20600370 Entry 14

Is Vietnam The Next China?

Vietnam can become the next China says online magazine Fobes.com. During the last few years its economy grew radically. In fact Vietnam has become the second fast growing economy in the world after China,- says Donald H. Straszheim, Donald H. Straszheim is vice chairman of Roth Capital Partners in Los Angeles, . He emphasizes that the Vietnamese government has been working hard to improve the economy and to make Vietnamese people to live better off and gave some steps, or shall we call them stretergies to improve its overall economy.

First of all the economy growth started from so-called "doi moi" economic revival programm-in 1986 where the Country was opened for foreign investments .

In 1995 Vietnam joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

In 2000 Vietnam signed the US-Vietnam trade pact and became a member of World Trade Organization .

As we can see Vietnam launched an opened up economic policy which I believe was really significant in the country development.

Although the country's economy is rapidly growing, we can't ommit the fact that they do have some economical problems as well which Mr. Straszheim. Vietnam is struggling with inflation problems which are likely to grow more that 16% in the nearest future. The government is trying to control and prevent inflation by limiting the key exports, reducing tariff on some imports, cutting public-sector construction and more.

In addition to inflation Vietnam has a trade and budget deficit ranged or 6~7% . Also the state currency Ban is getting depreciated agaist the American dollar.

In the end Mr. Straszheim concludes that due to new Economical problems , no matter what they have been caused by, the government would have to start raising it "with a fresh start."

Source: http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2008/06/12/vietnam-china-inflation-oped-cx_dhs_0612viet.html

20653023 Entry # 14

Blue Ocean Strategy: in details (cont’d)
Today let us talk about companies’ strategic planning process.
Research reveals that even knowing all paths to create blue ocean company still stays in red ocean due to its strategic planning process.
How does usual typical strategic plan look like?
Lengthy description of current industry conditions and the competitive situation; discussion of how to increase market share, capture new segments, or cut costs; outline of numerous goals and initiatives; full budget; graphs and spreadsheets.
How does process look like?
Out of mishmash of data provided by people from various departments who often have conflicting agenda and poor communication managers try to get some reasonable factors filling in boxes and running numbers.
Instead would not be that better to think outside the box and develop a clear picture of how to break competition?
To do that we should use the second principle of blue ocean strategy: Focus on the big picture, not the numbers.
Drawing a strategy canvas (for example of it plz refer to my first entry about Blue Ocean Strategy) for your company and using the Pioneer-Migrator-Settler (PMS) Map will let you to see how to break into the blue ocean.
Drawing a strategy canvas does three things:
1. Shows the strategic profile of an industry by depicting the factors that affect competition among industry players
2. Shows the strategic profile of current and potential competitors, identifying which factors they invest in strategically.
3. Shows the company’s strategic profile (value curve) depicting how it invests in the factors of competition and how it might invest in them in the future.
There are 4 steps of visualizing strategy:
1. Visual Awakening

• Compare your business with your competitors’ by drawing your “as is” strategy canvas
• See where your strategy needs to change

2. Visual Exploration

• Go into the field to explore the 6 paths to creating blue ocean
• Observe the distinctive advantages of alternative products and services
• See which factors you should eliminate, create, or change

3. Visual Strategy Fair

• Draw your “to be” strategy canvas based on insight from field observations
• Get feedback on alternative strategy canvases from customers, competitors’ customers and noncustomers
• Use feedback to build the best “to be” future strategy

4. Visual Communication

• Distribute your before-and-after strategic profiles on one page for easy comparison
• Support only those projects and operational moves that allow your company to close the gaps to actualize the new strategy.

Another useful exercise to pursue profitable growth is to plot the company’s current and planned portfolios on a pioneer-migrator-settler (PMS) map.
Where pioneers are the business that offer unprecedented value (very significant, your blue oceans); settlers – businesses whose value curves conform to the basic shape of the industry’s; and migrators – businesses exend the industry’s curve by giving customers more for less, but they don’t alert its basic shape.
If both the current portfolio and the planned offerings consist mainly of settlers, the company has a low growth trajectory. If current and planned offerings consist of a lot of migrators, reasonable growth can be expected.

20300244 entry 13

LGE moves closer to making English its official language

LG Electronics Inc. employees will be banned from using the Korean language in e-mails directed to the company's overseas operations, as part of the aim of adopting English as its official language.

English will be the official language for e-mail communications between the company's local and overseas operations, the company officials said yesterday. Korean will be allowed in cases where the use of the language is unavoidable with English translations. The company's "Speak English" campaign started early last year.

LG officials said they hope such a sweeping change will help facilitate smoother information sharing among its overseas units and the company's non-Korean employees keep up to date with developments at its headquarters in Korea.

Since the end of last year, the company has held the management's meetings in English to cater for non-Korean executives whose numbers have been growing.

Last month, LG Electronics hired a British expert as its chief human resources officer in the latest addition to its growing lineup of foreign C-suite executives. At the management meetings, presentations as well as all related materials are provided in English. Held twice a month, the management meetings are attended by the company's top executives including the company's CEO Nam Yong, heads of various business branches and other high ranking officials.

In 2005, the nation's leading maker of electronics appliances removed the Korean language from its intranet and in January last year, the company's CEO gave a speech in English at a global conference of its executives.

The Korea's tech giant has also changed accounting, marketing, production and personnel management systems into English and plans to produce company policies and regulations in English.

In April last year, the company set up a language support center to facilitate the transition from Korean to English. Known as the English center, the organization is responsible for carrying out duties related to adopting English as the company's official language both at its headquarters and at its 114 overseas operations. In order to encourage the use of English, the center has also been compiling a list of commonly used work-related English phrases.

By Choi He-suk

(cheesuk@heraldm.com)
2008.06.11


My thought,

Business is the fastest area of changing. To survive, company can not stay what they are. They have no choice but change. LG E is showing us what we should do for the future as a company and a nation which face global world. English speaking is going to be more critical to us. As a company grows to a global company, communication is so critical at the company for many of reasons. Without well communication, as one reason, any firm can not have competitiveness to its competitors.
Korea become a leading nation in the globe with no sufficient natural sources in the land, like that we can be a good communicator as a leading nation in the global business with non-English speaking back ground. I believe there is a solution to this problem. We just need to jump in to this problem to solve this problem. And LG E has started.

20500198 entry #13

Using the Company as the Classroom
Job assignments that provide the critical lessons managers and executives need to be successful may be more valuable than formal training

......

Examples of what CCL found to be the best developmental jobs, and some of the skills they help build, are listed here:

1. Change Manager: A change manager leads an important effort to change or implement something of significance, such as restructuring a business or leading the cultural integration of an acquisition. Managing complex change develops the ability to motivate others and deal with ambiguity.

2. Turnaround/Fix-it: Here the job is about the last chance to clean up a mess; usually accompanied by serious people issues and morale problems. Fix-its build both strategic and conflict-management skills.

