The conflict between the development of a proposed New Prosperity mine at Fish Lake and the natives who declared the mine site as a tribal park has greatly impacted Taseko Mines’ expansion plans. Despite Taseko Mines’ statement of their plan to preserve the Fish Lake, the Tsilhqot’in people are still against the mine in the area. The Tsilhqot’in people aims to protect their culture, nature and land. The Tsilhqot’in government, along with First Nations and the minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation, are all in support of the Tsilhqot’in people, which further put Taseko Mines at a disadvantage. Federal panels and government have rejected Taseko Mines twice, and other treats will also arise if the tribal park is designated as a provincial Class A full protection status.

Taseko Mines has been trying to refute what First Nations and federal governments claim, given the $1.1-billion they have invested for this project. However, this is just a waste of time and effort. Instead, Taseko Mines should settle the dispute through conciliation. Thie can be done by formally meeting the First Nations government to negotiate a joint management system like that of Stein Valley Nlaka’pamux Heritage Park. This can be achieved by giving shares to the Tsilhqot’in people and include them as part of Taseko Mines’ management. I believe that merely providing employment for the Tsilhqot’in people will not be enough. Also, Taseko Mines should also increase their transparency in all decisions made and information of the gold-copper mining. In this way, a more positive relationship between Taseko Mines and the Tsilhqot’in people will be established.

Drawing from Minnie’s post, I was gripped by her idea that physical stores and online stores are separate channels that are happening on their own. Yes, it is true that some online shopping has emerged due to its cost leadership strategy, aiming at a broad market from around the world. However, there are also successful online stores that implement differentiation strategy. These kind of online stores are usually introduced after an existing physical store. Therefore, these kind of online stores do not necessarily have low costs, but instead, they offer unique attributes that are valued by customers.

Whilst Minnie argued that physical and online stores are separate channels, I believe that both have merged and a large number of consumers cross channels in their shopping path. Most successful physical stores nowadays also provide online shopping, as consumers expect options when they shop. For example, having an online store allows their products to be attainable by customers from different parts of the world. Also, other consumers can research their products before coming in-store to purchase. Physical stores are also essential, as certain products require face-to-face interactions.

Nevertheless, there are also downsides to a multi-channel sales strategy. There are problems associated with this approach, from difficulty in managing inventory and cash flow to ensuring even demand in both channels. To conclude, I still believe that a company with a good operation management and staying up-to-date with information of customers’ desires, balancing retail this way is an effective approach for a successful business.

Chicory is a New York based online recipe website that not only provide tasty food recipes but also provide instant grocery delivery to your doorstep. When customers have chosen a recipe, they can get all the ingredients directly delivered to them through Chicory’s delivery partners. Chicory uses point-of-sale marketing strategy to attract other brands that want their products to be featured in Chicory’s website when customers are choosing ingredients for their recipes. Moreover, Chicory also partnered with America’s leading Internet grocer, Peapod, which provides a variety of brands and also provides instant delivery services across 24 U.S. Markets. The success of Chicory also attracts other top recipe sites, which increases their footprint; customers can also choose recipes from other sites but still order their ingredients through Chicory. Chicory also hopes that they will attract other major online grocers such as Amazon Fresh in the near future.

I personally am really interested in what Chicory does. I believe that they have the right target consumers, which are busy people. They fulfill their customers’ need of cooking delicious, healthy food efficiently. If they manage to partner up with other top online grocers such as Amazon Fresh, Chicory will not only able to showcase different brands but also act as a price comparison between different delivery services. This will lead to increasing quality, more competitive price and reduced delivery times. I think that this will have a huge, positive impact not only for Chicory, but also for the future growth of online groceries.

Harvard Business School Professor, Clayton Christensen, first introduced the jobs-to-be-done mechanism. He believes that this mechanism is an effective way for the success of new products instead of analyzing existing data. This mechanism works by firstly surveying and interviewing the customers, asking them what job the product does for them and finally, deciding on the jobs to be done. This knowledge allows the company to produce a better product for customers. Christensen gave an example of a milkshake company. After a thorough documentation, he found out that most customers bought the milkshake in the morning before they commute and the reason for it was that the thick liquid of the milkshake gave them a sense of enjoyment. Through this mechanism, the company managed to increase their sales of milkshakes having known the job to be done, which was to create an even thicker milkshake.

Personally, I agree with Professor Christensen to a certain extent. The “job-to-be-done” is not always obvious from the customer’s point of view. It takes a lot of tedious and careful documentation of consumer’s behaviour towards the product. Companies should never assume they know what a customer wants; instead they should identify and collect data about consumers’ behaviour and what job they want your product to do for them. However, I disagree with Professor Christensen when he stated that analysis and planning are the reasons why most new products fail. One of the reasons why most new products fail is probably because they do not meet a perceived need, but it is certainly not because of analysis and planning.