COMMERCE IN THE WORLD

DEFINITION OF TERMS:

Goods: Raw materials as well as tangible, manufactured products such as cars, mobile phones, books etc.

Services: This simply means the work that people do for others in order to earn their living. Examples are the civil service works, banking works, cleaning works etc.

Trade: This means the activities of buying, selling and exchange of goods and services.

Trade by Barter: This means exchange of goods for goods and services for services. It is an ancient system of buying and selling. It was used when money was not in existence.

WHAT THEN IS COMMERCE?

Commerce is the distribution of goods and services and includes all the ancillary services that make buying and selling possible. In other world, commerce is trade and aids to trade. Commerce is different from trade. Trade is the activity of buying and selling of goods and services while commerce includes all the activities that makes the distribution of goods and services possible. Therefore, trade has a very narrow meaning which includes buying and selling while commerce has a wider meaning which includes trade and all those ancillary services that facilitate buying and selling.

DIVISIONS OF COMMERCE.

Commerce is divided into two. They are: Trade and Aids to Trade.

Trade: Trade is the act of buying and selling of goods and services in home and foreign markets. Trade is sub-divided into home trade and foreign trade.

Home Trade: these are the activities if buying and selling of goods and services within a country. It can also be called domestic or internal trade. It can be divided into two. They are wholesale trade and retail trade.

Wholesale trade: this is the act of buying and selling of goods and services in a large scale or in bulk  by the wholesalers or distributors from the manufactures or producers and selling the goods in the small quantities to the retailers.

Retail trade: This trade includes buying goods from the wholesalers/manufacturers and selling the goods in smaller units to the final consumers or customers. People who are involved in thi trade are called retailers.

Foreign Trade: Foreign trade is the exchange of goods and services or buying and selling of goods and services between two or more countries of the world. Foreign trade can also be called international trade, external trade, bilateral trade, multi-lateral trade. Foreign trade is divided into import, export, intrepot, counter trade.

Import Trade: This involves buying goods from other countries and bringing the goods into your country. Import includes both visible goods like cars, shoes, television sets etc and the invisible goods like the services of the professionals from other countries into your own country.

Export Trade: This is the direct opposite of the import trade. Export trade involves producing goods and services from your own country and taking the goods and services produced into another country.

Counter Trade: This can be defined as the trade without exchange of money. You can also call it a bilateral trade.

Intrepot Trade: This type of trade involves importing goods from one country and re-exporting the goods to another country without adding any other value.

AIDS TO TRADE

Aids to trade are also called ancillaries to trade. They are the activities that help the act of buying and selling to be effective. They includes: advertising, insurance, transportation, banking, warehousing and communication.

Advertising: This is the process by which the members of the public are informed of the existence of a product or service. It stimulates the demand of the product and educates the members of the public on the uses and the quality of the commodity.

Insurance: This will enable the traders to obtain compensation in the event of any of the insured risks happening.

Banking: Banking provides financial services to the manufacturers and traders. The traders or the manufactures can request for the help of banks in the area of funds. Bank can now give the funds in form of loan and overdraft. Also, business men and women can take the excess of money in their cash till into the bank account for the safe-keeping of the money.

Transportation: This is the movement of people, goods and services from one place to another. Many commercial activities can not be performed without transport system.

Warehousing: This involves the storage of goods in the store until the time the goods are needed. Producers, agent, wholesalers, retailers usually have a very large quantities of goods for sale. They will need to store the goods in the store before the goods are sold.

Communication: Communication is the transmission of information from one end to the other. This can be achieved via telephone and other internet facilities, and face to face communication between sellers and the buyers.

THE FUNCTIONS PERFORME BY COMMERCE

The following are the functions perform by commerce:

1.      It is an occupation

2.      It improve the standard of living of the society

3.      It makes people rich

4.      It sustains good human relationship

5.      It helps international relationship as such reduces wars between countries

6.      It encourages production

7.      It facilitate exchange

8.      It create job opportunities

9.      It promotes educational development

10.   It facilitate technological development

OCCUPATIONS

Meaning:

Any productive activity in which a person engages in permanently in order to ear a living is known as occupation. Any thing you will do after schooling is your occupation. In business, anyone who is engage in occupation is a producer.

