Dmitry Khrychev's Blog

I have read Bill Fischers blog and found it very inspirational, everyone who has an opportunity should read it. Not only he discusses a future of China, that is in my opinion unpredictable and that is why extremely interesting, but also, he talks about all the great people, Fischers call them big dreamers. Lots of examples are provided: Alibaba, Baidu, Haier, Tencent, each one of them is interesting. Big dream- is something that is not ease to come up with, a lot of people think that their ideas are the big dreams that would succeed, but in reality most of them are wrong. Only those, rare once are right and will achieve their goal and change the world, each one of us, commerce student probably dreams of becoming one of those big dreamers who will change the world and become famous, at least I am.

Jack Ma said: “I want the employees to believe that we are a small company, no matter how big we get,” and I can see how his organisation, Alibaba, will be growing and growing.

In my opinion, one of the most interesting battles that are going on right now is the battle between Samsung and Apple. I found Min Sheng Chew’s Blog and one of his blogs was about that battle It is going on for a long time, and there is no clear winner yet, however, Apple sometimes wins which makes this hole process even more interesting.

More information and nice video can be found here.

I agree that it might be a waste of time and it probably will be, however, Min Sheng Chew missed a few important details, from a business point of view, Apple is trying to stop Samsung from selling it’s smartphones that look too similar to iPhone in order to gain product differentiation (one of the trials was successful and Samsung can’t sell some of it’s phones in USA). Also, Min Sheng Chew didn’t notice that Samsung is one of the biggest suppliers to Apple, so even if they will lose a billion in trial, they can increase prices on components that they sell to Apple and get their money back. This point is less obvious and since, we don’t know the details of Apple-Samsung contract, it is hard to predict how this relationship would work.

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Sources:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57500247-37/apples-big-win-over-samsung-what-does-it-mean/

http://money.cnn.com/2013/08/09/technology/mobile/apple-samsung-itc/

https://blogs.ubc.ca/josephchew/2013/11/18/apple-wants-380m-from-samsung-in-patent-trial/

I found an interesting blog that I would like to talk about. Kelvin Chan picked up a topic, low cost tablet wars. In his blog Kelvin is talking about some new tablets that would be able to do everything as those that are made by Google, Apple, Samsung and other famous tablet producers but would be cheaper and therefore, more attractive. However, in my opinion, Kelvin missed one important fact, such firms as Google, Apple and Samsung are in their business for a quite a long time, they have a big market share in tablet production market and they are not going to give it up to someone else. As we already see, Apple is launching cheaper versions of its products, for example iPhone 5C. Same would once happen to iPad in order to prevent low price tablets to take over a big part of market share. Because of the brand power that Apple has, costumers would prefer to buy iPad instead of Tesco tablet if the price would be closely the same.

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Do you think so too?

Sources:

https://blogs.ubc.ca/kelvinchan/2013/10/22/low-cost-tablet-wars-you-wont-find-an-apple-under-every-christmas-tree-httpwww-economist-comblogsschumpeter201310low-cost-tablet-wars/

Marijuana might be legalised in Vancouver, there are both advantages and disadvantages from that. Federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is sure it is a right thing to do, to legalise weed and keep it under control. N tow it is easier for underage students to access weed then cigarettes, which is a great health issue. I am not a fan of weed, even more, I strongly believe no one should ever try it, because it can ruin lives. However, in my opinion Vancouver is out of control with selling weed, it is too ease to get, absolutely no control.

From business point of view, money goes to the blackmarket, out of economy, if it will be legalized, money would stay inside the economy, employment will rise and more taxes will be paid. Also, it would be an area where firms will make profits. What is more important, there would be higher control over marijuana selling. Article emphasises that it is not a great decision and that might be wrong to do anywhere else, but specifically here, in Vancouver, that is right thing to do.

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In my opinion, it would be interesting to watch, how firms will enter new market and fight over market share.

If you are interested, I would recommend watching this video!

See the articles: http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Justin+Trudeau+tells+Vancouver+supporters+thinking+evolved+marijuana+legalization/8708050/story.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/justin-trudeau-slammed-for-backing-marijuana-legalization-1.1390400

Tesla Motors’ shares raised from $35 per share in the beginning of the year to $194.5 in September, that is quite an achievement from my point of view. That mainly happen due to Model S, over 4750 units were sold in USA in first quarter of 2013, which made this model most popular luxury sedan in USA in that period of time. Same happen in Europe. Tesla Model S is an electro car, which attracts environmentally friendly costumers, furthermore, Tesla Motors just solved one of theirs biggest disadvantages, long charging, that took around 30 minutes. In June, they announced a battery swapping, which would take around 90 seconds, and will cost just as much as fuel costs.

