US's struggles to recover their domestic manufaturing

I read an article about the movement of labor force from US to China. It seems like an old story, but just a decade ago, US produced their core products in US. Then, why they had to move to China? First, it's because of the rises in oil prices. If oil price is rising, the shipping costs and also the wage rates will rise. Accordingly, US manufacturers realized that they will bankrupt if they keep producing in US. Now, most of US's labor concentrated industry had moved to China. As a result, the value of US dollar is fall relative to Euro. Also, there are constant threats from rising oil price.
Some of US companies now try to make manufactures in US. Because there are fewer producers in US since they moved to China. Accordingly, American citizens' demands are not satisfied. If they can initiate production in US, they can earn considerable profit. But the cost of infrastructure is very high. US manufacturers destroyed their original production base when they moved into China. Then, is China a eternal labor advantage nation? It's not. Because already the productivity of China's workers are rising, also the oil price is rising in a very fast pace. If US manufacturers sustain China, eventually, there businesses will lose their cost advantage. But still China has labor cost advantage about 40~50% compared to the US labor market.
Then, what's the best strategies for the manufacturers who already made huge production base in China? The author suggested that they should continue production in China. Because still China has huge cost advantages. If they are concerned with the future and go out of the industry, their huge investment that is a fixed cost will go away. Yet the costs are not sunk costs. Also, Chinese government keep controlling the rising of labor costs. Accordingly, in the short run, it will be a good choice. But they must find other alternatives. Actually, many of regions remain undeveloped. For example, the Africa and south-east asia regions have great potentials.
If US government will not support their domestic industry, ultimately, their industried will be controlled by China. I think it's the worst situation for US. US has been always a top position of world economy. But now their dollar value are dropped by 50% and their industries are strongly dependent on low cost nations. Additionally, US is a huge consumer of Oil. Accordingly, if oil price is rising, it will more impact on US than China. I think the high efficient and low labor cost products can activate the US's domestic production. If they can invent products like eco-friendly vehicles, cell phones, and home appliances, they can re-emerge their influences to the world. Now, Korean company also move their production base to China. Maybe, Korea's situation has many commons with US. We can analyze our future alternatives through US's solutions.

Author: Pete Engardio
Title: Can the U.S. Bring Jobs Back from China?
Date: June 19, 2008, 5:00PM EST
Page: 2

reference: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_26/b4090038429655.htm
entry#15 20700067

Accepting and learning from defeat

How to Lose with Grace and Dignity
　
1. Be Angry, But Not for Too Long. It's understandable to be upset when you lose, but dwelling on the loss, obsessing over it, or making it the focus of your life is more hurtful than helpful. In an earlier column, I offered five steps for dealing effectively with anger (BusinessWeek.com, 4/8/08), and as difficult as it may be to do so in every upsetting situation, it is in your own interest not to let anger get the best of you.
　　
2. Accept Reality. We often tell ourselves, "Where there's a will, there's a way." Unfortunately, we have less control over our lives than we'd like to believe, and there is nothing we can do to alter this. All the determination in the world cannot make other people do, say, or vote for something if they don't want to. It should lessen the blow to realize that there is only so much we can do to affect the change we seek.
　　
3. Look for the Lesson. Yes, we learn by winning. (Think about how you surprised yourself the last time you accomplished something you thought would be too difficult to achieve.) But we also learn by losing, if we have the courage to pay attention. In looking honestly at a failed attempt to get a job (BusinessWeek.com, 5/8/08), for example, or develop a romantic relationship, the lesson could be that we need to rethink our approach, or we need to change something about ourselves. The best way to succeed next time, or to learn how to handle defeat better, is to find the lesson from our loss and take it to heart.
　　
4. Cut Yourself Some Slack. I've said this before, but it bears repeating: The ethical responsibilities to be fair and compassionate apply to how we treat ourselves, not just others. Berating yourself for losing isn't a kind or decent way to treat yourself, and doing so prevents you from getting back into action, which can lead to further losses.
　　
5. Keep on the Sunny Side of Life. How many successful people do you know who are burdened by the weight of their past failures? If you let losing get the best of you, it will be all but impossible to go forward. Allow yourself to feel angry, but accept reality, learn from the experience, don't be too hard on yourself, and move on.
　
These guidelines are intended to help you make the best of a losing situation. Let's not forget, though, that the first order of business after losing is to congratulate the winner. Anyone can win. It takes a person of courage and grace to accept defeat and honor the victor. Such a person will move beyond loss and emerge a stronger and better person—and a true winner.
　
20700110
14th entry
author : Bruce Weinstein, PhD
title : The Art of Losing Well
date : May 20, 2008
reference : http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/may2008/ca20080520_180718.htm?chan=careers_managing+index+page_managing+your+career

US Beef Boycott in Making

          Despite of Korean government's efforts to make a deal with the U.S. for the beef trade, marketing in many businesses in Korea has changed dramatically to show how safe their foods are and free from the the problem concerned with the U.S. imported beef - the Mad Cow disease.

          Food industries in Korea including both major and minor restaurants are promoting "no U.S. beef" policy in order to assure their customers that they are providing safe food that the customers do not have to worry a single thing about consuming the food at their stores.

          The reason why these food manufacturers are simply they do not want to take a chane when the public is clearly against consuming the U.S. imported beef; "...it's important to win over consumer trust from the start" (BusinessWeek).

          The beef that are used in most of the food chains are from Australia, and food manufacturers are guaranteering they will only use the Australian beef. For example, the Korea-based fast-food chain Lotteria, which has more than 740 outlets nationwide, issued a statement that they have "no plans to use U.S. beef even in the distant future." Also the most well-known burger maker in the world, McDonald's, has been stressing out its corporate policy that is against of making patties with beef from America.

          All the other family restaurants including Outback Steakhouse, VIPS, Sizzler, T.G.I. Fridays and Bennigan's are also emphasizing their plans not to use beef from America and making sure that they will not do so in the future as well. However, there decisions are not helping the local beef importing companies since the public perception has critically ruined the business already; even though they don't import American beef, just doing the business with other countries is interrupting its brand image.

          As we have seen on the media and from many other sources, the problem concerning beef imports from the U.S. is getting deeper and deeper everyday. It seems like the flame of the candle-demonstration is becoming a new way of expressing our thoughts and beliefs. I hope the president Lee would regard and hear from the public what we are trying to say and have reconsider the deal with the U.S.

Reference;

Han, Jane. "US Beef Boycott in Making" KoreaTimes. June 13, 2008.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2008/06/123_25853.html

20601008 - 14th Entry

Sony

The prospect of a global economic downturn should make Sony (SNE) nervous. After all, you can't expect consumers to shop for giant flat-screen TVs and other pricey consumer electronics if they're worried about losing their jobs. A drop-off in TV sales would do more than dent Sony's earnings outlook.

It would also dash Chief Executive Howard Stringer's hopes of ending the losses from TVs that have plagued the company's electronics business for several years. But on May 14, the Japanese electronics and entertainment company predicted a big jump in unit sales of flat-screen TVs. The company, which reported full-year earnings, forecast sales of 17 million Bravia liquid-crystal-display sets this fiscal year, which ends in March, 2009.

