Employment Taxes Internal Revenue Service

accounting for payroll taxes

Mark any checkboxes that are appropriate for this employee. If the employee is a nonresident alien, mark the Nonresident alien checkbox, and if the employee is tax exempt, mark the Tax exempt checkbox.

IRS Warns Taxpayers on False Employee Retention Credit Claims – Bloomberg Tax

IRS Warns Taxpayers on False Employee Retention Credit Claims.

Posted: Fri, 21 Oct 2022 08:55:14 GMT [source]

You just enroll in the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System , then make your payment online. It’s the only way to make a payroll tax payment (mailing checks isn’t allowed). Combined, the FICA tax rate is 15.3% of the employee’s wages. This is the employee’s total earnings from all income sources prior to any deductions the employee is eligible for. Add lines 1b and 2a to find the amount to withhold from the employee’s wages and record it in line 2b.

How to calculate accrued payroll

A payroll tax cut would mean that less Social Security and Medicare taxes are withheld and taken out of paychecks. The idea is that workers and businesses would take home a little extra with each paycheck and that would encourage them to spend more and stimulate the economy. Payroll can also refer to the list of a company’s employees and the amount of compensation due to each of them. Payroll is a major expense for most businesses and is almost always deductible, meaning the expense can be deducted from gross income lowering the company’s taxable income. If you’re overwhelmed with the many aspects of learning how to do payroll accounting, you’re not alone. It’s important to choose a quality accounting program that will make documenting transactions easier.

  • She has also worked in desktop support and network management.
  • Withheld amounts represent liabilities, as the company must pay the amounts withheld to the appropriate third party.
  • The result was that several of its top executives went to jail, committed suicide, or died from heart attacks when the fraud was discovered.
  • Small business owners benefit from accounting software because it helps them track accounts receivable and accounts payable, gauge their profitability, and prepare for tax season.
  • Identify the major provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act and how each affect minimum wage and overtime.
  • She has worked in multiple cities covering breaking news, politics, education, and more.

The deductions from the employees are entered on the balance sheet as payables under current liabilities. Before exploring the journal entries and financial statements, net pay is calculated, because it’s a part of the entries and statements.

Accounting Topics

Small, midsized or large, your business has unique needs, from technology to support and everything in between. https://www.bookstime.com/ See how we help organizations like yours with a wider range of payroll and HR options than any other provider.

accounting for payroll taxes

Sage 100 Contractor Accounting, project management, estimating, and service management. Accounting Native-cloud accouting software for small business. Learn how to electronically file your employment tax forms. Let’s work through a fictitious example for the Elephant Store, LLC, which has two employees.

Payroll Tax Expense

In other places, the responsibility of paying payroll taxes is entirely handled to employees on an annual basis; and in some other cases a mix of these two methods is used. The accounts that you need to set up to track payroll will generally be an expense account or a liability account.

You can avoid accruing vacation and sick time — and paying departing employees for unused time off — by adopting an unlimited PTO policy. Outline the importance of a payroll register and employee earning records. In the State withholding section, enter state withholding information. Other than payroll accounting the State field, the fields in this section vary by state, because they are based on the fields for each state’s W-4 form. If the employee is eligible for earned income credit, select their EIC status from the drop-down list and, if applicable, mark the Spouse has form W-5 in effect checkbox.

Credit the FICA tax payable, federal income withholding payable, state income withholding payable, and any other withholdings on employee paychecks. You must deposit federal income tax and Additional Medicare Tax withheld and both the employer and employee social security and Medicare taxes. You also must report on the taxes you deposit, as well as report wages, tips and other compensation paid to an employee.

accounting for payroll taxes

Calculate the amount you will owe for the employer portion of FICA taxes and set this aside with the employee portion of these taxes. Federal income and FICA taxes are sometimes referenced as “941 taxes” because they are included on the IRS Form 941, which is the quarterly wage and tax report. IRS is offering coronavirus relief to taxpayers and many businesses will qualify for two tax credits – the Credit for Sick and Family Leave and the Employee Retention Credit. It ensures that all citizens are judged equally based on their income. Let us assume that Gemma works for Black PLC. As of March 31, 2022, her annual salary is $60,000. Now, calculate the payroll tax contribution deducted from Gemma’s salary .

