Why I Chose English for Writing

June 30, 2010 8 Comments

I was asked by my friends and blog readers “why do I write my posts in English?” My immediate reapply is my typing skills. I learn typing when I was doing my undergraduate degree in the US. Most of the papers then were supposed to be word-processed. So I leaned how to type my school papers on word perfect which was the dominant word processing program at that time. From the start, I forced my self to use five fingers for typing while most of my friends were typing with two fingers only. I had slow start in the beginning but I became faster after couple of years while my friends are still struggling with two fingers. The second reason for choosing English for my blog is the globalization. Yeas, globalization but not the globalization you know. I wanted to reach the maximum number of readers in the world. I figured that most of the Kuwaitis can read English and English is a universal language, so many readers would stop by and read my thoughts in the blog. So far, the blog receives almost the same percentage of readers from Kuwait and the United States. The pie chart shows the exact numbers from around the world.By the way, I can type in Arabic but by Arabic typing very slow. I tried to write in Arabic in my other blog but that consumed a lot of my valuable time. People who know me very well knows how much I value my time. The red dots on the map (below) represent the site visitors. You may notice that most of the readers are from Kuwait, United States, Europe and India.

Share/Bookmark

Filed under Thoughts Tagged with , ,

Maintain Longterm International Relationship

June 21, 2010 Leave a comment

Listen to this postBusiness should target long term  strategies to grow up the profit gradually while maintaining healthy profit and satisfying the stakeholders. Business should use the corporate social responsibility model to serve the community by meeting the national and international obligation and the ethical standards. Self regulation would be a good tool to meet the internal ethical standards and the local ethical responsibilities. The ethical issues and the ideas of being right or wrong are governed by the religious, cultural or professional value base believes as stated by O’Donohue and Nelson (2009). Around the world, organizations may set rouls and regulations to cover ethical issues but the individuals behavior and his background would limit his or her ethical behavior.

Grotenhuis (2009) state that 50% and up to 80% of the mergers and acquisitions fail to make the expected benefits. The main reasons for the failure is weak research of the target company and its context, unfocused strategic issues on the intended merger and acquisitions and finally the leadership and cultural issuers that lead to cultural clashes and fatal misunderstanding (Grotenhuis, 2009). Cultural differences should be studied in earlier stages of the merger or acquisition to expect the problematic areas and sort them out before they develop to culture clash that slow bonding of the two organizations. In a merger between Dutch and Japanese organization the Japanese felt that the Europeans are “person-oriented” that look for short-term profit while the Japanese are more group-oriented and always explore and target the long-term profit (Grotenhuis, 2009).

Share/Bookmark

References:

Grotenhuis, F. D. J. (2009). Mergers and acquisitions in Japan: Lessons from a Dutch-Japanese case study. [Article]. Global Business & Organizational Excellence, 28(3), 45-54. doi: 10.1002/joe.20258

O’Donohue, W., & Nelson, L. (2009). The Role of Ethical Values in an Expanded Psychological Contract. [Article]. Journal of Business Ethics, 90(2), 251-263. doi: 10.1007/s10551-009-0040-1

Enhanced by Zemanta

Filed under Management, Thoughts Tagged with , , , , , ,

Airbus Supply Chain Management

June 19, 2010 7 Comments

Listen to this postHeizer (2009) define supply chain management as the “integration of the activities that procure materials, transform them into intermediate goods and final products then deliver them to the customers”(p. 360). Supply chain management integrates the transportation activates that include the distributions methods with the suppliers and venders then setup a payment system that manage the account payable and account receivables (Heizer, 2009). Supply chain management set up and manage the order fulfillment with the warehousing and inventory control then share necessary information with the suppliers, venders, distributors and the customer when needed (Heizer, 2009).

Ayadi (2009) affirm that part of Airbus success is because of their efficient supply chain management. The supply chain management provides general visibility for the different actors of the organization (Ayadi, 2009). Airbus had more than 1500 contractors distributed in 30 countries and the supply chain management used ensures right parts, systems and hardware are delivered at the right place on time. Airbus supply chain system allows the suppliers and the buyers to exchange the needed information online. The suppliers can display their ability to deliver by filling the right information on the secured website. The supply chain cycle is cover on web site from the first order through procurement to the invoicing and payment finalization (Anonymous, 2010). The suppliers data and their transactions are stored in a “foundation” data bank that help in the decision-making in future transactions (Anonymous, 2010).

