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Showing posts with label Business management & day-to-day Economics & CXO [CEO CPO COO CFO CMO CIO CSO CTO]. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Business management & day-to-day Economics & CXO [CEO CPO COO CFO CMO CIO CSO CTO]. Show all posts
the peculiar Management Tool that Jeff Bezos uses at Amazon meetings
In a S-Meeting (senior executive meetings) at Amazon, before any conversation or discussion begins, everyone sits for 30 minutes in total silence, carefully reading 6 page printed Memos - also called as Narratives. Some people also call it a customer-centric vision narrative.
There are 3 clear benefits of this process:
1.
Writing a good six-page evidence-based narrative is hard work.
Precision counts.
It is hard to summarize a complex business in 6 pages.
So, teams work for hours preparing the document for these reviews.
So, it requires the team writing the document to really deeply understand their own space, gather their data, understand their operating tenets and be able to communicate them clearly.
2.
A great document enables our senior executives to internalize a whole new space they may not be familiar with in 30 minutes of reading thus greatly optimizing how quickly and how many different initiatives these leaders can review.
Outsiders sometimes look at Amazon and wonder how Amazon can possibly focus on so many different businesses at once.
The answer is that Amazon has fundamentally innovated in how to scale the process of bringing groups of people deeply up to speed in new spaces and making critical decisions based on that insight quickly.
3.
Reading together in the meeting guarantees everyone’s undivided attention to the issues at hand.
Jeff Bezos said:
There are 3 clear benefits of this process:
1.
Writing a good six-page evidence-based narrative is hard work.
Precision counts.
It is hard to summarize a complex business in 6 pages.
So, teams work for hours preparing the document for these reviews.
So, it requires the team writing the document to really deeply understand their own space, gather their data, understand their operating tenets and be able to communicate them clearly.
2.
A great document enables our senior executives to internalize a whole new space they may not be familiar with in 30 minutes of reading thus greatly optimizing how quickly and how many different initiatives these leaders can review.
Outsiders sometimes look at Amazon and wonder how Amazon can possibly focus on so many different businesses at once.
The answer is that Amazon has fundamentally innovated in how to scale the process of bringing groups of people deeply up to speed in new spaces and making critical decisions based on that insight quickly.
3.
Reading together in the meeting guarantees everyone’s undivided attention to the issues at hand.
Jeff Bezos said:
The traditional kind of corporate meeting starts with a presentation.
2.
4.
5.
6.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Somebody gets up in front of the room and presents with a PowerPoint presentation, some type of slide show.
In our view you get very little information, you get bullet points.
This is easy for the presenter, but difficult for the audience.
And so instead, all of our meetings are structured around a six-page narrative memo.
If you have a traditional PPT presentation, executives interrupt.
If you read the whole six-page memo, on page 2 you have a question but on page 4 that question is answered.
Bezos also said:
Full sentences are harder to write.
They have verbs.
The paragraphs have topic sentences.
There is no way to write a six-page, narratively structured memo and not have clear thinking.
The paragraphs have topic sentences.
There is no way to write a six-page, narratively structured memo and not have clear thinking.
***** About the Meeting *****
1.
The meeting really will begin with silence as everyone digests the content.
2.
Each participant may have his/her own way for digesting that information, i.e. some may take notes on the document; others won't.
3.
Discussion is very focused around the proposal.
4.
The participants in these meetings are incredibly sharp, and you can expect the meeting to be among the most difficult and intellectually challenging that you will ever attend.
5.
Data is king, and as noted, the appendix better be well researched, or it is likely to be your last 6-pager.
6.
Reportedly, Jeff will consistently surprise the presenter with at least one question that is the proverbial "two steps ahead", considering big picture and macro factors that the presenter may never have considered him/herself.
***** Narrative's main elements *****
1)
The context or question
2)
Approaches to answer the question – by whom, by which method, and their conclusions
3)
How is your attempt at answering the question different or the same from previous approaches
4)
Now what? – that is, what’s in it for the customer, the company, and how does the answer to the question enable innovation on behalf of the customer?
5)
Appendixes.
The appendixes carry the data, the validation, the information that feeds into the narrative that doesn't carry the structure, but is needed for completeness and cross reference.
***** About the Narrative *****
1.
The six pages and the structure of the document itself is ultimately arbitrary.
2.
It's the forced revision/improvement/validation that is forced to fit into six pages that is critical.
3.
By forcing a limited set of pages it forces the author (or authors) to go through numerous drafts to reshape the document, polishing it by ejecting, rewriting abstracting and summarizing as you go along.
3.
By forcing a limited set of pages it forces the author (or authors) to go through numerous drafts to reshape the document, polishing it by ejecting, rewriting abstracting and summarizing as you go along.
4.
The six pages is a hard limit.
5.
5.
This also forces are reasonable taxonomy and structure of information within the subsections and a good ordering of information. This repeated revision to fit takes the mental work that the reader must undertake to correlate and rationalize the information.
6.
There isn’t any template for the Memo.
However, there is guidelines. The write-up should be clear, concise, data driven, logical, and accurate. The best example you should reference is Jeff Bezos’s annual letter to shareholder. It’s a great example of clear and thoughtful business writing (instead of creating PowerPoints.)
7.
The memo draws out the causes and effects of what’s going on, the forces at play, and what other players might do – all so that the decision-makers can predict what happens next and choose a course of action.
8.
Narrative shows a series of events, revealing how one impacts the next.
9.
The sort of language you hear in a narrative is ‘But then …’ and ‘Because of that …’ and ‘So now …’.
10.
The narrative becomes a container for what is happening and what might happen.
11.
It can also hold people’s opinions and points of view, so you might have language like ‘It’s my view that …’ and ‘I recommend …’.
12.
Without the narrative, you just get a series of disconnected facts and opinions.
Collectively, it won’t make sense.
In the past it was like this …
Then something happened …
So now we should do this …
So the future might be like this …
However, there is guidelines. The write-up should be clear, concise, data driven, logical, and accurate. The best example you should reference is Jeff Bezos’s annual letter to shareholder. It’s a great example of clear and thoughtful business writing (instead of creating PowerPoints.)
7.
The memo draws out the causes and effects of what’s going on, the forces at play, and what other players might do – all so that the decision-makers can predict what happens next and choose a course of action.
8.
Narrative shows a series of events, revealing how one impacts the next.
9.
The sort of language you hear in a narrative is ‘But then …’ and ‘Because of that …’ and ‘So now …’.
10.