Payroll Accounting Journal Entries

Before examining the expense portion of the income statement, remember only taxes and deductions that the employer owes are included on the income statement as expenses. The payroll expenses are shown on the income statement with actual numbers. The other expense accounts have xxxxxxx instead of numbers. You’ll notice I’m not accruing anything for FUTA and SUTA, two employer-paid payroll taxes. That’s because both taxes usually fizzle out early in the year for full-time employees. FUTA only applies to the first $7,000 of an employee’s wages, resetting every January. Federal Insurance Contribution Act taxes support the federal Social Security and Medicare programs.

Group Discussions

Why – Skills assessed during a Group Discussion

An employee in an organisation works with people and teams.  Many companies use Group Discussions (GD) in the selection process for management trainees or entry level managers.  Employers are looking for candidates who have potential to be executives and to lead a group of people, as also be a team player.  Furthermore, Group Discussions precede the face-to-face interview.    GD can be used to check many aspects of a potential employee :-

  • Thought process – clarity of thought, expression and aptness of language.
  • Persuasive Skills– The ability to analyse and persuade others to see the problem from multiple perspectives.
  • Communication and articulation skills – how good is the person at communicating with other people.
  • Interactive skills – how does a person interacts with other members a team. Emotional maturity and balance are essential for good interpersonal relationships.
  • Listening Skills – a willingness to accommodate others views.
  • Attitude, Personality, Confidence, Body Language,

How

During GDs a groups of 8-10 candidates are formed into a leaderless group.  For the purpose of discussions:-

  • They may be given a topic and are asked to discuss the same. Topics can be from a wide range of issues like current events, business news, sports or even abstract.
  • They may be given a case study and asked to come out with a solution for a problem.
  • They may be given a specific situation to analyse and discuss.

Tips for the Group Discussions

Here are some tips in order to be successful in a group discussion

  • When speaking in a GD, your job is to articulate your point of view in a way that is easy for others to comprehend.
  • Take initiative and start the discussion.
  • Structure your thoughts; take a position; support your point with examples, facts, statistics etc.
  • Speak clearly & confidently; maintain eye contact with the member as you speak; there should be enthusiasm in your body language
  • Listen attentively to other members; take notes; quote them wherever relevant to continue your discussion.

Group Discussions Resources

Role of Liberal Education in Social Entrepreneurship – A Changing Perception

As the Global village grows with modern technology, the higher education model is moving towards a liberal way to make a student evolve as a Corporate Achiever and Entrepreneur. The campuses are introducing Liberal education concept with entrepreneurship as a curriculum and bringing into them comprehensive leadership programs that cast students and faculty in entrepreneurial roles. Leadership studies in such schools give a role for one to provide an understanding for new initiatives that try to bring in both liberal education and practice of entrepreneurship under single gambit.

Understanding the basics of a liberal education are essential to the evolution of an ideal entrepreneurial mindset. Further, an Entrepreneurship aspect in one’s study is an in-depth inquiry that is engaging all departments of colleges. The study of entrepreneurship and the liberal education becomes complementary to the way of life of a student and college. The liberally educated student is open-minded, tolerant, intellectually curious, experimentative. The student values his or her own education for evolving themselves, to understand the natural world, human rights, cultures, and the common good. The liberally educated person is actively engaged with the world in all of its complexity, diversity, and dynamism. Such an individual is characterized by openness and curiosity and seeks to make a positive contribution to the future of humankind.

Social Commitment and Entrepreneurship

One of the most powerful developments in liberal education in recent years has been the emergence of service learning and civic engagement on campuses. As more liberal education universities encourage this kind of engagement, students become better to meet the challenges one face in society. This makes them understand and share new ideas, new technologies with new solutions. When coupled with a liberal education in campus, these off-campus, co-curricular learning experiences will prepare them well to take on responsibilities of leadership and to become the entrepreneurs we need in both our workplaces and our communities.

The social interest entrepreneurship education has evolved and has begun to spread to non-business disciplines where students in engineering and other streams are interested in becoming entrepreneurs. The burgeoning new field of entrepreneurship education includes not only business-related entrepreneurship but also social entrepreneurship. The more recent concept of social entrepreneurship resonates particularly well with the goals of liberal education. The social entrepreneurs play the role of change agents in the social sector by Evolving, creating and sustaining social value, pursuing new opportunities to serve that mission, continuous innovation, adaptation, and learning, managing effectively with limited resources, exhibiting a heightened sense of accountability

Concerted Effort

Liberal Education university offers the opportunity for a holistic educational experience that is well suited to the needs of the potential entrepreneur. As a new entrepreneur needs to encounter a wide variety of perspectives, ethical norms and the development of critical thinking and communication skills makes one more evolved. Further, Liberal education gives the opportunity to become independent, interactive and active learners for charting their own way of life. The ideal liberal education models a process of continuous adaptation and innovation and it is becoming a “metaphor for entrepreneurship.”

