The earliest microscope was no
more than a single small lens that magnified between 6 and 10 times. Sacharias Jensen and his father, Hans, a lens
maker, experimented with combinations of lenses and realized that greater
magnification could be obtained by an inversion of the telecope. Their compound microscope combined a
magnifying objective lens (the one closest to the object being investigated)
with an eye lens at the opposite end of a tube.
A focusing device was added by the Italian Gallileo Galilei.
Invention of RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY (RAM) (1968)
Dennard combines a transistor
with a capacitor in a revolutionary memory cell. RAM, a random Access Memory, the
short-term, high-speed ‘working’ memory of a computer, has existed since the
invention of magnetic core memory in 1949.
Modern RAM, though, owes its invention to Texan Robert Dennard (b.
1932).
Invention of PRESSURE COOKER (1679) (Papin’s “Steam Digester” prefigures the modern cooking vessel)
There is a story that when French
scientist and inventor Deins Papin (1647-1712) first demonstrated his
wonderfully named ‘digester’ to London’s Royal
Society in 1679, the device exploded.
So another invention swiftly came into being: “Papin’s Safety Valve”,
which went on to have other applications.
Invention of POWDERED MILK (1802) Krichevsky invents a versatile food substitute
Russian doctor Osip Krichevsky
first produced powdered milk in 1802. It
is made by drying or dehydrating milk until it forms a fine white powder. This can be achieved either by spraying a
fine mist of milk into a heated chamber or by adding the milk in a thin layer
to a heated surface, from which the dried milk solids can be scraped off. Freeze-drying is now used because it
conserves more nutrition and the milk cane be fortified to improve its
nutritional value. The resulting powder
can then be stored for a long periods, because the dry environment means it is
less prone to bacterial contamination that
would spoil fresh milk.
Invention of 35-mm CAMERA (1925) (Barnack ushers in the age of photojournalism with a highly responsive camera)
Not everyone has their own award
named after them. The Oskar Barnack
award, given annually to photo journalists, was initiated in 1979 to mark the
hundredth anniversary of the birth of the man who invented the 35-mm still
camera. Barnack (1879-1936) had the idea
for it back in 1905, but it was not until 1913-1914, while he was working as
head of development at the German Camera company Leitz, in Wetzlar, Hesse, that
he was able to transform his idea into reality.
Invention of MICROWAVE OVEN (1945) (Spencer ushers in the age of near-instaneous cooking)
The Microwave oven is an
invention that arrived almost entirely by accident. Its inventor, Percy Spencer (1894-1970) was
an electronics whizz working on designing radar equipment. He paused next to a ‘magnetron’, one of the
power components of the machinery and was amazed to discover that the chocolate
bar in his pocket has melted.
Invention of HELICOPTER (1939) (Sikorsky solves the problem of stabilizing helicopter takeoff and flight)
The first manned helicopter
flight was achieved by the Frenchman paul Cornu who lifted his twin-rotor craft
off the ground for twenty seconds in 1907, his machine unfortunately broke up
on landing. In1909 Igor Sikorsky
(1889-1972) build two helecopters but these could lift very little more than
their own weight. The first practical
helicopter was the German Focke-Wulf FW61, which flew in 1936. By 1939 the British had built the two-seater
Weir W.6, which was powered by a pair of rotors mounted independently, one of
each side of the fuselage. The Weir W6’s
prototype was the first helicopter in the world to carry three occupants.
Invention of ALCOHOLIC DRINK (c. 10000B.C.E) (A Pleasurable beverage appears)
The accidental fermentation of a
mixture of water and fruit in sunlight is thought to have led to the first
discovery of an alcoholic drink by a prehistoric people. Evidence of intentionally fermented beverages
exists in the form of stone age beer jugs dated as early as the Neolithic
period (10000B.C.E). Other jugs have
been excavated in Southwest Asia and North Africa.
Invention of REFRIGERATOR (1922) (Von Platen and Munters develop a cooling cabinet for preserving food)
The refrigerator is one of the
key inventors of the twentieth century.