On November 7th the Model S appears to have caught fire and that wasn’t the only accident, and since safety is the priority of each car, demand fell as well as share price. However, as Mr. Musk says, “We really are production-constrained, not demand-constrained,” demand isn’t a problem, but supply. Tesla has some problems with supplying enough Model S units to meet the demand in Europe, the company is planning to expend it’s production next year.

A rise of around 400% in share price is something that should be noticed and analysed, that doesn’t happen very often.

See the articles: http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2013/11/tesla-motors

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/24845842

There are a lot of different opportunities to make money even if you are not such a big company as Apple or Samsung. These “giants” operate in technological business and they do make a huge amount of profits. Most of the people of course know them, however, much less people know about such firms as Knomo, that produce accessories to, for example, Apple. Such firms are making money by producing goods for another goods. For example, iPhone protector to iPhone. I find it very interesting, how each big industry, such as mobile phone industry, has relatively smaller firms that make money by using the success and popularity of that bug industry.

Key components would be being fast to create accessories to the phones that just came out and being creative, so that people would like it. In order to succeed, a firm should pay attention to rumors about new products and collect information from all possible sources in order to be ready for new products.

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Isn’t it amazing how firms are making money from other firms success and popularity?

See the article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24276222

Blackberry released it new phone Z10 in January, to compete with Apple’s iPhone. The company was hoping to take some market share, they failed, however, leading to a huge loss. Blackberry now has little choice but to accept buyout offers. The article says that a consortium led by Fairfax Financial is the likely buyer, but Blackberry is till considering other offers.

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In my opinion Blackberry’s release of the Z10 was a bad decision as the phone market is flooded with iPhone analogs, like the Samsung Galaxy, the HTC, and others. The Z10 and most of Blackberry’s iPhone look alikes were released to late compete with the popular iPhone. Although Blackberry’s phone was slightly cheaper than the iPhone, that was not enough to overcome the iPhones momentum. My theory is that Blackberry spent too much money on research and development to back out of release. Blackberry now has too many losses and no choice but to be bought out.

See the article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24302139

Discussion of Apple’s new iWatch has been going on since patenting of the iWatch name last year. Apple has recently patented flexible screens and technology relating to smart watches. Samsung and Google are also in the market, having patented Samsung Gear and buying smart-watch maker WIMM Labs, respectively. It is possible that a competitive smart phone based watch market might appear in two years or so, with Apple, Samsung, and Google at the front.

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Before two years ago, there was no mention of smart watches. Apple’s move to diversify into watches was excellent. In Ansoff’s matrix that would be called diversification, and Apple would have had to launch a new product in a new market. It is usually very risky, but could lead to a monopoly and huge profits. Now that Apple is planning to release smart watches there are firms who probably will release a product faster then Apple. When a new market of new technologies is created, there is always a battle for market share, and I find it interesting to see how Apple, Samsung and Google will play this out.

See the article: http://www.techradar.com/news/portable-devices/apple-iwatch-release-date-news-and-rumours-1131043

Cadbury is trying to fight to retain the copyright over their brand colour, a type of purple. Despite having encountered many legal problems, Cadbury mostly was successful, however, the last one, with Nestle, did not end in the favour of Cadbury. The legal battle was started in 2008 by Nestle. Cadbury has been using the same colour for almost a century, and they proceeded to trademark that colour so no one else could use that specific shade on their packaging. However, after the recent appeal, Cadbury’s brand image will weaken, because other chocolate producers will be able to mimic the colour. It is even possible, that this purple colour has become a sign of quality over time, and other firms may take advantage of that, and customers may switch to other chocolates at a cheaper price, because they trust the purple Cadbury colour. Finally, Cadbury is differentiated from the other chocolates by the colour of its label, and tends to stand out on the shelves in the supermarket because of it. Soon Cadbury might lose that advantage.

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See the article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24401249

Some factories in Bangladesh were banned due to unethical behaviour towards their workers. Due to this reason, Walmart stated that they are not working with the factories that were banned (Mars Apparels and Simco Dresses). However, over the last years Walmart has received tons of sport bras from Mars Apparels, according to U.S. customs records and Mars owners. Moreover, Walmart continues working with Simco Dresses in the two months after they blacklisted the company.

It is unethical to work with such companies and Walmart understands this, however, it is still much cheaper to work with such companies than with another. Such unethical companies do not only use violation in their work process but also pay less and therefore, they sell their products for lower price. There is always choice between being more ethical and making more profits, the decision is always made by the company by itself. Walmart has chosen profits.

See the article: http://www.propublica.org/article/walmart-accepted-clothing-from-banned-bangladesh-factories