20501034 -Entry 12

"LG will clean up with or withour GE"

Original Article from Business Week

on May 29th by Moon, BusinessWeek's Seoul bureau chief.

Summary

Since General Electric revealed plans to put its appliances business on the block May 16, LG has been regarded as the most possible potential buyer. GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt visited Seoul to discuss with LG executives. 10 years ago, LG was known as the maker of cheap microwave ovens and toasters but now LG has emerged as the world’s No.3 manufacturer of white goods after whirlpool and Electrolux. LG is also doing very good job in mobile phones. Besides of LG, GE CEO Immelt is considering Haier Group, Controladora Mabe, Arcelik and Electrolux as a potential buyer of GE Appliances.
For LG, GE is very attractive because it has renowned reputation in US while LG want to increase its market share and expand to the high profit margin appliances industry. However, current price for GE will be critical for LG to decide whether to buy GE Appliances or not.

My opinion

I don’t think LG has clear vision about merging GE Appliances. As a matter of fact, GE has renowned brand power in North America and it could be very attractive factor for the company that is expanding its business in North America. However, the thing is that LG can make synergy effect with merging GE Appliances.
As the professor Lee mentioned, Samsung’s M&A with Corning is the one of the best precedent of win-win M&A. Samsung has bright blueprint how to maximize their profit margin sucking up the technology that Corning had. At that moment, Corning was decreasing but Samsung found that the optical technologies would be prime components manufacturing high end display. Therefore, both Samsung and Corning realize win-win situation.

Based on research I did about M&A(Vein & Company report about M&”A), there are 4 things to avoid. First thing to avoid is unreliable investment logic. The buyer must be able to indicate why they should buy the company. Second, the buyer company must decide proper price for the company by thoroughly analyzing external and internal environment. Third, it should take precaution against the overestimated synergy effect. When investors estimate the company’s value, they look at synergy value rather than its actual value. But, in current M&A, the merging price is being formed 16~20 times higher based on EV/EBITDA. Lastly, spending more than how much company can afford is also put the company in great danger. Many companies depend on loan when they are doing M&A. If the purchased company doesn’t make expected profit, sometimes they must sell the new company with the much lower price that they paid.

PMI(Post-merger integration) is also carefully pre-planned. They should think about how the both companies’ culture function together and how to capture the core man of ability after M&A.
I hope LG carefully analyze all of the factor that is related to M&A and successfully rebirth as the world top appliances companies.

20601011 Entry #12

Original Articles

Camera for The Best Pictures

Canon

Cannon is the one of the high quality camera companies in the world. When people talk about camera, Canon always comes out to be the best camera in the world. “The Canon name represents innovation and leadership in photographic products. They continue to create digital solutions for both the professional and amateur photographer, like digital cameras that easily connect to a photo printer the size of your hand. Canon was the first to introduce this product because of our expertise in both cameras and printers.”

History of the Canon

“Canon started out as a company with a handful of employees and a burning passion. That company soon became a world-renowned camera maker and is now a global multimedia corporation. However, the origins of our success remain unchanged: the passion of our early years and technological expertise amassed over more than 60 years. Canon will continue using its technologies to benefit people as it pursues its objective of becoming a company that is loved by people throughout the world.”

Philosophy of Canon

“Canon maintains a deep commitment to socoal and environmental responsibility. This determination to live and work together for the common good — Canon kyosei — permeates everything we do: from research and development, to product manufacturing, marketing, sales and distribution.” As people could know reading by their philosophy, Canon is the familiar environment companies. This reason affects to the advertising the Canon as good images. They are supported by a many popular advertising campaigns, such as commercials on televisions and print advertisements that appear year round and in a number of TV shows, magazines, business publications, and trade journals. Each advertisements serves a specific purpose and delivers a specific message, about how you, our valued customer, can benefit through one of our latest technological advancements. From leading consumer imaging technologies, to business workflow enhancements, to the latest in industrial imaging products, Canon is the brand that America has come to know and trust.

My Opinion for The Canon

Even the Canon is the best camera company in the world. They should consider their market maturity competition. Because of the high price, I bought Nikon which a little more efficient than canon with low price. When efficiency is similar with low price, people would buy low price one. Even, Canon has good images in the environment section for the people. When consumer bought products, consumer may think first of their benefits. I could say that camera market is on the price competition. One of the reasons is that Canon is not for just professional peoples. It is for the every people in the world.

References

Canon inc, Tsuenji Uchida, http://www.canon.com/about/business/index.html, 2006.

20601016 Entry #12

Original Article:

Should company cover
the cost of commuting to work for employees?

- Time for Self-centered Strategy -

Situation:
- We consume gas more and more exponentially, but it is limited. Therefore, we are suffering from the shortage of gas. Naturally, gas price goes up, so it has been burdensome to employees to take the gas price all on their own. The cost is more than $4 a gallon(about $140 monthly just on commuting). It’s so expensive. Also, in the future, it will be way higher than now as it runs out of. Therefore, as workers and employees of companies we should find a way to solve this kind of problem. What would it be?

Biking:
- Biking could be a real good salvation for this problem. It is not only cost-effective but also eco-friendly. Moreover, it is good for our health. Think about that we ride a bicycle every morning and evening for 30-1hour while we commute. However, as we can think, it has distance limitation. In other words, it is an option for employees who live close to the office. In this point, people who commute from far away from a company cannot commute by a bicycle.

