MGT 406 Blog

Google cuts corners with copyright

2006-04-30T12:44:00.000-07:00

Google is a company that has been gaining a lot of the media’s attention lately. One of the things that was all over the media was Google’s agreement to some of China’s constrictions in return for them (Google) to launch a search engine in China. Another thing that caught the media’s attention lately is how Google is trying to expand. They want to scan a lot of written work and put it up on their search engine making it available to the public.

Google is facing a lot of barriers with regard to its business expansion plan. A lot of non-market issues have come up. The main issue is copyright infringement. Making these works available to the public through the search engine for no cost would facilitate plagiarism, which would produce a lot of losses for those who own the copyrights. Another aspect to this problem is that the people that actually wrote the material Google wants to scan have the right to recognition for their work. This right would be taken away from them by people who do not respect copyrights and use it for plagiarism purposes.

The interests in this issue exist among groups that are against copyright infringement. It is also of interest to the publishing houses that own the rights of the material Google wants to publish and the writers of the materials themselves. These interests exist because it would affect their business and the idea that material like this has taken a lot of someone’s time and effort to be easily given away to the public without ensuring that certain measures would be taken against those who violate copyright laws.

The institutions that are involved in this issue are the Association of American Publishers and the courts that would be involved in possible lawsuits due to the copyright infringement. These institutions would probably issue new laws and regulations with regard to this issue.
The information that is currently available to the interested parties and the people is what is raising the concerns even further. Without having full material published, people already use other people’s work without giving them any credit.

We have come to a time where everything is becoming digitalized. This has its advantages, one of which is bringing together people that are in different continents to share thoughts and ideas. It also has its disadvantages which include copyright infringement. If Google can ensure that copyrights would not be violated, then I believe there is no reason why Google’s plan should not continue. The thing is can Google really control this???

Microsoft takes Google to court over ex-employee

2006-04-30T12:41:00.000-07:00

Google is a company that has been growing significantly over the years. This growth has attracted a lot of the media’s attention for various reasons. One of which is the ways Google are pursuing towards their goal of expansion. Their ways have also brought rise to various issues. Some of these issues are the issue of copyright infringement that came up because Google wants to scan a lot of written work and provide them online for their users and the issue of them accepting China’s terms so that they can operate in China.

Another thing that I found significant is the way Google is trying to make use of all the resources it can find to fulfill its expansion goals. The latest thing Google did is that they hired Microsoft’s ex senior executive Kai-Fu Lee in China. I believe they did this because they saw that he would represent a very good human resource for the company because of the knowledge he has in the Chinese market. This resource would give Google a great advantage because they are entering a market that is considered to be tough because of a lot of reasons, one of which is politics. Hiring someone that is familiar with the country’s regulations and the market itself would make Google’s job a lot easier. Google wants to ensure that they will succeed in this new market because they see great financial potential in it.

This move, however, has been very controversial because Lee used to work for Microsoft, which is one of Google’s main competitors. Microsoft sued Lee because they believe that he has confidential information that if used would negatively affect them. I personally think that this is very true because no matter how hard this person tries he will unconsciously disclose information to Google that should not be disclosed.

Although Google seems to be only trying to expand, but the ways they are using are very controversial. It might seem like Google is not only hiring Lee because he is familiar with the Chinese market, but the fact the he used to work for Microsoft is a definite plus.

This resource seemed very valuable at the time Google decided to hire Lee, but is it as valuable now? This would cost them a lot of money and time because now they have to look for someone else. A company like Google, though, would definitely have a back up plan. I do not think that a company like Google would hire such a person without thinking of the consequences that might arise because of the high competition in the market.

Etisalat translates between languages:

2006-04-30T07:10:00.000-07:00

Emirates Telecommunications Corporation, (Etisalat) came into being on the 30th of August 1976. Etisalat is the sole telecoomunications carrier and internet service provider in the United Arab Emirates and its one of the leading service provider in the Middle East region. Etisalat provides all type of telecom services in addition to cable TV service. Its mission is to satisfy customer requirements in telecommunication services and technology in a friendly and efficient manner.
In an application to its business mission, Etisalat have always been the first in the region to introduce the new technologies and innovations that make their customers more happy and satisfied. And one of the new technologies that Etisalat have recently intorduced is a new service called “Tahaddath”.