People prefer some occupation to others as a result of many factors.  Some of these factors are:

1.      Geographical location

2.      Natural resources available

3.      Climate and soil type

4.      Skill

5.      Education

6.      Large market

7.      Salaries and wages

8.      Sex type

DIVISIONS OF OCCUPATIONS

Occupation can be divided into three. They are:

1.      Industrial Occupation

2.      Commercial Occupation

3.      Service occupation

Industrial Occupations

These are the occupations which involve the extraction of raw materials and natural resources, changing them into finished products and assembling them into the form usable by men. Industrial occupation are classified into the following: extraction, manufacturing and construction

Extractive Occupation: These occupations are directed to the extraction of raw materials and natural resources from the soil and seas. Examples are the agricultural products like yam, cassava, timbers, oranges, also the hunters who deals with the hunting of animals. Mining which concerns with the mining of natural resources like crude oil, iron ore, gold, clay, slate etc.  Fishing which deals with catching fishes, whaling and catching of other sea creatures. Fishing occupation provides raw materials for industrial and commercial occupation.

Manufacturing Occupation

This occupation is concerned about changing the raw materials extracted by the extractive occupation into finished products with added value. For example, cassava tubers extracted by the farmers can be used to produce other things like gari and other products in Nigeria.

Construction Occupations

These occupations use the materials produced by the manufacturing occupation as raw materials. They deals with the assembling of the materials produced and make those products available to man in a usable form. Examples include construction of houses, bridges, roads etc.

Commercial Occupation

Commercial occupations include all activities of trading as well as the activities which facilitates trade. They include banking, warehousing, insurance, communication, transportation and advertising. Persons involves in commercial occupations are traders, wholesalers, bankers, insurance agents, transporters, shippers, communication providers e.t.c

Service Occupations

Service occupations involve all those personal and personalized services that are saleable to consumers who pay for them directly of indirectly. There are two categories of service occupation. They are:

1.      Direct Service

2.      Indirect Service.

IMPACT OF RESOURCES MANAGEMENT ON THE SUCCESS OF BUSINESS ORGANIZATION.

A SEMINAR PAPER

BY

MR. AKINBOLURE FOLORUNSO SAMUE

INTRODUCTION

Resources is the largest single element of cost and as an efficient system of resources management lead to a significant economy in the total cost. Resources is as much cash itself and any theft, waste and excessive use of resources can cause immediate and direct financial losses.  The resources means raw materials components, sub-assembles and finished products.

Resources management involves a number of issues like the determination of quantity and quality, purchasing, store issuing and dispatching. Resources management today is a distinct area of industrial management and plays a very vital role in production and productivity.

Resources management is basically a most important functional area of any organization or undertaking to achieve the best results so far as profitability is concerned. Resources management covers a much wider field  and deals with all aspects of materials supply and utilization as well as cost. It is concerned with the entire rage of functions which affect the flow, conservation, utilization, quality and cost of materials. It covers that aspect of industrial management which is concerned with the activities involved in the acquisition, storage and flow of all resources directly and indirectly employed in the  production and marketing of finished goods. Resources management should therefore be considered as a function of prime importance for our economy.

This study therefore, examines the impact of resources management on the sources of business organization, the objectives and importance, the functions, disadvantages of resources management and strategies of ensuring effective resources management in organization.

MEANING OF RESOURCES

According to oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary, resources simply means a supply of something that a country, organization or a person has and can use, especially to increase their wealth. It is any thing that can help to achieve an aim, especially a book, equipment e.t.c that provides information for teachers and students.

Based on what Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English said, resources can be defined under the following sub-headings:

(a)   Natural Resources: Something such as land, minerals, or natural energy that exist in the country and can be used to increase its wealth.

(b)   Money/Property: All the money, properties, skills that you have available.

(c)    Personal Qualities: Personal qualities such as courage, and strong mind, that you need to deal with difficult situations.

In business oriented definition of resources, it simply means the totality of raw materials, components, sub-assembles and finished products which an organization or company has at hand.

There are various types of resources which exists in any country or an organization. Some of which are:

1.      Natural Resources E.g. oil, gas, minerals

2.      Human Resources E.g. Knowledge of employees

3.      Material Resources E.g. Machine and Buildings

4.      Financial Resources E.g. Money and credit

Before one can actually select the resources to be used, there are criteria which must be considered. Some of them  are:

1.      The nature of the task to be performed

2.      The availability of the resources to be used

3.      The technical know how of the labour

RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN PERSPECTIVES

Mencn (1995) defined resources management as a total concepts involving organizational structure unifying into a single responsibility, the systematic flow and control of resources from identification of the need through customer delivery. Included in this concept are the resources functions of planning, scheduling, buying, storing, moving and distributing. These are represented by the discipline of production and inventory control, purchasing and physical distribution.

