“We save people money so they can live better.”

Watch a few minutes of TV and you’re sure to come across a Wal-mart ad.  Whether it’s about their annual roll-backs or just their every-day low prices, these ads have managed to worm their way into TV, newspapers, and all sorts of different media.  (Quite effectively considering I could remember their taglines without having ever actually physically being in a store before…)

Wal-Mart regularly ranks as the top corporation in America, and among the top of the world.  Coupled with their wide-spread, middle-income target market, Wal-mart should by all rights be up with the best.  However, it wasn’t their ubiquitous ads or far-reaching span that netted them the top spot.  It was their revolutionary inventory system.

The Management Information System (MIS) they have set up allows Wal-Mart to collect information, such as product type and seasonal changes in sales.  This lets people in their back office do more efficient analysis of their inventory and project future sales more accurately.

Implementing these decisions allow Wal-Mart to cut costs and increase profits, all while giving us that low, low, price we all love.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-25/wal-mart-cutting-orders-as-unsold-merchandise-piles-up.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJwrlF8AzmA

Today in class, we were treated to a unique experience: the chance to listen to a first hand account of how a radically different and innovative enterprise develops from inception to actualization.

Wade Larson is the COO of UrtheCast, a company that will soon provide live-streamed video feed of the earth from the International Space Station (ISS).

As the class progressed, Mr. Larson outlined the difficulties he encountered with UrtheCast, namely, how exactly he got investors or partners to buy into the idea of something so fantastical and frankly gimmicky.

We were told of how he struck a barter deal with Russia’s cosmonauts, exchanging their equipment for a ride to the ISS.  (Interesting to see bartering still taking effect.  A relatively quantitative way to think of opportunity cost, albeit on a grand scale.)

After spending last night (and this morning) on the second individual assignment, it was refreshing to see some of the tools we’ve learned in class actually used in a real case.  Porter’s generic strategies are now even clearer in my mind after listening to Mr. Larson apply it to his space age company.

Approaching the UrtheCast model from a marketing perspective shows a wealth of advertising potential.  How easy it is now though, to be awed by a company like this, when just last year’s class was skeptical of its success.

UrtheCast is a wonderful example of what humans can achieve and how big the returns are after such a monumental risk.

http://www.urthecast.com/about