Its use in food storage is vital, slowing the development of bacteria
and keeping food edible for much much longer.
Before its invention, the only source of cold was blocks of ice, which
could be bought in some placed and used with cool-box. Most homes had no means of chilling food.
Invention of iPHONE (2007) (Apple adds capabilities to the cell phone)
Announced in January 2007 and
eagerly awaited, the Apple iPhone could play music, take photographs, browse the
internet, send e-mail, play movies and store upto 8gigabytes of
information. It also had Wi-Fi capabilities,
a calculator, calendar and notepad and operated via a nifty touch screen
mechanism and it could make a telephone call.
Invention of BRASSIERE (1889) (Cadolle introduces a revolutionary new undergarment for women)
Before Bras came along, corsets
were the garments of choice for women to provide support and create a shapely
silhouette of their figures. However, the whalebone reinforcement in corsets
made them an uncomfortable and restricting item to wear. When Frenchwoman Herminie Cadolle 91845-1926)
cut the corset in half in 1889, she created the very first bra.
Invention of DIGITAL WATCH (1970) (Hamilton Watch Company develops a space-age time piece)
The first wrist-worn timepiece to
tell the time digitally was the Hamilton Watch Company’s “Pulsar”. This 18-carat-gold cased device used a red
LED display to tell the user what time it was in clean, crisp, twentieth
century digits at the push of a simple button and retailed for a cool
$2100. Teething problems meant the
Pulsar did not become commercially available until 1972, but when it was
released, it caused many to think that the end had come for conventional dial
face watches with mechanical movements.
Hamilton claimed that their inspiration for developing a digital watch
was the futuristic digital clock that they had created for the 1968 film 2001:A
space Odyssey.
5 GREAT TOOLS WHICH ALLOW STUDENTS TO CONNECT TO PROFESSIONALS
Schools
and colleges often lag behind in providing their students with the right amount
of professional exposure. Their environments are restricted to regular
classroom practices and interactions between learners and teachers. The
fact that students need to be prepared and their skills need to be polished to
be a part of the workforce in future, is ignored. It needs to be
realized that restricting students to their textbooks and interactions with
fellow students and teachers in the class cannot make them aware of the
professional world and its rituals for which they need to be prepared.
HOW CAN A RETAIL ERP SYSTEM IMPROVE IN-STORE MERCHANDISING?
Retailers can avoid losses caused by
poor in-store planning by using integrated data collected via a retail ERP system. An article on the Retail Information
System News website features a recent report describing in-store merchandising
as the biggest area with inefficiencies and profit losses. For many tier-one
retailers, poor merchandise planning comes at a cost of at least $40 million in
annual sales, the research found. Also, about 37 percent of retailers
reported that they lost up to 3 percent of annual sales because of “inaccurate
in-store merchandising efforts,” such as promotions or special sales events.
3 BIG GAINS AN INTEGRATED RETAIL MANAGEMENT SOLUTION CAN DELIVER RETAILERS
Under increasing pressure to do more
with less, retailers can benefit from an integrated retail
management solution. Such a system can provide information to help
with decisions regarding inventory management, floor sales and overall
workflow.
HOW CAN A RETAIL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IMPROVE YOUR STORE’S GIFT CARD PROGRAM?
A retail management system must make sense of more than just
dollars. It must also be able to understand other emerging forms of payment,
such as mobile apps, mobile scans and those ever-popular gift cards.
INNOVATION: IT'S NOT THE IDEA, IT'S WHAT YOU DO WITH IT
Just
to clarify, we’re talking about groundbreaking innovations here — things that
cannibalize existing markets, things that disrupt the old models, and services
that challenge the embedded ways of thinking and working. (Think Uber, Tesla,
iPad.) We’re not talking about an incrementally better version or a brand
extension or a new fruit flavor. Those incremental improvements and extensions
are expected; they are built into the slow, organic growth line projections.
HOW A RECORDS MANAGEMENT COMPANY CAN STREAMLINE YOUR BUSINESS
The average file room holds
thousands of documents, and many of them contain confidential information about
a business and its customers. When it comes time to find these files, employees
can waste countless hours trying to locate lost documents in a disorganized
system. This decreases productivity and increases the cost of doing business.
