In Chloe Kim’s blog, she has mentioned the benefits of utilizing QR code as a marketing strategies. QR code is a matrix barcode first used on automotive industry to track vehicles. First designed in 1994, QR code was aimed to be decoded at the fastest speed.

QR code is a low cost strategy according to the porter’s generic strategies and it indeed promotes the marketing exposure efficiently. As more and more people are using smartphone, scaning or taking picture of the QR code to link to the website becomes more common.

However, we should also be aware of the disadvantage that it might bring. For instance, there are some malicious QR codes that attack customers’ mobile phone and access to the sensitive information contained in it. In order to increase the security of your mobile phone,

1.  You should choose a configurable QR-reader software that enables you to confirm QR-code output prior to its’ acceptance.
2. Never scan a QR-code that has an unknown origin
3. You can check your mobile QR-reader vulnerability by scanning the two evilQR and comparing the result to the assessment provided here

It ponders me every time discussing the motivation behind extreme sports. Risking your life to earn money? (Source: Economist Blogs) My life worths more than the rush of adrenaline during the race to me. Yet, because of the numerous of accidental deaths, Randy Barnard, President of IndyCar, saw the business opportunity in selling ‘danger’.

IndyCar is an auto racing sanctioning corporation. It has developed and restarted various of series throughout the decades, including IZOD, Firestone Indy Lights, Star Mazda Championship and US F2000.

The reason why IndyCar has become an outstanding business was because there are more people who think like me,meaning who prefers safely and security. However, fans dislike the attitude not pushing to the limit of racers. Among the competitors, IndyCar stands out as it embraces the riskiness and become a popular racing series.

Following is an analysis based on Porter’s Generic Strategies:

IndyCar belongs to a narrow market (auto racing) and its products are very unique. Although it is competing against NASCAR and Formula One, IndyCar has apparent advantage and popular qualities to win audience and sponsorships. In addition, although the company has less bargaining power against suppliers, it has limited competition because of the high entry costs.

Responding to Ernest Fung’s blog ‘Go Green’ or ‘Go Greed’, I agree on Milton Friedman’s viewpoint that social responsibility is a strategy in positioning the company to have an appealing impression to consumers. In addition, a lot of products nowadays claim that they are ‘green’ yet with NGO like Fairware (company that assesses supplier with environmental criteria), consumers will have fully understanding of the true green company.

On the other note, although going green is a popular trend, the products often result with a higher cost from manufacturing. Furthermore, the degree of acceptance also depends on the income level and development of technology in the area. For instance, there are more citizens prefer using smart cars in Vancouver than in Alberta because
1) the needs are different and
2) people with high income level can afford more expensive car.

In short, the above example confirms that many firms take up social responsibility as a branding position, yet the trend requires the combination of people, time and environment. Following the trend of being sustainable, for example, might not be as popular in some regions.

Further reading: Harvard Business Review’s Blog – Making the Business Case for Sustainability.

Our speaker Joanna, has mentioned in the lecture of Social Entrepreneurship that TOMS is a good example of social enterprise, and I have conducted some research to find out more about its initiative and beneficiaries.

TOMS is a one for one company which means with every pair of shoes sold, it will donate one pair of shoes to children who are in underdeveloped country. TOMS also has jewelry and eyewear line of products to help support poor people in potential diseases.

Yet there is plenty of criticism towards this popular social enterprise regarding its authenticity:

1) Giving out shoes to children in need does not help sustain the improvement of their living standards. Instead, the main issue should be focusing on the eliminating poverty through providing a job and earning income in underdeveloped countries.

2) The shoes are manufactured in China, which is notorious in having unfair working conditions. TOMS might have taken advantage of the low cost labour and be innocent about it.

To conclude, TOMS has been a good intention and raised a lot of awareness in poverty. Yet its solution does not help solve the overarching problem which customers are often misled by the fancy mask.

In a balanced scorecard framework, we used long term and short term performance metrics to evaluate a business.

For Google, I determined the long term metric is based on the growth as it is growing in an alarming rate by acquiring a lot of technologies and innovation throughout the past decade.

For example, Google has launched the idea of Google TV in partnership with Logitech. It allows consumers to access online video and also play video games or app on TV. While this concept is not matured, some analysts see a great potential behind this device. In addition, Google has expanded itself to be involved in telecommunication market (google nexus), personal management (gwallet), social media (google+), and many more industries. These incorporation proved that Google has become an excel company in the world.

On another note, I evaluated Google through their financial information for the short term metric.

