What changes have many companies faced recently?
Unit 4 CHANGE
Do you see change as a danger, an opportunity or a challenge?
What is considered to be a key to success in a company?
There has been a reaction to downsizing and BPR and a realisation that an organisation's most precious asset may well be its people, and above all what they know. A company's accumulated knowledge and experience is part of company culture and is increasingly seen as a key to success. Many now believe that this collective knowledge and accumulated years of experience is something to cultivate and develop. Some companies have appointed a chief knowledge officer who creates systems to make this knowledge available to the company as a whole in a process of knowledge capitalisation.
What trends do you see emerging in the strategy of a large company?
Recent years have seen massive restructuring. Companies downsized and delayered, getting rid of levels of middle-management in order to become leaner, flatter, supposedly more efficient organisations. Often the reasoning was that computer networks allow top managers instant access to information that was previously gathered and transmitted upwards by middle managers, whose other main function was to communicate executives' key messages downwards to the workforce and in this they were accused of diluting or confusing the messages, or worse. With fewer organisational layers, top managers say they can communicate more directly with front-line employees, the people who actually produce the goods or services, and deal with customers. With less direct supervision, employees have often been encouraged to make more decisions for themselves in a process of empowerment.
Another trend was re-engineering, the idea that an organisation should not change incrementally, but should start again from scratch with no preconceptions about how things-should be done, not just in manufacturing but in all the processes that contribute to what an organization does, hence business process re-engineering, or BPR.
The human side of this, again, was that there would probably be redundancies. The people remaining would probably feel demoralized, wondering when the next wave of change was going to come and whether it would be their turn to be thrown out.
Unit 5 MONEY
Which types of financial institutions do you know?
This is for example banks, insurance companies, mutual funds (unit trusts in the UK) and pension funds who may, of course, be investing the money of private individuals indirectly.
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The markets they invest in include the money and currency markets, stock markets for shares (also known as equities), commodities markets for anything from gold to pork bellies (used for making bacon), and property (buildings and land).
Let’s stop on several institutions.
The most famous money institution in every country is bank. Bank is a financial institution that acts as a payment agent for customers, and borrows and lends money. Banks borrow money by accepting funds deposited on current account, accepting term deposits and by issuing debt securities such as banknotes and bonds. Banks lend money by making advances to customers on current account, by making installment loans, and by investing in marketable debt securities and other forms of lending.
A mutual fund is a professionally-managed firm of collective investments that pools money from many investors and invests it in stocks, bonds, short-term money market instruments, or other securities. In a mutual fund, the fund manager, trades the fund's underlying securities, realizing capital gains or losses, and collects the dividend or interest income.
What is the difference between issuers, brokers and traders?
Issuers-a company that makes its securities available for sale
BROKER –a person or organization that buys and sells securities, currencies, property, insurance etc for others (is an intermediary between issure of securities and potential investors who buy the securities).
Traders –someone who deals in shares, bonds, currencies, commodities etc on a market either for themselves or for a financial institution
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