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Strategies Used with Mergers and Acquisitions

Every business wants to grow. They want to become worth more (vertical growth) and they want to become bigger (horizontal growth). While this can be achieved through lengthy, hard work, there are also a number of shortcuts that can be taken. Organic growth, unfortunately, can be difficult and very slow. This is why so many businesses try to grow through mergers and acquisitions. This is a way to instantly expand the business, either horizontally or vertically or both.

Big corporations are notorious for always being on the lookout for an opportunity to acquire a different business or merge with it. In fact, in some of the largest companies, there are entire departments that focus on nothing but this. Generally speaking, they do so because:

  • They want to diversify their offerings of products or services.
  • They want to expand their reach in the market, effectively killing the competition.
  • They want to strengthen their existing research facilities.
  • They want to lower production costs.

 

Merger and Acquisition Strategies

There is a lot of software out there to help businesses with their merger and acquisition processes. This enables them, as well, to learn more about company mergers and the strategies that others have used in the past. Additionally, these software packages, which are usually online programs, tend to have lists available that show which companies are currently available for acquisition, or that are looking for merger. This is a really valuable tool for those who are looking to expand, as it enables them to gather enough intelligence before deciding what an appropriate next move would be.

Once one company identifies another company with which they want to perform a merger or acquisition, they have to think about next steps. First of all, they must decide whether they want to acquire the other company, which means that they totally take it over, or whether they want to merge, in which case both companies give and take a little bit. There are pros and cons to both options.

The pros of acquisitions include:

  • The first company gets to keep all its staff members, as they do not have to reshuffle their organization to take in the old one.
  • They will take over a piece of the market and, thereby, a piece of the competition, strengthening their own position.

The pros of mergers include:

  • It is a friendly agreement, in which different types of talent join forces.
  • It also allows for further market expansion, strengthening individual positions.

The cons of acquisitions include:

  • They tend to be very risky. Only businesses that are at risk of failing tend to be available for acquisition.
  • It is quite a hostile move, which can be hard on an ethical basis.

The cons of mergers include:

  • A complete company reshuffle will have to be completed. This inevitably means that people in both original companies will lose their job.
  • It can be difficult for two companies to properly merge and become one.

It is vital that you learn more about mergers and acquisitions before you decide to engage in one.

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Business

How to Use Innovation to Propel Your Business to the Next Level

If you want your business to be successful in the globalized economy of today, you must be ready to innovate. Innovation is what will help you create a roadmap towards not just success, but the survival of your business. If you don’t use proper innovation management strategies in every element of your company or organization, you simply won’t be able to compete anymore.

What Is Innovation?

Many people believe that innovation is about coming up with a new product, but this is actually not true. Rather, it is about taking small steps that affect each part of the business, so that the company as a whole can develop and grow. Innovation never ends either, therefore. It is a continuous process that will only work if everybody is involved. It needs to be part of the culture of your organization, and not just your strategic manager. Anyone, from the janitor to the CEO, should be able to take part in innovation and should feel that their contributions are welcomed and respected.

What Is Innovation Management?

Somebody has to be responsible for the management of innovation. They need to make sure that people are able to put forward their ideas. There are multiple ways to achieve this, including:

  • Open door policies
  • Suggestion boxes
  • Regular meetings
  • The company’s intranet system
  • Employee surveys and questionnaires
  • Away days
  • Corporate events

What matters is that everybody feels that they can put their ideas forward, and that they will be listened to. This does not mean that every idea also has to be implemented. Rather, it is about creating a culture in which everybody knows that they are equally valued, and that if an idea is not implemented, it is because the company as a whole agrees that it will not improve the current business model.

Innovation management is also about testing and implementation, but you won’t be able to get to that stage until you have changed the company culture.

Why Isn’t Everybody Innovating?

It is interesting to see that the vast majority of businesses know that innovation is hugely important, yet very few actually implement it as part of their business model. There are several reasons for this:

  • Companies still have a hierarchical culture, which means they simply cannot accept that the opinion at the lower end of the scale is as valuable as that of a senior manager.
  • Companies don’t know how to get started on the process of innovation.

