Strategy squared

By Alexander Gordon

Logistics assets that have a circular flow are an essential part of the distribution network of any business. These assets are often reusable such as totes, racks, bins and roll cages, shipping containers, gas containers etc. used to transport goods from one place to another. Procuring, maintaining and managing these assets often forms a significant part of a company’s annual expenses. Since theft, damage and replacement erode asset productivity, these assets have to be managed in such a way as to minimize loss as possible. That is when RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Devices) and logistics management comes into effect.

Using RFID to Manage Assets:

Businesses have resorted to using radio frequency identification devices come in handy. These devices or tags are helpful in locating these reusable assets as well as have control over them. This greatly reduces loss due to theft as well as misplacements. It is also useful in locating particular containers containing specific products etc. Their use has greatly reduced costs such as replacement costs as well as avoiding shrinkage. It has also helped reduce capital costs, increase customer satisfaction, as well as ensuring the assets are in the correct place at the right time. An added advantage is the reusability of these tags, so companies, which want greater control over assets and their management, have opted to use RFID and logistics management techniques. Using RFID and logistics management strategies will serve to improve capital utilization lower the total operational costs as well as improve the availability of assets. The use of these asset management techniques has improved customer retention significantly. This technique will help improve visibility of assets in transit, availability management of much needed assets, transportation management etc. these techniques have to be reviewed periodically to ascertain if they have effected a significant change as also to take necessary action where required.

The use of RFID and logistic management techniques are especially useful for manufacturers, where parts bins feed parts in an automated plant, since the placement of the right part in the right place is critical. The company can use these techniques in areas where they have expertise whereas professional help can be sought for areas where they lack control such as transportation, delivery, pick up etc.

Companies should consider implementing RFID and logistics management techniques, as they will greatly benefit from it. It will reduce cost, increase control and availability, decrease chances of loss of assets due to various factors as well as prove to be very economical. Most of them are currently using manual techniques, which is not as efficient as RFID. They have to understand that asset management will be a key factor in improving customer satisfaction as well as help in customer retention.

Many firms offer professional help as well as products to run a business efficiently and effectively.

Alexander Gordon is a writer for http://www.smallbusinessconsulting.com - The Small Business Consulting Community. Sign-up for the free success steps newsletter and get our booklet valued at $24.95 for free as a special bonus. The newsletter provides daily strategies on starting and significantly growing a business.

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By Ken Marlborough

Logistics software is a computer program which is used to make the process of logistics services more reliable and accurate. Logistics management is a science of planning, organizing, and executing activities for delivering the required goods or services in the right location at the right time. Modern technologies, communication links, and control systems are essential to manage materials, services, and financial goals. Logistics software helps companies or organizations in their overall performances of designing, developing, marketing, and financing.

This software ensures a consistency in the management and automation of a variety of activities in the logistics management. This also helps for precise event management, planning, transactions, and global trading. Data collection and evaluation of raw materials stored, finished goods, and other information about the supply chain can be accessed easily by using the logistics software. Perfection and pace of the operational processes are maintained to increase the performances of the companies or organisations as a whole.

Logistics software helps to retain a sequential order in the transportation of cargos. It gives all details about traffic routes and modes of transportation to satisfy customer requirements at a lower expense. This software also enables a customer to track and trace the status of an ordered product during transportation. Logistics software in distribution management aids in warehousing infrastructure, goods movement, quality assurance, and product labelling. Freight billing, payment, and auditing are made quicker and reliable with the introduction of this software. Other areas in which logistics software find its application are financial services, sales, marketing, human resource management, performance evaluation, order processing, and customer support.

Logistics software proves to be efficient in network planning, asset analysis, and inventory simulations for successful logistics management. It gives an up-to-date detail about the whole business process for the evaluation of progress in performance. It controls and manages industrial processes such as automation, manufacturing, management, and other operational procedures. Integration of computers to run the software, application selection, and maintenance are necessary to get a required result. Logistics softwares are designed, developed and supported by software developing companies according to the requirements of the logistics management of that company. Promptness, reliability, analytical ability, and defined planning outlook are some of the great concerns while designing logistics software.

