11/17/13

Entrepreneaur: A Blog Site Where The Inspirations Start

Entrepreneur is a blog site that collects many helpful and inspiring posts related to business. What makes this site unique is that the posts are categorized and organized. In addition, the contents are interesting and can be related to readers as well as the topics are attractive. 

 

Let’s take one blog post that brings me the most attention as an example: Hiring: Why the Most Skilled Candidate Isn’t Always the Right Candidate. First off, the subversive topic has already caught my attention because usually when it comes to hiring a new employee, typically the most skilled candidates receive more chances to be hired. Second, the content covers more than just theory. The author talks about the experience of hiring a skilled candidate who was smart and assertive however did not share the same vision of projects with the author which caused many unnecessary conflicts and problems (par.2). The combination of personal experience and theory usually is more persuasive than the theory alone because readers can feel more related to what the writer attempts to proof. Third, the author also provides helpful tips that teach readers how to determine whether or not a skilled candidate fits the employer’s needs(par.3).

The blog site also develops a free application available for mobile device users. Thus, reader can enjoy the posts whenever and wherever they are.

  

 

 

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11/16/13

Shared Value and Sustainability

According to COMM 101 Lecture 15, the goal of creating a shared value is to expand the total pool of economic and social value. In the other words, a company in which creates shared value not only earns profit but also increases social benefits in return. Let’s take TOMS Shoes as an example. In Jessica’s blog post, she discusses about TOMS’s efforts to provide benefits to society by “producing good quality shoes made from recycled materials and offering more than 100 new jobs in Haiti”(par.2). By doing so, TOMS is leading its way to sustainability.

I totally agree with Jessica that TOMS contributes to improve economic welfare (par.3) because TOMS has taken environment into its considerations when producing environmental-friendly shoes. Moreover, hiring local artisans in Haiti to express their local culture and talents provides social value because it promotes the Haitian culture worldwide.

Similarly, in the article “Innovating For Shared Value-Harvard Business Review“, there are many other companies that creates shared value. For example, Dow Chemical adds Nexera canola and sunflower seeds to its products, which “removes 600 million kilogram of trans fats and saturated fats from the U.S. diet”. In addition, “Novartis provided essential medicines and health services to 42 million people in India(par.4)”  

I think shared value allows a company and society to receive mutual benefits, which develops sustainability in the long run. 

 

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11/16/13

Did Snapchat Make a Clever Decision?

Needless to say, social media (Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram) has truly taken over my life to the level that I would feel “insecure” for not being able to go on either one of them for a day or even shorter. In Cynthia’s blog post, she mentioned about Snapchat’s rejection to Facebook’s $3 billion turnover. Today, Snapchat turns down another $4 billions offer from Google because the Co-Founder of Snapchat, Evan Spiegel, sees his company’s potential value and growth to be even higher. 

I agree with what Cynthia said, “I think it was a smart decision of Snapchat as they will eventually want an IPO to further expand their company.” For sure, Snapchat can receive more users and the company still have a plenty of room to expand. However, will it last long? To answer this question, we need to look at several different aspects including the future demand trend and the threat of new entrants. Snapchat has became teenagers’ favourite. However, will this current trend subject to change? Moreover, with the low entry barrier, there will be more potential competitors to share the market in the future.

Whether or not Snapchat has made a bright decision to turn down two humongous offers depends on how this market trend flow. However, it is definitely sure that Snapchat has taken the first step to accept the risk and challenge.

 

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11/15/13

“The Simpsons” Available on FXX’s Cable and FXNOW in 2014

According to the New York Times, “The Simpsons”, one of my favourite scripted shows in childhood, is going to be on cable television in August 2014. FXX, an American television channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, announced it had purchased the rights to broadcast “The Simpsons” for more than 550 episodes.Not only does FXX own the right to rerun the show through cable, but also to stream “The Simpsons” online and on its mobile app (FXNOW) that will be launched shortly after. 

Although this agreement involves 9-figure deal, analysts estimated that the overall value of the entire show is between the range of $550 million to $1 billion or more. In the other words, even if it is not guaranteed that the show can potentially bring enormous profits to FXX, we are sure that “The Simpsons” will give the network a huge bump up. 

In my opinion, I think FXX made a wise decision to purchase this well-known show. First, I have observed that FXX’s revenue has a decreasing trend, mainly due to the fact that customers can easily access to watch shows online with free of charge. Thus, after the show be streaming online in the next August as well as on FXNOW, there is going to have a slow increasing trend in FXX’s revenue. 

 

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11/14/13

Entrepreneurship: Make Dreams Come True

How long does it take to accomplish a dream that you have had in childhood: one year, ten years or never? Everyone can have brilliant, stunning ideas. However, due to financial and technology constraints, there are only a few people who are willing to accept potential risks to make their ideas realistic. Those people are entrepreneurs.

Kanish Parashar came out with an idea of replacing every cards in wallet into a single swipe card that contains all the functions of any card such as credit cards or gift cards. Rather than just blowing this idea away, Kanish made his idea come true by operating a new company called “Coin”. Coin is a Bluetooth card that any card with a magnetic strip can be added into it. The special features of “Coin” are outlined in this video: One Coin for All of Your Cards

What makes Kanish special is that he had failed horribly once. Yet, failure does not stop him from being an entrepreneur but motivate him to create another feasible and even greater idea. Personally, I think possessing innovative ideas is not the only element required to a successful business. The main point is to make the idea unique enough that it becomes one of the company’s value propositions and competitive advantages. 

