101 useful websites

TECHNOLOGY

1 Google

www.google.com

The powerhouse of the internet and the only place many people go for information. But if you thought Google was a still a mere search engine, look again. Click on ‘more’ at the top of the homepage to discover the work of ‘GoogleLabs’ – more than 50 free tools and web pages that could change your internet life.

GoogleDocs lets you create documents, spreadsheets and presentations, store them online, share them with others and access them from wherever there’s an internet connection.

Googlemail is probably the best email program – it has virtually limitless capacity and you don’t need to change your email address to use it. The Google calendar is a powerful searchable diary that you can allow others to access, so family members can make appointments together.

SketchUp could be just the tool you are looking for to design that conservatory extension and see what it will look like once the builders have gone. Add to that databases for searching academic journals and books in the public domain, the powerful GoogleMaps, with its engaging satellite imagery, a finance page with live stock quotes and an easy-to-use online messaging system, and you can see why some people say Google is taking over the world – and, with GoogleMoon and GoogleMars, the rest of the galaxy, too.

2 Anonymouse

www.anonymouse.org

Surf the web without disclosing who or where you are.

3 iLounge

www.ilounge.com

Hints, tips and troubleshooting for your iPod and associated software.

4 Only2Clicks

www.only2clicks.com

If you use just a few websites, this lets you create a home page that has links to them all. Simple, free and practical.

5 Zoho

www.zoho.com

A suite of free business programs. From word processing and presentation software to tools for taking notes in meetings, planning projects and creating databases.

6 Backpack

www.backpackit.com

To-do lists, notes, ideas and calendar. Excellent for juggling projects and much more versatile than a ring folder.

7 GetNetWise

www.getnetwise.org

All you need to know about keeping the net safe – protecting children, preventing spam, avoiding viruses and stopping others accessing your personal details.

8 DaFont

www.dafont.com

More than 7,500 free fonts (for Mac and PC), so you can at last stop using Copperplate for your party invitations.

9 Pando

www.pando.com

The superfast way to send large files over the web. Don’t attach that family video to an email, Pando it instead.

10 FlipClips

www.flipclips.com

Turn your home videos into animated flip books. Much more appealing than another DVD.

ENTERTAINMENT

11 Digital Spy

www.digitalspy.co.uk

Entertainment, media and showbiz news. Plus, a surprisingly good forum for technology-related problems – a great place to sort out your broadband.

12 BBC iPlayer

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer

On-demand television and radio programmes from the BBC.

13 Whatsonwhen

www.whatsonwhen.com

Events, attractions, openings and exhibitions from around the world. Enter a location and dates and the site will show listings.

14 London Theatre Guide

www.londontheatre.co.uk

What’s coming on and what’s making an exit in London’s theatre world. Especially good for seating plans, so you can see where the box office staff are putting you.

15 The Internet Movie Database

www.imdb.com

The world’s biggest (and still growing) reference for actors, directors, locations, plots…

16 Rotten Tomatoes

www.rottentomatoes.com

A round-up of what the critics thought of films on general release.

17 Screenonline

www.screenonline.org.uk

The British Film Institute’s definitive guide to the British film industry. Plots, features, statistics and news from the film world.

18 Good Reads

www.goodreads.com

Expand your reading. Catalogue your books online and others make recommendations based on what you seem to enjoy.

19 TV Guide

www.tvguide.co.uk

News, features and listings for Britain’s terrestrial and cable television. Customisable interface so your favourite channels are always at the top.

20 Football365

www.football365.com

The authentic (and often tangential) voice of the Britain’s ‘real’ football supporters.

21 CricInfo

www.cricinfo.com

Everything you want to know about the world of cricket.

22 Beijing Olympics

en.beijing2008.cn

The official Olympics site, with news, scheduling, features and a countdown to the games themselves.

23 Radio Locator

www.radio-locator.com

From shock jocks to orchestral baroque, thousands of internet radio stations to listen to on your computer.

24 Live Plasma

www.liveplasma.com

Expand your music and movie tastes. Enter the name of a song, band, movie, actor or director you like and Live Plasma will return some pretty intelligent recommendations for further investigation.

25 Blinkx

www.blinkx.com

A clever way of searching for video clips on the internet – from uploaded episodes of your favourite soap to comedy home-video moments.