Companies need a more effective way to quickly and easily organize, store, and
find files.
Records Management Tips For Financial Institutions
Financial
institutions have a unique set of challenges when it comes to managing customer
data. In addition to organizational requirements, records for account holders
are subject to a broad range of complex state, local, and federal regulations
that govern their use. With the addition of privacy legislations, storage
constraints, and costly litigation, financial institutions have a lot at stake.
It's imperative that they implement a comprehensive financial records
management solution to protect their interests and prevent a customer data
breach.
FUEL MANAGEMENT FROM A FINANCE PERSPECTIVE
I recently joined fuel management group and I'm
very excited about the opportunity to work directly with clients and prospects
with their fleet fuel management programs. For the past 25 years, I've always
been a finance guy in the back-office and enjoyed working with data. My career
also included a number of years in the mobile fleet fueling industry. It was a
great experience for me because there was plenty of data to look at; gallons,
cents, miles, hours, etc. I prepared all kinds of analyze to help run the
business and also helped clients understand what they were paying for fuel and
where it was being used.
EFFECTIVE PERSONAL FINANCE MANAGEMENT TIPS FOR TEENS - BEING FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE
Most college students go through
a lot of undue financial hardships due to being poor money managers. While
they’re wondering about the fact that they’ll get the opportunity to taste freedom,
they fail to understand that not being able to manage their money will do
nothing but lead to a mess. Each year there are too many students graduating
from college but are they all aware of the ways in which they should deal with
their finances?
8 LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT LESSONS ONBOARD THE STARSHIP ENTERPRISE
If you are
a Star Trek fan, you will know that it’s a franchise borne from Gene
Roddenberry’s 1960s vision of an utopian society. It was based on a coherent
set of idealistic principles the background to which; were the emerging
political tensions within American Society during a phase of economic
expansion, the Cold war and the Civil Rights movement. It encapsulates a
progressive and optimistic take on the future that had great faith in
technology.
9 HABITS OF HAPPY AND SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE
Everyone
in this world wants to be happy. Happiness can mean different things to
different individuals, and not all can find happiness in the same thing. People
spend their lives looking for reasons to be happy, but they forget that it’s
something they cannot buy or find by looking. Facing life with a smile in the
midst of problems is a tough task, but that is the secret of all those
successful happy people we sometimes cross paths with.
FIVE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS FOR SUCCESSFUL SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
Modern computer
languages with their high-level constructs have come a long way since the early
days of assembler programming. And with more and more people taking computer
classes at school, programming skills are now more widespread than ever before,
allowing even relative novices to produce professional-looking applications.
But to truly join the ranks of the professional coder, several elements need to
be put in place.
10 MORE QUOTES THAT MAKE YOU A BETTER PROJECT MANAGER
The Cambridge
Dictionaries defines a quote as, "to repeat the words that someone else
has said or written". Most people are quoted because they have something
insightful to say, something that helps us, and provides us with a better
understanding of a particular subject. Over the years a body of useful quotes
has been building up from management gurus that can help us become better
project managers. Here are 10 such quotes worthy of some thought:
5 Tips for Project Managers
Research among
project managers globally identifies top communication skills for leading
teams.
Leading people -
the experiential side of project
management - is as important as task-based skills according to project
managers in Europe, the Middle East, India, America and Australasia.
FINANCIAL TIPS TO SECURE YOUR FUTURE
Managing
your finances is not a complex subject and does not require you to be a
financial wizard. However, the earlier you take your lessons on financial
management, the better it is for your financial future. Here we will re-impress
upon you the importance of few financial tips, which you probably might have
heard several times from your folks. Evaluate the need of implementing these
tips in your life and be consistent in your efforts to reach your financial
goals.
WHAT IS MBA IN MATERIAL MANAGEMENT & WHICH ARE THE TOP COLLEGES FOR IT?
