Jason Guan's blog

Thinking of your coupon popping up automatically on your iPhone when you walk into a Starbucks, it cannot be a better and easier way to buy a cup of coffee and enjoy the whole experience of buying it. Passbook, integrated with iOS 6, will make it become part of your daily life.

As I perceived, except the Apple 3D maps, which, unfortunately, has been proved as an undeveloped substitute of Google maps, the Passbook is the most exciting change in iOS 6 because it provides the whole new experience of using electronic tickets and coupons and it has potential ability to redefine a market as what iPod and iTunes did in the music industry. Before the Passbook being developed, there are many applications which do the same job, but they only support single services. Passbook enhances the user experience by integrating them all in a official application which is already on most of iPhones. Not only Apple will attract more consumers and make them stick on iPhones by developing their user behavior through Passbook, but also those companies which join in the list of Passbook, like Starbuscks, Target, American Airlines and so on, will gain more profit from this new electronic ticket service. It is a win-win strategy for both Apple and cooperated companies.

Though Passbook now only supports some American companies, though some users reported the failure of using the Passbook to get checked in Cineplex, though the iPhone 5 is not equipped with NFC, which can enhance the Passbook, it still an impressive strategy for Apple to move into the electronic ticket market. Given time, people will probably find the using Passbook has become part of their habit, same as downloading music on their iPods.

Haidilao Hot-pot, founded in 1994, has grown to a company with more than 60 chain stores. Although it is not a giant company, I would like to talk about its difference between other chain restaurants.

Haidilao Hot-pot creates pleasant working environment, like a home, for its staff. Everyone in the team is treated as a part of this family. When employees are treated as member of a family, they will feel that work is not only a way to earn money, but a responsibility that they should take for the family. Unlike McDonalds’ standardized working procedure, Haidilao Hot-pot trusts its staffs and provides them with rights to add what they think is more consumer-oriented service in their daily work. The standardized service is efficient but will never surpass consumers’ expectation. Haidilao Hot-pot is famous of its extremely innovative and consumer-oriented way to serve customers. Moreover, customers are always moved by staffs’ enthusiasm and look Haidilao as a part of their life, which cannot be replaced by other restaurants.

However, this module has its disadvantage that it needs a long time to cultivate a loyal staff. This kind of companies need time to grow. If they desire to expand to a huge one by just placing identical stores everywhere, the differential advantage will not exist and the companies will fail because of the messed up operation.

External link with Daily View: Will the euro survive?

While the crisis going on in Europe, the euro is concerned a lot. The daily view shows different views about the future of euro and how to solve the crisis in Europe.

Although the crisis is serious with many euro countries in debt, euro can survive and should survive.

From the daily view, I knew how dangerous the euro is because some European countries still cannot make up practical proposal to solve their deficit problem. As one of the most important economy parts in the world, Europe will affect the process of economy recovery of the whole world. If euro failed, it would be a bomb, which may destroy the world economy.

The daily view also shows cracks in EU. Some countries begin to think more about themselves than when the crisis just began. It is not a good sign for EU and the world. ‘if all the countries in the eurozone continue to fail to accept that they have to take on collective responsibilities for each others’ debts then’ (BBC)leaves the disintegration of eurozone.

Work cited:

1. BBC. “BBC – See Also: Daily View: Will the Euro Survive?” BBC – Homepage. BBC, 2011. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/seealso/2011/11/daily_view_will_the_euro_survi.html>.

Most of giant companies have combined CSR strategy with their business model to build their social-concerning image. While emphasizing their efforts in taking social responsibilities, companies should keep in mind that the impact of any mistaking actions in CSR strategy will cost them a lot.

While Apple identified China as one of its key markets in the future, its Chinese suppliers pushed Apple to the headline not by innovative products but discharging pollution and providing unsafe working environment in recent months. Although all of these blames were caused by Apple’s manufactures, they also hearted Apple’s reputation in China directly. People shocked by what they did and begin to doubt whether Apple is a social-concerning company and whether Apple is worth their trust.

