Month: November 2011

Seth Godin’s blog provides fun and inspirational topics. It enriches you with skills and ideas of how to improve your competitive advantages, as well as providing one with successful tools and knowledge to succeed in the competitive business market.

Seth has a rich background in marketing.

He founded Yoyodyne , one of the first internet based direct marketing companies, that was sold to Yahoo in 1998 for $30,000,000.

Seth is also known for his use of the term “permission marketing” – marketing in which the marketers receive permission before the customer purchases the product.

He supports a friendly marketing approach rather than an aggressive approach.

All his experiences and academic knowledge have proven him to be one of the biggest business Gurus out there, therefore it is worthwhile to check his blog to get some ideas and motivation.

Citation: Godin, Seth. “Seth Godin’s blog” <http://sethgodin.typepad.com/>

Linkedin launched in May with great success.

On the first day it started trading with an initial price of $45 and by the end of the first day it reached $122.70.

Just two weeks ago, it was Groupon’s turn to raise capital and they too, showed gains on their first day of trading starting at $20, and rising to $31- ending the day at $28.

We question if internet stocks are to be considered a good investment?

According to  James K. Glassman they are “fun but risky”.

Glassman provides 6 rules to assist in deciding whether a company is worth investing in:

-Smart business proposition.

-Innovation.

-Awareness of competition.

-Analysis of the balance sheet.

-Faithful patience.

-Diversification.

If we implement Glassman’s rules to see whether Linkedin and Groupon are worthwhile investments, we see that both companies are interesting propositions.

Linkedin is unique, while Groupon has many competitors.

Balance sheets will show no profits for both in 2011, however, Groupon’s accounts will look worse especially after all the adjustments have been made.

Patience is always needed when considering investing in stocks, because the temptation of a quick gain is always there…

To conclude, Linkedin has been around and stable for quite some time, while Groupon is new to the market, and has had some tough times this year…

Citation: K. Glassman, James.  “6 Rules for Investing in Internet Stocks and 8 Promising Picks” Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. October 2010.<www.kiplinger.com/columns/openingshot/archives/6-rules-for-investing-internet-stocks-8-promising-picks.html>

Halliday, Josh. “Groupon share price soars after IPO” The Guardian. 4 November 2011. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/nov/04/groupon-share-price-soars-ipo>

Bladwin Clare & Selyukh Alina  “LinkedIn share price more than doubles in NYSE debut”. Reuters. May 19, 2011. <http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/19/us-linkedin-ipo-risks-idUSTRE74H0TL20110519>

Chan criticizes the inefficiency that stands behind any business decision that is for sustainability.

Chan “conveniently” neglects to point out that sustainability not only brings profit, but also depletes resources.

If Governments and business firms focus only on present profit gain, and ignore the “sustainability” side, there will be no future business for anyone, because there will be no resources left.

Chan’s example of downtown heavy traffic jams, due to the new bicycles lanes, have caused people to cease using their cars and to commute downtown using bicycles or public transportation.

 If the Government had not invested in improving bicycle paths and public transportation, people would still commute to downtown by cars and cause heavier pollution.

As for sustainability, in my opinion, there will be a much higher opportunity cost if we continue to ignore the same.

The world cannot continue the way things are now…

So changes MUST be implemented…

Citation: Chan, Ivan. “Inefficiency. The Opportunity Cost of Sustainability?” ivanchan blog. November 15th, 2011. < https://blogs.ubc.ca/ivanchan/2011/11/15/sustainability/>

Back in 2000, Nike purchased software (i2 demand-planning software) that supposedly can foresees the quantity recommended to produce by evaluating past sales.

 Sounds good?

 The forecast caused Nike a loss of $100 million!

The idea is logical. Nike is such a huge company that it is hard to create orders based on intuition alone; however, trusting a computer program will not do it by itself!

The strategy is to combine both, and to take into consideration whatever the marketing team is forecasting in sales for a certain product.

 The supply chain is more sensitive in the clothing and apparel businesses, since, if you over produce, even though the goods will not “get spoiled” their “fashionable value” will depreciate and  they will lose their price value.

Therefore, trusting the human instinct is the best way to lead the supply chain.

 That is what Nike learned from their mistakes, and increased their profits in later years.

citation: Koch ,Christopher. “Nike Rebounds: How (and Why) Nike Recovered from Its Supply Chain Disaster” Tue, June 15, 2004 http://www.cio.com/article/32334/Nike_Rebounds_How_and_Why_Nike_Recovered_from_Its_Supply_Chain_Disaster?page=1&taxonomyId=3207

Bellack points out the importance of a supply chain to a company, however she neglects to mention why it is important?

It is important to note that the reason the supply chain is so important is because the supply chain is the heart and soul of the company- without it there is no company!

If the marketing and sales teams do an excellent job on promoting a new product, and the production and  supply chains cannot meet the high demand, then all the hard work is for nothing!

 THE SYNCHRONIZATION between the different departments of a company (marketing, accounting, and stores) and the supply chain are crucial, just like our heart cannot function without our brain.

 Not synchronizing properly, will probably be the No.1 factor for failing supply chains.

Citation: Bellack, Liesl. “Science of a Supply Chain” Liesl Bellack’s Blog. Oct. 31st, 2011 <https://blogs.ubc.ca/lieslmb/2011/10/31/science-of-a-supply-chain/>

“Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.”

Conard Hilton – Entrepreneurship success

Some call it luck, others call it destiny, but evidently there are some people out there that simply know how to do the right thing. This is the art of the entrepreneur – spot an opportunity, find means in which he can successfully accomplish his vision, and GO FOR IT!

A great example would be Conrad Hilton. Hilton was the first international hotel chain.

In 1919, Hilton, who was not sure what he wanted to do with his life, encountered a small hotel -The Mobley hotel.

 He felt sure he wanted to become an emperor of hotels, so he raised money and bought that hotel.

Being successful does not end here… Conrad made the effort to study the industry well.

He invested much of his time improving the hotel and staff, and the rest is history. Another important factor for the entrepreneur is the fact he did not stop there – he kept spotting other hotels to purchase.

Conrad also knew the art of biding, he always knew the right amount when placing his bid.

Conclusion – choose a vision, find the means to fulfill your vision – and keep on moving constantly.

citation: © 2011 Scientity Inc. All right reserved. 

http://www.liveomagazine.com/article/conrad-hilton-8.html