Thinking of the supply chain in a manufacturing setting is easy but understanding the supply chain in the knowledge economy of search and social media is more difficult. For example, if you make cars, you need to either make or buy its components. The sourcing of tires by an auto manufacturer is the classic B2BContinue reading “Understanding the Supply Chain in the knowledge age of search and social media”
Category Archives: Careers/Jobs Strategy
A stitch in time: pick innovation winner ideas at the early stages
Picking innovation winners early in the stages of the innovation process is like a stitch-in-time. In an earlier post we had talked about how top leaders are involved less in the early parts of the innovation process viz. idea generation, concept development and testing. They seem to realize only in the development,manufacturing and launch phasesContinue reading “A stitch in time: pick innovation winner ideas at the early stages”
Why does innovation create jobs?
An earlier post on how innovation create jobs is rather popular. However,people seem to have questions about the “why” in the link of innovation and jobs. Why should creating a new product or service result in new jobs?Where in the process of innovation are these jobs created?
Best Buy to close fifty stores: rethinking the value of face to face advice with the Internet
If you have visited any US Best Buy store you would have noted the quite extraordinary knowledge and talent of their store sales force. So it is a disappointing to learn that Best Buy will be closing 50 stores. Because neither the stores or the sales people can be much better. It's just that theContinue reading “Best Buy to close fifty stores: rethinking the value of face to face advice with the Internet”
Thinking in the customers/receivers shoes: say exactly what you want your customer to do
When you send out a CV via email or upload for a job do you call the attached file "CV" , "resume" or "Document1" ? You are not alone…. most people seem to do this in email attachments. When they know that there may be hundreds of other emails with the same type of documentContinue reading “Thinking in the customers/receivers shoes: say exactly what you want your customer to do”
Apple: when US customers demand better treatment of Chinese workers in the global supply chain
The Nike child labor controversy surfaced in a 1996 Life magazine story and consumer outrage prompted big changes in the way Nike manages its global supply chain and all this took some time. In contrast, the New York Times story on labor practices at the Chinese supplier factories of Apple of just two weeks agoContinue reading “Apple: when US customers demand better treatment of Chinese workers in the global supply chain”
What’s your internal organization got to do with marketing and supply chain?
What's your internal organization got to do with marketing and supply chain? Well everything…. but first some nostalgia. This is the 500th post of this blog and happily coincides with the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens who explored perennial and timeless issues of the human condition. So too with organizations whose challenges continue despite technologyContinue reading “What’s your internal organization got to do with marketing and supply chain?”
Two Years after Super Bowl 2010 Old Spice Ad: P&G reduces TV ups Digital Marketing
Marketers worldwide revere P&G simply because many of the old world marketing concepts like “Brand Management” was invented by P&G. If it took 2 years for P&G to come out and say clearly that digital marketing needs more emphasis – I guess no other organization needs to feel defensive for their slow action on digital and social media marketing !
WEF Davos : Capitalism and Democracy try to find balance through CSR
This year (2012) there seems to be a marked and discernible change in this gathering’s tone and tenor. Leaders of both Governments and Businesses seem to realize that becoming richer and richer is probably not enough. This realization as capitalism,democracy and affluence rises worldwide , 1 billion more global middle class by 2020 according to Muhtar Kent of Coca Cola ( see accompanying video). Here is some interesting stuff to think about from happenings at Davos in 2012:
SOPA : conflict between content providers and distributors in the digital age
Distributor-Manufacturer conflict and struggle for power is not new. Only now we have media content providers and tech distributors like Google and Wikepedia in conflict over SOPA. It's quite amazing that once a manufacturer has a great product the tendency is to believe that you don't need marketing. Notable exceptions include Apple and the retailContinue reading “SOPA : conflict between content providers and distributors in the digital age”