Monday, September 29, 2008

DO’S and DON’TS of EVENT Management

Event Management is a tough task and can get on your nerves when the plan is not clear and precise. Here, I would be specifically highlighting Corporate Event Management. It could be in the form of seminars, workshops, or a cluster of miscellaneous events organized for more than a day. The situation can get gruesome if the communication among the event owners is not clear and the owning of responsibility is not defined. Below are some do’s and don’ts of Event Management.

Do’s of Event Management:

1.Define the Hierarchy: The biggest flaw in the failure of any event is the improper communication flow and reporting. Before the start of event management, select the event owners and specify a clear cut hierarchy of how the communication should flow and who will report to whom. Once it’s done, assigning of tasks is done.

2.Assigning Tasks: How do you assign tasks?? A verbal communication and assigning of tasks always proves to be a reason of confusion in the later stage of Event. Have a plan ready for each event and if there are different event owners assigned, they should take the responsibility for their event right from preparing the plans, listing the pre and post events, allocating tasks to volunteers, communicating their plan to other event owners etc.


3.Allocating Volunteers: Finding and allocating volunteers for each event is a Herculean Task. This should be done even before you plan is ready on papers. An estimation of volunteers should be completed before your concrete plan is ready. Instead of running around the bush during the event, its better to get your volunteers ready and prepare them for the tasks.

4.Handling Volunteers: Once your volunteers are finalized, the immediate action is to communicate your plan with them and allocate tasks to them. Always keep buffer volunteers ready incase some of your volunteers don’t turn up during the event for any reasons. Ask your volunteers to include the updates and prepare a MOM for every meeting that is organized pre event so that the volunteers are responsible for their tasks and everyone included in the event are aware of the proceedings.

5.Handling the Event Owners: The Event Head should be prepared to handle the event owners. Sometimes, there are so many tasks to do that there are heated discussions and arguments which occurs among the event owners. That’s the time when Event Head should play a pivotal role in stabilizing the situation. The success of an event always depends on the coordination among the event owners, event head and the volunteers.

Interesting?? Well, I will post the Don’ts of Event Management in my next post. Till then, keep reading STRATEGYAAN!!!!

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Reconceptualization of ACAP

If Firm 1 has a low efficiency factorcompared to Firm 2, it is still possible that Firm 2 may have a higher RACAP than Firm 1, in spite of Firm 1 having a higher PACAP. Firms that achieve or maintain a high RACAP-to-PACAP ratio would be well positioned to gain value. This point underscores the importance of separating potential from realized ACAP in order to account for the contributions of this construct. Thus, distinction between potential and realized ACAP provides an explanation of why certain large firms, in spite of their greater investments in developing their ACAP, may lose out to smaller firms that can more efficiently convert their potential capacity to realized capacity. This discussion suggests the following two propositions:

Proposition 1: A firm's absorptive capacity is composed of potential and realized
capacities wherein PACAP is a function of acquisition and assimilation capabilities, and RACAP is a function of conversion and exploitation capabilities.

Proposition 2: A high realized-to-potential absorptive capacity is positively associated with future value creation.

It has been observed that companies do not always foster the sharing or integration of knowledge. Structural, cognitive, behavioral, and political barriers may stifle the effective sharing and integration of knowledge. Integration can take place informally (e.g., communication) or formally (e.g., use of coordinators). Informal integration is useful in building bridges and exchanging ideas. However, more formal ways to integrate knowledge have the advantage of being more systematic. They can be more useful in distributing information within the firm, gathering interpretations and identifying trends. Firms that use formal integration are, therefore, likely to be better equipped to make their members aware of the types of data that make up their PACAP. This can expedite the process of converting and exploiting knowledge and make it more efficient. Sharing and integration of knowledge can increase efficiency factorby reducing the gap between PACAP and RACAP. These observations suggest the following proposition:

Proposition 3. Knowledge integration reduces the gap between potential and realized ACAP, thereby improving the efficiency factor.

Exploiting technologies (or technological knowledge) requires different skills from those that constitute ACAP. These skills are termed “transformative capacity,” defined as “the ability to continually redefine a product portfolio based on technological opportunities created within a firm.” This capacity centers on selecting different technologies, nurturing and developing these technologies over time, and synthesizing these technologies as needed to accomplish the firm’s strategic goals. These activities differ from the acquisition, assimilation and conversion of externally acquired knowledge.

Proposition 4: A firm’s transformative capacity reduces the gap between potential and realized ACAP, thereby improving its efficiency factor.