3. Startups: With startup assignments, the person is starting something new, whether it involves building a team or creating new systems, facilities, or products. Startup assignments teach innovation and skills for identifying vision and values (visioning).

4. Staff-to-Line or Line-to-Staff Shifts: Moving from a staff assignment to a job with an easily determined bottom line builds business acumen and planning skills. Shifting from line responsibility to a highly visible staff function develops organizational agility and personal adaptability.

5. International Assignments: These are defined as first-time assignments of a year or more outside the leader's home country. An international job assignment usually involves new language, new business rules, and different cultural norms. These assignments teach perspective and interpersonal savvy.

6. Member of Projects/Task Forces: While much of the work in today's flatter organizations can be classified as project work, this type of job assignment specifically relates to membership in a group with an important and specific goal, working with a high-visibility sponsor on a tight deadline. Here, workers develop problem-solving and priority-setting skills.

7. Significant People Demands: A sizable increase in either the number of people managed or the complexity of people-challenges characterize this job. To achieve results, the leader must increase skill level in people-management competencies such as delegation, managing and measuring work, and informing.

The lessons and experiences found in these types of jobs build skills across many key competencies and equip managers and executives for future success. Starting with these as a baseline, organizations can determine which jobs offer the most developmental horsepower for their particular business, considering criteria like a) what the job requires and will therefore teach in the way of skills; b) what the person can learn about the business; and c) what new challenges the job will provide.
Once identified, these are the jobs that should take center stage in the development planning process. By channeling some of the development resources earmarked for training to a focused job assignment strategy, organizations will get real work done and do right by their leaders by providing them opportunities to develop differentiating skills. Only by using the company as the classroom can average leaders become legendary.

My thought

Here is the way that average leaders can become legendary. It's to use the company as the classroom. Nowadays, a lot of company do learning teaching program for their employees, but the article shows that this way is ineffective. If I use the company, that is the job, as the classroom, I can make the employees be more capable and my company can get more good results. I think it's very important. The most valuable asset of the company is people, that is the workers, nor the real estate neither the brand or something. If we make the working environment to be like this, I think that we can take really valuable one to our company and to our managing. Let's think new way. We can save cost to teach workers. And we can get better effect of learning skills and knowledge. Why not use this really awesome method?

sources: http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/jun2008/ca2008064_524685.htm?chan=careers_managing+index+page_top+stories

Entry 13 200600370

Here are some advice for those who want to sell their homes from Money Magazine. I found them useful:

5 new rules for home sellers
Whether you're buying or selling, the real estate game has changed. To win, you've got to learn a new playbook.

Rule 1: Get real about price

Prepare three area brokers where there will be given a good description like houses, sizes, prices and other detail information. Do provide 10% discount which will give you an advantage among other firms and attract more clients to you. If you have small inventory, cut bigger don't make baby steps in this case.

Rule 2: Vet your agent - especially if it's you

You can't do it alone, you need an assistent. If you try doing everything for yourself, you'll do pooly. Get an agent, but not a newbie, get someone who is experienced enough in good and bad in this area.

Rule 3: Pimp your house - hire a home stager

Make it beautiful. Make it look more attractive you could hire a homestager which will probably cost you some money as the renovation itself. However, it's worth it.

Rule 4: Cash will make your home look even better

Make something that will make your house look more attractive than another one.

Rule 5: Underwater? Learn to swim

First, you may be able to persuade your new employer to make you whole on the loan. Second, if the rental market in your area is strong (as is the case in many spots that were healthy but not overly bubbly during the boom), you can become a landlord and wait out the slump. Third, of course, is to sell for as much as you can (see Rule No. 1) and raid your savings for the difference.

Reference: http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/01/real_estate/seller_tips.moneymag/index.htm?postversion=2008051212

20653023 Entry # 13

Blue Ocean Strategy: in details (cont'd)
Today I'd like to summarize chapter about market boundaries.
As you can remember, 'classical model' of formulating business strategy claimed that market boundaries are not elastic and in order to survive you have to fight with others to get bigger share within existed market. And in pursuit of success companies are supposed to do following:
1. Define their industry similarly and focus on being the best within it
2. Look at their industries through the lens of generally accepted strategic groups and strive to stand out in the strategic group they play in
3. Focus on the same buyer group, be it the purchaser, the user or the influencer
4. Define the scope of the products and services offered by their industry similarly
5. Accept their industry’s functional or emotional orientation
6. Focus on the same point in time – and often on current competitive threats – in formulation strategy
Blue Ocean Strategy offers 6 basic approaches how to Reconstruct Market Boundaries.
It called six paths framework. And it’s said that these paths have general applicability across industry sectors. Here they are below:
Path 1: Look Across Alternative Industries
A company competes not only with the other firms in its own industry but also with companies in those other industries that produce alternative products or services. (Alternatives include products and services that have different functions and forms but the same purposes.)
Company which applied this path: NetJets with its fractional jet ownership; NTT DoCoMo with its i-mode
Path 2: Look Across Strategic Groups Within Industries
Term strategic group refers to a group of companies within an industry that pursue a similar strategy. Most companies focus on improving their competitive position within a strategic group: Mercedes, BMW, and Jaguar focus on outcompeting one another in the luxury car segment as economy car makers focus on excelling over one another in their strategic group.
Companies which applied this path: Curves (the Texas-based women’s fitness company, franchising), Polo Ralph Lauren, Toyota’s Lexus, Champion Enterprise
Path 3: Look Across the Chain of Buyers
There is a chain of “buyers”: purchasers who pay for the product or service may differ from the actual users, and in some cases there are important influencers as well. And an industry typically converges on a single buyer group. But challenging and industry’s conventional wisdom about which buyer group to target can lead to the discovery of new blue ocean.
Companies which applied this path: Novo Nardisk with its NovoPen and NovoLet; Bloomberg with its terminal and keyboard; Canon with its small desktop copier.
Path 4: Look Across Complementary Product and Service Offerings
Untapped value is often hidden in complementary products and services. Think about what happens before, during, and after your product is used.
Companies which applied this path: NABI with its bus for U.S. Municipal Bus Industry; Philips Electronics with is teakettle in Britain.
Path 5: Look Across Functional or Emotional Appeal to Buyers
Along with scope of products and services competition in an industry tends to converge on possible bases of appeal: rational or emotional.
But challenging the functional-emotional orientation of industry companies often find new market space. Emotionally oriented industries offer many extras that add price without enhancing functionality. So, eliminating those extras may create a fundamentally simpler, lower-priced, lower-cost business model. And vice-versa: functionally oriented industries can often infuse commodity products with new life by adding a dose of emotion what in turn, can stimulate new demand.
Companies which applied this path: Swatch (from functional to emotional), The Body Shop (from emotional to functional), QB House (from emotional to functional), Cemex (from functional only to emotional)
Path 6: Look Across the Time
All industries are subject to external trends that affect their businesses over time. Looking at these trends with the right perspective can show you how to create blue ocean opportunities.
Companies which applied this path: Apple with its iTunes; Cisco Systems (well-timed production for high-speed data exchange); CNN with its real-time 24-hour global news network; HBO’s show Sex and the City.

