Cranfield Knowledge Interchange

Interactive Glossary: Sri's A-Z

An A-Z of financial terminology to help non-accountants become familiar with frequently used financial management terms.   In this specially developed interactive tool Sri Srikanthan, Senior Lecturer in Finance and Accounting at Cranfield School of Management invites you to explore the language of accountants.

Rapid Review: Better Project Teams

This practical report looks at recent research and picks out what makes the difference for an effective project team.   It draws together the key variables and the accompanying questionnaire helps you to analyse your own situation.   A short summary article gives a quick overview.

Rapid Review: Organisational Resilience

This report examines practical company examples and recent research to pick out what you need to do to make your organisation more likely to be able to anticipate changes, be flexible enough to meet a change or crisis, and to bounce back.   A short summary article is available, plus a self-test audit tool to give you some pointers on actions for your own organisation.

Strategic Working Capital Management

Working capital, the investment in inventories and debtors net of creditors, is a significant investment in many companies’ balance sheets. In order to create value for shareholders, this investment needs to be managed down to the minimum levels consistent with the company’s business strategy. The associated video piece sees Dr Ruth Bender talking about a related area, cash management, that is featured in our Hot Topics section.

How the Economy Works: What Every Manager Should Know

This straightforward guide describes an economist's perspective on key business drivers. Understanding the drivers of the economy is vital for managers in understanding their businesses. In addition to the resources in this guide, see also a summary of Professor Nellis' book "Principles of Macroeconomics", together with an interview with Joe.

Stakeholder Engagement: A Road Map to Meaningful Engagement

A 'how-to' guide for busy managers on engaging NGO and community stakeholders - a key aspect for improving the practice of responsible management.

Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility

Managing the Supply Chain to Maximise Cash and Service Levels

Richard Wilding

The recession has highlighted the importance of managing the supply chain, particularly in relation to two key aspects, time and cash. "Cash is king and service is sacred". The practicalities of this are explored in this short but vital guide

How to read accounts

Dr Ruth Bender delivers a wide range of courses here at Cranfield about financial accounting and understanding accounts. One of the questions she gets asked every time is how to read a set of accounts and what Ruth, in particular, looks for when researching a company. This Critical Guide is designed to answer these two questions in a way that all of us can understand.

Understanding Best Practice in Key Account Management

Lynette Ryals

Increasingly, a profitable business -to-business relationship requires strategic skills and approaches. Key Account Management (KAM) aims to meet this need, and this Critical Guide spells out the vital practical aspects you should consider to get the most from KAM. It is based on sound research of best practice.

Market Segmentation

Malcolm McDonald

Market segmentation is one of the most fundamental concepts of marketing and is the key to successful business performance. Yet real segmentation remains the most difficult of all marketing methodologies to implement. According to Professor Malcolm McDonald, professional market segmentation is hard work and time consuming, yet by taking the time to understand it, the rewards can be phenomenal.   This guide sets out in a very straightforward way to describe what constitutes market segmentation and how it can be carried out successfully.

Global Careers

Michael Dickmann

Global careers are becoming an important consideration for many organisations. This guide spells critical aspects of the management of the process, covering three main areas: pre-assignment; during international assignment; and after the return of expatriates. The practical lessons in the guide are based on research by Cranfield.

Brands

Simon Knox

In many business sectors, the brand has become the primary asset of the business. This guide outlines key management issues of brands and branding, the characteristics of brands today and what influences their success. Trends for the future of brands are also outlined.

The Agile Supply Chain

Martin Christopher

The modern business environment means organisations no longer act as individual businesses, often they are part of a global supply chain. Agility is the ability to respond rapidly to unpredictable changes in demand.  The key word here is unpredictable , a notable feature of business today. The guide spells out the essential elements of achieving an agile supply chain.

Designing Performance Measures

Mike Bourne

This guide outlines how you go about designing appropriate performance measures. A lot of emphasis in performance measurement is about measuring the right things. But it also matters how we measure them and whether we measure them in the right way. This practical guide gives clear pointers, with examples, to design and implement effective performance measures.

Acquisition Strategies

Sudi Sudarsanam

An overview of mergers and acquisitions and the place of acquisitions in corporate strategy. The guide offers frameworks to help understand more about a very important aspect of business decision making.

Realising Your Breakout Potential

Thomas Lawton

An introduction to a comprehensive set of models, tools and techniques for strategy development and implementation. A practical guide to the practices that have taken some of the world's most successful companies from strength to strength.

Developing Business Through Relationship Selling

Javier Marcos

This guide explores some ideas on how you can better develop business by adopting relationship selling approaches to the business development activities of your company.

Managing Operations: Managing Product, Process AND People

Graham Clark

This guide examines three fundamental components for managing operations: product, process and people.

Managing Redundancy

Noeleen Doherty

Managing redundancy successfully is a vital, if frequently neglected, area of an organisation's HR strategy. This guide is based on the insights gleaned from many years' research and practice, and pinpoints the key areas which must be addressed.

Sustainability in the Supply Chain

Professor Alan Braithwaite

Supply chain and logistics have a major role in addressing the challenge of sustainability and delivering a more sustainable future. This guide discusses the issues and puts forward practical proposals to address one of most important issues of our time.

Sustainable Supply Chain Management

Mike Bernon

How can we manage our supply chains in a more sustainable way? Practical ideas from another Cranfield supply chain faculty expert. You can also watch Mike Bernon and Peter Baker discussing the sustainability challenges facing the supply chain by clicking here.

Well-being in the Workplace

Dr Noeleen Doherty

Ensuring the well-being of employees should be a central concern to all leaders of organisations. This guide sets out good management practice to audit and improve the working environment and enhance well-being and effectiveness.

Sovereign Debt Crisis

Professor Joe Nellis

Along with many countries, the UK's national debt has grown substantially and so has its importance to the economy. Hence politicians, managers and every single person needs to be aware of the key issues. This guide explores what sovereign debt means in practical terms.

Project Management

Stephen Carver

This guide outlines the essentials of project management; watch the the video below for an illustration of how masterful project management influences outcomes.  

Project Management

Stephen Carver

An illustration of how masterful project management made the difference in the Battle of Britain during the Second World War.  The guide above gives and overview of the essentials of project management.