“I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.” – William Penn
CSR activities should form an integral part of work in any company. An organization should strive to achieve a more equitable sorrounding society by creating small, but effective opportunities in the areas of healthcare, education, social rehabilitation and the arts. Corporate social responsibility, according to me, has changed dramatically over the past few years. Previously, CSR encompassed philanthropic activities which enhanced the organization’s commercial benefit and raised its reputation with customers. I believe it is now about using the core competence of the organization to establish linkages between the internal and the external communities.
In addition to the CSR’s obvious benefits to society, it builds a positive image of the organization among the employees and encourages their social involvement. Today’s employees increasingly feel the need to contribute to the cause of creating a better society. This leads to a dedicated workforce that is proud of its employer. Therefore, I believe CSR is a two way street, where the companies help the society and in turn reap the benefits by improving its image both internally and externally. This has caused CSR to emerge as a strong force in the corporate world
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
The business side of China!!
Chinese economy has been booming since the 1950’s; the economy has been increasing so rapidly over the past decade that some analysts predict overheating but the Chinese analysts feel that this boom is supported by the substantial improvement in the economy’s potential for further expansion. This claim is supported by the rapid advances in industries like electricity, coal mining, petroleum and infrastructure etc. China has more than enough funds to sustain this phenomenal growth. The people of china have built up a large amount of private wealth and one of the reasons for this is the development is funded through FDIs. There is a solid inflow of foreign investments in china due to the huge potential for demand in China. Some of the economists feel that the Chinese economy size is undervalued since the Yuan is undervalued. One dollar is nearly equal to 7.0 Yuan whereas if we consider the goods that we can buy in a Dollar, the exchange is around 4.0 Yuan.
The analysts feel that China is moving from being the world’s producer to the world’s market. Therefore all the major companies want to cash in on this huge potential market. The accumulation of private wealth in China is making the baby boomers in China a huge market. The domestic consumption in China has seen an increase since 2002. The rural population has seen an increase in their earnings due to the income re-allocation scheme introduced by the government in 2002. The government has even allowed people to shift into the cities by providing PR status. The analysts say that this situation has improved due to government’s efforts to lay more emphasis on public welfare of pensioners and rural workers.
This dispensable income with Chinese people has had many benefits to the economy; one of them is the growth in the fashion and luxury goods industry a Louis Vuitton brand manager talked to us about the growing need for luxury goods in China. China is already the third biggest consumer of luxury goods. The manager also talked about the prestige value associated with these goods and how the Chinese people place a lot of emphasis on this prestige value. But the problem facing the government is the rip-offs or the lack of a system of intellectual property rights of these luxury brands. The fake markets are hurting the brand image and the sales of companies like Ralph-Lauren badly. But the big brands are still going to China because their researches have shown that there is a section of rich Chinese society that doesn’t mind overpaying for these luxury goods and this segment is increasing. Even sports like NBA recognize the importance of China and its huge potential market for the sport. The NBA created a separate entity called NBA China this year to promote basketball in both rural and urban part of China. A speaker involved in this process talked about the huge expected revenues this body can generate by popularizing this game in China through TV rights and selling NBA merchandize.
Some of the analysts felt that to have a successful business in China, it is necessary to follow both differentiation and cost leadership. While this strategy might not work in a developed market like United States where the brands are established and sales are possible through differentiation only. In China’s developing market cost is very important and it is tough to sell items only through branding. This concept was highlighted by Lenovo’s success over other competitors like HP and Dell. Another very important aspect necessary to succeed in China is to build strong relation with the government as the government is strongly involved in most of the successful businesses.
The analysts feel that China is moving from being the world’s producer to the world’s market. Therefore all the major companies want to cash in on this huge potential market. The accumulation of private wealth in China is making the baby boomers in China a huge market. The domestic consumption in China has seen an increase since 2002. The rural population has seen an increase in their earnings due to the income re-allocation scheme introduced by the government in 2002. The government has even allowed people to shift into the cities by providing PR status. The analysts say that this situation has improved due to government’s efforts to lay more emphasis on public welfare of pensioners and rural workers.
