China has been the world’s largest exporter, now it changing its attention to globalization. According to the article, Beijing Automotive Industry has made a bid to buy Opel from bankrupt GM. This means that china companies are eyeing on other companies to expand themselves. The Chinese companies have had great success with two types of globalization. The first is conquering global markets via exports from China. The second is acquisition of natural resource assets in Africa, Australia, and Latin America.
The next wave of globalization by Chinese companies will be requiring smart acquisition of established companies in some of the world’s major economies. For example, USA and Europe countries. However, this will require skillful management of geographically dispersed marketing, manufacturing, and R&D operations.
Globalization will be a great challenge to China companies because of a few issues. First is the language and communication problem, most of the Chinese are not fluent in English, which is the world business language. Second is a majority of Chinese companies usually competes cost efficiency rather than differentiation, competing through differentiation remains a distant concept for them. Another major challenge is to pertained political sensitivity and barriers to potential acquisitions by Chinese companies in other developed economies. Most large corporations in china are state-owned and governments are reluctant to cede control over “strategic” assets to a foreign government.
I picked this article because I chapter 12 talks about globalization and this article talks about challenges China is facing when they try to globalize their companies. I am sure those corporations will find a way to solve their globalization problems and move forward into other countries.
Reference:
Anil K. Gupta and Haiyan Wang.July 10, 2009. Globalization Challenges Facing China Inc. BusinessWeek.
Retrieved from:
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jul2009/gb20090710_479130.htm
The profusion of online “app stores” for mobile-phone software programs is a nightmare for developers trying to pick which platforms to target because there are so many different types of mobile software available in market. According to the article, there is no sign for the mobile software to move toward a single dominant operating system like Microsoft windows for computers. On the contrary, it is multiplying. Google is investing in Android operating system and will be launching an Android-based Magic phone from Taiwanese handset maker in Britain, Spain, Germany, France, and Italy this spring. While Microsoft is making a move as Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made a personal appearance in Barcelona to present a new version of Windows Mobile as well as plans for an online applications store.
Developers can write different versions of the same program for every operating system, which is time-consuming and expensive. Alternatively, they can target whichever operating systems they think will generate the most users and forsake the rest. The dilemma is that there is no clear result as to which mobile software company will dominate the market.
At the Mobile World Congress, Sun Microsystems (JAVA) unveiled a new version of Java for mobile devices called JavaFX. Sun says the programming software allows developers to write applications that work on any mobile operating system. If that turns out to be true, JavaFX is a potentially important development to the mobile software industry.
I picked this article because in chapter 11, it talked about rapid application Development (RAD) and mobile software uses RAD for acceleration system development to compete with other competitors. Since the mobile software has no real dominant operating system yet, they are competing fiercely to gain control for market.
Reference :
Jack Ewing. 23rd February, 2009. The Battle of Mobile Software Apps. BusinessWeek.
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/feb2009/gb20090223_521308.htm
With the increase in gas price that directly increase travel expenses, companies are looking towards videoconferencing as an alternative way to do business, meetings and etc. According to the article, adding more videoconferencing facilities at the company will reduce travel spending by 10 to 20 percent. Although companies are on such a great path that they do not want to interfere with their ability to do business, but they will use videoconferencing to keep people off airplanes just to reduce the expenses in this bad economy. The article also mentions that the travel industry’s loss gave a 20% sales jump to the providers of videoconferencing equipment and services. This means that companies are using videoconferencing instead of traveling when doing business or meetings.
Other than just business deals and meetings, the TV commercial production companies are also starting to use videoconferencing to do castings and interviews. With videoconferencing, a company can do casting remotely and still get to interview talented people all over the world. Regus Group, has seen a 40% increase in number of conferencing in its videoconferencing facilities. A-listers like Colin Powell, Larry King, and Henry Kissinger have used Regus videoconferencing services.
