Monday, September 5, 2011
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Sunday, August 10, 2008
MAKRO
Makro is a high volume, low cost - low price, no frills cash & carry wholesaler, selling to registered professional customers a full range of food and non-food products, with communication solely based on direct mailing. The core customer base is the retailer, caterer and professional in the service sector. Our registered customers are informed of new product developments and promotions through our biweekly Makro mail.
At present we are located in 5 countries in Asia with a total of more than 70 stores, covering a net selling space of 600,000 m².
Makro employs more than 7,500 people and serves hundreds of thousands of professional customers everyday, resulting in an annual turnover exceeding 2 billion US$.
Our customer base consists of approximately 5 million registered professional customers, which is equivalent to 10 million Makro cards.
| COUNTRY | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 |
| THAILAND | 23 | 29 | 29 | 29 |
| INDONESIA | 13 | 15 | 18 | 19 |
| PAKISTAN | - | - | - | 1 |
| PHILIPPINES | 11 | 12 | 14 | 15 |
| CHINA | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 |
| TOTAL | 51 | 61 | 65 | 69 |
Source: http://www.makro.com/company.htm
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
5TH WEEK!!!
Information systems
The term information system (BCIS, IS) sometimes refers to a system of persons, datainformation in an organization, and it includes the organization's manual and automated processes. Computer-based information systems are the field of study for information technology, elements of which are sometimes called an "information system" as well, a usage some consider to be incorrect.Overview
In this way, the term "information system" has different meanings:
- In computer security, an information system is described by three objects (Aceituno, 2004):
- Structure:
- Repositories, which hold data permanently or temporarily, such as buffers, RAM, hard disks, cache, etc.
- Interfaces, which exchange information with the non-digital world, such as keyboards, speakers, scanners, printers, etc.
- Channels, which connect repositories, such as buses, cables, wireless links, etc. A Network is a set of logical or physical channels.
- Behavior:
- Services, which provide value to users or to other services via messages interchange.
- Messages, which carries a meaning to users or services.
- Structure:
- In geography and cartography, a geographic information system (GIS) is used to integrate, store, edit, analyze, share, and display georeferenced information. There are many applications of GIS, ranging from ecology and geology, to the social sciences.
- In knowledge representation, an information system consists of three components: human, technology, organization. In this view, information is defined in terms of the three levels of semiotics. Data which can be automatically processed by the application system corresponds to the syntax-level. In the context of an individual who interprets the data they become information, which correspond to the semantic-level. Information becomes knowledge when an individual knows (understands) and evaluates the information (e.g., for a specific task). This corresponds to the pragmatic-level.
- In mathematics in the area of domain theory, a Scott information system (after its inventor Dana Scott) is a mathematical 'structure' that provides an alternative representation of Scott domains and, as a special case, algebraic lattices.
- In mathematics rough set theory, an information system is an attribute-value system.
- In sociology information systems are also social systems whose behavior is heavily influenced by the goals, values and beliefs of individuals and groups, as well as the performance of the technology.
- In systems theory, an information system is a system, automated or manual, that comprises people, machines, and/or methods organized to collect, process, transmit, and disseminate data that represent user information.
- In telecommunications, an information system is any telecommunications and/or computerstorage, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching, interchange, transmission, or reception of voice and/or data, and includes software, firmware, and hardware. related equipment or interconnected system or subsystems of equipment that is used in the acquisition,
- In organisational informatics an information system is a system of communication between people. Information systems are systems involved in the gathering, processing, distribution and use of information and as such support human activity systems.
- The most common[citation needed]. view of an information system is one of Input-Process-Output.
History of information systems
The study of information systems, originated as a sub-discipline of computer science, in an attempt to understand and rationalize the management of technology within organizations. It has matured into a major field of management, that is increasingly being emphasized as an important area of research in management studies, and is taught at all major universities and business schools in the world.
Information technology is a very important malleable resource available to executives. Many companies have created a position of Chief Information Officer (CIO) that sits on the executive board with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Technical Officer (CTO).The CTO may also serve as CIO, and vice versa.
Applications of information systems
Information systems deal with the development, use and management of an organization's IT infrastructure.
In the post-industrial, information age, the focus of companies has shifted from being product oriented to knowledge oriented, in a sense that market operators today compete on process and innovation rather than product : the emphasis has shifted from the quality and quantity of production, to the production process itself, and the services that accompany the production process.
The biggest asset of companies today, is their information, represented in people, experience, know-how, innovations (patents, copyrights, trade secrets), and for a market operator to be able to compete, he/she must have a strong information infrastructure, at the heart of which, lies the information technology infrastructure. Thus, the study of information systems, focuses on why and how technology can be put into best use to serve the information flow within an organization.
Areas of work
Information Systems has a number of different areas of work:
- Information Systems Strategy
- Information Systems Management
- Information Systems Development
Each of which branches out into a number of sub disciplines, that overlap with other science and managerial disciplines such as computer science, pure and engineering sciences, social and behavioral sciences, and business management.
There are a wide variety of career paths in the information systems discipline. "Workers with specialized technical knowledge and strong communications skills will have the best prospects. People with management skills and an understanding of business practices and principles will have excellent opportunities, as companies are increasingly looking to technology to drive their revenue."