Logistics provides detailed information on Logistics, Logistics Companies, Logistics Solutions, Transportation And Logistics and more. Logistics is affiliated with Fulfillment And Distribution.

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By Sam Miller

Getting your supply chain management right can give your business competitive advantage by lowering costs, greater efficiency and improving customer satisfaction by getting goods to customers faster. The impact of technology with the use of RFID tags to track pallets and shipments electronically and merging this into the stock and order management system is making the SCM aspect of a business an area of substantial opportunity for creating competitive advantage.

Now that all sounds fantastic with the ability to track individual shipments through the supply chain and maintaining data on product, serial codes, description, quantity and so on. Combining RFID data with barcode information creates even more information that can be manipulated and collected.

In truth though, what we have is a KPI nightmare with such a huge choice of metrics to choose from we are at serious risk of KPI overload with metrics duplicating information and business trends leading to information overload for management.

Remember that using KPI’s effectively means that you first must select the right metrics to measure and ensure that managers fully understand what those metrics are actually telling them. The best metrics to use are those that combine in a ratio form and this means that we lose some of the underlying raw data trend that is available. Combining delivery time with order value will give us an index of how well we are at getting our order pipeline to our customer base but the smoothing effect of the ratio will hide long delivery times for low value products which may increase rather than decrease overall customer satisfaction leading to a knock on effect in customer care and contact center KPI’s.

With any KPI scorecard system, choosing the right metrics is essential and less is also more. Remember Pareto’s Principle, 80% of the benefit will be derived from 20% of the activity - the same applies with your metrics. Scorecards carrying twenty or thirty metrics are going to overload decision makers using the dashboard so keep it simple and reduce the metrics being used to those that are essential.

Allowing the metrics to be reduced means that managers can gain a far more intimate knowledge of what a metric is actually trying to tell them and this makes the difference between using the dashboard for a simple performance against target check and really unleashing the diagnostic and management power of a the KPI metrics. With the massive influx of data that is being collected and collated by an SCM system, it is very tempting to rush headlong into trying to use all of this information. The fact is that in those KPI systems where metric selection is rigorously kept to a minimum, managers tend to make more successful decisions that their counterparts operating a complicated, metric overloaded dashboard.

The adage here is that less is more and following Pareto’s Principle, 20% of your metrics are going to give you 80% of the SCM information you really need to make effective management decisions.

If you are interested in learning more about supply chain kpi, check Sam Miller new web-site.

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By Susan West

Leadership in a competitive marketplace is extremely challenging. You must always be scanning the horizon, looking for the next critical trend, while still paying attention to the here and now. The challenge increases in difficulty exponentially when your marketplace is not only competitive, but global as well.

Dealing with cultural differences
Many leaders struggle to deal with cultural differences in their global workforce. As companies branch out and take advantage of opportunities in other countries, the leaders of those companies must maintain their profitability and competitive edge while understanding and accommodating cultural differences.

An increasingly popular way of dealing with cultural differences is to send managers and company leaders on a work rotation to the country where the workforce lives. It is an eye-opening experience for leaders and employees alike to spend an extended period of time getting to know each other and learning to work effectively together.

When it is not feasible to send an executive overseas for a lengthy period, the next most popular option is to provide training and education in the other culture. Companies go to great lengths to help their managers and executives become comfortable with other cultures, including bringing in native speakers, teaching a foreign language, immersion in the culture, and other types of education.

Encouraging diversity
As the global economy has grown and prospered, the workplace has become increasingly diversified. This presents a challenge to managers and leaders when trying to bring a diverse team of workers together. Change is hard for anyone, and changing to a diverse group is especially hard for some people.

As a leader, you can meet this challenge by educating and coaching your team to work together and learn about each other. This can be done in a formal team building activity, or in a more individualized way as part of everyday coaching and supervision. Combining both methods is even more effective.

The limits of technology
Technology is what has allowed the global marketplace to flourish, and it is a tremendous tool for conducting business in nearly every corner of the world. There is no substitute, however, for face to face interactions and time spent working together in close proximity.