That would be 70% more (BusinessWeek.com, 5/14/08) than the 10.6 million it sold globally in the year just ended through March 31, and nearly three times what the company sold two years ago. The forecast also beats those of its most formidable domestic rivals. This year, Sharp (6753.T) is expecting to sell 10 million LCD TVs, while Matsushita Electric Industrial (MC) is betting on 11 million Panasonic-brand flat-panel sets (BusinessWeek.com, 4/29/08). LCD TV sales are expected to top 100 million units this year and come within reach of 125 million in 2009, according to iSuppli.

A day after Sony reported earnings, its shares rose 8.7% in Tokyo, vs. an 0.9% rise for the benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average. Since the beginning of the year Sony's shares have lost 16%, compared to the Nikkei index's 3.9% decline. On closer inspection, Sony's TV gains aren't as significant for the bottom line as they might seem at first glance. One telltale sign: Despite rising unit sales, LCD-related revenues this year are expected to stay flat at $1.25 billion. The figure is also 7% less than sales two years ago. Sony executives say they are working to make the division profitable. "The main risk is profitability in LCD TVs near term," Goldman Sachs (GS) analyst Yuji Fujimori wrote in a May 15 report. The combination of higher volumes and lower revenues reflects a harsh reality in the TV business. Until now, companies like Sony, Samsung Electronics, Philips (PHG), Sharp, and Matsushita have been at the cutting edge of producing bigger TVs more efficiently. To do so, they have invested billions of dollars in sophisticated plants that can pump out the giant sheets of specialized glass that are cut to make TVs.

Theoretically, a bigger glass sheet makes more TVs. But they haven't only been competing with each other; they have also had low-cost manufacturers in Asia nipping at their heels (BusinessWeek, 2/26/07). That meant offering discounts so the low-cost brands didn't lure away all but the wealthiest of buyers. It also meant finding new ways of lowering costs so that profits didn't get decimated by rising materials and energy costs and falling TV prices, which have been sinking at a rate of roughly 25% every year. Not many companies have been successful at doing that.

Author:Kenji Hall
date: December 11 2007
site:http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/dec2007/gb20071211_409881.htm?chan=search

20300780 entry 14

India's big pharma deal

I read an article about India's big acquisition deal. The main players are Ranbaxy Laboratories and Daiichi Sankyo. Ranbaxy is the largest drugmaker in India. Also, Ranbaxy is a pure domestic company. Daiichi Sankyo is a Japanese drug company that has 3rd largest drug market share in Japan. Daiichi Sankyo wants to acquire 50.1% stake in Ranbaxy for nearly $4.6 billion. It's a 31% premium over Ranbaxy's current share price. Through this deal, Daiichi Sankyo can jump to the world No.15 drugmaker. But Ranbaxy is very successful company in India and they had received respects from Indian. Because they are a pure domestic company and Indian was proud of this fact. Additionally, until recently, Ranbaxy has been at the forefront of Indian efforts to expand beyond the country's traditional strength in generic drugs by focusing on research and development for new drugs of its own. For instance, Ranbaxy has formed research alliances with Big Pharma giants like GlaxoSmithKline.

Then Why they sell their stake to the Japanese company? It's just because Daiichi Sankyo suggested the most attractive deal to them. Ranbaxy also is facing challenges as it tries to join the drugmaking big leagues. It has had to contend with ongoing legal battles brought by rivals such as Pfizer, which has challenged Ranbaxy's right to make generic versions of Lipitor since 2005. Also, recently, they failed to develop new drug. In the market, R&D is the core of a company's survival. Accordingly, Ranbaxy struggled with the development and they thought if they will receive good proposal, they will sell the company. Additionally, they have some problem with management. They were the first India company which employed professional manager. But now, they lost their managers: Managing Director A.S. Brar in 2004 and then-CEO Brian Tempest in 2005.

Actually, Ranbaxy had tried to find partners that will buy their stakes. They requested the deal even to their rival, Pfizer. Finally, Daiichi Sankyo suggested very attractive deal, and the deal will be accomplished within a few days.

Then why this Japanese company wants to acquire India company? Because now the Japanese drug market is saturated. Accordingly, Daiichi Sankyo decided to expand their market to the several countries that didn't develop. I think the case is a good model to our drug company. For example, Yuhan, korea's largest drug company, now needs to expand their business to the world. Japanese is an advanced country that Korea, so we can learn many things for our future from Japanese companies.

Author: Nandini Lakshman

Title: Inside India's Shocker Pharma Deal

Date: June 11, 2008, 7:16AM EST

Page: 1

reference: http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jun2008/gb20080611_987609.htm?chan=technology_technology+index+page_top+stories

entry # 14 20700067

Fedex office

Fedex acquired printing chain Kinko’s in 2004 for $2.4 billion. The goal was a digitally linked network for customers to print, pack and ship anything.
A new name and logo merged the two identities and added multicolored icon as you see in the picture. Kinko has a nostalgic brand image but it also limited. Kinko cannot catch up recent trend like the quick-print business, direct mail and more creative jobs.
The process of changing the name does not cheap. It costs $891 million in its fiscal fourth quarter. This means that Fedex will serve as the office for traveling professionals, a medium and large size business and the small businesses.
They give up keeping Kinko’s because of the consumer research result that showed customers now know more about the wide range of services Fedex offers.
Kinko’s was named after its founder Paul orfalea whose nickname was Kinko because of his curly hair. After the years, Kinko’s reputation was going bad. It was a place where you would invariably find big, noisy copy machines, piles of paper boxes, and sometimes sleepy employees. Furthermore, the cheap printers and PDF files make the concept of the copy shop very irrelevant. Kinko’s brand did not survive in technological advances.
Many people said that the Kinko’s brand was not elastic and evocative enough to move into the Thrid econmy. The name of office will transfer Kinko’s image to more modern and utilitarian. Moreover, this has more various meaning such as a place where work, a laboratory to invent something, a place to go create.
Changing the name or logo is really important to brand image. I think that it can make totally different image and even companies’ culture. For example, Hanhwa is look very boring and little simple but after changing the logo It looks more humane and human central culture.

http://www.businessweek.com/
June 9,2008 - Inovation

20600171 14th entry

Europe mobile-telecoms market

The world is getting smaller for the phone. France Telecome begun to discussion about a long-anticipated takeover offer for the Swedish firm. They trade it for $42 billion. This is unusual deal comparing America’s largest mobile company named Verizon Wireless which normally deal with $27 billion. The growth of mobile phone market is poor. In many countries there are more mobile phones than people. Therefore, bulking up is a good idea to expand the market and for achieving an economies of scale.

In Europe mobile-telecoms markets are taking more consolidation. France Telecome cannot yet create Europe’s biggest mobile-phone company which will be dealing with 237million customers in 30 countries. They try to entice the customers with its more mature mobile and fixed-line operations in the Nordic region where the businesses in Eastern Europe and Central Asia come faster growing now.

And also there are plenty of other possible targets to tie-ups such as smaller firms in Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland. Vodafone may bid to extend its stake in Vodacom, a South African operator.

Mobile market is limited like an energy market. I think that mobile or other wireless communication systems finally will be used in common share. If the hardware system is to be a public assets, companies should compete in the software market. Still governments in each countries prevent their own countries mobile market from hunting by other countries. However, I think that the bulking up with mobile companies is only a matter of time.

http://www.economics.com/
20600171 13th entry

Apple won't be exclusive?

