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