Brianevan Handoyo's Blog

“Companies seek social media experts to keep online conversation rolling”  was a title of an article in the Canadian Press. Its contents elaborate on how companies are looking for social media experts to mobilize as part of their business plans.

With the rise of the internet and websites such as facebook, twitter, friendster, MySpace and many others, much of the world’s information is shared online. Businesses need a dedicated team of social media experts to manage information posted on the internet and find out consumer’s perspectives, preferences, and trends, the strategies of rival companies, and also oppurtunities that may be beneficial for the company.

However, social media experts not only gather information, but also share information about the company. They could be tasked to set up a company website, where consumers can go to check the company’s goals and standards, or post promotions, events and other information on facebook or twitter. By doing so they can attract more market share.

Take Theodora Lamb for example. She is “community animator”, someone who facillitate online conversations with visitors for bigwild.org, a campaign oriented website created as a partnership between Mountain Equipment Co-Op and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.

Consumers experience information overload from the various advertisements that they see every single day. It is an advertiser’s job to position their products in the mind of consumers. The easiest way is to be the first.

Take for example the Indonesian company Indofood, which sold the first instant noodles in Indonesia called Indomie. For a long time they had no competition and Indomie’s brand name became so strong that for most Indonesians, the brand is the product. Even as cheaper and better competition arises, Indonesian consumers still refer instant noodles as “Indomie” and still prefer to buy Indomie rather than instant noodles from other competitors.

This does not mean that second place, third place companies and so on could not position themselves. They can do so by occupying a unique position in the consumer’s mind. Take Apple for example, their slogan is “everything is easier on a Mac.” By doing so they position themselves as a more user-friendly alternative to the PC .

However, unique positions are not always available. In such cases, Al Ries and Jack Trout, authors of “Positioning: the Battle of Your Mind” suggests repositioning the competition ina negative light in the consumers’ mind.

How could individuals with different backgrounds, perspectives, beliefs and personalities work efficiently and productively in a team? When a team put together to address an issue immediately jumps into action, there is a risk that conflicts, role ambiguity, role conflict and other problems could arise later on as the project progresses.

Some ways to avoid such problems would be:

• Get to know each other’s strengths, backgrounds and perspectives.
• The team as a whole should establish norms that each member should follow, such as punctuality, deadlines, expectations, communication and etc.
• Determine what outcome the team wants to produce.
• Assign a role for each member of the team.

This process may take a lot of time, but it guarantees that things will go smoother for the team later. By getting know each other’s strengths, backgrounds and perspectives members could be assigned roles that suit them and avoid role ambiguity and conflict. Establishing team norms will help the team know what to expect from each other. It is also beneficial if a method of resolving problems, concerns and conflicts is included in the team’s norms, so that when problems do arise there is a framework to solve it.

The SWOT analysis evaluates the internal Strenghts and Weaknesses, and external Oppurtunities and Threats involved in a project of business venture. It provides a clear and simplified picture of the factors that will create an advantage and disadvantage for the company in doing the project or business venture, and whether the advantages will overcome the disadvantages and vice versa.

Take Wal-Mart for example. The multinational retailer is initiating a business venture by entering South Africa through the acquisition of Massmart Holdings Inc.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/wal-mart-takes-a-chance-on-africa/article1727253/

A SWOT analysis would help determine if this business venture will be profitable or not. As stated in the article a threat to Wal-Mart’s business venture would be the South African market in “recession and suffers from unemployment, crime and a highly unionized work force that has staged sometimes violent strikes.” However, the opportunities for Wal-Mart would be the fact that “South Africa possesses attractive market dynamics, favorable demographic trends and a growing economy.”

However, the SWOT is not only useful for companies and corporations. It can also be used by stockholders, and analysts in evaluating business ventures and projects being done by corporations, or any other decision-making situation where there is a clear desired outcome.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/a-tough-quarter-even-for-wal-mart/article1136155/

  As the business world becomes increasingly globalized and therefore, more competitive, we find that many companies have embraced a disturbing notion; that a profitable outcome is more important than ethical business practice.

Take Toyota for example. Ken Basinger, in his article for the Los Angeles Times quoted, “Toyota Motor Corp. officials took credit for saving hundreds of millions of dollars by persuading federal regulators to limit or avoid safety recalls and rules a company document released Sunday shows.” Some models that the automaker had produced had sudden-acceleration problems, and the document Basinger mentioned prove that the firm’s executives knew of the products’ defects months before it became widely known. However, instead of immediately coming forth with it and recall their products, Toyota officials tried to cover it up to save money “while the death toll climbed from accidents in which Toyota vehicles accelerated uncontrollably.”

 Like Toyota, many other companies focuses too much on making money that they discard business ethics for more profitable outcomes when in fact running their business ethically would also be to their benefit. Cover-ups are difficult to maintain and when found out would drive customers away. Customers trust companies that runs their business ethically.

More examples