There are a number of consultants and specialists out there who will help you to transform your business into one that not just welcomes innovation, but embraces it. If you do want to make sure you remain competitive in this world, but you struggle to go about it alone, then these consultants are there to assist you. What isn’t an option, however, is to do nothing.

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Business

How to Make Sure You Manage How Others See You Properly

Imagine a situation in which negative reviews and comments are appearing online about you that are vindictive, invalid, unfair, or even simply untrue. That is a situation that many businesses face. It doesn’t mean, however, that you have to panic or throw in the towel believing that your business is now ruined. What you do have to do, however, is learn how you can mitigate the damage as much as possible.

Of course, doing nothing certainly isn’t an option either. Rather, you need to get help from a reputation management expert who will find out just how bad the damage is, and what the best course of action will be.

Three Management Approaches

  • Approach the person who left the comment and ask them whether they would be willing to remove it. You can also contact the site owner and ask them to remove the comment, particularly if it is vulgar, threatening, inappropriate or offensive, or if it is very obvious that it is a malicious, vindictive comment. There are some people, known as ‘trolls’, who go out of their way simply to leave negative comments and if a site owner gets enough reports about a single person, their comments may be removed and they may be banned.
  • Address the person directly. If you spot the comment very quickly, as you should if you monitor your reputation, then you have the chance to address the issue as well. However, you have to make sure that the response is appropriate, which can be very difficult to achieve. Make sure that, whatever you do, you don’t offer a standard, generic response. This will only inflame the writer more, who is expecting a personal reply. And make sure that there is no emotion in the post, except an apology from your side and a promise to try and resolve the problem.
  • Ignore the situation. This is the least recommended option of all, but sometimes it does work. This is particularly true if you already have a very good reputation and your customers will know that the remark is inflammatory. Sometimes, if you address a problem, other people will start to get involved, and it can snowball out of control. Ignoring is a dangerous tactic, however, because your customers may also think that you don’t take them serious. Usually, a good approach is to respond once, asking the person to contact you directly through a private message, and to then not engage any further. Again, however, you should only do this under the guidance of an expert who is likely to know what the response is going to be.

Every situation you face is unique and will require a unique approach. Different strategies exist and each situation will need a different strategy. This is why it is so important to have a reputation management consultant on board who can help you. Don’t look for them once a problem arises, because you need to address is straight away.

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Business

How to Get the Toilet Facilities Right on a Construction Site

Whenever there is a construction site, one issue that people have to face is how to manage restroom facilities. Luckily, there are now purpose made job site trailers available just for that purpose. These range from simple Portakabins to luxurious bathrooms with marble tops and more.

One of the other things site managers have to think about is that the facilities often have to move. This also means that they have to be disconnected and reconnected, all of which means that portability is very important. Luckily, those who rent out these types of facilities are also very much capable of reconfiguring the trailers and moving them to new locations.

Equipment Solutions for Common Job Site Problems

  1. No existing toilet and no water or sewer. This means that the job site trailer has to be equipped with a wastewater holding tank, a water tank and a fresh-water flushing toilet. Usually, additional components are added to the trailer for the sink, although others can be fitted with a self-contained sink instead. In order for these trailers to work, they do have to be connected to the electricity network.
  2. Existing restroom available, but no water or sewer. If someone already has a trailer with a restroom, but it isn’t hooked to water or sewer, a waste tank that holds 250 gallons should be fitted underneath the restroom. Additionally, a fresh water tank should be added, preferably one with an electric pump. Including these two elements will ensure that both the toilet and the sink can be supplied with water as well.
  3. Limited space available and no water or sewer. In this case, a portable, small toilet should be added, which are perfect for areas that are low on space. There is no need for an external waste tank or water tank, as everything has already been built in. Similarly, a portable hand sanitizer dispenser or portable sink can be added. These are not suitable for heavy usage, however.
  4. Existing toilet with water connection in place, but no sewer. In this case, a 250 gallon waste water tank can be added to the trailer. These are installed above the ground, usually underneath the trailer itself. This means that the ground is not disturbed and it also means that they are very easy and quick to install, while at the same time being hidden from sight.

