“What do Government, Big and small business’ have in common?”

According to Tema Frank, a digital marketing specialist with her own podcast show, the answer is respect for their staff and a willingness to listen to those on the front lines.

Jeff Mackey, Fujitsu Consulting’s Managing Director of Business Consulting in Western Canada, is the inspiration for this idea and he speaks to the validity of applying it to business decisions in his interview on the podcast. Below is a list Tema created following the interview on the “Lean Process Improvement”, a method that improves businesses by working on the front lines.

Keys to Success In Lean Process Improvement

1. Management commitment

2. Sustained visible executive presence

3. Patience for results

4. The process is a frustration for the staff as well as your customers

5. Focus on right things (not cost reduction; that’s a by-product of improving the processes)

6. Start with small projects, get a win, and build momentum

7. Involve all key stakeholders, right from the start

This development of a “lean” model is not dissimilar from concepts discussed in class as we approached the idea of lean start-ups; that is start-ups with an ever changing business model that defines their business model canvas as they discover what customers want in the market.

There seems to be a trend noted in the advancement of traditional business methods and tools towards creating solutions where adaptability is maximized and their is a focus on the ability of companies to innovate and stay ahead of the competition.

Source:

Tema Frank, from Frank Online Marketing podcasts:

http://frankonlinemarketing.com/fom48-jeffmackey-lean/

Canadian cellular company Rogers and U.S. based Sprint have both engaged in services where Wi-Fi will be installed into vehicles. They are hoping to capitalize on peoples necessity to always be connected to the internet, even while on the road.

Distracted driving has been a huge issue these past few years with cell phone use causing many accidents and the public demanding government regulation.

By installing internet connections into vehicles, these companies are encouraging distracted driving so they may profit from it.

While the possibility to make money in this market is obvious, whether the ethics behind the decision are sound is another question.

With this move, Rogers proves that their core values of their company are to maximize profits within the regulations of the law, but not to a higher, more socially responsible level.

Personally, I agree with their entry into this new market. Milton Friedman believed that the companies should work to maximize the profits of the company within the regulations of the law but no further; this laissez-faire attitude is the basis of capitalism and the realistic market with in which we operate.

The public has the option to purchase this service and therefore they are responsible for any negative outcomes, not the company selling the service.

Sources:

Fellow Sauder Student Alex Tanaka:https://blogs.ubc.ca/alextanaka/2013/09/29/rogers-and-sprint-are-bringing-wifi-to-our-cars/

Wi-Fi enabled cars pose ‘great concern’ to safety, says researcher

http://www.thestar.com/business/tech_news/2013/09/26/rogers_and_sprint_to_offer_highspeed_wifi_in_cars.html

Sears, once a prominent name for a department store in Canada, is being driven out of the market by an increase in competitors and their inability to maintain customers.

With relatively low barriers to entry for international department stores, brands like Nordstroms and Target are making their way into Canada and differentiating themselves from Sears, taking away from Sears Value Proposition.

Although people generally view Sears as a trustworthy brand, they have lost their points of difference and are seeing this result reflected in their loss of revenues.

With the surge in online shopping, Sears once well known for their catalog and mail in orders, lost a huge branch of their business as competition from this new avenue emerged.

Sears, unable to use it’s strengths as a company to undermine these threats, lost a major point of revenue and subsequently their competitive edge. Through this complacency and inability to adapt, Sears is following Kodak onto the list of companies dying in the 21st century.

Sears would benefit by analyzing how Porter’s Five forces are applicable to their company, a lesson taught to first year Sauder students. By expanding on their points of difference in the department store industry segment, Sears has an opportunity to revive their business and avoid the downsizing and cost cutting that is currently occurring.

Sources:

Blog post by fellow Sauder Student Kathryn Huynh: https://blogs.ubc.ca/katbhuynh/2013/11/01/sears-canada-closes-flagship-store-as-well-as-four-other-locations/

http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/sears-canada-selling-stake-in-8-properties-will-keep-stores-open-1.1536988

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/11/11/sears-canada-montez-income-properties/?__lsa=6c4f-f975

Evan Spiegel, founder of SnapChat recently refused a 3 billion dollar offer from fellow social networking giant Facebook for the company he started in September 2011 while studying at Stanford.