As one connects leadership, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement, it yields powerful results that are greater than the sum of the parts mentioned. This enables the emergence of creativity to the core. This is the kind of academic leadership and entrepreneurship that one needs to create synergies between these discrete areas. Leadership programs for students, when combined with curricula that focus upon entrepreneurship and then coupled with extracurricular programs engage students with their communities resulting in producing liberally educated social entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs would be committed to addressing social problems through innovative solutions that are empowering and produce value-added outcomes.

Was I Thinking Like Jeff?

Was I Thinking Like Jeff?

I had my tickets to Switzerland early next morning and right now I was standing stranded at the countryside at least 50 Kms away from my familiar spot…

No person around, no language known, only the cover of setting sun…phewwww !! It did not appear to be adventurous at all at this point in time. Possibly I had missed the right bus 15 mins back.

With fear sinking in my eyes I tried reading the timings for the next bus which seemed to be the last of the day. I was pretty nervous and started looking for help around and there I spotted a man who looked like a techie farmer. I called him up using sign language and requested him to read the bus schedule. Of course, he was on his tractor then and looking at my plight comprehended the situation well. “Fantastic is the power of expression mankind has been blessed with…”

So this tall guy with huge built marched towards me crossing the road.

I was relieved when he said the next bus is about to arrive. Ohhh !! the sensations revived and fear on my face dimmed. In no time the bus arrived and I was the only one who boarded the bus, once again with augmented stress.

I had forgotten all the management lessons, risk aversions and contingency leadership learned so far. Before rationality could slip on a numb journey this guy stopped, parked the bus, took his keys and in no time drove off the sight.

Darn! It was worse than scene one. Tears filled my eyes hard pressing the edges to overflow.

It was horrible and I feared all the more. The only people I could see was a lady with a pig and a kid. She had a bus and a tent and possibly ran a circus show it looked like. Though she was just across yet our demographics appeared miles apart.

I was trying to ask for help and she looked cold. What the hell? But I did not stop. The darkness catching up made me restless and desperate for help.

And then came his kid who I thought would sync with my expressions but paused with an understanding that I was helpless. A hiatus and then another car zoomed in.

With all my energy I diverted my rescue request to him. And alas! his language was familiar. This was no less than a miracle to me. In no time he booked a cab for me and went off. The moment he disappeared my phone jerked and it’s battery fell apart. Ohhh Fish!

Was this the domino impact from worse to worst. I somehow tried fixing and figuring the Cab time.

After calling him twice I asked the lady to identify his location. 10 mins went off, 30 mins now and 42 mins slipped. I realized that he won’t come now. In despair, my thoughts stared at me to frighten me all the more. I was reminded of all the kind of losses I am going to bear now. 

My skin stitched tighter and my thoughts blackened.

And then I heard the sound of my Taxi which the gentleman booked. My breath picked the beat. I was delighted, with a twinkle in the eye and energies rushing back to pump my heart. 

How I got rescued to catch up with my Swiss journey was a remarkable experience. 

Today When I sit back and mull over it seems what I was a part of, the universe too painted the right vibes for me. My gut was cavernous. I looked forward determined and by no chance to be mislaid.

As quoted in CNBC, Dec 13, 2018, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos says ‘ you have to realize decision making isn’t one size fits all, some decisions must be made with the gut’  

To know the difference, ask yourself two simple questions:

 What are the consequences of this decision? And Is this decision reversible?’

And exactly the story I said here picked up its roots from the gut. I just love to revisit myself many a time to reconfirm my decisive thoughts.

Till then See you!

Getting A PPO

How to earn a Pre Placement Offer (PPO)

An article from Economic Times, 2011 quotes 6 steps to land into a pre-placement after internship which are as follows:
Look like a professional: Swap sneakers for oxfords and denim for a suit.
Talk: Break ice with your colleagues. Plan ahead for your project
Brush up: On Excel and PowerPoint skills, a must for the corporate world
Take a Lead: But don’t go overboard. Preserve, do not pester
Know Your Company: Keep their vision in mind while working
Don’t be invisible: Be seen and heard. Let your work do the talking
Beat your Deadlines: Finish early to make a perfect presentation

Post looking at Quora, where many IIM and similar pedigree candidates have deliberated on clinching the PPO, here is the summary captured:

1-PPO is not dependent on a single factor. Apart from the work quality, several factors at play are:
-Vacancy: Signing up with the right kind of an internship will alleviate this issue though
-Market conditions: E.g. Telecom in bad shape may have least possibility of fetching a PPO

