Month: November 2011

Reference to Schumpeter’s Blog from The Economist

VW’s struggles on the road to world domination

In 2009, Volkswagen announced the “comprehensive partnership” with Suzuki hoping to expand its market worldwide. In this partnership, Suzuki agreed to teach Volkswagen about hybrid and diesel engine and in return, Volkswagen would offer its knowledge on how to make profit from small cheap car. However, the partnership soon faced its challenge when the director of Suzuki stated that “Volkswagen viewed Suzuki as a subsidiary company instead of partner” in his blog. With distrust and unequal respect, both Volkswagen and Suzuki sensed the difficulty working with each other.

I think the story is related to both entrepreneurship and cooperative working. Both firms seeks the great profit in the long term from developing a partnership innovatively with each other. However, in the reference blog post, it mentioned that Suzuki and Volkswagen have different expectation and goals for this relationship. The questions are: what attitude should these two firms take when realizing they’re not on the same page? what action can either of the firms take if they feel being mistreated? Answer: doesn’t matter if it’s large corporations like Volkswagen or Suzuki or just ordinary small business, it is difficult to make solutions to the problems if none of the players agree to talk and act publicly.

Reference Article: The Man Who Makes Your Iphone by Frederik Balfour and Tim Culpan

Tyrangiel Discusses Outlook for Foxconn, Terry Gou: Video

* The video start off by giving news about Foxconn suicides but the second half of the discussion is great introducing the company.

Apple Iphone, Nintendo DS and Acer notebook….. doesn’t it sound familiar? Everyday, we use and encounter various technological gadgets. All these well-known brands such as Apple, Acer, HP, Dell and Intel are all clients of Foxconn Technology Group. Foxconn is the world’s largest maker of electronic components including printed circuit boards. The company satisfies the demand of North American, European and Japanese firms who wish to produce electronics at reduced cost without sacrificing quality.  The company is founded in Taiwan in 1974 and continues to grow as it received more order of electronic goods globally.

Foxconn is certainly an entrepreneurial company for its new production method, market and products. In 2014, Foxconn is projected to implement one million robots in production line to reduce increasing labor cost. It also foresees the large demand of electronic products around the world; by producing durable and high-quality electronic core components in Asia, Foxconn is able to offer manufacturing service to companies such as Apple at lower price by internally control the cost of labor due to economies of scale. Finally, Foxconn holds more than 200 patents globally. With innovations, the company can create newer and more desirable electronics in future.

Recommend readings on other Taiwanese entrepreneurs (check them out! ):

Taiwan’s 40 Richest by Russel Flannery

Reference Article: Are Generations X and Y Slackers or Stars in the Workplace?by  Doug and Polly White

Generation Y, yes, a very familiar categorization of people that we all heard about day to day. No doubt, it’s us; people who are born from 1979-1994. We are the Ys and described as impatient, outspoken about criticism and having greater potential for high maintenance than previous generations. As mentioned in the article, Generation Y  are more inclined to work in flexible and fun environment. However, I think these forecasts are not just applicable to Ys but general workforce out there.

Take a peek at the employee words to describe the best-company to work for surveyed by Fortune:

Generally, the interactions between people are highly valued within employees across different age and generation. Not only Ys are engaged in diverse and positive working environment, so are the others.

Take an look at best companies to work for surveyed by Fortune:

Companies place high value in organizational culture have support by workforce across generations. It’s not only the materialistic benefits and salaries that attract people, but also the working environment and relationships between colleagues and leader.

Those companies have comparative advantages in human resources that others don’t. Bonus: reputation of the coporations are also elevated through the public notion.

Check out the interactive diagram reference from Fortune megazine: Best Companies to Work For 2011