Recently famous company, Snapchat is going under a fast-paced growing stage. Only 3 years old, this start-up company has already turned down an offer worth millions of dollars and made to the top list of tech companies leaders. Snapchat is an app available for iOs as well as Android, wich allows people send pictures and videos in a determined amount of time, which will disappear after that set time. The company itself has this as its point of difference, making it unique, and by being a tech company that offers an online service to consumers stables its point of parity.

Although not sure of the official reasons for the offer’s rejection, many close sources say it was due to the confidence of Snapchat’s leaders that the business was worth more in the long run than the recent multibillion-dollar proposal. The business should stay focused, and with the merely intention to grow, because as it happened to many other companies in the tech industry, it can disappear or even be substituted by a newer and more creative idea.

Resources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/14/technology/rejecting-billions-snapchat-expects-a-better-offer.html?ref=business

Another interesting blog post I came up with is from Yiyin Zhang’s Blog. There she primarily mentions the organizational cultural change at HP. It says that HP’s groupthink is one of the difficulties and constraints it has when merging with any other company. It limits the organizations to merge in an organized and properly ordered way. This has happened lately with different companies HP either merged or acquired, such as Palm, EDS and Compaq.

In order to change this, I agree with Yiyin in the fact that the CEO should handle this cultural resistance properly, making through this way a more stable and in the long run a culture in the organization. It will therefore produce a long-term economic performance according to 2003 Harvard Business School’s study.

HP should be open to a change in culture in spite of its long lasting culture, in order to have a proper organizational culture change. It not happening would continue causing culture problems among organizations, as well as not efficient communication throughout the organization.

Resources:

https://blogs.ubc.ca/yiyinzhang/2013/11/14/the-organizational-cultural-change-at-hp/

As I was going through many blogs, I found a really interesting article about African start-ups. It was in Linda Muhia’s Blog. I must say I do agree with what she mentioned about the struggle of Start-ups in Africa. It is true that although surviving through the odds, the companies should have a more outstanding start-up, being more productive, as well as attractive. It is tough though, but African companies should start implementing new processes that will help them succeed.

One of these processes is the lean start-up, where companies try a numerous amount of times before releasing a product formally and start to earn profits. As well, businesses have to invest money developing many pilot products, getting feedback from the public in general, so the product itself could be exactly what the consumers are looking for. This procedure is more usually done in other countries such as the United States, and it appears to have great impact in growing businesses. I must add that I think that not only African Companies, but companies all over the world should start trying lean Start-up if they are planning to stay in the market in the long run.

Resources:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/african-and-mideast-business/african-tech-startups-held-back-by-lower-internet-penetration-scarcity-of-early-stage-capital/article15424220/

Google has been known as one of the biggest and most outstanding companies for the last few years. It is possibly due to the fact that it is a business with huge information technology which provides many useful tools to the general public. Those tools have different functions which can vary from Google search up to Google translator.

As it was reported on “Bits Blog”, the New York Times’ technology page, Google also offers what is called the Google Books, previously known as Google Book Search. In this article, the author talks about a lawsuit that had been filed against Google. Many authors don’t like now the idea, which seemed appealing some years ago, of scanning their books for having them later on available on the internet. I must say I agree with the Judge for declining the lawsuit against Google, upholding that “Google Book Search” is an outstanding useful tool for each and every Google user. Although authors might be in their right to plead for the availability of their books on the internet, I feel this kind of information technology should be supported by the people in general instead of being opposed to.

Resources:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/15/daily-report-googles-scanning-of-books-for-search-upheld-by-court/

Believe it or not, many global corporations are aiming to be socially as well as environmentally friendly.  Their goal is to provide consumers a wide range of accessible eco-friendly products, being at the same time profitable for the company too. One business that fits this description is IKEA.

It is in its vision to “have a positive impact on the world and be energy and resource independent” according to IKEA’s chief sustainability officer, Steve Howard.  In order to accomplish this, he announced IKEA has a long term financial simultaneously sustainability strategy.  A way of getting this done is by being energy independent, meaning having the capability of generating zero carbon electricity. Also, having access to sustainable raw materials is one of their main objectives.

All summed up, IKEA has very well stated values, which day by day tries to fully satisfy. They can be achieved by following its strategy of using sustainable raw materials as well as trying to be energy independent during the process of manufacturing its products.

Resources:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/terrywaghorn/2013/04/19/steve-howard-ikea-style-sustainability/

The wrong questions can quickly bring you to a failure in your whole market research. This is the case that the author says might have happened to Apple. Apple is always in the pursuit of the perfect product for the customer, which might have had Apple’s executives as well as Apple’s marketing managers blinded while testing and producing new products. Furthermore, Apple might have been asking the wrong questions, focusing mainly on the usability of the Iphone, rather than the attractiveness of the product, which eventually gave its competitors a point of difference.

For instance, it is demonstrated how a well done market research can ameliorate the company’s marketing  as well as financial structure, by giving it the correct material to work on with. But Apple’s big failure, which has been around all over the years, is thanks to its stubbornness of keeping with the same iphone size, not making it attractive to customers at the first sight. This proves a clear example for future references that a marketing research can be done otherwise.

Resources:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/onmarketing/2013/08/27/iphone-screen-size-apple-may-have-been-asking-the-wrong-market-research-questions/