The narrative becomes a container for what is happening and what might happen.
11.
It can also hold people’s opinions and points of view, so you might have language like ‘It’s my view that …’ and ‘I recommend …’.
12.
Without the narrative, you just get a series of disconnected facts and opinions.
Collectively, it won’t make sense.
***** What a Narrative looks like *****
Then something happened …
So now we should do this …
So the future might be like this …
Screenshot of the email Bezos sent in 2004
announcing the decision to dump PPT from S Team meetings
Credits:
Anecdote.com/2018/05/amazons-six-page-narrative-structure/
Phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-reportsannual
Use-cases.org/2018/01/03/the-evil-genius-of-the-amazon-six-page-narrative/
Use-cases.org/2018/04/23/exploring-cognitive-engagement-in-amazons-six-page-narratives/
Quora.com/How-are-the-six-page-narratives-structured-in-Jeff-Bezos-S-Team-meetings
Fortune.com/2012/11/16/amazons-jeff-bezos-the-ultimate-disrupter/
Forbes.com/sites/drewhansen/2013/03/07/how-jeff-bezos-makes-big-decisions-at-amazon/#71a709ae4b5b
Forbes.com/sites/drewhansen/2013/03/07/how-jeff-bezos-makes-big-decisions-at-amazon/#71a709ae4b5b
Blog.idonethis.com/jeff-bezos-self-discipline-writing/
Linkedin.com/pulse/beauty-amazons-6-pager-brad-porter
Media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/97/97664/reports/Shareholderletter97.pdf
Linkedin.com/pulse/beauty-amazons-6-pager-brad-porter
Media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/97/97664/reports/Shareholderletter97.pdf
Rdio - Music Streaming Product - 2015 Growth Failure story
In this post we will study "Rdio", which was a popular Music Streaming Product that failed miserably.
2010 Aug
Rdio; the first modern music streaming service; was launched by Skype's founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis.
It had to compete with services such as Deezer, MOG, Napster, Rhapsody, and Spotify.
It offered a $5 web-only streaming plan (on the assumption you might not have a mobile device) and a BlackBerry app (in case you had a bad one).
Its catalog was limited to 7M songs, well short of the 30M tracks that it and its rivals now provide.
2013 Sep
Rdio added a music recommendations feature that delivered personalized albums, stations, and playlists.
2014 Jan
Rdio introduced some free streaming options, supported by audio advertisements.
2015 Nov
Rdio filed for bankruptcy.
Reached a deal to sell certain assets and intellectual property to a competitor, Pandora, for $75M.
2015 Dec
Rdio service was discontinued.
Using Rdio felt like the future.
Though, securing label deals took so long that the app was in development for two years before it launched, and it showed in the polished product delivered by its team.
Its blue-and-white design was calming.
Its simple grid of album artwork was a powerful rebuttal to iTunes’ nightmare spreadsheets.
It had innovative social features, showing you what your friends were streaming in real time.
It had a "heavy rotation" playlist that highlighted albums based on how many friends had listened to them.
"Social from the ground up — it sounds like marketing speak, but it was legit," said Chris Becherer, Rdio’s head of product. "The founding premise was the best music recommendations come from the people you know. That was the whole idea."
It got music people to explore and listen to more new+old music than they ever had before.
It always surfaced things people didn’t yet know they should be listening to.
Overall an excellent product.
Early as it was to the United States, Rdio was born in the shadow of Spotify, a cunning and well-financed competitor that excelled at generating buzz — and using that buzz to acquire paid subscribers.
As streaming music became a playground for giants, Rdio turned to a terrestrial radio company in a last-ditch effort to grow the user base.
Ultimately, executives decided that Rdio’s only future lay in becoming part of an internet-based platform, even if it meant disassembling the service they had been building for more than five years.
Even in late 2010, when it began to spread among design-savvy early adopters in San Francisco, people were already talking about the coming launch of Spotify.
The Swedish streaming service wouldn’t launch in America for several months, but it quickly came to define online music in the popular imagination.
Its secret: free on-demand streaming, supported by advertising.
By contrast, Rdio required a paid subscription.
Rdio eventually developed a free tier, but it came long after Spotify launched in the United States.
More pressingly, the company struggled to make the case for its own unique service.
Rdio never had a dedicated marketing chief for more than a few months at a time.
Early on, the company contracted with West, a San Francisco-based agency run by Allison Johnson, Apple’s former head of marketing.
But many people inside the company blamed the lack of in-house marketers on its lack of traction. Later, Mark Ruxin, who joined Rdio after it acquired his app Tastemaker, served in the role.
But he only served in it for a few months before leaving.
By 2013, Spotify had rocketed to 24 million users, 6 million of whom paid.
Struggling to stand out, Rdio turned to Cumulus Media, which operated 525 terrestrial radio stations.
Cumulus took a large equity stake in the company; in return, its sales force began selling ads for Rdio, which enabled the company to finally offer the free, ad-supported version of the service that Spotify had been offering in various forms since 2008.
Cumulus also promised to promote Rdio on its popular stations.
But the resulting signups were apparently nothing to brag about.
Rdio sometimes focused on the wrong things.
It invested many product cycles in refining its queue — a place to collect things you want to listen to later.
Every other music streaming service offers a queue that’s a simple list of tracks.
But if you dragged an album or a playlist into Rdio’s queue, Rdio would recognize it as a distinct object, so you could drag and drop an album above a track, or a full playlist below an album.
"That was not a major differentiating factor," says Wilson Miner (Design Head) "If we hadn’t had something like that, nobody would have noticed and it would have been fine. I still wish we could have solved it, but it was more of a personal quest than a brutally honest assessment of priorities."
Jun 2013, just before the Cumulus deal was announced, Rdio CEO Drew Larner announced he was stepping down.
Former employees say Larner was never totally comfortable being CEO; his expertise was in dealmaking, and he thought the company needed a leader whose talents lay in product and user growth.
Malthe Sigurdsson, its head of product and the person who oversaw its innovative design efforts, quit a month after Larner.
In Nov, Rdio laid off a third of its staff.
And while development on the core product continued, it increasingly felt radio-focused.
In August it added live radio stations to the app, a move designed to capitalize on the success of iHeartRadio, an app developed by the company formerly known as Clear Channel.
Earlier this month, Cumulus wrote down its investment in Rdio by $19 million.
The economics of streaming music are brutal. Record labels have nearly all the leverage, and take most of the gross revenue from streaming services.