Your job as a leader is to take advantage of the available technology, such as the internet, web conferencing, and telecommunications, while understanding and overcoming technology’s limitations. For instance, if your workforce is located in multiple places, don’t rely solely on satellite or internet connections for interacting with your employees. Take the time and make the effort to travel to those locations so that you can meet them, listen to them, and show them that you are a real human being who cares about their growth and development.

Another good option is to arrange work exchanges among different workgroups. Send a small group of employees from one location to spend a few days in another location, and then reverse the process. Your team will appreciate the opportunity to expand their horizons and the personal connections made on such a trip are likely to create improved work performance.

Summary
As challenging as it is to be an effective leader in the global marketplace, it is not impossible. You can improve your effectiveness by learning how to deal with the specific issues associated with a global presence. Education, training, mentoring, coaching and hands on learning are great ways to rise to the challenge.

In a little over one hour, once a week for 8 weeks is all it takes for business leaders to increase management awareness, establish a leadership plan and build a leadership portfolio. For the first time ever executive coach and motivational speaker, Susan West, is offering ‘Unleashing Your Leadership Power’ via teleseminar. Visit http://www.UnleashingYourLeadershipPower.com or contact QuadWest Associates at 800-809-2721. Susan West has held many executive leadership positions during her 26 years of business experience. She shares her knowledge and lessons learned through a variety of programs offered by QuadWest Associates, LLC including coaching, leadership workshops, tele-seminars and consulting.

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By Allison Babb

After extensively researching ten thousand leaders and fifty thousand staff members, the authors of the book The Leadership Challenge uncovered 5 principles for how leaders get extraordinary things accomplished in organizations across the globe.

While in my senior management roles, I read The Leadership Challenge book and also attended their leadership training. I embraced these principles whole-heartedly. These five leadership principles are by far some of the most powerful yet simple ways to excel as leaders. And if you are an aspiring leader, this is a great place to start–the authors embrace the reality that, in organizations, leadership is everyone’s business. Do you live out these five leadership principles? Read on to find out…

1: Challenge the Process
Leaders tend to challenge the norm and with challenging they innovate. They are willing to step out and take risks to find new and better ways to do things. A good question to ask is what norms are you living with and how can you challenge yourself and your staff to innovate their way to new and better ways to work and accomplish goals. And mistakes along the way are simply learning opportunities through which you can innovate even further. What’s one status-quo in your organization that can benefit from you or your staff challenging the process?

2: Inspire a Shared Vision
Successful leaders possess the ability to inspire others and get them excited about how things can change, the way things can be and the path to getting there. First, leaders must be personally passionate about those possibilities. Also, leaders must know their people well enough to connect with their interests when sharing the leader’s vision for the future.

People act when they believe that their leaders understand them and have their best interest at heart. Consider where it may be a challenge to get your staff on board with a new task or initiative. How well do you know your staff? Do you know them well enough to enlist their support by connecting your vision with their interests? As The Leadership Challenge suggests, “leadership is a dialogue, not a monologue.”

3: Enable Others to Act
It probably goes without saying that leadership is a team effort. The book suggests that a simple test for detecting if someone is on the road to true leadership is in the frequency of the use of word “we.” Leaders do not hoard power; they give it away. People feel a strong sense of ownership when they are included. Is your language as a leader fostering teamwork? In what ways can you make your staff feel more enabled? Effective leaders make people feel strong and capable and they provide the training where needed to enable their staff to act.

4: Model the Way
Modeling the way begins with first becoming aware of our own values and beliefs so that we can then stand up for them. Leaders model the way through personal example and not through eloquent speeches. They model the way through simple daily acts and they are willing to do what they are asking their staff to do. As a leader, consider how clear you are about your values, principles, and beliefs and how consistently those values are lived out as a model to your staff. What are some small ways in which you can model the way for your organization?

5: Encourage the Heart
Let’s face it, work can sometimes be challenging. People in our organizations can become frustrated and sometimes discouraged. Leaders who display genuine acts of caring inspire their staff to carry on. They do this through group celebrations and individual recognition. We often underestimate the value of a personal handwritten thank-you note for example. And we sometimes get so busy meeting one milestone after another that we forget to stop and celebrate the accomplishment.