Sharma (2000) observed it as a concept that integrates all the activities of planning, scheduling, and controlling resources from design through production and including delivery to the customers. Thus, it establishes full responsibility over the material flow system with full accountability for quality, delivery and cost.

Carter (1985) states that it an organizational concept in which a single manager has authority and responsibility for all the activities principally concerned with the flow of resources into an organization, which includes purchasing, production, planning, scheduling, incoming traffic, inventory control, receiving and storing.

Ammer (1969) defines resources management as the line of responsibility which begins with the selection of suppliers and ends when the resources are delivered to its points of uses.

Jhingan (2004) recapitulates resources management as a total of all these tasks, functions, activities and routine which concern the transfer of external resources and services into the organization and the administration of same until they are consumed or used in the process of production operation or sale. There are  differences of emphasis between these definitions, although, all are concerned with management of resources and all start with the supplier.

OBJECTIVES OF RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

Objectives of resources management are the desires and result. According Menton (1995) the objectives of resources management includes:

1.      To ensure continuous and un-interrupted production by maintaining a steady flow of resources

2.      To achieve the above objective in an efficient and economical manner

3.      To effect economies in the cost of resources by purchasing resources of right quality in the right quantity at the right time, from the right source and at the right price.

4.      To effect economies in the cost incurred on the resources after they have been purchased through storage, processing and warehousing until the finished goods ultimately reached the customers.

5.      To reduce working capital requirements through proper and scientific inventory control.

6.      To be alive to changes in the market in respect of new products.

7.      To improve the quality of manufactured goods by the use of better resources or components and thereby increase the competitiveness of such goods put on sale.

8.      To increase the competitiveness of manufactured goods by reducing their process through the cost reduction and value analysis.

9.      To save foreign exchange through import substitution economizing on foreign purchases.

10.  To ensure cooperation among all departments of the organization to meet materials management objectives, both at the corporate and functional levels, and to ensure proper co-ordination in respect of such activities.

FUNCTIONS OF RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

The following functions, according to Lenders and Fearon (1997) are included in the resources management. They are resources planning and programming, resources purchasing, store keeping, inventory control, resources handling, quality control and inspection, value engineering, simplification and standardization.

Planning of resources requirement and its timely provisioning is the essence of the success of resources management. This function involve the setting up to consumption standard of working out the requirements for all resources for any given manufacturing programmer, considering all relevant factors, that is, make or buy, laying down standard and specification source of supply available, availability of stock, import substitution, lead time, manufacturing schedule, economic ordering quantity is considered while programming for resources requirements. Resources planning also involves maintenance of information system to feed detail necessary for it better functioning in future.

Purchasing function include locating and development of sources of supply market research for purchasing, calling for tender selection of suppliers, negotiating, entry into contract and issue of purchase orders mentioning specification, delivery schedule and other forms and conditions. Purchasing function also include suppliers performance evaluation, preparation of materials budget with the help of resources planning and inventory control sections.

Store-keeping involves receipt, custody and issue of materials or resources. The resources received against purchase order placed by purchase section are kept for in the store after they are inspected and checked for quality as per specifications, physical condition and quantity. The resources are kept in such a way that they requires minimum handling and remains well protected against any damage or loss. Resources are issued from the store against the authorized indents or store issue vouchers and proper record is maintained for receipt and issue of resources. Physical verification and salvage and disposal of surplus of resources is another key function of store keeping.

Inventory control is a systematic location, storage and recording of goods in such a way that desires degree of service can be made to the operating shop s at minimum ultimate cost. Inventory control has the following functions to run the store effectively:

(a)   To ensure timely availability of resource and avoid build up of stock

(b)   Technical responsibility for the state of the materials

(c)    Stock control system can be developed and followed.

(d)   To maintain specific raw material

(e)   To protect the inventories

(f)     Pricing of materials supplies

(g)   To develop policies, plans and standard essential to achieve inventory control objectives.

Various functions related to store keeping requires lot of handling starting from receipt of resources, inspection storage and issue, item should be handled in such a way that it requires minimum handling. For large stores, suitable material handling system not only economizing handling, but also space provides better working condition and effective distribution system.

