After watching the video of the business workshop in Ethiopia, I realized that people in those developing countries actually have great potential to become successful businessmen. They just do not get enough education in the realm of entrepreneurship, and they are lack of capital to expand their business. According to the video, some business owners in Ethiopia speak perfect English; however, most of them may not have an English tutor or have learned English in School. They have to learn it for themselves. Their learning abilities are impressive and they have the basic concept of running a business.

I found the ARC program amazing because it provides those business people who look for the problems in their firms with business knowledge and improvement plans. This would help them a lot because they now know exactly what goes wrong and how to fix the problems. Moreover, firm owners like Tesfaye really have a brilliant idea about making paper from banana plants. It requires almost minimum cost of production, and the raw materials are easy to access. He currently has the order from a German company, but his products are getting recognized over the world under the help of the ARC. This program will attract some companies from all over the world to come and make deals with local business which will lead to the local economic growth and make people’s life better.

After learned Zappo’s case in class, I found it amazing that a shoe company could have such a close relationship with its customers and have such a high reputation. In my opinion, it is the company’s culture that leads to Zappo’s huge success.

The company’s CEO does not have an office, and he works with his employees in that crowded areas. Does this mean that the company is too poor to build an office for its CEO? No, the CEO of Zappo is willing to work with his employees because it is his principle that they are in the same boat. They are a team and everyone should work together towards one goal; an office is merely a decoration, but working with employees is the key for Tony to understand his employees better. The company provides its employees with life-time dental and eye medical cover; also, it provides employees with free food and party. People who work there will not feel stressed but rather relaxing and happy. The company’s goal is not merely making profits but providing employees with perfect work conditions and positive mood. This is the company’s culture which differentiates itself among other shoe companies.

As long as the company’s employees feel relaxed and grateful about their jobs, they will automatically treat the customers. They will be patient when talking to their customers on the phone; they will try their best to fix customers’ problems. Therefore, the company’s key of success is not good strategy but the united power of all the employees.

From Erik’s speech, he mentions that the general-purpose technology in our era is the computer. Tremendous innovations have been made recent decades and computers become the dominant part of human’s life. Also, from his perspective, online services will dominate the future services because they are digital, exponential and combinatorial.

In my opinion, some goods and services are suitable for online services but some are not. For example, if one decides to watch a movie, he can purchase one online and get the digital version of it. It is good for both producer and consumer because of producer, they do not need to make the actual DVD. All they need to do is to send the data, which is almost zero cost. On the consumer side, he can get the product right away because it is transported by the Internet, and the price is relatively low.

However, if one wants to buy a laptop, online shopping may not be the best method. Though some companies do provide successful online purchasing services like Dell, there still are some problems. Sometimes, people are disappointed because they find the pictures online do not match the actual product. Maybe the screen is too big, or the keyboard is not the style they want. It is always better to go to the store and try the actual product rather than looking at the pictures online because people are able to feel the products themselves and buy exactly what they want.

The video of Erik Brynjolfsson is an excellent one which demonstrates the economic growth in US and some problems behind the increasing productivity. In a long run, the economic growth and productivity increase exponentially not only in US but also in the entire world. Technology plays an important role in this growth; however, as Eric mentioned in the video, when the electric motors were created and used during the production process, productivity did not increase as people expected. This is because people did replace the steam engine with electronic motors, but they didn’t fully innovate their production factories to adopt the new advantage.

In the modern world, as more and more innovative technology has been created, we are facing exactly the same problem. Though it increases productivity and reduces the costs, people are losing their jobs, and their average income has fallen. For example, a tax preparation software can calculate tax fast, accurate and cheaper, but 17% of tax preparers lose their jobs. Then, does it mean that we should stop using new technology? No, in Erik’s words, “Racing with the machine beats racing against the machines, productivity is not our destiny, we shape our destiny” My understanding of this is that human and machines must work together to maximize the efficiency. Machines can do some jobs better than human, but human may be able to do some jobs that machines are not good at. Therefore, race with the machines is the key of growth in the modern society.

Potbelly Sandwich has expanded so rapidly in recent years and will most likely become the next household restaurant name. Also, Potbelly’s success on its IPO revealed its tremendous potential to become a national brand in the world. What is Potbelly’s core value that makes it so successful in the market?

I think the key point of Potbelly Sandwich’s success is the shared value created by the company. Though they have a lot of stores located in U.S and Middle East, the stores are distinctive from each other because it is decorated with items and some funky antiques that match the local culture. This could attract more customers because people in that location will think that Potbelly is unique among all its competitors. Potbelly creates shared value not only by selling sandwich there but also by blending itself into local culture to tie their relationships with local consumers.

Moreover, training for Potbelly’s employees is special as well. After working at a training store, Jacob, hired as Porbelly’s assistant manager, says that they were not just teaching him how to make a sandwich. They taught him skills and values that can apply anywhere he goes in life. Having well-trained employees who know well about the company’s culture and value proposition is probably the second most important reason that Potbelly becomes so successful.

Huge shock was created when Facebook’s stock price fell by half of its initial price (from $38 to $18.75). It is reported that the company lost about $10 billion of the company’s market value at that time. However, the most astonished point was that Facebook was once valued at $100 share when it came to its IPO, which was more than the combined worth of Nike and Golden Sachs. It is ridiculous that a social media company was valued higher than the world’s biggest sports outfits producer.

Similarly, Twitter’s IPO was dined because the highly-evaluated share price of it in term of which category the company belonged to. The revenue stream of Facebook and Twitter both come from large amount of web advertisement. The advantage of online ads is that it is widely seen by tremendous number of people. The drawback is that the revenue is uncertain because not all the companies are willing to pay such a price (usually very expensive) to put their ads on the Internet. They may realize that people get annoyed by thousands pieces of ads in the Internet when they try to focus on their work; since these advertisements are annoying, people tend to pay less attention on them, and thus, they are not that efficient compared with the actual ads on magazines and TVs.

Twitter’s failure on its IPO suggested the company should reevaluate its real value and come up with a more reliable and efficient revenue source.