After reading fellow classmate Brian Chung’s blog post on disagreeing with Tim Horton CEO Marc Caira’s hopes to cut down menu items, I have actually decided that I in fact do support the CEO’s thinking. The new CEO of Canada’s own Tim Horton’s wants to cut down menu choices to increase speed and efficiency in stores. Although I agree that including more choices will attract more consumers, I do not think that it is worth doing because store efficiency will be very limited – the number of workers hired can only do so much at a time. Instead, I agree with the CEO that cutting down choices will increase store efficiency, a prime example being the Tim Horton’s at Sauder. I know that out of the entire menu, I am sure that the same people always order the same things over and over, thus Tim Horton’s should cut down menu items to the most popular choices. I cannot count the times in my head where I have decided to not go to Tim Horton’s just because of the length of the line-up and crunch in time. Imagine if the line was always short – how much more in sales would the restaurant attract? Sticking to Porter’s Cost Leadership Strategy, which has been proven time and time again as accurate, will allow the company to specialize in only a few products, but do that well.
When I first read fellow classmate’s Mariska’s blog post on how Singles’ Day turns into Shopping Day, I came to a realization that in today’s society, it appears that every holiday or significant event has turned into a reason for stores to hold extravagant sales, and consumers to buy yet again. In her post, Mariska discusses how Singles’ Day in China has now turned into a shopping spree, quoting that on that day the “Chinese bought 1.6 million bras”. Online sites such as tmall.com and dangdang.com joined in on the fun, with companies such as Nike, Adidas, Procter and Gamble utilizing these sites.
My two cents is that consumerism has brainwashed everyone in that holiday sales are increasing and becoming far too extravagant for people to actually enjoy the holiday. For instance, take Black Friday or Boxing Day as examples – sales for both these events start so early nowadays (we’re talking 3am lineups for 5am sales) that we don’t even get to celebrate properly anymore. Instead of enjoying Christmas dinner, we rush eating dinner to ensure that we sleep early to grab that $400 off deal on the latest Ultrabook. But is that really necessary? It seems like Boxing Day is the time people stop being thankful, and start being consumers. I say let’s save the holidays!
The Petal Diagram: A New Way to Look at Competitors
In Steve Blank’s latest blog post, he introduces to entrepreneurs a new competitive analysis method to look at competitors. In his blog post, Steve acknowledges that today, start-ups are trying to “resegment existing markets or create new markets”, as opposed to “existing companies plan[ning] to enter existing markets”, and thus, Steve introduces the Petal Method. Here is how you the Petal Method works:
1. Start by putting the company in the center of the circle.
2. Draw 5 petals around the circles to show the market segments where customers for this new market would come from.
3. Fill the market spaces with the companies that represent each adjacent market.
4. Annotate the companies with the amount of capital raised – this allows potential investors to see the different values and amounts for each.
5. Show the market sizes for each adjacent market to determine how big each market is.
This diagram is beneficial for companies exercising the Lean Start-up methodology and helps identify potential customer segments on the Business Model Canvas, as learned in class. By completing this activity, companies can see exactly which customers they are targeting and develop the first hypothesis on who the target market is.
Post: http://blogs.berkeley.edu/2013/11/11/a-new-way-to-look-at-competitors/
When I attended my very first We Day in October 2010, I was completely blown away about the extent to which poverty, especially amongst children in third world countries, still exists in our world today. After hearing all the speakers’ and musicians’ words of encouragement on how youth can be the change – I set out back to my high school to found the first Free the Children club at Burnaby North Secondary. Throughout the years, I came to be familiar about everything to do with Free the Children, including its social enterprise, Me to We.
A social enterprise is a company that hopes to make profit, but one which is rooted with a social cause. In Me to We’s case, they aim to make a positive social and environmental impact through the sale of sweatshop free clothing, Me to We Artisans accessories that provides fair wage to women in developing countries, life-changing Me to We trips overseas, Me to We Books, Me to We inspirational speakers, and the list goes on. After learning more in depth about what a social enterprise entails, it is certain that a social enterprise is something that I am passionate in and look forward to learning more about.
Site: http://www.metowe.com/about-us/our-organization/social-enterprise-an-innovative-new-model/
Of the many restaurants in the Crystal Mall area that I often go to with my family, I have noticed a recurring trend – there is always a folded up sheet of eight and a half by eleven white paper with “CASH ONLY” scribbled with marker in large font. You notice this is small boutiques as well. When I was young, I always wondered why this was the case. Now, of course, I know why that is – companies have to pay credit card companies a fee for the service of the credit card, or customer transaction services. Which is why I found it interesting to read that shopkeepers nowadays are willing to give discounts to customers who pay in cash, and want to lower fees so they don’t have to increase prices. However, credit card companies do not agree to changes that would make it more difficult to use their cards. Both sides state that they are “putting consumers first”. I agree that stores should give customers discounts when paying in cash because by doing so, both sides avoid credit card fees, and small businesses are benefited as a discount may pull customers away from bigger competitors. People saving money equals to people being happy. And in the end, who doesn’t love a discount?
Article:
http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/10/08/credit-card-fees-too-high-give-us-a-discount-for-paying-cash/
Almost ashamed to say it, Snapchat has become part of my everyday life. As much as I am aware that it wastes my time, I use it just as much as I use Facebook, and so it caught my eye when I saw an article of the two in the news. An article that actually took me by surprise. Snapchat has once again rejected Facebook’s cash offer for the company. Mark Zuckerberg previously offered $1 billion to buy Snapchat but was rejected. This time around, for $3 billion, the offer was turned down once again. Snapchat is an app where a user sends a photo to a friend, with drawing or writing, with the friend only allowed to view it for a maximum of 10 seconds after opening. From there on, a conversation begins and essentially, friends “chat” over “snaps” – hence the name. Snapchat has been welcomed by young adults today – one of the top apps in the App Store. With 5 million users daily, it has proven to be the biggest no-revenue mobile app since Instagram. Instagram was bought by Facebook for $1 billion. So when Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegal turned down the $3 billion offer, eyebrows were raised. This offer was a huge deal – three times what Facebook paid for Instagram. The reason Facebook wants these applications because they want to own photos on mobile. I think it was a smart decision of Snapchat as they will eventually want an IPO to further expand their company. It will be interesting to see how the company performs independently in the coming years, as it is evident that they are staying clear of what Instagram did. My question is: will Snapchat last?