I was privileged to be interviewed by the authors of the book Encouraging the Heart for the ways in which I implemented this principle in my role as a senior manager. I’ve learned that celebration of successes (small or large, individual or group) is perhaps one of the greater missed opportunities that leaders encounter. Take a closer look at what is getting accomplished in your organization and celebrate them! Who in your organization has gone above and beyond or where have your teams accomplished key milestones. In what way can you give them some well-deserved recognition and encourage the heart….today?

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Allison Babb is author, speaker, trainer, and leadership coach who teaches leaders at all levels 3 secrets to becoming a top manager in their company. Allison has combined her degree in Business Administration, over 15 years of senior management experience and the art of professional coaching to deliver truly masterful leadership coaching and training to managers at all levels.

You are welcomed to “reprint” this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the contact information at the end), and you send me a copy or link to your reprint by visiting my website at http://www.ExcellenceThroughCoaching.com and choosing “contact us”. Thanks!

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By Patricia Weber

Honeymoon Over
There’s a honeymoon period in work that lasts about six months on average. Employees start out with high trust and enthusiasm. The employer is benefiting from both the aptitude and the attitude. After this phase, an employees’ motivation drops.

While we hired the best match aptitude, we now have lost sight of the right attitude. The “t”, the one in attitude that makes it positive and optimistic, how did that get lost or skewed? Eighty percent of the time is it is the employer, the business owner or manager, who is the one demotivating the employee!

Your leadership style

The most direct path and quickest cure to motivating employees is in your leadership style and how it affects all the human elements.

How is your leadership style supporting the basic needs of supportive relationships? Do you build or breakdown trust? Do you listen or just listen to what you want to hear? Do you mind read what motivates people or do you watch what makes them smile, hear what puts hope in their voice and also ask them? Do you analyze and implement as money saving alternatives as possible instead of cutting your human resources too quickly? If your own attitude and actions support productive and respectful employee relationships, you will get an A motivation rating with your employees who want supportive relationships from both their managers and peers. The camaraderie from this style will be the glue that raises morale or the organization’s motivation.

In a “we want it now” age, the business owner and manager can more easily create a motivating environment that satisfies security, meaningful and supportive relationships. Take a look at your leadership style and then take the appropriate actions to update it.

The article Motivating Employees in the Workplace, gives you a birds eye view of the four key factors to create a motivating environment for employees.

America’s #1 Coach for Introverts, Shy and Reluctant who sell, Pat Weber, helps you effortlessly get the business you want.

Get her free report , 6 Secrets to Sales Success for Introverts! Go to her website for a more comfortable, confident, no-stress sales method.

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By Steve Hill

What makes a good team leader? Should the team leader be very strict, very friendly or something some where in the middle? A few years ago I was promoted to the role of team leader after spending two years as being a member of the same team. I was not exactly sure of how to approach the role and decided to consult a good friend of mine who had held a similar role for a different company. I would like to thank this friend, who is called Ian, for his invaluable advice. In this article I will describe the advice that he gave me and how I went about leading this team of ten people.

I was based in the insurance industry and worked in the compliance department of a very famous life assurance company. I had been a member of a team of ten people whose role was to ensure that our clients had received the best advice, that the policy they had taken up was affordable for them and that the policy had been sold in conjuction within the compliance regulations.

Even though the role may on paper seem quite a boring one I actually really enjoyed it. I liked the people who I was working with and we had a bit of a laugh throughout our working day.

Then one afternoon I was called in to see the head of the compliance department. He informed me that my team leader was about to leave the company and that he wanted me to take over. I was quite flattered and duly agreed to take on this new challenge.

I now had to be the boss of all of my fellow team members, this was quite a daunting task. I decided, after seeking the advice from Ian, to be quite a relaxed team leader. I would offer continued training to each member of the team and would be happy for them to talk to each other, as long as all of the work was being completed to the required levels of quality.