As the chart suggested, Google has increased sales rapidly in 2003 and then acquired lots of assets in 2004. Furthermore, all long term debt is cleared in 2004 and Google has doubled the share outstanding in 10 years.

To conclude, Google is a extremely stronger company and I am confident in its future development and success.

Reality On the Cheap Flights

Ryan Air, the notorious flight company who puts surcharge on fat customers, and demolishing two out of three washrooms on the plane to fit more customers on the plane. These actions have proved Ryan Air’s unique way in surviving in the industry with high fuel costs. With the ticket cheap enough, passengers might still be willing to go on board to the plane.

In my opinion, Ryan Air is not an ethical business as it devours the human rights, for example for fat people to maintain their lifestyles, and the right to go to washroom. Yet it is a free market and customers have to choice to choose whether they want quality service on the plane or cheap tickets. I hope Ryan Air will not charge passengers for oxygen and emergency practices in the future, as the video has suggested.

Regardless of the criticism, Ryan Air did strive in the last decade despise having intense competitions. The company has earned $81 million profit and it has quadrupled its customers in 10 years. As a result, pricing is indeed a very important factor marketing and positioning strategy to attract customers.

Dropbox has displayed its stunning personality back when it turned down Apple’s offer to purchase the product. Providing digital storage services for users (500 million users at the date of Oct 18, 2011, as the number went threefold over the year), Dropbox has recorded $240 million revenue in 2011 even though 96% of users pay nothing. This information indicates the potential of Dropbox at expanding and creating more features to attract customers in investing in them.

Short Analysis of Dropbox Positioning:

1. Awesome Brand Image: “Simplify your life”
-The idea behind Dropbox is that users can store their stuff online and download it from elsewhere (works offline too!). Not only this online backup storage is convenient and user-friendly, it also allows users to share their folders which allows more efficiency

2. Success Points of Difference: “Connected anywhere”
-Dropbox works with Windows, Mac, Linux, iPad, iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. This feature allows many users to access to the application easily.

3. Positioning Map (source from here, update on April 26, 2010)

Energy Aware is an innovative initiative developed by Janice Cheam, BCom Sauder Alumni from 2006,with 3 other undergraduate engineers in the New Venture Design course.

The PowerTab, a smart meter that provides real-time power consumption information in home through wireless networks, is an award-winning hardware and software product. It also translates the energy use to dollars, and thus consumers can monitor their spending on the meter easily. As a result, the PowerTab is an useful tool to help reduce the energy waste and increase the energy awareness.

Not only studies have proved that through the real-time information, it can help reduce energy consumption by 20%, the PowerTab is one of the pioneer device to be certified by ZigBee Aliance, a global network that connect wirelessly to provide green and efficiency standards.

Energy Aware also has strong leading partners in various of industries such as Enerpro Systems Corp., sole provider of green construction in North America. The incorporation of PowerTab at Australia and Europe is feasible as there were trial runs taken place in January 31, 2011.

In short, Energy Aware has fulfilled the Schumpeter’s view of entrepreneurship in creating a new product (PowerTab), and new market (Australia, Canada, Europe, and US).

Toronto’s Keek, a short video “status updates”

As the title has suggested, Keek is an upcoming video version of twitter. In Scottish, it means “to peep surreptitiously”. Three Toronto-based companies are investing into a software which allows the public to record a maximum of 36-second video response.

Following is a simple SWOT diagram analyzing the appearance of Keek in the market:

Looking forward to seeing how the market responses when Keek is being introduced 6 months later!

Wall Street Journal Video – Is the End Near for Kodak?
Kodak borrows $160M, stock plunges 

Kodak is having trouble to keep up with the digitization trend in the world. Failing to earn any revenue for 4 years and drawing down the credit line to $160 million, Kodak’s stock value plummeted as low as 54 cents on September 30, 2011. Having lose half of the value, Kodak hired a finance restructuring law firm, Jones Day, to revise future plan such as selling patents and announce bankruptcy as the last straw.

For Kodak’s future growth, we should refer to the 3 main questions which we have discussed in class:

1) How do we leverage their opportunies?
As smart phones are also a trend nowadays, I suggest Kodak to have business corporation with major phone supplier such as Google Inc, or Apple Inc. and generate healthy partnership.

2) How do we minimize their risks?
Try balance the deficit within the company by selling patents first, and there is also redefining the target market and products in order to catch up with the digitization world

3) What technologies should we consider?
Phone apps, multi-functional camera, higher quality digital camera

Further readings: Poison Pill