20300244 Entry 12

LG Electonics denies Electrolux's proposal for joint bid for GE unit

LG Electronics yesterday denied a news report that Sweden's Electrolux proposed that they jointly bid for the home appliances unit of General Electronics.

"The report is groundless. We have not received any such an offer," said a spokesperson of the Seoul-based electronics company.

The Korea Economic Daily reported yesterday that LG Electronics was reviewing Electrolux's proposal for the bid, citing an unnamed industry source.

Electrolux and LG Electronics are the world's second and third largest home appliance maker, respectively, after Whirlpool Corp. GE is placed 10th in the world appliance market, while it ranks second in the U.S. market.

Electrolux and LG Electronics are one of the five potential bidders to buy the home appliances unit of GE, GE's CEO Jeffrey Immelt said in Seoul last week.

He earlier said that GE is considering removing its slower-growing home appliance unit, as the U.S. conglomerate seeks 10-percent annual profit growth.

Analysts say the GE unit, which posted $7.2 billion in global sales last year, could sell as much as $8 billion.

The acquisition of GE, the traditional home appliance brand in the United States, could help LG expand its presence in the world's largest economy, analysts said.

But they doubted whether the GE's appliances unit was an attractive acquisition target for LG Electronics, which has many overlapping business with GE.

When asked about the possible purchase of GE's appliances unit, LG Electronics' CEO Nam Yong said on May 27 that the company is "monitoring the situation as it will have a major impact on the landscape of the global appliances industry."

Echoing the CEO's remarks, the company said in a regulatory filing on May 28, "Although we have conducted an internal review on the impact (of the sale of the GE's appliances unit) on LG Electronics, no developments have been made so far regarding a bid."

On the same day, GE CEO Immelt said LG Electronics is "clearly one of the leading candidates" while naming five potential bidders for the GE unit.


By Jin Hyun-joo


(hjjin@heraldm.com)

2008.06.03


My thought

Business is like a game among the competitors. You have to pay attention not only to your inner environment but also to your outer environment, as we learn from the Potter’s Model. LG may buy GE or not. However, whether they buy GE or not they have to have a picture what will be happened to their industry. Whether the leading company buys or any other companies buy it will definitely affect to their company, especially like this huge sale in the industry.

20300244 entry 11

Hyundai-Kia's SUVs get top U.S. consumer rating

Hyundai Motor Co.'s Veracruz and Kia Motors Corp.'s Sorento were named as the top sports utility vehicles in their respective segments in this year's Vehicle Satisfaction Awards.
Awarded by the U.S.-based automotive industry consulting firm AutoPacific, Vehicle Satisfaction Awards surveys consumers with recently purchased vehicles and rates their satisfaction in 46 categories.

For the 2008 Vehicle Satisfaction Awards, the company surveyed 34,000 motorists who bought new cars between September and December 2007.

The results showed that Kia Motors' Sorento was found to be the most satisfactory vehicle in the mid-sized SUV category along with the Hummer H3. Other vehicles in the category were Dodge Nitro and Nissan Xterra.


Hyundai Motor's Veracruz was named the top large crossover SUV along with the GMC Acadia. Other vehicles in the large crossover SUV category were the Ford Taurus X, Mazda CX9 and Saturn Outlook. Friday also saw Hyundai Motor receive another piece of good news from the United States. According to the company, another quality survey of more than 20,000 motorists who bought new vehicles between September and November 2007, carried out by U.S.-based industry consulting firm Strategic Vision, showed that Hyundai Motor's Santa Fe was the most satisfactory vehicle in the small SUV category. The Santa Fe received 885 points out of possible 1,000 to beat Toyota's FJ Cruiser and the Jeep Wrangler to take the top spot.

By Choi He-suk

(cheesuk@heraldm.com)


My thought,

I was just proud of my country when I saw this news article, the Hyun-dai’s victory in U.S. SUV market. In three segment group, Hyun-dai received top recognition from customers. It once was known as a cheap and low quality car to U.S. consumers. So they started 10 years warranty as respect to change consumer’s perception, which is so famous story as regard to this company. And now they are getting top recognition for many various aspects for their car in its market. You just never know. Many might have said Hyun-dai would fail to the U.S. market. But they are one of those who are leading the market now. I just can see that how they were doing their best to success from their crisis.

20653023 Entry # 12

Blue Ocean Strategy: in details
We've mentioned Blue Ocean Strategy on our classes. And it prompted me to read more about it. Below you can find some principles, frameworks, and characteristics related to Blue Ocean.
But at first, let us define what Red Ocean Strategy vs. Blue Ocean Strategy are about:

1. Compete in existing market space vs. Create uncontested market space
2. Beat the competition vs. Make the competition irrelevant
3. Exploit existing demand vs. Create and capture new demand
4. Make the value-cost trade-off vs. Break the value-cost trade-off
5. Align the whole system of a firm's activities:
   with its strategic choice of differentiation or low cost vs. in pursuit of differentiation and low cost
   
   

Critical question for strategists is, How do you break out of red ocean of bloody competition to make the competition irrelevant? How do you open up and capture a blue ocean of uncontested market space?
And there is an analytic framework, called the strategy canvas. First, it captures the current state of play in the known market space. Second, it allows to understand where the competition is currently investing, the factors the industry currently competes on in products, service, and delivery, and what customers receive from the existing competitive offerings on the market.

Second basic analytic is the four actions framework: there are 4 key questions to challenge an industry’s strategic logic and business model:
1. Which of the factors that the industry takes for granted should be eliminated?
2. Which factors should be reduced well below the industry’s standard?
3. Which factors should be raised well above the industry’s standard?
4. Which factors should be created that the industry has never offered?

And the third key tool which is supplementary analytic to the four action framework: eliminate-reduce-raise-create grid. It basically organize previous questions in grid with 4 cells.

And the last one: 3 Characteristics of a Good Strategy
Focus
Every great strategy has focus, and a company’s strategic profile should clearly show it.
Divergence
To open up a blue ocean, it’s necessary to differentiate your company from overall trends within the industry.
Compelling Tagline
A good strategy has s clear-cut and compelling tagline, which must not only deliver a clear message but also advertise an offering truthfully.

20400512 Entry 12

Americans take 41 million fewer flights, survey shows

As the title implies, the number of flyers are decreasing constantly. According to surveys, the hassles are just too much to get through so people are choosing not to fly when traveling. Now the airline industries are going down.

The article also indicated that this could be a message to political leader's to get some type of reforming with the airline system. What is a possible effect of this outcome??