Tahaddath is a service that can help people from different backgrounds and speak different languages to interact with each other. As this service can be used by the customers in a way where they can send an SMS to 1002 with the word or sentence that they want to translated and they will receive a message with the translation and pronounciation guide. This service can translates between english and arabic.
Ofcoasre to some of you who are familiar with the services that Etisalat always provide to its customers , you will notice that this service Tahaddath is almost the same as Tarjim, a service that Etisalat have introduced years ago that translates words between arabic and english. But I would like to inform you that these two services differentiate in that Tahaddath translates not only words but also sentences and even provides a pronounciation guide.

With regard to Gary Hamel; Business concept innovation is a new way of differentiating existing business concept. And that’s what Etisalat did, they always try to differentiate its products by introducing new ideas or renewing their old ideas or services. And as long as the business mission of the company is to reach customer satisfaction, they should always search for what satisfies their customers and matches their needs. And from what is known, UAE is a multinational country that is widely opened with the world, it observes a large number of different nationalities that almost have english as their first language or atleast the common language that they use to communicate. And I mean when english is used to communicate, I mean to say that its used every where, in schools, hospitals, institutions and cooperations. Where Arabic is the first language in the UAE, there has to be some how some connection between these two languages and that what Etisalat is trying to do. It tries to make it easier for the people living in the UAE to communicate with each other by only typing a message on their mobiles and gets its translation. And this would solve a lot of complications that might face the people living here. This is considered an application of the market/product scope that lies under core strategy in Hamel’s framework, where the company knew well the geographic place, where, to introduce its new service were a lot of people can make use of.

More and more, this new service applies the customer interface component, where it knows that the mobiles are the easiest and fastest channel in the UAE to reach its customers. As a citizen in the UAE, I know for a fact that everyone in this country owns a mobile, as the mobile prices and services are very cheap and can be attainable by every one. The way that the firm goes to market and how actually it reaches its customers , which channels it uses is an element called fulfillment and support. In addition this enhances the relationship dynamics, which is another element in the framwork, between the customer and the company.
The pricing structure of the service is too cheap that will make everyone just want to try it, even if he/she doesn’t need to translate. As the user can send a message of 160 characters in english and 70 characters in Arabic all together and will be considered as one message, and each message is then only charged for 60 Fils. The customers simply needs to type in the word or sentence that is to be translated and send it to 1002, and the translation and pronounciation guide will be recieved by SMS to the mobile phone that the message was sent from.

In my opinion, Etisalat is moving forward in its business providing innovative services that are useful to its customers. I am a customer of this service and it has been useful for me, although my fist language is arabic, and I thought that I know my english well, but there are times where I even know the word in english but cant translate it in arabic!!!

Link: http://www.strategiy.com/telecomnew.asp?id=20060419100844

Indian Labour

2006-04-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

Living in the Gulf region all my life and traveling between its countries, I realized that one of the common things that those countries have in between is that they get their labor from India. As it’s well known that the Indians are hard workers and can do any job you ask them to do as long as you supply them with their salaries, a place to live and treat them fairly.

In an article publised in the Middle East News, “Qatari firms blacklisted for woeful treatment of Indians”, it says that India have blacklisted 11 Qatari companies and put 35 others on a watchlist for mistreating their nationals working in the country.
The mistreatment was by defaulting in paying salaries and other benefits to the Indian workers. More and more, some Indians have been thrown out of their labor campus.
Blacklisting companies means that they have been removed from the Indian embassy’s prior approval category (PAC) in Qatar and will not be entitled to employ Indian workers anymore.

That’s a clear application of the non-market issue that Baron talked about in his framework, which is characterized by the following four I’s: Issue: is the mistreatment that the Indian workers are getting from their employers in Qatar. The interests: are the Indian embassy and the Qatari companies whom this issue will have a negative impact on them. Institutaions: Indian Embassy and Ministry of labour in New Delhi. Information: complaines made by the Indian workers.

I think what happened in Qatar, was from the fact that those Indians accept to do any kind of job they are asked for; even if that involves them working for hours under the sun, taking low wages, as long as their food is supplied and their sleep is insured. The Qatari employers underestimated their abilities, and thought that they can treat them in whatever way they want because they are in need of the jobs.
But there is a big issue behind that, which in the first place those workers where imported from their countries because developed countries like Qatar need them, as the local citizens won’t do those small standard jobs for low wages, and those workers wouldn’t have been there unless Qatar needs them to do the job.