"create our own version," - Apple's new story in Japan.

Softbank, the No. 3 mobile operator, will sell the coveted cell phone in Japan.

Softbank's June 4 announcement that it has signed up to sell Apple's (APPL) popular iPhone in Japan might seem like a major coup for the country's third-largest mobile operator. A new and improved iPhone, which Apple is widely expected to unveil at the Worldwide Developers' Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco next week , could help Softbank narrow the gap with the two largest wireless carriers, NTT DoCoMo (DCM) and KDDI. The buzz alone should boost Softbank's brand image with consumers and its standing with software developers and Internet content creators.

　

But the company's one-line statement that it plans to "bring the iPhone to Japan later this year" was revealing in its brevity. One issue that Softbank avoided mentioning was whether the deal with Apple is exclusive. That's unlikely to happen, industry executives say, because Apple has moved away from the type of exclusive deals with operators that it favored when the iPhone debuted last year. Earlier this month, Apple granted both Vodafone Group (VOD) and Telecom Italia (TI.A) the right to sell the iPhone in Italy.

　

Apple also won't want to limit itself to Softbank's 18.8 million subscribers. In recent months, Apple execs have held several meetings with officials from both Softbank and DoCoMo at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., according to industry executives. Apple's best shot at gaining a toehold in one of the most sophisticated mobile markets on the planet is to appeal to as many of Japan's 108 million mobile subscribers as possible. Success would help its chances in other markets. Another incentive: Japan accounts for nearly a quarter of the $105 billion in global cell-phone sales annually, according to Tokyo research firm Eurotechnology Japan.

　

Why greenlight Softbank first? Some telecom execs suspect Apple is trying to gain the upper hand in talks with DoCoMo. "DoCoMo is proud and it might say, 'we don't want the iPhone,'" says one telecom executive who spoke on condition of anonymity. "But it risks losing market share and a product that Softbank could use against DoCoMo." A DoCoMo spokesman would only say that further talks with Apple were possible.

　

DoCoMo might not cave to the pressure. Japan's dominant carrier is used to calling the shots when dealing with handset manufacturers. Apple's demands for 30% of airtime revenues from every iPhone user and permission to activate new subscribers through its iTunes online store could be a deal-breaker. And DoCoMo knows that if it gives in to Apple it will have a dozen or more other tech companies whose handsets connect to its network asking for similar concessions.

　
All the hype won't do much for Apple unless its new iPhone stands out from other feature-packed handsets in Japan. A touch screen, user-friendly software, and Internet connectivity are hardly novel. These days handsets in Japan double as credit cards and commuter passes, sport high-end cameras and bar code readers, boast Internet browsers over high-speed connections, record TV broadcasts, and do e-mail, and many come with customized Web-based services.

　

20700110
13th entry
author : Kenji Hall
title : Apple's Japan iPhone Strategy
date : June 5, 2008

reference : http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jun2008/gb2008065_996799.htm?chan=rss_topStories_ssi_5

POSCO Burnishes ‘Steel’ Image

          POSCO in Pohang, Korea is now becoming the central place for the local community from its old company image as the "steel central" of Korea. Having a showroom, a classical concert, or sometimes a rock concert, POSCO is now able to approach to people with softer image. Since they started the monthly classic concert for local community, average of 2,000 audiences come to this free concert and enjoys the every moment.

          The spokesman of POSCO states that "...``We try to soften up people's perception that the steel industry is stiff business through various initiatives" (BusinessWeek). So when people visit POSCO for such events, they could also take a tour around POSCO, from the museum and a showroom with comtemporary arts on the ground level of the southern Seoul high-rise tower.

          POSCO not only sponsors these classical concerts around their area, but also to have such great sympony concerts at universities nationwide. Because of POSCO's great effort to have a close relationship with the public, the firm states they have established ties with almost 70 percent of Pohang's population.

          I think POSCO is trying to place its brand image among the people in order to diminish the public's perception for the steel group as bold and strict image. First, I thought why POSCO would put so much efforts to have that kind of keen relationship with local community; however, as I have spent more time in Pohang, I realized having such factories around the city could make a bad impression for the whole community. However, since POSCO has created ties between both parties, local communities can now have more smoother perception towards the firm. I think this strategy would allow POSCO to have great advantages for moving forward its business aruond Pohang in the future.

Reference;
Han, Jane. "POSCO Burnishes ‘Steel’ Image" KoreaTimes. 2008/06/05.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2008/06/123_25362.html

20601008 - 13th Entry

Wal-Mart's expansion to the medical area

I read an article about Wal-Mart's expansion to the medical area. Originally, Wal- Mart is popular in glocery area. But now Wal-Mart decided to challenge in medical area. When they started the business, many critics said that they will fail in the business because medical area is something like professional area. But now the drug and health business is about 9% of the all Wal-Mart's revenue. Wal-Mart always considers changes. The management is so amazing and creative. Even if they are a leading company in the world, they always innovate themselves.
Then How they developed the medical area? They catched the baby- boomer generation. A few years later, they will be almost 50 years old. At that age, people always think that they have to manage their health. But the generation is too many and the market couldn't supply enough amount of drugs and health foods. Wal-Mart knew the problem, and they started to supply many medical stuffs at low prices. The price is almost half of the generic drug stores. For the low price supply, they always find many channels. Accordingly, their strategy is low-cost, and it also benefits to the dividends. Now Wal-Mart's stock price is almost $60.
The health market is always confused because of prescriptions. When people want drugs, there are some drugs that cannot buy or sell if the buyer don't have prescription. Wal-Mart solved the problem. They supply good quality drugs that can buy without prescriptions. And the drugs are very effective to human body. They also supply drugs that are so cheap that even low income consumers can buy. In America, the costs of medical insurance are very high. Therefore, many Americans don't have the insurances. Wal-Mart catched the point and supply cheap drugs that can be available without medical insurance. Through these strategies, Wal-Mart could achieve humongous profit.
Then how is their employee management? The management of Wal-Mart provide good service to their employees. Employees can benefit from insurances and also can enjoy the openness of Wal-Mart. Actually, Wal-Mart don't demand employees to work hard everyday. Instead, they try to motivate employees to work creatively. In other words, Wal-Mart's employees are not simple workers. They are co-managers. They can suggest their idea to the management and sometimes their idea can be achieved. I think these cultures are one of the most good point of Wal-Mart.
In Korea, there are few companies like Wal-Mart. In fact, Wal-Mart completely failed in Korea. I think Korean has special character when they buy something. Korean focuses on the quality and brand. Actually, Wal-Mart thought that cheap products can penetrate korean market. But they ignored korea's specialty. They buy satisfaction that can be achieved by good service and sometimes high price. Accordingly, Wal-Mart's case cannot adapt to the Korea. But I think we can learn many important points from Wal-Mart. Their customer management or company cuture is the example. Also, we have to learn Wal-Mart to expand ourselves to the world. Because Wal-Mart rules the world's retailing market except Korea. Now it's the time to challenge. I think Korean retailing companies can be world class companies.

Author: Pallavi Gogoi
Title: Wal-Mart, Your Friendly Drugstore
Date: June 5, 2008, 12:10AM EST
Page: 2

reference: http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jun2008/db2008064_545169.htm
entry # 13 20700067

What recession?