26 Lulu

www.lulu.com

Self-publishing made smart again. Write, design and then print your own books – though you’ll still have to persuade others to buy them.

27 VideoJug

www.videojug.com

28 Wonder How To

www.wonderhowto.com

Two great sites full of short videos showing you how to do almost anything, from the incredibly useful (exercises for diabetes sufferers, tying a Windsor knot) to the revelatory (’learn different kinds of kisses’), via the wonderfully obscure (’make a moving jaw for your werewolf mask’).

29 Instructables

www.instructables.com

DIY projects from zombie make-up to LED balloons. Excellent selection of rainy-day projects for bored children (and adults) at home.

30 Flash games

www.k2xl.com

Addictive series of Flash games including the hypnotically soothing Boomshine.

31 GameSpot

www.gamespot.com

News, reviews, hints and tips for virtually every console game on the market. Essential if you are still up at 2am trying to find a way into the castle on Zelda.

32 Anagrammer

www.anagrammer.com

Online anagram machine for Scrabble players and crossword enthusiasts. Also solves Sudoku.

ADVICE AND INFORMATION

33 Newsmap

marumushi.com/apps/newsmap

A wonderfully graphical – and customisable – display of news stories from around the world. Click on an item to see the full story.

34 The Eggcorn Database

eggcorns.lascribe.net

Continually updated guide to modern-day Malapropisms, misunderstandings and other manglings of language. From ‘high dungeon’ to ‘wreckless driving’, Eggcorn names the culprits and nudges them in the right direction.

35 Arts and Letters Daily

www.aldaily.com

World-class articles from intellectual and influential journals around the world. Browse the day’s selections. Like The Week for eggheads.

36 Ask Philosophers

www.askphilosophers.org

The academy comes to cyberspace. A panel of mainly American and British philosophy scholars answers questions sent in by the public. Search the database, from Abortion to War, or send in a question of your own.


37 When Is

www.when-is.com

Shows you the dates of Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu and American holidays from now to 2010.

38 Rhyme Zone

www.rhymezone.com

For when the muse has gone, a rhyme and synonym generator to help you towards the perfect mot. You can also search for Shakespeare quotations, biblical references and other literary inspirations.

39 Nationmaster

www.nationmaster.com

Giant but easily searchable database of statistics, maps and profiles for every country in the world.

40 Digg

www.digg.com

The people’s approach to news and features, Digg brings together items from across the net, ranked according to how many people have felt them worth recommending. Sometimes a little techie-heavy, but excellent for discovering what the cyberworld is getting worked up about.

41 They Work For You

www.theyworkforyou.com

A powerful way of keeping tabs on MPs and peers: attendance records, voting patterns, recent statements and more.

42 Time Bank

www.timebank.org.uk

Volunteering opportunities for young people, sorted by region, interest, skills and need.

43 Wikipedia

www.wikipedia.org

Controversial, democractic and sometimes error-strewn encyclopaedia that has brought Darwinism to the world of knowledge. Make it your first port of call for looking something up. Just be sure to check somewhere else that what you find makes sense.

44 Wiktionary

www.wiktionary.org

Wikipedia’s online multilingual dictionary. Immensely powerful and far less controversial than its encyclopaedic forebear.

45 Motley Fool

www.fool.co.uk

The original – and still the best – personal finance site on the web (the American version is at www.fool.com). For savers, borrowers, stock spotters and day traders, sound, independent advice that cuts through the jargon.

46 Martindale’s ‘The Reference Desk’

www.martindalecenter.com

From the arts, business, science and technology, a dry but authoritative conglomeration of data from around the world.

47 PubMed

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed

Free and authoritative database of more than 17 million medical research papers. Not always easy to understand if you are not a medic, but a far better place to look for information than the random sites that come up on Google.

48 About.com

www.about.com

The internet’s version of that clever uncle who always seems to know the answer to your questions. There are few subjects the site doesn’t tackle, though the coverage can be superficial. A good starting point for idle research.

49 NHS Direct

www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk

Online information and advice about health and illness, run by Britain’s National Health Service. The site includes a useful self-diagnosis tool that can reassure you that your hangover is not in fact meningitis.

