This textbook provides an introduction to the fundamentals of operational and strategic controlling. It conveys the central tasks and functions that controlling has in the company and shows the challenges that this cross-sectional position entails. In addition, it addresses trends and developments in controlling that will have a significant impact on the work of controllers in the coming years. In addition to the German situation, the Swiss perspective is also taken into account.Sh...

This book focuses on the relevant subjects in the curriculum of an MBA program. Covering many different fields within business, this book is ideal for readers who want to prepare for a Master of Business Administration degree. It provides discussions and exchanges of information on principles, strategies, models, techniques, methodologies and applications in the business area.

This book presents a very novel and strategic approach to Sales Management, an area that has suffered from a lack of sophistication in practice. This content-rich and thought-provoking book has a very unique positioning: It considers the sales performance of an organization at a very high, strategic level and offers specific guidance in managing not just a few direct reports but an entire organization?s sales function. The book includes many useful tools and guidelines and is enhanced with...

This book addresses the challenging task of demand forecasting and inventory management in retailing. It analyzes how information from point-of-sale scanner systems can be used to improve inventory decisions, and develops a data-driven approach that integrates demand forecasting and inventory management for perishable products, while taking unobservable lost sales and substitution into account in out-of-stock situations. Using linear programming, a new inventory function that reflects the ...

In this book, the world’s foremost experts on pricing integrate theoretical rigor and practical application to present a comprehensive resource that covers all areas of the field. This volume brings together quantitative and qualitative approaches and highlights the most current innovations in theory and practice.Going beyond the traditional constraints of “price theory” and “price policy,” the authors coined the term “price management” to represent a holistic approach to pricing s...

The Global Financial Crisis and the Eurozone crisis that has followed have drawn attention to weaknesses in financial records, information and data. These weaknesses have led to operational risks in financial institutions, flawed bankruptcy and foreclosure proceedings following the Crisis, and inadequacies in financial supervisors’ access to records and information for the purposes of a prudential response. Research is needed to identify the practices that will provide the records, informa...

For successful innovation in business the responsible managers need a consistent view of the individual processes as well as an assessment of key projects in all phases of the development. Generating new ideas, fast examination of its feasibility requires skilled methods for evaluation of these ideas, plans and especially costs and revenues.Business models, calculation methods and some assessments of certain options are presented by the authors. The ability to identify risks and ap...

As instruments of strategic company management they have become an indispensable element of business life: "Mergers and acquisitions", meaning combinations and takeovers of enterprises or parts of enterprises. How can such transactions be negotiated in an effective and focused manner? There are extensive theoretical negotiation models – but how can these be implemented specifically? This book wants to make a contribution to transferring such theories to day-to-day M&A negotiation practice....

The subject of this book is Procurement Excellence of procuring companies which is deemed a highly relevant topic out of two reasons. Firstly, corporate procurement, respectively purchasing management has witnessed a significant boost of importance over the last years. Increased outsourcing of services to suppliers and, simultaneously, commissioning of international subcontractors, have heavily altered the responsibilities and job description of purchasers with regards to their contributio...

Price is a fundamental profit driver. It is by far the most sensitive profit lever that managers can influence. Very small price changes translate into enormous changes in profit. Price elasticity indicates how sensitively consumers react to price changes. Not only the knowledge about the magnitude of price elasticity, but also the knowledge about the determinants influencing the price reaction is essential. It is crucial for the development of a successful marketing strategy to understand...

Developing future strategies for a company is an important and complex task, and forms the core issue in this book. A company’s strategy defines its future direction, specifying its desired market position and key competitive advantages both at the level of market offers and of resources. This book provides clear, straightforward advice for professionals: after a brief introduction to strategic planning, a heuristic process for determining future strategies is presented. It shows how to an...

Real profit after taxes is the most important management target. Profits are the cost of survival and the creators of new value. In this book, celebrated management thinker Hermann Simon brings clarity to the jungle of profit concepts and balance sheets. He sheds light on the performance of numerous companies and industries in international comparison and looks at the key profit drivers: price, sales and costs. Hermann Simon derives practical consequences from his astute analysis and offer...