Google do not know the recession. Google continued prosperity to its ability to keep innovating both in search and advertising operations. And also they launch new lines such as online office-productivity software. Many companies usually face the recession and they need a innovations that change the game in their industries. How Google manages the innovation?
First of all, they do not treat the innovation in recession. They think that a hot product will sell just as well in a recession as it will in a nonrecession. It means there is no other special way to overcome the recession. I think this is the key of success of Google. They are always innovating. Innovation is not only an option depending on situation when the company faced on the recession but also a necessary part of managing company.
Especially, Google has a unique culture of innovation. Engineers usually spend their 20% of time on project related to innovation outside their main job. It can be possible to do because nobody legally can not press them. It means the managers can't screw around with the employees beyond some limit. This innovation escape-valve model is applicable to essentially every business that
A problem that they face now is that people in multiple sites, 50 locations because Google always do face-to-face contact when they have a meeting. So they think first programming is "telephone call," which is two people, you and I, programming together. Second choice is everybody fits into a single room. It means other variants are bad. They really emphasize the man to man style meeting.
Google’s whole asset is the people, their ideas. Nowadays, the main power of business is the man. In the financial industries, they really need a man power to keep going or expand their business. I think that ability of employee is not too much important. The most important thing is the system which make employee do their best and keep their best condition such as freedom to talking about own ideas.

20600171 12th entry
http://www.businessweek.com/

Product Advertisements in TV Dramas Go Subtle

In an effort of appealing one's product or services, firms are now using various ways of promoting their brand. One of the most fast growing marketing strategies is product placement. Product placement is having company's product or service on a show, drama, or even on movies so that whoever sees that on any media can be aware of what kind of product they are promoting.

One example that the article states is the resent hit drama from SBS called "One Air," where the main character frequently used a coffee maker from DeLonghi to brew the espresso. After few exposure of the product, the sales of the coffe maker from DeLonghi jumped about for 20 percent. It surely show how effective it is to have such a marketing strategy in order to promote their products in a short period of time.

Experts elaborates the benefit of using product placement stating that since viewers tend to related themselves into main characters in the drama or movie, companies can easily attract their product or services to customer's' daily lives. Instead of using great amount of advertisement budget on a single TV commercial, it's much economic for the company to simply sponsor hit dramas or movies. One of the good successful example would be Coca-Cola supporting American Idol which is the greatest hit reality show in America.

However, it could be vulnerable to the success or failure of the drama. For example, according to the article, "SAAB convertibles were painted as cars for the air-headed rich, after a male star carelessly drove around in one in the 2000 drama ``Juliet's Man.'" (KoreaTimes).

I personally don't like having certain company's products on the shows, drama, or movies because they often distract me from fully enjoying them. I can assume that it's a "Win-Win" situation for both production and the firm to have such strategy since the production can get sponsers easily and the company can get a great output from it. However, I belive overusing such promotion can be also risky for the production because of viewers getting annoyed by too much ads on the show, and the company having a risk for depending a lot of the success of the show. I hope both parties would find the right equilibrium for using product placement strategy.

Reference;
Han, Jane. "Product Advertisements in TV Dramas Go Subtle" KoreaTimes. May 29, 2008.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2008/05/123_24958.html

20601008 - 12th Entry

Joining big houses to advise on high-profile deals

Boutique Banks Find a Niche in Tech

A new breed of boutique investment bank is making its mark on the merger-crazed tech industry. Unlike the niche securities firms that a decade ago focused on research, stock sales, and initial public offerings in addition to mergers and acquisitions, this crop focuses more narrowly on matchmaking but is no less adept at getting in on some of tech's most lucrative deals.

　　
Consider the Yahoo-Microsoft mating dance. In February, Yahoo (YHOO) hired Moelis & Co., the Los Angeles firm started last year by former UBS (UBS) investment banking head Ken Moelis, among other banks, for advice on resisting Microsoft's (MSFT) unfriendly offer, then worth $45 billion. Meanwhile, Google (GOOG) hired Frank Quattrone's new Qatalyst Group for advice on how to respond to Microsoft's bid (BusinessWeek, 3/27/08), according to published reports, supplementing services from Credit Suisse (CS).

　　
Boutiques Offer More Flexibility
More and more, small banks that specialize in mergers and acquisitions and landing investments for privately held clients are joining high-profile houses such as Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), Citigroup (C), and Merrill Lynch (MER) in helping to stitch together deals.
Boutiques that employ at most a few dozen bankers are using a combination of long-standing industry relationships, small teams that assign senior staff to deals, and the flexibility to dart in and out of smaller buyouts to win business. They're gaining prominence as some of the top banks have cut or reassigned tech bankers amid a credit crisis and lull in IPOs.

　　
GCA Savvian Group advised on 45 M&A deals worth $23.6 billion in 2007, pushing it to 59th place based on deal count, from 71st in 2006, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters (TRI). "Our pitch is all around being a trusted adviser," says Rich Jasen, a Savvian managing director. "This is not something where a managing director shows up for the pitch, and the next time you see him is at the closing dinner."
　　

Filling an Important Niche
Boutiques' influence is being felt around the computer industry. Electronic Data Systems (EDS) hired Evercore Partners (EVR) to help structure its $13.9 billion sale to Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), announced May 13. Evercore has been among the top 25 banks based on M&A transaction value the past four years, after ranking 104th in 2003. Other recent deals include advising IronPort Systems on its $830 million sale to Cisco Systems (CSCO) in January, 2007.

　　
Investors and entrepreneurs say the boutiques fill an important niche in personalized investment banking that's been absent from Silicon Valley since four powerful boutique banks of the '90s—Alex. Brown, Hambrecht & Quist; Robertson Stephens; and Montgomery Securities—either closed or were subsumed by larger firms in the wake of the dot-com crash. The new crop of boutiques is a welcome presence at a time when the IPO drought has made it tough for venture capitalists to get the attention of senior bankers at the so-called bulge-bracket firms—even for a sale. "We can't get our companies out, and one reason is, we can't get the attention of the investment bankers," says Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Assn.

　　
Unlike those '90s firms, the new boutiques tend to focus on M&A advice and fund-raising, eschewing IPO underwriting, sales of securities, and extensive research. "We're not trying to be everything to everybody," says Brian Roberts, a senior managing director at Evercore. "We would much rather have a dialogue with the CEO about what keeps him up at night."
Union Square Advisors, founded last September by a group of former Quattrone colleagues, has quietly won several M&A and fund-raising projects, and is in talks with large tech companies about future work, say people familiar with the firm's plans. The Yahoo assignment helped catapult Moelis to 12th most active, based on deal value in the first quarter.

　　

20700110

12th entry

author : Aaron Ricadela

title : Boutique Banks Find a Niche in Tech

date : May 23, 2008,

reference : http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2008/tc20080522_989912.htm?chan=technology_technology+index+page_tech+investing

Nike-golf

"In 1996 a group of Nike marketing executives gathered in a fourth-floor conference room on the company's Beaverton, Ore., campus and looked into the future. On the whiteboard were the names of five possibilities for the company's next big sponsorship push. Two of them, the NFL and the NBA, were in sports where Nike was well established, but the other three represented worlds where Nike was all but unknown: the Brazilian soccer team, the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team and a teenage golfing phenom named Tiger Woods. Wall Street was waiting to see what Nike would do to follow up Michael Jordan and the enormously successful Air Jordan line of footwear.

