Is Failure the Secret to Success?

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This blog post encourages us to take an interesting stance, one that is not against failure, but for failure, describing failure as an “essential part of innovation”. The fault with our culture is that we are too bounded to the metrics that reward only success. However, even innovative, well-thought out ideas can result in failure and this failure is far from a bad thing, because lessons can be learnt from the mistakes. Ultimately, these “smart failures” should rewarded.

Though the blog post is geared towards business and supplier innovation, I think its message can be extrapolated into our daily lives as students here as well.

The competitive atmosphere at Sauder’s business school nurses a fear of not excelling, of not succeeding, and of failure. Because of this, maybe we are being too cautious and overly concerned about fitting in: taking the right courses, making the right connections, building the right network.

Certainly these are important, but maybe, like these businesses, our caution and fear of failure are preventing us from taking a risk to be different and to be innovative.

At Me Inc.’s workshop Amplify, the ending keynote closed with a challenge to take the unconventional route with our education – what would you do if you had no fears?

business model

Success has a Fast-Approaching Expiry Date

The danger of today’s dynamic business environment is that success today does not mean success tomorrow. Many companies are vulnerable to the trap of piggybacking onto the success of current business models for future success. They over-exploit their current business models because it has proven to be successful. Time and resources are spent fine-tuning current models rather than developing new ones, which although is cost-efficient, low risk, and reaps rewards in the short-run, prevents growth and development in the long run.

Businesses need to have a strategy that balances both exploitation and exploration. Nowadays, Porter’s ideals of operational efficiency are not enough for a business to success. Businesses will need to embrace a transient business model to competitively sustain themselves in this fast-paced, changing society.

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Two examples of companies that have embraced this “ambidextrous” model of exploitation and exploration are Amazon and Google. What makes both companies successful is their continual focus on exploration, but at the same time pursues efficiency and excellence in operations and commerce.

YouTube Red: Would you pay for what you could see for free?

As my three-month free trial of Apple Music expired, I found myself spending more time on YouTube, because I had the access to a wide variety of free creative content. However, with the introduction of YouTube Red, their premium subscription service, will I still have free access to all of this content in the near future?

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In my opinion their current approach of focusing on consumer satisfaction over profitability is what propels YouTube’s popularity and encourages new users. The success of YouTube is accredited to the fact that this video sharing platform is free for both users and creators.

Personally, these premium features are not enough to justify the monthly subscription fee. YouTube Red is offering music streaming and offline downloads for their premium subscribers. However, I disagree with Brendan that these features are points of differences for YouTube Red, seeing that Spotify and Apple Music offers these features as well.

Another notable feature YouTube Red offers is exclusive content to their premium subscribers. Current YouTubers may be hesitant to create exclusive content because it simply would not reach to the majority of their viewers. They’ve built their success on the accessibility of YouTube, and that’s the main selling point of YouTube’s current brand. As an avid viewer of YouTube, it frustrates me that I would now have to pay for “exclusive content” that I would otherwise be able to view for free.

Lastly, the premium subscription service removes all advertisements from videos, which is indeed a convenient feature, but again, does not justify the $10/month. For most users, time spent on YouTube is leisure time and the extra few seconds watching ads, especially that many of the advertisements are skip-able is overly cumbersome.

Yes, this feature may enhance the experience of a small user base, but I don’t think this introduction of YouTube Red will work in the interest of the majority of the YouTube’s audience.

business model

Amazon Books: Selling Offline and in Person

With much irony, Amazon’s new strategy to target the millennials is to open a brick and mortar book store, Amazon Books. Sales of e-reader devices have been declining, so in addition to selling books, this store will act as a marketing platform for customers to try out their Kindle and Fire Tablet devices. This is certainly an interesting maneuver, contradictory of our societal trends towards e-commerce.

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I disagree with Michael that Amazon Books will be able to differentiate themselves from their competitors because of their large online database to determine which books to stock. Book retailers such as Indigo and Barnes & Noble will, of course, have similar metrics to determine the popularity of books and predict sales. Customer reviews and ratings are not new to this market.

I think Amazon’s success comes from the convenience, comfort, and accessibility from ordering books or products online. Because Amazon is an e-commerce retailer, the brand itself may lack buzz to entice buyers from the comfort of their homes into their stores. However, this may be a strategic decision to target a different customer segment: ones enjoy browsing displays and see shopping as social experience.

business model, disruptive innovation, technology

Are all innovation disruptive?

Are all innovation disruptive?

This question was interestingly raised in last class’s tutorial and article illustrates an example of rising innovation that makes use of technology and the business model: service-providing apps.