Materials
Management can be defined as the process which ‘deals with the campus planning
and building design for the movement of materials, or with logistics that deal
with the tangible components of a supply chain’. The main goal is to provide an
unbroken chain of components that ensure production to manufacture of goods on
time for the customers. In simpler language, we can say that this branch
designs and plans for collection, storage, distribution and delivery of raw
materials and services. MBA in Material management is mostly needed during
building design project. The term ‘material’ refers to office supplies, mail,
food, building products, raw materials, wastes as well as services.
CHALLENGES IN THE TEACHING PROFESSION
Yesterday
I composed an article entitled “5
Stress Reduction Strategies for Teachers.” It was written with the
specific intent of helping teachers who may be feeling overwhelmed by the job,
and looking for strategies to address their stress. That being said, I
was somewhat surprised when I received comments and emails which questioned
what teachers had to be stressed about in the first place? I always
welcome the feedback from people on my blog posts as the blog is designed with
the objective of being a learning tool for all. Therefore, I was not
insulted by the comments…far from it. Instead, they reinforced one of my
missions for writing this blog, namely, educating the public in general as to
what teachers actually do, and why they need and deserve public support and
respect. This in turn helps this entire generation of students as they
will be provided with a top level education by a satisfied and respected
teaching force. One of the methods used in achieving this mission is to
clearly outline the many challenges which teachers face on a daily basis and
work diligently to overcome. I have composed some (not all by any means),
of the main challenges teachers face in their job on a daily basis.
4 GROWING TRENDS IN EDUCATION FOR 2013-2014
Education
is like any other industry in many respects as it is subject to emerging and
growing trends. In fact, education is basically designed to respond to
the continuously changing needs of a developing society. That is the
whole premise of education in the first place…as society changes so does
education. So it is of great interest for me to look at what the new and
growing trends are in the field. Basically, I have determined and
created a list of the top 4 growing trends I see in education for
2013-2014. This list, while not scientific, has been created by compiling
what I see in my daily front-line work on the job. Also, my “second job”
as a blogger gives me a unique perspective and lets me become immersed in the
world of education through blogs, journal research, social media and forum
participation. Through this work I have been able to determine some
definite educational trends which are happening now, and will surely continue
well into 2014 and beyond.
HOW TO MOTIVATE AND ENGAGE TEACHERS
One
of the most prevalent themes which has emerged in education throughout this era
is that of engagement. It is widely recognized that if we want our
students to maximize their learning, then we need to effectively engage them in
the process. This in turn creates meaningful, exciting and intense
learning experiences. All that being said, there is another component to
engagement which also has a dramatic impact on learning, and is not discussed
nearly as much. I would contend that teacher engagement is likewise
critically important to student learning and success. In fact, studies
have shown over and over again that conditions which allow teachers to be
engaged and teach at their best, are also the same factors which encouraged
students to learn at their best.
TOP 5 WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE VENDORS TO CREATE AN OPTIMIZED WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (WMS)
Business-Software.com has just revealed a new list of the
top Warehouse Management Software Vendors. Companies in all industry sectors
today are under an extraordinary amount of pressure to keep their supply chains
running smoothly. Moreover, there is an increasing need for a rapid turnover of
goods in warehouses and distribution centers. An efficient way to assure
organization and keeping a supply chain company successful is having an
optimized warehouse management system (WMS).
IMPROVE YOUR SUPPLY CHAIN WITH WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Improve your supply chain with a
warehouse management that moves products within and outside of a warehouse or
storage facility efficiently. Warehouse management makes it possible to process
the receipt, storage, and movement of products within storage environments
where pallets of goods are stored among warehouse trolleys.
EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS AND PART TIME MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS
Look before you Leap
The
trend of business schools offering executive management programs and part time
MBAs has accelerated over the years. In
recent times, it is the case that many premier business schools around the
world are offering executive management programs and part time management
programs or evening MBAs for those in their careers who desire a management
degree to add value to their resumes and profiles. As the incidence of
working professionals needing MBA certification for perceived career
progression has grown, so is the supply of such programs from premier business
schools around the world. The operative term here is the perceived value, as
often recruiters prefer graduates from full time management programs to evening
or part time programs.
