Sally SooHyun Kim

요즘 art & technology 면접 준비가 한창이다!
여기 블로그에 창의성 면접 준비를 해볼까 한다.

Last Wednesday, on the 5th of January, Starbucks unveiled its re-designed logo:

This shows how confident Starbucks is about their brand image: although its logo does not have its name on it anymore, everyone will still know that it is the logo of the world-famous Starbucks coffee shop. Moreover, despite the latest failures of logo changes in several companies, Starbucks proudly made its mark, assured of its success.

A few months ago,I was exposed to an interesting site called ‘Groupon’ while I was web-surfing. Groupon is a deal-of-the-day website where people personalize their deals to filter only those that individuals want (different categories, locations, etc.) Groupon offers deals that vary from a $20 one-month membership to Steve Nash Fitness World to a $70 dinner cruise for two, each having a value of $115 and $145 respectively.

Right away, I signed up to receive their deals.

Then, a few weeks later, this article captured my view:

Groupon Turns Down Google’s $6 Billion Offer (http://mashable.com/2010/12/03/groupon-google-no)

Of course, there was a reason to this. The article stated that “Groupon generates $2 billion in yearly revenue,” making the offer not worthwhile. Also, Groupon has potential to become something bigger. However, it should work on building long-term relationships with the customers because there are already Groupon clones, and these have the opportunity to overtake the original.

In the long run, Groupon is a great website in terms of its ideas, but it needs to secure itself from other corporates to take over.

To me, morality is the most important quality of true leadership. Genuine leadership is being ethical and caring toward others so that a sense of right and wrong can reach all people in all areas. For example, the incessant pursuit of interests led to the collapse of the Subprime. This massive failure of delinquencies and foreclosures could have been prevented if banks and enterprises stayed true to a strong system of ethics.

Until now, business has been about selfish profit and wealth. I wish to bring morality and ethics into the business world, and I care for other human beings and the greater good. That is what makes me a leader.

Crocs!

The ugly, chunky, plastic, colourful-but-not-so-pretty shoes.

Everyone admits the comfortableness of these crocs, but not a lot of them wears these because.. think of it: a sexy red top and black leopard skirt and instead of a pair of flirty black heels, a pair of red crocs. Or this:

They can really ruin your style. But I said Crocs is a great example of Entrepreneurship. Let me explain:

Innovation. Crocs are the first of their own kind, and they have shown that they can really dominate the world of children’s feet, possibly old people’s as well.

In November 2010, Crocs have made a comeback with better looks. This article  http://bx.businessweek.com/entrepreneurship/view?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fastcompany.com%2F1700818%2Fcrocs-comeback-plastic-shoemaker-back-on-track-with-250-varieties states that Croc’s “net income for the recent quarter was $25 million, up from $22.1 million last year” from launching new styles.

Are there risks? Of course. There’s no way George B. Boedecker Jr. (founder of Crocs) would have found his original Crocs attractive.

These are what makes Crocs the definition of true Entrepreneurship.

Fashion+mathematics = Fashematics

I never been such a brainiac, when it comes to maths. Not really my fault, just that, according to my highschool teacher, Monsieur Poirot (fwi: Mister Leek in english), my approach of math logic was different:

“You’re wasting your time at doing wrong things, young lady!”. It is only today, that I realize the intrasic value of such an advice, I had to do only “right” things, duh!

So, what made me up with the truthfulness of mathematics? That:

Fashematics= well known benchmarks (tv,movies,fashion icons) that add up to unscrumble the source of inspiration of the greatest fashion designers. It’s fun, effectual and above all, it’s unshakably logical! Voilà:

http://fashematics.com/

https://www.icuinparis.com/blog/2010/09/29/fashionmathematicsfashematics/

An average person is exposed to over 3000 ads a day. This is shocking to most people because very few of those ads stick out and actually capture people’s attentions. More specifically, different people get interested in different ads.

This is why Google tracks people’s browsing history, and throws email ads that best fit what different people might be interested in, according to what people browse. This is why I’ve gotten emails asking if I was interested in getting a degree in fashion merchandising in a short term at a college, or if I was interested in getting coupons for clothing stores. Google already knew that I was interested in fashion. It’s kind of scary and intrusive, but it is advertisers’ job to get in front of the right target customers.

I would say the most basic but chief factor about advertising is to know who your target audience is. Who would want to buy your products/services? How do you want to grab the attention of your potential customers?

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/10/crowdsourcing_effective_advert.html

My mom used to tell me that “luck only comes to whoever’s ready.” It took me a quite a while to understand it. This article basically summarized my understanding: http://blogs.hbr.org/tjan/2010/10/make-luck-work-in-your-favor.html. One type of luck is constitutional luck – a luck that comes because of your age, heritage, cultural background, or upbringing. For example, last year, I overheard the conversation between my mom and her friend – her friend was asking my mom if she wanted to join her for a seminar on how to run A*** business. My mom was  not interested, but I definitely was. I asked my mom’s friend if I could go, and she took me because she thought I was cute being interested in such topic at “young” age. I later became an IBO myself, which was possible because of a lucky constitution.

Here’s some characteristics lucky people share:

-“Entrepreneurially lucky people are driven by a deep intellectual curiosity.” Luck is pulled from constant effort to find and experience new things. No work = no luck. Lucky people are open-minded to everything because they are curious. They will find new things, and make them theirs.

-Lucky people feel lucky and are optimistic. It is absolutely crucial that you believe you are a lucky person to become one. It’s the ‘Secret.’ Moreover, being optimistic and open will bring unexpected luck. It’s simple and easy as that.

“Luck only comes to whoever’s ready.”

I’m ready.

http://blogs.hbr.org/tjan/2010/10/make-luck-work-in-your-favor.html

It’s only been 1.5 months since the start of life at Sauder, and I’ve been into hundreds of group meetings already. After reading the article http://blogs.hbr.org/ashkenas/2010/10/why-we-secretly-love-meetings.html, I realized how much I learned from these meetings: “Be clear about what you want to accomplish; invite the right people; send out pre-reading in advance; have an agenda and follow it with discipline; send out notes with key decisions and action steps.” These key points were what the author called, the ‘basic rules’ that every manager should know.

What’s more important though, is that you have to enjoy the time while you’re in a group meeting to get best results. Here’s one main reason why you should enjoy them: Social interactions are created. I mean, who would prefer boring work piled up on your desk over a group work that can be done with a multiple brains while getting to hang out, have some fun, and form relationships? I think that’s enough to get the message across.

It’s amazing how much Sauder has taught me already.