If you don’t know what kind of system or technology you require, make sure you speak to a rental companies. Those who hire out jobsite trailers will also be more than happy to discuss your needs with you, and help you to identify which type is most suited for you.

If you work on a construction site, either because a new building is being constructed or an existing one is being renovated, there are plenty of opportunities out there to make sure that you can still use the restroom in comfort – and even in style!

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Business

The Technological Way to Tackle Crooked Employees

In every business organization, no matter what it does, there are always some bad apples waiting in the wings to pounce at the first opportunity to do what they have been waiting to do for quite some time, i.e. to dupe you in one way or another. Employee monitoring technology has been created exclusively for dealing with such employees, dishonest and rotten to the core. This revolutionary technology has conceived iOS spy apps and various other tools for different platforms to keep tabs on crooked employees. Let’s find out this technology plays its part in tackling crooked employees and the threats they pose.

The Digital Line of Defense

Whether you’re running a small business with 50 employees, or a multinational empire consisting of thousands of employees, you don’t have any real chance of success while your employees are trying to pull wool over your eyes. Therefore, investing in digital tools is definitely the way to go. Not only can they bring ease and simplicity to employee monitoring, but these nifty employee management tools can also help you keep track of employees’ digital activities and whereabouts. Let’s take a look at how they go about achieving that.

  • Helps you identify employees who abuse company-owned devices;
  • Enables you to keep an eye on the emails being sent and received by employees to make sure confidential data is not being leaked;
  • Allows you to view their internet browsing history to make sure that they are not visiting shady sites, like digital black markets for instance;
  • Keeps you updated on who employees talk to and what they talk about by logging calls and SMS;
  • Protects company from litigation by keeping record of everything employees do online;
  • Keeps employees from wasting time online, thus improving their performance.

The Satellite Solution

Employee management tools come equipped with a GPS tracker that utilize GPS technology to keep track of target devices. Installing the said tools on company hardware i.e. iPhones or any other web-connected mobile devices, can help employers in keeping an eye on their employees discreetly. Employers may also use the location tracking feature to make sure employees are where they should be and not slacking off or wasting time on leisure.

Seeing Beyond the Obvious

Digital monitoring tools give you access to pretty much everything that has got anything to do with mobile devices and the internet. Whether it is about tracking the location of your mobile workforce or keeping an eye on crooked employees to keep them from indulging in illegal and unethical activities, you need to be on your guard for making sure that your business is not their next victim. Crooked employees are a handful as it is. Even with the use of monitoring tools, it is quite hard to keep them from giving into their rotten tendencies. Therefore, you need to not only have access to their online activities, but also need to be able to connect the dots and put two and two together to stay one step ahead of them. This can be done by evaluating the reports generated by employee monitoring tools.

The Bottom Line

Crooked is what crooked does. Therefore, no matter how hard you try, if you have a crooked employee working for you, your business will always face a huge risk of suffering at their hands. This is why it is very important to stay vigilant and invest in technology that makes it possible for you to keep a close eye on them, lest they’re secretly making your business bleed and getting away with it.

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Business

How to Simplify Your HR Department

In today’s world, businesses are spending increasingly more time on human resources. With compliance being more essential than ever before, many business owners and management staff are finding themselves needing to dedicate more time to HR and paperwork, leaving them with less time to concentrate on business development and marketing. If you run a business, it’s a good idea to give some consideration to the different methods which you can use to both simplify and automate your human resources department, givingyou more free time togrow and develop your company.

Outsourcing

Depending on the size of your business, it may be a wise idea to outsource your HR department to a talent management company or third-party human resources company. As a general rule, if your business has less than one hundred employees, it is highly unlikely that you will have the resources and manpower needed to run a successful human resources department in-house. Outsourcing your human resources department and payroll system can make things simpler for you and relieve the pressure of compliance.