Customer-centered strategy of Jobing.com
- Jobing.com is well known for a career search Web site. It is an employment website focusing on local recruiting in 18 U.S. cities. It is a three time Inc. 500 "Fastest Growing Company," making the list consecutively in 2005-2007.

1. Saving money
The company is privately held and employee-owned. A unique and special strategy of this company is selling or renting wrapped car offering a monthly $500 stipend. In addition, it is optional for customer if they buy or lease. The first employees said that “Driving around town with his employer’s logo was a bit embarrassing at first but the benefits far outweigh that feeling”. Therefore, it has an awesome advantage in the point of saving money.

2. Advertising effect
There are other benefits. Having lots of employees driving around with a wrapped vehicle is great advertising. So company can save money from advertising and promotion, then they can use it to the other things; Human resources, Research & Development, Finances, and so forth.

3. Rising corprate image
Thirdly, they can have a good corporate image by take a loss. It is not loss but benefit for them in the long run.

Conclusion:
Like the Jobing.com we should take a loss for customers at first then, uncountable benefits will follow in the future.(Being more to be in a customer’s side rather than being busy taking own business profits) I would rather change the “loss” to “investment”. Because it will turn to a lot of money in the future which is beyond imagination. It is true that we cannot have any if we don’t invest something.

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobing.com
http://lasvegas.jobing.com/company_profile.asp?i=38561

ADI DASSER

Another case of brand imitation. Indeed the globally known three stripes is to any consumer synonymous to Adidas. Started as the trefoil by the German Adi Dassler, in the recent years of its success it has been changing its logo from the trefoil to the brand with three stripes. This sports goods producing company is not only known for its fine products for comfort in sports, it is also a very fashionable item now in this modern age of eccentricity and comfort. The brand Adidas also has many loyal consumers thanks to the great success of its number one rival Nike. Now many pop icons are labeling themselves with this brand. Starting way back from the rap group Run DMC all the way to the more recent hip hop artist Missy Elliot. This identity has an immeasurable value to it and if someone is going to cheat on this value, they better pay the price.
In my opinion, I think that Adidas was lenient on Collective because of the immense value of their brand name and its popularity. Not only its long history, Adidas is a true authentic brand that consumers can go to for good quality, comfort and popularity. In my opinion these three facts are more than enough reasons to penalize Collective in a more severe way.
Here in Korea, there are plenty of imitation Adidas, however they are not just robbing the logo and putting another name to it. They actually have the Adidas logo on their products. Although this might not be an ethically correct way of doing business, they are still promoting Adidas.

Entry # 11
20100656

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24490028/

Entry #11 20601011

Origianl Articles

Where Music Lives

Music Business Industry

When people think about movie star or famous singers, it exactly connected with rich. One of the biggest music industry company in the world is M.net corporation. Their business strategy is using web TV to conquer the world TV show market.

History of M.NET

“The Electronic Media Network Limited was founded in 1985 as South Africa's first private subscription television service. The first broadcast, comprising one 12-hour channel, went out in October 1986.” “Today, M-Net boasts an array of general entertainment and niche channels and broadcasts to over 1,23 million subscribers in 41 countries across Africa.” When I check the history of M.Net, they are going to world market and trying to diversify their programs that are not just music but movie and many sections.

Mission Statement

“'To create the best television entertainment in Africa and beyond.'” Most people would agree with this mission statement, they now achieved the company goals. Even, they affects to the politics by using famous stars to help their corporation. As star earn much money, M. Corporation get much more money than stars.

Charity Program

They started their business in South Africa. They open many charity programs by using famous stars. As many peoples checking out the M.Net, they are all customers to attract in their programs. It has also good effects and bad effects. For Christian, they also open many secular programs, too.

Products

They sell many shows. They also make money by giving opportunity to have advertisement. It has great effect to the company. Many companies spend more than $5M for 30 seconds advertisement. M.Net give awards to the people who did the best show or movie. It is also great advertisement for the stars. They also get much invest money to take more film industry.

References

http://www.mnetcorporate.co.za/

20601016 Entry# 11

Google dominates the world (case study)

Google founders are Sergey Brin and Larry Page. They met in 1995 as Stanford Iniversity graduate students. They created a search engiune that combined the technologies of Page’s PageRank system. Because Google was so effective, it quickly became the search engine of choice for Webusers. Today Google handles nearly 50 percent of Web searches.

Google’s source of power(Strength, Value proposition)

- All in one
Google offers not just search engine but also PDF, PostScript, text, Microsoft Office, Lotus, PowerPoint and so forth. Therefore users can do everything just using by google which has all-round capability.

- Competitive
Google only needs to spend 1dollar for every 3dollars its competitiors spend to deliver a comparable amount of computing power. In this point it is price competitive(low price and high quality and also it has everything) and so efficient if we work with google.

- Smart system
In 2002, AdWords Select introduced cost-per-click(CPC) pricing so that advertisers only pay for their ads when users actually click on them. In this way Google collects inbformation of customers what they need, prefer, tastes. It is helpful for their future product plan and also in the long run it will affect positive effect for their company profit.

- Keep their competitive advantage
Google’s IT infrastructure is a closely guarded secret because it is part of its competitive advantages. MapReduce, a programming model to simplify processing and create large data sets and Google File System, which keeps copies of data in several places so that the data will always be available even if a server fails. These two are good examples of Google’s competitive advantages that only google have.