The only way to win is to achieve a massive scale — which is why Spotify has raised more than $1 billion, spending heavily to add subscribers in hopes they will lead to a sustainable business.
Rdio realized this only belatedly.
"Rdio, I guess, made the mistake of trying to be sustainable too early," Wilson Miner says. "That classic startup mistake of worrying about being profitable and having a business that makes any sense before you’ve reached this astronomical growth curve. Which is partly the trap of the business model itself. Because of the content licensing deals, the margins for the business were so incredibly thin. No matter what we did, the labels made the lion’s share of the revenue. You have to make it up with extreme volume, which is why you see Spotify going after every human being in the world."
And yet even with more than 75 million users and 20 million paid users, Spotify still isn’t profitable. It remains to be seen whether Apple or Google can turn their own streaming offerings into viable businesses — or whether they will simply use music as a loss leader to draw consumers further into their respective ecosystems, making the money back on hardware sales or other services.
Multiple!
Marketing failure, Growth failure, and Leadership failure.
******* Choronology *******
2010 Aug
Rdio; the first modern music streaming service; was launched by Skype's founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis.
It had to compete with services such as Deezer, MOG, Napster, Rhapsody, and Spotify.
It offered a $5 web-only streaming plan (on the assumption you might not have a mobile device) and a BlackBerry app (in case you had a bad one).
Its catalog was limited to 7M songs, well short of the 30M tracks that it and its rivals now provide.
2013 Sep
Rdio added a music recommendations feature that delivered personalized albums, stations, and playlists.
2014 Jan
Rdio introduced some free streaming options, supported by audio advertisements.
2015 Nov
Rdio filed for bankruptcy.
Reached a deal to sell certain assets and intellectual property to a competitor, Pandora, for $75M.
2015 Dec
Rdio service was discontinued.
******* Experience *******
Though, securing label deals took so long that the app was in development for two years before it launched, and it showed in the polished product delivered by its team.
Its blue-and-white design was calming.
Its simple grid of album artwork was a powerful rebuttal to iTunes’ nightmare spreadsheets.
It had innovative social features, showing you what your friends were streaming in real time.
It had a "heavy rotation" playlist that highlighted albums based on how many friends had listened to them.
"Social from the ground up — it sounds like marketing speak, but it was legit," said Chris Becherer, Rdio’s head of product. "The founding premise was the best music recommendations come from the people you know. That was the whole idea."
It got music people to explore and listen to more new+old music than they ever had before.
It always surfaced things people didn’t yet know they should be listening to.
Overall an excellent product.
******* Growth & Marketing *******
As streaming music became a playground for giants, Rdio turned to a terrestrial radio company in a last-ditch effort to grow the user base.
Ultimately, executives decided that Rdio’s only future lay in becoming part of an internet-based platform, even if it meant disassembling the service they had been building for more than five years.
Even in late 2010, when it began to spread among design-savvy early adopters in San Francisco, people were already talking about the coming launch of Spotify.
The Swedish streaming service wouldn’t launch in America for several months, but it quickly came to define online music in the popular imagination.
Its secret: free on-demand streaming, supported by advertising.
By contrast, Rdio required a paid subscription.
Rdio eventually developed a free tier, but it came long after Spotify launched in the United States.
More pressingly, the company struggled to make the case for its own unique service.
Rdio never had a dedicated marketing chief for more than a few months at a time.
Early on, the company contracted with West, a San Francisco-based agency run by Allison Johnson, Apple’s former head of marketing.
But many people inside the company blamed the lack of in-house marketers on its lack of traction. Later, Mark Ruxin, who joined Rdio after it acquired his app Tastemaker, served in the role.
But he only served in it for a few months before leaving.
By 2013, Spotify had rocketed to 24 million users, 6 million of whom paid.
Struggling to stand out, Rdio turned to Cumulus Media, which operated 525 terrestrial radio stations.
Cumulus took a large equity stake in the company; in return, its sales force began selling ads for Rdio, which enabled the company to finally offer the free, ad-supported version of the service that Spotify had been offering in various forms since 2008.
Cumulus also promised to promote Rdio on its popular stations.
But the resulting signups were apparently nothing to brag about.
******* Feature Prioritization *******
It invested many product cycles in refining its queue — a place to collect things you want to listen to later.
Every other music streaming service offers a queue that’s a simple list of tracks.
But if you dragged an album or a playlist into Rdio’s queue, Rdio would recognize it as a distinct object, so you could drag and drop an album above a track, or a full playlist below an album.
"That was not a major differentiating factor," says Wilson Miner (Design Head) "If we hadn’t had something like that, nobody would have noticed and it would have been fine. I still wish we could have solved it, but it was more of a personal quest than a brutally honest assessment of priorities."
******* Leadership & Radio-focus *******
Former employees say Larner was never totally comfortable being CEO; his expertise was in dealmaking, and he thought the company needed a leader whose talents lay in product and user growth.
Malthe Sigurdsson, its head of product and the person who oversaw its innovative design efforts, quit a month after Larner.
In Nov, Rdio laid off a third of its staff.
And while development on the core product continued, it increasingly felt radio-focused.
In August it added live radio stations to the app, a move designed to capitalize on the success of iHeartRadio, an app developed by the company formerly known as Clear Channel.
Earlier this month, Cumulus wrote down its investment in Rdio by $19 million.
******* Economics of Music *******
The only way to win is to achieve a massive scale — which is why Spotify has raised more than $1 billion, spending heavily to add subscribers in hopes they will lead to a sustainable business.
Rdio realized this only belatedly.
"Rdio, I guess, made the mistake of trying to be sustainable too early," Wilson Miner says. "That classic startup mistake of worrying about being profitable and having a business that makes any sense before you’ve reached this astronomical growth curve. Which is partly the trap of the business model itself. Because of the content licensing deals, the margins for the business were so incredibly thin. No matter what we did, the labels made the lion’s share of the revenue. You have to make it up with extreme volume, which is why you see Spotify going after every human being in the world."
And yet even with more than 75 million users and 20 million paid users, Spotify still isn’t profitable. It remains to be seen whether Apple or Google can turn their own streaming offerings into viable businesses — or whether they will simply use music as a loss leader to draw consumers further into their respective ecosystems, making the money back on hardware sales or other services.
******* Cause of Death *******
Marketing failure, Growth failure, and Leadership failure.
