An Accounting Overview

An Accounting Overview

The accounting industry has much to offer in terms of opportunities, professional development, and exciting career paths. To be successful in an accounting position one must possess strong analytical abilities, be detailed-oriented, and have the ability to work very quickly and adeptly with numbers. Moreover, those who are the most successful possess not only strong analytical abilities, but also the ability to synthesize, interpret and develop applicable business strategies utilizing financial data. Thus, a career in accounting offers its professionals the opportunity to challenge themselves, work closely analyzing financial data and provide significant value-add to corporations, governments and organizations around the world.

This handout is prepared with the direct assistance of “Vault Career Guide to Accounting,” and various other sources. For more information about a career in accounting, please refer to Kresge Database.

A career in accounting can entail many different specific job functions ranging from an audit or tax-consulting career with a public accounting firm, to an accounting position with an industrial company, to a position with the Government Accounting Office or a non-profit organization.

Types of Accounting:

As noted above, accounting organizations provide a range of services. Traditionally, the two primary services provided are audit and tax. However, many accounting firms have grown their advisor services to offer: corporate finance, risk management, transaction services, business process outsourcing, people and change consulting, IT advising, and personal financial planning.

- Audit: An auditor examines the financial statements of a company or organization and independently certifies the statements are valid, accurate, and relevant. Additionally, an auditor often also provides advisory services such as recommending ways to improve profitability, etc.

- Tax: Accountants who provide tax services primarily create strategies to minimize tax liabilities for their clients. Additionally, they prepare tax returns, advise on tax laws, assure clients tax law compliance, etc.

- Advisor: The advisor role within public accounting serves to analyze key data issues, patterns and trends to identify implications, and improve efficiency and effectiveness for clients. The division of specialty that fall within the advisor line of service differs among the firms.

Types of Accountants:

- Public Accountants: Public accountants generally work for a public accounting firm (for example: Ernst & Young) and provide accounting services to companies, governments, etc. Large public accounting firms provide the range of services discussed above in “Types of Accounting,” and because public companies are required to have yearly audits, a large part of public accounting firms’ business is providing auditing services to public companies.

- Private Accountants: Private accountants work directly for a company, government or non-profit organization. They receive their paycheck from the organization for which they are providing accounting services (for example: Internal Accountant at Kraft Foods). Generally, these accountants prepare the financial statements for the public accountants to audit and certify. Additionally, private accountants may also prepare their company’s tax statements, consult its management on changing accounting principles and ensure the financial integrity of the company’s business transactions.

Changes in the Field

While students’ interest in accounting related fields ebbs and flows depending on the economy, a career in accounting has long been considered “recession proof” and offers significant job security. In 2008, Forbes ranked Accounting Executive #4 and Accounting Staff #5 in its list of “10 Most Recession Proof Jobs.” Additionally, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics ranked Accountants and Auditors in the Top 20 Occupations with the most demand for 2006-2016.

Accountants are especially in demand when the economy is in a downturn. This is because in times of economic uncertainty the public becomes distrustful of current accounting and reporting systems, leading to changes in regulation and accounting practices. The collapse of companies such as Enron and Worldcom led to the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The SOX Act enhanced accounting standards for corporations and those auditing corporations and organizations—leading to increased demand for exceptional accountants. With the inception of SOX, public accounting firms began to divest their consulting services to more easily comply with the tighter regulatory scrutiny. However, firms have recently begun to rapidly rebuild their consulting arms and expand hiring to BBAs again. The recent financial crisis calls for even greater accounting scrutiny and stronger accounting standards and offers those entering the accounting field immense potential for an exciting, promising and challenging career.

The median base compensation for the Ross BBAs entering the accounting field in 2010 was $55, 000. At the Ross School of Business, the employers of the highest number of BBAs have consistently included the “Big 4” public accounting firms—Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers, as well as mid-tier firms such as BDO, The Rehman Group, and Plante & Moran. In addition to the audit and tax positions available at the public accounting firms, several students each year go to work for industrial employers as accountants and financial analysts.