Problems or challenges that Google face

- Side effects of CPC(cost-per-click): clic fraud
Companies who are advertising through Google should pay by the total number of customers click on their products or whatever the things that are related to the company. Therefore, there are huge chances that company members will abuse this kind of system in a bad way. They by themselves will click on other product to higher the hits.(click fraud)

- Rising other system which in on the same position
Microsoft’s MSN and another famous search engine Yahoo could be a threat of Google. Technology has been developing so fast as time goes by so Google should try work hard on what they are doing.

- Little experience
Google has less experience than Yahoo in negotiating with content providers, who are particularly concerned with piracy in the digital age. Therefore when they meet some huge problems or hardships, it will be difficult for them to overcome it. Because they might not have any kind of those experience before.

By the way, Google is still enlarging and dominant in the internet market. Profits continue to soar, and Google will continue to innovate. I think Google will spread its affection if they bring their area on the off-line world. Schmidt estimates that Google will need 300 years to organize all of the information in the world.

Reference:

Management Information Systems Pearson international edition

(P308-310)

http://ventureblog.com/articles/2003/05/4_keys_to_googl.php

20501034 - Entry 11

"Toyota Camry: Can It Beat the Ford F-150?"

Original Article

on May 19th by Jim Henry is a reporter covering the automotive industry(Business Week)

Summary
According to Ford’s US sales analysis manager, the Ford F-150 and its ancestors have been the best-selling vehicles in the US for 26 years in a row, and the best-selling truck for 31 years in a row. It seemed that the Ford F-150 could never be knocked down. However, Camry is definitely rising model and Camry has been closing the gap.
The reason why Camry is doing well is that in the US market, gas prices, the housing meltdown, and changing consumer tastes have all combined to drag down sales of large pickups. The same high gas prices have made fuel efficient cars more attractive, especially gasoline-electric hybrids like Toyota Camry Hybrid. So Ford also react against Toyota Camry by promoting Ford Focus which is small and has reached the top 10-selling car this year.

My opinion

US big auto maker’s pickups have been cash cow but they can’t guarantee those pickups would stay in cash cow section. I expect the pickups to be in the dog section probably in 3 years. So I am going to point out some of geographical and econmical factors which have influences on sales of pickups.

Geographical and Economical Factor
Expensive oil price diminished the sales of pickups. Currently oil price is skyrocketing. According to the Bloomberg, NYMEX crude future is being traded with US $128.93 per barrel. This is already expensive. As everybody knows, expensive oil price discourage people to buy pickups. Not only this, another factor will accelerate the sales of compact car like Camry. Another factor is potential change of city structure owing to energy crisis. As energy cost go extreme, there will be great influx of people into the city because they want to save money for oil price which is consumed during commute. More people in city, smaller space people have. So there will be certain movements or government policies that discourage people to buy big and space consuming car like pickup and encouragement for compact car.

Political factor
These day, there are very positive movement about environment. Starting with "An Inconvenient Truth", the voice of environment is become strong. They criticized that current oil price is too cheap because it doesn't include external effect. So there are possibilities that oil price even go higher and it will ultimately affect the sales of pickups.

Conclusion
From what I mentioned above, because of increasing oil price, we can assume that the sales of pickups will drastically fall down and the compact car which is oil-efficient will fill up the space of pickups. In the future, compact car will have majority of market share. Even among the compact car brand, the technologies to maximize and save energy will be key factors to dominate the auto market.

20501034 Entry 10

Focus on Star and Question Mark!!
Original Article
Good-bye to GE Appliances
Posted by: Diane Brady on May 14

Summary
The world renowned US corporation, GE is about to sell its appliances business. The reason why GE decided to give up its electronic appliances division could be summarized two things. First, it’s not global and US domestic market is so volatile. Second, GE’s electronic appliances business doesn’t have competitive edge in comparison with its competitors.

Due to its powerful brand awareness, electronic appliances company love to buy GE electronic appliances division. Especially Sweden’s Electrolus is expressing strong interest in merging GE’s electronic division. However, it isn’t clear that GE appliances unit would be appealing or not, if GE doesn’t allow a new buyer to use their brand name.

My opinion

Thomas Edison started GE in 1878 with his invention product, light bulb. After that, for 130 years, GE has been continually grown due to its innovative spirit. GE has awesome slogan which is pretty well matched with their value, “Innovation at Work”. Whenever I read this slogan, I could feel that GE continues to grow through taking a risk rather than stay safely where they positioned.

In this sense, selling electronic appliances division is something I could expected GE to do. To be quiet honest, I actually thought that GE already sold its traditional department. Although people still have perception that GE is still making major part of profit from its traditional division like plastic or electronic goods, in fact, GE successfully transformed itself as a high technology and solution company as IBM did. I can’t say GE’s electronic appliances division has been negative factor for GE because it played a role as a cash cow for last 5 years due to prosperity of US real estate market. However, owing to sub-prime mortgage, the demand of house was radically plunged so the profitability of electronic goods also were decreased.

At this moment, selling less profitable division that is considered to be ‘dog’ and restructuring group organization are considered to be right decision. GE has been restructuring their business model and now GE provide competitive products and services in finance, aviation, health care, energy, security which is placed in ‘star’ or ‘question mark’. I think those are the division which will feed GE for the next 10 or 15 years and they have to focus on those star and question mark rather than grabbing dying dog.