50 Legal Services Shop

www.freelawyer.co.uk

General legal advice relating to housing, family law, employment, motoring, consumer issues and personal injury, plus wills, conveyancing and divorce. Good starting point to see where you stand. Will also, for a fixed fee, answer questions and put you in touch with a solicitor.

51 How Stuff Works

www.howstuffworks.com

Engaging encyclopaedia of the modern (and not so modern) world, with good illustrations and clear text. Can suffer sometimes from an ‘it’s amazing!’ tone of voice..

52 XE

www.xe.com

Currency converter covering every world currency. Azerbaijan new manats to Cayman Island dollars? Just a click away.

53 Advice Guide

www.adviceguide.org.uk

Find where you stand legally with the Citizens Advice Bureau’s online information resource.

54 Need2Know

www.need2know.co.uk

Jogging

Need to know? Find out how to stay fit online

Advice and information for young people, including health and fitness, drugs, problems with bullying, how to study and applying for jobs.

55 Royal Horticultural Society

www.rhs.org.uk

Advice and suggestions from the world’s leading gardening organisation. A good ‘how-to’ section and seasonal tips for the time of year.

56 Babelfish

babelfish.altavista.com

Automatic translation to and from most European languages and Chinese. The results are sometimes a little strange, but you will usually get your message across.

57 eHow

www.ehow.com

How to do just about everything, from getting stains off curtains to buying a second-hand car.

58 Eat the Seasons

www.eattheseasons.co.uk

Updated weekly, information, tips and recipe ideas on British seasonal food.

59 Age Concern

www.ageconcern.org.uk

Website of Britain’s leading charity for the elderly, packed with advice about maintaining an active life.

60 Weather.com

www.weather.com

The queen of weather sites, with more information than you would possibly imagine you might need, from pollen counts to surf forecasts.

61 Uncyclopedia

uncyclopedia.org

Spoof Wikipedia-style encyclopaedia where nothing is true, but a good deal is very funny indeed. Idle away an afternoon or, even better, hone your comedy skills by making a contribution yourself.

62 Kiva

www.kiva.org

An easy way to lend small sums (from $25) to business projects in the developing world. Kiva keeps track of your investment, updates you on progress and repays your loan as the business grows.

63 Embarrassing problems

www.embarrassingproblems.co.uk

From bad breath and piles to cold sores and beyond, Dr Margaret Stearn dispenses invaluable advice.

HOUSE AND HOME

64 Noise Mapping England

www.noisemapping.org

Click on an area of the map to find out how noisy a street, or even a section of the street, is – handy for light sleepers planning a move. At the moment only London is mapped, but the rest of England will follow.

For sale signs


Banner ads: find out how much properties on your street have sold for

65 Prime Location

www.primelocation.com

One of the best sites for finding property. It is UK-based but has a good international presence.

66 Rated People

www.ratedpeople.com

User reviews on local tradesmen. You describe the job you need done and how quickly and suppliers contact you with quotes – with previous customers rating them.

67 Zoopla

www.zoopla.co.uk

Possibly the most dangerous site on this list, Zoopla gives sale prices of recently sold homes and – the tricky bit – estimates the value of the rest. We dare you not to look.

68 Money Saving Expert

www.moneysavingexpert.com

Subtitled ‘Consumer Revenge’, this is where you find the discounts, tricks and tips to save money. The weekly email is essential reading for canny consumers. It caters only for Britain, but every country should have one.

69 MetaEfficient

www.metaefficient.com

Practical guide to making your home more environmentally friendly, from low-flow showerheads to 12V lighting. US-based, but many of the products are available elsewhere.

70 Design My Room

www.DesignMyRoom.com

For budding Laurence Llewellyn-Bowens everywhere, it provides the ability to redecorate your home in cyberspace. Choose colours, furniture, accessories and finishes and then publish the results online.

71 Up My Street

www.upmystreet.com

Neighbourhood information based on postcode: schools, shopping and, juciest of all, how much the house down the road sold for recently.

72 Home For Exchange

www.homeforexchange.com

One of many sites where you can swap homes with someone else for a period. This is less cluttered than some of the others and has a good geographical spread.

73 SimplySwitch

www.simplyswitch.com

The fast way to compare utility suppliers and other services, from broadband to home insurance. Enter your postcode and the site comes back with the best deals.