People are more concerned about the CSR strategy of a company. If a company cannot make sure that it actives obey law, ethic standards and international norms, it will be punished by the market.

The formation of a CSR policy needs companies to invest time and money. But it is critical for any company, especially giant companies, to survive and succeed. No mistake is acceptable.

Fortunately, Apple realized the problems and responded that “We require that our suppliers provide safe working conditions, treat workers with dignity and respect, and use environmentally responsible manufacturing processes wherever Apple products are made.”(BBC)

Work cited：

1. BBC Business News. “BBC News – Apple meets China environment groups to polish image.” BBC – Homepage. BBC, 17 NOV. 2011. Web. 18 NOV. 2011.

 < http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15768708>.

The Big Issue started the business in September 1991. During 20 years of growth, the Big Issue has become one of the famous social enterprises in UK. The Big Issue runs its social business in a unique way.

Unlike any charity or social enterprise, the Big Issue combines these two parts into one efficient entirety. The Big Issue Company publishes the weekly magazines and sells them to vendors. ‘Any post investment profit generated through the sale of the magazine or the sale of advertising is passed on to our charity, The Big Issue Foundation.’(Big Issue) The foundation then passes all profit to homeless people. Furthermore, the foundation also accepts public donations.

This combination is able to maximize its social effect while the publisher can focus on publishing magazines and the foundation can concentrate on help the poor, without bothering tight cash. It shows the future of social enterprise, binding specialized profit-oriented companies and charities.

Moreover, traditional companies should partly become social enterprises because they are more specialized in profit making. If they would like to use a small part of income to help the poor, the social effect will be significant. Traditional companies can also gain intangible assets, such as fame, reputation and social-caring image.

Work cited:

1. Big Issue. “Introduction To The Big Issue.” Big Issue-About Us. The Big Issue, Jan-Nov 2011. Web. < http://www.bigissue.com/About_Us_2.php >.

This is a response to the post published by classmate Melody Han.

From my point of view, Zara cannot be defined as an entrepreneurial company completely. Zara do produce new products but they are just clothes, fashion but not unique. Actually, the way that Zara sells clothes ‘produces’ the ‘new products’ and ‘new market’.

Zara ships every design to stores in a really small number. The limited number of one fashion design makes people crazy about the products. Everyone would like to posses limited things, which is always linked with high quality and price. Furthermore, instead of investing on advertisements, Zara uses the money to fasten its supply chain, open new stores and, the most important thing, lower the price. In this way, Zara sells limited fashion clothes in low price. When this kind of clothes compared with other fashion clothes, they have lower price. They are also different from the low price clothes because they are fashion and limited. They are seen as a new kind of products and consist of so called ‘fast fashion’ market. Moreover , about the risk, Zara reduces risk by the flexibility of fast delivery and production.

Work cited:

1. Wikipedia.”Zara (retailer).” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, 2011. Web. 12 Nov. 2011.

<httpL//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zara_(retailer)>.

Facebook is considered as the pioneer of social network websites. The idea about Facebook came from a seemingly boring online ‘hotter’ competition, which was held by Mark Zuckerberg. Then, he wrote the predecessor to Facebook, Facemash and forwarded to several universities in the US and, eventually, the whole world. Today, numerous websites copy what Facebook did but none of them can exceed Facebook.

The way that Facebook gains profits is like what TV shows, providing free service to users and charging ads published on Facebook. Facebook has built its unique way to attract people. The internet social network meets people’s needs to share their lives and keep in touch with friends, parents and colleagues in a more efficient way. Facebook even cultivates users’ habits to check it every day. No companies are not willing to see their advertisements on a website, which has 800 million active users and almost one trillion pageviews in every month.