20600331 - Entry # 7 The Mac in the Gray Flannel Suit

The Mac in the Gray Flannel Suit

Writer - Peter Burrows

Resource: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_19/b4083036428429_page_4.htm


My summary/opinion:
The computer industry is a competitive one. When a networking company offers to buy one's computers the usual response is of relief and gratitude. Nevertheless, this is not true for Apple. Perhaps it is due to the company’s recent success. Apple’s share price has risen an overwhelming 2,300% over the past five years. This has brought the company a market capitalization at $154 billion. Apple beats that of Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Intel. Although in the beginning many have seen the Mac as the preferred computer for students and artists, now it is loved by many. Although Apple is acting on popular demand, it refuses to provide for network companies. Apple continues to focus on their consumers and education customers.

Despite past failures, Apple has been slowly opening up to the option of providing for networking companies. Decanti, the vice president for technology at Werner Enterprises, is very satisfied with his relationship with Apple. Since Apple adopted Intel's microprocessors in 2006, it has been easier for companies to switch to using Macs. Another plus for using Macs is that the user is able to use something called the “virtualization" software. This software enables the user to use the Mac operating system and Windows at the same time and switch easily between them. This is why the current trend is to change to Macs.

Although many factors such as competition and price-wars would normally affect the growth and well-being of a company, clearly this is not true for Apple. Because Apple has been able to target to the young generation with its iPods, the same crowd are more likely to jump into another brand division, the Mac. According to a survey, 43% of college students desired to purchase a Mac. This is quite promising.

In my opinion, I do not think Apple will be thinking about getting into the corporal market for a while. With its future full of potential, it is highly unlikely. Also, with all the possibilities of failure, I do not think joining hands with other corporations is what Jobs is looking for. He is thinking about how this might affect the company; perhaps he thinks that Apple is not quite ready yet. I’m sure Apple will do so in the future, just not right now.

20600331 - Entry # 6 For Pilots, Dreams Run Into Reality

My summary/opinion:
For many years people have been fascinated with flight; this lead to the creation of airplanes. Now there are so many airplanes for travel, war, crops, and other different uses. Although being an airline pilot is quite prestigious, because of the airline industry's current financial collapse, a huge number of these hopeful want-to-be-pilots are left with a fierce competition. Thanks to the rise of fuel prices, some pilots may find themselves without a job. After the September 11th incident, many airlines reduced the amount of planes significantly. So, naturally the airlines would need fewer pilots to fly their planes. Competition increased with the work hours, yet the pay decreased. Due to unsatisfactory conditions, there are fewer applicants. Fewer applicants mean a shortage of pilots.

Shortage of fuel is a serious problem. It is affecting our economy and the well-being of our citizens. This article reminded me once more how serious the consequences are for not using our resources wisely. With the current rate of consumption of fuel, it is most likely that we will use all our fuel supply in the matter of less than fifty years. We should be finding another replacement. This problem is as real as ever. Sure, every year an article like this will appear, but are we not seeing the signs everywhere? Even as early as this year I have seen the harmful and strange affects that we are facing for not taking care of our planet. The weather is strange. Winter should have been very cold, but compared to past winters it was fairly warm. It is the middle of May. It should be quite warm; however, it is so cold you still have to wear a sweater around. We should take care of our world better. Because once we use up our resources, it is not only comfort that we have to compromise. We have to trade in our dreams for survival. I hope that it doesn’t come to that.

-----------------------------------------------------
Article is below:

For Pilots, Dreams Run Into Reality
IRVING, Tex. — Among the jobs little boys dream of — policeman, fireman, bulldozer driver — airline pilot long held the added virtue of satisfying grown-up dreams: pay that reached $300,000 a year, 20 days a month off work, the prestige of one day commanding a $200 million airplane, and a lush retirement at 60.
But the airline industry’s financial collapse this decade did away with much of that, leaving thousands of young men — and increasingly women — chasing a dream toward a disappointing reality.
“My wife thinks I’m nuts,” said Jason Captain, 32, of Fort Worth who left the Navy last November, walking away from $75,000-a-year lieutenant’s pay for flying military brass in and out of Guantánamo Bay.
He started training last month to fly a 76-seat regional jet for a Northwest Airlines subsidiary and expects to make about $21,000 his first year. Like most airline pilots, Mr. Captain had his heart set on flying “ever since I was a little kid,” he said. “I can’t see myself in an office.”
In recent years, he and his wife, June, were in the odd position of saving part of his military pay so they and their two sons could afford to have him work in the private sector. It could take him a decade to work his way back up to his former income.
He hopes, of course, to jump ultimately to the big jets at Northwest Airlines, where the most senior pilots can still make more than $150,000 a year, but there is no guarantee he will get there.
And, with the airline industry ready to go into another swoon because of high fuel prices, Mr. Captain and other junior pilots could find themselves furloughed.
“You’re much better off going into plumbing, from a purely financial perspective,” said Ed Grogan, a financial planner in Gig Harbor, Wash., who has pilots among his clients.
The military is turning out fewer pilots, so aspiring aviators increasingly attend private flight schools, emerging with as much as $150,000 in student debt. Student loan payments can exceed $1,000 a month.
After Sept. 11, 2001, the biggest domestic airlines reduced their fleets by hundreds of planes, so they needed fewer pilots. And through actual and threatened bankruptcies, airlines managed to cut pilot pay by 30 percent or more. Many pilots lost big parts of their pensions. Work hours increased.
Certainly, top pay of $200,000 a year at the biggest airlines, down from $300,000, is still a nice living.
But cuts at big airlines were just the beginning of the decline in pilot careers. Regional airlines, which pay far less than hub-and-spoke carriers even after the pay cuts, expanded to handle much of the flying that bigger airlines had abandoned. Many new pilot jobs are like the one Mr. Captain is taking, with a rock-bottom starting wage that creeps slowly toward $100,000 a year.
Poor pay and fewer big-airline jobs to move up to have led to fewer applicants, creating a pilot shortage that is most acute overseas but is also felt here.
Regional airlines have had to reduce hiring standards drastically. Earlier this decade, they could insist on a candidate’s having at least 1,500 hours of total flight time before an interview. Today, that minimum is 500 hours at many regional carriers. The decline is contributing to safety concerns among some experts.
The seniority system — a new pilot starts at the bottom at most airlines, earning the lowest pay and getting the worst shifts — limits job-hopping. So choosing the right employer the first time around is crucial. Moving from first officer, the right seat, to captain, the left seat, brings the biggest leap in pay and status.
Thus, Mr. Captain, who looks forward to being called Captain Captain, turned down a job at American Eagle Airlines, the regional division of American Airlines. It initially paid better, but the wait to upgrade to captain is six and a half years. At the Northwest regional carrier, Compass, which is growing, he could make captain in as little as one year.
But things change. Network carriers like United Airlines and Delta Air Lines hire regional carriers, which are separate companies, to fly feeder routes from smaller cities into hub airports. But the big airlines renegotiate contracts every few years, often switching carriers to reduce costs. That means today’s fast-growing regional airline could be laying off pilots tomorrow.
“It’s a nightmare,” said Kit Darby, who retired a year ago as a United pilot and runs a pilot job fair business, Air Inc.
Some pilots leave the business. Paul Rice, a vice president of the Air Line Pilots Association, a pilots union, said that in previous decades nearly 100 percent of furloughed pilots came back when temporary layoffs ended. Since Sept. 11, 2001, though, 30 to 35 percent did not return when offered their old jobs.
At Mesa Air Group, a big regional carrier, 784 pilots left last year, some moving up to hub-and-spoke network carriers, some moving laterally to other regional airlines and about 10 percent leaving the business altogether, said Michael Jayson, until recently the pilots union chief at Mesa. Turnover is high at some other regional airlines, too.
Todd Lehmacher, 39, learned to fly as a teenager and worked a variety of airline jobs in crew scheduling and as a ticket pricing specialist and flight attendant while accumulating the flying hours to be a pilot. “It was something I just had to do,” he said.
He was hired by Mesa in August 2005, but long hours and unpleasant relations between pilots and management wore on him.
He sometimes slept on the plane during late shifts — “camping trips,” pilots call them — that required him to fly again early the next morning. He said he often worked a 13-hour day to get in five hours of flying time, the only hours pilots are paid for.
Mr. Lehmacher quit last September and runs a travel agency in Phoenix that sells cruise trips to airline workers.
Mesa officials did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Samantha Negley did not get the flying bug until a boyfriend took her up in a four-seat Cessna in 1999. It was a bright day in San Luis Obispo, Calif., and they flew over farms, across the beach and over the ocean. “He let me take the controls. It was amazing,” said Ms. Negley, who is now 30.
She graduated from college that year with a journalism degree and spent four years working odd jobs — tending bar, substitute teaching, tutoring — to save money for flight lessons. Landings were her favorite part.
In an essay for a $1,500 scholarship she won to supplement her flight school costs, Ms. Negley said she planned a life around flying. “In five years, I plan to be a captain at Mesa Airlines,” she wrote. “In 10 years, I plan to be a first officer with a major airline, awaiting my chance to upgrade.”
She was accepted at a New Mexico flight school that feeds pilot candidates to Mesa and was hired in 2004. “The day I found out was like the best day ever,” she said. Making about $15,000 initially, and saddled with $50,000 of school debt, she moved in with her sister in Washington, flying out of Dulles Airport.
A typical day had her up at 5 a.m., at the airport by 8 a.m., and making three flights spread out so that the last one landed about 10 p.m. Then it was wait for a hotel shuttle; sleep; get up again at 6 a.m.
She also worked overnight shifts, sleeping across a row of seats and being awakened by a gate agent in time to brush her teeth in the plane lavatory and tuck her shirt in before passengers came aboard. “It was crazy,” she said.
“I was enjoying the landings. I was living my whole life for those three minutes a day.” Otherwise, she thought, “this is the worst life ever.”
She quit last July and went to work at Mattel, where she writes copy for packaging of Hot Wheels and other toys. She makes more money and has whittled her student debt down to $30,000.
She knows she will be home every night in Long Beach to walk the dogs. She plays beach volleyball. And became engaged in February. “Normal job. Normal life,” she said. “I know I made the right decision.”

20601016 Entry#10

Games girls play

Is it niche? Or a big star?

original article

+++ Trend of game industry

These days, as technology has been developing game industry is so booming. At the same time, as our life is changing to be more free(women have more of their free time) women is rising as a emerging target which has lots of potential that we are investable. Main type of game that they used to play and enjoy is “casual game”. Let’s find out how it will work effectively and also efficiently in the future in the game industry.

+++Why the casual games are so popular especially to women?

- It is easy to play
Compare to other games casual game is way easy to play. It requires only couple of keys to enjoy playing game. In addition to it, the play pattern, from beginning till the end, is so repeatedly performed. In general, women are worse at playing game or driving than men. At this point the casual game attracts women more than any other games.

- It lowers costs
It usually costs lots of money to make game to high quality graphics-intensive such as NBA live 2008, Halo3, FIFA2008 and so on. In case of “Halo3” it takes years and tens of millions of dollars to make, while it costs 150,000dollars with a team of two or three in nine months or less to make a normal casual game. Also it takes little distribution and production cost.