Supply chain management has its disadvantages like most of the automated systems.  The Bullwhip effect could affect the Airbus supply chain cycle because of the cycle length and number of steps that go through it. The bullwhip effect is the increase in fluctuation in orders while the orders are steady with minimal fluctuation (Heizer, 2009).

References:

Anonymous. (2010). Airbus for Suppliers  Retrieved Jun 10, 2010, from http://www.airbus.com/en/airbusfor/suppliers/

Ayadi, S. (2009). Externalisation et creation de valeur au sein de la ‘Supply Chain’: L’entreprise etendue. (Outsourcing and Value Creation within the Supply Chain: The Extended Enterprise. With English summary.). La Revue des Sciences de Gestion, 44(236), 85-93. doi: http://www.larsg-revue.com/

Heizer, J., & Render, B. (2009). Operations management (9 ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Share/Bookmark

Filed under Management, Thoughts Tagged with , , , ,

5000 Visitors So Far…

June 17, 2010 10 Comments

Finally, the visitors counter had passed the 5000 mark. This blog was visited by more than 5000 visitors since I publicized it in January of this year. I had difficulty in maintaining my average posting of 3 posts per week and sometimes I was out of ideas to write about. Fortunately, the bog had an average of 900 visitors every month, which is a number I did not dream of. My target is to average 1000 visitors every month by the end of the year. I would like to thank you all for investing your valuable time in reading my thoughts, ideas and researches. I listed the top 5 posts were visited in the last 3 months:

  1. Relationship Marketing – Coca-Cola in In
  2. Quantitative or Qualitative
  3. احتفال الكويت بالعيد الوطني – رغوة وماء
  4. Where Does The Dove Nest
  5. Multicultural Business Environment

Share/Bookmark

Note: the counter does not include my visits to the blog.

Filed under Thoughts Tagged with ,

Should I Travel First Class

June 16, 2010 6 Comments

Listen to this postThe prestige of flying first class is felt before reaching the airport. In your way, the taxi driver would ask you if you are flying first, business or economy. Once you replay that you are flying first class his attitude will change and he will stop telling you the usual story that taxi business is not so good and that live is difficult in this country, he was doing better in the other job …. ! So one of the advantages of flying the first class is muting the taxi driver. The first and business classes have their privet checking in counters where a representative form the airline would greet you in the way and introduce you to a friendly face who will check you in very fast. Then you move to the  fast-track security check. You would see other passengers waiting in a long que for their turn for the security check.

After passing through the necessary checks you would go directly to first class lounge which has comfortable chairs, big screen TV’s and free food and drinks. You would wait in the lounge until most of the passengers board the airplane then you will be called to join them few minuets before the Airplane’s doors are closed. The first class seats are wide, cozy and comfortable. On my last trip on the British Airways I watched a movie on the big LCD screen then I went to the bathroom. On my way the flight attendant asked if I would like to have my seat converted to bed, and I said yes. I found the seat became flat with bed sheet covering it and a fluffy cover on top of it. So I said why not try sleeping since we have 4 hours of flying until we reach our distention. I adjusted the soft pillow and closed my eyes. I thought I slept for short time when I heard the announcement informing us that only 30 minutes are left before landing. I must have slept for 3 hours without knowing. I went to wash my face to come back and find the bed set has been removed and the seat is back in the normal position.

I was asked if I would like something to drink before landing, so I asked for a late’ and something sweet to eat with it. I remember in the economy class that you will not get a glass of water or permitted to leave your seat if the plane is going to land within 45 minutes. The airplane landed safely and I was one of the first people to clear out of the passport control section and get my luggage in my way home. Does it worth to pay that much and travel in first class? I do not know especially when the cost of first class ticket is triple the price of economy class. Many of us pay one-third of the traveling budget for the airline ticket. SO should you travel first class this summer?