Being blacklisted by the Indian embassy, will make Qatar have less number of workers and that might slow down a lot of projects in the country that depend on those kinds of workers. In addition, that’s also considered to be a bad reputation, where now other countries like Malaysia and the Philipines will think twice before sending their citizens to serve this country. This will effect the whole working process in Qatar, and might reach all the Gulf Countries, as you cant imagine the amount of work that those Indians can do and the number of jobs they occupy.

Have you ever noticed that the co-op are facing a threat?

2006-04-28T10:10:00.000-07:00

Everyone who lives in the UAE is familiar with the Co-op’s. The Co-op is a favorable shopping place for those who like to buy stuff in large qauntity. It’s an ideal place for family shopping. In addition, there are several branches of the Co-op all over the seven emirates. Usually this place is crowded with people all the time, as they provide fresh fruites and vegetables. They sell all kinds of food, meat and dairy products, fresh and frozen. More and more they sell furniture, home appliances, stationary, clothes and cosmetics. Briefly they sell everything that a family or an individual might shop for.

Although the co-op offers all those facilities and neceesities that any shopper requires for, they are in the threat of being closed by the government for rising their prices. As in an article written by Mohammad Ezz El Deen, a staff reporter, “Co-ops get ultimatum”said that the consumer prices are continuing to rise, and accusations have grown that Co-ops are neglecting the interests of their customers and focusing instead on high profit margins. And that the Ministry of Economy threatened the co-ops that if they didn’t lower their prices their status will be withdrawn as they are preparing a law that will punish shops who sell goods at high prices without a valid reason. But studies found that Co-ops were weak players in a market dominated by foreign giants like Carrefour and Spinneys and that the bulk of Co-op's profits came from investment.

With regard to the Co-ops actions toward these threats is that they denied any of those accusations and have defended strongly the board members who have been accused of making record bonuses, and said that the Co-op have been following the rules under which they were founded.
The Co-op are blaming other factors that effect the way their prices are getting higher, they are saying that those are due to the increase prices in the global markets such as monopolies in some basic foodstuffs.
From my opinion, I really think this is really what is happening, and that’s the problem that they are dealing with and is threatening their survival. They said that it’s not fair that the cooperative societies have been put under fire because of achieving good financial results as this will not serve the issue of reducing prices of commodities in the local market. The managing director of the Emirates Cooperative Society, said Co-ops will hold a meeting after the Eid Al Fitr holidays to discuss necessary steps for acting on a recent Cabinet decision to break the monopoly of 14 basic goods such as sugar, rice and oil. Co-ops are planning to eliminate middlemen and import the goods directly from their sources, thereby reducing costs to consumers.
This will hopefully solve the problem of high prices not all but atleast will help them reduce some costs. But the real issue is that they make a lot of profits from investment and the current law don’t allow them to invest in the stock market. And that’s considered a problem for them because 50 to 60 percent of their profits come from investment. So the real non-market issue that really cause a problem to the Co-ops is the fact that there are laws that stop them from investing and be the highest in the market as compared to other competitors.
The Co-ops as I said earlier are willing to try to decrease their prices, but that from my point of view will not be enough for them to be profitable as they need to invest in the stock market to make profits. As from the statistics given, they made a profit of Dh 702 million which is 10 percent higher than last year, because of their engagement in investment activities.
So the real threat that they will be really facing is that if they couldn’t reduce some costs which on the other hand won’t help them to lower their prices, and can’t enter the stock market because of the law, then how will the co-op servive and stay a profitable cooperation?

Link: http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/05/11/01/189688.html

Cellphones of poor African people access banks

2006-04-28T10:06:00.000-07:00

Very few South Africans have acces to banks, as the tradition banks are often located far from where they live those poor South Africans. The nearest bank is 90 minutes drive away and there is only two ATM’s. Without the access to a bank account, many of those poor Africans are stuck in the informal cash economy. They can’t save securely and borrow money, except at high interest rates from microlenders. Even if one of them, made it and reached a bank, to open an account it requires documentation, such as proof of income and address which many lacks. In addition, the bank fees in South Africa are some of the highest in the world. But what do those poor South Africans have, which counts nearly to 80 million Africans, are cell phones.