- It is easy to sell this games to users equipped with everything from mobile phones or personal computer on online in web browsers.
Since it doesn’t required special skill or cutting-edge graphics, it is easy to transfer this game to on-line or mobile phone. This is another unique and useful good aspect of casual phone.

- There are so many options to choose distribution channel
To release and sell more of the products we need distribution channel which make a connection between the game company and customers. In case of other futuristic or violent epics is confined to store shelves and online retailers like amazno.com. However, casual game developers have many distribution options to choose; portals(RealArcade and Big Fish), or sites affiliated with AOL, Yahoo or MSN. The most good thing of this is that gamers can try playing game for a while before they buy it.(Divisibility in ACCORDs)

+++It is Ubiquitous as a bit Star
As we all look through above, “casual game for women” is not any more niche market. It is a huge star. 75% of all demand of casual game is women gamers and its remarkably big portion of the industry. Therefore, characteristic and feature of game is going like woman and it has been focusing more on women gamers.(for example, game story is about noticing heroin more that hero, or dealing with household stuff, women’s adventure etc.) Again, casual game targeting women is not any more niche it is a big potential star market!

Reference:

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

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3562&Itemid=2

http://www.bizreport.com/2007/07/lifetime_rolls_out_casual_games.html

20601011 Entry# 10

Original Articles

Make It Easy to Find What You Want

Naver

Naver is the one of the biggest serching engine company in Korea. It achieved great success now. Their business purpose is to make that people find what they wanted. They give much informations that news, café in, shopping for knowledge. Average visiting people is 16 million per day. Naver is like the Google in Korea.

Purpose of Company

Make it Easy and Comfortable for people to find what they want.
Be a Global company with their Internet service skills and technology.

Starting of Company

Their motivation was that they should be the best searching engine for Korean in Korea. They give service of e-mail, home-page, file and game with good quality for free to people.

Differenciation

Naver specialized each section like cartoon, news, image, and knowledge sections. As they arrange their information, people easily find what they wanted. They give chances that people can share their idea which is called Ji-Sic In. They knew the comfortable color for the people that are green, and they use the green as their web skin. It also indicate their visual identifier as their image. This image worked as their visual branding.

My Opinion

Naver is the best searching engine in Korea. When I compared with other searching engine companies in Korea, service is pretty different. It is much comfortable to find the information what I want. They had specialized many interesting categories for kids and adults, such as cartoon, sports news, global news, best books for this month, and review for new movie. Their differentiation pretty matched with people’s taste. They hit with their creativity idea about sharing people’s idea in the internet.

Reference

Naver, http://story.naver.com/naverbrand/main.nhn, 1999

20501034 - Entry 9

MS!
Play
In
Your
Home
Field!


Orignial Article
'Inside Microsoft's War Against Google'
by Greene, BusinessWeek's Seattle bureau chief.
(http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_20/b4084036492860_page_4.htm)
2008. 5. 8

Summary

Nicholas Utton, chief marketing officer at online broker E*Trade said that “When it comes to internet search sites advertising, Microsoft is way behind front-runner Google.” He also mentioned that Microsoft isn’t getting much of search engine dollar. However, Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft CEO had begun laying the groundwork for a strategy to compete with Google in online advertising. He states a reason that Microsoft should compete in internet search site advertising; Consumers and businesses increasingly are switching from desktop software like Microsoft’s to free online services that do the same things.
Google is taking in 77% of the revenues from text ads that show up in internet search engine. Meanwhile Microsoft is getting only 5% of it. However, Microsoft has competitive advantages in the display business that has a lot of potential to grow in the future.

My opinion

I think Microsoft should think more about what they could do the best or at least better. In the book “Re-imagine”, Tom Peters show the IBM as a wonderful business model. IBM searched about what they are good at and how they are going to maximize the profit out of it. IBM was famous as a computer manufacturer but now they are transformed as a solution company. IBM found there was no future in computer manufacturing business due to stiff competition with China. China could make PC with much cheaper price than IBM and computer manufacturing business doesn’t require much high technology. IBM sold and got rid of every single department that was regarded to be no more profitable. Then they promoted solution business as their star business.
However, Microsoft is trying to compete with Google in internet search engine advertising field. Everybody knows that Google is the best in internet search engine advertising field and it’s their home. Microsoft doesn’t need to play away match. I think Microsoft must find what they could do the best in ad-related business and bring Google in their home field. Fortunately, Microsoft is good at display advertising business which is already verified as the ‘Question mark’(Wild cat).
What Microsoft should do at this moment is to make internet search engine ad obsolete as fast as possible and encourage people to consider display business as a more up-to-date means of advertising.

20601011 Entry # 9

Original Articles

1969 Gap Revolution

Don Fisher, Gap Inc. Founder and Chairman Emeritus created Gap with simple idea. They keep basic principal to make clothes. In 1969, Americans have jeans revolution. Gap Inc. catches what people want which is demand. When Gap created company, their purpose to make clothes is that “to make it easy for you to express your personal style throughout your life.”

Gap’s leadership

If people see the clothes between Gap and banana republic, they might find out those clothes styles are not really different. The differences are price and little bit more luxury. Banana Republic is a division of Gap Inc. It is a similar as car business. When car business starts their business, they release new model with low price and high quantity. When car companies try to change their brand conception, they release new brands with different high luxury model with high price. Gap’s purpose is to make simple to move. When Gap differentiates their image, they release new brand which is banana republic.