With SnapChat still not producing revenue, a quick glance at such a large offer would have most people questioning how Facebook placed such a high value on the company.

With 350 million photos being shared per day in September, SnapChat has shown a trend of exponential growth without showing signs of slowing down, and Facebook is getting nervous.

Will the competition from SnapChat take away from Facebook’s user’s? I say it is doubtful and agree with Mr. Spiegel that the two forms of social media can coexist without harm.

However, Facebook is known to try and purchase perceived threats as they did with Instagram. So as SnapChat begins to move towards monetization it will be interesting to see Facebook make even more substantial offers in the future.

Observing a 3 billion dollar offer being rejected by a 23 year old college student is an inspiration for many to follow their entrepreneurial passions. While the risk is great and failure is common, the rewards of pursuing and achieving your dream can be plentiful.

Sources:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-13/snapchats-3-billion-rejection-and-the-great-facebook-unbundling#r=hpt-fs

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tristanlouis/2013/11/16/snapchat-and-other-best-and-bungled-billion-dollars-offers/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24925932

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/13/snapchat-app-sexting-lawsuits-valuation

As defined by Albert Einstein Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Companies that utilize stack ranking, a system that places employees on a bell curve and firing the low performers, has been proven to reduce productivity since the system was founded in 1980.

Unfortunately for Yahoo, Marissa Mayer has decided this method, that has been proven unsuccessful, is the best way for her to inspire an organizational culture that will take Yahoo from the bottom to the top. As Albert Einstein would say, this is Insanity.

As a tech company, Yahoo must look to foster a culture where employees are highly motivated and creativity is supported so that innovation, the key to riches in technology, is achieved at a level above the competition. By stack ranking employees and threatening them with their jobs, Yahoo is effectively demotivating their employees and encouraging them to look for other jobs where there are no concerns about job security and they are allowed to focus on what is most important, their work.

With this insane mistake of a human resource strategy, Yahoo is digging their grave in a market they are already trailing in.

If only Yahoo had a Sauder Graduate to steer them off this course of action, motivation and organizational culture is something taught as a basic in Sauder’s first year classes.

Sources:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-12/yahoos-latest-hr-disaster-ranking-workers-on-a-curve#r=most popular

http://www.ibtimes.com/what-stack-ranking-microsoft-ends-controversial-employee-rating-system-yahoo-ramps-it-1468850

http://www.news.com.au/technology/business-technology/another-hr-fail-by-marissa-mayer-angers-yahoo-employees/story-fn5lic6c-1226759112333

Unless you have been living under a rock in the ocean, on another planet, within another galaxy, you are aware of the tidal wave of technology advancements that have been occurring since the arrival of the personal computer and the internet.

These two concepts have revolutionized nearly every aspect of life today. In the business world, companies have been created, and destroyed, but ultimately have achieved a higher level of efficiency with technological tools.

Amidst this rise of technology, information has become even more valuable as business’ and mathematicians begin to find relationships  between different metrics that are collected internationally from a multitude of industries. Thus came the concept of Big Data.

Big Data is a fast paced industry emerging from the collection and analysis of information. With low barriers to entry, many small start-ups are emerging to provide different angles of the Big Data service.

Considering that over 70% of IT investments from firms go to waste, is this new pursuit of Big Data desirable?

I believe the understanding of new relationships found within this new industry will ultimately be beneficial to large corporations  by allowing them to make better decisions. This is extremely important where one small decision can have massive effects on revenue.

Sources:

http://readwrite.com/2013/11/11/whos-getting-rich-in-the-big-data-gold-rush?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+readwriteweb+(ReadWriteWeb)#awesm=~omWKP0AL438Qhy

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/is-big-data-gaming-mutual-funds-2013-11-11