2-Deciding in the beginning the kind of output an intern needs to stamp from moderate to excellent will be a key drive for achieving a PPO. The following may be kept in mind to build a strong case for PPO.
a) Cover all the points given to you in the project brief. During presentation each point should be covered with details.
b) Collect information from market about the customers, stake holders, product, gap in the need satisfaction, identify opportunity to create a business opportunity.
c) How will you leverage the gap to build sustainable business for the company. Collect images from market, video interviews taken from stake holders to show that you have really put efforts, you have tried to go into deep to understand a problem, develop a solution for it.
d) Be entrepreneurial in approach, talk to other people in the same industry, visit plants, distributors, retailers, customers, prepare questionnaire, get feedback from customers. Present this data, support your recommendations with proper data & research. Give clear recommendations not more than three.
3- For consulting internships in particular and others as well, below needs to be kept in mind.
-Own your project: Once you are assigned a project, it is completely your responsibility. You need to own your project. This means that you live, eat and sleep with your project.
-Finish your project on time: Divide your project into smaller parts, and make a timeline for the entire project. Always ensure that you leave enough flexibility in the timeline to incorporate any unseen circumstances which are not in your control. It is extremely important to finish your project on time, and no excuse is acceptable.
-Keep your deck updated even the slightest of change must reflect to be at par
-Ensure that your mentor is always looped in.
-Be sincere: Right from respecting time to the culture of the company
-Be a part of the team and learn to bond well
-Don’t shy away from voicing your opinions: Nobody likes a person who just nods at whatever their seniors say. And nobody likes someone who does not have any opinion at all.

Also the below link from Mint Jun 17, 2017 profoundly explains how Amazon India converts 60 % of their interns into regular hires.
‘We are happy to bring interns for a longer period, not just two months… bring in professors who can co- create work with us. That is something we are focused on’, says Amazon India’s HR head Raj Raghavan

http://www.livemint.com/Education/2DNzY5vk2LYKqWXLoTYgvI/We-convert-60-of-our-summer-interns-into-regular-hires-s.html

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION & BUSINESS-THE INSEPARABLE TRIO!!

Business world has shown a remarkable interest in social media and made it as one of the major domain areas of the Click & Mortar world, needless to mention the flip world which runs only on the advancements made by information & technology. The way IT has innovated and help the business world grow in this era is remarkable!!!

The way the intermediation of IT & Business has happened off late it can be said that one cannot survive without the other and constitute to build up an inseparable relationship, and so mentioning one without other is often construed as a pointless utterance. The innovation of all the new software’s has made operations of a company smooth and faster than ever. The overall processes that can be tracked with the help of IT are remarkable

The emergence of concepts as IoT has attracted the business world and they utilised this concept so beautifully by giving this a practical approach and a new direction to run a business. The design concept introduced to the world by APPLE and later followed by AIR bnb and Ebay are all examples of the beautiful amalgamation of IT and arts /Innovation. All this wasn’t possible without Information technology.

Over a period of time IT has upgraded its importance and became indispensable for Business houses especially in there operational areas .As the small and medium sized enterprises being adaptive to any cultural,  regional or political change as per its dynamic nature has taken IT and innovation very intrinsically  into themselves.

Innovation is driven by IT which becomes the path to business success; Innovation has given business the same impact that Food does to a hungry stomach.

Digital revolution fed all the businesses with immense benefits ,even Farmers started using computers for getting into the modern methods of agriculture, Production records, Financial planning ,procurement, whether conditions etc. are some of the major areas where farmers seeks the help of computers.

The innovation driven by information technology has been the spin-off of the following major areas. Some of the significant development which has been achieved as a result of evolution and growth in information technology is as follows:

FLEXIBILITY

SPEED

NETWORKING

USER FRIENDLINESS

SOCIAL INTERACTIVITY

MINITURISATION

FUN

Information Technology & Business

Almost past a decade now, the major innovations and upscalement that has been witnessed in the business world is only possible because of information & Technology, the introduction of cloud computing, Big data analytics, click & mortar marketplaces, digital marketing, social communications & networks are a few examples to name some leading innovations that has helped the business world grow at a rapid speed.

With the birth of cloud computing, enhancement in privacy and security settings for the data sets to be effective and time saving, the role of IT in business cannot be undermined as virtually all working business houses these days heavily rely on computerized systems.