Niklas Zennström
Credits:
Linkedin.com/in/drew-larner-5b51bb34/
Linkedin.com/in/wilsonminer/
Linkedin.com/in/becherer/
Linkedin.com/in/malthe/
Linkedin.com/in/niklaszennstrom/
En.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Rdio
TheVerge.com/2015/11/17/9750890/rdio-shutdown-pandora
Linkedin.com/in/wilsonminer/
Linkedin.com/in/becherer/
Linkedin.com/in/malthe/
Linkedin.com/in/niklaszennstrom/
En.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Rdio
TheVerge.com/2015/11/17/9750890/rdio-shutdown-pandora
brushing up the commonly used Retail jargon
Brick-and-Mortar
A business that has a physical storefront that provides products or services on-site.
It usually has no eCommerce options.
Mom-and-Pop
It is a type of Brick-and-Mortar
A small, family-owned or independent business.
Also called "local shop".
(shops' example: grocery, hardware, restaurants, physician, chiropractor, therapist)
Brick-and-Click
Click-and-Mortar
A Brick-and-Mortar that has a website that allows online shopping.
B2B
Business-to-Business
A market where one business makes a commercial transaction with another.
B2C
Business-to-Consumer
A market where a consumer buys from a business entity.
C2B
Consumer-to-Business
A business model in which consumers create value that businesses consume.
Example: Fiserv, Partner program of Quora
Example: Fiserv, Partner program of Quora
C2C
Consumer-to-Consumer
A market that provide an innovative way to allow customers to interact with each other.
Example: eBay, OLX
D2C
Direct-to-Consumer
A situation when the business sells products directly to customers, bypassing any third-party retailers, wholesalers, or any other middlemen.
DTC brands are usually sold online only and specialize in a specific product category.
Example: Casper, Warby Parker, Everlane, Harry’s, Outdoor Voices, AWAY, and Dollar Shave Club.
B2G
Business-to-Government
A market where a business provides products/services to a Gov entity.
Example: A Public-Private partnership (PPP or 3P or P3) is a kind of B2G where a private company provides products/services to Gov for infrastructure provision, such as the building and equipping of schools, hospitals, transport systems, and water and sewerage systems.
O2O
Online-to-Offline
Offline-to-Online
A 2-way flow between the offline retail and online retail aka ecommerce.
Works in multiple ways like:
1. Consumer see an ad online, and then visit the store to buy the product
2. Consumer is in a physical store which stocks one quantity of each product for display purpose. The consumer is expected to place order via the kiosk installed in the store
3. Consumer pays for a product online, and then picks it up from an offline place/store
Pricing a Good which goes from a Manufacturer to Wholesaler to Retailer to Customer (class 2 of 2)
There are a lot of factors that affect the decision of price-pointing any given product. We studied some of the major these factors in the 1st part of the story here:
https://saurabhkautilyagupta.blogspot.com/2020/03/pricing-factors-market-competition-quality-cost-supply-chain-hops-profit-margin-product-management.html
After collecting the above data points, let us start pricing calculation...
From the Manufacturer's perspective:
Manufacturing cost = $100
Innterests & taxes = $50
Supply chain cost (warehousing, packing, shipping) = $20
Assuming we want to keep a net profit margin of 10%, we should price it at =
Cost + 10% margin.
Cost = Sum total of all costs =
($100 + $50 + $20) = $170
So, we would price our product at =
$170 + (10% of $170) = $170 + $17 = $187
So, the price at which the Manufacturer will sell the product to the Wholesaler =
$187
******************
From the Wholesaler's perspective:
Cost of Good = $187
Interests & taxes = $3
Marketing cost = $5 (initially - this will/might go down as sales increase)
Supply chain cost (warehousing, packing, shipping) = $5
Totals costs = $200
Assuming s/he wants to keep a net profit margin of 5%, we should price it at =
Cost + 5% margin =
$200 + (5% of $200) = $220 + $10 = $210
So, the price at which the Wholesaler will sell the product to the Retailer =
$210
******************
From the Retailer's perspective:
Cost of Good = $210
Interests & taxes = $5
Supply chain cost (warehousing, packing, shipping) = $5
Totals costs = $220
Assuming s/he wants to keep a net profit margin of 5%, we should price it at =
Cost + 5% margin =
$220 + (5% of $220) = $220 + $11 = $231
So, the price at which the Retailer will sell the product to the Customer =
$231
******************
Let us assume, that the competitors' product's price = $250
So, the MRP of our product can be kept at = $240
At $240, we are cheaper and better (assuming we are offering better features) than the competition, and the wholesalers & retailers are also making a decent margin. The retailers can offer the remaining $9 (=$240-$231) to the customers as a discount.
******************
Additional pointers:
If the product is also expected to generate revenue (this logic is not valid for all physical products, but for a product like Kindle which is not just a product - it is also a platform for selling more products), the Manufacturer can decide to reduce its initial Margin by $10.
After launching the product, we can change the prices multiple times (in the name of discounts, flash-sales, promotions, offers, etc) - Lower the prices if expected sales do not happen (or if customers give us feedback/suggestions about lowering the pricing) & increase the prices if the sales is increasing - Take note of the demand at each price point and decide the best price-point of our product.
After collecting the above data points, let us start pricing calculation...
******************
From the Manufacturer's perspective:
Manufacturing cost = $100
Innterests & taxes = $50
Supply chain cost (warehousing, packing, shipping) = $20
Assuming we want to keep a net profit margin of 10%, we should price it at =
Cost + 10% margin.
Cost = Sum total of all costs =
($100 + $50 + $20) = $170
So, we would price our product at =
$170 + (10% of $170) = $170 + $17 = $187
So, the price at which the Manufacturer will sell the product to the Wholesaler =
$187
******************
From the Wholesaler's perspective:
Cost of Good = $187
Interests & taxes = $3
Marketing cost = $5 (initially - this will/might go down as sales increase)
Supply chain cost (warehousing, packing, shipping) = $5
Totals costs = $200
Assuming s/he wants to keep a net profit margin of 5%, we should price it at =
Cost + 5% margin =
$200 + (5% of $200) = $220 + $10 = $210
So, the price at which the Wholesaler will sell the product to the Retailer =
$210
******************
From the Retailer's perspective:
Cost of Good = $210
Interests & taxes = $5
Supply chain cost (warehousing, packing, shipping) = $5
Totals costs = $220
Assuming s/he wants to keep a net profit margin of 5%, we should price it at =
Cost + 5% margin =
$220 + (5% of $220) = $220 + $11 = $231
So, the price at which the Retailer will sell the product to the Customer =
$231
******************
Let us assume, that the competitors' product's price = $250
So, the MRP of our product can be kept at = $240
At $240, we are cheaper and better (assuming we are offering better features) than the competition, and the wholesalers & retailers are also making a decent margin. The retailers can offer the remaining $9 (=$240-$231) to the customers as a discount.
