Since 2002, Hewlett-Packard has been shedding enormous employees through layoffs and pay cuts. Recently, for the sake of simplifying the way HP operates and allowing the company to be more innovative, Meg Whitman, the current CEO of HP, plans to funnel most of the savings from the job cuts into product development. However, it is not only about the company’s outlook, but also in an effort to recover from management missteps. HP is trying to use innovation strategy and cost-minimization strategy to improve the poor performance they have right now.

Although the layoffs and pay cuts are beneficial to HP in terms of being on the same level as their competition, it has caused many negative effects such as lower salaries and lower job security, resulting in higher job dissatisfaction among employees. This ultimately creates low productivity, high absenteeism and turnover. Employees might even take further measures and decide to quit on their own. For instance, General Motors, a huge HP customer, announced that it would hire some 3000 HP workers who had been managing GM’s IT operations, thereby putting HP’s $600 million outsourcing contract at risk. Furthermore, two employees from HP took 18 employees to quit the job together and join GM. HP was concerned that these two former employees may have violated the agreements by exposing the organizational and staffing information to GM, which is confidential to HP. This immoral behavior has damaged the organizational culture of HP severely.

HP CEO Meg Whitman

Resource:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/billconerly/2012/05/23/hp-layoffs-a-sign-of-bad-management/

http://www.businessinsider.com/hp-isnt-happy-when-some-people-quit-2013-2

Mr. Robichaud’s, a Montreal entrepreneur who launched startup over the past decade, is going to set out a startup, PasswordBox Inc.,which aim at managing all of people’s passwords.

PasswordBox has raised $6-million from OMERS Ventures and several Silicon Valley investors, including Facebook eCommerce head Lee Linden. It is expected to obtain 10 million users within six months and the company is confident about the numbers of partnerships.

It is supposed to be a successful startup for the following aspects. First of all, the startup looks at “what’s bugging you” and it is like a painkiller for all Internet users, embracing a fabulous value proposition and high practical value. If this software is technically safe and reliable, it is bound to have numerous users without much advertising. Secondly, it has a lot of strong partnership that can offer great help. Third, it will not have very much rivalry for the reason that its user interface is easy to use and its proprietary computing engine enables the app to do one-click log-ins on more than 90 per cent of websites, compared to 70 per cent for competitors. So, hopefully, it could be a monopoly company.

However, the most different part is technology problem. The company promised that it would never gain access to the passwords. But the devices could be exposed to “malware” accidentally downloaded from the Net, which enables hackers to detect what users enter. It may lead to serious ethical problems.

Resource: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-digital/innovation/montreal-entrepreneur-thinks-he-has-solution-to-internet-problem-too-many-passwords/article15410645/

 –Facebook’s partnerships with emerging companies

The article explains a fact that Facebook is still the dominant social media service, and has been an attractive suitor for many small start-ups.  The cooperation between Facebook and start-ups bridges both sides to growth.

In terms of small start-ups, some of them really enjoy cooperating with large social platform, such as Facebook, to spread its brand. A great example might be Instagram, the photo-sharing app it bought for 1 billion. This service, which had 30 million users at the time, now has more than 150 million, and lately, the first advertisement shows up in users’ photo streams. This proves that the two companies were a good fit. However, there exists a lot of start-ups that rebuff the cooperation with Facebook, for fear that selling to Facebook would go against their original purpose. Snapchat is one of them who most likely spurned Facebook because it thought it could fetch much more than Facebook was willing to pay. Though Facebook has had a sharp eye for emerging companies, not all companies are seeking the opportunities to collaborate with Facebook. And its biggest competitor Google often snatches up start-ups that Facebook wants.

Thus, to seize the business opportunity and make effective negotiation become crucial. What is more important for both Facebook and start-ups is that the compatibility and efficacy of the cooperation. It is about brand positioning, marketing and value preposition. For instance, except Snapchat’s aspiration, the compatibility is a barrier for their cooperation.  Snapchat is centered on impermanence and offers privacy and anonymity. However, Facebook encourages users to share more and is rooted in real-world, aiming at creating a permanent.

Resource: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/18/technology/facebook-strives-to-keep-its-cachet.html?ref=business

Disney released a sequel to Where’s My Water, a hit smartphone game about a showering alligator. It started as a paid download and then became a free app with in-game purchases for the sequel (After completing multiple free levels, players must either take a forced short rest or pay for added energy.). As the iPhone top-grossing chart shows, the game is losing more and more players because they are not willing to pay for the game. However, since mobile games are a major growth opportunity, Where’s my Water 2 is really a new challenges for Disney to shift marketplace.

Here is my SWOT analysis for the game.

I think Disney should make this game free. They can make money by selling virtual goods and upgrades, as Walt Disney Company has a huge platform for these selling. For example, the game Angry Bird develops tons of toys and cloths, which have good sale.

Also, Disney should make the serial in a quick pace to ensure players have affection for this game.

Resource: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/18/business/media/disney-struggles-to-make-its-free-gaming-apps-pay.html?ref=business

Nowadays, many internet-based business relies on information technology by using MIS and BTM, especially on-line shopping companies who have unified business and information technology decision-making.

Taobao.com online shopping would be a good example. It can track what kind of goods consumers have browsed. The management information system memorizes these record and the business technology management brings together all the available information and automatically make a list of useful information from which consumers can get help conveniently. Honestly, I click on the recommendation a lot and sometimes I can find the thing I want this way. It saves a lot of time for consumers to find what they want and brings sellers more sale volumes. With MIS and BTM, sellers can perform customer data tracking and inventory tracking easily. In this way, advertising and decision-making become effectively.

Taobao has a strong search engine. Interestingly, the names of products selling on Taobao are very long, because sellers try to comprise as much and specific as information in them. Therefore, when describing their desirables in the search engine, consumers are more likely to find right items. Overall, it is kind of customization service for consumers which does not exist when shopping in mall.

Also, consumers and sellers can talk through online chat software. If there is any question or delivery or product quality problems, consumers can contact sellers very quickly. This BTM, to a large extent provide both seller and consumer convenience.

Toms shoes, a for-profit business that was sustainable and not reliant on donations promised that for every pair of shoes it sold, it would give away another pair to a child in need. In the article, the writer questioned the buy-one, get-one model that is more like a marketing stunt than a method to aspire social entrepreneurs.

I conceive the model as a reasonable way to increase demand but not very effective to deal with the underlying problem that inspired Mr. Mycoskie to create Toms in the first place-poverty.

Social enterprise is using profit as a means to achieve the social objective. So, it is not a shame to the aforementioned strategy to attract consumers who more likely have the heart to help for poverty-stricken people. This business model helps Toms’ sustainable growth and the acquisition of good reputation. More importantly, it eases off fund-raising for the poor thereby avoiding donor fickleness, which is crucial for a social enterprise to contribute social sustainability.

However, Toms seems to be deviated from its original pursuit. Surprisingly, Mr. Fries clarified that Toms is not a business of poverty alleviation. It emphasizes more on establishing good public relationships. Personally, I am not against Toms’s business model, but I hope it is used for finding more ways to help the poor.

Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry.

—- Bill Drayton, Ashoka

Resource: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/19/questioning-the-toms-shoes-model-for-social-enterprise/