CREATIVE WAYS TO SAVE FOR A DOWN PAYMENT FOR A HOME
One
of the great challenges for many first time homebuyers is having enough money
for a down payment. With a bit of creativity and planning, it can be fun to
save money to use as a down payment on a home. At
the height of the Phoenix housing boom, it was possible for homebuyers to find
mortgages that require no down payment. While there are some mortgage
programs that do not require a down payment, such as VA loans, most homebuyers
need to plan to put down a minimum of 3.5 percent of the purchase price of the
home. Additionally, most homebuyers need to pay closing costs, which are about
3 percent of the purchase price. Even though the amount of money you need to
have on hand to buy might seem overwhelming, you can save money to buy a home
and have some fun doing it.
WHY ONLINE CLASSES MIGHT NOT BE GOOD FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
This
article originally
appeared in the New America Foundation’s Weekly Wonk. Future Tense is a partnership of Slate,
New America, and Arizona State University. Time
zones away from the quads of Cambridge, Mass., and Palo Alto, Calif., there’s a
curious educational evolution happening. Though
the modern massive open online course movement (MOOCs) originated in North
America, two-thirds of their users live abroad—in places like Rwanda, China,
and Brazil.
TIPS TO HELP CHILDREN FOLLOW CLASSROOM DIRECTIONS
I
am writing a rather short post today in response to some readers
requests. I have actually had a lot of requests lately, but there seem to
be two in particular which are dominating. Namely, classroom management
and helping the struggling student. I want to focus specifically in this
post upon strategies which will help children follow classroom directions.
A STUDENT BILL OF RIGHTS
This first pass at a "Student Bill
of Rights" was inspired by: 1) "A Bill of Rights and Principles for Learning in the Digital
Age" that Audrey Watters and I were able to discuss at length
in a podcast, and that I felt was unimaginative and particularly reflected an
institutional perspective; 2) my interviews at FutureofEducation.com (especially
with the authors of Leaving to Learn and Free to Learn); and 3) the EducationDeclarations.org
project.
FIVE LINKEDIN STRATEGIES YOU HAVEN'T THOUGHT OF BEFORE
Last
week a client asked if I could stay for a bit after our weekly meeting so he
could thank me, not for a PR project, but to show me how he’d used a tactic I’d
shown him on LinkedIn to put himself well on the track of securing a much more
aggressive marketing budget next year. Wow!
WITH THE 2015 ESCALADE, CADILLAC ELEVATES THE ART AND SCIENCE OF LUXURY
Autumn
de Wilde, a noted photographer in the fashion and music worlds, doesn’t look at
cars the way most people do, which is one of the reasons why Cadillac asked her
to document the design process of the all-new Escalade. “I’m
obsessed with reflection,” de Wilde says during a one-on-one interview
following the world debut of the 2015 Cadillac Escalade in New York. “I always
have been.”
10-MOST RELIABLE USED CARS
Acura TL
As with all of the vehicles in our
top 10 list of most-reliable used cars, the model-year 2008 and 2009 versions
of the midsize Acura TL luxury sedan received top grades for long-term
durability from both Consumer Reports and J.D. Power and Associates owner
surveys and high marks in initial quality and performance testing. The TL
combines elements of comfort and performance with a sporty demeanor. The 2008
version can be found with either a 258-horsepower 3.2-liter V6 or a stronger
286-horsepower 3.5-liter V6. The TL was redesigned for 2009 and featured a
280-horsepower 3.5-liter V6 as the base engine, with a 306-horsepower 3.7-liter
V6 in the SH-AWD all-wheel drive model. The TL remains attractively styled
inside and out (though the pronounced front nose design on the 2009 – pictured
here – is a matter of taste) and affords ample comfort for both front and
rear-seat passengers, with stability control and many amenities included.
SENIOR SECONDARY MATHEMATICS EDUCATION IN CHINA
Chinese
applications and enrollments at American universities and colleges have been
skyrocketing over the last five years, and especially so at the undergraduate
level. According to the Institute of International Education’s (IIE) latest Open Doors report, total
undergraduate enrollment of Chinese students surged to 56,976 in 2010-2011 –
growth of 42 percent versus the previous academic year.