When the company announced that it had signed a multiyear, multimillion-dollar deal with Woods, the reaction was swift--Nike stock fell 5%. Says Bob Wood, one of the officials in that room: "They thought we had overpaid for him." When Tiger Woods came on board with Nike Golf in 1996, the company was a $120M business, based primarily and apparel and footwear sales. Fast forward to today, 11 years after Nike Golf signed Tiger Woods. Nike Golf is a thriving $600M business now built around clubs and golf balls in addition to just apparel and footwear.While Tiger Woods is one of the main reasons for Nike Golf's enormous success, he's not the only reason the company is thriving.

Club guru Tom Stites and golfball guru Rock Ishi have come up with innovative products ranging from the SUMO square driver (KJ Choi has ridden the driver to multiple tour wins this season) to the Nike ONE golf ball. Nike Golf has invested substantial money in their 31,000 square foot plus Research and Development facility outside of Dallas.And while Nike Golf might not have the large stable of athletes that Titleist and Callaway possess, they certainly have quality endorsers led by Tiger Woods. Justin Leonard, KJ Choi, Trevor Immelman, Stewart Cink, Rory Sabbatani and of course Michelle Wie. Nike Golf's endorsers, by the way, sport nothing by the Nike swoosh on their apparel, footwear and headwear.......a pre-requisite for any athlete who signs with Nike Golf.Nike Golf Global Sports Marketing Director Kel Devlin will join me on this weekend's edition of Sports Business Radio to discuss the growing success of Nike Golf.

Devlin is attending this week's PGA Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma.I'll also be joined on this weekend's show by Lamell McMorris, the spokesperson for the World Umpires Association. The Major League Baseball umpires union said Monday that it is refusing to cooperate with a request for background checks from commissioner Bud Selig's office, calling the initiative a "knee-jerk, misguided witch hunt" in response to the NBA betting scandal involving referee Tim Donaghy.The umpires are willing to consider submitting to background checks, but only if MLB comes to the bargaining table and negotiates the provisions in "good faith," Lamell McMorris, was quoted as saying earlier this week.I'd like to get McMorris on the show this weekend to find out what the World Umpires Association is looking for from MLB in order to cooperate with these background checks. For the record, I happen to agree with Mr. McMorris that this initiative by Selig's office is a "knee-jerk" reaction to the Tim Donaghy gambling scandal in the NBA. Why hasn't Selig subjected his umpires to background checks before this?

And how should an umpire like Ed Montague, with 31 years of experience feel when someone tells him that after three decades of loyal service, they now need to cavity search him to make sure he hasn't decided to go "rogue" like Donaghy.Think about it. How would you feel if you were sitting at your desk today and your boss came up to you and said you needed to pee in a cup, take a lie detector test and hand over your personal information so he or she could conduct a thorough background check on you because Tom over in accounting was found cooking the books last week?I understand the cause for heightened security by MLB, the NBA and other sports leagues. The integrity of their games is of the utmost importance. But these leagues had better not go about conducting these background checks in a heavy handed manner or I really think it will come back and bite them in the end.

title: "Nike sprit ahead"

date: june 27, 2007

page: 1

references: http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/jun2007/pi20070627_863339.htm?chan=search

20300780 entry 12

Weekend web-New territory of network

I read an article about 'weekend web'. Weekend web is a type of web service that provide in weekend. You know, people use web service variously in weekend. Most people want to enjoy in weekend and leisure and entertainment information is often used in online. Now, many huge web sites are trying to offer customers more valuable service for their weeks. For example, the yahoo and google provide service for map searching and travel sites. But many people isn't use PC for internet in weekend. Because, when they need the online service, they simply click their mobile phones. But this service isn't affordably available yet. In Korea, the most developed internet country, many people use mobile internet. But the service costs are very high and people often hesitate to use the service. In US, many people use mobile internet, but there are not many service and also costs are high. Many US customers want to get information easily in weekend and if the service is available at affordable price, the mobile internet market will grow humongously.

As I wrote on upper side, people use different set of web sites between week and weekend. In week, people mostly use their PC to access the Internet, but in weekend people use mobile phone to access the Internet. In other words, the development of weekend web can be inplemented only if the mobile Internet is developed. Accordingly, many Internet companies are now trying to cooperate with mobile device companies. For example, iphone, Apple's star product, is the most popular mobile device in US, and web companies like Google or Yahoo suggented them to use their mobile version website. Apple also could be better off if they contain many internet service and they accepted the deal. Now, Americans use more mobile Internet in weekend. Through these developments, US Internet companies could find a breakthrough from the very competitive web service market.

I think korean web site Daum and Naver, doing very well in their small market. Their market share in korea is very high and even Google and Yahoo could't win them. But the Google and Yahoo rule the world Internet trend and our companies are just local marketers. Korea's mobile Internet technology is world No.1. But the regional limitation prohibit them to make services like weekend web. Korea have small territory, and people don't use mobile Internet in the weekend. On the contrary, people use more mobile Internet in week. And the most users are 10s. I think it's a creative web service. Because in korea, many entertainment companies are joining the mobile Internet and provide their service. It also the reason of developing game industry. Although there are many web service in US, we also have our definite territory and can be better off by developing new technology. But we have to cultivate our new territory in the worldwide market. For this innovation, our web sites need to equip more international service and capacity for images and information.

Author: Olga Kharif

Title: Welcome to the Weekend Web

Date: May 29, 2008, 12:01AM EST

Page: 2

reference: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2008/tc20080528_406846.htm

entry # 12 20700067

Unlimited Tunes from Apple?

I use ipod and i-tunes. Unfortunately I cannot use a itune store in Korea, but I always wait for launching it in Korea. I heard that Ipod users feel more comfortable to use itune stores than other site for purchasing music. I think that if the ipod ensure the supply of all music, it can make a huge market of music record and also can expand its own product sales.
Apple already have enough money from charging for ipod and iphone devices to cover the cost of licensing entire music collections. Therefore, they can create a market selling the music with subscription system. Trouble is nobodies are talking about it. Insiders at major music labels were arrogant. The idea of subscription plan has been "kicked around" for about a year.
That doesn't mean the music industry wouldn't welcome Musician can get a chance to distribute songs and albums through a subscription plan. For Apple, subscriptions will provide a reliable revenue stream. And also consumers would really welcome this chance to purchase the music at more practical price. If this system start consumers can pay $7 to $10 a month for all the music,
Itune has become the second largest music retailer in the U.S. behind Wal-Mart Stores. It means over 50 million customers and has sold some 4 billion songs since its inception in 2003.
More important point for Apple, the online music store is can make sales more profitable. Apple has sold nearly 142 million iPods, plus 4 million iPhones. Total them all up and you find that the average iPod or iPhone owner buys. However, the actual sales of music are fewer than 30 songs for each unit because so far people usually tend to fill the iPod with music from an existing CD collection or other means. It means there are enough market to expand.
However, there are other sights to see this subscription market because there will be keen competition. New competition, MySpace, have their own music-store plans in the works. MySpace would let users stream music for free, and pay to download MP3 music files à la carte, similar to a service introduced by Amazon.com late last year. A strong competitive threat from MySpace, Apple have to be different marketing and system which satisfy their customers needs.
Music record market faces the crisis. In contrast, new music market definitely will get a great success. Who are going to finally occupy its market is very interest thing for me. I think that there must have a huge change in distribution of revenue.

http://www.bussinessweek.com/
March 20, 2008 by by Arik Hesseldahl

20600171 11th entry

European companies in BW's IT 100 know the future is in emerging markets

When Deutsche Telekom (DT) agreed on May 14 to pay $5 billion for a 25% stake in Greece's OTE Hellenic Telecommunications (OTE), the German company wasn't just interested in a piece of the Athens mobile market. The real attraction was OTE's assets in fast-growing Eastern European countries including Romania, Bulgaria, and Serbia. OTE's holdings in southeastern Europe make OTE "an important partner," Deutsche Telekom Chief Executive Officer René Obermann said in a statement. 　