Each month, I awarded the top member of the team an extra half days holiday as a way of thanking them for their hard work. The competition for this little reward was red hot and it certainly helped to improve productivity.

I made each member aware that I was now the boss but that I would be very approachable. They could see me with any questions that they had and to give me their ideas to improve the team.

I held this position for around a year before also moving on to pastures new. I would like to think that I was a well liked and respected team leader, I was certainly pleased and proud of my achievements during that period.

Stephen Hill runs The How To Stop Stammering Centre, he has a number of websites including:

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By Michael Russell

There are three major functional areas in accounting, which need to be considered in modern day accounting for any business. The three are financial, cost and management accounting.

The first area, namely financial accounting, is primarily useful for ascertaining the results of the business on a periodical basis; for example, one year. This will help to determine the future course of action in the long term. In economical terms, financial accounting treats money as a factor of production.

Cost and management accounting are tools to enable management to take decisions on a day-to-day basis. Cost and management accounting are not useful for their own sake. These two functions assist management in the conduct of the business along with other key factors involved in running of the business. Key factors could be demand, supply, competition, availability of raw material, logistics etc.

The second area, namely cost accounting, seeks to ascertain the value of direct costs and indirect costs involved in production . From this value, management can make an informed decision regarding the improvement of production performance. In economic terms, cost accounting is a measure of economic performance. This information gives management a clear indication of economic performance of the production resources of the business.

Costing also helps the sales manager in setting prices. But since costing is a measure of economic performance, it cannot be considered as an absolutely accurate basis for setting prices. This is because selling prices are more of an economic decision. It would not be amiss to mention here that prices depend basically on market factors. Prices depend more on demand, supply and competition and less on costs. For example, high demand coupled with lack of competition would mean that business could charge higher prices for its products, well above the costs.

The third area, namely management accounting, is closely interrelated with costing accounting. Although it has evolved from cost accounting, management accounting has a broader role to play in management decisions. It measures economic performance of the business enterprise as a whole, vis-a-vis the economic environment in which the business operates. This function of accounting seeks to combine the financial and cost information in a broader aspect.

Finally, management accounting is instrumental in assisting and advising management in making important business decisions. It makes management aware of the economic implications and consequences of their decisions. In economic terms, it implies a close study of money as an economic resource, while simultaneously treating it as a measure of economic performance. This enables management to measure it as an economic factor of production, e.g. the rate of return on capital employed.

It is thus seen that accounting has a distinct role to play in three different areas, which are equally vital. With the advent of computerised accounting, it has become very easy for management to monitor the accounting information on the tips of its fingers. Financial accounting programs enable financial statements and various cost and MIS statements to be produced almost instantly at push of a button. Now, only the laborious part of accounting is data entry. Financial managers must ensure that meaningful data is input into the system to produce meaningful information. Proper categorisation must be done and keying errors avoided at all costs, ensuring providing accurate financial information to management.

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By Ajeet Khurana

If one were to reduce business to the simplest terms, one would probably call it the selling of goods by one person, and the buying of those same goods by another. Thus, whether we pay cash or run up a tab while doing business, money has to change hands during the course of a business transaction.

Accounts receivables is one such type of a business transaction. It refers to the way of dealing with amounts of money that are owed to a business by its customer. On the balance sheet of a company, accounts receivable refer to the amount of money that a customer owes it. Accounts receivables are also referred to as trade receivables, which makes the concept a little clearer. As this is a debt related amount, it appears under the category of current assets on the balance sheet of the company.

An accounts receivables transaction is generally carried out by means of an invoice which is sent to the customer with the aim of informing him of the duration within which the debt amount must be paid off. The term within which the debt has to be paid may be thirty days, forty-five days, sixty days, or even as much as ninety days. However, the duration of the debt depends entirely on the debtor and the creditor.

Various payment practices may be followed. These practices may be determined by the various industry standards. They may also be colored by the financial status of the debtor, or affected by the company’s corporate policy.

Larger business organizations usually have to resort to the development of an entire accounts receivables department to look into the various kinds and amounts of debts that its customers owe it. A sales ledger is usually used to record transactions that pertain to accounts receivables.