Automated and Self Service Systems

If you decide to go ahead and run an in-house human resources department, setting up an employee self service system can help things to run smoothly and reduce the workload of your human resources staff. These self service systems work by allowing employees to access their own records and make changes accordingly to details such as addresses, telephone numbers, next of kin and financial information. Allowing employees access to their details through a web based system means that they can make changes as and when they need providing that they have internet access. This leaves your human resources department with less menial tasks to do, allowing them to focus more time and energy on the larger projects.

Retain Top Talent

Hiring and firing staff is one of the main things that the human resources department is tasked with. The higher turnover of staff, the more work your HR department will need to do. Retaining as many employees as possible, especially those who are the top performers, will simplify your human resources department. Boosting your employee morale is one of the most important things that you can do which will have a direct effect on the level of staff turnover in your company. There are many things you can do in order to increase levels of employee satisfaction. This includes providing training and development opportunities, incentives and bonuses to keep employees motivated and productive.

Simplify Communication

The average employee spends over one-third of their typical work day reading and responding to emails. For human resources departments, the time spent on email could be even longer. Encouraging your human resources employees to make use of instant messaging and other alternative forms of communication to email could help to cut their time spent on essential communication and leave them with more time to complete other tasks.

With the right strategies, you can reduce the amount of time your company spends on HR, leaving more time for development and growth.

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Business

Child Sponsorship Makes a Difference, One Child at a Time

We New Zealanders are very lucky to live in the country that we do. New Zealand’s clean air, thriving economy and gorgeous local culture attract migrants and tourists from around the world, and it’s a rare Kiwi that doesn’t know how fortunate we are to live here. Our children have access to great education, nutritious food and a world of opportunity thanks to our position in the British Commonwealth, but there are millions of children worldwide who don’t have these opportunities. In less fortunate countries, there are children who can’t go to school, who have no access to medicine when they fall ill and even some who have no clean water to drink. The cycle of poverty is brutal and destroys lives worldwide, but it can end with you.

Child Sponsorship

Child Sponsorship

Giving to charity is all good and well, but single donations don’t make a much of a dent in the issue of global poverty. To end the poverty cycle, many of these kids need ongoing support from benefactors, which is where child sponsorship steps in. While raising your own kids in New Zealand is hardly an inexpensive exercise, the shattered economies in which many sponsor children live mean that your Kiwi dollars go much further in their communities than they do at home. If you choose to sponsor a child, offering ongoing payments, your money will be invested in such a way as to bring that child’s entire community out of poverty by means of self-actualisation. For example, many children in Central America have no agricultural skills despite living in communities that need them to know how to farm. Your sponsorship money would be invested in building schools that teach kids the skills they need to get work, or in buying livestock and building farms that will allow the children to eat nutritious meals and contribute to a self-sustaining community. Alternatively, the biggest problem facing disadvantaged children might be a lack of access to clean water. Some of your sponsorship money might be allocated to digging a well so the community can have clean water to drink and wash in, improving their health and drastically reducing the incidence of illness throughout their area.

Child Sponsorship

Getting to Self-Sustenance

The model for child sponsorship spans several years and aims for the sponsored community to become self-reliant to the point where they no longer depend on sponsorship for support. If you sponsor children, the monthly payments that make a minor dent in your pocket add up and become a massive investment in that community’s ability to sustain itself. By the end of your sponsorship of that particular child, their community could have schools, clean water and opportunities for their children to escape the cycle of poverty that trapped so many of their peers and relatives. A few simple, ongoing payments can make a world of difference to an afflicted community in a developing nation. Sponsorship provides the investment capital necessary for impoverished towns and villages to join New Zealanders in the twenty-first century, as we step boldly forward into the future arm in arm as an international community, working together to make the planet a better place.

