The following is a comment portraying my opinions about Karan Girotra and Serguei Netessine’s blog article analyzing Amazon’s business models throughout time.

In their blog post in the Harvard Business Review, members of the faculty at French university Insead in Fontainebleau, Karan Girotra and Serguei Netessine, explain how Amazon has restructured its business model throughout time, especially regarding their logistics and operations.

Indeed, the blog post explains that in the early days of Amazon, it used to follow a policy of “sell all, carry few”, meaning it had little warehouses and used suppliers of their goods to directly and quickly deliver goods to customers. However, over time, Amazon has dealt with growing demand and extremely fast expansion, leading it somewhat inevitably to having to create warehouses fast. The outcome was however beneficial since it allowed Amazong to take on more sales, whilst maintaining the same efficiency in deliveries. Indeed as the post points out, what was once their key business model, had to be completely revised to move on. As somewhat of another step, Amazon now decided to take on the challenge of “same day delivery” within the USA, causing it to have to use yet more warehouses and therefore carry more.

As a conclusion, Amazon went from “sell all, carry few” to “sell all, carry a lot”. The post is very interesting since Amazon is of global concern and its explains to us how companies should revise their business models to beneficially develop their businesses.

Link to article: http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/11/amazon-constantly-audits-its-business-model/

Comment on blog post by Ashley Mui. Ashley Mui’s blog post

In her blog post, Ashley argues the fact that Facebook’s internet advertising strategy is much less effective than Google’s, although they are both somewhat attempting to get to the same result; attracting consumers. For both these websites, the aim is to carry advertisement from their customers and therefore their main revenue sources, to their users.

This is where they differ however because Ashley explains that whereas Google uses more subtle ways of providing users with advertisement due to the fact that the ads are adapted to them, Facebook tries to include ads into users’ news streams with these ads most of the time being completely unappealing to the consumers. Her point is therefore that Google is much more effective in implementing internet ads in its services than Facebook is.

Where I somewhat disagree with Ashley’s post is the fact that Facebook is losing teens. Teens compose a massive part of Facebook with some users starting before being even 10, teens need a place to stay in touch with all their friends at once, that place is Facebook, it has almost established an un-breach able market segment within the teen world that I don’t believe a few undesired ads will harm any time soon.

Link to blog page: https://blogs.ubc.ca/ashleymui/2013/11/16/why-google-is-succeeding-over-facebook/

Comment on blog post by mariskaloudella

In her blog post, Mariska argues that the development of Google Docs could pose a threat of to document manager, Microsoft Office, through the fact that they both offer a similar service with Google Docs’ added value being its group usage.

In my opinion, Google Docs is a threat that will have to be, and probably already is, thoroughly monitored by Microsoft. Although the service, provided by Google, only allows usage through the internet and more precisely to users possessing a Gmail account, as well as to this day contains less functionalities, further development of the web service could pose a severe threat to Microsoft. After all, restricting the online service to Gmail users isn’t a prominent barrier to usage nowadays when an email account can be created within seconds.

Mariska however puts forward the point that many users nowadays use Microsoft Office and have somewhat forged a loyalty to Microsoft which is hard for any newcomer to distort.

We will have to closely observe the situation in future months to determine what the effects of Google Docs will be on Microsoft office. Could we end up witnessing another internet takeover? Only time will tell.

Link to blog post: https://blogs.ubc.ca/mariska10/2013/11/17/will-google-docs-kill-off-microsoft-office/

With the fast food giant launching its new products the “White Chocolate Mocha” and the “Pumpkin Spice Latte”, it cannot help but find itself in direct competition with other more specialized brands such as Dunkin’ Donuts, or Starbuck’s in terms of its services as explained in the beneath article by Bloomberg Businessweek.

Furthermore, not only is McDonalds restricting its sales of breakfast products to the insides of its restaurants but it has also recently launched a supply of “McCafé bagged coffee” bags.

By carrying out SWOT analysis, much can be said about McDonalds’ strategy here. Indeed, it is no longer attempting to administrate McCafé as a secondary subsection, but somehow as a second side of the company entirely, willing to make it very competitive. Using its pre-established added value; accessibility, its opportunity would originate from the fact that it could seize big market shares, fast. Its brand proposition as “unsnobby” coffee, referring to lower prices and perhaps faster service, is expected to help them boost sales.

The answer to whether or not McDonalds will reach its desires in the breakfast business will be unveiled in the following months, could McCafé become one of the new serious leaders of morning coffee?

Link to Article: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-15/in-mcdonalds-breakfast-war-with-coffee-chains-a-new-front-supermarket-shelves#r=hpt-fs

Zoopla.co.uk, is an online property research tool allowing access to information about virtually any house in Britain. Indeed, it gives users the ability to search for, as well as research property within British soil. Its main competitor to this day is Rightmove, a company who benefits from its earlier establishment in the market, dating back to the early days of the internet. Zoopla is run by “serial entrepreneur” Alex Chesterman.

The company’s recent hiring of “Swiss Bank Crédit Suisse” created an opportunity for growth which could be analysed as part of Zoopla’s SWOT model, in the sense that the banking company explored the possible outcomes of an initial public offering valued at approximately 1.3 Billion £ (2.09 Billion USD) giving the company leader’s 9% share posession a value of approx. 100 Million £ (161 Million USD).

Another opportunity faced by both Zoopla and Rightmove is the increasing number of property consumers going online before contacting real estate agencies. Indeed, the article explains that digitial access to information does not yet have enough share in providing “home hunters” with details. The use of digital means slowing down would, however, act as a threat.

