More and more companies continue to realise the importance of shared value. Earlier on, companies had a limited scope of being profitable without considering the society, from which it benefited from. Well, times have changed and companies like Dow Chemicals, Nestle,Toyota and Intel are now more concerned about social value and the total economic pool as well.A good example for how companies have created shared value would be Dow Chemicals, who redefined their productivity and eventually gained a competitive advantage from it. The company produces canola oil which gives twice as much oil as other sources of oil and has a longer shelf value. Not only do they gain from their competitive advantage but so do farmers whose cost of production has gone down yet they produce more.

Creating social value is about solving problems in society which is considered as CSR, of which Toyota portrays by inventing low-emission vehicles and Intel by improving health care and education. These strategies that companies have come up with are benefiting society as a whole. However, some may criticise their actions as being insincere and hypocritical because they view these actions as an opportunity to gain popularity in the market and establish a more concrete foundation of their products within the their consumers’ mind.

On the other hand, those in favour of it see as beneficial because the whole society gains from employment, better healthcare, education, improved living conditions which eventually leads to economic growth and development.

Sources:http://hbr.org/2013/09/innovating-for-shared-value/ar/

http://www.waterhealth.com/sites/default/files/Harvard_Buiness_Review_Shared_Value.pdf

Jell-O’s recent sales decline can be attributed to its change of target market from mostly children to adults. It is no longer being seen as the fun food that it was, given its advertising strategies that included Bill Cosby, one of the best comedians of all time. According to Ries and Trout, to be everything to everyone will end up being nothing to everyone. This was a likely event that was to happen to Jell-o if they did nothing to change their direction. Luckily, they quickly realized that they are making a mistake and they are already taking swift actions to “reestablish Jell-O’s core purpose of food for fun” as Dan O’Leary, a senior marketing director for Kraft mentions.

It is very difficult to change the position taken by a product in the consumers’s mind as Kraft had hoped. The consistent knowledge that Jell-O is associated with children mainly, may have contributed to the failure of their adult campaign. Change in eating habits is also on of the factors that contributed to a slight decline in it demand. Hopefully it new campaign will restore its product’s position in the consumer’s mind.

Sources:

http://adage.com/article/news/kraft-launches-campaign-revive-jell-o/243616/

http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/ries-trout/positioning/

One might be easily tempted to question the managerial decisions of South Korean car makers on their recent abolition of overnight working yet in other rich countries in Europe and North America, overnight working is making a come back. Historically, in most developed countries, night shifts in manufacturing industries was banned as it was seen to go against the code of ethics by overworking workers. However, consultant Andrew Bergbaum, and others may agree that a night shift is better off than unemployment despite the fact that South Korean car plants like Kia and Hyundai have agreed to their workers demand and eradicated nightly duty. This is probably because South Korea has dived into the waters of developed worlds and as a result, the employees feel that they have better job security than before.

As South Korean car plants’ managerial decisions continue to embrace core values of fair play, their overseas plants are still burning their midnight oil in order to keep up with competitors like BMW and JLR ( The Economist). This is definitely a good strategy because the idea is embraced in America where their night shift runs have increased to 40% for a mere 9% as stated in the Economist.

Sources:

http://search.proquest.com/docview/1040403926