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Business

Finding the Right Office Space in a Crowded Market

Where office space is at a premium price and fierce competition exists, it makes perfect sense to invest time in looking for a commercial real estate solution that will give your business a distinct edge in the marketplace. Whether you are looking to relocate your office, refit your existing office or find premises for the first time, hiring a team of experts that understands your needs and the real estate market will translate to a huge advantage.

Space Crowded Market

The Benefits of a Commercial Estate Agent

If you’re a business struggling to get ahead and you need a new office space or a way to recreate your existing one, maybe it’s time to look at the benefits of using a commercial estate agent. But what can such a service offer you in a congested market?

If you’re looking for commercial premises in a crowded and busy city like London, for example, hiring a commercial estate agent will mean that you have local market expertise on your side. Companies in this sector that have decades of experience know the market and know the commercial real estate space intimately. They will understand and be familiar with trends in the market and will have already developed a rapport with local landlords, other business owners and brokers.

If you already know what kind of business premises you require, they can help you to find them quickly. If, on the other hand, you haven’t quite developed a vision yet, they can help you to flesh it out using their knowledge of what works best for modern businesses.

Commercial Estate Agent

In fact, there are even some commercial estate agents based in London who also specialise in office and commercial interiors, refurbishments and refits. This means that they can take an approach to assisting businesses that begins at the planning stage and ends with the office refit and workplace design.

Using a commercial estate agent in this way saves time and money in the long run, and provides valuable access to their local knowledge, contacts and expertise. A reputable agent will work with you from the planning stage right through to the move and/or the refit or refurbishment, giving you a measurable advantage in a congested and competitive business sphere.

The Right Interior for a Happy Team

Once business premises have been located, the next step is to fit the space out in order to meet the expectations of your employees and your organisational vision. In fact, the right kind of workspace can even result in a net gain in terms of employee productivity, according to recent studies. This saves both time and money and propels the business to further growth and success. In this context, it’s worth looking at just some of the types of workspace interiors that increase productivity and employee satisfaction:

Right Interior Happy Team

  • A connection to nature: Providing a connection to the outside world through the extended use of window space and outside light and views can result in a more positive employee experience. If employees are happy in their workspace, it’s more likely that they’ll be more productive throughout the day.
  • Employee control: Psychologically, if an employee feels more personally in control of their environment, they will also feel more comfortable. One way to provide this control is to give employees direct access to heating and cooling controls. If an employee can directly control their workplace comfort on a cold day, for example, they’re far more likely to be productive and less likely to be concerned with and distracted by basic bodily needs. It has also been noted in numerous studies that improved airflow, air quality and ventilation all translate to a more positive working environment and employee productivity.

Employee control

  • Interior design: Undoubtedly the layout and design of workspaces have changed significantly over the decades. In order to gain an advantage in a competitive market, the most reputable companies understand that putting employees at the centre of interior design and layout is paramount to gaining traction in the marketplace. Configuring office layout to clarify both workstations and social areas is key to good design and employee satisfaction, and designing in such a way as to decrease distracting interior and exterior noise provides for increased productivity. Encouraging employee collaboration without increasing distraction is one of the keys to a modern office layout.
  • Active areas: More and more workplaces are also including active areas for employee exercise and other related amenities, such as gymnasiums and play areas. In Silicon Valley, for example, rich tech companies often include downtime areas where employees can relax and play games in order to break out of the workspace in order to feel more refreshed when they return. Including such breakout areas may seem revolutionary, but recognising that employee satisfaction, productivity and creativity are some of the secrets to business success is vital to understanding modern trends in interior design.

Office Space Active areas

Your Business and Your Ongoing Business Reputation

In order to have a successful business, it’s vital to recognise that using every tool at your disposal is one of the foundations of being able to level the playing field and promote commercial growth. By using a commercial estate agent, a business gains access to local knowledge and design expertise that translates to business success in a modern business environment.

Ultimately, your business reputation is on the line, and by creating an inviting workspace through good design, the right location and more satisfied employees, you can gain a valuable foothold in the market. A great office means:

  • Improved employee well-being, which translates to increased productivity and employee retention, and
  • The broad potential to impress clients, customers and other visitors to your place of business.

