1. Global Accounting Standards
Global Accounting Standards (GAS) is the set of standards stating how certain transactions and other business related events should be shown in a financial statement (Greuning and Koen 2). It also involves world’s largest economies and how they can use accounting standards to close the gap between themselves and other nations. The purpose of a financial stataement is to provide information about the financial situation, changes in financial situation, and the performance of business entity in a transparent and accountable way (Greuning and Koen 2). This involves assessing the balance sheet, cash flow statement, and the income statement of the business respectively. The approval and execution of GAS is crucial in facilitating transparency and correct interpretation of financial statements.
The International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) created a framework for the basis and presentation of financial statements (Greuning and Koen 2). According to Greuning and Koen, the framework comprises of concepts underlying the basis and preparation, the methods for creating transparent and accountable standards, and assistance when need in the interpretation of International Accounting Standards (IAS) (2).
GAS contains qualitative attributes that make information provide in the financial statement useful to those who need it. This is because if comprehensive data is missing, then executives and managers will not be able to deduce the accurate financial condition of the business. A false financial statement could mislead key stakeholders and players in the industry a factor that could stop market disciplines from operating.
Key attributes of a good financial stataement include relevance, reliability, comparability, and understandability (Greuning and Koen 3). Developing a good financial statement involves having decisive moments that may restrict the amount of data given. Some of the vital decision-point for developing a good financial statement includes timeliness, benefits versus cost, and harmonizing the qualitative attributes in the statement. Timeliness is important because a delay could improve reliability at the expense of importance. In terms of benefit and cost, the benefit gained form the data should exceed the cost of providing it.
2. International Branding
Branding can be described as a feature that is created by seller to identify their products and services from those of other sellers. International branding therefore, involves branding activities done on a global scale. Business organizations normally undertake strategic planning aimed at attaining distinctive consumer behavior. Some of these goals include increasing returns, creating larger market shares, attaining higher margins, and increasing shareholder value (Go and Govers 5). These objectives habitually push organizations to promote their brands internationally.
As businesses engage in promoting their products and services globally, they need to conduct research in order to verify how local customers perceive comparable brands. If an organization detects differences, then it can either distort or cancel a significant element in the brand. An organization would think of cancelling its main product in a foreign country in case of cultural and religious differences. For instance, a global fast-food brand would consider producing beef hamburgers instead of pork in Muslim society. In another set-up, a company can distort information concerning the outcome of cosmetic of beauty product in order to meet consumer’s expectation. The issue of distorting and cancelling are dependent on a society’s cultural conventions. When the local people’s conventions are solid then buyers will be reluctant to accept substitutes (Go and Govers 2). Such behavior decreases the possibilities of successfully introducing a brand in the local market. However, when the people’s conventions are flexible it means they are willing to try new options and businesses can successfully penetrate the new market.
Numerous factors influence consumer perceptions about a certain product or service. According to Gelder, three main aspects persuade perception of brands and they include category conventions, cultural conventions, and needs conventions. Category conventions involves major players in production of a product and it is usually influenced by general representation and advertising of a product. For instance, a consumer used to drinking beer in a glass bottle would reject the idea of drinking in a plastic bottle. Cultural conventions are influenced by a society’s economic, world, emotional, social, health, and religious beliefs. In the case of word beliefs, there are existing myths and beliefs about certain countries and their products and services. For instance, Italians are known for their fashion and Germans are known for their engineering brilliance. Therefore, brands can exploit conventions about their products or country to fulfill their objectives. Needs convention is generally influenced by personal needs that override cultural and category needs.
3. Corporate Venturing and its Impact on Organizational Effectiveness
A corporate venture is an activity that allows organizations to exploit alternative ways of developing their businesses. It involves strategic planning and decision-making between executives and entrepreneurs. Some of the activities associated with corporate ventures include identifying prospective opportunities, finding support from relevant parties like political groupings, and linking new technology with customer needs . Business venture has significant effect not only on the development of the business, but on the effectiveness of the management in terms of decision-making. Since the main objective is always growth of the company, executives will draw inclusive perspectives to explore the need for long-term competitive advantage especially if the company is an average performing one.
Two variables are used in measuring growth after a business venture has been undertaken: time and accomplishment. The decision to venture certainly transforms the management’s mindset to be goal-oriented and decisive. Corporate ventures inspire progress in management strategies in the following ways through leveraging, and upgrading. Business enterprises lead to frequent leveraging whereby; a company uses other components like resources to gain maximum advantage. Thus, a company’s management will leverage on all possibilities concerning the venture in order to increase potential return or promote the firm’s brand. Business upgrading involves steps taken to try and benefit from the venture so that capabilities within the firm are improved for instance use of new technology and market strategy.
A company’s management will move swiftly to identify new alternatives when prior decisions result in unforeseen outcomes. This will normally happen when the company is losing revenues or is experiencing a decrease in market share due to poor decisions made during initial stages of the business undertaking.
Corporate ventures assist in making organization effective because it allows innovation through proper human resource management. Ventures usually originate from existing opportunities or problems experienced during business operation. Consequently, the bearers on new ideas and concepts are the middle-management and supervisors that interact with the staff. Therefore, ventures enable managers to add new ideas that lead to consistent growth.
4. Human Resource Management Issues
Human resource management can be defined as the strategic approach to the management of personnel in an organization. Effective human resource management is crucial in developing people’s capacities as they work. In addition, it allows the staff to integrate with their colleagues in a productive way. The significance of human resource is found in its planning strategies. Global businesses have the propensity of experiencing losses if their HR department is not effectively recruiting staff and if there is minimal interaction with the staff to manage their grievances.
Some companied apply effective HR techniques and practices to successfully manage their personnel. McDonald, a global fast-chain restaurant has one of the most effective HR techniques in restaurant business. McDonald’s HR undertakes a systematic analysis when planning in order to asses its current state and the possible future conditions on its business environment (Pervaiz and Aslam). McDonald’s staff values the impact of evaluation on their performance and the HR understands that the workforce can lead to benefits in the business. McDonald applies corporate, operational, and individual plans when dealing with their staff. The corporate plan involves setting the business’s overall objective and inculcating those plans in the workforce (Pervaiz and Aslam). This strategy is beneficial as it often creates organizational culture among the employees. Operational plan involves setting specific targets by organizations unit or activity to ensure that all employees are performing. Lastly, individual plan focuses on what the individual has to do to achieve his or her goal (Pervaiz and Aslam). To motivate its staff, McDonald offers good incentives, better pay, and other benefits.
Human Resources Strategy should aim to develop and maintain staffs that are well motivated, properly trained, equitably compensate, and which performs effectively in pursuing the organization’s objectives. The outcome of a well managed staff is efficiency and high productivity.
Work Cited
Aslam, Hirra Pervaiz Adeeba. Mcdonald's Strategic Human Resource Management. 2012. Web. 27 Septemeber 2013.
Elfring, Tom. Corporate Entrepreneurship and Venturing. Springer, 2005. Web.
Frank M. Go, Robert Govers. International Place Branding Yearbook 2012: Managing Smart Growth and Sustainability. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Web.
Gelder, Sicco Van. Global Brand Strategy: Unlocking Branding Potential Across Countries, Cultures & Markets. Kogan Page Publishers, 2005. Web.
Hennie van Greuning, Marius Koen. International Accounting Standards: A Practical Guide. World Bank Publications, 2001. Web.
Kondalkar, Paul. Organization Effectiveness and Change Management. PHI Learning Pvt, 2002. Web.
Storey, John. New Perspectives on Human Resource Management. Cengage Learning EMEA, 1999. Web.