The article mentioned two airlines, Northwest and Delta announcing that they will combine in order to reduce costs. Many problems are on the rise with the airline industry with less peole flying and fuel costs going up. Many changes are being brought about the industry yet there has not been a positive outcome yet. So how much do you need to "dig in" to get to the people?

I believe that there is no true answer to this.

Until the airline industry figures out a way to get to the people in a new way, in my opinion, I believe that they will struggle for awhile.

20500198 entry #12

I thought of Nudge when I read about the newest sortie in the airlines’ ongoing war against their customers: American Airlines’ decision to charge passengers $15 if they have the temerity to check a suitcase. Now, I understand the reasoning. Checked bags add to the weight of a flight at a time when fuel’s price is higher than sky-high; baggage handling is expensive, too; etc. There are costs associated with checked luggage and the airlines are bleeding, as usual. (The net profit in the entire history of passenger aviation is approximately zero.) But if this cat needs skinning, might there be better ways to do it?
My daughter has been visiting from Ann Arbor, Michigan, where, she says, the water company offers a discount for customers who pay early. That got us thinking. If airlines want passengers to pack light, why not create incentives for the behavior they like rather than penalties for behavior they don’t? An airline could, for example, raise fares a little across the board, then offer a $15 rebate to people who check in without bags, simply by programming computers to post that amount to the credit card account associated with the ticket. A great horseman named Wayne Carroll regularly offered this advice to his students: “When you want a horse to do something, don’t tell him what not to do. Tell him what to do.”
That, of course, would require an attitude toward customer service found at places like Zappos but rarely associated with U.S. airlines. You can find it on Southwest; there’s a flight attendant on the US Airways Shuttle who’s so customer-friendly that it’s alarming until you realize he means it; and United recently got the smart idea of sending flight attendants back into coach with leftover wine from first or business class, which would otherwise go to waste. But such treatment is rare; more often you receive not just disregard, but active hostility—and it seems to be company policy (vide the baggage charge).
Why do companies declare war on customers? When the music industry was faced with file sharing, it ran around suing customers it should have wooing, for example. Marketing expert Phil Kotler and I once wondered about that in a conversation. I suspect it happens when firms get into a panic about profits, and make crazy grabs at the nearest group of people with money, or blame the messenger -- in this case, the messengers who are leaving. The impulse to punish -- rather than reward -- the people who make business possible usually fades quickly. But some industries seem to need more than a nudge.

My thought
Here is the important principle of business strategy. Incentive is better than punish. It said the case of Airline customer service. When they use punish to customer to reduce the cost of baggage delivering, it doesn't work well. But when the water company use incentives to customer, it works. I think when we make the strategy about cutting cost, customer service etc, we should use the incentives than punish. Incentives are the more sweet and also more effective one to customer and in the business field.

sources: http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/hbreditors/2008/05/the_war_on_customers.html

20600370 Entry # 12

Dell shares get boost from strong earnings report

Dell shares up nearly 10 percent on report of profit, revenue jump in fiscal 1st quarter

After Dell reported an incredibly high raise in trading ( up to 9.9 %), investors are trying to figure out if it is just a short term wonder or "the proof that the founder and CEO Michael Dell's turnover plan is working." (By David Koenig, AP Business Writer)

According to turnover plan Dell concentrated on the Asian market during the first quater of the year. Thus notebook shipment only in Asia jumped 43 % comparing to the last year. Revenue rose 19 % in Asia, 15% in Europe. Thus Dell has become a cumpany number two after HP in worldwide PC shipments, but still leads in the USA.

Machael Dell says that "strong Asia sales were partly due to a 140 percent surge at 1,800 stores in China that sell Dell machines. By early August Dell will be in 3,500 Chinese stores."
(By David Koenig, AP Business Writer)

Meanwhile, some skeptics say that Dell's success in the first quater job was due to weak dollar and job cuts. Currency rate added 3 to 4 percent to total revenue and the strong cost resulted in part of cutting 3700 jobs. Also Dell lost good positions in retail sales which used to give the winning positions in prices.

It really takes an effort for investors which one of those thwo is working now- "one period luck" or Dell's turnover plan.

Reference: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080530/earns_dell.html

20500198 entry #11

Ever since General Electric (GE) revealed plans to put its appliances business on the block May 16, Korea's LG Electronics has been on most everybody's short list as a potential buyer. Best known as the maker of cheap microwave ovens and toasters a decade ago, LG has emerged as the world's No. 3 manufacturer of white goods after Whirlpool (WHR) and Electrolux (ELUX). The Maytag deal put Whirlpool out of reach, but LG now could come close to realizing that ambition by acquiring the GE unit. LG's global appliances sales last year of $12.6 billion, when combined with GE's $7 billion or so, would roughly match Whirlpool's $19.4 billion and place it well ahead of Electrolux' $15.6 billion.
Success in the more mature U.S. market would, of course, be harder to achieve on its own. Still, in the U.S., LG has made remarkable progress in the past four years with its strategic focus on premium segments. The Korean maker has targeted consumers willing to pay a few hundred dollars extra for snazzy designs and high performance. LG's sleek washing machines, for instance, last year commanded a 22.8% share of the market for more expensive front-loading washers priced at up to $2,500.
One area of strength for LG is its relatively high margin in the cut-throat appliances industry. Its operating profit margin of 6.1% last year was slightly higher than that of Whirlpool (just below 6%) and Electrolux (below 5%).

My thought
In spite of these strength, in the situation that the appliance market is going to be saturated and be sharply contested fastly, because Whirlpool has great market share, LG electronics' profit growth might be limited to certain level. The analyst thinks that that level is not far from current level. As we said above, the difference of sales between Whirlpool and LG is too big and it is increasing countinously. To jump above whirlpool, LG should get the great portion of appliance industry of America and emerging market. The only way to do is to take GE. If LG won't, the other competitor will.

resources: http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/may2008/gb20080529_678095_page_2.htm

20300244 entry 10

The second POSCO Asia Forum was held yesterday in Seoul. The POSCO Asia Forum is an annual event hosted by the POSCO TJ Park Foundation that was named after the steelmaker's founder Park Tae-joon.
The forum is designed to provide an arena for discussion in various Asia-related fields and also has presentations of the results from research projects funded by the foundation. At this year's event, 22 papers on the subject of increasing collaboration and understanding among Asian nations were presented.
In his opening speech, POSCO chief executive and TJ Park Foundation chairman Lee Ku-taek said that the need for research on Asia is growing ever greater as the region continues to grow. "Asia's dynamic economies, cultural heritage and its sociological potential have grabbed the attention of the world," Lee said.
"Along with rapid economic growth and globalization of the region, its values are also changing and the need for research efforts to shed new light on the issues has also grown."
This year's event also hosted the 10 researchers sponsored by the TJ Park Foundation's Asian experts program, which sponsors academics to study abroad and to develop expert knowledge on Asian countries.
At the forum, the keynote speaker Shraishi Takashi, vice president of National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Japan, said that with Asia's growth, the world order will become more complicated and that Asian nations would need to carry out strategic talks and prepare for changes.
Another keynote speaker Ian Chubb, president of Australian National University, said that Korea and Australia should be looking to increase intellectual exchanges to form the basis for widening economic and political cooperation.
Other speakers at the forum included Hanyang University's sociology professor Kim Doo-sub and Professor Kwak Jun-hyuk of Korea University's department of political science and international relations, who presented papers on issues related to the integration of foreigners into Korean society.
By Choi He-suk
(cheesuk@heraldm.com)
@ Korea Herald


