Facebook,as everyone knows,is an online social networking service.However,survey has shown that the number of teenagers claiming to be active on Facebook had dropped to 56% in the third quarter of 2013,from 76% in the first.(http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2013/11/12/heres-where-teens-are-going-instead-of-facebook/)

I agree with David’s opinion about the reason for Facebook decline(https://blogs.ubc.ca/zhangatan/2013/11/13/move-aside-facebook/).Basically it is because people are looking for application that allow for quick and easy access.From the survey,the rivals that took away Facebook’s customers is applications that provide quick communication method.

As a new Wechat user,I think what make wechat successful and popular is its voice messaging.It is super convenient and useful because I don’t need to take much time to text but just talk .Also,receivers can get to know your mood from your voice.This is a kind of communication method have the characteristic between phone call and text message.It targets mainly at teenagers,and their service completely cater to teens’ needs for fast,private and convenient communication.

The development of Wechat do have some impact on Facebook,but obviously their value proposition are different. Wechat users usually have already known each other in real life,but Facebook may focus more on knowing new friends and group talking.Clearly,as long as this two maintain their own characteristics,they can co-exist.

Once being the symbolic founder of Silicon Valley,and  the world’s largest PC vendor by unit sales in 2012,HP are now struggling because of it ineffective merger.

From statistics,HP merged 88 companies in the past 11 years,spent more than 66.9 billion dollars(http://h30261.www3.hp.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=71087&p=irol-mergers).However,these mergers did not make HP better.By contrast,HP suffered a lot from merging companies with different cultures and fields.Especially after its merger with Autonomy in 2012,its stock fell to decade’s low.

Obviously, HP is suffering from the lost of culture and direction.They tried to expand into different fields but through a inorganic way,which caused great culture conflict.From the blog linked here,(http://blogs.hbr.org/2008/05/will-hp-and-eds-clash-over-cul-1/)There is a clear example when HP merged with EDS.From the auther’s word,EDS mainly relied on individual talent.However,HP’s culture encourage people to work in group.Because of this,HP and EDS employees encountered huge disagreement.Similar situation happened almost every time when HP merged a new company

HP are always changing their direction.For instance,they merged Palm to develop smart phone,but quit it almost right after the merger.They merged so many companies that do well in different fields,becoming a “giant”.But this “giant”is struggling because they don’t have clear customer segment and key activities.

Muji is a Japanese retail company which sells a wide variety of household and consumer goods.One thing that differs Muji from other retail company is that they don’t have any logo on their products and the packaging is extremely simple-displaying only functional product information and a price tag.Like their value proposition and brand positioning, Muji has successfully give a impression of being ” minimalist “and  high quality.

Also,the no-brand strategy means its products are attractive to customers who prefer unbranded products for aesthetic reasons, and because it provides an alternative to traditional branded products.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muji)

Instead of giving priority to brand or additional marketing elements, they focus in purpose and performance of the products(http://wedreambusiness.org/MUJI.html).They reduce the cost by select their material and minimize packaging.This policy not only enable them to keep a relatively low price,but also take CSR (corporation social responsibility).They are contributing to the environment by reducing the packaging waste.Additionally, they are encouraging people to focus on the basic function of the product rather than those showy packages.

I would regard Muji as a sustainable company since it meet the requirement that is good for environment and society,also make profit.

references

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

Lecture slides#15

Ikea is a Swedish company that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture (such as beds, chairs, and desks ), appliances, and home accessories.As of October 2011, IKEA owns and operates 332 stores in 38 countries(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKEA).What makes Ikea so successful?

PoP: selling furniture and appliances.return policy

PoD: large range of product,low price,high quality and distinguished design,good customer service.

Ikea try to establish a brand image that represent gentle,Swedish-style,environmental friendly furniture.Their good design do attract many people.

Unlike normal retail store,Ikea is a one-way design,encouraging customer to see all their product without feeling confused about the way.The whole store is well-designed and feel like a large furnished house,which can easily stimulate customers to buy all the furniture they need in Ikea because they look good together.

One important thing that differs Ikea from other furniture company is their great customer service.In Ikea,every store includes a restaurant serving inexpensive traditional Swedish food.Also,they provide”Picking and delivery service””Home delivery””Assembly”Even they charge extra fee for these,but not all.This makes shopping a lot easier, helping Ikea gain large number of customers.(http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/customer_service/ikea_services/ikea_services.html)

Ikea does really well in value proposition and customer relationships,making it unique and successful.

Recently,Google have been named the “best workplace” in Canada(http://www.google.com/about/jobs/lifeatgoogle/best-place-to-work-canada-2012.html)Actually,this is the fourth time that it takes the Best Companies crown.(http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/best-companies/2013/snapshots/1.html)

The reason why it is so attractive is not only because of its amazing perks but also its great organizational culture.In Google’s culture,diversity and inclusion are emphasized.In addition to celebrations like Black History Month , LGBT Pride , Hispanic Heritage Month , and Veteran’s Day,they also have celebrations and traditions for Googlers(http://www.google.com/diversity/culture.html),which make employees from different culture feel warm and a sense of belongings.This is believed to increase employees loyalty,resulting in a low turnover.

