share/exchange resources which they own fully or partially. For example India and Nepal may negotiate to share Ganga water or India and Russia may negotiate to build next type of advanced reconnaissance aircraft. In these days of competition, cooperation is an essential attitude. To achieve co-operation with others we must be good at negotiation. Negotiation becomes an essential skill and even a skill for survival.

Purpose of Negotiations.
Negotiations are perennially present in our daily life. Day to day negotiations happen within an enterprise among and across departments. This is called Managerial negotiation. Commercial negotiation happen between businesses such as traders or manufactures etc. Legal and political negotiations involve legal aspects and political aspects respectively. For instance. WTO is concerned with legal negotiations with two or more countries involved in trade. Similarly Indian government may have political negotiation with extremists or naxals.

What to look in negotiations.
Depending on the situation and strengths of negotiating parties, each party can aim for one of the following outcomes. Win-Win where in both parties are happy about the outcomes. Win-lose outcome in which one party goes with happiness and other with some grudging feeling. In a lose-lose position, a deadlock is reached where in neither party is happy about the status of negotiation or its expected outcomes. To know more on negotiation refer the following

1. Negotiation
2. Types of Negotiations

Management Information system: Supporting Management Functions

Management Information System or MIS is a computer-based system which designed, developed and deployed to provide information support to carry out management functions, namely planning, organizing, controlling and co-ordinating. In business as well as in personal life , we have encounter situations where in we have to make decisions and go forward. In order to make a good decision, we must know all choices and consequence of each choice. A decision to be good must be based on good data. In fact it is said that no decision can be better than the data on which its based. A good manager always looks for supporting data for each decision made by himself or his subordinates. The purpose of Management Information system is to provide managers with informed choices for consideration. MIS supports all levels of management namely operational managers (line management, tactical managers( middle management) and strategic management ( Top management such as CEO). Management information system come in different forms to meet specific needs of management. Decision support systems (DSS) help those managers who are concerned with making decisions such as " should we open new bank branches" or "should we increase our intake. Executive support system are designed help executives such as marketing managers. Expert system combine data with Artificial intelligence (AI) to help domain specific decision making such as in geologist or a heart specialist

Background.
Computers made their first entry into business world in the 1960's. They were used for data processing activities such as payroll applications or stock register. Data processing produced reports such as reports, statements used for planning functions. With the availability of more powerful computers and cheap memory, the next stage of compeer application in business was to create information system( from data to info). Special languages such as COBOL were developed to build business information systems. With the advent of databases, the scope and sophistication of MIS is changing all the time . To know more about MIS, you may refer the following
MIS
MIS - Handbook

GATT : What is it and why was it created?

Business knows no borders so does dispute. Business spreads beyond national borders and across the continents. In order help business community to conduct business smoothly around the globe some kind of international mechanism is needed to settle disputes as and when they arise. After the second world war, forward looking thinkers in trade and industry realised a need for establishing an international body through which political, trade and business problems could be solved by brining global community together under that international body. This can be achieved by way of signing agreements. General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was created in 1947 to address global business issues. It had 123 members. Until its closing in 1994, GATT advocated free trade and tried to settle many issues. You may find more on GATT here

Share Market: Basics

Business may be defined as a process that converts outside resources into outside results. The outside resources that a business needs are called factors of production and they are money, (wo) men, machine, material. The outside results are products, services or goods. When a business firm is small and medium in size, its requirements for factors of production is small. For instance, in small business, money is invested by owner, his family or friends. However modern business firms need money in large quantities running into many crores. Such an amount of money can not be provided by one or more individuals or even institutions such as banks. In such cases, business firms go to market with a request for money. This is called Raising of capital. The quantum of money required by the company is split into small units called shares. For instance, if a company needs an investment of say Rs 100 crores, then each share may of value Rs.10. Thus company issues 10 crores shares of Rs. 10 each to the market. Rs. 10 is called the face value of the share. These shares can be bought by individual investors (such as you and me) and institutional investors such as banks. Shares are usually bought in bundles of 100 or its multiples. The market which provides money to companies is called share market. The incentive for investor is dividends. Dividend is the quantum of profit shared by the company with investor. This is given as some money for each share. Companies normally announce dividends every quarter. Here are two recent Indian examples of Raising of capital and issuing of Dividends.

Raising of capital
Tata Motors raised $ 750 million from overseas market.

Issuing of Dividends
Infosys declared an interim dividend of Rs 10 per share in Q2. ( 200%)

E-commerce

Since the inception of World Wide Web (WWW) business has been attempting to harness it as new business platform. E-commerce is the automation of commercial transactions using computer and communication networks such as Internet or the web. The term commercial here refers to those activities that create transactions between business firms and individuals. These transactions may involve the exchange of money, goods, and services. Here are some examples of e-commerce transactions

• Withdrawing money at an ATM
• Booking a railway ticket on the web
• Buying a book on Amazon
  

E-commerce transactions can take place between business to business called B2B or can also occur between business and consumer called B2C.

E-commerce intends to exploit the advantage of economies in a single-point keying to reduce errors and round-about time, a high degree of customizability of products and services to meet end-user needs and customer interactions at very low marginal cost. One of the first ever e-commerce system Minitel was introduced in France in 1970’s. Now with the advancement in web technologies, the scope of e-commerce is widened and now it is called E-Business. Unlike e-e-commerce which focused on merely conducting transactions on the net, e-business takes much broader view of the web and transforms many more facets of the business onto web platform

Refactoring: Preserving the work of yesterday for Tomorrow

Refactoring is a name given to a process in which a system undergoes minor internal changes without changing its external behaviour. The process of refactoring is needed because a system created today may not be in position to meet the needs of tomorrow. In addition it also helpful to visit system frequently for making changes to improve its performance or to add a new feature. All that is done to achieve above objectives comes under Refactoring.

From computer system perspective code refactoring is relevant. It is a process in which a small changes are made in a software system (code or program) to bring out desired outcomes. The refactoring may involve a simple change such as renaming a variable to make it more readable ( e.g. changing variable name from rn to roll_no) to moving an existing system from a language to another language or platform ( code in COBOL may be transformed into code in 'C').

Refactoring allows us to keep our systems updated by incorpating minor changes regularly. In addition, it also allows us to improve its performance characteristics by way of constantly tuning it. Of all its uses, role of refactoring in transforming a legacy system into current one or future system is the most important. To know more about the same consult the following

• Code Refactoring
• Refactoring: A Perl Example
• Refactoring: A Java Example

Virtualization: A boon in heterogeneous Computing Environments

In the traditional computing a computing activity occurs within the confines of hardware, software and associated elements. For example, programming using a compiler (Turbo C) or using an application software such as word processing in a DOS or windows environment. This is true of Unix environment. An executable file generated in DOS or windows environments can not used in another environment, say Unix or Linux. But in the networked environment such as WWW, it is practical to expect everyone to have identical computing environments. In such situations making computing outputs generated in one environment renderable in another environment becomes a challenge. Virtualization is the answer to this challenge. Virtualization separates hardware from software, operating system from application software, server from client and many more. By doing so, it helps both users and service provider to wider range of computing environments. In simple terms, Virtualization abstracts computing resources.

Current industrial practices have come out with a variety of virtualizations such as server virtualization, platform virtualization, desktop virtualization and many more. To know more about the virtualization consult here