With the advancements in lowering down the cost of communications in business has laid the employees concentration more on process building and executions as well as process automations taken  took place in offices taking away the burden from the employees to thus enabling them shift their focus on other vital work and execute them efficiently. Meanwhile, the computerized systems handle variant processes like tracking projects, preparing reports and supervising financials among taking care of other official chores without requiring the intervention of staff. As a result, improved productivity is the result a company experiences. Electronic storage systems help in clamping down outside threats as unwanted intrusions through cyber space or hacking. Investing in technology and choosing the path of innovation increases the market share, share price, effectiveness, competitiveness of the company. Information technology has given the world the window   to scrutinise the data and plan ahead accordingly. In Today’s era digital marketing is a phenomenal tool that has helped the business to upscale their products and services by repeated promotions in relatively lower costs in the global market while sitting at your desk itself.

 

CONCLUSION

The Concoction of the these domains is helping this world to build up an all new Business age, the  epoch of digital revolution wherein common people will even feel a trendsetting  change. Rapid changes in terms of rendering substantial values to industries by helping them improve the efficiency and mitigating major financial overhead costs will be witnessed. Some of the leading and prospering IT advancements in the past few years can be Internet, Social media and digital marketing.  Nevertheless, Information technology has not only made it easier than ever for people to start businesses and earn their daily bread but even has encouraged the youngsters to come up as budding entrepreneurs and support the country economically. Now no longer need Millions and billions of rupees to start up a company, all one needs is a good IT infrastructure to its domain which can help in the rapid and speedy incremental growth the venture. So, surely the business world and the people running it owe a great deal of their success to Information Technology.

 

Emotional Intelligence: The Critical Leadership Skill

Jeff Bezos of Amazon is known to be obsessed with getting into the hearts and minds of Amazon customers and his long-term perspective on relationships (and Business strategy) are legendary.Howard Schultz of Starbucks is well known to love the company and its people. Steve Jobs’ biographer attributed some of Jobs’ success in developing creative and popular products to his ability to identify,analyse and control emotions. “Jobs could size people up,understand their inner thoughts,cajole them,intimidate them,target their deepest vulnerabilities and delight them at will.He knew intuitively how to create products that pleased,interfaces that were friendly and marketing messages that were enticing”(Issacson,2011) .This suggests that successful leaders differ from their competitors not in traditional intelligence but just that they understood better how people feel and leveraged this understanding in developing products and culture that appealed more to customers and employees.

The most effective leaders are alike in one crucial way, they all have high degree of Emotional Intelligence.It is not that IQ or technical skills are irrelevant.They do matter as the entry level requirement but decades of research have shown that EI is what makes a successful and a great leader.A study looked at the successes and failures of 11 U.S. presidents and evaluated them on six qualities: communication, organization, political skill, vision,cognitive style, and emotional intelligence. The key quality that differentiated the successful from the unsuccessful was emotional intelligence. International search firm Egon Zehnder International analyzed senior executives and discovered that those who were strongest in emotional intelligence were more likely to succeed than those strongest in either IQ or relevant previous experience. Recent HBR article reported on the strong link between empathetic leaders and financial performance. EI affects how people behave,navigate social complexities and make personal decisions to achieve positive results.Presence of EQ is known to help relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathise with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict.

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Mayer and Salovey firstly coined the term Emotional Intelligence in 1990 and a decade later Daniel Goleman established its importance in business leadership. The Harvard Business Review defines EI as an individual’s ability to accurately recognize, understand and manage their own emotions as well as that of others. EI is made up of four core skills Self-awareness., self-management,social awareness and relationship management. Self-awareness is the ability to be aware of one’s emotions and manage behavior and tendencies accordingly.Self-Management is the ability to use self-awareness to stay flexible and positively direct one’s behavior.Instead of reacting to every feeling, one waits for the emotion to pass so that one can respond reasonably instead of taking impulsive decisions. Social Awareness is the ability to accurately pick up and understand emotions in others. As a result, one takes people’s emotions into consideration while choosing the right words and actions.Relationship Management is the ability to use self and social awareness to manage interactions successfully.

Why Emotional Intelligence is Indispensable for Leaders?

Emotional Intelligence is a key determinant of effective leadership. High level of EI enables a leader to perceive accurately, understand, and appraise others’ emotions and better respond flexibly to changes in their social environments and build supportive networks (Salovey et al 1999). Leaders high on Emotional Intelligence are successful because

• They are able to comprehend the effect of their feelings and emotions and make sound, objective decisions accordingly.
• They are able to listen to what people are saying without being judgmental.
• They are able to make personal connect with their people.
• They are excellent communicators because they know what messages will connect with others and how to express them.
• They are able to anticipate and respond to others’ sentiments and reactions and develop a strategy to keep them grounded.