--my thoughts

Asia has been growing so rapidly. It is getting more spotlight ever before, yet the glorious day of Asia hasn’t come. So as the article mentions, it is getting important to know about Asia while the world is getting globalize. At this, POSCO has been doing very meaningful forum. We might have to pay attention what they’ve found. As Asia’s importance gets bigger we need to research how Asia is changing and where Asia is going relate to the world economy and international relations etc.. Asia yet does not play as a main role in the global field but it might play as one in few years. We have to pay attention not only to the western world but also to the Asia even we live in Asia.

#20600370 Entry 11

Russia to become Adidas’s biggest European market

Adidas –Chinese axis and Russian axisChinese economy has rapidly developed during the past several decades. Many companies from all around the world moved their manufacturing facilities to China to save on labor cost. But the situation has changed and risen labor costs make companies such as Adidas shift their manufacturing operation away from China to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
The vast Russian market always attracted attention of many companies from different industries. The German sportswear manufacturer tried to increase its share through the promotion of Champions League Final in Russia. It expects to cut the lag from Nike ‘counting on its 50% annual growth in China and Russia’. Also Adidas predicts US$ 1 billion sales in Russia making it the largest market in Europe

Reference: http://russiatoday.ru/business/news/25024

20400512 Entry 11

Gap weathers sales slump

As the article stated, although profit has rose, the revenue has once again declined.

Having researched about GAP, this article grabbed my attention quickly.

The article continues on to talk about Murphy, the current CEO, has been able to manage the inventory somewhat. Yet GAP faces the most tragic problem involving the clothing business. They are falling behind in the trend. Constantly declining from 2000, it almost seems like GAP is going to bust. Although they have Banana Republic and Old Navy, and they have the most outlets in the world, they are just not raking in the money.

There may be a way for GAP to swim out of its current situation but I believe it's going to take a lot more than a couple of years due to the fact they have to do so much R & D and catch up with the fashion trend of the current generation.

20653023 Entry # 11

10 TOP ROAD-TRIP CARS

If you're looking for luxury or economy, roominess or sport, here's an exclusive from Kelley Blue Book on its best picks for summer driving.

Convertible: Volkswagen Eos

Base price: $28,990 - $38,100
Mileage: 29 mpg Hwy, 21 mpg City If you've ever seen an Eos with its top up, you probably didn't know it was a convertible. This sporty little two-door looks equally sharp with its seats exposed or covered.
Kelley Blue Book particularly likes the extra-large sunroof. Yes, it's got a sunroof so you can have the sun on your shoulders while keeping the wind out of your hair.

High mileage: Toyota Prius

Base price: $21,100 - $23,370
Mileage: 45 mpg Hwy, 48 mpg City
With highway fuel economy of 45 miles per gallon - and even more in city driving - the appeal of the Prius would seem obvious. You can get where you're going with fewer stops for gas.
But, besides that, Kelley Blue Book picked the Prius for its commodious interior space. It has as much room for people and luggage as any mid-size sedan.
Small car: Mini Cooper Clubman

Base price: $19,950
Mileage: 37 mpg Hwy, 28 mpg City
The standard-length Mini Cooper made Kelley Blue Book's list last year. But while the Mini has always been fun to drive, and it's easy on gas, it lacked a place to put more than a night's worth of luggage.
The Clubman answers that need with about 8 inches of extra storage space behind the back seats, accessed through a barn-door style tailgate.
Sporty crossover: Infiniti EX35Base price: $31,900 - $36,850
Mileage: 24 mpg Hwy, 17 mpg City
A genuinely fun-to-drive little SUV, the EX35 offers some really remarkable technology. Kelley Blue Book points out the lane departure warning system that doesn't just warn you when you're about to drift into the next lane. It applies a bit of braking on one side to pull you gently into line. When it's time to park, amaze your friends with the "Around-view camera." It uses four fish-eye lenses and computer magic to create a view of your SUV as if seen from above. It's like having your own helicopter helping you parallel park.

Big crossover: Ford FlexBase price: $28,295
Mileage: 24 mpg Hwy, 17 mpg City*
This one's not quite ready for you yet - the Flex enters dealerships this summer. It's a full-size three-row crossover SUV that, with an optional contrast-colored roof, looks a little like a giant Mini Cooper.
The interior is far more conservative in appearance than the outside, but it's elegant, functional and roomy.
Kelley Blue Book particularly likes some of the novel options. Besides Ford's Sync Bluetooth audio/phone system, you can get a refrigerator to keep your drinks cool on the road.
Van: Dodge Grand Caravan

Base price: $21,290 - $27,140
Mileage: 24 mpg Hwy, 17 mpg City
In Chrysler's typical fashion, the Grand Caravan is loaded to the gills with clever features.
Among the niftiness you won't find in any other minivan: second-row seats that turn around to face the back row, Sirius satellite TV with two video screens, multiple DVD players and interior mood-lighting that makes it feel like a kid-friendly rolling bachelor pad.

Big SUV: Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid

Base price: $49,590 - $52,395
Mileage: 22 mpg Hwy, 21 mpg City
While the Tahoe's high-tech hybrid system is truly remarkable, a long highway trip may not be the best way to show it off. By a wide margin, the system is most effective in city driving.
Still, the Tahoe is the most efficient full-size SUV you can get, city or highway, and you can use it to tow a boat or haul cargo. And it seats up to eight in reasonable comfort.
But don't expect to just stroll into your Chevy dealer and buy one. Availability is limited.
Family car: Chevrolet Malibu
Base price: $19,645 - $27,095 Mileage: 30 mpg Hwy, 22 mpg City A year ago, the idea of anyone gushing over a car called the Chevrolet Malibu would have seemed absurd. Then General Motors gave us this. Suddenly, here's a Chevy with looks, performance and genuine refinement. When Kelley Blue Book tested it against six other mid-size sedans, the Malibu stood out in one area in particular: highway driving. The Malibu is smooth, quiet and roomy, and the interior looks smart, too. Newly available: the combination of a fuel-efficient four-cylinder engine with a smooth-shifting six-speed transmission for maximum fuel economy.
Performance: Audi S5Base price: $50,500
Mileage: 21 mpg Hwy, 14 mpg City
Kelley Blue Book picked the S5, a performance version of the A5, for its unique combination of top-end performance, comfort and slick European style. It's a recipe that few cars manage to cook up quite as well.