In my opinion, because videoconferencing reduces the travel expenses, it has also reduced the gas consumption of the world, which is a good thing to the environment. Videoconferencing is one of the best alternative for business to communicate with clients and employees overseas, companies that have not started using videoconferencing should give a thought about it instead of traveling to meet in person.
Rachael King. February 9, 2009. Tight Travel Budgets Spark Interest in Videoconferencing. BusinessWeek.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/technology_at_work/archives/2009/02/tight_travel_bu.html
This article talks about John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, 500 employees are being taught to be well pleasant when dealing with customers. Tom Murphy, director of the Human Resiliency Institute at Fordham University, has created a three-step process with this challenge in mind. First step when facing angry customers is turning down the volume, this sends a signal to the brain that helps reduce anxiety for both customer and employee. With a calm and clear mind, we can think of better solutions. Make eye contact to engage customer. Employees should also demonstrate that they are actively listening by nodding head and not interrupting. This shows a commitment to resolving the problem. Second step is offering information, most of the time customers are angry because they are not clear of something and that frustrates them. When offering information, make sure it is the fact and it is specific. This will make customers feel that they are being treated right will be more patient about the problem. The third and last step is brainstorm options, this means finding an alternative way to achieve customer satisfaction without giving too much loss to the company.
I picked this article because I feel that even with Business Intelligence applications and technology, employees’ attitude is still more important. As a customer, I would rather have a polite customer service agent that may not know everything I want than a rude customer agent that knows everything about me. Plus, this three steps to deal with angry customers can be use for any business line and I think it will be useful for me in the future.
Carmine Gallo. June 13, 2008. Three Steps to Calming Angry Customers. BusinessWeek.
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jun2008/sb20080613_334298.htm
Having a supplier’s contract with Wal-Mart has advantage and cost to it, suppliers should consider before applying for the contract. The advantage of supplying to Wal-Mart is that they have a wide base customers and a large corporation that will not order and not pay for it. The cost of supplying to Wal-Mart is that they only accept the lowest price and best quality out of the lowest price. This means that suppliers will not be able to profit much compare to selling to other companies. Wal-Mart also requires suppliers to have at least three other entities including Wal-Mart to prove that the supplier knows about their own market. Wal-Mart has about 57,000 US suppliers, usually a few suppliers for a same type of product to provide customers variety of choice. Wal-Mart generally starts out smaller suppliers in a local market, delivering goods to up to 50 stores, as a test run. If the supplier provides a high-selling product and proves reliable, it might be considered for national distribution. As most of us know, Wal-Mart’s return policy is great. However, Wal-Mart does not take the lost of the returned products, they transfer it to their suppliers. In Wal-Mart’s supplier contract, the supplier has to take the lost of the returned products. Many suppliers did not read and understand fully the long contract rules before signing the contract with Wal-Mart. In my opinion, a company that can survive supplying to corporations like Wal-Mart is on the right track. Despite the high cost of supplying to Wal-Mart, the company becomes more competitive and their brand will be more popular because of Wal-Mart’s wide base customers. A supplier becomes a top company when they sell their product to the best of the best corporations.
Reference: Emily Schmitt.July 14, 2009. The Profits and Perils of Supplying to Wal-Mart. Business Week.
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jul2009/sb20090714_270767.htm
Garmin came out with a new device that can allow phones like Blackberry, Palm Treo, or any type of window base smart phone to turn into a full featured navigation system for only $200. The size of this device is a small as a MP3 player and weighs only 2 ounces, so it could fit easily in a pocket. The GPS satellite picks up user’s position and then transmitted to the phone by way of a Bluetooth wireless data connection. With the device, the phone becomes a capable navigation system offering a choice of spoken directions or large-type text with direction arrows displayed on the handheld’s screen. Since maps are stored on an SD memory card, the directions keep coming when you cannot get cellular reception, so long as you are still getting a GPS signal. So incase user goes underground or into rural areas, with the device it is still possible to navigate the user’s current position. I picked this article because it shows how Garmin, a GPS company is following the trend of the market to be at the top of its line. This device will definitely be more affordable than the traditional GPS navigator device that cost around $200 to $500 and it is more convenient to travel with it. Since more and more people are getting smart phones, this device will increase in demand and thus the chance of people buying this device will increase.