Marketing Department

Gap has several marketing department. For example, International marketing department, Outlet department, and Social responsibility department are the most managing marketing departments to keep their customers. International market departments work to know the difference style and culture of international market. Outlet department are managing to send over products to outlet mall. Their social responsibility is maintaining their after service. As they manage well, their recognition of brand images are top 30 companies in the world.

Targeting

When they started business, they target their customer around 20~30. Now, they target all age. As they have many marketing department, they are investing their money in R&D. As R&D improves their quality, they develop better and better. As they target all age, their market is getting bigger.

References

http://www.gapinc.com/public/About/abt_howourclothesaremade.shtml

20601016 Entry#-9 - Is your great idea real business?

original article


How to succeed in business market

(Alalysis by ACCORDs)

1. Do you have advantages?(Value Proposition)
- To be successful in the business market, company should have their own strength which is called value proposition. Value proposition is one of great means to attract customers to buy their products. For example, in case of “NIKE” a special motto “JUST DO IT”&”Using one of greatest basketball player Michael Jordan as their model” can be a great value proposition. It motivates customers to enjoy sports and then naturally it makes them to buy NIKE products to play sports well like Michael Jordan.

2. Is it simple and easy to use?(Complexity)
- The main purpose of product might be how it functions well. Also how it is made for customers to use it handy is important as much as it. When people make product, they should consider complexity and user-friendly. Steven Jobs “MAC” is one of the companies which pursued those things. It made customers to feel comfortable by a sound effect when we turn on the computer. Also, it is the first company which started to use MOUSE which is prevailed to all over the world.(convenience)

3. How it is well adapted to cultures and life styles?(Compatibility)
- Social structures, cultures, traditions are different among each country. Therefore, if people want to make a product to be permeated to other country or circumstances, they should make their products by considering those cases. Let’s think about why microwave industry is not popular in France while it is a big hit in the US,(Because of their slow pattern life style)

4. Research customers behavior and needs(Observability)
- There is saying that if we know ourselves and enemy we will win 100 of battles of 100. Like this, to succeed in the business world, we should know customers well. Business people should listen to customer’s “sense, seeing, touch, hearing, and emotional variation” Car companies’ focused on car door and appearance of engine is one of a good example of this. Car sellers do that because they have found that most customers are so much care about those things.

5. How much risk do you take?(Risk)
- I’d like to define doing business as a risk game. To get something from business market, we should take loss(investment). That way we can obtain a lot bigger thing. There is acronym that represents risks that we should take “FUD=Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt”. When Hyundai’s market share was not good they took risk saying “If car breaks down within 10years, we warranty it.” This is a awesome example of taking risk





6. Do you offer sampling and trial to customers?(Divisibility)
- Before buy products, customers might want to know the products if it fits well or has no defects on the products etc. Therefore satisfying these customer’s needs is rising as a new trend of business market. Giving opportunity for customers to experience in person is very important when we do business. In case of cosmetic company, they let people to apply their products if it fits them well or looks good after they apply it. It’s a good system to get customers mind.


Reference:
http://www.edn.com/index.asp?layout=roadblock&sid=280464759&target=index%2Easp%3Flayout%3DCommunity%26industryid%3D47048%26industry%3DBusiness%2BStrategy
http://www.strategy-business.com/
Lecture from 8 APL 08 Class (ACCORDs)

models.

It’s true that beauty can sell. And the price of this beauty? 35 Million dollars. Currently ranking number one for beauty by popular vote is Brazilian model Giselle Bundchen. Loved and worshipped by many because of her astounding beauty and magnetically cheerful character. She is above even the most famous models that the previous generation knew such as Heidi Klum and Kate Moss. Giselle and these other girls are raking in money by presenting their physical characteristics to companies to sell their products.Indeed, advertising and giving a brand or product a face is important however is it that important? Important enough to pay 35 million dollars for it? In my experience I totally agree. It is truly worth it to give a product a face, and while they are at it, if it is a pretty face, it will definitely attract more people. Clothes lines, foods, electronics. All products can be advertised and be-friended the customer just by adding a pretty smile to it. A friend of mine actually used to buy a specific type of peanut butter because it had the picture of an attractive lady on it. As we all have heard repetitively, humans are very simpleminded. We can be influenced by such small unnoticed things, and these beautiful women are one of those things. Displaying an attractive woman on the advertisements for their products can can target more than just mere pleasure for men. It also reaps a large amount of envious females who look at these female models as their role models or their despised enemies. No matter what they are, it all comes down to wanting to look like these models. If this psychology is going through the populations of consumers, then maybe 35 million is still a cheap price to pay these models.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24395276/

20100656 entry # 9

20601016 Entry # 8 - A real threat to Google

original article

IPhone as tipping point

We generally think that Google’s rivals are companies like Microsoft, or yahoo. However Google’s real rivals are not those companies any more but cell phone companies. The cell phone industry has been emerging as a dreadful threat to Google.

SWOT analysis

1. strength
Firstly Google is fundamentally focused on the purpose what portal is to be, whereas the others(naver, yahoo, daum etc.) are more focused on their commercial purpose. If we just get into Google, we will be noticing simplicity, neat and ease arrangement of contents compare to any other portals. In this point Google is competitive and carrying its roll very well. Secondly, it offers lots of functions so that customers can do any work that they need to do in one site. It surely offers ‘searching engine’, ‘images’, ‘dictionary’, ‘G-mail service’, ‘google office’, ‘blogs’ and so on.