Ultimate luxury: Bugatti Veyron Fbg par Hermes

Base price: $2,400,000
Mileage: 14 mpg Hwy, 8 mpg City
For those with lots...and lots...and lots of money to spend on a road-trip car (and the gas to fill it) Kelley Blue Book selected the ultra-expensive Hermes-infused version of the Veyron.
Only a dozen or so built-to-order copies of this one will ever be built at a price that's about $1 million higher than the "ordinary" Veyron.
Hermes designers toned down the hard-edged interior, covering everything - including the owner's manual - in bull-calfskin leather. The idea was to make the 16-cylinder, two-seat supercar a more relaxing place to tear down the highway at stomach-squishing speeds.

20653023 Entry # 10

Remember that sometimes consumers don't buy product themselves. In this case producer has to pay its attention not only for consumers but consider buyers as carefully as users. One example of it men's undergarment bougt by women. There is one more example in this article, when users of laptop don't mind to have Linux OS but buyers which are governments prefer Windows considering it as a more potential for further development of their young generation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Microsoft joins One Laptop Per Child project
By Steve Lohr
Friday, May 16, 2008
After a dispute lasting several years, Microsoft and the computing and education project One Laptop Per Child have reached an agreement to offer Windows on the organization's computers.
Microsoft long resisted joining the ambitious project because its laptops used the Linux operating system, a freely distributed alternative to Windows.
The group's small, sturdy laptops, designed for use by children in developing nations, have been hailed for their innovative design. But they are sold mainly to governments and education ministries, and initial sales were slow, partly because countries were reluctant to buy machines that did not run Windows, the dominant operating system.
Education ministries want low-cost computers to help further education, but many see familiarity with Windows-based computing as a marketable skill that can improve job prospects.
"The people who buy the machines are not the children who use them, but government officials in most cases," said Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the nonprofit group. "And those people are much more comfortable with Windows." The agreement was announced Thursday.
The XO laptop weighs 3.2 pounds, or 1.5 kilograms, and comes with a video camera, microphone, game-pad controller and a screen that rotates into a tablet configuration. About 600,000 have been ordered since last fall, with Peru, Uruguay and Mexico making the largest commitments. The alliance between Microsoft and OLPC comes after long stretches of antagonism, punctuated by occasional talks, between them.
Negroponte, a former computer researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a new-media pioneer, said he first talked to Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman, three years ago.
But at the time, Microsoft was fiercely opposed to anything that might promote the use of open-source software like Linux. Since then, Microsoft has become more comfortable in competing against Linux, at times running its products on the same machines in data centers, desktops and laptops, Negroponte said.
Back then, he added, the nonprofit laptop project did not have a working machine.
Last year, Negroponte said, he contacted Gates again, and this time the Microsoft chairman was receptive. He instructed Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer, to work out a deal with Negroponte. Those talks began in January in private meetings, when both men were attending the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
"Customers have come to us and said they really like the XO laptop and they would like to see Windows on it," said James Utzschneider, manager of Microsoft's developing markets unit.
The first of the project's XO laptops running Windows XP will be tested next month in limited trials in four or five countries. Utzschneider declined to identify the nations.
The pact with Microsoft is not an exclusive agreement. The Linux version will still be available, and the group will encourage outside software developers to create a version of the project's educational software, called Sugar, that will run on Windows.
Windows will add a bit to the price of the machines, about $3, the licensing fee Microsoft charges to some developing nations under a program called Unlimited Potential. For those nations that want models that can run both Windows and Linux, the extra hardware required will add another $7 or so to the cost of the machines, Negroponte said.
The laptops now cost about $200 each, and the project's goal is to eventually bring the price down to about $100.
OLPC led the way in designing inexpensive laptops for children in poorer nations, but others have followed, notably Intel with its Classmate PC, which runs Windows and is $400 or less.
The project's agreement with Microsoft involves no payment by the software giant, and Microsoft will not join One Laptop Per Child's board. That contrasts with the approach of Intel, which joined the project last July, took a board seat and pledged an $18 million contribution - only to quit in January amid squabbling over Intel's aggressive sales tactics with the Classmate PC.
Of the Microsoft arrangement, Negroponte said: "We've stayed very pure."
But the alliance with Microsoft has created some turmoil within the project. Walter Bender, the president who oversaw software development, resigned last month. His departure, Negroponte said, was "a huge loss to OLPC."
Inside the project, there have been people who, Negroponte said, came to regard the use of open-source software as one of the project's ends instead of its means.
"I think some people, including Walter, became much too fundamental about open source," Negroponte said.
In an e-mail message, Bender wrote that he left the project because he decided his efforts to develop and support the Sugar open-source learning software "would have more impact from outside of OLPC than from within."

20500198 entry #10

Change the business portfolios as fast as you can.

Stoves, refrigerators, and other appliances used to be the core of General Electric's business. But now the hot growth is elsewhere. So they are getting out of the that business. Its appliance business represents a small fraction of the company's revenues, about $7 billion of its $173 billion total in 2007. CEO Jeffrey Immelt has said the company's future growth will largely be fueled by its health-care and energy businesses, much of it from outside the U.SBack in the early 1980s Intel's Andy Grove took the radical step of shifting the company's focus away from basic computer memory chips, toward microprocessors, the "brains" of the machine. The decision, which was controversial and shocking to some, led to unprecedented growth of Intel revenues, profits, and prestige.
When we find that some business will not grow, we should get out of there. The faster, the more profit will be caught. Under Jack Welch, GE bought and sold hundreds of companies. I can sure that was the original source of rapid growing of GE. We have to flexible about our business portfolio. Don't love a certain business. Do you want to be remembered as an icon in the decreasing business, or do you want to give yourself a chance to become iconic of something in the 21st century? It's upon your choice.







source: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/may2008/id20080515_212057.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_news+%2B+analysis

20500198 entry 2

20400512 Entry 10

Finding Cracks in Facebook

A lot of people know Facebook and are frequent users of Facebook. Facebook has enabled friends to get connected just like other programs such as MySpace and as in Korea Cyworld. But now as the headline states, Facebook is facing a few problems.

Developing new systems has been a downfall to the company and now they are trying new methods to swim out of their troubles. As the article stated, the company is run by Mark Zuckerberg, who owns a big percentage of the company. The board has to side with him because they really don't have much choice.

It's amazing how people run Internet businesses. It's the thought of them being an "online industry" in one sense. How long does it take to "climb" up this far? I would think that the Internet business would need a lot more R & D than the real world market. As netizens increase everyday, the companies have to decide and select which would be more appealing. So how much effort is Facebook putting in to all of this?

The article stated that there were only three board members including Mark Zuckerberg. Is that enough to run a business? I would say they need to have more people considering there are so many different types of people that use the Web so they need more diversity in brainstorming. Although Facebook is slowly going up, I would say in the future they will face more "walls" than they are facing right now.