Reference: Arik Hesseldahl. (August 15, 2007) Garmin’s GPS 10x: Smart Phone Navigation. BusinessWeek.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2007/tc20070814_733360.htm
A data center is a facility used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems. On most days, it takes the right access badge and a biometric scan to make it inside the doors of Microsoft’s massive data center. However, on Wednesday, the company allowed a group of reporters, customers, and partners to tour the 700,000 square foot data center. This newly opened data center serve as the guts behind Microsoft’s online ambitions, from Bing to Hotmail to Windows Azure. Data are stored in servers that are in rooms that look like containers, a container can take up to 2,000 servers. This site is expected to cost Microsoft up to $500 million when fully geared. These servers require a lot of power to function, Microsoft choose this spot because of its convenient spot close to cheap and abundant power as well as the fact it sits atop a major Internet connection point that houses major east west and north-south fiber routes. This allows the data center to have the best supply of power with low cost. I picked this article because it shows how companies are moving towards database and data warehousing. It is a thing that is worth investing and will be use in the near future as the world is going towards paperless office. Data center provides company a place to store large data and backups them for a low price.
Reference: Ina Fried (September 30, 2009) Microsoft opens Windy City data center. Cnet news.
Retrived from:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10364746-56.html
On August 14th 2003 there was The Northeast Blackout, a massive widespread power outage that occurred throughout parts of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Ontario, Canada. At the time, it was the most widespread electrical blackout in history. The blackout affected an estimated 10 million people in Ontario and 45 million people in eight U.S. states. Sungard, a large company that provides data backup and recovery services had the most called that night. Previous most called for backup services was Hurricane Floyd pounded the East Coast in September 1999.
Most companies actually have their own backup system or server, but they were all too close by to the main company. Therefore, when the blackout happens, their backup systems were down as well. That is why they had to get disaster recovery plan from Sungard. It was an expensive lesson for those companies that suffer from the black out. They should have their back up system at least one or two states away from the main company. Because according to the article, a black out could happen anytime and anywhere, it could be a terrorist attack, blaster worm, hurricane, or other disasters, so companies are still at risk if they have their backup system close by.
I choose this article because it is a good example of backup and recovery in practice. Having a backup system that is too near would not prevent natural disasters or power outage. Humans tend to forget once a disaster is over for a few years, but it could happen again any time anywhere.
Reference: Alex Salkever (August 2003). Where’s Your Backup System? Business Week.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2003/tc20030815_1292_tc024.htm
If you once thought that online banking security was the same for different banks, think again. A research done by Which? Computing did an online investigation on the visible security of the major banks in Europe found vast differences between them. Barclay has ranked top, while Abbey and Halifax scored the worst. Among the banks that were, rated ‘good’ were Lloyds TSB, NatWest, First Direct, Nationwide and Royal Bank of Scotland. Alliance, HSBC and Leicester fell in the ‘poor’ category. The parameters that were used by the Which? Computing to score the visible security of the banks includes: 1. The online bank account cannot be accessed at similar time periods on two separate computers. 2. If the user navigates away from the online banking website, the user will be logged out from the online bank account. 3. To avoid key logging, the user does not have to enter in full their personal information but instead have to enter only certain parts of that information or use ‘dropdown menus’. The caveat: Which? Company only assesses the ‘visible security’ of the online banking. Most banks, however, argue that the ‘hidden security measures’ are more important.
In my opinion, banks need to invest more on online banking security as it deals with real money and customer’s information. If a bank or company wants to be successful they need the newest IT security to prevent hackers from disturbing their business.
Reference: Jo Best (August 31, 2009)Online Security: How Do EU Banks Rank? Business Week.