Furthermore, 41.3 percent of all Chinese students enrolled in
the U.S. higher education system are majoring in a science, technology, engineering
or mathematics field (STEM). All indications suggest that U.S. institutions of
higher education can expect continued strength in applications from China, and
especially so at the undergraduate level and in the STEM fields.
HOW TO GROW INTERNATIONAL UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT NUMBERS
The
global student mobility landscape is in constant flux and is often influenced
by external factors beyond the control of higher education institutions.
Consider how a combination of changes in the external environment, including
demographics and economic growth, has influenced the patterns of the top
senders of international students to the United States.
THREE HIGHER EDUCATION TRENDS TO WATCH FOR IN 2014
International higher education by its very
nature sits at an intersection of socio-cultural, economic and geopolitical
variables. Over the years, we have seen the complex interaction of the factors
that influence patterns of student mobility, institutional strategies and
national policies. What key trends can we expect for 2014 that will prove influential in
international higher education? Here is my take on three trends to watch for
this year related to university funding, regulatory environment and technology.
THE FUTURE OF INTERNATIONAL DOCTORAL MOBILITY
In ”The Disposable Academic”, The Economist
argued that "doing a PhD” was often a waste of time. However, this
pessimism does not reflect the experience of all students, as evidenced by
increasing numbers of doctoral students from the global South heading to the
advanced economies of the North in the past 20 years.
Many source countries for doctoral students are still experiencing the growing
pains of economic development and qualitative maturity; their higher education
systems are not immune to these challenges.
INTERNATIONAL STUDENT RECRUITMENT VIA INFORMED CHOICE
Higher education institutions are increasingly expected to
make tough, strategic choices to achieve their internationalisation goals in a
cost-effective manner. For example, in the field of international student
recruitment, institutions are often confronted with questions like: which
countries and cities should we prioritise in terms of our recruitment efforts?
Which segment of students should we recruit? Which recruitment channels should
we use?
HOW TO ENGAGE FOREIGN UNIVERSITIES IN INDIA
Will foreign universities
establish campuses in India? This has been
one of the recurring questions over the last few years. Unfortunately, not only
the question but also the corresponding answers have been far from the reality
of global higher education
and its fit with the needs of India.
DEVELOPMENTS IN CENTRAL ASIAN HIGHER EDUCATION
The collapse of the Soviet Union had
a profound impact on the education systems of Central Asia. Drastic cuts in
funding; the cessation of directives and guidance from Moscow; the repatriation
of Russian administrators back to Russia; the emigration of local professors,
scholars, and students to the West; and the rejection of outdated Soviet
curriculums by students demanding training relevant to a modern economy drove
many institutions of higher education in the region into a state of near
paralysis.
AN EVALUATION OF BRITAIN’S UNIVERSITY PATHWAY PROGRAMS
A
growing number of higher education institutions around the world are making use
of academic preparatory programs, typically for students that lack the
necessary training or language skills to meet given program entry requirements.
The use of these programs has become especially prevalent in today’s world of
internationalization and cross-border academic mobility.
ACADEMIC MOBILITY AND THE EDUCATION SYSTEM OF NEPAL
Nepal’s
Ministry of Education and
Sports was established in 1951 and oversees all aspects of education
in the Kingdom of Nepal. There are other government agencies responsible for
administering and supervising education at the different levels, but all report
to the ministry.
Prior
to 1951, schooling in Nepal was reserved primarily for elite groups and the
royal family in Kathmandu and other urban areas, and served just 250 students.
Political reforms in 1951 opened access to schooling and participation rates
have risen exponentially since then, but still remain low relative to other
countries in the region and globally.
SCOPE OF MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS
As regards the scope of
managerial economics, there is no general uniform pattern. However, the
following aspects may be said to be inclusive under managerial economics:
- Demand analysis and forecasting.
- Cost and production analysis.
- Pricing decisions, policies and practices.