Masters in Accounting

In most states, only licensed Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) may provide qualified public opinions and audits on financial statements. In order to qualify for a CPA license, one must fulfill the education and work experience requirements, and pass the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination. Education requirements vary b state, but in most states, 150 credit hours are required to sit for the Certified Public Accounting Examination. Ross students most commonly meet this requirement through a fifth year of education, such as the Masters of Accounting program, at Ross or another institution.

Conclusion :

To be successful in accounting position we should have strong analytical skills, be detail-oriented, and have the ability to work very fast and nimble with numbers.

Source :

http://www.bus.umich.edu/StudentCareerServices

The Target Market

The Target Market

Definition: A specific group of consumers at which a company aims its products and services

Your target customers are those who are most likely to buy from you. Resist the temptation to be too general in the hopes of getting a larger slice of the market. That's like firing 10 bullets in random directions instead of aiming just one dead center of the mark--expensive and dangerous.

Try to describe them with as much detail as you can, based on your knowledge of your product or service. Rope family and friends into visualization exercises ("Describe the typical person who'll hire me to paint the kitchen floor to look like marble...") to get different perspectives-the more, the better.

Here are some questions to get you started:

·         Are your target customers male or female?

·         How old are they?

·         Where do they live? Is geography a limiting factor for any reason?

·         What do they do for a living?

·         How much money do they make? This is most significant if you're selling relatively expensive or luxury items. Most people can afford a carob bar. You can't say the same of custom murals.

·         What other aspects of their lives matter? If you're launching a roof-tiling service, your target customers probably own their homes.

Once upon a time, business owners thought it was enough to market their products or services to "18- to 49-year olds." Those days are a thing of the past. Because the consumer marketplace has become so differentiated, it's a misconception to talk about the marketplace in any kind of general way anymore. Now, you have to decide whether to market to socioeconomic status or to gender or to region or to lifestyle or to technological sophistication. There's no end to the number of different ways you can slice the pie.

Further complicating matters, age no longer means what it used to. Fifty-year-old baby boomers prefer rock 'n' roll to Geritol; 30-year-olds may still be living with their parents. People now repeat stages and recycle their lives. You can have two men who are 64 years old, and one is retired and driving around in a Winnebago, and the other is just remarried with a toddler in his house.

Generational marketing, which defines consumers not just by age, but also by social, economic, demographic and psychological factors, has been used since the early 80s to give a more accurate picture of the target consumer.

A newer twist is cohort marketing, which studies groups of people who underwent the same experiences during their formative years. This leads them to form a bond and behave differently from people in different cohorts, even when they're similar in age. For instance, people who were young adults in the 50s behave differently from people who came of age during the tumultuous 60s, even though they're close in age.

To get an even narrower reading, some entrepreneurs combine cohort or generational marketing with life stages, or what people are doing at a certain time in life (getting married, having children, retiring) and physiographics, or physical conditions related to age (nearsightedness, arthritis, menopause).

Today's consumers are more marketing-savvy than ever before and don't like to be "lumped" with others--so be sure you understand your target market. While pinpointing your market so narrowly takes a little extra effort, entrepreneurs who aim at a small target are far more likely to make a direct hit.

Conclusion :

The Target Market a specific group of consumers at which a company aims its products and services. Target customers are those most likely to buy from you. Do not be tempted to be too general in hopes of getting a larger chunk of the market.

Source :

http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/term/82498.html

The Four P'S

The Four P’S       

Marketing decisions generally fall into the following four controllable categories:

·         Product

·         Price

·         Place (distribution)

·         Promotion

The term "marketing mix" became popularized after Neil H. Borden published his 1964 article, The Concept of the Marketing Mix. Borden began using the term in his teaching in the late 1940's after James Culliton had described the marketing manager as a "mixer of ingredients". The ingredients in Borden's marketing mix included product planning, pricing, branding, distribution channels, personal selling, advertising, promotions, packaging, display, servicing, physical handling, and fact finding and analysis. E. Jerome McCarthy later grouped these ingredients into the four categories that today are known as the 4 P's of marketing, depicted below:

The Marketing Mix

These four P's are the parameters that the marketing manager can control, subject to the internal and external constraints of the marketing environment. The goal is to make decisions that center the four P's on the customers in the target market in order to create perceived value and generate a positive response.

