Disadvantages of Bootstrapping
In the previous article, we have learned about what self-financing i.e. bootstrapping is. We have also learned about what are the various advantages of using the bootstrapping technique. However, despite the advantages listed in the previous article, relatively few startup founders actually go the bootstrapping route. This is because of the fact that bootstrapping also […]
Cross Border Mergers and Acquisitions and Some Recent Trends in this Field
Cross Border Mergers and Acquisitions Cross border Mergers and Acquisitions or M&A are deals between foreign companies and domestic firms in the target country. The trend of increasing cross border M&A has accelerated with the globalization of the world economy. Indeed, the 1990s were a “golden decade” for cross border M&A with a nearly 200 […]
The End of the Dollar Hegemony
The dollar today is the uncrowned king of the financial world. This means that the dollar does not face much of competition from other currencies as on date. However, that does not mean that the dollar is invincible. Economies all over the world today are tired of the United States imposing its military and financial […]
Automated Intercompany Loans
Liquidity management can be a big problem for several companies. This is particularly true if the company has a large number of subsidiaries that are scattered in different places around the world. Companies that grow via the mergers and acquisitions route tend to face this problem more than other companies. This is because they often […]
Process Design and Analysis
Introduction The objective of organization is to provide service and product, which satisfy customer and create value for them. A product and service designed is based on the customer feedback and requirement of the market. Process design is where the product is broken down into parts, which further can be helpful in the actual manufacturing […]
We are all familiar with the online buying on the internet. In fact with most people in developed countries, ordering groceries, online shopping as well as payment of utility bills and online banking has become a part of life. Internet we can say is a virtual global market.
There are several types of businesses that take place in the virtual market. Generally the most visible business category happens to be that of Business to Consumers.
What most of the people do not know is that the Business to Business category of markets and online transactions occupy a much larger canvas in the virtual world.
There are B2B Exchanges in every possible area of business and market.
You have stock exchanges, commodity exchanges as well as specific industry based exchanges for paper, chemical, medical supplies, cement, steel and many more that are available on the internet.
Other than B2C and B2B, there are C2C businesses as well as C2B businesses as well.
The best example of C2B businesses could be the sites like fiverr.com, elance.com or freelancer.com, where the consumers or individuals showcase their skills and make offers to the businesses and companies to buy services from them.
On the other hand sites like craiglist.com and other yellow pages.com etc are the market places where consumers can put up their products and services on sale for other consumers to buy. Ebay.com in fact is one good example of Consumer to Consumer exchange.
It is quite understandable how the internet became a virtual market place and provided opportunities for marketers to exhibit their wares and reach out to customers directly and personally.
However, B2B businesses are not normally visible to the general public and is known only to the concerned business community alone. One of the reasons that led to the B2B exchanges on the internet could be attributed to the automation of business processes and various web enabled ERP systems development adopted by the large business houses.
Companies like Boeing, General Electric, Form, GM Motors etc have been pioneers in adopting new technology and changing over from people driven businesses to process driven and automated business processes.
These large corporations have several hundred vendors and suppliers who are situated across the globe. Therefore they have streamlined the procurement process over period of time.
With the development of automated systems driving the business processes and the availability of web based systems, they have been able to create their own virtual market where they could float the RFQ, invite the multiple suppliers to bid, qualify the suppliers, shortlist the suppliers as well as negotiate and complete the buying process online followed by shipment tracking as well as streamlining and automating the payment process to the vendors.
Over a period of time, the buying processes have been streamlined and have led to the formation of private B2B market place on the internet.
The next logical step has been to come together as a part of the industry and float a common site for bringing together all the suppliers of the particular industry together with all of the buyers and thus bring about synergy in the buying process. Automotive industry is perhaps one of the earliest adopters of B2B exchange idea.
Some of the IT system developers who have been extremely vigilant watching and observing such B2B business opportunities on the internet jumped into the bandwagon of creating and floating third party B2B exchanges that could cater to larger markets and different segments thus providing for real time B2B global exchanges.
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