Jia Wei Liew’s recent blog discussed the new innovation of a “salt water car”. He mentioned how this innovation could be a “Tesla Killer”, and is extremely innovative. However, there are many flaws in this argument. First of all, contrary to what Jia said, salt water is not an unlimited resource; in fact not many resources on earth, if any, are unlimited. Scarcity is what shapes much of the modern world, and is the backbone of economic theory. Even more important to note is that this car doesn’t, in fact, run on salt water. Does it run on a salty liquid? Yes, however it is actually a man-made liquid similar to an electrolyte compound.

One of the main issues I’ve found with this is the ability for consumers to access such a form of petroleum. Unlike Tesla, which runs on electricity by way of plug-in, this car needs this electrolyte substance in order to run. Unless this kind of car rapidly increases in popularity, which is hard to imagine being priced at $1 million, it will be extremely difficult and expensive to make this fuel easily accessible to consumers. The costs involved in making such a product easily accessible to the consumers are overwhelming, and exponentially bigger than those of Tesla’s supercharger stations.

Other sources:

http://www.intelligentliving.co/salt-water-powered-car-gets-european-approval/

http://www.kitco.com/ind/Albrecht/2014-03-06-Flow-Cell-Batteries-A-Substitute-For-Lithium-Ion.html

Samsung was, for several years, the leader in smartphone sales. However, recently two new companies, Xiaomi and Micromax, have overtaken them in the world’s two largest countries, India and China. Samsung’s sales have fallen 20%, earnings 60%. These are huge numbers that have been taking their toll on the company, and it’s stock price. What interested me is how two fairly new companies could outcompete the world’s biggest. What was the answer? Strategy. China and India are both countries with significant wealth, and poverty. Both Xiaomi and Micromax implemented a lost cost focus strategy in China and India respectfully, which has seemed to pay off.

Pictured above is one of Micromax’s smartphones. Not very often does a company outdo one of the world’s biggest, but this is proof that a well implemented strategy can reap rewards. In my mind, what these two companies have done is brilliant. Take the worlds biggest country, give them a cheaper alternative to a modern day necessity, and watch your company grow. I think this is a great lesson in strategy and how important it can be.

Other Sources:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-08/trouble-for-samsung-after-stock-swoon-is-the-worst-over#r=hpt-ls

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-08-06/its-not-just-china-dot-samsung-is-falling-behind-in-india-too

http://cdn.androidadvices.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Micromax-Canvas-Knight-A350.jpg