Quality control in simplest terms, is the control of quality during manufacturing. Quality of a product itself comprises several manufacturing and engineering characteristics  which make the product to meet the performance expectation  the designer and the customers. These characteristics are dimension, chemical property, sensory property. In other words, quality includes appearance, performance, life, dependability, reliability, durability, maintainability, smell, taste, feel, sound. Inspection is the process of sorting good from bad and reject the bad. Inspection is defined as the act of comparing material, products, or performance with the established standards. The objectives of inspection are: to detect error in manufacturing system, to protect the customers from receiving a product that is below the quality level, and to compile information regarding the performance of the product with specifications for the use of engineering production, purchasing, quality control and other divisions.

Value engineering is a tool of management which approach the question of saving cost from the point of view of value. In other words, value engineering is a study of relationship between the design function and cost of part keeping this in view, reduces the cost through change in design, modification in specification of materials used, changing the source of supply etc.

Simplification is a form of standardizations for the reduction of the number of types of products within a definite range to that number which is adequate to meet prevailing need at the given time. Specification reduces range of products, their types, size and also reduces their complexity of manufacturing procedures. Standardization is the setting up of standard for quality of raw materials, sizes and performance etc of any product. It is helpful for checking the quality performance and value of product.

PROBLEMS OF RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

The following are the problems of resources management according to Uzor (2004). Resources manager having a sound grasp of all the divers activities involved are difficult to recruit. The difficulty is obtaining personnel qualified to handle sub-function procedures,  particularly the resources organization, is a significant limitation of resources management.  Critics of the resources management form of organization emphasis that it is difficult if not impossible, for one person to co-ordinate and control the many variables of resources operations effectively and the effective co-ordination is too difficult to achieve merely be established a new organizational structure.

Others feel that production control and purchasing departments will be neglected under such an organization. Resources management may be suitable for some undertaking examples, firms which process basic raw materials such as sugar, where the product process are subject to frequent  and resources quality is crucial.

SYMPTOMS OF POOR RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

According to Shama (2003), the following are the symptoms of poor resources management:

1.      High rate of order cancellations

2.      Excessive machine down time due to resources shortages

3.      Periodic lack of adequate space

4.      Large scale inventories write down because of price decline, distress sales, disposal of obsolete or slow moving items

5.      Widely varying rate of inventory losses

6.      Large scale write down of the time of physical inventory taking

7.      Continuous growing inventory quantities

8.      Inability to meet delivery schedule

9.      Uneven production

CONCLUDING REMARKS

Effective resources management is important for a balance growth and effective running of the organization. It is important that resources cost, resources supply and its utilization is controlled in such a way so as to result in:

1.       Maximization of production

2.       Reduction of cost of production

3.       Maximization of profit.

This is achieved by reducing materials cost, preventing large amount of capital locked up in inventory for long and by improving the capital turn-over ratio.

The study, however, recommends the measure for effective resources management in organization. There should be proper co-operation and co-ordination between various departments dealing with materials, namely; purchasing department, store department, receiving and inspecting department etc. there should be contract purchasing department under the control of the component and expert purchasing manager and standardization of items held in stock. This is the method of reducing to a minimum , the varieties of stock held without detriment to the need of the users maintenance of stock levels. The maximum and minimum re-order level of stock items, the resources requirement of organization should be properly planned ahead so that production budget of the firm may be met.

Other includes, control by budget of resources and equipments purchases. The management should see that no resources is purchased without authority, that is, without the purchase requisition signed by the person authorized to do so, that all transactions involving resources are checked by reliable and independent persons. There should be regular reporting to the management regarding purchase, issue and stock of materials. Special report should be prepared for obsolete items shortage, return to suppliers etc. in the store, bin cards must be maintained for each items of materials and then cost account too should be maintained to show the list of stock held at any time together with their values

There should be efficient purchasing system which ensures that materials are obtained at the right quality, at the required price and at the right time, and goods received into store must be inspected and ensure that they conform with the specification as stated on the order.

ATTRIBUTES OF PUNCTUALITY AND REGULARITY IN BUSINESS

The following are the attributes of punctuality and regularity:

1. Commitment: This is the willingness to work hard and give your energy and time to a job or activity. A worker that report promptly to work regularly will always be seen to be more committed than the one that takes excuses from work.

2. Interest: Interest is the feeling that you  have when you want to know or learn more about something or somebody. The employer will easily know which worker is interested in his job as he displays punctuality and regularity.

3. Promptness: This means, acting without delay. The employer will always like to reward promptness as every thing must be done to time and schedule.