74 101 Cookbooks

www.101cookbooks.com

Enchanting recipe and foodie blog from a Californian cook who believes in good food. Subscribe to the email alert service and transform your cooking repertoire.

SOCIAL

75 Facebook

www.facebook.com

The most grown-up (just) of the social-networking sites that are fast taking over the world. Excellent for staying in touch with far-flung friends, though pretty good too for re-establishing contact with those you hoped you had lost.

76 Wordpress

www.wordpress.com

The quickest and easiest way to create a blog of your own.

77 Ringsurf

www.ringsurf.com

Like an online Mothers’ Union meeting (though sometimes a little more risqué), Ringsurf is a chatroom where people exchange ideas about anything from politics to relationships. The quality is not always high, but users have been known to discover new (real-life) friends with interests they thought no one would share. A tribute to the information-sharing capability of the net.

78 bubbl.us

www.bubbl.us

Organise your thoughts by creating mindmaps online and sharing them with others.

79 Technorati

www.technorati.com

An intelligent, intuitive and inspiring way to read entries from some of the millions of blogs that dot the internet. You can browse by subject or area of interest, read the postings that are catching the world’s attention and bookmark blogs that catch your attention. And if you want to join in…

80 Flickr

www.flickr.com

The website you graduate to once you’ve discovered how to put your holiday snaps on the net. Here, everyone’s photos are linked by using tags, such as ‘Spain’, ‘beach’ or ‘happy’, which sets you off on an exploration of others’ uploads.

81 BabyCentre

www.babycentre.co.uk

There are plenty of great parenting forums out there – Netmums, Mumsnet – but this is still the best source of considered, authoritative, often soothing advice on everything from colic to tax credits.

82 Friction TV

www.friction.tv

YouTube for debaters. Upload a short video about an issue close to your heart and others reply in kind or by text.

SHOPPING

83 GiftGen

www.giftgen.co.uk

Gift ideas for when you can’t think what to buy someone. You enter their age, sex and interests and how much you want to pay and it scours the net for ideas.

84 eBay

www.ebay.co.uk

Online shopping for (nearly) everything you might want to buy. The original auction formula is still going strong, but plenty more features have been added since it began. Take a look at non-UK sites, such as ebay.fr and ebay.de, too, for bargains others may have missed. The layout is the same even if you don’t speak the language.

85 Who What Wear Daily

www.whowhatweardaily.com

Fashion tips, advice and suggestions. Includes Ask a Stylist for those tricky co-ordination problems and a What Was She Wearing? inquiry service to help you track down your favourite celebrity’s fashion choice.

86 Gumtree

www.gumtree.com

Unabashedly straightforward classified ads site, for everything from new homes to online romance.

87 AbeBooks

www.abebooks.co.uk

The Amazon of the second-hand book world. More than 13,500 booksellers selling 110 million books. If it’s not here, it’s not worth looking for.

88 Kelkoo

www.kelkoo.co.uk

There are plenty of price-comparison sites on the web, but this one seems to get it right more often than most. Type in what you want to buy and Kelkoo will come back with the cheapest prices it can find.

89 Endgadget

www.engadget.com

A (digital) finger on the pulse of the technology world. All the newest developments, discoveries, gadgets and toys – before they hit the shops.

90 Cork’d

www.corkd.com

Discover more about wine by reviewing what you’ve enjoyed and receiving tips and suggestions from others.

91 I Love Jeans

www.ilovejeans.com

Find the right jeans for your fit before you even leave home. A cheeky but revealing ‘body type’ guide takes you straight to the brand you should be trying. Search by style, body type or brand. Women only.

TRAVEL

92 Sky Scanner

www.skyscanner.net

Jumbo jet

Take flight: book your getaway from your own PC

Monitors prices and destinations for all the low-cost airlines so you just type in where you want to go and when to find the best deal.

93 The Man in Seat 61

www.seat61.com

Routes, tickets, tips and advice – the only guide you need to travelling by train from Britain to Europe and the rest of the world.

94 Walk It

www.walkit.com

Online pedestrian routefinder for London, Birmingham, Newcastle and Edinburgh that shows you the best route to walk from A to B. Includes calorie counter, CO2 savings and points of interest on the way. Other cities coming soon.