A leader lacking in emotional intelligence is not able to effectively gauge the needs, wants and expectations of those they lead. Such leaders react from their emotions without filtering them creating mistrust amongst their staff and seriously jeopardize their working relationship.On the other hand an emotionally savvy and intelligent leader is also able to build stronger teams by strategically utilizing the emotional diversity of their team members leading to high performance and workplace satisfaction.

Conclusion – Emotional intelligence is the foundation for a host of critical skills, is the single biggest predictor of performance in the workplace and the strongest driver of leadership and personal excellence. World economic forum has also listed it as one of the top skills required in 2020.In future with the advent of Artificial intelligence a lot of jobs are going to disappear, but the thing that we will always have that is more important is emotional intelligence.

Book Review : The Geography Of Transport Systems

Book Review
THE GEOGRAPHY OF TRANSPORT SYSTEMS

By
Jean-Paul Rodrigue, Claude Comtois and Brian Slack
Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group) (2016)

Mobility is fundamental to the socio-economic development of a geography. Transportation has become such an integral part of our daily lives that we as consumers are not able to clearly see transportation as a separate function. Various corporates are heavily dependent on efficient logistics to grab a comfortable portion of the market. Acknowledging this importance of transportation systems, the authors Jean-Paul Rodrigue, Claude Comtois and Brian Slack have worked on this book – The Geography of Transport Systems – to address various areas of concern that the managers and policy makers related to transportation face at present.

Divided into ten chapters, the book focusses on Transport Geography which is defined as a sub-discipline of geography concerned with movements of freight, people and information.

In the first part the authors present a new angle to look at transportations systems. They opine that transportation must be understood as having a spatial network structure and having close relation to commercial geography. In the next section, the authors talk about the necessity and the challenges related to various modes of transportation. The focus of this section is on inter-modal transportation which falls in line with the spatial network concept talked about in the first part. The chapters towards the end of the book describe the relation of transportation with economy, energy & environment and policy. The last chapter focuses on methods of analysisin transport geography.

The beauty of the book is that all the basic concepts of logistics and transportation viz. various modes, network models like hub and spoke, cross-dock, etc. have been covered. However, they have been presented and discussed in a non-traditional way, that links these concepts to the subject of transport geography. The authors mention that transportation is of no value unless it transforms the geographical attributes of freight, people or information, from an origin to destination, conferring on them an added value in the process.

According to authors, transportation plays a major role in international trade as well as at local urban level. It is associated with adding the maximum value in terms of time and location; whether it is passengers or goods that are being transported. The authors analyse urban logistics or city logistics using the concept of Urban Sprawl. This is defined as the spread of city buildings and houses into an area that was earlier a countryside or a less densely populated area.

A unique feature of the book is that it has a separate dedicated chapter on addressing the environmental concerns arising out of transportation. The authors mention that environmental impacts of transportation can be classified as direct, indirect and cumulative impacts. To understand the link between transportation and the environment, the managers must look at the main environmental dimensions of transportation – causes, activities, outputs and end-results of transport systems.

Transportation is a value-adding activity and to do so, it consumes energy just like any other commercial activity does. It accounts for 25 per cent of the world’s energy demand and 61.5 per cent of all the oil used each year. It is important therefore, that technological development in transportation must not only focus on economic and service level performance but also at minimizing fuel consumption and reducing the negative impact of transportation on the environment. This will help in making transportation truly sustainable.

The book clearly distinguishes policy from planning. Policy involves making strategies while planning involves implementation. The outcome of policy and planning is creation of suitable transportation infrastructure, by both public and private agencies. However, the challenge is that policies and plans are continuously changing as they address key changes in society and contemporary issues.

An essential feature of the book is the large number of case studies. Since the authors explain the concepts from new perspectives of transport-geography and sustainability, the inclusion of cases to demonstrate this was imperative and extremely useful. Each chapter has about three case studies incorporated.

This book is a suitable read by practicing managers and academicians who actively engage in research and consulting. However, it is not recommended as a text book for beginners or students in their management course, as to understand the perspectives present in the book, a basic and simple understanding of logistics and transportation is desired. It can definitely be picked up as a reference book.

Ms. Pragya Arya
Assistant Professor – Operations
IILM Institute of Higher Education
Lodhi Road, New Delhi

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON OPERATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 2018 BIG DATA ANALYTICS FOR THE DIGITAL ERA

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON OPERATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 2018

BIG DATA ANALYTICS FOR THE DIGITAL ERA

 

On 24th February, 2018, IILM Graduate school of Management was privileged to host the International Conference on Operations and Information Technology. This write up captures the essence of the presentations, panel discussions, real world examples, interactive dialogue, and research papers at the conference on big data analytics for digital era.

 

INAUGURAL SESSION:

The Conference began with a Welcome Address by Dr. Taruna Gautam, Director, IGSM followed by an introduction to the Conference theme by Dr. Sandhya Rai. The keynote speakers to the conference were the very prominent Mr. Gaurav Diwan and Mr. Pankaj Krishna. The pace of the conference was set by our keynote speakers, with an apt introduction into Big Data Analytics. Mr. Diwan’s insight into Big Data was particularly invigorating. He stated that Big Data will change rapidly in recent times. There is a whole lot of information goes through networks with great intensity for which it is essential to manage data in value chain. Decision making as we know has been changing towards more of a business decision making.

Our next keynote speaker, Pankaj Krishna maintained the pace set to go on to say that data is a driving force in different sectors. Business exists for three factors and three factors only: Volume, Profitability and Image. Every single company is revolving around data whether it is agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare, telecom, food and beverages. And it is here that mathematics plays a key role in data analytics. All the work done uses mathematic algorithms. In India analytics is estimated to generate about 2.03 billion dollars in revenues.

SESSION 1: TECHNICAL SESSION

After the inaugural session, the conference proceeded to its first technical session with professors, industry personnel and even students presented their papers. It was Dr. Hemlata Bhatt with her “Big data trends-A Study of Self Service Analytics”, who started off the technical session. Her extensive research and presentation on Self service analytics yielded information such advanced visualization, freed data mash up, data architecture and predictive analysis. She concluded by stating that company people are dependent upon certain people and this software can help to reduce cost and long process. BI tools can help those who are not from operations or IT background.

The next presenter of the day was Dr. Kamal Gupta who presented on “Asset Pricing Model”. He mentioned that the mutual fund process starts with the selection of the literature review. Investors put money in funds and managers put money in securities. The audience was bombarded with information regarding how selection ability is based on the Jensen model and null hypothesis is accepted at 99% significant level if Jensen model. He concluded with the fact that study helps in getting a better prediction on daily return. Greater prediction of daily returns helps investors to buy more with higher returns. Dr. Gupta’s presentation revolved around how Big Data analytics can benefit the study and application of Asset Pricing Models.

Dr. Smriti Asthana was handed over the baton next and she presented her paper on “Integration of Supply Chain Management”. Supply chain management has been an integral part of most organizations. She began her presentation by stating a very obvious fact: any business focuses around the fact that everything starts from planning and ends with the delivery of products and services. To provide efficient services, the company pulls all structured and unstructured data to provide services. And with the advent of 4th generation digital platform era, Just-in-Time is now the trend. Dr. Asthana completed her presentation with the summary of how big data plays an important role in supply chain and how by using its analytics any company can identify how their products are moving in and out.

Dr. Saurabh Agrawal’s “Sustainability through block chain technology” carried on the flame with his in-depth knowledge on bitcoins which he considered as a scarce asset. Block-chain is a historical database. It is distributed ledgers that can contain financial and non-financial transactions. Each transaction a person creates; it creates a block in the block chain. Dr. Agrawal also closely touched on the topic of sustainability reverse supply chain, managing product returns- all of which are key portions of block chain technology.

Dr. Vidyanto with his “Customer Behavior Analysis of Indonesia Sharia Bank in using Internet and   Mobile banking” was particularly a focused presentation onto the subject of Big Data Analytics. He provided information on how data is collected from Sharia Bank and SSE method is used to determine the optimal number of clusters. His study brushed on the behaviors of customers using internet and mobile banking on payment and purchasing. He concluded on the fact of how big data can be used to quantify the accuracy of data to make the performance better than before.

The next presenter of the day was Mr. Praveen Kumar who presented on “Application of Big Data in Supply Chain Management”. He adds on more details on supply chain.

The final presenter of the first session was Shubham Roy with his paper on “Big Data in Marketing”. He threw light on need for marketing information system, Big Data Decision in Marketing and imitations of Big Data.

The judges for the first technical session were Prof. Rajkishan Nair and Dr. Vikas Kumar.

SESSION 2: TECHNICAL

The evening session began with presentation by Dr. Lilia Safxi on “Thinking Big” which she presented over Skype. She focused on topics related to data issues, principles of Big Data, type and scale, big data security and other trends.

Prof. O. Gabriel followed the theme of the conference with his presentation on “Analysis your website to acquire customers: An e-commerce perspective” his study elaborated on e-commerce, content marketing, search optimization that uses tools such as Google analytics, Webster analytics, Kiss Metrics, Web Trend analytics.

Md. Belal Akbar and Rahul Sharma were called upon next and they put forth their presentation on “Internet Marketing- A study on the acquisition processes”. The object of their study was to identify the various acquisition processes and how it can help any organization in acquiring customer on online platform through internet marketing.Next we saw a joint presentation by Gandham Kumar and Kamal Irukulla who came forward with their presentation on “Data Analytics and Information Technology are driving the present world”. Their discussion focused on the usage of cloud computing and enterprise resource planning.

The final presentation of the evening was by J Manoj Kumar who spoke on “ Customer analytics and big data analytics” His presentation entailed how predictive analysis deals with different types of statistics, techniques and lean management helping organization in today’s world. He concluded aptly by saying how by interpreting the data we can have a whole view of customer purchasing trends. The judges for this session were Prof. Raju Majumdar and Dr. Anuradha Konidena.

AWARD CEREMONY

The conference came to an end with felicitation of all presenters. After much deliberation the judges awarded the best paper to Prof. O Gabriel for his paper titled “Analysis your website to acquire customers: An e-commerce perspective”. Dr. Shruti Choudhary delivered the vote of thanks to the director, all the esteemed judges, the faculty members and everyone present.

 

Book Review – Intercultural Communication for Global Business – How leaders communicate for success by Elizabeth A. Tuleja (2017)

Communication, undeniably, is essential for any business to thrive. Especially in today’s context, when most of the organisations are located in various corners of the world, communication holds an all the more important role as people from different cultures come on a common platform to work together and therefore, ensuring effective exchange of ideas and information among people of diverse backgrounds becomes not only an important but a critical function of the leaders in order to drive success. Elizabeth A. Tuleja’s Intercultural Communication for Global Business – How leaders communicate for success offers a brilliant tool to those who wish to understand various dimensions of inter-culture at play, and importance of intercultural communication, consequently highlighting how to learn and hone communication skills. The book offers an exhaustive account of how the changing world is making intercultural communication imperative to the achievement of business objectives.

Tuleja interestingly draws historical references from classic works of Hall, Hofstede, Trompenaars and Kluckhohn among others to show the importance of intercultural communication in a business set-up and states that today culture and business are interwoven to an extent that “we have reached a point of no return with the cultural imperative – it is unavoidable, it demands our attention, it is an obligation, and it is a necessity if we are to survive.” And therefore, we must learn how to interact with people with higher levels of sensitivity and openness. Though the book acknowledges the plurality of definitions of culture as it is a wide, abstract and complex concept, the author also highlights that peoples’ values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours may be defined as the building blocks of culture.
Communication in a business environment requires us to comprehend human nature, social behaviour, and mental behaviour, and use communication to interact with others thereby making the four sciences, namely anthropology, sociology, psychology and communication the “four legs” when we “think of the field of management as being the seat of a chair”.

Intriguingly, the author makes the readers reflect upon who they are and better understand various aspects of their identity by focussing on their relationships, jobs, status and how these things define them because according to her, the people with whom we relate and network shape our self-image. Further, she suggests that recognising the different cultures of our own country can be the starting point to understand difference.

The author presents the Value Orientations Model developed by the anthropologists, Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck. According to them, world views may be imperceptible forces which influence our life and profession. In this context, to gain an understanding of people of different cultures, it is essential to understand their view of the world. The Value Orientations Method, therefore, serves as a tool to understand core cultural differences related to five fundamental orientations of the human beings, namely Time Sense, Activity, Social Relations, People and Nature and Human Nature. An understanding of these five aspects facilitates better understanding of the organization.

The author concludes by emphasising that certain norms of global leadership are universal. However, the manner in which they are carried out depends on the context and the situation in different cultures. Hence, people across various civilisations and organisations have distinct criteria for evaluating success of leaders.

Tuleja presents a series of case studies to show how organisations have set-up themselves in various corners of the world and gained prosperity by working with mixed cultures. Simultaneously, the book also offers an account of certain challenges encountered by some organisations while trying to work in cross cultural groups. The various case studies include experiences of Wal-Mart, Nike, Cheerios Commercial, McDonalds, Starbucks among others.

All in all, the book is a must for students and teachers of management, employees and leaders working in various organisations.