 

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11/10/13

Workers’ Dissatisfaction from Poor Business Management

A company received satisfaction from its workers is often the one with a good management system. Poor management increases employees’ turnover rates as well as decreases the total profit because employees are unmotivated, they are unwilling to be productive. There are many companies listed in the article “America’s Worst Companies to work for” such as Dillard’s Inc, Sears Holdings Coop. that are constantly making their workers miserable. Those companies have similar factors that result in this low rating.

Observed from my COMM 101 class, many classmates voted that wage provides the most motivation to employees. Thus, when it comes to low pay, unless there are other motives like potential opportunities that hold employees back, it is more likely that workers will have less motivation. Dish Network is being called as “The Meanest Company in America” due to three reasons: low salaries, poor benefits and muti-complex tasks. Many workers think that the workload is tremendous, however, they did not receive the equal amount of benefits from the company.

In my perspective, gaining satisfaction from either customers or employees gives sustainability to a company. Since when workers are satisfied, they are more willing to act in the best interests of a company, which results in increasing profits. When customers are satisfied, they will return and purchase again.

 

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10/7/13

Bad Translation: “Eating Your Fingers Off”

One of the significant milestones for a company is to expand internationally. Fundamental knowledge of international marketing becomes indispensable since a lack of such knowledge could result in being offensive, which may sequentially cause negative consequences including being blacklisted by the target country.

Imaging a customer who is about to enter a fast food restaurant sees the slogan “Eating Your Fingers Off”, would the customer still have any appetites to eat in this restaurant? This awkward slogan was from a well-known fast food restaurant, KFC. Initially, the slogan was “Finger-lickin’ good”. However, due to bad translating, the phrase was translated to entirely different meaning in Chinese when KFC first opened in Beijing, China.

From the above example, it is clearly shown that translation is really important. Bad translation can have funny effects or may confuse the foreign customers. Then, a company is unable to utilize brand positioning to create a distinguish impression in customers’ mind since the bad slogan, in this case, has already established a misleading image. Thus, a company would need extra money or time to build a “right” impression to the customers.

 

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10/6/13

Note to Samsung: Beware! Here Comes HTC

Microsoft hopes to launch HTC phones equipped with dual (Windows and Android) operating system, reports “The Motley Fool”. It is still uncertain whether or not HTC will go about this system.

Some people agreed that HTC One is now the best phone on the market compared to its main rival Samsung S4, which has no dual front speakers, no good-looking interface and no tactile metal chassis. However, Samsung has succeeded way further than HTC, which may due to its omnipresent advertising budget. According to analyst Horace Dediu, Samsung’s mobile advertising budget is more than $4 billions U.S. dollars. Comparatively, HTC overall advertising budget is only $3.7 billions. Google provides Android a free and open platform. However, Samsung dominated by up to 60% of the market share by its vertical integration advantages.

 While HTC is no longer important to the investors, it is still important in terms of its strategic position. HTC becomes Google’s “tool” to balance Samsung’s power since Samsung has expanding significantly in recent.

With my personal point of view, I think if HTC really decided to launch a mobile phone with a pair of operating systems, it would perhaps dominant the market shares since it is very unique and has not been on the market yet.

 

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09/25/13

Forecasting Helps Apple Make Billions

 Three days after the launching of Apple’s new products (iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s), nine million iPhones were sold worldwide. This was,in fact, the first time Apple launched its products in China on the same day along with the other ten countries.

“That sentiment is almost more important than the number“(Par.5). Apple had been forecasting the demand for its products after selling nine millions of them. However, it had proven to be a difficult task as this time Apple simultaneously launched two products and also signed a new contract with Japan’s largest phone carrier company, NTT DoCoMo.

Forecasting the demand becomes an extremely important duty since the supply is limited and the demand for its two products are different.For instance, the demand for the gold-coloured iPhone 5s had exceeded the supply and sold out shortly after the released date, which means the demand for a specific colour is higher than the other coloured versions.

From the article, I observed that forecasting is really helpful in terms of dealing with the uncertainty. If Apple had been able to forecast the demand earlier, then they would have been more prepared to supply more demanded products (gold coloured 5s) and resulted in bringing them more revenues.

 

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09/11/13

Business Ethics: A Win-Win Situation

A good company should comply with business ethics and focus more than just satisfying shareholders and pursuing maximum profit. That being said, companies need to set a standard norm meeting social expectations, but also achieve economic goals. However, how does a company establish the norm of business ethics in order to accomplish a win-win situation between business and society?

Kimray inc. insists not to raise prices while the production costs have continued rising over the past two decades. By improving production efficiency to maintain adequate profits, the product market share occupies over half of the global market.

From the given example, I believe that performing ethical practices is actually a shortcut to a company’s success. Kimray Inc. does business in a mutual-benefit way for both its company and the society by not raising the prices and seeking alternative way to make profits, in this case, to improve production efficiency. The Stakeholder Theory is also demonstrated in this case since not only Kimray Inc. considers its self-benefits, but also other stakeholder’s interests. By acting ethically, the outcomes a company receiving are far beyond its expectation.

 

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