#20600370 Entry #10

Survey: U.S. economy tops competitive ranking

The United States topped world competitiveness rankings for the 15th straight year, but its economy is showing the same signs of weakness that sank booming Japan in the early 1990s, according to an annual survey released Thursday.

Asian tigers Singapore and Hong Kong ranked just behind the U.S., as they did last year. Switzerland jumped two places to fourth, while Luxembourg rounded out the top five most competitive national economies, said the Lausanne, Switzerland-based, IMD business school, publisher of the World Competitiveness Yearbook.
"The big question is whether the United States will be No. 1 after this year," project director Stephane Garelli said, adding that the report was based on 2007 data that do not fully reflect all of the problems in U.S. financial markets. "Everyone is catching up very quickly, but so far the U.S. economy is showing a lot of resilience."
The study lists 55 economies according to 331 criteria that measure how the nations create and maintain conditions favorable to businesses.
The U.S. position was cemented by its domestic economy, which is the world's strongest, topping all others in its amount of investments, stock purchases and commercial service exports. The U.S. also ranks as the easiest place to secure venture capital for business development and dominates all other economies in key technology criteria such as computers in use, according to the report.
But Garelli warned that U.S. economic health is vulnerable because of its heavy reliance on the financial sector for corporate profits.
The 2008 report says there are parallels between now and two decades ago, when the business school first started to study competitiveness and "Japan's competitiveness seemed unassailable, with a strong domination in economic dynamism, industrial efficiency and innovation.
"Then all hell broke loose," it added. "The stock market went into reverse in 1989, land prices collapsed in 1992, credit cooperatives and regional banks came under attack in 1994, large banks teetered on the edge of bankruptcy in 1997, and a major credit crunch occurred in 1998. Does this ring a bell?"
While the report called the similarities "frightening," Garelli said there are important differences between the Japan that stagnated for nearly a decade and the U.S. economy teetering on the brink of a recession now.
Japan's decision-makers were bureaucrats or politicians who reacted too slowly. The U.S. administration, by contrast, is full of business and financial experts that know when things need to be shaken up.
"The U.S always seems to find the means to reinvent itself in ways that Japan -- and much of Europe -- often lacks," he said.
Rounding out the top 10 most competitive nations were Denmark, Australia, Canada, Sweden and the Netherlands. Slovenia rose eight places to 32nd -- a jump matched by Poland, which is now 44th. Greece slipped the furthest, six places down to 42nd.
China and India both dropped two places in the report, to 17th and 29th, respectively. Russia fell four spots to 49th.
Venezuela was ranked last for the third year in a row, immediately preceded by Ukraine, South Africa, Argentina and Indonesia.

Personal reflection: It's interesting how economy of some rapid developing countries droped down. Also it feels like the US economy is "frozen." We've been watching for a couple of years now the weakening of US curency and stock market. My assumption is that in next 5 years such countries as Canada, Australia and European union will be able to drop the US economy down.

Reference: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/BUSINESS/05/14/world.competitiveness.ap/index.html

20300244 entry 9

Local airlines are likely to take on the voluntary carbon offsetting program within the latter half of the year, industry insiders say, following a growing trend in the global airline industry.
Asiana Airlines began systematizing the carbon offsetting program for their employees for work-related travels yesterday, with plans to soon offer the choice to customers, according to industry sources.
Korean Air does not yet have specific plans but is soon expected to embrace the program because global airlines have already been keen on picking it up, the industry sources said.
The carbon offsetting program aims to encourage travelers to be more environmentally responsible by counting their carbon footprint - the practice of measuring the amount of greenhouse gases produced in units of carbon dioxide to gauge the impact human activities have on the environment.
Global environmental policies, such as the Kyoto Protocol, and the growing need for global corporations to be more environmentally responsible in order to be considered world-class raise the pressure for such programs.
Local airlines, such as Asiana Airlines, are expected to donate the "carbon fees" to organizations involved in the business of reducing greenhouse gases.
Asiana Airlines said it plans to provide incentives to encourage customers to volunteer for the carbon-counting program. One incentive is expected to be providing bonus air miles to travelers who make an offset purchase.
Airlines in the global market that have already launched the program include Air France, Air Canada, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Qantas Airways, and Scandinavian Airlines.
Delta was the first U.S. airline to offer the option.
Observers project the current voluntary global trend to become mandatory in the next two years.
Some companies like Virgin are selling offsets from the aisle during flights.
As for Asiana's offset rates, flyers can expect to set aside 1,590 won for Gimpo-Busan flights, for Gimpo-Jeju flights 1,200 won, for the Gimpo-Haneda route 2,430 won, from Incheon to Beijing 3,332 won, Incheon to New York 27,649 won, and from Incheon to Frankfurt 21,234 won.
Asiana said it hopes to gain a reputation as an influential environment-friendly corporation by being the first company in Korea to adopt the carbon offsetting program.
By Yoo Soh-jung
(sohjung@heraldm.com)
2008.05.10

Key Issue for the 21 C Market, Environment. - my thought

Environment is Key Issue for the 21c Market. Whether any company really considers environment a lot or not they have to pay close attention to it for them to alive in global competition. This looks so interesting. We might have to think of this very carefully. It’s a kind of function of invisible hand. Invisible hand will choose the firm which considers of the environment a lot.

20600370 Entry # 9

How To Unlock Your Company's Creativity





It's all about innovation- Innovation implies new stuff; new stuff implies growth; and growth implies higher stock prices and beach houses in the Hamptons. Success is an outcome of new fresh and new ideas. Most big companies have already recognized the significance of innovation. That's why big companies such as IBM are willing to pay up to 30~40 thousands dollars for 2 to 3 day "master classes" on innovation to Rowan Gibson - co-author of "Innovation to the Core." Below I summarized some tips for successful incouragement for innovation in a company:

First, start scheduling a group innovation stretergy session (even if it means meeting on Weekends), encourage and reward thire new ideas by bonus pay, extra vocation time or other.

1. "Knock down the walls" to connect people from different departments and make your company cross-functional. Only in that atmosphere of familiarity and friendlyness would you be able to build a creative team.
2. Rip apart the assumption that hold you back.
3. Make it clear for your team what they know or what they own. Defining those parts will help to generate innovation and free thinking.
4. Understand that innovation is not one-off conversation but it should be persuited. "To wit: Manhattan-based Fahrenheit 212--a consulting firm with clients such as Gucci Group, Diageo (nyse: DEO - news - people ) and Warner Music--aims to inculcate innovative thinking by running a three-day, off-site meeting every three months."
5. Let everybody contribute.

In Pictures: Six Tips For Fostering Innovation At Your Company - this book could be a useful guide for company leaders and enterprineurs to develop innovation and creativity within a company.

