A vertical market is a particular industry or group of enterprises in which similar products or services are developed and marketed using similar methods (and to whom goods and services can be sold). Broad examples of vertical markets are: insurance, real estate, banking, heavy manufacturing,

Strategic Planning is a systematic method used by an organisation to anticipate and adapt to expected changes. Strategic planning sets a broad direction and goals for managing a company to growth by delivering core competencies in the right markets. It equally allows for companies to plan against

Offshoring can be defined as relocation of business processes to another country. This includes any business process such as production, manufacturing, or services. Offshoring can be seen in the context of either production offshoring or services offshoring.

The supply chain represents the flow of materials, information, and finances as they move in a process from supplier to manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer. Many organizations are looking to supply chain optimization as a means of gaining significant competitive advantages. The

The 5 S's, which must work in conjunction with each other, are abbreviated from the Japanese words Seiri, Seiton, Seison, Seiketsu, and Shitsuke. They are a series of simple techniques to organise workplaces to be more effective and efficient. The 5S's, translated into English are Sort, Set, Shine,

A horizontal market is one which meets a given need of a wide variety of industries, rather than just a specific one. This term is the opposite of a vertical market, whereby skills and services of companies provide many industries and markets as opposed to just one.

Cash flow is the difference between cash in (income) vs. cash out (expenses). Since money does not flow in and out at an equal rate, in most businesses, an analysis of cash flow is important, especially of businesses that are cyclical in nature, or subject to external forces. This must be constantly

Before you tackle individual and organisational training needs, you have to know about your organisation itself. To do this in a structured way, you will have to give a lot of thought to the aims and objectives of your organisation - not just what you do, but also why you do it. This will allow you

Outsourcing is the concept of taking internal company functions and paying an outside firm to handle them. Outsourcing is done to save money, improve quality, or free company resources for other activities. Outsourcing was first done in the data-processing industry and has spread to areas, including

Put simply, both concepts are tools used to drive business improvements and increase bottom line performance. They are however, used differently: Lean focuses on removing waste in processes from manufacturing to all other support functions. Typically, this would mean identifying Excessive