Month: November 2011

The Brazilian government blamed Chevron for the Frade Spill on November 8^th, and suspended Chevron’s drilling rights on November 23^rd until Chevron apologized and clarified the cause for the incident.

In additional to apologies, Chevron has also been fined $28 million by Brazil’s environmental agency. Chevron took full charge to provide solutions for the spill. “We controlled the source in four days. We worked with transparency and cooperation with the authorities of Brazil,” George Buck, Chevron’s CEO in Brazil, said. He also mentioned that the company “acted as rapidly and safely as possible” and “used all resources” to contain and stop the flow of oil from the drilling well.

Although the Frade Spill was relatively small, it still had great impact globally. Moreover, it will lead to an increase in opposition to offshore drilling worldwide, which will become obstacles to further drilling  for the company. It is crucial for a company to understand corporate social responsibilities and take actions to limit negative impact on the environment. In this case, Chevron should find a better way to minimize the potential for a spill to happen in the future. The company should also take into the account the costs that the society will suffer as a whole before taking actions to gain profits.

(credit to photograph:http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article290461.ece)

Reference to original artical

After reading from Chloe Kim’s blog about mass customization, it gives me many insights on this new strategy of business.

Referring to the original blog, there are two main points about customization:

• Multiple market within
• Reduce cost with flexibility

The first point indicated a new way to view and understand customer behavior – as multiple markets. This simply stated that one customer will bring other customers into the market if his/her wants were fulfilled. The second point is the key for a company to maximize their profit by minimizing their cost. By mass customization, customer need could be better addressed while lowering the cost by producing less.

This new strategy is very useful because of it allows a company to target more directly to customer needs. According to Porter’s Generic Strategies Model, a differentiation focus strategy would have a higher cost. However, mass customization actually lowers the cost because it eliminated the risk of producing products with a low demand. Dell is the best example that demonstrated the effectiveness of this strategy.

Before starting her entrepreneurship, Vera Wang was a senior editor for Vogue for sixteen years and worked for Ralph Lauren for two years. In 1990, she opened her own design salon and started her own label in 1994.  Her trademark bridal gowns were worn by many well-known public figures and celebrities. Vera Wang later expanded her brand name through jewelry, housewares, fragrance and home fashion. She was awarded with the Leadership in the Arts Award by the Harvard-Radcliffe Asian American Association in 2010.

“If your heart is attached to it, then your mind will be attached to it. When you have a passion for something then you can not only be better at it, but you work harder at it too.” – Vera Wang. Vera’s determination and hard work lead to her success nowadays. Vera also realized that she has to create something different to stand out and build her brand; her rich experiences in the fashion area allow her to make profit speedily.

Learning is the top secret to Vera’s innovative, entrepreneurial success: “Don’t be afraid to take time to learn. It’s good to work for other people. I worked for others for 20 years. They paid me to learn” – Vera Wang.

Profile on Vera Wang

Other references:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Wang

http://www.thelittlee.com/html/famous_entrepreneurs.html