“The rising bird” XiaoMI

This last blog is inspired by my colleague Di MU, and it will be expanding the marketing strategy of  XiaoMi, a Chinese company such as many “Shanzhai’s,that duplicate original brands and sell them at a lower price. https://blogs.ubc.ca/dimu/2013/11/17/xiaomis-marketing-strategies/

It is not new, nor a secret to any one that nearly everything in China comes into three categories. The fake product with ultimate poor quality but looking exactly as the real product (double and triple Sim- Cards business in Africa is a live testimony of this kind of scheming), the middle product with some sense of quality, and the “real product” still with the lowest price on the market. You go to buy, you have to make up your mind between which quality suits you the best.

However, XiaoMi has tackled this challenging problem of choosing by offering “cheap and android- Iphone cell phones.” How does Android work with Apple? Probably XiaMo will also tackle this question in a near future. As someone from Africa, this kind of business is not knew to my ears and neither to idea of fruitful business from it. Not going aainst the point that my colleague made about this company being unstable as you have to open 3 accounts to get your shipment, but if XiaoMi was to partner with developing countries, it will be assuring the future of its “Android- Iphone” or Iphone – Android, still not very sure how to name it.

However as Di Mu said if the company is looking towards expanding its customer base, copying Apple, doesn’t seem like a good idea. If it wants to make its own name, it has to have a point of differentiation, but i guess is its price. But among the many problems that this new Apple has to deal or just realize is that since it only has online commerce, its potential customer base, will be the west. Unlike Africans and Chinese themselves, westerns always look with askance at any brand made in China. Even when the product appears to give them what they need, they will be concerned about its quality and reliability.

So with this is mind, this newest company should think about changing its channels if its looking into international market.

This blog is as a response to Whelam Liam article on Arc Initiative.

Completing the circle.

” Complete the circle”

ARC Initiative class, was my reflection moment on how simple business tools can be used  to create positive and long lasting impact on communities.

While I was watching clip videos from ARC participants in Ethiopia, South Africa and Columbia , I came to realize something. What most entrepreneurs in emerging economies need  is not a savior neither a source of “oxygen” (cash), but instead, someone who will believe in their dreams, strengthen them, and mentor them in the right path.

During Thursday lecture, when I was seeing how much these entrepreneurs are seeking to develop their communities and the opportunities they have of doing it,  I started to think about the whole concept of capitalism and wondered if the future of world market wouldn’t finally lay among the hands of  shared value. Well… time will tell.

Among the 20 classes I have had of commerce, the Thursday lecture was by far the one that had a great impact on me. Learning business and seeing it actually impacting communities, was my “wow moment!. I hope that one day I will have the chance of being among the Sauder students that will complete the ARC circle somewhere in the world.

“He was once a Market Leader”

The list of market leading companies that simply vanished in the last two decades is quite threatening.  The fall of Eastman Kodak, Friendster, Netscape, Motorola and latest but most unbelievable BlackBerry and Blockbuster, rises goose-bumps when one imagines the future of today “market leading companies.”

While each of these companies suffered from its own particular fate:” rapid innovation, effectiveness of newest gadgets and lower prices by the competing companies”,  are the stubbing key points that drove these big companies out of business.

However the inability of foreseeing future threats and the reluctance behind the ideology of being first in the market, such as in the case of Dell and Motorola, also enhanced the degree at which these companies exited their various markets.

There was no doubt about the dominance of Nokia as the world’s leading handset seller and Blackberry as the best corporate household name. Yet in less than five years these companies have fallen from grace and with their shares selling at a fraction of what it was 5 years ago.

Why they drastically fail? They underestimated the popularity of the smartphones given that most of their sales as of 2007 was not from smartphones. They thought getting into smartphone business would be a risky affair.

Risky or not, today many of these companies (Blockbuster is the example I can rapid think of) are still chasing after their companies instead of leading them, because they believe a brand is a tradition that needs to be sustain. However like the Angelina-Brad Pitt- and Jenifer history, Netflix taught this later company that, a leader who does not embrace change is doomed to failure.

Some of these companies were though given opportunities of being saved, but ego problem… a dilemma! For instance the famous example is Yahoo. This later  turned down a 2008 buyout offer from Microsoft that would have brought more than twice the company’s current value.

“Plan long-term”

From previous failed corporations. One would assume that these companies have learn much to avoid falling into the same trap. However there is a thread that runs deep through all the companies who eventually throw away their market leader position and spiral down eventually bought out at a fraction of their value.