Anyone who is starting out on a new business venture would have to learn about the various kinds of accounting terms and practices that are carried on within various industries. To get into a business undertaking without adequate study of the various accounting practices would be committing professional hara-kiri. Accounts receivables is only one of the many kinds of transactions that prevail in a business setting.

No matter what noble work you hope to do through your business, ultimately you would want it to be financially sound. So, you should make sure to find out about the many financial transactions that will enter into the picture once you start selling your products or services.

Ajeet Khurana is a web enthusiast and an author. He recommends: Accounts Receivables, Accounts Receivable Management and Debt Collection Services.

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By Anil_Kumar_Gupta

The steps are as follows:

1. Ignore opening and dosing cash and bank balances appearing in receipts and payments account.

2. Eliminate all items of capital receipts and payments.

3. Ascertain income of the relevant year by deducting from the total receipts the income received on account of previous and future years and by adding the income accrued due in the year but not received and income received in the previous year but relating to this year.

4. Ascertain expenditure of the relevant period by deducting expenditure both relating to preceding period and succeeding period from the total payments and by adding the expenditure outstanding at the end and expenditure prepaid in the beginning.

5. Make adjustments, as per additional information, such as depreciation, bad debts etc., if any.

6. The income and expenditure account, when balanced, will disclose surplus (if the credit side is bigger) or deficit (if the debit side is bigger). If surplus i.e. excess on income over expenditure add it to the capital or accumulated fund. However, if deficit i.e., excess of expenditure over income deduct it from the capital or accumulated fund.

Distinction between receipt and income

“Receipt” means total cash received during the current year. But “income” means total income earned for the current year.

The points of distinction between the two are stated below :-

Receipt

1. Any cash received in regarded as receipt.

2. It is not confined to any accounting year. In other words, it may include cash received for any year-past, present or future.

3. It may be of both capital and revenue nature.

4. In case of receipt, cash increases equal to amount of receipt.

5. An item can’t be called “receipt” unless equivalent amount of cash received.

6. It is recorded on debit side of cash book.

7. It is not included in final accounts. In other words, it is not considered in determining the result of concern.

Income

1. Any cash received mayor may not be regarded as income. Cash received for current year is regarded only as income.

2. It is confined to current accounting year only.

3. It is of revenue nature only.

4. In case of income cash may not increase equal to the amount of income.

5. An item may be “income”, even though cash has not been received.

6. It is credited to income and expenditure account.

7. It must be considered in final accounts.

Distinction between payment and expenditure

Payment means total cash paid during the current year. But expenditure means total expenses incurred for the current year only.

The points of distinction between the two, are as follows :-

Payments

1. Any cash paid in regarded as payments.

2. It is not confined to any accounting year, i.e. it may include cash paid for any year-past, present or future.

3. It may be of both capital and revenue nature.

4. In case of payment, cash decreases equal to amount of payment.

5. An item can’t be called “payment” unless equivalent amount of cash is paid.

6. It is recorded on credit side of cash book, i.e. credited to cash account.

7. It is not included in final accounts. In other words, it is not considered in determining the result of concern.

Expenditure

1. Any cash paid mayor may not be regarded as expenditure.

2. It is confined to current accounting year only.

3. It is of revenue nature only.

4. Cash mayor may not decrease equal to the amount of expenditure.

5. An item may be “expenditure” even though cash has not been paid.

6. It is debited to income and expenditure account.

7. It must be considered in final accounts.

The author is an engineering graduate, B.E.(Hons), and is managing his own software development firm, HiTech Computer Services, that mainly deals in accounting, billing and inventory control software for traders, industries, business houses, hotels, hospitals, medical stores, newspapers, magazines, petrol pumps, automobile dealers, commodity brokers and other business segments, website and web application development for business. The software are available both for intranet and internet. These software are available for download from the website:

Evaluation version accounting software download is available at http://www.hitech-on-web.com/p10.asp

Copy of the article and full Financial Accounting Primer or Tutorial is available at
http://www.hitech-on-web.com/Accounting_Ledger.asp

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