Article:
http://www.businessinsider.com/snapchat-rejected-a-3-billion-all-cash-offer-from-facebook-2013-11
It seems as though trendy clothing retailer, Abercrombie & Fitch, has always been known for its strict employee dress code. Just last week, however, the company finally agreed to modify the company’s “Look Policy”, after being faced with an employee discrimination lawsuit. The company fired Hani Khan from a store in San Mateo, California, after she insisted on wearing a head scarf because of her Muslim beliefs. Feeling discriminated, Khan brought the case to court, and the court ruled that the company “violated anti-discrimination laws”. In response to this lawsuit, hijabs, or head scarves, are now permitted for employees, a change to the policy. In addition, Abercrombie & Fitch will also “submit biannual reports to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for the next three years regarding the new policies”. The company said in a statement that they are “happy to have settled these cases and to have put these very old matters behind [them]”. This case highlights marketing and company ethics butting heads at Abercrombie & Fitch. Having employers look trendy and dress a certain way is a part of the company’s marketing methods – they want customers to view them in a certain image. However, Khan being fired for insisting on wearing her headscarf shows that there was a flaw of discrimination in the employee’s “Look Policy”. I am happy to see that the company did take steps to modify the employee dress code, and hope they are taking a step in the right direction in continuing to assure that their dress code and the freedom of their employees’ beliefs align.
Articles:
http://www.businessinsider.com/abercrombie-and-fitch-changes-look-policy-2013-9
http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/abercrombie-and-fitch-wrongly-fired-worker-over-head-scarf-judge-1.1446859
Every fashionista out there would have thought that Tamara Mellon, co-founder of luxury shoe company Jimmy Choo, was living the dream and loving her $900 million dollar business that she co-founded with her parents’ money. It would not be hard to imagine that she was content and loving the life that her company gave her – having an extravagant clothing allowance, being pampered by her own make-up artist and hair stylist on call, and being invited to A-list parties. Believe it or not, though, that was not at all the case. It turns out, for the majority of the time, Mellon felt “aggrieved”. She says that she was “unappreciated by executives at the company and exploited by the private equity investors who funded its expansion”, and was “betrayed by those close to her”. Mellon left Jimmy Choo in 2011 with $135 million and never wanted to look back, and released her book of resentment called In My Shoes. This season, though, Mellon is launching Tamara Mellon, her own line of shoes and clothes, with products in the collection still made in the same factories in Italy as Jimmy Choo. What is unique to Tamara Mellon is that instead of releasing a line every season, just like other high end luxury companies, she will release new products every month. Just last week she was preparing for fashion week in Paris. She is now happy that she “[has] the luxury now to choose who [she has] in [her] business”, people with “good ethics and values”. This goes to show just how crucial relationships are internally for a company. In this case, a company’s own co-founder left her company just to break free of being mistreated by her own team – something that should never happen. This demonstrates to be a flaw in the values of the company, proving that team-building is essential for a business to thrive.
Article: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-04/jimmy-choo-co-founder-tamara-mellon-puts-on-her-revenge-boots
There once was a time when social media giants Facebook and Twitter were advertisement-free. Just last week, Instagram hopped onto the newsfeed-advertisement bandwagon when it announced that it will also start featuring advertisements on users’ news feeds – an action which we cannot say we did not see coming. The question now is, will this decrease the amount of users the photo-sharing service will have in the future? Instagram assures users that it will start out slow though – it will show advertisements “only occasionally and only from companies that are already members in good standing of the Instagram community”. The company says they will aim to make advertisements “as natural to Instagram as the photos and videos [users] already enjoy”. This is a way of the company expanding their business model – they have added another method of revenue stream in the business model canvas by going forward with this decision and will now gain revenue from their advertising clientele. In my personal opinion, I do not think that advertisements on Instagram feeds would necessarily be a bad thing for users – if Instagram really is going to be careful in what they advertise and expose unique and interesting companies and users whom I would have never discovered, then I am all for it.
Article: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-03/instagram-will-have-ads-dot-get-over-it
We all remember a time when Nike was under hot heat for poor factories’ working conditions and therefore saw the demand for products decrease. When activist Jeff Ballinger published a report highlighting “an Indonesian worker who worked…for 14 cents an hour, less than Indonesia’s minimum wage”, protests arose. In response, Nike established a team tasked with “working to improve the lives of factory labourers”. When this act failed to calm the rise of global protests against the company, Nike realized that it needed to turn around. CEO Phil Knight stated that “the Nike product has become synonymous with slave wages, forced overtime, and arbitrary abuse…I truly believe the American consumer doesn’t want to buy products made under abusive conditions.” This was a turning point for the company – the minimum age of workers was raised, monitoring was increased, and clean air standards were established in all factories. In 2005, the company released a detailed 108-page report revealing the conditions and pay in the company’s workplace and stating widespread issues. Today, Nike continues to share its commitments, standards, and audit information to the general public. Although still a work in process, it is evident that Nike has managed to prove to the public eye that through business ethics, it is on its way better factory working conditions and improving the company image.
Article: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-nike-solved-its-sweatshop-problem-2013-5