- Profit management.
- Capital management.
These aspects may also be
defined as the ‘Subject-Matter of Managerial Economics’. In recent years, there
is a trend towards integrations of managerial economics and operations
research. Hence, techniques such as linear programming, inventory models and
theory of games have also been regarded as a part of managerial economics.
DETERMINANTS OF MARKET DEMAND
The
knowledge of the determinants of market demand for a product and the nature of
relationship between the demand and its determinants proves very helpful in
analysing and estimating demand for the product. It may be noted at the very
outset that a host of factors determines the demand for a product. In general,
following factors determine market demand for a good:
DEMAND ANALYSIS
Demand is one of
the crucial requirements for the existence of any business firm. Firms are
interested in their profit and sales, both of which depend partially upon the
demand for the product. The decisions, which management makes with respect to
production, advertising, cost allocation, pricing, inventory holdings, etc.
call for an analysis of demand. While how much a firm can produce depends upon
its capacity and demand for its products. If there is no demand for a product,
its production is unworthy. If demand falls short of production, one way to
balance the two is to create new demand through more and better advertisements.
The more the future demand for a product, the more inventories the firm would
hold. The larger the demand for a firm's product, the higher is the price it
can charge.
MANAGERIAL ECONOMIST: ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
A managerial economist can play
a very important role by assisting the management in using the increasingly
specialised skills and sophisticated techniques, required to solve the
difficult problems of successful decision-making and forward planning. In
business concerns, the importance of the managerial economist is therefore recognised
a lot today. In advanced countries like the USA, large companies employ one or
more economists. In our country too, big industrial houses have understood the
need for managerial economists. Such business firms like the Tatas, DCM and
Hindustan Lever employ economists. A managerial economist can contribute to
decision-making in business in specific terms. In this connection, two
important questions need be considered:
ECONOMIC THEORY AND MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS
Economic theory offers a
variety of concepts and analytical tools that can assist the manager in the
decision-making practices. Problem solving in business has, however, found that
there exists a wide disparity between the economic theory of a firm and actual
observed practice, thus necessitating the use of many skills and be quite useful
to examine two aspects in this regard:
USES OF MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS
Managerial economics achieves
several objectives. The principal objectives are as follows:
- It presents those aspects of traditional economics, which are relevant for business decision-making in real life. For this purpose, it picks from economic theory those concepts, principles and techniques of analysis, which are concerned with the decision-making process. These are adapted or modified in such a way that it enables the manager to take better decisions. Thus, managerial economics attains the objective of building a suitable tool kit from traditional economics.
MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS AND ACCOUNTING
Managerial economics is also
closely related to accounting, which is concerned with recording the financial
operations of a business firm. In fact, a managerial economist depends chiefly
on the accounting information as an important source of data required for his
decision-making purpose. for instance, the profit and loss statement of a firm
shows how well the firm has done and whether the information it contains can be
used by managerial economist to throw significant light on the future course of
action that is whether the firm should improve its productivity or close down.
Therefore, accounting data require careful interpretation, reconstruction and
adjustments before they can be used safely and effectively.
SCOPE OF MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS
As regards the scope of
managerial economics, there is no general uniform pattern. However, the
following aspects may be said to be inclusive under managerial economics:
DIFFFERENCE BETWEEN MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS AND ECONOMICS
The difference between
managerial economics and economics can be understood with the help of the
following points:
- Managerial economics involves application of economic principles to the problems of a business firm whereas; economics deals with the study of these principles only. Economics ignores the application of economic principles to the problems of a business firm.
CHARACTERISTICS OF MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS
There are certain chief
characteristics of managerial economics, which can help to understand the
nature of the subject matter and help in a clear understanding of the following
terms:
APPLICATION OF ECONOMICS TO BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
The application of economics to
business management or the integration of economic theory with business
practice, as Spencer and Siegelman have put it, has the following aspects :
NATURE & SCOPE OF MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS
The terms Managerial Economics
and Business Economics are often used interchangeably. However, the terms
Managerial Economics has become more popular and seems to displace Business
Economics.