Share/Bookmark

Filed under Thoughts Tagged with , , , ,

Risk Management And Communication Network

June 13, 2010 1 Comment

Lightning bolt struck Philips electronics manufacturing plant on March 2000. Small fire caused little damage but the smoke contaminated millions of chips ready for shipment to Nokia and Ericson. Through daily mentoring, Nokia estimated the damage and anticipated more losses from the delay in its cell phone production. Nokia sent an executive team to Philips to develop alternative production plans and setup another team to redesign the chips so as Philips and non-Philips manufactures can produce them. Another team was organized to look for additional manufacturers to produce the chips (Mukherjee, 2009). Ericsson and Nokia use 40% of the Philips’ plant production but Ericsson did not anticipate the risk in the plant’s production delay so Ericsson reported a major loss in that financial year while Nokia reported good profitability for the same year (Mukherjee, 2009). Risk management and excellent communication thorough a well establish business network helped Nokia overcome the delay and manage the risk efficiently.

References:

Mukherjee, A. (2009). The spider’s strategy: Creating networks to avert crisis, create change, and really get ahead. New Jersey, NY: Person Education.

Share/Bookmark

Filed under Management Tagged with ,

Example of An International Expansion Strategy

June 12, 2010 1 Comment

Listen to this postThe color TV market boomed after the introduction of color TV in the late 1979. China opened for commercial production and the electronics manufacturing moved steadily to China up to the 1990s because of the cheap labor cost. Growth in the TV market in the past 10 years was dominated by the flat screen TV. TCL is an emerging Chinese company which bought Thomson television business and Alcatel Mobil phones in line with its main business of multimedia , communications, home appliances and electronics. This accusations moved TCL from being the 60th in the 1995 to be the number one brand in China now. TCL vision is to strengthening their foundation by reforming their basics and continuously innovating . Acquiring the Thomson television and Alcatel Mobil brings in a proven and successful technology to TCL and widen the ambitions goal of the “top 10 in 10 year” globalization vision (“Vision”, 2007-2008).

Innovations is a strong part of TCL business and part of the organization vision. TCL set up the first Research and Development (R&D) center for audio research in 1992. Currently, TCL has 18 R&D centers with 20 manufacturing bases around the world. TCL operated as separate business units in 2004. Some of the business units are multimedia, telecommunications, personal computers, consumer electronics and CD/DV distribution. Multimedia and mobile handsets generated most of TCL’s revenues at the same period. Supply chain management is a key success factor for TCL, which employed 80 people for sourcing and quality management. TCL made substantial profit because of its efficient supply chain management while its competitors lost money although all of them are sourcing their material from china (C. Bartlett, Ghoshal, & Beamish, 2008). The perfect supply chain enabled TCL to integrate its businesses and R&D centers together to move faster than its competitors in selecting the promising innovations and convert them into competitive product distributed around the world (C. Bartlett, et al., 2008).

Share/Bookmark

References:

(“Vision”, 2007-2008). Vision  Retrieved Jun 10, 2010, from http://www.tcl.com/main_en/About%20TCL/Vision/index.shtml?catalogId=13047

Bartlett, C., Ghoshal, S., & Beamish, P. (2008). Transnational management: Text, cases, and readings in cross-border management (5 ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Filed under Leadership, Marketing Tagged with , , , , ,

Which Market Segment the New iPhone Will Take

June 9, 2010 1 Comment

iPhone 4GListen to this postApple is introduced the new iPhone which nicknamed 4G and i find it fascinating but I do not think I would buy one soon. I just got my iPad which can do most of the iPhones function but with a better resolution displayed on a larger screen. I find the iPad to be a “Phenomenal device” that keep on amazing me every time I use it. I never used Apple’s products until I bought the iPhone model (3Gs) last year. I was amazed by its simplicity and ease of use. However I found its price to be a challenge especially for the regular users who use their phones as a simple device to communicate. Such users would not need the thousands of applications offered in the iTunes store. Many customers in the Far East and the Middle East need a mobile communication device at the lowest price possible, unfortunately Apple does not offer such mobile phones. Students in India who spend less than Rs. 600 ($13) use their mobile phones for sports updates, playing games and downloading software but spent less on local calling and SMS messaging (Jha, 2008). Mobile phone penetrations in the Far East countries (like Philippines) depend on the lower-income segments. The model for serving high income segment would not work for the low-income segment according to Anderson and Kupp (2008). So the new iPhone might be amazing but do we need that amusement?