******************
Additional pointers:
If the product is also expected to generate revenue (this logic is not valid for all physical products, but for a product like Kindle which is not just a product - it is also a platform for selling more products), the Manufacturer can decide to reduce its initial Margin by $10.
After launching the product, we can change the prices multiple times (in the name of discounts, flash-sales, promotions, offers, etc) - Lower the prices if expected sales do not happen (or if customers give us feedback/suggestions about lowering the pricing) & increase the prices if the sales is increasing - Take note of the demand at each price point and decide the best price-point of our product.
a sample Sales-ad by Jabong (now part of Walmart group)
Pricing a Good which goes from a Manufacturer to Wholesaler to Retailer to Customer (class 1 of 2)
There are a lot of factors that affect the decision of price-pointing any given product.
Some of these factors are:
Pricing of similar products in the market by competitors?
Pricing of Similar products in the market by us?
Are we okay with launching a product at a drastically-different (high/low) pricing than our other products?
What is our usual product pricing & profit margin% for all other products that we have so far?
All the costs that went into manufacturing, marketing, etc.?
Ideally here we will include the operating expenses (like packaging costs, supply chain costs, etc.), the interests we pay on liabilities, and the taxes we pay to the government.
Length of the distribution chain - How many hops does it take before the product reaches in the hand of our customer?
Net Profit Margin% that we want to make?
Are we willing to take a hit in profit?
Are we willing to sell it at loss, for some time, to capture the market?
Is our product better than the competitors' products?
Who is our TG?
What price-ranges does our target audience usually buy?
What our customers perceive of us?
What kind of brand are we - new & popular, new but not-popular, old & popular, old but not-popular?
Do we plan to launch this product under our existing brand-name or with a new brand-name?
Where will we be selling it - on own website, on other online stores, on offline stores?
If we sell offline, a price multiplier will have to be added to make sure that all the people - including wholesalers & all the retailers in the chain can make a profit by selling our product.
Is it a necessity or a luxury or a premium product?
Is there such a stiff competition that the final price is already decided?
Is there a scarcity of this product in the market?
After you collect the above data points, you will be able to start pricing calculation - that we have done in the 2nd part of this story here:
https://saurabhkautilyagupta.blogspot.com/2020/03/pricing-cost-expense-tax-gross-net-profit-margin-markup-product-management.html
Pricing of similar products in the market by competitors?
Pricing of Similar products in the market by us?
Are we okay with launching a product at a drastically-different (high/low) pricing than our other products?
What is our usual product pricing & profit margin% for all other products that we have so far?
All the costs that went into manufacturing, marketing, etc.?
Ideally here we will include the operating expenses (like packaging costs, supply chain costs, etc.), the interests we pay on liabilities, and the taxes we pay to the government.
Length of the distribution chain - How many hops does it take before the product reaches in the hand of our customer?
Net Profit Margin% that we want to make?
Are we willing to take a hit in profit?
Are we willing to sell it at loss, for some time, to capture the market?
Is our product better than the competitors' products?
Who is our TG?
What price-ranges does our target audience usually buy?
What our customers perceive of us?
What kind of brand are we - new & popular, new but not-popular, old & popular, old but not-popular?
Do we plan to launch this product under our existing brand-name or with a new brand-name?
Where will we be selling it - on own website, on other online stores, on offline stores?
If we sell offline, a price multiplier will have to be added to make sure that all the people - including wholesalers & all the retailers in the chain can make a profit by selling our product.
Is it a necessity or a luxury or a premium product?
Is there such a stiff competition that the final price is already decided?
Is there a scarcity of this product in the market?
After you collect the above data points, you will be able to start pricing calculation - that we have done in the 2nd part of this story here:
https://saurabhkautilyagupta.blogspot.com/2020/03/pricing-cost-expense-tax-gross-net-profit-margin-markup-product-management.html
comprehending a Bearish Market & a Bullish Market
The names, "Bearish Market" or "Bullish Market", come from for the way that these particular animals - a Bear & a Bull - attacks its victims.
A Bull swipes its victim upward during an attack while a Bear swipes its target downward during an attack, thus becoming a metaphor for market activity under these conditions.
Bull markets are defined by the market going up aggressively over a period of time.
As the market starts to rise, there becomes more and more greed in the stock market.
You see more and more people thinking, “Oh yeah let’s put money into the market because it’s going up.”
The Bear market is exactly the opposite of a bull market.
It’s a market where quarter after quarter the market is moving down about 20%.
And when that happens people start to get really scared about putting money into the stock market.
It’s a market where quarter after quarter the market is moving down about 20%.
And when that happens people start to get really scared about putting money into the stock market.
One of the most famous examples of a bear market takes the form of the 1987 market crash, which saw a 29.6% drop that lasted roughly 3 months - Often called Black Monday.
Credit: MarketVolume.com
Another infamous example is the The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major stock market crash that occurred in 1929.
It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange collapsed.
It was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the USA, when taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its aftereffects.
The crash, which followed the London Stock Exchange's crash of September, signaled the beginning of the Great Depression.
It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange collapsed.
It was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the USA, when taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its aftereffects.
The crash, which followed the London Stock Exchange's crash of September, signaled the beginning of the Great Depression.
Credit: MarketVolume.com
a newspaper cutting of 24 Oct 1929
a newspaper cutting of 28 Oct 1929
Credits:
En.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Monday_(1987)
RuleOneInvesting.com/blog/stock-market-basics/whats-the-difference-between-a-bull-and-bear-market/
MarketVolume.com/analysis/stockmarketcrashes.asp
En.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_Crash_of_1929
Cryptocurrency Trading - Supreme Court of India vs Reserve Bank of India
The Supreme Court of India (SCI) has allowed trading in cryptocurrencies.
This nullifies the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s 2018 circular which barred banks & financial services from dealing in virtual currencies; including cryptocurrencies (such as Bitcoin) and crypto-assets; as this raised concerns of consumer protection, market integrity, and money laundering.
However, the crypto & blockchain industry in India still faces hurdles as a government panel, appointed to look into the matter, has recommended that India ought to ban all private cryptocurrencies. In July, the panel also recommended a jail term of up to 10 years and heavy fines for anyone dealing in digital currencies. On several occasions, the government along with the central-bank had cautioned the public about the risks of cryptocurrencies. If the government follows the panel's recommendations, it could signal the end of the road for these digital currencies in India.