95 Transport for London Journey Planner

journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk

Indispensable and almost always spot-on guide to negotiating the capital’s public transport system. You enter your starting point and destination and it gives you the best bus, tube, cycle and even boat routes to get you across town.

96 ViaMichelin

www.viamichelin.com

A hi-tech hark-back to the days of leisurely motoring. ViaMichelin gives you maps, routes and directions throughout Britain and continental Europe with added panache. The maps have a pleasant printed quality about them and, naturally enough, your route is accompanied by gastronomic highlights to be found along the way. There’s also information about destinations.

97 Carbon Neutral

www.carbonneutral.com

Information on your carbon footprint and how to cut it down. Includes an online calculator to measure your effect on the world.

98 Expedia

www.expedia.com

Excellent all-round travel site. Use it for good prices on flights and holidays, but click on ‘Destinations’ for some well-researched and up-to-date travel guides.

99 SeatGuru

www.seatguru.com

Aircraft seating plans, showing you the prime seats, possible annoyances and seats you should avoid.

100 Airline Meals

www.airlinemeals.net

A consumer guide to what you can expect to eat on board. There are news and features from the airline catering world, but the best part is a gallery of photos of on-board meals sent in by passengers and listed by airline.

101 World Hum

www.worldhum.com

Travel writing with a twist. Click on the destination you have in mind and be prepared to be inspired. The site also offers tavelogues, news, books reviews, blogs and slideshows.

RULES FOR WYSIWYG 09

AD-MAD SHOW

Make a real advertisement in multimedia for the following sectors: Service sector, Real estate sector, Automobile sector, Telecom Sector, Tourism Sector
Members: 2-4
Time: 1 min. for Video and 5 min. for presentation
Abstract: 26th October

BEAT THE MARKET

Experience and counter real business situation in the risk free environment
Members: 3-4
Time: 10 a.m. onwards

ENERGIZING ENTREPRENEUR

Present your Business Plan to prove your metal.
Members: 2-4
Time: 7 min
Abstract: 23th October

RECYCLE BIN

Come and Explore the ways how to make the best use of the waste materials in an innovative and creative manner.
Members: 2-4
Time: 30 min for preparation and 3 min to present

BRAINSTORMING

Dare to Solve the Case Study
Members: 3
Time: 90 min for solution and 10min to present
*Carry your own stationary and laptop

MEMORY BOARD

Come and test your intelligence
Members: 2

Fee Structure:

• Registration Fee of Rs.300 per college including fee of one team

• Per Team Per Event Rs.100

DANGEROUS DESIRE!

Once we lived a very simple life. Our activities were limited to hunting and eating. People used to hunt in group and share their food. There was equal distribution of food. But it was not sufficient to remove their hunger. So they tried to eat as much as they can by biting the large piece of meat. This resulted in a conflict. So people made smaller groups for hunting, so that they could eat more.

We all know that for hunting one requires strength, but not everyone has same strength. Some are strong others are weak. When people started to hunt in smaller groups, everything seemed to work. But in no time, the stronger ones started to dictate things. As he was doing the most part of hunting, he thought why everyone should get equal quantity of meat. He wanted more quantity as compared to others. As he was strong, others agreed with his terms. This divided the group into two categories (1) Elites, and (2) Weaklings. We all know the story aftermaths.

The things that we require to survive for our existence are known as our Needs. But when we want value addition in these things it becomes our Desire. And when we can afford things that we desire then it becomes our demand.
Needs can be satisfied by nature itself. Our basic needs are food, clothing and shelter. Nature provides us abundant of food, sky is our shelter and our skin is our clothing. But men are not satisfied by this only, he wants some value addition. He does not want to eat fruit only, he wants to eat pizza. He does not want to live under the beauty of open sky, but wants bricks over his head. He is not happy with protective layers of his skin; he wants to kill other animals and cover himself with their skin.

What is this desire then? When we have something then it’s okay, but when we don’t have something then we want to experience that thing. This feeling of imaginatively experiencing the thing is called desire. Desire is very impulsive in nature. The more we think about the desired commodity, the intensity of desire increases. On not fulfilling the desire for a long time, the intensity decreases and we stop thinking about the commodity. But when we come in contact with the commodity again, the desire increases exponentially. It is hard to resist desire.

