Decision-Making and Risk Analysis
A graduate level class in managerial decision making teaches a process for making decisions and analyzing risks. The process uses typical inputs and outputs in an organiation such as materials, information, employees, new products, and resource allocation.The process does two things. First, it provides a logical way to analyze information and integrates diverse tasks and work processes. Secondly, the process analyzes management behavior and links a variety of activities and concludes with a coherent and orderly view of management.The variety of work activities are considered as processes starting with organizational processes. Organizational processes are divided into three areas: work processes, behavioral processes, and change processes. These processes break down further into areas such as communication processes, organizational learning processes, change processes, managerial processes, direction-setting processes, and many other work activities that are processes.The decision-making and risk analysis processes were analyzed using software that considered all the possibilities, assigned probabilities, integrated various factors, and led to a calculated decision. The software creates a decision-making tree, a risk analysis model, an influence factor model, and simulated variations. The software used in the class was made by Palisades, but there are other creators of decision-making soft such as Decision Pro.If you want to systematically analyze the decisions you have to make and your exposue to risk, you may want to consider decision-making software. The software can be found on the internet, and they us

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trademarks and Proprietary Rights in Franchise Systems
One of the things that a franchisor has to offer a potential franchisee is their brand name. A strong brand name means the built-in potential customers for the franchisee and his franchise outlet. Each franchisor must stipulate how their trademarks and proprietary information within the confidential operations manual will be used during the term of the franchise. It is far better in my opinion to be upfront with this issue into address it in the franchise agreement prior to the signing or exchanging of any monies for the franchise business. It is for this reason that I developed a clause to put into our franchise agreement, which was a little different than most other franchisors. Below is a copy of that clause;3.11.1 Proprietary RightsFranchisee acknowledges the exclusive right, title and interest of Franchisor in and to the Marks. Franchisee agrees that the Service Marks, Confidential Operations Manual, and System are Franchisor’s sole and exclusive property. Nothing in this Agreement or any other agreement will give Franchisee or others any right, title, or interest whatsoever in or to the Service Marks, Confidential Operations Manual, or System as it exists or as it is developed. Franchisee’s license to use the Service Marks is non-exclusive. Franchisor, in its sole discretion, may operate under the Service Marks and may grant licenses to others to use the Service Marks on any terms and conditions Franchisor deems appropriate. Franchisor may make reasonable efforts to protect Franchisee’s rights to use the Service Marks. In those states and nations where applicable, Franchisee agrees to execute on request all documents ne

Why Can You Expect to Improve Your Effectiveness by 20 Times?
Some people make things happen, some watch while things happen, and some wonder what happened.― AnonymousA 2,000 percent solution is any method of accomplishing what your organization does now with zero-to-four percent of the current time and resources, or accomplishing an increase of 20 times in results while employing the same or fewer resources. A combination of those results can also be a 2,000 percent solution.When first creating a 2,000 percent solution, many people report discovering that their solution could have been implemented at any time during the prior 50 years. But no one had. Why is that?Here's a story that helps explain such delays. An executive works in a business where 95 percent of the ingredients were once discarded at the end of the production process. That's like taking a piece or two of a large wedding cake and then throwing the rest of the cake away. The organization first called the unused ingredients "waste" and dumped that material into the ocean. A new treaty in the 1970s prohibited this kind of dumping, and the "waste" went into landfills. Environmental laws were later enacted that made it more attractive to do something else with the "waste," and the leftover ingredients were turned into "by-products" that didn't have much value. The executive redefined those used ingredients as "products" and discovered that with a little upgrading they became valuable forms of organic fertilizer that many were anxious to buy. Soon the executive had developed a large fertilizer business and was successfully making similar upgrades of waste into valuable products for other manufacturers.F

Branding, Concept, Communication and Focus Testing
I’ve seen it all. The good, the bad and the ugly of Web site design. And the more I analyze what’s on the Web, the sadder I get, because the Web has become open game for Web site designers with bad taste and no plan.On the other hand, there are many talented Web designers to choose from. But talent will only take one so far. A designer has to understand and master the essence of design: Design with purpose, Create with purpose, and Implement with purpose.As with the world of print, TV, and radio, a designer must design with four specific goals in mind:Branding Good branding makes the cash register ring. Take Fox News as a case in point. Unlike CNN or MSNBC, Fox strives to be a bit more edgy and bold -- and they lead the pack. Their logo animation, bumper graphics, and over-the-shoulder graphics are bright primary colors. Even their music is a bit edgier with guitar riffs versus the subdued music tones of the other stations.Concept A great concept on a shoe-string budget will blow away a weak concept on a multi-million dollar budget any day. For example, how many truck or SUV commercials have you seen with guys careening through mud or snow-covered mountain passes as the words scream out “Chevy Tough” or “Ford, Built to Last.” I can’t believe executives at these car companies spend millions each year on poorly conceived advertising campaigns.Now, see if you remember this one. A mother is about to drop her child off at school, and asks if he’d rather get dropped off at the curb instead of directly in-front of the school. The child says, “nah, that’s okay mom.” He steps down

Understanding Accounting Vocabulary
The following article is an excerpt from the free online course "Using Finance & Accounting in Your Small Business".When you learn something new like accounting concepts and terms, it helps to create links between what you know and what you are trying to learn. In some ways, it is like learning a second language and decoding the new word is part of the learning process. For example, trying to translate the Spanish word necesario you might brainstorm with necessary - and you would be right. How about blanco? Blanco is like blank which is like white. So, blanco is Spanish for the color white.Try to make some logical connections about the accounting vocabulary. Take the word - accounting - and think about it. Really, the accounting system is a basic counting of what goes on in your business.Let’s move on to transactions. Transactions are the business activities, or actions, that build day by day and become your expenses and income. Try to think about the term - transactions. Actions are business activities, and trans means across or thru. These are the basic building blocks of an accounting system. Transactions are to accounting like what raw materials are to a factory, or gasoline is to your engine - the transactions are real and how your accounting system handles them impacts your business.You must keep a record of your transactions to know how much money your business earned and how much money your business spent. Sounds obvious, right? Ask your bookkeeper or accountant how obvious some transactions are. It can get tricky quickly if you are not clear about what happened in the transaction and how you