4. Consistency: This means the quality of always behaving the same way or having the same standard. Regularity and consistency are closely related.

5. Self-motivation: A worker who is regularly punctual desplays a self-motivation to get the job done on time. To be early to all meeting and get information on time shows reliability and dedication.

6. Accountability: There is a display of accountability when a worker shows punctuality and regularity.The worker prove that he/she can be accountablewhen put in position of authority.

THE MEANING AND DEFINITION OF INTEGRETY

In an effort to define the word "integrity", I came up with some explanations, after consulting some dictionaries and encyclopaedias.

Integrity is made up of several words, meanings and synonyms. It consists of a lot of what can be described as ethical and moral values or civilised values.

1. Soundness:

This refers to how healthy an opinion, argument, reasoning or a research finding is, implying how free it is from flaw, defect or decay.

Also, how free is it from error, fallacy, or misapprehension; exhibiting or based on thorough knowledge and experience; legally valid; logically valid and having true premises; agreeing with accepted views.

It also means solid, firm, stable and thorough; showing good sense or judgment based on valid information.

2. Completeness:

It means having all necessary parts, elements, or steps; highly proficient; totally, absolutely, thoroughly and fully carried out; including all possible parts.

3. Sincerity:

It means fairness and straightforwardness of conduct; adherence to the facts.

4. Honesty:

It implies a refusal to lie, steal, or deceive in any way.

5. Honor:

It suggests an active or anxious regard for the standards of one's profession, calling, or position.

6. Probity:

It implies tried and proven honesty or truthfulness.

7. Incorruptibility:

It implies trustworthiness and truthfulness to a degree that one is incapable of being false to a trust, responsibility or pledge.

It also finally means being incapable of corruption; not subject to decay or dissolution; incapable of being bribed or morally corrupted.

8. Conclusion:

The question to be asked is where does a nation stand with regard to these principles of integrity; where does an organisation or political party stand and finally what is my individual position? This synonymous question can also be asked: How civilised are we?

9. Resources:
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

10. The Stanford University Encyclopedia of Philosophy states the following:

"Integrity is one of the most important and oft-cited of virtue terms. It is also perhaps the most puzzling. For example, while it is sometimes used virtually synonymously with 'moral,' we also at times distinguish acting morally from acting with integrity. Persons of integrity may in fact act immorally-though they would usually not know they are acting immorally. Thus one may acknowledge a person to have integrity even though that person may hold importantly mistaken moral views.

When used as a virtue term, 'integrity' refers to a quality of a person's character; however, there are other uses of the term. One may speak of the integrity of a wilderness region or an ecosystem, a computerized database, a defense system, a work of art, and so on. When it is applied to objects, integrity refers to the wholeness, intactness or purity of a thing-meanings that are sometimes carried over when it is applied to people. A wilderness region has integrity when it has not been corrupted by development or by the side-effects of development, when it remains intact as wilderness. A database maintains its integrity as long as it remains uncorrupted by error; a defense system as long as it is not breached. A musical work might be said to have integrity when its musical structure has a certain completeness that is not intruded upon by uncoordinated, unrelated musical ideas; that is, when it possesses a kind of musical wholeness, intactness and purity.

Integrity is also attributed to various parts or aspects of a person's life. We speak of attributes such as professional, intellectual and artistic integrity. However, the most philosophically important sense of the term 'integrity' relates to general character. Philosophers have been particularly concerned to understand what it is for a person to exhibit integrity throughout life. Acting with integrity on some particularly important occasion will, philosophically speaking, always be explained in terms of broader features of a person's character and life.

What is it to be a person of integrity? Ordinary discourse about integrity involves two fundamental intuitions: first, that integrity is primarily a formal relation one has to oneself, or between parts or aspects of one's self; and second, that integrity is connected in an important way to acting morally, in other words, there are some substantive or normative constraints on what it is to act with integrity. How these two intuitions can be incorporated into a consistent theory of integrity is not obvious, and most accounts of integrity tend to focus on one of these intuitions to the detriment of the other.

A number of accounts have been advanced, the most important of them being: (i) integrity as the integration of self; (ii) integrity as maintenance of identity; (iii) integrity as standing for something; (iv) integrity as moral purpose; and (v) integrity as a virtue. These accounts are reviewed below. We then examine several issues that have been of central concern to philosophers exploring the concept of integrity: the relations between types of integrity, integrity and moral theory, and integrity and social and political conditions."

For further detailed discussion of "Integrity" visit:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/integrity