Also, Google maintain a casual and democratic atmosphere,which can been seen from their wall colors and the decoration of their buildings.Team are made up of members with equal authority(http://suite101.com/a/google-the-worlds-most-successful-corporate-culture-a242303).So it is kind of like a decentralize company where everyone communicate much and work with enthusiasm and happiness.Obviously,employees are more productive and creative when they feel valued and respected.

I think what Google is doing is “to treat your employees like your customers”.So,employees can serve better for both the customers and the firm and bring more profit.

11.11 is said to be the festival for singles in China since the number 1 looks like a single person.This day became a shopping festival five years ago when many online shop offered bargain on this day.From statistics,the first six minutes pf transaction topped $160 million,setting a new record.(//www.benzinga.com/news/13/11/4068900/chinas-11-11-online-shopping-festival-sets-new-records)Alibaba introduced that their sales in 11.11 finally reached 35 billion yuan,increasing by 83% compared with the sales last year.

Honestly,people spend more money if they have a right excuse and the situation where all the people around are shopping because they feel less guilty.For sellers,this is a great tactics to create a environment where people are willing to spend money.Though e-commerce sites like Alibaba,Tmall and Taobao provide huge discount,those single bargain hunters are not the only ones that take advantage of this deal.Actually,Alibaba processed $3.1 billion in transactions last year(data from the link above).

Basically,this is more than a successful tactics for all the online shop owners and online shopping sites,but a win-win situation for both the sellers and the consumers.Also I think it is a good example for advertising,since they understand their customers and know how to make them happy to spend their money.

HUAWEI,a chinese maker of telecommunications equipment,overtook Ericsson to be the world biggest one in 2012.Being able to become the top-3 telecoms-equipment-maker around the world in 20 years,HUAWEI really has its strong points.However,it still has a long way to go.

By using the SWOT,we can analyse:

Strengths: low price and innovation in network technology.Weaknesses:financial limit(private company),poor corporate image.Opportunities:fast-growing telecommunication industry,a monopoly market has not formed.Threats:be consider as a threat to Western countries’ security,participation being blocked.

From the SWOT,we can conclude that if HUAWEI want to explore its international market,the first thing to do is to eliminate stereotype and gain trust from western countries.Also,since many telecoms-equipment -makers have built factories in Third-world countries,low prince will no longer to be a powerful strength,which require HUAWEI to focus more on innovation and management system.

Reference list

http://www.economist.com/node/21559922

http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2013/06/huawei

It is recently reported in China that the pre-installed apps in android cellphones has post a great threat to personal information security of the users.

According to statistics,a new android phone will be pre-installed about 10-20 apps,which can not be uninstalled by users.Most of these apps will not be used in daily life,but they take a lot memory size and affect the speed of cellphone running.These apps will run automatically when the cellphone is switched on, which would not only affect the running speed but also make the mobile data usage reach its limit easily.

Research shows that both mobile agents and marketers can get profit by pre-installing apps,about 1-1.5 RMB each.It is a lack of business ethics because they ignore the interests of consumers.Additionally,android phones may lose their customers because compared with iPhone does not have these boring pre-installed apps.Even most android phone company are using cost leadership strategy,they should also focus more on customer relationship.

If a company can stop pre-install these useless apps,there is a great possibility to gain customers from its competitors

Reference list

http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/smartphone-makers-break-android-security-pre-installed-apps-180780

It is newly reported that the housing price in Beijing has grown up to 65000 RMB/m²(downtown),and the housing price in suburb has increased to approximately 20000 RMB/m².Research shows that this abnormal sustainable growth will continue and the main course of this is the growing price of land.

It seems that the growing housing price shows the prosperous of real estate industry,however,I think this is a reflection of property bubbles.Most of the sold apartments are regarded as real estate rather than a place to live in.That results in market failure——the price of house are not determined by the “real consumers”but the speculators.The consequence of this is people who really need a house can not offer one,but the houses in abnormal high price remain unsold(or the speculators buy them but they do not actually live there),which might intensify social contradictions.

In my opinon,this situation is quite similar to the 2008 financial crisis,resulted from the sub-prime crises in America.To prevent that,government should moderately control the housing price and introduce policies to restrict the number of houses a person can buy.

Additionally ,the increasing housing price in big cities like Beijing Shanghai etc. may let the consumers turn their sigh to the house in tourist cities because of the lower price and better environmental conditions.

Business ethics is a kind of professional ethics that requires firms(or business managers)to take responsibilities  to all their stakeholders including consumers and the whole community.

Evidently,the goal of every corporations is to maximize profits in order to give maximum return to their stakeholders.However they should adhere to conventional standards of morality at the same time.The fact that most corporations ignore that has resulted in consequence that the contradiction between firms and consumers is intensified.A typical example is about food safety.For the sake of achieving maximum profits,some food corporations may add illegal additives(normally used in industry,which is much cheaper)to reduce the cost.KFC is reported to use Sudan Ⅲ(that is carcinogenic) in their product in April 23rd 2010,which resulted in serious credibility crisis.And the business ethics of the whole food industry was criticized for being dishonest.

Surely,a firm with a good business ethics will gain more consumers in the long term.Also,is has positive effect on employees’  engagement,which will increase the operating profit.

Reference list

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-03/17/content_425851.htm