Desire is the backbone of business. Companies are striving hard to fulfill the desire of man. The more we desire the more production will take place. More production will require larger workforce. GDP rate will increase. Employment level will increase. Family’s income level will increase because more people are working in a family. This will increase their consumption level. This will lead to better standard of living. So after all consumers will be happy as well as producers.

Now give it a thought! If more desire means more production, then more production means more emission of Carbon Dioxide, which is warming up the earth. Warming of earth would mean melting of huge ice mountains, which will melt and become water. This extra water will increase the sea level, which will result into floods. Millions of people will die from these floods.

So what so we do? There are two solutions.

(1) We keep desiring and increase the sea level. Let the flood kill people. When population of mankind will decrease then automatically the level of desire will decrease as well as production.

(2) We decrease our desire level to save millions of people and this planet. We become eco-friendly and make a better life for our grandchildren.

At the end, a single contribution can make a difference because millions will follow you. I have done my bit. It’s your turn own. You don’t have to do anything extraordinary. Just make a difference by putting a limit to your desire.

Content for Business Plan Write Up

Vision

Mission

Goals



Objectives

Introduction of the industry

Key to Success

Company Summary

Company Ownership

Market Analysis

Market Segmentation

Target Market Strategy

Sales Strategy

SWOT Analysis

Competitive Edge

Marketing Mix

Seed Investment

Annual Expense

Profit and Loss Account

Break-Even Point

Need for better Selection Process

Competitive Environment

The advent of globalization and its spread across all geographies have opened up immense opportunities to the consumer class and made the scenario fiercely competitive for the producers. Due to the shrinking Global village, consumers can choose from wide range of product-line width and length. Globalization has added to the infinite desire of man that increased the impulse buying and showed a better GDP result. On the other hand, it has increased the competitive scale among the producers. Big domestic Producers enjoyed a competition free external environment pre-globalization, but since then a fiercely competitive environment has emerged, and producers and striving hard to survive in this environment.

In the recent times, Globalization and Economic Tsunami has changed the way of living of many companies. In the recent time we have seen the downfall of many big companies. It is vital that the organizations adapt to the changing time to excel by inventing innovative processes and etc. In this time through the right innovation, any Ant-type organization can give fierce competition or threaten any Elephant-type organization because it is more difficult for an Elephant-type organization to adapt to changes. Charles Darwin has mentioned “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

Transactional Role of HRM

Today, the face of Human Resource Management has changed dramatically. It is no more limited to the administrative role; now it has made more space for its breathing by becoming the strategic partners of the organization. In country like India which has the second largest workforce in the world, and a workforce that represent global companies, calls for innovating the HRM process. But the question is WHEN? Will India wait for the world to adapt first and then copy them, if it is so, then India should remind itself that the world is still crying over the economical meltdown.
We can divide the working of an organization into three simple steps,
(a) Input
(b) Process and
(c) Output.
We believe that HRM plays a vital role in enhancement of Inputs and Process. HRM is responsible for input by giving the company right person for the right job. A right person gives a better shape to the organization. Therefore, recruitment and selection process calls for innovation in the current time. All the process is carried by the workforce, therefore for the enhancement of processes human resource should be kept in a process of continuous appreciation. This calls for an innovative training and development process.

In this highly competitive environment, if an organization wish to survive and flourish it must ensure proper working, the first phase of working of an organization is input which includes recruitment and selection processes. Recruitment aims at attracting potential applicants; it provides a pool of applicants for selection. Selection is not just choosing the best candidate it is much more than that, it is an attempt to strike a happy balance between what the applicant can and want to do and what the organization requires.

Need For Innovation

From our opinion output is dependent on two variables (a) Input and (b) Process. Through training and development process can be improved, but till what length can it be improved because every living organism has some elasticity limit. We cannot bend any material beyond its limit; if we do so then the material will breakdown. A man having potential of 80% cannot exceed that benchmark, but he can improve from 65% to 80% through continuous training. Therefore, it is vital to have a better recruitment and selection procedure as compared to training and development process. We need not to allocate the right person, but the best person and for that we need to upgrade our existing recruitment and selection procedure.