What is Cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of currency units and verify the transfer of funds, operating independently of a central bank.
This nullifies the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s 2018 circular which barred banks & financial services from dealing in virtual currencies; including cryptocurrencies (such as Bitcoin) and crypto-assets; as this raised concerns of consumer protection, market integrity, and money laundering.
However, the crypto & blockchain industry in India still faces hurdles as a government panel, appointed to look into the matter, has recommended that India ought to ban all private cryptocurrencies. In July, the panel also recommended a jail term of up to 10 years and heavy fines for anyone dealing in digital currencies. On several occasions, the government along with the central-bank had cautioned the public about the risks of cryptocurrencies. If the government follows the panel's recommendations, it could signal the end of the road for these digital currencies in India.
What is Cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of currency units and verify the transfer of funds, operating independently of a central bank.
Credit:
Timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/supreme-court-allows-cryptocurrency-trading-cancels-rbis-2018-circular/articleshow/74470172.cms
END of an era called Jabong
Feb 2020 - The poster-child of India's Fashion-Ecommerce Jabong has been shut down by its parent Flipkart.
Founded in 2012, Jabong accounted for 25% market share in India’s F&L e-commerce market in 2014 and was one of the most loved brands in India.
Run by an amazing team of highly-passionate & extremely-committed people, Jabong was industry-first in taking/launching multiple initiatives including "Next Door", "Same Day Delivery", "India Online Fashion Week", etc.
Remembering all those visionary heads / leaders and all the awesome team members who built Jabong with their sweat & blood:
Business heads:
Heavent Malhotra, Praveen Sinha, Arun Chandra Mohan, Manu Kumar Jain, Mukul Bafana
Product / Tech / Design leaders:
Harsh Kundra, Ambrish Bajaj, Rajat Shikhar, Rohan Garg, Anish Nair, Parveen Verma, Gautam Malik, Anjani Bajpai
Category / Ops leaders:
Siddharth Nambiar, Rooh Ruksh Chatterji, Dharmender Dabral, Amit Singh, Amit Kumar, Prashanti Alagappa, Neerajh Vohraa, Kritidipta Lahkar, naveen garg, Puneet Gupta, Mayank Shivam, Rukaiya Rangwala, Vijay Ghadge, Rishi Patnaik, Gautam Pande, Mini sharma, Baldeep Singh, Vineet Baid, Saurabh Bansal
Click here to read more about Jabong's industry-first initiatives:
Retail.EconomicTimes.IndiaTimes.com/news/e-commerce/e-tailing/jabong-partners-with-coffee-shops-and-fuel-outlets-to-expand-delivery-reach/40349327
IndianOnlineSeller.com/2014/08/amazon-gets-drones-ready-jabong-gets-coffee-shop-date/
Yourstory.com/2015/09/ecommerce-logistics-small-town-focus
Hindustantimes.com/fashion-and-trends/jabong-announces-india-s-first-online-fashion-week/story-GaBGikfTsZ45QcnYfgAjHL.html
Fashionlady.in/jabong-announces-worlds-first-online-fashion-week/10064
TheHinduBusinessline.com/info-tech/jabongcom-talenthouse-india-launch-online-fashion-week/article23109419.ece
IndiaToday.in/lifestyle/fashion/story/e-fashion-week-jabong-india-online-fashion-week-yami-gautam-zara-195775-2014-06-05
Linkedin.com/posts/kautilya_jabong-shut-jabong-activity-6632543014155845632-5hTD
post's statistics: 11k views, 111 likes, 11 comments, 11 shares
Founded in 2012, Jabong accounted for 25% market share in India’s F&L e-commerce market in 2014 and was one of the most loved brands in India.
Run by an amazing team of highly-passionate & extremely-committed people, Jabong was industry-first in taking/launching multiple initiatives including "Next Door", "Same Day Delivery", "India Online Fashion Week", etc.
I was fortunate enough to be part of its glorious journey.
My heart cries to see it get shut.
Business heads:
Heavent Malhotra, Praveen Sinha, Arun Chandra Mohan, Manu Kumar Jain, Mukul Bafana
Product / Tech / Design leaders:
Harsh Kundra, Ambrish Bajaj, Rajat Shikhar, Rohan Garg, Anish Nair, Parveen Verma, Gautam Malik, Anjani Bajpai
Category / Ops leaders:
Siddharth Nambiar, Rooh Ruksh Chatterji, Dharmender Dabral, Amit Singh, Amit Kumar, Prashanti Alagappa, Neerajh Vohraa, Kritidipta Lahkar, naveen garg, Puneet Gupta, Mayank Shivam, Rukaiya Rangwala, Vijay Ghadge, Rishi Patnaik, Gautam Pande, Mini sharma, Baldeep Singh, Vineet Baid, Saurabh Bansal
___________________________
Click here to read more about Jabong's industry-first initiatives:
Retail.EconomicTimes.IndiaTimes.com/news/e-commerce/e-tailing/jabong-partners-with-coffee-shops-and-fuel-outlets-to-expand-delivery-reach/40349327
IndianOnlineSeller.com/2014/08/amazon-gets-drones-ready-jabong-gets-coffee-shop-date/
Yourstory.com/2015/09/ecommerce-logistics-small-town-focus
Hindustantimes.com/fashion-and-trends/jabong-announces-india-s-first-online-fashion-week/story-GaBGikfTsZ45QcnYfgAjHL.html
Fashionlady.in/jabong-announces-worlds-first-online-fashion-week/10064
TheHinduBusinessline.com/info-tech/jabongcom-talenthouse-india-launch-online-fashion-week/article23109419.ece
IndiaToday.in/lifestyle/fashion/story/e-fashion-week-jabong-india-online-fashion-week-yami-gautam-zara-195775-2014-06-05
___________________________
Click here to read this article on LinkedIn:post's statistics: 11k views, 111 likes, 11 comments, 11 shares
___________________________
Digital transformation initiatives - Why are they Failing
When it comes to digital transformation, there are 4 root causes of failed digital initiatives:
__________________________________
Data Infrastructure
__________________________________
Data Infrastructure
The existing data infrastructure creates limitations when it comes to leveraging unstructured data to drive insights. Originally created to deal with structured data, this infrastructure wasn't prepared for the explosion of big data. The pieces are hard to change once defined since the addition of new data dimensions requires expensive design and reprocessing effort. Moreover, legacy data infrastructure makes it very hard to get to a deeper level of granularity of insights.
