Monthly Archives: October 2014

In Adina Alita’s blog about Netflix she addressed several issues facing Netflix. She addresses the barriers of becoming a worldwide company while also providing customers with new content. While these are legitimate difficulties, upon reading another Forbes article, I concluded that the company has even more issues that are limiting their growth. These issues are that other companies are now providing similar services at a lower price and Netflix may have already reached their entire domestic market.

CBS, HBO, and Amazon are only some of the companies that are competing with Netflix, not to mention illegal online streaming. Many of these companies are providing original content, as well as sport matches. With this new competition Netflix will have decide between cost leadership or differentiation strategy. Differentiation could include creating more original movies or series, however I believe that this could be unnecessarily risky. Furthermore there are 37 million Netflix accounts (roughly 1/3 of American households). This shows that there is not much opportunity for growth within the U.S., as they have already captured a large portion of the market. Netflix is also having less success than expected in European countries. The companies entrance into the European market was a long-term tactic and therefore very costly.

I believe that Netflix’s would be most successful if it focused on differentiating itself from other companies. Netflix has continuously shown to be innovative. The company first started with the original concept of mailing movies and then shifting to online and streaming, therefore Netflix simply must find the next step in being the leading company in its industry.

Frances’ third largest grocery store, Intermarché has created a campaign called “les fruits et légume moches” or “inglorious fruits and vegetables.” It all started when the European Union decided to make 2014 the year against food waste. The company took this goal into their own hands with the campaign to eliminate the mass amount of fruit and vegetables that are thrown away each day simply because they are oddly sized or misshapen. Intermarché creative campaign benefits both the consumer and the suppliers. Consumers are able to buy fruit and vegetables at lower prices, while suppliers gain profits off of produce that are usually never reach stores.

Intermarché’s initiative on this environmental issue has shown social responsibility and has created shared value. Their global campaign educates consumers who are unaware of the problem and encourages them purchase the fruits and vegetables regardless of their appearance. Furthermore, by positioning themselves as a sustainable and innovative company they have gained a 25% increase in sales. Other grocery stores have seen the company’s success, and have launched similar campaigns of their own, hoping to share the success. Intermarché has shown that shared value is possible and should convince other companies that being socially responsible while simultaneously having economic progress is a goal that every company should focus on achieving.

In James Heskett’s blog post he asks a very interesting question: “Can too much focus can be damaging?” Focus is essential in any business as it creates clarity and specific goals for development. For example, by having a focused target market, companies can discover the most effective way to attract specific customers segments. Furthermore, by focusing on lowering costs, companies can generate more profit. Though these are essential in contributing to a business’ success, Haskett addresses a valid point that excessive focusing can impede one’s ability to notice.

Haskett uses several common examples to prove his point; doctors become unsuccessful when focusing on a diagnosis rather than the problem, the idea of trying to find keys in the dark rather than looking for better lighting, and lastly he listed several social experiments which emphasized his point. These persuading examples show that focusing can prevent people from looking at the broader picture and to think logically. Often companies fail to consider or recognize how what is outside their industry is impacting their business. Companies, thus, try and solve problems with out analyzing important factors that are causing the issue.

Upon reading James Heskett’s blog, I have come to the conclusion that while it is essential that business focus on particular goals and ideas in order to advance in a business, companies must also be aware of outside factors that are continuously influencing and altering their business. In my opinion Cedric Roossel best explained it when he said, “To put it simply, you don’t want to be focused during a strategy definition phase but you have to be focused in its execution.”

This article discusses the Tsilhqot’in people’s efforts in eliminating Taseko’s mining project. Taseko’s site is just outside the 1750 square-kilometers that the Tsilhqot’in people are titled to, yet the Tsilhqot’in people are trying to transform the site into a tribal park boundary. This would forbid the company from any mining or logging and permit only small-scale projects that would benefit native employment.

The Tsilhqot’in have just been titled to a huge area of land and therefore they should not be entitled to this land just because they disagree. The fact that the tribe has gone forward in claiming this land before any government approval is unjust and unfair to Taseko’s $1.1 billion project. The First Nations’ method in preventing the project may be exploiting their rights, however, they may have good reason to. Taseko’s project’s first plan was so harmful to the environment that it was refuted. Their second plan still showed the project would be substantially damaging to the surrounding wildlife.

Though I believe that the Tsilhqot’in wrongly claimed the land as a tribal park, I believe that they did so for good reason. They may have acted irrationally in fear of being ignored, as it happened often in history. The government should highly consider the environmental impact and economic benefit of the project before approving it and upsetting the First Nation’s community.