We believe that Aptitude Test and Formal Interview are not enough to select the best. Aptitude Test consists of Mathematics, Reasoning and English. Most of the people cramp short-cut formulas to do quick mathematics, they do not apply their common sense to these problems, and therefore it is not their thought process but cramping power that solves mathematics questions. Similarly, Reasoning questions consist of repeated style, which can be solved by practicing it over a period of time. Therefore, candidates do not solve any new kind of question, and hence their logics are not tested. Formal Interviews are no exceptions. Candidates are well prepared for Formal Interviews. Numbers of books are available in the market that helps a candidate to prepare for the interview. Due to the repeated questions of interview candidates are successfully able to tackle it. They are not in the state of panic; hence their unplanned behavior is not tested.

OUR APPROACH – WISS MODEL

We believe that the best employee is that who has ability to work in fatigue condition, which has high logical thinking and creativity, who can handle pressure and who has great learning power. An employee with these characteristics can make a huge impact in the organization. It is difficult to find such kind of employee with mere Aptitude Test and Formal Interview. Therefore, we suggest a model through which we can improve our selection process. We have named this model as “WISS MODEL”. A candidate will go through the various stages of filtration. These steps are as follow:

Will Test- No Company wants an employee who works for money only. An employee should treat his organization as his family. He should work for the company with a strong will to be efficient. Our selection procedure tests the will of an employee by putting him in fatigue condition. - Marathon Test

To test the will of the candidate we suggest Marathon test. In this test people are required to run a long distance. Unfit people will not be able to compete in this round and vice-versa. Only candidates with strong desire will clear the round.

Innovation Test- An employee should have high creativity and reasoning power because then he can develop new ways of working. We need procedures that bring out the real talent of people. For this reason we need Innovation Test. – None to One Test

To test the innovativeness of a candidate we suggest None to One Test. In this lot of waste material will be given to the candidates, and the candidate have to make something useful out of it. The usefulness of the product will decide the innovativeness of the candidate.

Stress Test- It is easy to perform in planned situation but most of us panic when we are in an unplanned situation. Even in organizations, unplanned situations are common phenomena. Therefore we need people who can handle pressure situations also. For this reason we need Stress Test - Negative Interview

To test the pressure handling ability of the candidate, we suggest Negative Interview technique. In this we will de-motivate the candidate. He will be criticized for everything. Candidates, who will be able to handle it, will be cleared for the next round.

Simulation Test- There is a high demand for people with high learning power because they can adapt to changes better than others. Past records should not be used to judge the learning power of an individual because just like Product Life Cycle, Human also has performance life cycle. If I see the record of Soaurav Ganguly then I will immediately take him in my cricket team. But the truth is that he no longer is a class performer. He is in the decline stage of his performance life cycle. Therefore in order to check the performance of the employee, a simulation task should be given to him. - Drill Test

To test the learning power of the candidate, we suggest drill test. First the candidate will be taught everything and later he will be asked to perform the task. Candidates with quick learning power will be able to clear the round.
Those candidates who secure maximum point should be selected for the job.

Basics of Marketing

Marketing Management

Management: set of activities to help an organization realizes a stated goal by maximizing limited resources.

Marketing management: administering the process of satisfying consumer needs while ensuring the company makes a profit.

Aim of marketing:

· Make new customers by highlighting the potential value of a good

· Retain old customers meeting and surpassing customer’s expectations

Satisfied customer brings 80% of the revenue. He does word of mouth

Need, desire and demand

Need: basic things

Desire: variation in things

Demand: desire backed by money

Market Segmentation: taking a population and dividing it into small groups according to set of shared characteristics.

Market Research: is the planned, systematic collection and analysis of data used by managers to make a decision.

Target Market: the segment the firm decides to market their product to is known as target mkt.

8 types of demand

· Negative demand

· No demand

· Latent demand

· Declining demand

· Irregular demand

· Full demand

· Overfull demand

· Unwholesome demand

Marketing Myopia

When marketers lose sight of what is driving the consumer’s purchasing decision: satisfying their needs. Marketing Myopia starts when a firm starts to market a product not a solution to a need. They pay more attention to a product as a standalone object instead of highlighting the benefits and experiences a product offers to an object.

Societal Marketing : marketing for the long term goals.

Strategic planning: process of developing and maintaining a plan of action that coordinates the activities of every business unit to ensure the long term goals of an organization are fulfilled.

Strategic plan: it states company’s goals and explains the sequence of events in how they will achieve their objectives.