This dispensable income with Chinese people has had many benefits to the economy; one of them is the growth in the fashion and luxury goods industry a Louis Vuitton brand manager talked to us about the growing need for luxury goods in China. China is already the third biggest consumer of luxury goods. The manager also talked about the prestige value associated with these goods and how the Chinese people place a lot of emphasis on this prestige value. But the problem facing the government is the rip-offs or the lack of a system of intellectual property rights of these luxury brands. The fake markets are hurting the brand image and the sales of companies like Ralph-Lauren badly. But the big brands are still going to China because their researches have shown that there is a section of rich Chinese society that doesn’t mind overpaying for these luxury goods and this segment is increasing. Even sports like NBA recognize the importance of China and its huge potential market for the sport. The NBA created a separate entity called NBA China this year to promote basketball in both rural and urban part of China. A speaker involved in this process talked about the huge expected revenues this body can generate by popularizing this game in China through TV rights and selling NBA merchandize.
Some of the analysts felt that to have a successful business in China, it is necessary to follow both differentiation and cost leadership. While this strategy might not work in a developed market like United States where the brands are established and sales are possible through differentiation only. In China’s developing market cost is very important and it is tough to sell items only through branding. This concept was highlighted by Lenovo’s success over other competitors like HP and Dell. Another very important aspect necessary to succeed in China is to build strong relation with the government as the government is strongly involved in most of the successful businesses.
Who has answers!!
Here are some thoughts...the internship has been highly structured.... the projects are exciting and we all have gr8 visibility within the company...well i guess the situation Sears finds itself in is "change now or go down"... so this means that every process can be optimized and there is no complacency regardin the existing processes.. if i have to point out the negatives... it will be, the organiz'n wants to change but do ppl want it.. i mean changin anythin is more work and some ppl s motto for work is avoid anything which involves anything extra coming to them... :( ever organization has its faults i guess... so what is happenin to Sears?? the retail industry in general is down in the US but Sears is into home appliances which is affected also by the subprime crisis.. so Sears is more hit than Walmart or target...
Having said this, there is more to it.... walmart has an exceptional supply chain which reduces the costs of every product and it has grown soo huge that it get s a lot of economies of scale.. so its tough for any company to take on Walmart on cost.. it is the mighty low cost retailer targetting the massive middle class suburban segment of the society..coming to target, target has grown exceptionally over the last ten years.. they have successfully differentiated themselves from Walmart by providing better stores with brighter lights...better carpets.. more store associates.. they have created a better experience for the customer.. therefore the customer who goes to target is willing to pay that extra dollar compared to walmart...they are targetting a slightly more affluent part of the society...
So two major retailers have a clear strategy but where does tht leave Sears... should it go after walmart s customers... tht s impossible w/o walmarts supply chain effeciency and economies of scale... or should it invest a lot in making the stores better and try replicate the target model... thts more money and if it doesn t attract customers, it leaves the company in a worse situation... so the questions are simple... sears is stuck in the middle it has to get out... but go wer?? which direction?? and how?? the key is how to get the people to come to the stores??
I don t think anyone has the answers unfortunately :(
so currently the company is talking profit and loss view and goin for different initiatives, some tried and tested and some really innovative.. i think everyone is keeping their fingers crossed for tht one success story which will kinda have a ripple effect all over the company... but kudos for the positive attitude of the mgmt and the associates in such difficult times!!!
Having said this, there is more to it.... walmart has an exceptional supply chain which reduces the costs of every product and it has grown soo huge that it get s a lot of economies of scale.. so its tough for any company to take on Walmart on cost.. it is the mighty low cost retailer targetting the massive middle class suburban segment of the society..coming to target, target has grown exceptionally over the last ten years.. they have successfully differentiated themselves from Walmart by providing better stores with brighter lights...better carpets.. more store associates.. they have created a better experience for the customer.. therefore the customer who goes to target is willing to pay that extra dollar compared to walmart...they are targetting a slightly more affluent part of the society...