You have a dream of becoming big? Please before read this blog and position your business after a thoroughly analysis of your internal and external issues.

http://money.usnews.com/money/business-economy/slideshows/10-great-companies-that-lost-their-edge/11

http://allafrica.com/stories/201310090089.html?viewall=1

Whoever lives in Rwanda or has passed there even 3 days, knows that there is a ragging war for subscribers between MTN, Tigo and Airtel. However he or she also knows that, the true and ferrous war, which started in March 2012,  is actually between MTN and Airtel . However as a consumer that had been marginalized by the high pricing of MTN calls, this war is the best thing that could ever happen to me and to millions of Rwandese.

” New promotion by Airtel- “The Miracle Sim- Card”

Since 1998, MTN has been peaceful enjoying 100% market share of the communication business in Rwanda. However 4 years ago when Tigo came, this peaceful fairy tale took a whole new turn. Today MTN holds 60% of market share and if it doesn’t play a new game, this number might decrease by the end of this year. Why? Airtel new offer, “Simukadi y’Igitangaza” (the miracle Sim-card).

The pack which is priced at 500 Rwandan francs (1$ is 676.50 RWF)  comes with a wealth of free goodies including a welcome bonus of airtime worth 300 francs which can be used to call Airtel and other networks, surf the internet and enjoy free SMSes. By simply dialing *153*(Airtel preferred number), customers can enjoy 30 minutes of free calls to one preferred Airtel number every day and an extra 500Rwf weekly bonus valued at a total of 6,000 francs for 90 days after they join up [1].

For the new appointed CEO of MTN Rwanda Ebenezer Asante, the new Airtel pack, “miracle sim-card” is not a really welcoming cup of tea. But considering the malignancy of MTN marketing this move by Airtel might not be as threatening after all. For instance, MTN is also launching Zone Reloaded” promotion, where clients will be calling for as low as Rwf1 per minute. .

As a consumer who uses both lines: “affordability, innovative products, world-class networks, faster internet access, and free day phone calls”, those are the qualities I and everyone in Rwanda always wished to have within the Rwandan communication services. Today we couldn’t be less happy.

Meanwhile, I wish the outset best to the ragging company in intensifying their competition, in order to promote goods for customers that will best suits their lifestyle.

“Muhammad Yunus” Alfred Nobel Prize Winner”.

It all started with $ 27 bet. “I wanted to find a solution to a problem, and I wanted to do whatever it takes to end that problem”. These were the words of Nobel Prize Muhammad Yunus.

In the mid-1970s Bangladesh was racked with poverty and famine.Greedy money lenders victimized local villagers who wanted to start small businesses. In one village, Muhammad Yunus counted 42 individuals that needed just $ 27 to break out of poverty and gain their freedom. As he invested in them, in one year time, they were able to pay him back and start their future. Today, not only Muhammas bank Grameen Banks accounts more than $ 5 billion, but also it has created a whole new movement in Bamgladesh of shared value.

The individual that sees that there is something missing in the world and sees the opportunity to make a change, is a social entrepreneur.

These society change agents who varies from Mother Teresa to Nobel Prize Muhammad Yunus, are ambitious, mission driven, strategic, and resourceful, and result oriented individuals.

“Human Progress has been strong and quite threatening in the last 100 years”.

The decision makers of today do not really act in the best interest of the public. They act in theirs and today we are facing climate change problems and droughts. Unless drastic end happen, change won’t occur. As we partially brought upon us our own fate, isn’t it time we move from long capitalist view of maximizing self-profit into community shared valued?

We need non- linear change to address our serious current problems. This however will only happen if there is shared value. We seem to know there is a solution to our problem, but we don’t know how to interconnect them or we don’t have the will to. Today that’s when the world needs social entrepreneur. The world needs those rare innovators that will empower communities to learn, create, design and participate in the world sovereignty.

http://skollworldforum.org/about/what-is-social-entrepreneurship/

http://www.weforum.org/news/africas-leading-social-entrepreneurs-be-awarded-world-economic-forum-africa

      Exhausted of waiting for the waiter to bring the check, and unsure of what to do when he finally comes and one person has to figure out how to split the bill fairly? Well… Cover, might be the solution to all these awkward situations!

Launched just last month in New York City, Cover is a free mobile application available on App Store and sooner on Android. This app will enable its users to check- in at one of the participating restaurants, and when it’s time for the check, Cover will automatically pay as long as the customer registered his/her credit card![1]

However, this makes me wonder. What happens when I don’t register my credit card, wait for the waiter to be submerged into his work and walk out of the restaurant without paying? Are restaurants going to put up measures of RIFD or Cover will develop special tracking system? Time will tell…

To proceed with, another cool and risky characteristic of this new app, is equal payment. If you go to a restaurant with a group of friends or family, and the check time comes, cover will split the bill evenly among all the participants registered on your table.