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/aug2009/gb20090831_776503.htm
Iowa Department of Revenue challenge internet provider AOL and other internet provider companies in Iowa about taxes on internet service. The Revenue Department argued that under its administrative rules state sales tax should be charged for AOL’s services because the initial modem call to use the service was made in Iowa, meaning the service originated in the state. However, AOL argues that they have changed their service to wireless and the communication must originate and terminate in Iowa, and it noted that its services begin at, and are routed through, its data centers in Virginia. Therefore, they should not need to pay taxes to Iowa. This case began in the superior court of Iowa, and the judge sided with AOL. Then the Revenue Department decided to continue pursuing this case and went for court of appeal, but the court also sided with AOL. Finally Revenue Department took this case went to the Supreme Court and just 1 month ago the Supreme Court concluded that there won’t be any taxes on internet services, for the same reason with other courts, this is not an in state administrative rule.
I choose this article because ISP is a type of E-business, it is the first part of doing business on the internet. Because of this case’s final decision from the Supreme Court, most of the ISP does not need to pay taxes to the other states that they provide internet except the main operating office’s state.
Reference: AMY LORENTZEN (2009, August 10)Iowa Supreme Court: No taxes on Internet service. BusinessWeek.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9A7E35G0.htm
A ‘jerk’ is defined as one who is foolishly narcissistic and thus, are inferior in terms of good decision making. To truly be able to appreciate the reasons behind these phenomena, we have to first understand what is required in making good decisions. Good decision makers are able to incorporate the input of others, to analyze their past mistakes and learn from them, to think clearly and objectively, to tap into their extensive network of friends or partners and join forces with them to make the right decisions. Jerks, on the other hand, are poor decision makers because they are so self-absorbed that they are often delusion into thinking that they are right all the time and thus, disregarding the opinions of others. Failure to learn from past misjudgements, preoccupation with trivial misunderstandings and lack of social network are reasons why jerks make bad decisions. A confounding reality is these jerks are often at the helm of finance industries and governmental bodies. It is not surprising that the recent financial crisis was due to poor judgement on their behalf. Classic examples of jerks are seen in the financial and also the political arena – Joe Cassano (CEO of A.I.G), Jimmy Cayne (CEO of Bear Stearns), Dick Fuld (CEO of Lehman Brothers), Dick Cheney (former vice president of the United States of America) and George Steinbrenner (CEO of New York Yankees). Most of these leaders are ignorant and did not follow the suggestions of Executive Information System provided to them and did a bad decision.
Reference: Tom Davenport (2009). Why Jerks Are Bad Decision-Makers. BusinessWeek.
http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/aug2009/ca2009087_974432.htm
As I know, car companies are one of the few largest and most advanced manufacturers in the world market, but lack of attention on Information System they too can miss a great market opportunity. Most car companies have spent millions of man hours and dollars coming up with better ways to improve safety, comfort, and physical appearance of the car. Not realizing the increase in demand on fuel-efficient cars, most car companies were caught flat-footed when the oil price doubled and majority of the people went for fuel-efficient cars. Only after the drastic increase in oil price, some car companies start to invest time and money into technology that improves fuel-efficiency cars. Other car companies like BMW and Mercedes –Benz still does not wish to explore the hybrid or electronic technology, their hope was that diesel would one day become a viable alternative in the U.S.
If the car companies would have predicted the shortage of oil in future, they could have be more prepare with the current situation. However, we cannot put all the blame on the car companies; they were also reacting with the demand of the market. We can still see some car companies not willing to change direction even after the matter became obvious. Their lack of sensitivity in threat of substitutes will pay heavily in the near future when rivalry companies make new technology cars. With our planet’s limited oil resources, car companies that do not invest in new car technology that can run on alternatives might close down when oil really runs dry.
Jim Henry. (2008). With Cars, Some Technology Is Smarter Than Others. Business Week.
Retrieved from: www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/jul2008/bw2008073_385474.htm
