Dan Be Kim's Blog

In his business blog, John Jantsch highlights 5 keys questions which firms should pose to its customers. They are as follows:On first impression, I couldn’t help but think… Wow, what a bunch of generic questions. Without giving it any thought, I couldn’t honestly understand why it’d be so beneficial to ask customers such simple questions because as a firm, shouldn’t they know those questions better than anyone? Only after I had finished reading the blog was I able to understand the importance of switching roles in this scenario, an aspect…read more

Most recently, the University of British Columbia announced its plan for a 10% international tuition increase for 2015. Being an international student myself, this news could not have come as a bigger shock. Since the tuition paid by international students is already more than triple the tuition domestic students pay,  it seemed rather ridiculous when UBC proposed such plans without giving students a single insight into how the money generated from the increased tuition would be used. As pessimistic and sad at this may sound, I have come to see…read more

A leading example in its field, Zappos has become one of the most popular online shoe stores in North America to date. Infamous for its 365 days return policy and no time limit on customer calls, Zappos has secured itself the highest position in the ladder of the shoe industry. So how exactly is it possible that all Zappos’ customer service employees are able to handle hours of listening to unhappy customers every day of every week, and more importantly, how are they motivated to keep doing so? A simple…read more

When I hear “Market Research” there is a part of me that cannot help but associate these words with data, data— and nothing but data. As the word research already implies, market research has always seemed like a big research project to me: how many people with blonde hair buy this product, how many people in their early 20’s show interest in this product, or how many percentage of males or females demand this product? Categorization after categorization, market research has exhausted itself through analyzing past data (and here, let…read more

In today’s society, where competition is at its absolute peak, we, business school students, thirsty and eager for success, could not be in more doubt to reach the ultimate goal of establishing our own company one day. In a world where there are a handful of powerful companies which dominate one industry or market, and in an environment where firms have secured a position high up in the ladder in consumers’ mind for different goods and services, the light at the end of the tunnel looks bleak and dim for…read more