Apps, such as Instacart, Sprig, Munchery examples of these services that provide the convenience shopping whenever and wherever, expanding virtual shopping to perishable goods such as groceries and meals. Other apps include laundry and mail services. These are flourishing in large American cities such as San Francisco and New York.

These services play on two trending values of the modern consumer: instant gratification, and technology dependency. These apps are easily accessible, meals, groceries, or clean laundry are simply a tap on your smartphone away. Convenience and time can now be purchased with money.

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These services may be more disruptive to certain industries that rely on consumer segments who value convenience, and live the fast-paced lifestyle, where time is money. However, as a university student with minimal income and burdensome student debt, convenience isn’t really a commodity that I’m willing to shell out extra bucks for.

Thus, I think industries are only disruptive when a there is an unanimous shift in trends of consumers values. But as for me, I think I’ll stick with grocery shopping in person for now.

Auto, Business Ethics, Environment

The Volkswagen Scandal: A Catalyst for the EV Industry

Maybe we’re all afraid of change.

We know that climate change is a problem, and carbon dioxide emissions are harmful for all of us, but why aren’t we trying to eradicate it? Why are we still demanding gasoline-run cars?

This current auto industry is not sustainable. Although radical improvements have been made to improve the environmentally-friendliness of a gasoline-run car, the auto industry is still stubbornly reliant on combustion engines and fossil fuels. As environmental awareness is raised and governments passing stricter regulations for emission-testing, this industry is bound to collapse and become obsolete sooner or later. Taking Volkswagen for example, we see that in order to remain viable in this outdated industry, ethical boundaries will inevitably be crossed.

The Volkswagen scandal isn’t the first time car companies are cutting corners to make emission-tests. For decades, emissions-testing isn’t as regulatory as it has been sold to consumers. European automakers makers arrange for their own testing of their cars, American cars differ from the way they preform in testing and they way they perform on the streets.

It is time that our consumer eyes are open to the misplaced truths that have been fed to us by automakers. Perhaps, this is the opportunity the EV industry is looking for to catalyst their domination of the auto market scene of the future.

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Let’s embrace change.

teamwork

Teamwork: Life or Death Situations

Hiroshi Mikitani, CEO of the Japanese internet giant, Rakuten, takes his leadership team on annual mountain-climbing trips to the peak of Mount Tanigawa, a mountain notorious for taking more lives than Mount Everest. Mikitani’s rationale for his yearly unconventional trip was that he saw it as a fantastic non-traditional opportunity to force his team to get to know one another on a deeper level. He saw the trip as a tangible representation and reminder of the teamwork necessary through whatever hills and valleys the company may face. (Pun intended).

Recently, I patted my fellow teammates on the back for completing the first part of the Group Business Plan and this article is a fantastic reminder of the importance of fostering teamwork. When a team member slips, are we there for them the whole way, thick and thin? Or will we, mindful of our own safety, let them keep falling?

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This physical journey that the Rakuten’s leadership team embarks illustrates the how a team should function. We don’t necessarily have to take every team member we are met with in the future on a physical perilous hike, (albeit, there are many beautiful mountains in British Columbia to explore), but we should remember that our team members, as valuable assets as they are, are human too and it is worthwhile to take the given opportunity to invest in deeper, more meaningful relationships.

Uncategorized

Behind the Operations of Zara: A Dynamic, High-Street Fashion Retailer

In this fast-paced modern society, consumers have a developed a need for instant gratification. Tables have turned for the food industry, the technology industry, and now the fashion industry. Among young adults, a shift is seen in taste from big brand names such as Abercrombie, to dynamic retailers that frequently renew their styles. Zara, a blossoming Spanish retailer specializing in high street-wear, is dominating the fashion scene with its cheap-chic apparel and its reliability to regularly renew stock and have new trends available.

What allows Zara to keep up with the demands of modern consumers is similar to Dell’s approach of extremely fast-paced operations: low inventory stock and high inventory turn-over rate. This mitigates whatever risks of carrying large inventories, especially in the spirited fashion industry, where trends bloom and wither rapidly. Zara takes only around two weeks for a drawing board design to become store-shelved, and allowing Zara introduced new trendy items weekly.

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And here’s where economics comes into play. Zara, because of their tight turnover and low inventory, potentially faces an issue of scarcity of the more popular items. But Zara uses this as leverage, allowing the scarcity of popular items to keep consumers on their toes and to check back frequently for new stock, thus further increasing demand.

Tina Wang

an open letter from a Sauder freshman

Author Archives: Tina Wang