　
The deal was yet more evidence that emerging markets are where the action is in telecommunications these days. If you want hard data, look no further than the 2008 edition of BusinessWeek's IT 100, the annual ranking of the globe's most dynamic tech companies prepared in conjunction with Standard & Poor's (MHP). Telecommunications companies active in emerging markets—or companies that provide them with equipment or services—account for almost all of the 19 companies from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa that made the IT 100. Examples include South Africa's MTN (MTNJ.DE), which pioneered cell-phone service in Africa, and Egypt's Orascom Telecom Holding (ORTE.CA), which did the same in the Middle East.
Nokia, the Finnish handset maker that is No. 7 overall on the list—the best showing by a European company—arguably created the conditions that have allowed the others to thrive. Early in the decade, Nokia (NOK) began designing handsets specifically for emerging markets. They were affordable and rugged, and able to go many days between charges. That's an important feature in regions where car batteries are often the main source of recharging power.
Lots of Room to Expand

　　
Those handsets in turn helped make it profitable for mobile network operators such as Luxembourg's Millicom International (MICC), ranked No. 32 on the list, to push into markets like the Democratic Republic of Congo or Sri Lanka that are better known for guerilla warfare than text messaging. Business in those risky markets is surprisingly profitable: On Apr. 22, Millicom reported a 78% increase in first-quarter profits to $158 million on sales of $801 million.
What makes these markets particularly attractive is that there is plenty of growth left. Large swaths of rural territory, along with billions of people, still remain out of reach of mobile networks. And the Internet has only just begun to penetrate the developing world. Since PCs remain unaffordable for many people, or simply impractical because of a lack of electric power, mobile handsets will provide the likely entry to the Web for most of Africa and rural Asia. "Like a lot of people who made their first call on a mobile, they will have their first experience with the Internet on a mobile," says Carolina Milanesi, research director, mobile devices, at market-watcher Gartner (IT).

　　
Nokia is already bringing some basic Internet features to its handsets for emerging markets, including the ability to fetch Web-based e-mail. "Think about the next billion customers," says Kai Öistämö, Nokia executive vice-president in charge of devices. "This is how they will first know what the Net is all about. That is a fascinating thought, and a huge opportunity."

　

Author: Jack Ewing

Title: Telecom's Last Great Growth Markets
Date: May 22, 2008, 5:00PM EST

Page: 1
references: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_22/b4086056645511.htm?chan=technology_technology+index+page_top+stories
entry # 11 20700110

GE's dillema in kitchen industry area

I read an article about GE(General Electric)'s turning point in its business. GE is a famous kitchen appliance company. Even though they do enormous businesses, the kitchen market is also a key part of GE. But as the market's competitors grow very fast and GE's position can be threatened. Also, GE is now allocating its budget to various industry area, so if the business is not successful at all, GE can remove it from their portfolio. Actually the scale of kitchen area is only $7 billion, and the total revenue is $173 billion. It's very small business to GE. And they now focus on the market outside of USA. The kitchen market is completely USA market, so GE now consider to give up the kitchen industry.

There are many companies that gave up their core industry and changed their portfolio. For example, Intel is now just an service company. A few years ago, Intel gave up their product line and decided to focus on the service area. Now, if you see Intel brand computers, actually, it's not a computer intel produced. Intel decided their core industry, but now they do very well in service area. If they remained the manufacturing industry, maybe they failed in the competition and also could be bankruptcy. I think GE is now facing the turning point. I think they have to get out of kitchen industry and invest in the promising industries. Author say that 'the company's future growth will largely be fueled by its health-care and energy businesses, much of it from outside the USA'. Accordingly, it's the matter of timing not the option problem. GE has to depart the old core industry and invest in the new industries. I think the resource area can be a promising industry. Though the probabillity is low, at some time, natural resources will be exhausted. If a company can be a entrepreneur in that area, it can fail in the industry. In the business life cycle, GE is now facing the maturity time. If they could't rebound, they will be a loser in the industry and fade away from market.

Korean companies also reach the maturity gradually. For example, the semiconductor is now facing a recession. At first, Samsung was a monopoly company in semiconductor market, but now many Taiwan and Japanese companies developed semiconductor technology. Accordingly, the market is now a price competition market. The demand for D-ram is also decreased. I think Samsung has to change their view to semiconductors. If the technology cannot improve anymore, the market is not a precious one. We have to find the Blue Ocean industry. Korea has many world number one products. But the premium is not eternal. At some time, we can face some competitors, and can lose from the competitions. In other words, we have to innovate ourselves and try to develop new technology. You know the iRiver, past MP3 dominator, is now facing a bankruptcy. The cause of the failure is laziness in innovation. Monopoly is a sweet one, but it can steal companies' life at the end.

Author: Matt Vella

Title: Why GE Is Getting Out of the Kitchen

Date: May 16, 2008, 12:01AM EST

Page: 1

references: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/may2008/id20080515_212057.htm?chan=innovation_innovation+++design_top+stories

http://cafe342.daum.net/_c21_/bbs_search_read?grpid=18xYo&fldid=DIKj&contentval=0001Ezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz&nenc=VQLH-6.4PtI-mDSxpdiF4A00&dataid=76&fenc=gTqfTm_BfZw0&docid=18xYoDIKj7620070618071951&q=%B9%DD%B5%B5%C3%BC%20%BA%D2%C8%B2&srchid=CCB18xYoDIKj7620070618071951

entry # 11 20700067

Hongkong Disneyland

The fifth Disneyland style park, the park is located on reclaimed land in Penny's Bay, Lantau Island. After years of negotiations and construction, the park opened to visitors on September 12, 2005, considered an auspicious date according to Chinese almanacs for the opening of a new business. Disney attempted to avoid problems of cultural backlash by attempting to incorporate Chinese culture, customs, and traditions when designing and building the resort, including adherence to the rules of Feng Shui.

The park consists of four themed lands similar to other Disneyland parks: Main Street, U.S.A., Fantasyland, Adventureland and Tomorrowland. There is as yet no Frontierland, although it may be included in future expansion projects. The theme park's cast members use English and Chinese, including Cantonese and Mandarin dialects, to communicate verbally. Guide Maps are printed in both Traditional and Simplified characters, Japanese, and in English.