Facebook has created more than $70 billion just in 7 years. It became the third biggest US web company in 2010. With its increasing number of users, its market value will ascend and it ‘has been identified as a possible candidate for an IPO by 2013.’(Business Insider)

WORK CITED:

1.“6 Reasons Groupon’s Rejection Of Google Is Great For The Universe”. Business Insider. December 10, 2010. http://www.businessinsider.com/google-groupon-deal. Retrieved January 13, 2011.

This is a response to the post published by classmate Allen Ma.

Mass customization comes with the development of e-business and it surpasses e-business by providing products based on what individual customer orders online.

Mass customization is the future trend. From aspect of consumers, mass customization can meet their needs and enhance shopping experience. To producers, it is an efficient way to attract more customers and reduce risk of overproduction.

However, mass customization is not practical to all companies. The failure of employing mass customization is caused by many reasons, e.g. not user-friendly website, long shipping time and not touchable. In recent years, mass customization is most successful in computer companies and sportswear business since price of computers and sportswear is not too high when compared with cars. It is easy to make up mind to buy one without trying them. The other reason is that the cost of individual customization is relatively low when it is just to switch some replaceable parts.

Mass customization is the future trend and customization will not be limited to the color and replaceable parts.

 Nokia launched two brand new Windows smartphones, Lumia 800 and 710, and completely ditched Symbian, which was cumbersome to use and not welcomed by network operators due to lack of Internet applications.

As Nokia’s new boss, Stephen Elop, warned, Nokia was stuck on a ‘burning platform’. Although Nokia still occupies most of the traditional phone market; since ‘Profit margins for basic phones are razor thin’^1. (BBC), Nokia decided to move to the emerging smartphone market. So Nokia launched ‘First real Windows phone’, Elop said. He announced the combination of Nokia and Windows mobile system will provide consumers the best Windows phone experience. Nokia also added its original services to build its differential advantage among other handset makers of Windows phones like HTC and Samsung. The Nokia Plus is the most charming and advanced one, combining social networking with location services.

However, Elop also pointed out the reality in his metaphor that Nokia will ‘jump into the icy water’. It is considered late for Nokia to enter the Smartphone market, which has already been dominated by Apple iPhone and Android phones. While its new phones were well designed, they were seen as development of its previous phone, N9; and “… it lacked the ‘wow’ factor”^2. (Ben)

Nokia’s move is seen as the beginning of its fightback against iPhone and Android phones, but the future of its Windows phone is unclear.

Citations:

1. Editor Weber Business. “BBC News – Nokia Bets on Windows Phone Future.” BBC – Homepage. BBC, 26 Oct. 2011. Web. 26 Oct. 2011. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15459118>.

2. Ben Roony. “Nokia’s Launch Fails to Wow”. The Wall Street Journal – TechEurope. The Wall Street Journal, 26 Oct. 2011.Web.26 Oct. 2011

<http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2011/10/26/nokia-smartphone-launch%e2%80%94tech-europes-thoughts/>.

Netflix abandoned plan to spin-off US disc delivery service

Netflix finally gave up its plan to lose more subscribers. Nowadays, people live in a high-speed society where efficiency is what they pursue most. No one would like to waste his valuable time on the trivial things, in this case, setting up two accounts without any benefits but annoying. Netflix should realize that its core competitiveness is making customers’ watching experience more comfortable and efficient (subscribers can choose what and when they want to watch). In this way, spinning off its service is not a wise choice like separating payment to watch online and get the discs.

Netflix is changing to pay more attention on what customers want than what it wants. Market showed the positive comment on this action: ‘Netflix shares rose more than 4% on the news that it is abandoning the Qwikster spin-off.’^1.(BBC)

 In conclusion, any company should put user experience into the first place and never risk losing its core competitiveness and differentiation. Most of the firms today are faced with the challenges from rivals in the industry. In the competitive market, customers are able to choose substitutes which are superior in price, quality of services and products and, in all, user experience.

Citation:

1.BBC. “BBC News – Netflix Scraps Plan to Spin-off DVD Deliveries.” BBC – Homepage. BBC BUSINESS NEWS, 10 Oct. 2011. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15244207>.