While this address the uncomfortable situations of figuring out who ate what and how much they are supposed to pay, this new specialization however does not help or give much credit to the app in the case where one person decides to order an extra Domaine Romanée-Conti and another does not, and at the end of the day we all have to pay the same amount. This scenario goes against the whole value proposition of “even payment” that the company is trying to sell to its customers. The end result of this is that, customers won’t be satisfied by the App services and sales of the company will diminish, hence no profit.

Nevertheless, even though Cover has quite some flaws, it  still remains one of the Business Technology Management that will help restaurants to leverage new opportunities, redesign their business model and minimize the risks associated with bookkeeping mistakes, server’s distractions when receiving payments, and most important, customer vendetta when the server did not bring the bill on time.

I would like to leave you with a small thought. Do you think that by eliminating the middle- man between our check books and the exist door will create and aggravate the distance that technology has already established between and within individuals?

What does Red Bull represent to you? Please ask this question to a student struggling with work due the next day, an athlete whose life depends on that tierce of second, and to that adrenaline lover who just want to fly, friend… they will give you an extended essay on this product!

Red Bull’s name is synonym of fun, coolness, exaltation, and SWAGG! Red Bull has an intimate understanding of who their target market is (young men), what they watch (sports), and what they like (adventure, danger, pushing the limits). By speaking the same language as its consumers, this marketing genius, who has 60% of the market share, has been able to position himself in the head of his consumers as, ”a part of their lifestyle”. A life style which revolves around easiness and excitement “It will give you wings”.

Though our Bull uses traditional advertising (TV, magazine, etc…) to convey us to buy that drink that will keeps us wired for few more hours, our TGIF booster has also some convincing “guerilla marketing toys! As in, they sent a guy to the edge of space and told him to jump shooting out loud Red Bull’s! If that isn’t some crazy move to sustain our attention, what else can it be? These unusual creative and non- traditional advertisement not only differentiates Red Bull from other energy drinks, such as Monster, but also creates in many people the feeling of belonging to the number one revolutionary drink.

Red bull is everywhere and at each moment. They are distributing via more channels than any other energy drink company, for instance who else is our rowdy partner in any event if not Red Bull?In the past few years, they have had campaigns featuring wing suits (Girls really look amazing in those!), Rube Goldberg machines, and in a sudden we feel like Tintin heroes! In addition, the company sponsors many athletes and teams participating in both traditional and extreme sports (full list of sponsorships) as well as events such as the Red Bull Air Race and the Red Bull Flugtag. They even have their own record label!

Seriously, tell me that you’re not convince that in this era where sleep is so fast -paced Red Bull isn’t our Buzz Factor?

HBO Real Sports – Red Bull Extreme Marketing

What is the connection between Tongxiang, China- based Zheijang Cobalt Co. and Mbuji-Mayi capital city of Kasai Oriental in Democratic Republic of Congo? Child labor. The brutal truth about modern slavery shows that 4 out of 10 children in the Mbuji- Mayi district are forced to crawl into the underground mines with their hands and knees to dig for the essential raw materials, “coltan” needed to make electronic gadgets.

This rare columbium tantalite black gold, that Tongxiang Cobalt Co. provides to Sony Corp. Nokia Oyi and Samsung Electronics Co, to make our fancy cell phones, laptops, iPods, wireless systems, DVD players… is as a result of the calloused little hands of children under the age of 10 dug into dangerous mines of more than 100 feet. While these freelancers discover mines of coltan and diamond  worth millions of dollars everyday, they earn 20 cents a day that they not only use to buy food but also take care of the younger siblings. Hence one wonders what the cost of technology? What is one ready to do in the name of business? Can one justify child labor as Zheijang Huayou’s Zhain responded while asked about the child labor accusation “I’ve never been to Congo, so I don’t know the mines.” Whether you ‘been to Congo or you are the Congolese government itself the reality is that you ignored Geneva- based International Labor Organization and as a result more than two million children have died in the mining companies for the last  ten years.

For many, personal interest comes before morality in business. However I believe that whoever pronounces this sentence, wouldn’t want to be at the place of the person suffering for his sleep. Therefore, its time, we learn to know the difference between what we have the right to do and what is right to do.