For example, when have you last seen a bank that is as precise at personalization as Amazon?
__________________________________
__________________________________
IT Processes
Traditional IT deployment cycles as they're set up in many legacy enterprises are not designed to support and drive the modern analytics "test, learn, adapt" paradigm. These processes should be based on experimentation. If something has to fail, it has to fail fast. Instead, in a legacy enterprise, you have to first spend a lot of time doing the analysis and making sure you get it right the first time because if you fail, it may be fatal.
__________________________________
Back-End Systems
__________________________________
Back-End Systems
In most legacy enterprises, these systems end up being a bottleneck. They simply aren't designed to handle the probabilistic choice-based workflows to enable real-time responsiveness to customer signals.
Have you tried opening a bank account online? It's not possible precisely because, in most banks, their back-end systems are not able to support it and deliver real-time customer services online. As a result, businesses are unable to realize the true potential of tightly coupled systems and automation for real-time customer services and an end-to-end transformation.
__________________________________
Legacy Business Processes
Legacy Business Processes
The basic mindset of these processes is all about control, risk management and being comprehensive. These processes were designed to get things right the first time without fail. As a result, businesses have built very complex processes to avoid failure, but as with anything very complex, it is hard for it to be fast in real time. The legacy mindset of the "Right First Time" process design makes it difficult to drive iterative experimentation-based improvements.
In other words, even if the technology works, business processes end up slowing things down.
In other words, even if the technology works, business processes end up slowing things down.
__________________________________
Above is a summary of an article published in Forbes by Nitin Seth (ex-COO Flipkart).
Read the full article here:
Forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/01/14/maximizing-returns-from-digital-investments-part-one-why-the-problems-persist/#2d45b271cc95
Youtube launched for Toddlers & Kids & young Children - Chapter 2 of 2 - Business story
Youtube has recently asked all the creators to designate their channels as being either not child their channel is "made for kids".
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) enacted in 1998 and in effect since 2000, places rules on when and how websites and services can collect personally identifiable information about children under the age of 13.
YouTube, theoretically, has always been subject to the law but, according to the FTC, was not in compliance. They claim that YouTube, and its parent company Google, collected information on minors in a bid to show them more targeted advertising. This was despite the fact that portions of its site were clearly directed at kids.
In addition to the monetary settlement, YouTube was forced to “develop, implement, and maintain a system that permits channel owners to identify their child-directed content on the YouTube platform so that YouTube can ensure it is complying with COPPA.” That system is what is being implemented now and it requires creators to designate their channels as being either not child their channel is “made for kids”. According to the settlement, if a creator fails to comply with this rule, the liability can be as high as $42,000 per mislabeled video.
This is what Youtube is officially asking the creators to do, and what changes they will start to see on their kids-related content:
Why all this hu-ha?
This story begins back in September 2019, when YouTube reached a $170 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over its practices involving children.
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) enacted in 1998 and in effect since 2000, places rules on when and how websites and services can collect personally identifiable information about children under the age of 13.
YouTube, theoretically, has always been subject to the law but, according to the FTC, was not in compliance. They claim that YouTube, and its parent company Google, collected information on minors in a bid to show them more targeted advertising. This was despite the fact that portions of its site were clearly directed at kids.
In addition to the monetary settlement, YouTube was forced to “develop, implement, and maintain a system that permits channel owners to identify their child-directed content on the YouTube platform so that YouTube can ensure it is complying with COPPA.” That system is what is being implemented now and it requires creators to designate their channels as being either not child their channel is “made for kids”. According to the settlement, if a creator fails to comply with this rule, the liability can be as high as $42,000 per mislabeled video.
Credit:
Kids.youtube.com
Support.google.com/youtube/answer/9383587?hl=en
Plagiarismtoday.com/2019/11/18/why-2020-could-be-a-disaster-for-youtubers/
Ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/business-blog/2019/11/youtube-channel-owners-your-content-directed-children
Hollywoodreporter.com/news/new-youtube-policies-aim-make-kids-videos-safer-but-creators-will-suffer-1239664
Support.google.com/youtube/answer/6173147?hl=en
Netflix’s India posted an 8-fold rise in FY-19 Revenue
Netflix India grows at a fiery pace of ~700% in 1 year.
Revenue FY-2019:
Netflix - ₹466.7 crore ; (FY-2018 ~₹58 crore)
Hotstar - ₹1112.74 crore (surged ~95%)
Net P&L FY-2019:
Netflix - ₹5.1 crore (Net Profit) (FY-2018 ~₹20 lakh)
Hotstar - ₹554.38 crore (Net Loss) (Up ~42.5%)
Factors that stimulated growth of Netflix:
• The Mobile-only plan at ₹199 per month is one of it's most economical offering compared to global markets & has accelerated growth since Jul'2019 in India.
• The partnership with Airtel & boosting efficiency on payments were key factors for fierce growth.
• High quality of international, original content, local content expansion & marketing blitzkrieg has helped Netflix dominate 'profitably' the price-sensitive Indian OTT market.
Hotstar owns majority of the market share in India regardless of losses posted and is all set to be launched globally. The Walt Disney Company now owns Hotstar after buying Star India as a part of the $71 Billion Fox Deal. Launch of DisneyPlus is round the corner ready to disrupt FY20 and pile even more competitive pressure on Netflix.
Revenue FY-2019:
Netflix - ₹466.7 crore ; (FY-2018 ~₹58 crore)
Hotstar - ₹1112.74 crore (surged ~95%)
Net P&L FY-2019:
Netflix - ₹5.1 crore (Net Profit) (FY-2018 ~₹20 lakh)
Hotstar - ₹554.38 crore (Net Loss) (Up ~42.5%)
Factors that stimulated growth of Netflix:
• The Mobile-only plan at ₹199 per month is one of it's most economical offering compared to global markets & has accelerated growth since Jul'2019 in India.
• The partnership with Airtel & boosting efficiency on payments were key factors for fierce growth.
• High quality of international, original content, local content expansion & marketing blitzkrieg has helped Netflix dominate 'profitably' the price-sensitive Indian OTT market.
Hotstar owns majority of the market share in India regardless of losses posted and is all set to be launched globally. The Walt Disney Company now owns Hotstar after buying Star India as a part of the $71 Billion Fox Deal. Launch of DisneyPlus is round the corner ready to disrupt FY20 and pile even more competitive pressure on Netflix.