Mission Statement: explains in general terms the organization’s goals and their purpose.

3 characteristics of mission statement:

1. Limited number of goals

2. Explain the polices and values of the firm

3. Which market the company is targeting

To understand your business environment, we have to study porter 5 force model

1. Barriers to entry

2. Degree of Rivalry

3. Power of Supplier

4. Power of Buyer

5. Threat of substitute

Strategic Business Unit(SBU) : develops strategies tailored to fit their resources and capabilities to fulfill the overall corporate objective outlined by senior management.

Core Competencies: is a task or skill or people that enables a company to have an advantage over their competitors.

Characteristics of core competencies:

1. Hard to copy

2. Opens access to wide variety of market

3. Increases customer benefits

Sustained Competitive advantage: core competencies that endure over a long period of time

BCG Approach: assess the performance of SBUs according to their relative market share and growth rate.

Star: growing rapidly

Cash Cow: could be milked to finance the growth

Dog: SBUS to divest

Question Mark: have potential being turned into star but they require development through finance.

Product: it is a bundle of physical, psychological and experiential benefits that the customer receives that satisfies one or many wants or needs.

Product-line length: number of products sold in one category

Product-line width: number of different categories

Product-line depth: different packaging sizes

Inventory Turnover: the no. of times the stock of the company is replaced. High value means the product is selling fast.

ROI = return on investment.

Product level Strategy

Product Filling: same product with different size, shape, quality or price to capture the consumer surplus by customizing the offering to different buyers with the same needs and wants. Vendor’s bargaining power increases coz retailer shelves are full of his product. Entry for new players become difficult.

But we aware of self-cannibalization, it means reducing your product market share because of entry of many products by the same producer.

Line Stretching: lengthening the product line by offering products to potential customers residing upstream and downstream.

Product line Pruning: trimming of product line due to increased cost or cannibalization

PLACEMENT:

Market Channel: marketing channel is a group of interdependent organizations involved in the process of production and distribution of a good or service.

Developing a right market channel to reach the target market is crucial to the success of a product.

The distribution system becomes a source of competitive advantage because the seller has privileged access to their target market.

Channel level: number of intermediary between the producer and the consumer i.e., 1, 2,3

Vertical marketing channel and horizontal marketing channel.

Hybrid marketing channel:

BUILDING A MARKET CHANNEL

Setting channel goals and type

Identifying Partners

a) Intensive distribution

b) Extensive distribution

c) Selective distribution

Designing international market channel

Channel management decision

a) Coercive Power

b) Reward power

c) Legitimate power

d) Expert power

e) Referent power

Evaluating Partners

PRICE

Setting market objectives

a) Maximize short term profit

b) Maximize current market share

c) Market skimming – riding down the demand curve

d) Product-quality leadership

e) Survival

Determining demand

a) Past history to predict the future

b) Price experiments

c) Market Survey

Estimating Cost

a) Variable cost

b) Fixed cost

c) Total cost

d) ABC (activity based cost accounting)

e) Customer Pyramid

· Platinum

· Gold

· Iron

· Lead

Try to convert lead into iron, by saving cost on lead, or by generating more revenue out of lead. Platinum customers are lost easily because when they retire, they become zero from hero.

Learning Curve: more often a task is performed the less cost will be incurred in future. With this, we can sell at lower price, spend more on brand differentiation or simply earn more profit.

Analyze the competitor’s cost, price and offers to position the product

By making a scorecard consisting of competitor’s price, cost, and offers .

Selecting a price method

a) Mark up price: adding a mark up over cost of producing one unit. Calculation is below

Unit cost = variable cost + (fixed cost/expected sales)

Mark up price = unit cost /(1-expected rate of return)

b) Target return pricing: setting a price that yields an expected return on investment.

TRP = unit cost + [(opportunity cost)*(fixed cost)]/unit sales

Break even volume = Fixed cost/(price – variable cost)used to cover operating cost

c) Perceived-value pricing: depends upon the perception of the customer

d) Value pricing: keep the price low of commonly known goods and earn on other goods.

e) Going-rate pricing: same rate as the competitor

f) Psychological Pricing: $99

g) Price Discrimination: different price for different consumers.

h) Geographical Pricing: charge more to places which are further from the plant.