Ongoing Business Reputation

If you see your place of business as indistinguishable from the reputation of your business, then making it the best place to work should be one of the cornerstones of your success. By investing in the workspace and hiring a commercial estate agent with experience who understands the locality and business trends, you are also investing in the future of your business.

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Business

What You Must Know About Merchant Services In Credit Card Payments?

As a business man you have finally decided to take the plunge into the credit card payment acceptance. You must now be aware and prudent in choosing the right merchant credit card processors. This involves a little bit of research and understanding of the technical jargons.

Look for trusted representative

Before you pick the merchant services, it is important to browse through several of them. You will be visited by a representative from the merchant service company. The rep is going to play a vital role. Choose someone who can be trusted and do not hype up the actual picture. You may ask your friend for their feedback and referrals. But just don’t go by their opinions alone. Make your own calculation before taking the final leap.

Know the pricing models

There are basically three types of pricing models provided by merchant credit card processors which you must know:

Flat rate: It is more popular. Suitable for small business units with small volume of transaction. May cost more for per transaction.

Tiered: They have qualified, non-qualified and mid qualified levels. Based on the processing of the transaction, fees are charged on tiers.

Interchange: it’s a kind of wholesale cost wherein there is also a negotiated cost that is added up to it. This can be a very confusing model but is beneficial for middle to large scale business units.

Understand the fees involves

Getting to know in detail about the fees involved is the next major step. You must ask about all the vital parameters like

  • Annual fees
  • Monthly penalty if any, then negotiate on this
  • Termination fees rate
  • Service fees charged n monthly basis
  • Application fee, set up fee, statement fee, batch fee, online reporting fee and so on

Customer service level

You may need their assistance at any time. Ensure that they have a dedicated system for attending to customer queries 24/7.

Update on software and equipment

You must be ready with the equipment and terminals for taking on credit card payment. It is also essential to keep your staff trained for the same. Enquire if the merchant services company offer any free training for the same. This will help in hassle free set up.

Compare and change

Once installed you must keep track of your charges and fees. If you feel that the current provider is charging you high then never hesitate to switch to another provider.

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Business

Top Tips for Success in your SAS Analytics Training Course

If you are studying a SAS Analytics training course, then hopefully you will have got to choose the company that you do it through. You should pick one that you feel will lead you to success. However, you may have had the course chosen for you by your employer or you may not be sure how to tell. Luckily as well as choosing a good course, there are things that you can do to help you be more successful.

Find good study conditions

It is well worth making sure that you choose a good place to study that will be quiet and have the equipment that you need. Trying to study in a busy family home or in the office could not be good as it will be distracting. You will need to think about what will suit you the best with regards to a good environment to work. You need to think about convenience of the location, what times you will be working as well to make sure that the place you choose will fit in with that.

Ask questions

It is important to make sure that you ask questions while you are doing the course. Make sure that you understand all of the information that you are learning but also ask questions about how to apply it to your work. Learning things around the core text will help to consolidate your knowledge and help you to understand it all better.

Read around the topic

You can also read around the topic yourself as well. This will help you to expand your knowledge which will look good when you are doing the examination. You will also have to have a good understanding of all of the basics if you want to know more about it and therefore it will help you to make sure that you have a good understanding of everything due to the analytics course.

Apply your knowledge

As mentioned before it is useful to apply your knowledge. If you cannot do this in your job, then find a way to do it at home. Practicing the theoretical work that you have learned will help you to consolidate what you have learned and be sure that you fully understand it. It will also allow you to be able to leave the course knowing how to use it in your job and at home. Practicing while still doing the course means that you will be able ask your tutor any questions should you get any problems.

Make sure your understand before moving on

It is so important to make sure that you understand before you move on to the next part. If you do not have a grasp of the basics then you may struggle to understand anything beyond that point. Make sure that you ask your tutor to explain everything to you fully, if you think that you will not be able to understand it on your own. They may be able to explain it in a selection of different ways so that you will be able to get a grasp of it.

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