So two major retailers have a clear strategy but where does tht leave Sears... should it go after walmart s customers... tht s impossible w/o walmarts supply chain effeciency and economies of scale... or should it invest a lot in making the stores better and try replicate the target model... thts more money and if it doesn t attract customers, it leaves the company in a worse situation... so the questions are simple... sears is stuck in the middle it has to get out... but go wer?? which direction?? and how?? the key is how to get the people to come to the stores??
I don t think anyone has the answers unfortunately :(
so currently the company is talking profit and loss view and goin for different initiatives, some tried and tested and some really innovative.. i think everyone is keeping their fingers crossed for tht one success story which will kinda have a ripple effect all over the company... but kudos for the positive attitude of the mgmt and the associates in such difficult times!!!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Speed Boating!!
The weekend saw 4 boilermakers head out to lake geneva some 2 hours away from Chicago... the journey to the lake was fun with 4 of us trying to play 20 questions.. trying is the operative word here since people (read madam dee) were making this relatively simple game insanely complicated by including some imaginary characters in the game. Nandu was the only one who had come prepared for the road trip.. she had a basketful of goodies !! :)
This lake is known for its watersports like jet ski s and motorboats...we rented a motorboat for an hour.. and this boat guy gave us instructions on how to drive the thing and how we should avoid the rocks since they r dangerous.. we all thought that given these simple instructions we shud be good but none of us accounted for nandu s driving skills!!
Dee went first, she was quite sober with her driving, it acted as a good starter for wat came later... then i took the wheel and i went a little crazy.. the water was choppy and i was doing some neat turns :P i managed to hurt two ppl (score 2 :) ) nandu fell once.. little did i know i was jus setting the scene for the last driver.. deepak went next he was jus getting a feel of the boat enjoiin the ride.. nothing drastic there... and then it was nandu s turn.. boy did she go mad.. she was doing all these weird stunts while the rest of us hung on for dear life :P haha but she forgot to hold on herself and after she did one crazy stunt, she went flying onto the floor and the boat was going at crazy speed unmanned (or unwomanned) it was hilarious!! try to imagine a speedboat going at 60 kmph with its driver on the floor :) at this point all of us were hurt and laughin like crazy thru our pain.. we manhandled the boat soo badly that we broke one of is windows for which we fortunately didn t have to pay :) and we ended this trip by having a nice lunch in one of those sailor joints kinda place... all in all it was an awesome trip.. we were all bruised but happy :)
This lake is known for its watersports like jet ski s and motorboats...we rented a motorboat for an hour.. and this boat guy gave us instructions on how to drive the thing and how we should avoid the rocks since they r dangerous.. we all thought that given these simple instructions we shud be good but none of us accounted for nandu s driving skills!!
Dee went first, she was quite sober with her driving, it acted as a good starter for wat came later... then i took the wheel and i went a little crazy.. the water was choppy and i was doing some neat turns :P i managed to hurt two ppl (score 2 :) ) nandu fell once.. little did i know i was jus setting the scene for the last driver.. deepak went next he was jus getting a feel of the boat enjoiin the ride.. nothing drastic there... and then it was nandu s turn.. boy did she go mad.. she was doing all these weird stunts while the rest of us hung on for dear life :P haha but she forgot to hold on herself and after she did one crazy stunt, she went flying onto the floor and the boat was going at crazy speed unmanned (or unwomanned) it was hilarious!! try to imagine a speedboat going at 60 kmph with its driver on the floor :) at this point all of us were hurt and laughin like crazy thru our pain.. we manhandled the boat soo badly that we broke one of is windows for which we fortunately didn t have to pay :) and we ended this trip by having a nice lunch in one of those sailor joints kinda place... all in all it was an awesome trip.. we were all bruised but happy :)
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