Product Decisions

The term "product" refers to tangible, physical products as well as services. Here are some examples of the product decisions to be made:

·         Brand name

·         Functionality

·         Styling

·         Quality

·         Safety

·         Packaging

·         Repairs and Support

·         Warranty

·         Accessories and services

Price Decisions

Some examples of pricing decisions to be made include:

·         Pricing strategy (skim, penetration, etc.)

·         Suggested retail price

·         Volume discounts and wholesale pricing

·         Cash and early payment discounts

·         Seasonal pricing

·         Bundling

·         Price flexibility

·         Price discrimination

Distribution (Place) Decisions

Distribution is about getting the products to the customer. Some examples of distribution decisions include:

·         Distribution channels

·         Market coverage (inclusive, selective, or exclusive distribution)

·         Specific channel members

·         Inventory management

·         Warehousing

·         Distribution centers

·         Order processing

·         Transportation

·         Reverse logistics

Promotion Decisions

In the context of the marketing mix, promotion represents the various aspects of marketing communication, that is, the communication of information about the product with the goal of generating a positive customer response. Marketing communication decisions include:

·         Promotional strategy (push, pull, etc.)

·         Advertising

·         Personal selling & sales force

·         Sales promotions

·         Public relations & publicity

·         Marketing communications budget

Limitations of the Marketing Mix Framework

The marketing mix framework was particularly useful in the early days of the marketing concept when physical products represented a larger portion of the economy. Today, with marketing more integrated into organizations and with a wider variety of products and markets, some authors have attempted to extend its usefulness by proposing a fifth P, such as packaging, people, process, etc. Today however, the marketing mix most commonly remains based on the 4 P's. Despite its limitations and perhaps because of its simplicity, the use of this framework remains strong and many marketing textbooks have been organized around it.

Conclusion :

The four P is the parameter that  marketing managers can control, subject to the constraints of  internal and external  marketing environment. The goal is to make decisions that center the four P's to customers in the target market to create perceived value and generate a positive response.

Source :

http://www.netmba.com/marketing/mix/

Marketing

Marketing

This section is an overview of the concepts and decisions covered under the term 'marketing'. We will first develop a definition of marketing and explain each element of the definition. Then we look at some of the reasons why people should study marketing. We introduce the marketing concept and consider several issues associated with implementing it. Next we define and discuss the major tasks associated with marketing strategy: market opportunity analysis, target market selection, marketing mix development, and management of marketing activities.

If you ask several people what marketing is, they will respond with a variety of descriptions.' Marketing encompasses many more activities than most people realise. Since it is practised and studied for many different reasons, it has been, and continues to be, defined in many ways, for academic, research, or applied business purposes. According to the U.K. Chartered Institute of Marketing,

Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying consumers' requirements profitably.

A rather different definition has been developed by the American Marketing Association (AMA):

Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organisational goals.

These definitions are mostly accepted by academics and marketing managers. They emphasise that marketing focuses on planning and executing activities to satisfy customers' demands. Whereas earlier definitions restricted marketing as a business activity, this definition is broad enough to indicate that marketing can occur in non-business organisations.

Although the above definitions are acceptable, we believe that marketing should be defined still more broadly. A definition of marketing should indicate that marketing consists of activities performed by individuals and organisations. In addition, it should acknowledge that marketing activities occur in a dynamic environment. Thus we define marketing as follows:

Marketing consists of activities that facilitate and expedite satisfying exchange relationships in a dynamic environment through the creation, distribution, promotion, and pricing of products (goods, services, and ideas).