Here comes a new idea for a business concept innovation that one of the South Africa’s main cell phone networks and one of its largest banks launched a new cell phone banking system that will allow millions of poor South Africans to enter the official economy for the first time. MTN Banking replaces a physical bank with a system that uses a patented security mechanism, and requires only a phone call and a government-issued identity number to subscribe. There are no monthly charges, only fees for each transaction. Each account is linked to an ATM card — upgradable to a MasterCard debit card — that can be used nationwide, and that can be used to deposit and withdraw money. The founders also envision the creation of a network of traders who will be able to make transactions in remote areas.

With regard to Hamel’s definition of Business concept innovation that he talked about in his framework, he said that it’s the idea of new different concepts or new ways of differentiating existing business concepts. And he mentions four components that comprise the business concept and each of these components have several subcomponents. The first subcomponent that I will start with is Business mission that lies under core strategy. The business mission is to create a form of banking that would be very easy to register for, and could be run at a low cost, to help the large number of low-income users who never have had access to banks, cash machines or credit cards. The second component is the product scope, where it’s known that this business model concept is for poor people who never accessed banks, and its geographical areas are the areas that have low number of ATMs and that have banks that are far away for poor people to reach. This business concept competes with traditional banks that have expensive bank services, and that are located far away. This is how they differentiate themselves by having low costs, by offering the use of MTN that only requires the user to have a cell phone and some fees for each transaction. This differentiation lies under the basis of differentiation, the third subcomponent of core strategy. The second component of business innovation that I like to talk about is the strategic resources that the business own. Core competencies is the first subcomponent, and its what the firm (MTN banking) knows about its customers. Where it well knows that those poor people although they have low income, they still need financial services that will encourage them to save more. As for a fact, South Africa currently has one of the lowest savings rates in the world. Strategic assets are the second subcomponent of strategic resources, its what the firm owns, and the MTN owns a patented security mechanism. The third subcomponent is core processes and that would be the job that the MTN banking system provides to its poor South African users, they are offering first steps into the world that can help them save, send and receive money. Just a few key punches on their own cell phones they can send money to relatives or pay for goods without ever seeing a paper bill.

Ofcoarse there are two more components that Hamel talked about that explains more if this business is a real concept of innovation. So far I have talked about two components and am already convinced that it’s a business concept innovation that applies all the rules and strategies of a business concept. I hope that I have made at least my half way in convincing you that MTN and the services that its offering for the poor people is important and beneficial and some how competent to the traditional banks in the future. As for what was mentioned in the article, “ Africa’s cell phone boom creates a base for low-cost banking” that the government will also be able to use the accounts to deposit millions of dollars in monthly pensions and grants, helping the elderly receive needed funds without long walks to disbursement centers. More and more as MTN services are nationwide this might work internationally putting aside the hasel that it takes to open a bank account in a real bank.

Barriers of entry for Indians in the UAE market

2006-04-28T10:03:00.000-07:00

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) have made it difficult for the Indian pharmacuetical companies to fully exploit their potentials. More and more the Gulf countries have stringent trade barriers and the multinational companies MNCs that have passed the test clearance didn’t make it any easier for the Indian entrance.

Porter in his framework defined that there are many barriers that can stop an industry from entering into a new market. Like the economical scale that the bulk active companies, MNCs, have created as they have made there way in the region despite the stringent demands. As the UAE is dominatd by the multinationals and the UAE-based formulation units have licensing agreement with the MNCs, hence that means fewer imports from India.

Another barrier that the region is placing for the Indians to enter the UAE markets is the government policy that insists that Indian pharma formualtion companies should have at least two of their products figuring in the European Union’s approved list of 22 drugs as a key requirement for marketing in the region. And this and according to the article “trade barriers pose a hurdle for Idian firms entering UAE markets” is a difficult prerequisite to over come.
This is too sad for the Indian pharmacuetical companies, beacsue in this way they are loosing important events that take place in the UAE like the Arab Health where they can showcase Indian expertise and interact with drug authorities who can help in registration of drugs.

Despite those stringent requirements, some leading Indian firms have a made it in the region, for example, BAL Pharma which has been exploiting an anti-diabetic bulk for a few years, has made an entry into the over-the-counter segment, it also has keen to appoint New Medical Centre in Dubai. In addition, the statins and diabetics are in demand too in the region, so Biocon; another Indian company have capitalized the opportunity and gained entry. it says that the market for the anti diabetic drugs in UAE is growing between 22 and 25 % and for cardiovascular drugs is between 11 and 15%. The other money spinners are the neutraceuticals that the Banner Pharmacaps India has been supplying dietary supplements to Global Pharma in Dubai.