Source of article: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/nov/17/zoopla-attractive-property-desirable-market-potential

According to the Guardian Sustainable Business Blog, companies could use evaluations of their Natural Capital as part of their corporate social responsibility to stimulate sustainability. What is natural capital however? Natural capital can be defined as all environmental factors that contribute to a company’s activities; such as wood from trees, waste etc… The article evokes Puma, and how it has evaluated its Natural Capital to determine how much debt it actually owns to nature so to speak. The numbers around to approx. 145M€ (193.8M USD).

Following Puma’s initiative, an international World Forum on natural capital will be held in Edinburgh on the 21st-22nd of November. The aim of analyzing natural capital of a company is to make companies reflect on their impacts on their environment. The article informs us that although some impacts are caused by production itself, others and sometimes most, are results of faulty supply chains that can be modified to reduce natural capital.

Taking into account natural capital could be a way for companies to increase their corporate social responsibility and work towards sustainability. In conclusion, the article states that this notion of natural capital is still at its early stages but could have a huge future impact.

Link to article:

http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/natural-capital-next-generation-csr

Today, major British supermarket Tesco is attempting to restore the trust of its customers by changing its image to one of superior quality and design. After the international horse meat scandal which struck Tesco with a hard blow, the company is now investing time, effort and a lot of money in rebuilding their damaged image to relaunch sales. Indeed, it is said to be spending “millions of pounds” on updating its recipes to upgrade the quality not only of their food, but also of their supermarkets to create a better “look” that will bring hopefully bring customers back.

Tesco has said “it had added 400 new products, improved 750 existing lines and discontinued 200 others that were deemed no longer relevant”. Moreover, the firm has said that it has made sure to have better control over its suppliers through various contract signings.

In the situation which Tesco faces, the company is not wishing to expand but rather to rebuild the image and trust which was damaged . This could be seen as an example of business ethics since the company is also providing better quality to its paying customers in trying to save, or at least limiting the casualties.

Article link http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/07/tesco-revamp-finest-range-uk-sales

The world has witnessed a technological battle in the last years. As mail fights to “stay alive” versus other virtual means of communication, investors are faced with a critical decision. The Guardian Online evokes the particular case of Twitter and Royal Mail. Now for investors, the choice is made complicated by the the fact that each of these businesses share advantages.

In the long run, if the investors were to choose to place their trust in Twitter, the possible outcome would be more successful and enriching. The article states that the company would be “likely to raise” “12.8 billion USD (= 8 billion £ = 13.2 billion CAD ).

However, even though the predictions for Royal Mail are “a shadow of” Twitter’s possible revenues at 3.3 billon USD (2.05 billion £ = 3.4 billion CAD), this time these outcomes are said to be more certain which would imply that investors would be taking less risks.

Each of these two companies can therefore hope to attract these new stakeholders to hope to develop and expand in the next years. Perhaps for Twitter, these investments will be seen as paths to development whereas for Royal Mail they will seen as a way to renewal.

Below is the concerned article:

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/oct/06/is-twitter-worth-a-flutter

In July of this year, British Airways signed a contract during a ceremony in Toulouse, France, ordering 12 Airbus A380 jumbojets, to in part replace the previously used Boeing 747 model.

The incentives behind such a change are numerous. First of all, in terms of reasons related to cost, British Airways estimates that the change will save them 100M £ (approx. 166M CAD and 161M USD) during these aircrafts’ liftetimes.

Furthermore, the use of such planes would have positive outcomes on national employment in the United Kingdom where part of the supply chain would be drafted. Indeed, 40% of the production would be undertaken in the UK and the Rolls-Royce Trent-900 engines would be manufactured in Derby, England.

Finally, the A380 is a very silent airplane, compared to the Boeing 747. this would imply two things; first, British Airways would be paying less landing taxes at Heathrow for less noise pollution, and secondly; would show business ethics in creating less noise pollution when flying low over densely inhabited areas.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/jul/04/british-airways-airbus-a380-heathrow

Below is a summary video of the signings and inaugural take-off:

L’Oréal Paris

Being French, I wanted to find a French company which would meet the standards of what could be called an “ethical company”. However, when reading an article in popular newspaper “La Tribune”, it seemed to state that out of the world’s 145 most ethical businesses, only 2 were French…

One of these is the well known cosmetology giant “L’Oréal Paris”. This surprised me since I usually attribute beauty products to immoral aspects such as animal testing or chemical pollution.

L’Oréal’s online “code of business ethics”, set up by the group in 2007, underlines the fact that the company not only promotes ethical conduct as a business, but also as “an employer” and a “responsible corporate citizen”. It acts this way by promoting honesty and clarity towards consumers, as well as making sure that employees benefit from good working conditions by working against all forms of harassment, and/ or by monitoring their impact on the environment and various cultural communities.

By taking into account these different aspects that commonly contribute to make a business and “ethical business”, L’Oréal Paris manages to enter the rank of not only one of the most successful companies in the world, but also one of the most ethical ones.

Sources:

http://www.loreal.fr/Document.aspx?file=%0d%0ahttp://loreal-dam-front-resources-corp-fr-cdn.brainsonic.com/ressources/afile/154-187da-resource-charte-ethique-o-loethique-au-quotidien.html

http://www.latribune.fr/entreprises-finance/20120319trib000689039/sur-les-145-entreprises-les-plus-ethiques-du-monde-seules-deux-sont-francaises.html