.Souese: http://www.forbes.com/leadership/innovation/2008/04/01/innovation-netflix-blockbuster-ent-manage-cx_mf_0401innovation.html

20653023 Entry # 9

Besides jokes sport industry is growing fast. And with upcoming Olympics in China why don't we read article about MBA in ...sport. Yes. And it's not a typo. What kind of course is MBA in sport and what kind of people are interested in it? You can find answers to those questions below.
And while reading, just think that probably 20 years ago combination of words "MBA" and "sports" was very unusual. But time creates blue oceans and smart people won't hesitate to discover and develop it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Management schools develop MBA courses for the fast-growing business of sports
By Frances Childs
LONDON: Are Olympic sports a business? For Stefan Szymanski, an economics professor with a special interest in the economics of sports, the answer is clear, at least in regard to the country that plays host to the games.
"The Olympics are not a profitable venture," said Szymanski, head of MBA programs at the Cass Business School at City University in London. Governments spend massively to build infrastructure, "but economically they are not profitable for the host country."
"Once the Games are over there is no real use for the facilities," said. "Simply put, sport is not a very good way of funding economic development."
Still, the Olympics generate a multibillion-dollar web of sponsorship, advertising and broadcasting deals and pose mighty management challenges; not surprising, then, that in November last year Manchester Business School, a leader in British business education, jumped on the bandwagon, announcing the introduction of what it described as an "Olympic MBA."
Formally titled the Global MBA for Sport and Major Events, the course is targeted at sports industry leaders.
"The sports industry, like other specialized sectors, demands unique skills," said Nigel Bannister, chief executive of the school's worldwide MBA programs. "One only has to look at the scrutiny Olympic committees are now under as they seek to implement very large budgets and complex projects. Any mistake is magnified under the glare of the global media."
Olympics aside, Manchester is only the latest business school to meld sports into its programs. Liverpool, Coventry and Warwick are among others that cater to professional sports' appetite for business skills and expertise.
The introduction of these courses reflects the growing importance worldwide of sport within an expanding leisure and entertainment industry, Szymanski said.
"Wherever economic growth is fastest, spending on sport is growing fastest," he said. "The richest countries spend the most on sport, but countries where the economy is expanding, China and India for example, are also increasing their spending."
In Britain, the business of sports is most visible in soccer, with many of the biggest clubs, including Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Aston Villa, now owned by billionaires from abroad. Russians, Americans and even a former Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, count British clubs in their business portfolios.
Gone are the days when club scarves, rattles and copies of the team uniform were the main spinoff merchandise sold through approved retail outlets. Now, a Manchester United supporter can sign up for a Manchester United mortgage - offered in conjunction with Britannia Building Society - open a Manchester United savings account and buy a Manchester United insurance policy on his home and car.
The University of Liverpool, in the heart of another soccer-mad city, was the first to recognize the sporting world's need for business skills, introducing an MBA in Football Industries in 1997.
"Football was beginning to expand into the world of commerce partly as a result of the large increase in TV rights," said Rory Miller, the program's first director, who now teaches its module on football and finance. "There was also the expectation of profits from pay-per-view and pay TV. At the same time the rapidly growing commercial receipts of the clubs through sponsorship and merchandising were leading to new attitudes and a search for management recruits with business rather than football experience."
The course at Liverpool recruits about 25 students each year. Generally, Miller said, they are not from sporting backgrounds but are young professionals looking for a midcareer change from jobs as diverse as law, accountancy, marketing and journalism.
Charles Greenwood, now strategic planning manager for Nike UK, completed the Liverpool MBA 18 months ago. "The course was fantastic," he said. "I wanted to move from a career in financial services to one in the sports sector, and that's what I've done."
The Liverpool MBA consists of core business modules in finance, marketing and human resources management. For the football industries option, students add modules dealing with topics like sports law, sports marketing and sports finance.
Similarly, Coventry Business School offers an MBA in sport management. Again, students study the core MBA modules - finance, marketing and human resources management - before specializing with a sports module. The sports management course has been running for the past six years, with a yearly intake of 10 to 20 students.
Both Coventry and Liverpool recruit globally, and this diversity is reflected in the jobs that their students take after graduation. Students who completed the Coventry MBA last year have found jobs in sports consultancy and marketing in India and Spain, and in China working with the Olympic organizers. Several Liverpool graduates are working with UEFA, the umbrella organization for European soccer, in management roles.
The possibilities offered by sports to the world of commerce were recognized several years ago by John Neal, a performance coach who works with Ashridge Business School in Hertfordshire.
Ashridge runs a course, Sport Business Initiative, during which business executives and top sports coaches work side by side, learning from one another. Neal, who devised the course, believes that sports and business people have much to learn from one another.
"We set the course up eight years ago, initially to provide strategy and management skills to top level coaches," Neal said. "We worked with the England rugby team coaches in 2002-2003, and the program was so well received that Wales Rugby also wanted to get involved. "
While the course was designed for coaches who wanted management skills, "subsequently we've been approached by businesses who think their executives can learn from top coaches," Neal said.
The course, which runs for 10 days over 10 months, leads to no formal qualification. "It's not a tick box course. It's impossible to accredit a course like ours - it's too free flowing," he said.
"Students develop their own learning pathways and are subject to very honest feedback and evaluation from other students on the course."
Neal says that senior executives find the course valuable, "because in competitive sport we don't have time for silly games. We cut to the chase."
Evaluations by coaches gave them "totally honest feedback, which they often haven't had for some time," he said.
The Manchester sports management course, run in conjunction with The World Academy of Sport - a body which provides education to world ski-ing, world cycling and world netball - also targets senior executives.
Students mostly come from The City, corporate industry, or consultancy and marketing, although some are aiming to develop careers already established in the sports sector.
One such is Paul Davies, a performance manager for the British Paralympic Association, who is currently enrolled in the course.
"The sporting event management MBA gives me the opportunity to network and rub shoulders with people from all walks of business life," Davies said. "Doing the MBA has given me a good opportunity to broaden my own experience but also to experience other business opportunities."
Choosing to do the MBA was, for Davies, partly about learning new skills and partly about networking - an aspect that many MBA providers emphasize.
"An MBA is a very expensive degree to obtain, and jobs in the sports industry tend to be hard to come by," said Szymanski, of the Cass Business School. "In this industry, contacts count for a huge amount."

20500198 entry #9

The investment in extremely big business technology project
The Europe India Gateway high-bandwidth cable system will cost more than $700 million and will have at least 16 partners

When do business, sometimes we need a certain extremely big business technology project. But it's cost is too large to taken by just one company. So the partnership is very important. If we find suitable partner to co-invest to that project, we both can be winners in the market of their own. For example, here is the Europe India Gateway high-bandwidth cable system. It will cost more than $700 million. For this project, at least 16 partners cooperate. When this project completed and can use this technology in the Europe, India, and Africa, the company that participated in this project will can earn a lot. In the global generation, the ability to make partnership is very important as well as the ability to do well in business alone to all company that want to be global company.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
source: http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/may2008/gb2008058_604071.htm?chan=search