Credit:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/news/netflixs-had-a-blockbuster-year-4459403/
Rise & Fall of Jet Airways in India
21 years of Rise & Fall of Jet Airways have been perfectly illustrated in the given video. Also visualized are how other airlines (Indigo, Air India, Indian Airlines, Sahara, Kingfisher) fared and how Indian government regulations impacted Aviation Industry in India.
Data credit:
http://dgca.nic.in/
Data credit:
http://dgca.nic.in/
using Robotics & Automation to convert Garbage into Money
What is Impossible?
Cleaning 1,000,000 Tons of Garbage in 200 Days from 100 Acres of land & also Generate Revenue while doing so - Is this even remotely possible?
'Impossible is Nothing' & this man has proven it without a doubt - Asheesh Singh (IAS, Municipal Commissioner, Indore, M.P., India).
the Story:
1. Indore became 100% Garbage-free & India's cleanest city
2. Cleared 1.3 Million Metric Tons of garbage (dumped in last 45 years)
3. From 100 Acres of land
4. Done in just 6 months
5. Used Robotics & Automation & Software-based-monitoring
6. Generated Methane & Compost from Wet-waste (revenue generation)
7. Segregated Dry-waste in ~30 categories & sells the same further (revenue generation)
8. Generated Diesel from Plastic (revenue generation)
9. Of the 100 Acres of reclaimed land, 10 Acres being used to build a Forest
10. Part of #SwachhBharatMission led by India's PM #NarendraModi
#WasteManagement #WasteDisposal #Waste2Energy #WasteToEnergy #WasteRecycling
Credit:
Cleaning 1,000,000 Tons of Garbage in 200 Days from 100 Acres of land & also Generate Revenue while doing so - Is this even remotely possible?
'Impossible is Nothing' & this man has proven it without a doubt - Asheesh Singh (IAS, Municipal Commissioner, Indore, M.P., India).
the Story:
1. Indore became 100% Garbage-free & India's cleanest city
2. Cleared 1.3 Million Metric Tons of garbage (dumped in last 45 years)
3. From 100 Acres of land
4. Done in just 6 months
5. Used Robotics & Automation & Software-based-monitoring
6. Generated Methane & Compost from Wet-waste (revenue generation)
7. Segregated Dry-waste in ~30 categories & sells the same further (revenue generation)
8. Generated Diesel from Plastic (revenue generation)
9. Of the 100 Acres of reclaimed land, 10 Acres being used to build a Forest
10. Part of #SwachhBharatMission led by India's PM #NarendraModi
#WasteManagement #WasteDisposal #Waste2Energy #WasteToEnergy #WasteRecycling
Credit:
Marissa Mayer 1-pager resume by online resume-writing firm EnhanCV
Credit:
https://enhancv.com/static/d1b75ac8b27c53faa5fc6540def8013c/9e2df/marissa-mayer-resume.jpg
Jack Ma's Words of Wisdom on Product, Competition, Leadership, Priorities, Failure, etc.
Leadership:
"Intelligent people need a fool to lead them.
When the team’s all a bunch of scientists, it is best to have a peasant lead the way.
His way of thinking is different.
It’s easier to win if you have people seeing things from different perspectives."
Perseverance:
“Today is hard, tomorrow is harder, but the day after tomorrow is beautiful.”
Failure:
“If you don’t give up, you still have a chance.
Giving up is the greatest failure.”
On fighting eBay’s efforts to enter China:
“EBay may be a shark in the ocean, but I am a crocodile in the Yangtze River.
If we fight in the ocean, we lose.
But if we fight in the river, we win.”
Management Priorities:
“Customer first.
Employees second.
Shareholders third.”
Distraction of rivals:
“Do not focus on your competitors.
Focus on your customers.”
People:
“We’re never in lack of money.
We lack people with dreams who can die for those dreams.”
On China’s internet controls and Western companies involvement:
“Facebook and these companies, if they come here they have to follow the rules and laws.
Google, they left – we did not kick them out.
When you do business in any country you have to follow the rules and laws.”
On philanthropic strategy:
“To do philanthropy well, you need to use commercial means, while bearing a philanthropic heart; don’t use philanthropic means and bear a commercial heart.”
"Intelligent people need a fool to lead them.
When the team’s all a bunch of scientists, it is best to have a peasant lead the way.
His way of thinking is different.
It’s easier to win if you have people seeing things from different perspectives."
Perseverance:
“Today is hard, tomorrow is harder, but the day after tomorrow is beautiful.”
Failure:
“If you don’t give up, you still have a chance.
Giving up is the greatest failure.”
On fighting eBay’s efforts to enter China:
“EBay may be a shark in the ocean, but I am a crocodile in the Yangtze River.
If we fight in the ocean, we lose.
But if we fight in the river, we win.”
Management Priorities:
“Customer first.
Employees second.
Shareholders third.”
Distraction of rivals:
“Do not focus on your competitors.
Focus on your customers.”
People:
“We’re never in lack of money.
We lack people with dreams who can die for those dreams.”
On China’s internet controls and Western companies involvement:
“Facebook and these companies, if they come here they have to follow the rules and laws.
Google, they left – we did not kick them out.
When you do business in any country you have to follow the rules and laws.”
On philanthropic strategy:
“To do philanthropy well, you need to use commercial means, while bearing a philanthropic heart; don’t use philanthropic means and bear a commercial heart.”
Jack Ma Yun (Chinese: 马云) is a Chinese business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is the co-founder and executive chairman of the Alibaba Group, a multinational technology conglomerate. As of August 2018, he is one of China's richest men with a net worth of US$38.6 billion, as well as one of the wealthiest people in the world. On 10 September 2018 he announced that he will step down as executive chairman of Alibaba Group Holding in the coming year.
Credit:
Bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-09/jack-ma-on-management-why-a-fool-needs-to-lead-smart-people
How Xiaomi became India's top Smartphone Maker - Manu Jain interview
An year back I wrote a post about how Xiaomi became India's top Smartphone Maker (click here to read it..)
In the following post, I attach the interview of Manu Jain (India Head, Xiaomi) who talks about this and many more business strategies that he has applied to take Xiaomi to the top slot in Indian market.
Credit:
Economic Times
Elon Musk 1-pager resume by online resume-writing firm Novorésumé
Source:
Businessinsider.in/This-resume-for-Elon-Musk-proves-you-never-ever-need-to-use-more-than-one-page/articleshow/51869135.cms
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