In this definition, an exchange is the provision or transfer of goods, services, and ideas in return for something of value. Any product may be involved in a marketing exchange. We assume only that individuals and organisations expect to gain a reward in excess of the costs incurred. So that our definition may be fully understood, we now examine each component more closely.

Marketing products effectively requires many activities. Some are performed by producers; some are accomplished by intermediaries, who buy products from producers or from other intermediaries and resell them; and some are even performed by purchasers. Marketing does not include all human and organisational activities, but only those aimed at facilitating and expediting exchanges.

All organisations perform marketing activities to facilitate exchanges. Businesses as well as non-business organisations, such as colleges and universities, charitable organisations, community theatres, and hospitals, perform marketing activities. For example, colleges and universities and their students engage in exchanges. To receive instruction, knowledge, entertainment, a degree, the use of facilities, and sometimes room and board, students give up time, money, and perhaps services in the form of labour; they may also give up opportunities to do other things. Likewise, many religious institutions engage in marketing activities to satisfy their "customers". Even the sole owner of and worker in a small corner shop decides which products will sell, arranges deliveries to the shop, prices and displays products, advertises, and serves customers.

For an exchange to take place, four conditions must exist. First, two or more individuals, groups, or organisations must participate. Second, each party must possess something of value that the other party desires. Third, each party must be willing to give up its "something of value" to receive the "something of value" held by the other party. The objective of a marketing exchange is to receive something that is desired more than what is given up to get it, that is, a reward in excess of costs. Fourth, the parties to the exchange must be able to communicate with each other to make their something of value available .

Figure 1

Figure 1 illustrates the process of exchange. The arrows indicate that the parties communicate that each has something of value available to exchange. Note, though, that an exchange may not necessarily take place just because these four conditions exist. Nevertheless, even if there is no exchange, marketing activities still have occurred. The something of value held by the two parties are most often products and/or financial resources, such as money or credit. When an exchange occurs, products are traded for other products or for financial resources.

An exchange should be satisfying to both the buyer and the seller. In fact, in a study of marketing managers, 32 percent indicated that creating customer satisfaction was the most important concept in a definition of marketing. Marketing activities, then, should be orientated towards creating and maintaining satisfying exchange relationships. To maintain an exchange relationship, the buyer must be satisfied with the good, service, or idea obtained in the exchange; the seller must be satisfied with the financial reward or something else of value received in the exchange.

The marketing environment consists of many changing forces: laws, regulations, political activities, societal pressures, changing economic conditions, and technological advances. Each of these dynamic forces has an impact on how effectively marketing activities can facilitate and expedite exchanges. For example, the development and acceptance of facsimile (fax) machines has given businesses another vehicle through which to promote their products. Some office suppliers and restaurants send advertisements about their goods and services to businesses and individuals through their fax machines.

Marketing means more than simply advertising or selling a product; it involves developing and managing a product that will satisfy certain needs. it focuses on making the product available at the right place, at the light time, and at a price that is acceptable to customers. It also requires transmitting the kind of information that will help customers determine whether the product will in fact be able to satisfy their needs.

We already have used the word product a number of times. For purposes of discussion, a product is viewed a being a good, a service, or an idea. A good is a physical entity one can touch. A compact disc player, a bar of soap, and a kitten in a pet shop are examples of goods. A service is the application of human and mechanical efforts to people or objects in order to provide intangible benefits to customers. Services such as air travel, dry cleaning, hairdressing, banking, medical care, and child care are just as real as goods, but an individual cannot actually touch them. Ideas include concepts, philosophies, images, and issues. For instance, a marriage counsellor gives couples ideas and advice to help improve their relationships. Other marketers of ideas include political parties, churches, and schools.

Conclusion :

Marketing is an activity that facilitate and expedite satisfying exchange relationships in a dynamic environment through the creation, distribution, promotion, and price of products (goods, services, and ideas).

Sorce

http://www.marketing.org.au/?i=Xn3dEjHBZ5M=&t=jZS6ngCVPug=