Graham Clark's Blog

Through this course I have learned that I have a lot of options about what I want to do with my life. I have also learned that it is important to keep track of what you have done and how you have performed on those jobs. I already had a sense of this but I have gained the know-how and confidence to approach companies that I would like to work for.

cheers,

graham

Although I dislike quantifying or labelling something as being the greatest or best ___ (insert thing) to have occurred in my life. The greatest lesson I have ever learned was from my mother and that was to just be yourself. It sounds very simple and yes, it is very cliche, but it is very true.

One of the best things about university, is that most of what you take for granted is systematically challenged and questioned. This was where I really discovered what she meant by that line of folk wisdom. Although I tried not to show it, I was actually a little out of sorts for the first while because I didn’t settle in immediately. Eventually, once I started to relax and yes, “be myself”, I got closer with my new friends and met many new people. When meeting someone new for the first time, try and just be yourself, that way you will be thought of for the right reasons.

cheers,

graham

GM has begun preparing to rollout its new electric plug-in Chevrolet Volt for the Canadian market next year. They have decided to target some specific markets: Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto, Ottawa-Gatineau, Vancouver, Victoria and Oshawa. GM decided to target these markets because the new car is best adapted to city driving, due to a short battery range of 40-80 kilometres. They have decided to target these markets because they believe that customers in those areas are willing to pay the premium for the environmental positives of the car. It is currently set to be priced at an expensive $41,000, although “fuel” costs for the car are estimated by GM at roughly 1/6 that of a comparable gasoline powered car in Ontario.

This is a good example to illustrate the planning involved behind unveiling a new product, and the potential risks involved in a firm moving from the core products they are known for. GM is famous for their gas-guzzling cars and has been focusing on the Canadian market as a potential base for re-imaging the company. To this end they sponsored the Vancouver Olympics with 4600 “green” vehicles. The Prius has managed to find good reception in Canada, but is the market for “Green” vehicles already saturated?

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/gm-targets-green-canadians-for-volt-rollout/article1822914/?cmpid=nl-bizt1

With the exposure of confidential US government secrets by WikiLeaks by the Australian internet activist Julian Assange has raised important questions around information security. Data is becoming an increasingly abundant commodity in the “Information Age” and therefore businesses have to be careful with how they handle sensitive information. According to one manager of a security firm, many large companies still do not have clear policies about access to information within the company.

Leaks can serve a purpose to the public by promoting freedom of information that is required to stop illegal activities however they also can also destabilize legitimate business operations when important data is shared with the competition. From the WikiLeak controversy, businesses should take this opportunity to establish clear policies on access to information and invest in consistently improving data security systems. However beyond that, keeping employees satisfied and believing in the company can go a long way to preventing defectors. Besides the high retraining costs associated with high employee turnover there can also be problems from information leaks. So maybe you should try and have employees leave on better terms than just a pink slip?

Sources:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/companies-beware-the-next-big-leak-could-be-yours/article1821887/singlepage/#articlecontent

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/assange-threatens-to-release-entire-cache-of-unfiltered-files/article1825922/

Over the summer I was lucky enough to be in South Africa during the World Cup. While there I attended the match between Denmark and the Netherlands where Bavaria was accused of helping to organize 36 Dutch female fans to wear popular Bavaria orange dresses during the match. FIFA has gone over the top on numerous occasions with efforts to protect primary sponsorship rights, such as at the Germany World Cup many Dutch men were forced to watch a game in their underwear because the lederhosen they were wearing had the name Bavaria on it. In South Africa, fans were banned from wearing shirts for the two most popular South African football teams, the Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, because they are sponsored by Vodacom the telecom rival to the FIFA sponsor: MTN.

Bafana Bafana is also sponsored by Vodacom and therefore no posters or billboards could be put up with players from the South African football team wearing their shirts. Therefore all the advertising featured players wearing unpatriotic “Africa United” shirts, much to the disgust of the local population. The resulting press and anger generated over the Bavaria and Vodacom incidents only helped to increase their appeal to customers. This shows how guerrilla marketing can work if it is creative, but also how some of the sponsors such as MTN need to also be creative to compete and establishing their place in consumer’s minds.

“GOOGLE is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one,” – Larry Page & Sergey Brin

As a company, Google has grown rapidly since its creation 12 years ago to now have a market capitalization of $180 billion. The word “Google” became a word in the Oxford English language dictionary in 2006 and become synonymous with searching. Much of their growth has been due to impressive organic innovation, however especially recently this innovation has been largely from acquisitions. The company has taken over, among others, YouTube and DoubleClick, with talk of taking over a localized marketing firm Groupon, with the goal of horizontal expansion.