References:

Anderson, J., & Kupp, M. (2008). Serving the poor: drivers of business model innovation in mobile. [Article]. Info, 10(1), 5-12. doi: 10.1108/148366908108501 20

Jha, S. (2008). Understanding mobile phone usage pattern among college-goers. [Article]. ICFAI Journal of Services Marketing, 6(1), 51-61.


Share/Bookmark

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Filed under Marketing Tagged with , , ,

Acer SWOT Analysis

June 4, 2010 8 Comments

Listen to this postAcer was founded in 1976 under the name “Multitech” and had a significant role in popularizing the PC use in Taiwan. The Brand name was firmed in 1987 and then Acer switched from technology manufacturer to  world-wide recognized computer brand name.

Strength: Acer has many innovations like the Aspire One laptop that let the user connect to the Net almost anywhere with 8 hours of battery live. Acer presented the Tempo Smartphone series in 2009 to compete in the lucrative mobile phone market.  Acer main factory is located in Taiwan which has low-cost labor and distribution advantage in the US market and Asian market. Acer price its products with low competitive prices to compete with the strong rivals and acquire the low-priced laptop market share.

Weaknesses: the PC, laptop and mobile phone markets are extremely competitive and require frequent innovations to keep up or exceed the customers’ expectations. The laptop customers expect new functions and improved computing power at least once every year. Innovations and changing market demand needs strong and flexible supply chain to execute the successful innovations and deliver them to the market before the competition.

Opportunities: Acer had competed on delivering a reliable PC’s and laptops at a competitive price. Similar market entry model would be useful to enter the eBook Readr market and the iPad© market. Acer would be a good competitor in the eBook Reader market and had the ability to enter a new market of acquire an existing manufacturer. Acer was successful in acquiring Gateway©, emachines and pockard bell (Acer inc., 2010). This success will help Acer to integrate its existing assets or set up new manufacturer to producer eReders or similar products that does iPad functions. Acer can also compete in the Asian market by using its low price model. The Asian market is huge and would consume many of Acer’s products if marketed well.

Threats: the laptop and PC market are extremely competitive. Both products needs management support to invest in the Research and Development departments. Research and development departments would consult between each other to produce new competitive products that can be produced from the current integrated ability for Acer’s subsidiaries. The innovation will continue as long as the workers are compensated and the subsidiaries are willing to compromise for the sake of benefiting the holding company.

To know more on SWOT analysis and how to make one please click here.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Share/Bookmark

Filed under Marketing Tagged with , , ,

Expanding A Business Internationally

June 2, 2010 Leave a comment

Listen to this postStarting a business from the ground up has almost the same difficulties of expanding an existing business into the international market. The business owner may use the same business model but that successful model will not be as successful in the international market. The business model may not work in another culture because of the ethnocentrism, geocentrism, or polycentrism factors (Bartlett, 2008). For example, theaters in Kingdom of Bahrain are similar to the theaters in the US (even the popcorn boxes are the same). Cinema theaters in Kuwait almost the same but half of the seats (mostly the back seats) are reserved for families. Male audience not accompanying their spouses are seated in the front half of the cinemas. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not have cinema theaters at all, which makes the DVD business take a larger share of the entertainment market. Working days are different in this part of the word, Sunday is the first work day of the week and the weekend starts on Friday. There is a one day difference between most of the countries in the Persian Gulf area and the rest of the word. Businesses in Kuwait lose one working day when they deal with the international market.

Share/Bookmark
References
Bartlett, C. A., Ghoshal, S., & Beamish, P. W. (2008). Transnational management: Text, cases, and readings in cross-border management (5 ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Filed under Management Tagged with ,

%d bloggers like this: