Tag: Marketing Management

A Government company is one in which not less than 51% of the paid-up share capital is held by the Central Government or a State Government or jointly by both.

A Government company may either by wholly owned by the Government, in which case 100% capital is provided by Government; or may be owned by the Government (holding minimum of 51% share-capital) and private concerns/individuals (holding maximum of 49% share capital).

Features of Government Companies

1. Government companies are governed by the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956.
2. The whole of the capital or 51% or more is owned by the government.
3. Its employees excluding those on deputation are not civil servants.
4. The Government Company employs its own staff, and they do not become the employees of the government
5. Its personnel policies are subject to its Articles of Association.
6. In case it is fully owned by the government, government provides the funding and it derives income from sales of its goods and services.
7. In case it is partly funded by the government, it derives funds from the government as well as its shareholders.
8. All or a majority of directors are appointed by the Government depending on the shareholding pattern.
9. It is a body corporate and can enter into contracts in its own name.
10. It can sue and be sued in its own name.
11. The Memorandum and Articles of Association lays down its objectives, scope of activities and rules of internal management. These are prepared by the Government, and once prepared they cannot be changed without proper permission from the Company Law authorities.
12. It is generally exempt from many of the accounts and audit laws. Constant parliamentary scrutiny, budgetary, administrative and legislative controls are absent.

Advantages of Government Company:

(i) Internal Autonomy:

A government company can manage its affairs independently. It is relatively free from ministerial control and political interference, in its day-to-day functioning.

(ii) Easy Formation:

A Government company can be easily formed under the Companies, Act, just by an executive decision of the government.

(iii) Private Participation:

Through Government company device, the government can avail of the management skills, technical know-how and expertise of the private sector and foreign countries. For example, the Hindustan Steel Limited has obtained technical and financial assistance from the U.S.S.R., West Germany and the U.K. for its steel plants at Bhilai, Rourkela and Durgapur.

(iv) Discipline:

The Government Company is subject to provisions of the Companies Act; which keeps the management of the company active, alert and disciplined.

(v) Easy to Alter:

Objectives and powers of the Government Company can be changed by simply altering the Memoranda of Associating of the company, without seeking the approval of the Parliament.

(vi) Professional Management:

A Government company can employ professionally qualified managers; because it has its own personnel policies.

(vii) Public Accountability:

The Annual Report of a Government company is presented to the Parliament/ State Legislature. These reports can be discussed and debated there.

Demerits:

• There is less freedom and flexibility. It cannot modify its business or change its policies and practices in tune with the changes in the environment.
• Lack of autonomy is a serious drawback of government companies. It is subject to the interference of the Minister and bureaucrats who run the department.
• There is no incentive for individual interest and initiative. Employees who run the company are paid a fixed salary. They are not going to benefit if the company does well nor is their pay and benefits affected if the company incurs losses. Therefore, employees do not display drive and enthusiasm to make the company successful.
• Due to red-tapism, decisions are delayed. It would not be able to capitalize on new opportunities. Sometimes decisions are de1ayed for fear of making mistakes.
• Since employees enjoy job security there is no serious attempt to increase efficiency of operations. Further, the top management might be transferred if a new government comes to power. Therefore, there is not much interest is putting in dedicated efforts.
• Government companies are free from parliamentary scrutiny, budgets audits etc. Therefore, there might be a tendency to conduct its business in an inefficient and reckless manner. This might eventually lead the company to losses.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) is a non-governmental trade association and advocacy group based in India. Established in 1927, on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi by Indian businessman Mr. G.D. Birla and Purshottamdas Thakurdas. It is the largest, oldest and the apex business organisation in India. It is a non-government, not-for-profit organisation. FICCI draws its membership from the corporate sector, both private and public, including SMEs and MNCs. The chamber has an indirect membership of over 250,000 companies from various regional chambers of commerce. It is involved in sector-specific business building, business promotion and networking. It is headquartered in the national capital New Delhi and has a presence in 12 states in India and 8 countries around the world.

FICCI is India’s sole national issuing & guaranteeing association for ATA Carnets ATA Carnets are used by TV/Film crews, journalists, engineers, musicians and industry for temporary moving equipment across borders. FICCI issues and endorses carnets, guarantees the payment of duties and taxes to customs (both domestic and foreign) authorities.

Functions:

Jointly works with similar associations of foreign countries:

Works with joint business councils and private industrial alliances situated across the globe in the areas of trade enhancements, industry partnerships to voice the opinion of the Indian industry on global forum.

Role in policy making:

FICCI plays a pivotal role in formulation of economic and finance policies. By engaging with the policy makers, government and civil society Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry influences the policies by way of articulating the views and suggestions of industry.

Provides guidance and education:

Provides guidance and education to its member organizations by way of publishing informative journals useful to the business community. And acts a conflict resolver among them by way of mutual discussion on the problems.

Assistance to government:

Assist the government in the areas of the trade negotiations with foreign countries and sends their experienced personnel to the abroad to study the economy and business environment.

Conducts various programs and events:

Conducts workshops, seminars, business meets and conferences to discuss, debate various upcoming and existed policies of the government.

Assists its members:

Assist its members in the areas of policy improvement, suggestions to the management.

Invites and arrange the talks with foreign business delegates:

Plays crucial role in inviting foreign business delegations of public and private levels which are very vital in improving the foreign trade and foreign investment.

Provides information on exports:

Provides credible and valuable information on potentials and new developments in foreign trade by studying the trade environment and imports regulations of many foreign countries.

Accounting Standards simply refers to guidelines to be followed in the accounting system. It means rules & regulation that are to be followed while recording accounting & financial transactions. It governs the manner in which financial statements are prepared & presented.

As a business owner, you understand that accounting has to be accurate, but you may not know why accounting standards the rules with acronyms such as GAAP and IFRS are such a big deal. If you were the only one who ever needed to see your accounting, they wouldn’t be, but investors and regulators may go over your ledgers, too. When you follow accounting standards, outsiders can understand what they’re reading.

The main aims of accounting standards are to bring uniformity & reliability in the whole accounting system. Accounting standards standardize the whole accounting procedure of the economy. All companies after adopting these accounting standards follow the same manner of recording transactions.

Significance:

Determining Managerial Accountability

The accounting standards help measure the performance of the management of an entity. It can help measure the management’s ability to increase profitability, maintain the solvency of the firm, and other such important financial duties of the management.

Management also must wisely choose their accounting policies. Constant changes in the accounting policies lead to confusion for the user of these financial statements. Also, the principle of consistency and comparability are lost.

Assists Auditors

Now the accounting standards lay down all the accounting policies, rules, regulations, etc in a written format. These policies have to be followed. So, if an auditor checks that the policies have been correctly followed, he can be assured that the financial statements are true and fair.

Improves Reliability of Financial Statements

There are many stakeholders of a company and they rely on the financial statements for their information. Many of these stakeholders base their decisions on the data provided by these financial statements. Then there are also potential investors who make their investment decisions based on such financial statements.

So, it is essential these statements present a true and fair picture of the financial situation of the company. The Accounting Standards (AS) ensure this. They make sure the statements are reliable and trustworthy.

Attains Uniformity in Accounting

Accounting Standards provides rules for standard treatment and recording of transactions. They even have a standard format for financial statements. These are steps in achieving uniformity in accounting methods.

Prevents Frauds and Accounting Manipulations

Accounting Standards (AS) lay down the accounting principles and methodologies that all entities must follow. One outcome of this is that the management of an entity cannot manipulate with financial data. Following these standards is not optional, it is compulsory.

So, these standards make it difficult for the management to misrepresent any financial information. It even makes it harder for them to commit any frauds.

Comparability

This is another major objective of accounting standards. Since all entities of the country follow the same set of standards their financial accounts become comparable to some extent. The users of the financial statements can analyze and compare the financial performances of various companies before taking any decisions.

Also, two statements of the same company from different years can be compared. This will show the growth curve of the company to the users.

A chamber of commerce, or board of trade, is a form of business network, for example, a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to advocate on behalf of the business community. Local businesses are members, and they elect a board of directors or executive council to set policy for the chamber. The board or council then hires a President, CEO, or Executive Director, plus staffing appropriate to size, to run the organization.

A chamber of commerce may be a voluntary or a mandatory association of business firms belonging to different trades and industries. They serve as spokespeople and representatives of a business community. They differ from country to country.

Characteristics

Membership in an individual chamber can range from a few dozen to well over 800,000, as is the case with the Paris Île-de-France Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Some chamber organizations in China report even larger membership numbers. Chambers of commerce can range in scope from individual neighborhoods within a city or town up to an international chamber of commerce.

In the United States, chambers do not operate in the same manner as the Better Business Bureau in that, while the BBB has the authority to bind its members under a formal operation doctrine (and, thus, can remove them if complaints arise regarding their services), the local chamber membership is either voluntary or required by law. Some chambers are partially funded by local government, others are non-profit, and some are a combination of the two. Chambers of commerce also can include economic development corporations or groups (though the latter can sometimes be a formal branch of a local government, the groups work together and may in some cases share office facilities) as well as tourism and visitor bureaus.

Some chambers have joined state, national (such as the United States Chamber of Commerce and the British Chambers of Commerce) and even international bodies (such as Eurochambres, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Worldchambers). Currently, there are about 13,000 chambers registered in the official Worldchambers Network registry, and the chamber of commerce network is the largest business network globally. This network is informal, with each local chamber incorporated and operating separately, rather than as a chapter of a national or state chamber.

Chambers of commerce plays a vital role by rendering useful services to businessmen and the Government. Services to businessmen

Chambers of commerce serves as friends, philosophers and guides to the business commu­nity. Businessmen derive the following advantages from chambers of commerce:

(i) Businessmen get valuable information free of cost.

(ii) They can expand their business activities with the help of suggestions and advice from chambers of commerce.

(iii) Chambers of commerce creates markets for the products of their members by organising fairs and exhibitions.

(iv) Businessmen get a common forum at which they can discuss problems and exchange views on matters of common interest.

(v) Differences and disputes among businessmen can be solved amicably and economically with the help of chambers of commerce.

(vi) Members take advantage of educational and training facilities offered by chambers of commerce.

(vii) Chambers of commerce undertakes research on behalf of their members.

(viii) Chambers of commerce fosters a sense of cooperation’s among businessmen.

Chambers of Commerce in India

In India, chambers of commerce have been organised at both regional and national levels.

1. Regional Chambers of Commerce

(i) Indian Chamber of Commerce (Kolkata)

(ii) Bengal Chamber of Commerce (Kolkata)

(iii) Indian Merchants Chamber (Mumbai)

(iv) Mawari Chamber of Commerce (Mumbai)

(v) Madras Chamber of Commerce (Chennai)

(vi) Punjab, Haryana and Delhi Chamber of Commerce (New Delhi).

2. National Chambers of Commerce

(i) Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)

(ii) Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)

(iii) Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM)

(iv) All India Organisations of Employers (AIOE)

Businesses that take a proactive stance toward understanding and complying with federal agencies and regulatory acts will minimize their chance of fines, prosecution, or other action. Therefore, it is in the best interest of businesses to maintain healthy relationships with regulatory agencies at all levels of government. Among the business activities regulated by government are competitive practices, industry-specific activities, Internet activities, general issues of concern, and monetary regulations.

Government: Regulator of Business:

The entire regulatory legislation and policies stand covered under this segment. On the one hand, there is a very large indirect area of government control over the functioning of private sector business through budgetary and monetary policies.

But against this there is also a fast-expanding area of direct administrative or physical controls through which the government seeks to ensure that private investment and production in industry and the use of scarce resources conform to government’s basic socio-economic objectives.

Government’s regulatory functions with regard to trade, business and industry aim at laying down the limits for the private enterprise. The regulatory functions of the Government include:

(i) Restraints on private activities.

(ii) Control of monopoly and big business.

(iii) Development of public enterprises as an alternative to private enterprises to ensure competitive dualism.

(iv) Maintenance of a proper socio-­economic infrastructure.

Government: Promoter of Business:

The promotional role of the government in relation to industries can be seen as providing finance to industry, in granting various incentives and in creating infrastructure facilities for industrial growth and investment.

For example, our government has identified certain backward areas as ‘No Industry Districts’. To promote development of such areas, Government provides subsidies and tax holiday to attract investment in backward areas.

In this way the government will help the process of balanced development and thereby remove regional disparities. The government is assisting the development of small scale industries.

The District Industrial Centers are assisting the development of small industries. The government is actively helping the industrial development of the country by providing finance to them through the development banks.

Government as an Entrepreneur:

The impressive growth of the public sector in India from a small beginning bears testimony to the role of the government as an entrepreneur.

Private investors are solely guided by private profit motive and hence they are not interested in developing products of common public use and social services which yield relatively lower returns. But as a “Social entrepreneur” the government does not hesitate to take them up.

Government as the Planner:

In its role as a planner, the government indicates various priorities in the Five Year Plans and also the sectoral allocation of resources. Mixed economies are democratically planned economies.

The government tries to manage the economy and its business activities through the exercise of planning. Planning is the most important activity in a modern mixed economy. The idea of economic planning can be traced to three different sources: Rationalism, Socialism and Nationalism.

Economists advocate a planned economy on the ground that it can be a rational economy which can utilize the available resources in an optimal manner.

The Government’s responsibilities towards business are as follows:

Maintaining Law and Order

Maintaining law and order and protecting persons and property is another responsibility of the Government of the country. It would be impossible to carry on business in the absence of a peaceful atmosphere.

Enacting and Enforcing Laws

Enacting and enforcing laws is the prime responsibility of the Government of each country. This is because laws and regulations only enable the businesses to function smoothly. Further, Government provides a system of court for adjudicating differences between firms, individual or Government agencies.

Providing Monetary System

The Government has to provide monetary system so that business transactions can be affected. Further, it is also the responsibility of the Government to regulate money and credit, and protect the money value of the currency in terms of other currencies.

Provision of Basic Infrastructure

Government should provide basic infrastructural facilities such as transportation, power, finance, trained personnel and civic amenities, which are indispensable for the effective functioning of business concerns.

Balanced Regional Development and Growth

It is the responsibility of the Government to make sure that there are balanced regional developments and growth.

Supply of Information

It is the responsibility of the Governments to provide information, which is useful to businessmen in carrying out their business activities. Government agencies publish and provide a large volume of information, which is used extensively by business firms. This information normally relates to economic and business activity, specific lines of business, scientific and technological developments, and many other things of interest to business houses or business leaders.

Transfer of Technology

It is the responsibility of the Government to transfer to private industries whatever discoveries are made by the Government owned Research Institutions so that they can be used for commercial production.

Assistance to Small-scale Industries

It the responsibility of the Government to provide the required facilities and encourage the development of small-scale industries to overcome the problem faced by them.

Conducting Inspections

It is the responsibility of the Government to inspect the private business concerns in order to make sure that they produce quality products, and also to prevent the production and sale of sub-standard goods.

Incentives to Home Industries

It is the responsibility of the Government to encourage the development of home industries by providing them various incentives and subsidies.

Development of capitalism during 17th and 18th centuries and during the early 19th century emphasized that the role of state should be restricted to formulation and enactments of laws, rules and regulations and maintenance of law and order in the country. There should be least state intervention in areas of industry and business.

According to Adam Smith and his supporters of laissez faire policy, personal freedom and optimum utilisation of economic resources ensure accelerated pace of economic development. Thus, in the initial stage of economic development, the only function of the state was to protect the life, wealth and property of the society. But, gradually the doctrine of laissez faire started losing its shine and the state capitalism was born.

Form # 1. Role of Government in Capitalism:

Under capitalism, all factories and other productive resources are controlled by individuals and private firms. The main objective of investment is to earn profit. What to produce, how to produce and for whom to produce etc. are determined by the demand and supply and market mechanism.

Some special features of capitalist economy are as follows:

(i) Every individual has a right to maintain private property and sell the owned property.

(ii) Every individual has a right to select any profession or business as per his likings. Similarly, any individual can enter into contract for profit with others.

(iii) Main purpose of entrepreneurial activities is to earn profit.

(iv) Society is divided into haves and a have not and there is also conflict of interest between the two.

(v) Economic system lacks coordination as there is no Government regulation in economic activities.

Capitalism is governed by the price mechanism and it experiences high level of competition.

Level of Intervention under Capitalist Economy:

Under capitalist economy the regulation of business by the Government is quite negligible. There are some areas or limitations under which Government is generally forced to intervene in business activities. This level of intervention is necessary to maintain continuity and dynamism in defence for protecting the existence of the country and economic system.

Thus, rationales of capitalist economy are as follows:

(i) Regulatory and controlling framework is necessary to establish coordination in indus­trial development process.

(ii) Government ownership over industries under defence sector is necessary as these industries are directly related with safety and sovereignty of the country.

(iii) Government intervention is needed to ensure maximum and profitable utilisation of economic resources for the economic development of the country.

(iv) Government always tries to control the ownership of public utilities and industries of monopolisting nature as to avoid exploitation of public at large. Besides, it also ensures judicious distribution of economic power and wealth of the country.

Form # 2. Role of Government in Socialism:

Under socialism, public ownership is ensured on physical resources of production. Under this type of economy, industries are not required to earn profit by sale or purchase but these industries are meant for public service which directly controls the lever of political power. A socialist system is one where main portion of the productive resources is invested in socialist industries.

Following are some important features of socialist economy:

(i) State is empowered for production and distribution of goods and services. Distribution of productive resources of the society is undertaken under the guidance of central authority.

(ii) Abolition of private ownership in terms of production units and nationalization of productive resources are the main features of the socialist economy.

(iii) State works as an entrepreneur, landlord and capitalist. State also undertakes the implementation of production and residual income after paying wages and other costs if any, are rest with the Government.

(iv) Classless society is created by abolishing the gaps exist in rich and poor and haves and haves not.

(v) Socialist economy does not give guarantee of equality but it guarantees the equality of opportunities.

(vi) Main objective of economic activities is the social welfare but not the private profit. Under capitalist system working behaviour is guided by the market mechanism. Whereas in socialistic economy operational behaviour is controlled by the centralised economic authority.

Types of Socialist Economy:

Socialistic economies are generally categorized into two catego­ries:

(a) Role of Government in Democratic Socialism:

Under this type of socialism, Government does not own all the productive resources but only important segments of the national economy are controlled by the Government. This form of socialism is based on the assumption that development of the economy should not be left at the mercy of the private sector. The Government must take initiative for the accelerated pace of the development in the national economy.

In practice, the role of the Government is deigned in the following way:

(i) The Government owns and controls important and key productive resources of the country. The Government makes it possible for the direction and use of these resources.

(ii) Distribution and exchange resources or other mechanism are also under the control of the Government. Domestic and international business, banking and insurance, transport and communication etc., are all under the control of the Government.

(iii) The Government establishes control on those industries which are responsible for promoting concentration of centralization of economic power. Similarly, Government also controls industries where possibility of gaps exists in the demand and supply of the products being produced by them.

(b) Role of Government in Authoritarian Socialism:

Authoritarian Socialism also includes communism which is also in existence in Russia and China. However, it is the toughest form of the socialism. Under this type of socialistic system, the role of central authority is quite important one. The central authority determines the economic targets and ensures ownership on all productive resources of the country. It also directs and controls the distribution system as per the economic targets.

Under this type of socialism, the role of the Government is designed in the following way:

(i) Generally, private enterprises are not in existence. Direction and implementation of production process are exercised by the state or public enterprises. With the help of public enterprises, Government ensures social benefits by paying wages and other costs. There is no problem of payment for interest and rent to capitalists and landowners respectively. The state acts as a capitalist, landlord and entrepreneur and makes the production process possible through the public enterprises.

(ii) Public enterprises are as a powerful agency of the state and are responsible for maintain­ing effective control on production and distribution. Distribution of productive resources of the society is generally guided by the dictates of central authority.

(iii) Social welfare and social security are relatively given more importance. The objectives and targets of economic process are the social welfare. But in capitalistic system, individual profit is the most objective of the production system. Thus, under this type of socialism control authority directs all economic activities towards social welfare and security in place of market system. The central authority or Planning Commission gives utmost importance to social welfare at the time of formulating and fixing economic priorities and targets.

Form # 3. Role of Government in Mixed Economy:

The mixed economy is a middle path between capitalistic economy and socialistic economy. It includes important features of capitalism and socialism. Under the mixed economy, ownership of productive resources is rest with the private entrepreneurs. The Government directly control and regulate the working of the economy through the monetary and fiscal policies.

Besides, public enterprises have also been assigned crucial role in production and distribution of goods and services. The ownership and management of basic and important industries are under the control of the Government.

Important roles assigned to the Government under mixed economy are as follows:

(i) Under this type of economy, public and private sectors both are in existence. The industries are categorized in two parts. First part includes those industries where Government is responsible for the development and it also keeps their ownership and management under own control. The private sector is responsible for the development of other industries but Government reserves’ it’s right to intervene in the development and working of these industries.

(ii) The operation of the economy, pricing mechanism and distribution etc. are under the direction of the state. The Government takes necessary decision with regard to produc­tion, pricing and investment etc. in public sector.

(iii) The private sector is expected to keep the nation’s interest along with its own interest. The Government regulates and affects the smooth working of the private sector with suitable mechanism.

(iv) The Government controls and regulates the investment and industrial production through industrial licensing. The Government also regulates the privates sector through monetary and fiscal policies.

(v) The consumer is free to buy goods and services as per his choice and private entrepre­neurs produce the goods and services as per the consumers demand and expectations. However, Government regulates the pricing system through suitable means so that producers cannot exploit the consumers.

(vi) The Government protects the weaker section of the society especially labour from the exploitation. It also determines the minimum wage and rates and also the hours for minimum work. It also prohibits the employment of children.

(vii) The Government controls and regulates the monopolistic practices. Necessary steps are taken to ensure equal distribution of wealth and income. The government establishes public enterprises to control the demerits of private sector and monopolistic practices. The Government develops the industries in a way to facilitate timely achievements of plan targets.

Thus, under mixed economy, scope of working of public and private sector is clearly defined and both are required to co-operate with balancing efforts for the achievements of desired economic growth. Generally, basic industries, defence industries, atomic energy, mining and minerals are under the control of the Government for necessary development.

On the other side, heavy industries, consumer goods industries, micro, small and medium enterprises, agriculture development are in privates sector. The Government also provides necessary incentives and support system for the development of private sector.

Market pricing mecha­nism and Government policies and programmes are the guiding factors for the distribution of productive resources. Since 1991, economic policies have been formulated to give more freedom and access to the private sector in the Indian economy. Besides, efforts have been made to strengthen the public sector for better performance.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence demonstrated by machines, as opposed to natural intelligence displayed by animals including humans. Leading AI textbooks define the field as the study of “intelligent agents”: any system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of achieving its goals. Some popular accounts use the term “artificial intelligence” to describe machines that mimic “cognitive” functions that humans associate with the human mind, such as “learning” and “problem solving”, however, this definition is rejected by major AI researchers.

AI applications include advanced web search engines (e.g., Google), recommendation systems (used by YouTube, Amazon and Netflix), understanding human speech (such as Siri and Alexa), self-driving cars (e.g., Tesla), automated decision-making and competing at the highest level in strategic game systems (such as chess and Go). As machines become increasingly capable, tasks considered to require “Intelligence” are often removed from the definition of AI, a phenomenon known as the AI effect. For instance, optical character recognition is frequently excluded from things considered to be AI, having become a routine technology.

Artificial intelligence was founded as an academic discipline in 1956, and in the years since has experienced several waves of optimism, followed by disappointment and the loss of funding (known as an “AI winter“), followed by new approaches, success and renewed funding. AI research has tried and discarded many different approaches since its founding, including simulating the brain, modeling human problem solving, formal logic, large databases of knowledge and imitating animal behavior. In the first decades of the 21st century, highly mathematical statistical machine learning has dominated the field, and this technique has proved highly successful, helping to solve many challenging problems throughout industry and academia.

The various sub-fields of AI research are centered around particular goals and the use of particular tools. The traditional goals of AI research include reasoning, knowledge representation, planning, learning, natural language processing, perception, and the ability to move and manipulate objects. General intelligence (the ability to solve an arbitrary problem) is among the field’s long-term goals. To solve these problems, AI researchers have adapted and integrated a wide range of problem-solving techniques including search and mathematical optimization, formal logic, artificial neural networks, and methods based on statistics, probability and economics. AI also draws upon computer science, psychology, linguistics, philosophy, and many other fields.

Cognitive Modelling Approach

As the name suggests, this approach tries to build an Artificial Intelligence model based on Human Cognition. To distil the essence of the human mind, there are 3 approaches:

• Introspection: Observing our thoughts, and building a model based on that
• Psychological Experiments: Conducting experiments on humans and observing their behaviour
• Brain Imaging: Using MRI to observe how the brain functions in different scenarios and replicating that through code.

The Laws of Thought Approach

The Laws of Thought are a large list of logical statements that govern the operation of our mind. The same laws can be codified and applied to artificial intelligence algorithms. The issues with this approach, because solving a problem in principle (strictly according to the laws of thought) and solving them in practice can be quite different, requiring contextual nuances to apply. Also, there are some actions that we take without being 100% certain of an outcome that an algorithm might not be able to replicate if there are too many parameters.

The Rational Agent Approach

A rational agent acts to achieve the best possible outcome in its present circumstances.

According to the Laws of Thought approach, an entity must behave according to the logical statements. But there are some instances, where there is no logical right thing to do, with multiple outcomes involving different outcomes and corresponding compromises. The rational agent approach tries to make the best possible choice in the current circumstances. It means that it’s a much more dynamic and adaptable agent.

Now that we understand how Artificial Intelligence can be designed to act like a human, let’s take a look at how these systems are built.

Working:

Machine Learning: ML teaches a machine how to make inferences and decisions based on past experience. It identifies patterns, analyses past data to infer the meaning of these data points to reach a possible conclusion without having to involve human experience. This automation to reach conclusions by evaluating data, saves a human time for businesses and helps them make a better decision.

Deep Learning: Deep Learning is an ML technique. It teaches a machine to process inputs through layers in order to classify, infer and predict the outcome.

Neural Networks: Neural Networks work on the similar principles as of Human Neural cells. They are a series of algorithms that captures the relationship between various underlying variables and processes the data as a human brain does.

Natural Language Processing c: NLP is a science of reading, understanding, interpreting a language by a machine. Once a machine understands what the user intends to communicate, it responds accordingly.

Computer Vision: Computer vision algorithms tries to understand an image by breaking down an image and studying different parts of the objects. This helps the machine classify and learn from a set of images, to make a better output decision based on previous observations.

Cognitive Computing: Cognitive computing algorithms try to mimic a human brain by anaysing text/speech/images/objects in a manner that a human does and tries to give the desired output.

Goals of AI

To Create Expert Systems: The systems which exhibit intelligent behavior, learn, demonstrate, explain, and advice its users.

To Implement Human Intelligence in Machines: Creating systems that understand, think, learn, and behave like humans.

Logic, problem-solving: Early researchers developed algorithms that simulate humans’ step-by-step reasoning when solving puzzles or making logical deductions. By the late 1980s and 1990s, AI research had developed methods for dealing with uncertain or incomplete information, employing concepts from probability and economics. For difficult problems, algorithms can require enormous computational resources-most experience a “Combinatorial explosion”: the amount of memory or computer time needed for problems of a certain size becomes astronomical. The search for more efficient problem-solving algorithms is a high priority.

Planning: Intelligent agents must be able to set goals and achieve them. They need a way to envision the future a representation of the state of the world and make predictions about how their actions will change it and be able to make choices that maximize the utility (or “value”) of the options available.

In classical planning problems, the agent can assume that it is the only system acting in the world, allowing the agent to be certain of the consequences of its actions.

However, if the agent is not the only actor, it requires that the agent reason under uncertainty. It calls for an agent to assess its environment, make predictions, evaluate its predictions, and adapt based on its assessment.

Knowledge representation: Knowledge representation and knowledge engineering are central to AI research. Many of the problems that machines are expected to solve will require extensive world knowledge. The things AI needs to represent are objects, properties, categories, and relationships between objects; situations, events, states, and times; Cause and Effect; Knowledge about knowledge (what other people know about what we know); and many other, less well-researched domains.

A representation of “what exists” is an ontology: the set of objects, relations, concepts, and so on about which the machine knows. The most general is upper ontology, which attempts to provide a foundation for all other knowledge.

Creativity: A sub-field of AI addresses creativity theoretically (philosophical, psychological perspective) and practically (the specific implementation of systems that produce novel and useful outputs). Some related areas of computational research include artificial intuition and artificial thinking.

Social Intelligence: Effective computing is the study and development of systems that can detect, interpret, process, and simulate human It is an interdisciplinary field spanning computer science, psychology, and cognitive science. While the origins of the field can be traced to early philosophical inquiries into emotion, the more modern branch of computer science originated from Rosalind Picard’s 1995 paper on “effective computing”.

General Intelligence: Many researchers think that their work will eventually result in a machine with artificial general intelligence, combining all the skills described above and exceeding human capacity in most or all of these areas. Some believe that such a project may require anthropomorphic features such as artificial consciousness or an artificial brain.

Career opportunities in business intelligence (BI) are on the rise. Requiring knowledge of numerous subjects, data professionals are filling important roles within an organization, such as business analysts, project managers and technical architects. Those who decide to pursue a BI career path must possess a blend of business knowledge, people skills and technical expertise.

Business intelligence (BI) constitutes of ways, means, and methodologies put into use by firms and organizations to analyze business information-related data. A career in BI is used to get past, present, and future views of business operations. Reporting, online analytical processing, analytics, data mining, process mining, complex event processing, business performance management, benchmarking, text mining, predictive analytics, and prescriptive analytics are the activities included in BI technologies. BI technologies identify, develop, and help create new opportunities for business by easily interpreting structured and unstructured data.

Career Paths

Industries

BI professionals working as consultants generally command the highest salaries, particularly in vertical markets with the highest growth such as pharmaceuticals and software. Those professionals working in the lowest paying industries, such as state and local government and utilities, experienced the highest increase in compensation from 2004-2005. Other industries where BI professionals often consult are financial services, retail, manufacturing, healthcare, insurance, communications and education.

Business Intelligence Project Manager

A BI project manager reports all the data regarding business intelligence tools solutions. It is basically responsible for coordinating with all the internal departments and help build up BI solutions. They also improve solutions by identifying improvement areas in BI.

Consulting and Contracting

A career in this sector usually offers advancement, lucrative pay, the ability to play many roles, great variety of activities and tremendous learning potential. It is a career ideal for those who like variety and change as each project is different.

Business Intelligence Analyst

A BI analyst develops a comprehensive understanding of business processes, data warehouses, productions systems and departmental databases. They also work in cross-functional teams to help build awareness of BI tools, projects and to assist in demonstrations of BI solutions.

Business Intelligence Project Manager

A BI project manager is responsible for the overall success of reporting data deliverables. Main responsibilities include coordinating with internal departments to build or deploy data warehouses, applications and portals. They must also identify business improvement areas and develop appropriate solutions.

SQL Server Business Intelligence

The SQL platform empowers users to access and mash-up data from practically any source. It also allows for easy collaboration of insights using familiar tools.

Business Intelligence Developer

BI developers design BI solutions to meet the client’s requirements. They also design and develop ETL to support data integration necessities. They are responsible for managing database applications in SQL server, Oracle and DB2.

BI Semantic Model

This model provides a linear view across heterogeneous data sources and easily transforms end user-created apps into corporate BI solutions.

Master Data Services

This allows users to maintain master data across the entire organizational structures utilized for reference data, mapping, and metadata management.

Business Intelligence Administrator

BI Administrators work with database management software in an effort to determine more effective ways to analyze, utilize and present data. Because BI systems are used to aid business owners in making informed decisions about current market situations, administrators must be able to generate standard as well as customized reports that summarize business data for review by executives and stakeholders.

Power View

Power View is an interactive browser-based data visualization tool that allows data scientists and business leaders to gain insights into things like customer behavior, competition and economic shifts.

Business Intelligence Manager

The primary responsibilities of BI Managers are to strategically design and implement BI software and systems, including integration with databases and data warehouses. They are also in charge of guiding the lifecycle of BI project efforts, as well as collaborating with app developers, business owners and operations engineers to ensure the production of BI designs. They will also frequently lead and conduct unit testing of BI solutions.

Business Intelligence Consultant

BI consultants’ main duties are to help organizations adopt and learn new strategies for organizing data. They will implement software and improve existing systems that make it easier to manage information. BI consultants improve a company’s efficiency by combining their knowledge of technology with business management.

AI has been more viable for commercial applications, it has brought consumers many things already personal assistants in the form of Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home, and Apple’s voice assistant Siri.

AI has also been used to help consumers make purchases or other decisions (like the Netflix algorithm that suggests things you might like based on prior viewing history) and through smart home devices like the Nest thermostat that can adjust based on whether you’re home or not.

Artificial intelligence is designed to parse, analyze, and transform data into humanized formats that are easy to digest and act upon. We see this every day in the predictions and suggestions our smart phones push to us without having to be prompted.

With an influx of data in the HR space, AI has the capacity to provide a wealth of insights in areas including talent assessment, employee engagement, manager effectiveness, and team productivity insights that might otherwise go undiscovered. This helps HR teams better understand and predict workforce trends and problem areas.

More importantly, it can also help solve one of the most important challenges HR teams face today building and executing plans for improvement by recommending specific actions to take to solve the biggest problems.

So, AI has already easily and quickly integrated into consumer spaces to help make the lives of everyday people easier and more convenient.

Adding AI to Product line-up

The first thing to think about when considering the impact of artificial intelligence in business is to consider your customer. They might already be using AI seamlessly with virtual assistants and smart home devices.

Using AI to Manage Business Functions

Another way that artificial intelligence is playing a role in business is behind the scenes. This means that AI can be rolled out to handle, manage, or assist with regular aspects and functions of the business.

Using artificial intelligence in business information can be a huge benefit. AI algorithms are already helping more businesses manage their data through deep analysis and plenty of specific industries are already benefitting from AI in their operations.

Healthcare: Some healthcare organizations are using AI to supplement physician training and education. Plus, AI has already been used in the healthcare industry to help review medical records and evaluate treatment approaches, like a digital assistant for doctors.

Logistics: Companies that use freight trucks or flights have found that using AI processes helps to determine efficient travel patterns based on the AI ability to source information from several places including weather, average fuel consumption, traffic, and other elements.

HR and staffing: Human resource departments and staffing agencies are using AI technologies to help them find the best talent from resume submissions. AI can match the best applicants with the job positions based on keyword functionality and AI’s ability to gather and analyze information from several sources co-currently. Ultimately, the power of data for HR organizations isn’t just in proving return on investment or predicting future outcomes. The real advantage comes when AI leverages people data to translate insights into action.

Artificial Intelligence

We will start our analysis of what is new in business intelligence with AI. This is a trend that is wildly being covered by Gartner in their latest Strategic Technology Trends report, combining AI with engineering and hyperautomation, and concentrating on the level of security in which AI risks developing vulnerable points of attacks.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the science aiming to make machines execute what is usually done by complex human intelligence. Often seen as the highest foe-friend of the human race in movies (Skynet in Terminator, The Machines of Matrix, or the Master Control Program of Tron), AI is not yet on the verge to destroy us, in spite of the legit warnings of some reputed scientists and tech-entrepreneurs.

Self-service analytics

Industry analysts now predict that within two years, most business users in organizations will have access to self-service tools to prepare data for analysis. Such self-service BI solutions can transform business users from data consumers to active data analysts, reducing the time and complexity of data gathering and preparation, and shifting the monopoly on data extraction, processing, and visualization from IT to a model of data analysis across the organization.

Power BI is a complete self-service data analysis tool available right now, enabling all users to make smart decisions with data. Connect with ease to internal data sources and external data services, such as Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, and QuickBooks. Process data with drag-and-drop gestures. Use natural language to query datasets and create compelling visualizations. And share your reports with colleagues using content packs. Power BI is at the forefront of tools that help cultivate and strengthen data-savvy knowledge workers.

Data Security

Data and information security have been on everyone’s lips in 2021, and they will continue to buzz the world in 2022. The implementation of privacy regulations such as the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in the EU, the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) in the USA, and the LGPD (General Personal Data Protection Law) in Brazil have set building blocks for data security and management of users’ personal information.

Moreover, the recent overturn by the European Court of Justice of the legal framework called Data Privacy Shield hasn’t made software companies’ life much easier. The Shield was a legal framework that enabled companies to transfer data from the EU to the USA but, with recent legal developments causing the invalidation of the process, companies that have their headquarters in the US don’t have the right to transfer any of the EU data subjects.

Data integration

Increases in data volume, velocity, and variety is fueling a trend toward comprehensive BI solutions that process information from multiple sources and in multiple views. Massive amounts of data are now available from disparate sources, increasing the demand for rapid data source integration accessible through simple interfaces.

Businesses are drawing upon huge volumes of unstructured social data to gain insights into customer behavior. Tracking social conversations at scale enables companies to learn when a topic is trending and what their customers are talking about. Insights gleaned from social data analytics lead to responsive optimization of products and services.

Power BI gives business users across the organization an easy-to-use tool to tap into insights hidden in large amounts of data. Whether the data reside in the cloud or on-premises, in structured databases or unstructured data processed by Hadoop, it’s accessible through Power BI. Use the Power BI visualization tools to communicate social trends to colleagues. As social trends evolve, have real-time updates reflected in your visualizations, enabling more agile responses to emerging market changes.

Business Intelligence for Sales and Marketing

Another popular trend is the use of business information by sales and marketing departments in various businesses. Without depending on a technical IT specialist or a business analyst, sales and marketing personnel may access the latest sales and purchase patterns among their consumers thanks to the usage of BI dashboards. Any sales or marketing activity may benefit from BI tools. It enhances the accuracy of sales objectives and projections, assesses the market effect of the most recent marketing campaign or promotion, and develops client acquisition and retention plans. Companies may profit from greater revenues (due to product cross-selling and up-selling) and assure improved customer satisfaction by implementing the proper business intelligence tools for sales and marketing.

Mobile BI

The workforce is more mobile than ever, and mobile solutions for data analytics are maturing.  Knowledge workers can now access and analyze data from their mobile devices more readily than ever. The trend toward mobile BI solutions will only continue to accelerate.

Power BI enables you to access and modify your dashboards no matter where you are, using touch-enabled native apps for Windows, iOS, and Android. Use the Power BI app to connect to your data, discover insights easily with data alerts, and share them with your team. The Power BI app also enables you to filter and pivot your data in different ways to quickly find answers on the go through your mobile device.

These trends point to the evolution of BI toward making new sources of information accessible, consumable, and meaningful to organizations of all sizes, including those that do not have advanced analytics skills or in-house resources.

Data Discovery

Data discovery, also known as data analysis for business users, is one of the top business intelligence trends for 2022. For a business user, data discovery is a business process that involves using data analytics tools to find patterns and derive insights from data. The three steps of data discovery as a business process are as follows. Business users are connected to numerous data sources throughout the data preparation step. Business users may quickly do visual data analysis utilizing data visualization dashboards including useful charts and graphs at the data visualization stage. Business users can utilize analytical abilities to uncover advanced patterns in the available data at the data analytics stage. Business users may more easily uncover business patterns and even anomalies thanks to visualization tools, and take fast and appropriate action as a result.