Information technology development
The IT Department partly governs the information technology development, use, application and influence on a business or corporation. A computer based information system, following a definition of Langefors, is:
- a technologically implemented medium for recording, storing, and disseminating linguistic expressions,
- as well as for drawing conclusions from such expressions.
which can be formulated as a generalized information systems design mathematical program.
Study of information systems
Ciborra (2002) defined the study of information systems as the study, that deals with the deployment of information technology in organizations, institutions, and society at large.[7]
Many colleges and universities currently offer undergraduate and graduate degrees in information systems and closely related fields, such as the
Sunday, June 22, 2008
4TH WEEK!
The study of the efficient and effective operation of a business is called management. The main branches of management are financial management, marketing management, human resource management, strategic management, production management, service management, information technology management, and business intelligence.
1. Strategic management is the art and science of formulating, implementing and evaluating cross-functional decisions that will enable an organization to achieve its objectives[1]. It is the process of specifying the organization's objectives, developing policies and plans to achieve these objectives, and allocating resources to implement the policies and plans to achieve the organization's objectives. Strategic management, therefore, combines the activities of the various functional areas of a business to achieve organizational objectives. It is the highest level of managerial activity, usually formulated by the Board of directors and performed by the organization's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and executive team. Strategic management provides overall direction to the enterprise and is closely related to the field of Organization Studies. In the field of business administration it is possible mention to the "strategic consistency." According to Arieu (2007), "there is strategic consistency when the actions of an organization are consistent with the expectations of management, and these in turn are with the market and the context."
2. Information technology management (or IT management) is a combination of two branches of study, information technology and management.
Strictly speaking, there are two incarnations to this definition.[citation needed] One implies the management of a collection of systems, infrastructure, and information that resides on them. Another implies the management of information technologies as a business function.[citation needed]
The first definition stems from the practice of IT Portfolio Management and is the subject of technical manuals and publications of various information technologies providers; while the second definition stems from the discussion and formation of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL).
The ITIL has been in practice throughout regions of the world mainly conducted by IT service providers consulting companies. The relative paucity in the use of the best practice set can be attributed to a lack of awareness among IT practitioners. However the lack of ready-to-use tools also presents a significant barrier.
Some organizations that value such practices tend to engage consultants to introduce the practice. Such implementations can conflict with the home-grown culture due to a lack of internal buy-in. Other organizations implement the practices by spending resources to develop in-house tools.
Most in-house developed tools tend to focus on one or a few specific areas where the organizations feel the most pains. To reap the full advantages, tools will need to be integrated with the organization's IT data in the center.
3. The field of finance refers to the concepts of time, money and risk and how they are interrelated. The term "finance" may thus incorporate any of the following:- The study of money and other assets;
- The management and control of those assets;
- Profiling and managing project risks;
- The science of managing money;
- The industry that delivers financial services
- As a verb, "to finance" is to provide funds for business or for an individual's large purchases (car, home, etc.).
Manufacturing takes place under all types of economic systems. In a free market economy, manufacturing is usually directed toward the mass production of products for sale to consumers at a profit. In a collectivist economy, manufacturing is more frequently directed by the state to supply a centrally planned economy. In free market economies, manufacturing occurs under some degree of government regulation.
Modern manufacturing includes all intermediate processes required for the production and integration of a product's components. Some industries, such as semiconductor and steel manufacturers use the term fabrication instead.
The manufacturing sector is closely connected with engineering and industrial design. Examples of major manufacturers in the United States include General Motors Corporation, Ford Motor Company, Chrysler, Boeing, Gates Rubber Company and Pfizer. Examples in Europe include France's Airbus and Michelin Tire.
5. Marketing is an ongoing process of planning and executing the marketing mix (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) for products, services or ideas to create exchange between individuals and organizations.Marketing tends to be seen as a creative industry, which includes advertising, distribution and selling. It is also concerned with anticipating the customers' future needs and wants, which are often discovered through market research.
Essentially, marketing is the process of creating or directing an organization to be successful in selling a product or service that people not only desire, but are willing to buy.
Therefore good marketing must be able to create a "proposition" or set of benefits for the end customer that delivers value through products or services.
Its specialist areas include:
6. Organizational studies, organizational behavior, and organizational theory are related terms for the academic study of organizations, examining them using the methods of economics, sociology, political science, anthropology, communication studies, and psychology. Related practical disciplines include strategic management, human resources and industrial and organizational psychology.
7. The term business intelligence (BI) refers to technologies, applications and practices for the collection, integration, analysis, and presentation of business information and also sometimes to the information itself. The purpose of business intelligence is to support better business decision making. It dates to 1958.[1] D. J. Power explains in "A Brief History of Decision Support Systems,"[2]
BI describes a set of concepts and methods to improve business decision making by using fact-based support systems. BI is sometimes used interchangeably with briefing books, report and query tools and executive information systems. Business Intelligence systems are data-driven DSS.
BI systems provide historical, current, and predictive views of business operations, most often using data that has been gathered into a data warehouse or a data mart and occasionally working from operational data. Software elements support the use of this information by assisting in the extraction, analysis, and reporting of information. Applications tackle sales, production, financial, and many other sources of business data for purposes that include, notably, business performance management. Information may be gathered on comparable companies to produce benchmarks.
SOURCE : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business#Management