In my opinion, thats a huge market that have lots of demand for pharmacuetical drugs and products that the Indian companies can supply and the UAE is loosing its opportunity of having them because of its stringent barriers.

Abudhabi’s withdrawal from the Gulf Air

2006-04-28T09:57:00.000-07:00

Gulf Air has come a long way since it launched services in 1950 as the Gulf Aviation Company, owned by the Kingdom of Bahrain, Sultanate of Oman and Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The airline started as a small scale commuter service, serving the oil fields of the Gulf and some regional customers, and is now a major international airline. The airline operates a fleet of 34 aircraft to 47 scheduled services in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and the Middle East. Gulf Air's hubs are Bahrain International Airport (BAH) and Seeb International Airport (MCT). Gulf Air’s crew comprises of over 80 nationalities which speak over 70 different languages. The trademark catch phrase is 'Colour Your Sky'.
The Gulf Air posted profits in 2004 after many years of losses. The Gulf States had invested millions of dollars to keep the airline running. Gulf Air said in April that it had reduced debt by 7.8 per cent to $110.6 million and that the debt to equity ratio was 2.4 times below a limit of three set under a three-year restructuring plan approved in 2002.
Despite the major development that the Gulf airline industry accomplished, Abu Dhabi government announced on the 13th of September 2005 that it has decided to withdraw from its partnership in Gulf Air. An official source said the decision was taken so that Abu Dhabi government will concentrate its efforts on developing the new airline they own, Etihad Airways. The CEO, James Hogan said “We understand that they wish to focus on their airline's development strategy in other directions and we wish them luck and success” and he adds to that and said “There will be no change to Gulf Air's core approach to business or to its on-going business strategy as a result of the withdrawal of Abu Dhabi, we will continue to build upon our successes, enhancing our brand and our services to reinforce our position as the leading airline in the region as we did the last three years were we made massive strides in our business performance. We have done that by focusing on our customers, on our staff and on our services. We will continue to do so into the future.
This means that the core strattegy that they have been using throught out the past years will stay the same, and with the definition that Gary Hamel gives in his framwork about core strategy, this means the essence of how the company will compete will stay the same, having the same business mission, the same business model that is designed to accomplish and deliver the same goals. This also means that the market scope of where the firm will compete will stay the same as when it was when Abudhabi was part of it. And that also applies to the ways that the Gulf Air used to compete differently with other competitors. Of coarse that guarantees that they will make at least the same profit they did in the past three years, if not more.
But this time they don’t have one important aspect the presence of the Abu Dhabi government beside them to help them to accomplish their goals. Am not saying that the work was all done by Abu Dhabi government, but ofcoarse the absence of it might cause some difficulties. As Abu Dhabi share could be considered to be a valuable asset, as one of the strategic resources that Gulf Air owns. Abu Dhabi withdrawing from the Gulf Air and concentrating on its own airline means that they may use what they knew about the Gulf Air to compete against it. Abu Dhabi government knows the core competencies of the Gulf Air, its skills and capabilities, its weaknesses and strongest points. They even know the core process of the company and its activities. In addition, loosing Abu Dhabi as a partner means they lost of at least some of the value network that the Gulf Air has. Abu Dhabi might use the same netwrok and I mean by that the suppliers and coalitions.
In my opinion, for the Gulf Air to succeed in this market, it has to change its business concept and adopt a new business concept innovation, where its core strategy is unknown to any other companies and its new ways of competing with others are unknown. Because as we know, now Abu Dhabi with its government owned airline, Etihad Airways, will be a competitor to the Gulf Airlines and the reward will be for the one who survive longer.

Tata Motors!