Their manner expansion could potentially be a limiting factor for future growth and innovation as their workforce is now numbered at 23,000 and the company has been forced to increasingly look at taking over companies for access to new ideas and employees. HP has encountered similar problems as a company founded in a garage coming up with new ideas has been forced into buying out other companies to prevent stagnation. Google’s concept of running a venture capitalist enterprise as part of their business may fall outside of their core-competence but could solve some of their bureaucratic issues.

Source: http://www.economist.com/node/17633138

According to Joseph Schumpeter, entrepreneurship requires an emphasis on new products, markets, organizations and production methods. It can be easy to refer to entrepreneurs only as small businesses however as illustrated by Tesco, a British retailer, a company can be large but still be entrepreneurial.

In 2007 Tesco declared their intention to revolutionize the United States retailer market. Their CEO, Sir Terry Leahy, declared that “In retailing…you can’t hang around and trial this thing. You have to launch and go”. With the company spending $500 million a year on this project, in a highly competitive US market, they are clearly displaying an entrepreneurial willingness to take risks.

They are also being entrepreneurially innovative in their supply chain, by introducing new compartmentalized trucks for delivery, and environmentally innovative by reaching a target to divert of 100% of their waste from landfills. They have revolutionized how stores are organized with a focus on smaller stores (1/10^th the size of a Walmart store) using lighting and display techniques copied from the fashion industry. They introduced a novel Clubcard loyalty program database that influences where certain products are sold to meet customers’ demands. Therefore by revolutionizing their market and taking risks Tesco is entrepreneurial.

Source: http://www.economist.com/node/9358986

Over the summer Loblaw Cos. Limited came under fire from the Muslim community for producing a Punjabi ad during the holy month of Ramadan which was mistakenly aired during a Hindi language Bollywood film. Ethnic markets represent great potential in Canada, with one in three Canadians expected to be from visible minorities by 2031, representing 70% of the forecasted growth in consumer spending over the next decade.To attempt to tap into this market, retailers such as Loblaws, Shoppers, Home Depot & Wallmart have focused marketing campaigns & products on these groups.

There are problems that can occur however, as highlighted by Lowlaw’s gaffe, that result from a lack of inside knowledge and attention to detail. This is where hiring a CMO or marketing team, which has knowledge working with these ethic groups, will become increasingly important. Home Depot’s strategy of running popular Cantonese speaking workshops at their stores in Richmond BC illustrates the potential created by a localized & specialized marketing approach can work. Being in tune with the local population is therefore very important for a business. With first-mover status a business can respond quickly to their needs and win their store brand-loyal customers for life.

Source:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/a-worldly-ad-approach/article1722311/?cmpid=nl-bizt1

Source: http://www.freshphonenews.com/rogers-wants-your-money-revises-hup-policy-7186/

On Tuesday, Rogers Communications Inc. completed a take-over of Atria Networks LP, an Ontarian fibre-optics firm. The 425 million dollar acquisition was more expensive than expected, however it gives Rogers access to roughly 1100 lucrative existing business clients and 5600 kilometres of fibre-optic cable around Ottawa, Kitchener-Waterloo and the Greater Toronto Area. This will help Rogers deal with rapidly expanding data usage from online video streaming and smart-phone use. The deal is seen as an efficient way of Rogers quickly expanding their business opportunities while keeping ahead of current and potential rivals such as Telus and Bell.

This purchase is a smaller tactic of Rogers’ larger, needs-based positioning strategy by expanding their access to customers and lowering future costs by increasing operational effectiveness. The deal will help to reduce the threat of substitutes by preventing new wireless cell phone and telecom firms from competing with them in the business to business data market. Rogers has increased the barriers to entry into their markets by using their current low cost of capital to increase time and cost barriers for rival firms.  In sum, Rogers appears to have made a bold move, but one with a large potential payoff.

Source:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/rogers-to-buy-atria-for-425-million/article1744043/

Last week Toronto-Dominion (TD) Bank took over South Financial Group, based in Florida, increasing their number of state-wide branches to 165. TD is taking advantage of their financial strength following the recession to purchase weakened American banks. This new acquisition is added to 3 other Florida-based banks to they have taken over in the past year. They have targeted the Florida market because it is a deposit rich state which hosts many Canadian ‘snowbirds’ during the winter months.

Building a brand image takes time, especially for a financial institution in a post mortgage-crisis market, so TD will take a year to transition South Financial Group branches into full TD branded locations. Some aspects will however change immediately, such as expanding opening hours to 7-days a week, to fit their marketing slogan of being “America’s Most Convenient Bank”. They hope to retain long-term customers by reducing the shock created by sudden changes. This acquisition is a good (but cheap) one for an ambitious TD Bank looking to expand their portfolio while retaining their AAA rating. TD plans to hold on to much of the staff with expertise in the state who could be invaluable when seeking ‘organic’ growth of their brand.

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2010/oct/04/td-bank-completes-acquisition-of-fourth-banking/

http://www.charlestonbusiness.com/news/34255-south-financial-group-to-merge-with-td-bank-financial-group