The capacity of the park is 34,000 visitors per day, and is the smallest Disneyland park. It has so far fallen short of meeting its targeted visitorship figures. The park attracted 5.2 million visitors in its first year, below its target of 5.6 million. Visitor numbers fell 20% in the second year to 4 million, which was below company targets, inciting criticisms from local legislators.

The resort currently has 310 acres (1.3 km²), with the actual park taking approximately 100 acres (0.4 km²). With its small size cited often to explain its under-performance, the park has announced various plans for expansion. The classic Disney attraction, "it's a small world", opened on 28 April 2008. Furthermore, according to Bill Ernest, the executive vice president and managing director of Hong Kong Disneyland, the park is planning to add two unique theme lands in its future expansion. Over a 15 year expansion period, the park capacity will increase to handle up to 10 million visitors annually

Author: Doris Ho
Title: "Hongkong Disneyland
Date:FEBRUARY 15, 2006
page:1
Refrences: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/feb2006/id20060215_677377.htm?chan=search

20300780 Entry 11

American Idol's Ads - TOO MUCH

          Has been one of the most watched show, American Idol from Fox Entertainment is facing some criticisms over its overdose use of ads in its show case. In the recent episode, Ryan Seacrest, who is the host of the show, constantly flashed Apple iPhone for nearly a minute elaborating what it can do and how nice it is to use when viewers vote for their favorite contenders. Also, in front of the judges, there are always red cups written in Coca-Cola.

          The show has been running for seven years introducing many talented amateur singers to the world and been recognized one of the most successful reality shows in America. However, now a day it seems like it's more like a marketing showcase rather than musical competition. All the major corporations sponsoring the show, including Ford, Apple, Coca-Cola, AT&T and more, are putting their best efforts to appeal their logo on the show; however, it seems like it's getting out of control.

          Compared to the previous seasons, now American Idol is starting to show its decline in rating, according to the article, "...the ratings before the May 21 finale were off about 10% from last year" and a question has been raised, "Will product placement kill the video star?" (businessweek).

          Another problem that the show is facing is that it's targeted segment is aging faster than any other shows. What first started as teen's must-see kind of show, the current median viewer age are 43. Even though the show is still highly attractive for many companies to put their ads on, if it gets too much, young viewers are the first ones to notice.

          When I saw the show few years ago, I also notice that they are putting too much ads on the show, and now it's saying that it got worse. American Idol is such an exciting show, and people love to see unnoticed amateurs to become America's top singers. However, putting too much ads would distract the viewers to concentrate what the show is really trying to appeal and fade away the important characteristic it has: interaction with viewers. Even if the companies still think it's beneficial by putting their ads on the show, they should realize one day, people would say "I had enough of this."


Reference;
Grover, Ronald. "American Idol's Ads Infinitum" BusinessWeek. May 22, 2008.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_22/b4086038607130.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_news+%2B+analysis

20601008 - 11th Entry

"people's car"

The tale of the creation and design of the world's cheapest car is one of innovation and ingenuity, both inside and outside Ratan Tata's organization

That picture is The "Luxury" version of the car features fog lamps, power windows and A/C. (Tata Motors)

　

Tata Motors Chief Executive Ravi Kant says "Every day we invite people to come and examine the car and ask: 'How can we make more savings?'" That quest to build the world's cheapest car hasn't ended.

　

particularly as the price of raw materials like steel have more than doubled in the past four years, and the company has to follow new

　

　

Still, the story of the Nano is not confined to its impact on the auto industry. It's a tale that illuminates the India of today—an eager, ambitious nation with a combination of engineering talent, a desire for low costs and value, and the hunger of young managers looking to break from a hidebound corporate environment. Indeed, the team that worked on the Nano—on average aged between 25 and 30—has helped to flatten Tata Motors' stodgy, multilayered management structure, which has resulted in an unexpected side-benefit Wagh calls "organizational innovation". Ravi Kant says. "We are hungry for growth—and innovation is a by-product of that."

　

Author: Kripalani

Title: Inside the Tata Nano Factory
Date: May 9, 2008
page: 1-2
Refrences: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/may2008/id2008059_312111.htm

20700110 Entry 10

          Since its hot debut in the digital camcorder industry in May of 2007, Flip has been embraced by many people for its affordable price and outstanding quality. While others go as much "technology" as possible with their newly introduced models, Flip keeps it simple but high quality.

          Flip has gained its popularity among celebrities as well; especially Oprah Winfrey and Rosie O'Donnell. Unlike those major electronic producers such as Sony or Samsung, Flip has only 80 employees who have introduced a camcorder that costs around $120 to the average of $314. According to one research, Flip sold about 6 million camcorders in the U.S. market only in 2007.

          What has been the major customer demand driven factor? Flip simply transformed their customers into amateur film makers with its easy-to-use functions of the camcorder. It's the size of a bar of soap and does not require any cables to transfer the video file from the camcorder to computer; users simply connect the device to the computer with built-in USB connector. According to the CEO of Flip, their target was to "...strip away all control buttons and features from a typical camcorder and add back only the essentials" (BusinessWeek).

          Their new model which is slightly smaller in size is sold in 20,000 stores, including Wal-Mart, Costco, and Best Buy. The prices are comparably cheaper - as usual - and come with different colors: stark white, black, orange, and pink.

          It probably had been a tough journey for the firm to compete in one of the most competitive markets. The major brands such as Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, and more are already sharing the limited market, Flip has targeted the small segment where people don't want to spend much but like to own a camcorder that is affordable and well equipped for the price.

          Concentrating on such segment became the competitive advantage for Flip and therefore is able to meet the demand for the segment. This article opened my eyes that one does not always have to follow the trends, and those who know how to differentiate their products in the saturated market are more likely to be successful with their business.

Jana, Reena. "Pure Digital Flips the Script" BusinessWeek. April 17, 2008.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_17/b4081076893508.htm?chan=search

20601008 - 10th Entry

Mid-range hotel in China market.

Chinese business market is bigger and bigger nowaday. As China expand the market more and more, so many business people have to visit China oftenly. It means the demand of the business hotel will also be increase. The Chinese hotel boom continues. Hotel Jen as the newcomer is unlike any other brands that already have sprouted in China's fast-growing hospitality market. Hotel Jen has a ultramodern design; light, airy rooms are equipped with high-speed such as wall-mounted flat-panel TVs pulse with rapid-fire images. A rooftop pool overlooks the city's harbor.

Hotel Jen is an experiment and this is the first successful in a line of mid-range hotels based on a population of Chinese business travelers. Hotel Jen is born into a rapidly changing environment.

Hotel Jen's aim is the place which is affordable but attractive. Busnessman usually just stay for 3 or 7days and the expensive hotels are not attractive to the busnessman who often visit China. They do not feel any more valuable to stay in high quality hotel. Instead of that kinds of hotel for tourists, bussiness man find some practical and comfortable to work place.

I think that mid-range hotel demand will be more and more high and it might be a big market. And also Korea need a mid-range hotel for foregin bussinessman.

Businessweek.
May 2, 2008, 3:08PM EST
Written by Matt Vella
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/may2008/id2008052_319492.htm

20600171 - 10th entry

Microsoft's strategy to improve their influence

I read an article about OLPC( One Laptop per Child). OLPC is a nonprofit organization that try to provide low cost's laptop pc to the poor countries' children. And they allied with Intel and Microsoft. Originally, the lap top PC used Linux OS, but there were many complains and they allied with MS to use Window XP as an OS. Even though the organization has nonprofit objectives, maybe the two big companies have some intentions. Microsoft can expand their influences to the third world's children. Through these marketing, they can occupy sustainable advantage in OS market.