2006-03-16T05:10:00.000-08:00

Buses, cars and trains are different ways of tranportation that have been used by different kinds of people in all developed counrties. But there are countries were the people in cant afford to buy cars or ride buses to transport. For example in India a lot of people make the advantage of using a scooter as a way to trasnport from one place to another. Tata Motors, India’s biggest vehicles maker thought of ani idea of manufacturing a car that can hold more that one person and still be safe and cheap to afford at the same time. A car with a good quality and hold a good quantity of people.
In looking at the resources and capabilities, we can see that Barney’s question of value arises with Tata’s idea of cheaply manufature a smal car. I think that the resources and capabilities of Tata Motors enables it to respond to environmental opportunities that are rising. For exapmle, Tata groups had already made contacts with conutries that are low cost manufacture centers that can help them in manufacturing the car of their dreams. As long as they are considering their customers safety (instead of 4 people on a scooter invent a car that can hold those four) and their customers economical condition, they will always have their resources valuable enough to face any difficulty. With regarding to the question of rareness, Tata Motors is the only compnay that thought of ineventing a cheap small car as a transport facility for its local customers. There are many countries and companies all around the world that invents cars, but only about 8 out of 1000 people in India drive those cars and the others use motorcycles and scooters instead to transport. Tata motors will use plastic other than steel in building the car, with some use of modern adhesives instead of welding to save costs, as was said in the article. With regard to the question of imitation, from my point of view, it has been already been hard for Tata to find the cheap resources that it need to build its car with, but ofcoarse there is always the direct duplication that any company can do where it can get its same supplies from the same place that Tata did.
This ,might not give Tata a competitive advantage over others, but Tata was the first to think about its economy and its needs, and if it succeeded in inventing the car of its dreams with all of what it promised its gona be then, at least for some time there it will be a competitive company that will cause some barriers for other companies to enter the market of small-cheap cars.

UAE preferred choice of Saudi graduates

2006-03-09T04:10:00.000-08:00

The United Arab Emirates is a Middle Eastern country situated in the southeastern of the Arabian Peninsula in Sounthwest Asia on the Persian Gulf, between Oman and Saudi Arabia. The UAE’s geographic area with regard to Saudi Arabia, made the Saudi graduates consider the UAE as one of the coutries that they may go to to seek for jobs. As it was said in the article, UAE was preferrable to the Saudi graduates than UK, US and Canada. This is one element that the UAE has a competitive advantage over when compared with those countries, as it lies under the core strategy, product scope in Hamels framework. Where the firm(UAE) competes and what kind of customers it attracts. More and more, its basis of differentiation that makes it win over the competition among those countries, is that Saudia and UAE are both muslim countries that have the same religion. In which it encourages all the arab muslim students to choose UAE over western countries, because they would rather live in a country that have the same policies, regulations, same traditions and sometimes the same holidays than a country that have a completely different believes. In addition, the relationship dynamic between the two countries is strong enough that develops a relaxing economy around the graduate and makes it easier for him to adapt. The value network that the UAE provides especially in Dubai provides the graduates with the multinational experience that they need, as there are a variety of nationalities that live in Dubai, that’s why the job opportunities are widely opened and connected to international countries from all around the world.
UAE is a valuable resource itself, it attracts the world to its emirates with its richness in oil, and that gave it a strong place in among the arab countries and seem attractive to other western countries industrially , economically and enviromentally. It provides its citizens with a safe enviroment as its in good terms with all countries and never had a war with any one.
One of the graduates in the article said: "I might have been interested in working in the US, but now it is a less attractive option because of all the anti-Arab sentiment that has built up." In my opinion, this one non-market issue is the strongest reason ever that made not only the Saudi gradutes but all arab graduates to choose to stay in a close, arab near by country rather than leaving their world and travel to a world where they will be blamed over stuff they didn’t do. The graduates no more feel that they are treated fairly in the States after September 11 and that made the US less attractive than any other country to approach.
Why will any arab graduate travel all this distance to get a degree or look for a job, if a country like Dubai is offering him the multi-international communication all in his hands?