2. weakness
As I mentioned in the strength part, it has not deeply interacted with companies like the other sites. At this point, there is limitation of its revenue and service route. Also, unorganized web searched result can be one of weaknesses. When we search on the internet using Google, so much of information pop up without being organized by its categories. So we sometimes have hard time getting the information that exactly we wanted.

3. Opportunity
We cannot deny the truth that Google is Number 1 portal site in the world. It has been considered as the best site and getting lots of recognition by people. This is one of great opportunities of Google, and source of its power. Corporate image is very important(not just corporate image but any image to anything) to company. If it’s good it will produce lots of profits to the company, otherwise companies will go bankrupt easily. In this point Google has lots of potential to grow more. Because most of things that it invent(release) in the future will be sold well unless it’s surely bad or inferior.

4. Threat
So far, normally we can fit about 10 ads on a standard computer. But on your cell phone, if you type in a search query at google.com you get only one or two paid ads in response. In addition to this if web on the cell-phone has been prevailed, it will cause fatal effect to Google. As we expect, it is pretty sure that Google company income will be exponentially decreased. Then it will also bring about low-recognition. Like this, bad effect will cause other bad ones. It’s getting worse and worse like this.

As technologies are continually developing and new technologies are emerging rapidly, preexistent market will meet a crisis. To overcome these, innovation and modification by thorough R&D and enlightening or training every single employee systematically are fully required. Also following up-to-date technological trend and pursuing customer-centered market strategy will be helpful to lead the company successful.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*reference:

http://www.apple.com/iphone/

http://2aday.wordpress.com/2007/08/06/gphone-to-iphone-the-2-minute-threat/

http://www.iphonebuzz.com/google-not-a-threat-to-the-iphone-according-to-arm-executive-071715.php

20501034 - Entry 8

Loyal Customers & Switching Cost

Original Article

Since I was 15, I have been dealt with the City bank. My father also has transacted account with City Bank. Once I dealt with the bank, I found that it is very difficult to change the bank, even if other banks suggest higher interest or sometimes better services. Because my current main bank don’t charge commission when we use ATM (Automatic Teller Machine) after office hour due to credibility our family built. They also know how our financial situation is and offer best services for us.
Many of my friends go to church which is very far from where they live. They said they can’t simply change the church because they formed great relationship with people in that.

In management term, people call this “Switching cost”.
People tend to stick to use what they chose for the first time. They rarely switch the product or companies even though new companies offer better products or services. Therefore, companies try to pre-occupy the market prior to any other competitors. So switching cost could be working as barrier in Porter’s model.

We can find that many companies try to increase switching cost. I found that there are two ways of applying switching cost, offering incentives or causing difficulties. For example of offering incentives, Airplane company offer mileages to their customer to make them keep using their plane. For professional business men who often fly, it could be very economical and the airline companies can grab these big spenders. As an example of causing difficulties, we can think of Windows. Many people including me are fascinated by fantastic interface of Mac. However, because of compatibility issue, majority of people keep using and buying Windows. We love interface of Mac OS but we are afraid that we have to give up lots of software that we are familiar with and pay for new software that we don’t know.

I think business is not just offering good products or services with reasonable price. We also think about how to grab secure our customer group even though the competitors offer better quality of products or services. To achieve this goal, the concept of “switching cost” could be applied in many different and practical ways.

20601011 Entry-8

Original Article

Would you like to ride some movies?

Amusement Park Evolution

the one of the famous tour course in USA. This amusement park is growing a lot. It is now gohe worldwide. Now, Universal Studio is in USA and Japan. They plan to build another amusement park in 2002. The place is in S. Korea. To check the Universal Studio’s SWOT

Strength

They differentiated programs. When I compare with other amusement park in USA, most parks theme is for enjoy with the family. However, Universal Studio theme is enjoy and educating with the family about movie. They are trying to show how to make a film by show. In my experience, I went Universal Studio in Orlando three times. Most of shows are that I could enjoy and learn. Many American kids want to go to the Universal Studio. It is not just targeting the American people. Most customers are coming from different countries.

Weakness

Their weakness is that people can’t find what their star item is. They are targeting the all the movies. They are trying to make their movie as roller coaster. If they do not have their star items, people might go 1 or 2 times in their life-time. Even, many customers are coming to the Universal Studio. It might be limited later.

Opportunity

They are trying to target the world wide. Now, they already have other theme parks in Japan. They plan to develop Universal Studio parks in Dubai and Singapore. As growth to the world business, it is changing differently. Dubai is a big tour market. As developing Universal Studio in Dubai, it is also huge advertisement to grow more.

Threat

Universal Studio should consider customer’s culture. Some country might have opposite culture of their theme. To get all of customers are in the world. It is a pretty important fact.

Universal Studio is a huge busines tour market that has many options and good location for vacation to visit. Most customers go to universal studio, Sea World and Disney World. They have good tour package for family who want to visit with discount price. They have several advantage to grow. I could say, Universal Studio is one of the succed business market in USA.

References

"Universal Studio Florida and Beach for The Vacation", http://www.google.co.kr/imgres?imgurl=http://www.awesomeflorida.com/images/universal-studios-b.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.awesomeflorida.com/florida-attractions/universal-studios.htm&h=90&w=135&sz=71&tbnid=v0t3JidDmTcJ:&tbnh=90&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Duniversal%2Bstudio%2Borlando&hl=ko&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=11&ct=image&cd=4

Kelly Olsen, "Universal Studios plans theme park in South Korea" , http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2007-05-23-south-korea-theme-park_N.htm,