I think there are many companies to expand their presence to the world. Microsoft performs this task through free service. When a company's scale is worldwide grade, the management must improve their brand power rather than profits. Of course, profit is very important factor to companies, but I think brand power is more important. With brand power, companies can have advantage in competence with other companies. Microsoft may want to include the image of public sevice in their brand. Actually, Microsoft do many charity businesses and it contributes to the image of Microsoft. You know there is a survey about brand power. In the survey, Microsoft got 2nd rank follwing Coca-cola. The value of Microsoft calculated about $58 billion. It's a great value and maybe the implicit value more bigger than the index.

The value-based marketing is very critical in our period. You know Nike's shoes produced in south-east asia. But many people pay high price to buy Nike's shoes. It's the power of brand. People feel if we wear Nike's shoes, we can jump and run as the sports stars. In Korea, there are many franchise branches. If you get a Mcdonald's branch, you have to pay about 1 million dollars and have to pay royalty that is 20% of all sales. But many people want to buy the rights and pay huge money willingly. Actually, if you open franchise like that, you will not lose your money. In other words, the brand insure your success.

In korea, there are only small size franchises. In fact, worldwide franchises don't exist in Korea. I think that if we try to make our brand globally and invest in the advertisement constantly, we also can have our own worldwide franchises. It's time to invest in the intangible values.

Author: Steve Hamm

Title: Microsoft Joins One Laptop per Child

Date: May 15, 2008, 8:57PM EST

Page: 1

reference: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2008/tc20080515_605667.htm?chan=technology_technology+index+page_top+stories

entry # 10 20700067

"RFID: On Track for a Rapid Rise"

RFID is in use all around us. If you have ever chipped your pet with an ID tag, used EZ-Pass through a toll booth, or paid for gas using Speed-Pass, you've used RFID. In addition, RFID is increasingly used with biometric technologies for security.Unlike ubiquitous UPC bar-code technology, RFID technology does not require contact or line of sight for communication. RFID data can be read through the human body, clothing and non-metallic materials.

A basic RFID system consists of three components:
1. An antenna or coil
2. A transceiver (with decoder)
3. A transponder (RF tag) electronically programmed with unique information

The antenna emits radio signals to activate the tag and to read and write data to it. Antennas are the conduits between the tag and the transceiver, which controls the system's data acquisition and communication. Antennas are available in a variety of shapes and sizes; they can be built into a door frame to receive tag data from persons or things passing through the door, or mounted on an interstate toll booth to monitor traffic passing by on a freeway. The electromagnetic field produced by an antenna can be constantly present when multiple tags are expected continually. If constant interrogation is not required, the field can be activated by a sensor device.

Often the antenna is packaged with the transceiver and decoder to become a reader which can be configured either as a handheld or a fixed-mount device. The reader emits radio waves in ranges of anywhere from one inch to 100 feet or more, depending upon its power output and the radio frequency used. When an RFID tag passes through the electromagnetic zone, it detects the reader's activation signal. The reader decodes the data encoded in the tag's integrated circuit (silicon chip) and the data is passed to the host computer for processing.

Author: Olga Kharif

Title: "RFID: On Track for a Rapid Rise"

Date: Feburary 4, 2004

page: 1-2

Refrences: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2004/tc2004024_8389_tc165.htm?chan=search

20300780 Entry 10

MySpace to YourSpace

          Broadly loved social-network web site MySpace is moving forward. Online users for MySpace soon will be abled to move their profiles to other web portals such as portal site "Yahoo.com," blogging service "Twitter," or even "eBay." The major reason why MySpace is having a such service integration among many other major web service providers is to simply meet the market trend of eliminating invisible walls between different web sites.

          Unlike in the past, now many online service providers are letting users to move back and forth with their own information or profiles freely in order to allow a convinience to each customer on the internet and have a full advantage bring different services together. By doing so, instead of taking away each other's customers, this kind of integration actually has accelerated the web traffic on each web site meaning that more users are visiting or using their services.

          The growth rate of personal social-network service has been declining since many firms now offer similar services. In order to compete and differentiate their service, MySpace is having a service integration to move into the new markets.

          However, there is also a problem to be solved. Since users of social network services do not actively engage with the ads or so calld "banner-clicking," directing their attention to such service integration would be tough. When users are so concentrated just interacting with their friends through the service, they are not likely to be involved in clicking or paying attention to the ads.

          I think having a such integration is an innovative idea for MySpace to overcome its current situation. I had read some articles about MySpace that they are not doing so well lately. They even have opened up Korean version MySpace few weeks ago which most Koreans do not even aware of. Having a similar service among many other providers would be a major disadvantage for the firms to overcome. However, by emerging the service with other major web-based corporation such as Yahoo or eBay would definately help MySpace to reachieve its reputation in the personal social network industry.

Reference;
Holahan, Catherine. "MySpace: Going Places" BusinessWeek. May 9, 2008.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2008/tc2008058_088592.htm?chan=rss_topStories_ssi_5

20601008 - 9th Entry

Nokia's innovative strategy

I read an article about Nokia's development strategy. When you entered Nokia's website, you can download some sports tracking programs. Of course, these softwares are completely free. Then why Nokia do things like that? Nokia knows that inventions usually came from customers' feedbacks. And they just applied the truth into their website. Through these open strategy, they can achieve more better products. Customers are very helpful assistants and they sometimes think great business ideas.
Professionals call the strategy as user-generated strategy. If you have to invent products, you will need some comments and also make some market surveys. Like this, Nokia is doing some market surveys through free distribution of their softwares. And also, the softwares will improve by customers' feedbacks. Accordingly, we can call these processes as user-generated strategy.
Then how can we achieve this strategy? The author say that it needs to tarket specific customers. Generally, the main tarket of marketing is urban populations. You know, the urban populations are almost 50 percents of world populations. And they have more wealth than any regions of the world. They even buy something for their beauty and convenience. Because of these facts, we need to focus on the urban populations. Nokia make good website for urban people, and they can achieve valuable feedbacks through well-tarketed strategies.
Among these urban populations, Nokia mostly tarketed for tech buyers. Tech buyers are people who need high technologies and want to achieve tasks through these technologies. Since they like these tech, they even buy expensive products. Nokia noticed these features and they tarketed their products for tech buyers. In fact, they did so well in the process of tarketing, and they can achieve great reputation through these processes. Now, Nokia is world's top moblie device company.
I think korean companies are so poor in the process like that. Because korean companies have some prouds of their technologies and ignore customers' feedbacks. They just excused themselves and couldn't make sustainable advantages in their market. If they developed customer-based website and tried to gather feedbacks from customers, they can be worldwide companies. But now, they are not world-class companies. I think the capitals or high achievements cannot tell the class of that company. Rather, the respects to customers and corporate cultures can make a company real meaning world class companies.

Author: Jack Ewing
Title: 'How Nokia Users Drive Innovation'
Date: April 30, 2008, 1:15PM EST
Page: 2

references: http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/apr2008/gb20080430_764271.htm
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