Competition between Business Colleges

2006-02-15T23:35:00.000-08:00

In an article written by Kim Jack Riley “The New School: learn how a poor job market is affecting how business schools compete for students”, says that there are 1.2 million college graduates that are competing with nine million unemployed individuals for only 3 million jobs. This caused a lot of college students to postpone the search for a job and stay in school to get a second degree. This have made the approach to the M.B. A program more frequent but for the wrong reasons, were most of the students attain it just to have it as an resume enhancer. Tony Lee, editor-in-chief of the College Journal (www.collegejournal.com), made his concerns about the employers today, where even if they have an M.B.A, does that mean that he/she have the aptitude to do well in the job or was it a last minute decision made by the graduate college out of desperation to get a job. This what made the business graduate schools adjust and enhance their programs to better preapre graduates for the competitive environment they will be facin. With regard to what we have studied in class about Barneys framework VRIO, each of the colleges that are mentioned in the article staring with University's Fuqua School of Business in Durham, where their career management center initiated a campaign called “Hire up”,it’s a three-month program that contacts over 12,000 targeted alumni and company recruiters. Another college was Babson College's F. W. Online Graduate School of Business in Babson Park,They developed a distnace based program called Fast Track, that allows participants who cant attend a traditional evening M.B.A program. The program provides an accelerated 27-month curriculum compared to the average part-time M.B.A program, which can be accomplished in three years. While in Wake Forest University’Babcock Graduate School of Management they have joined a graduate business school with an undergraduate business school, where they provide an intensive month long program that exposes students to the fundamnetals of business, they all have made valuable chnages to their programs that meets the changes and needs of their approaching students. But from my point of view, their changes and development that each college have done where valuable to the college itself but compared to other institutions they were not rare and can be easily imitated. The strategy that can really differentiate between each college is the way they interface with their students, the services and supplies that they can provide the students with, by implying the third component of the business concept by Hamel, Customer Interface, where one of its elements is information and insights where refers to all of the knowledge that is collected from and utilized on behalf of their students, if they can attend an evening program, or work online whenever they can on the program. The number of years that will be able to achieve the degree in. Another strategy will be strategic resources and its element Core competencies where the college knows its skills and unique capabilities that they can offer to the students, like what Arthur Kraft in the article offers, he says that he thinks that the M.B.A program should be innovative and teach proficiencies such as written and oral communication skills. His college offers these skills while other colleges like Wake Forest offers intense including accounting, marketing, operations, strategy, finance, and the management of information systems. Another strategy would be the Core strategy, where its element Basis for differentiation is also aplied by these colleges, as each one competes in a different way than the other.

Business Innovation

2006-02-08T04:35:00.000-08:00

“Business concept innovation is the capacity to imagine dramatically different business concepts or dramatically new ways of differentiating existing business concepts”, this was the definition that was given by Hamel to Business innovation. And with regarding to the article “Retailers must do more to stay on top of competition”, it shows that Phil McArthur the director of leasing and marketing at Dubai Festival City understands that for the UAE to stay the third most successful country in the world at shopping centre marketing, the managers and retailers at the regional shopping centre will have to continually raise the bar to stay on top. As he pointed out that their will be a rise in the region’s retail industry and that the leasable area will double to over 118 million square feet by the end of the decade. According to Hamel, “the goal of business concept innovation is to introduce more strategic variety into an industry, when customers value that variety, the distribution of wealth creating potential will shift dramatically in favor of the innovator” and that what McArthur did, he had highlighted the change in development strategies needed to keep up with their consumer evolution. As the Dubai festival City has highly estimated 2.6 million square feet retail, and there were strong offerings in family entertainment, hospitality focal point, multiplex cinemas, and large food and beverage components, theme parks. It also had marked the UAE’s largest IKEA destination store. McArthur says that the region is progressing at an incredible rate and has firmly incremented its reputation as a leader in the field, and these are the results of applying the business concept innovation where the industry becomes in control and generates more wealth. McArthur had a business mission to stay in the top and he thinks by the changes he have done he is following the right direction.

Google and the Chinese Governmental policy

2006-02-01T04:47:00.000-08:00

In “The Real Cost of google’s sellout to China”, shows that China makes it hard for any foreign company to enter its market. Google is not a Chinese Internet company and for it to enter the Chinese market, Google must make some sacrifices and bind to some restrictions that the Chinese government ask it to do. With regard to Porter form, China is using government policy as a barrier to the entrance of goolge to its market. As the Chinese government have barried the access of many google websites and search terms and anything on the World Wide Web that might destabilize the Chinese authoritarian governemt. More and more it eliminated the blogging and e-mail services google offers elsewhere in the world. This kind of action where the government filters on the google access caused the search speed to slow down to a crawl, make it undependable and keeps it hard for google to enter and compete with other companies and all of this to force google to bind to China’s demands. Google is not the first to face these kind of barrier when entering to the Chinese market, as many companies tried to enter but had to agreed to cooperate before they enter. I think that if entering the Chinese market will affect the efficiency and effectiveness of google than it shouldn’t enter the market.

Test Post

2006-02-01T00:51:00.000-08:00

Test post for MGT 406 at AUS.