Kit Kat in Japan

Marketing story:  Kit Kat roughly means "you will surely win" in Japanese....through clever marketing...they essentially turned Kit Kat's into a national good-luck charm!

Foreign direct investment

Net inflows of investment to acquire a lasting management interest in an enterprise operating in an economy other than that of the investor.

http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&ctype=l&strail=false&nselm=h&met_y=bx_klt_dinv_cd_wd&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&rdim=country&idim=country:USA&tstart=0&tunit=Y&tlen=39&hl=en&dl=en

Growth Strategies

Market Penetration= existing product, existing market
Product Development= new product, existing market
Market Development= existing product, new market
Diversification = new product, new market

Cultural Dimensions

http://www.geert-hofstede.com/

On left hand side you can choose different cultural dimensions.

Down with the Heroes...What Now?

I really like the idea of social entrepreneurship and dream about ideas that can make a BIG, positive difference in the world at large.  Three people/companies that I have been following are:  Grameen Bank, the "Three Cups of Tea" charity, and Tom's shoes..........let's take a look at them now.

Grameen Bank:
I met Mohammad Yunis in 2003 and have looked at micro-lending and Grameen Bank as a real leader in reducing poverty.  But essentially the micro-lending bubble- just burst.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/poor-can-no-longer-bank-on-microcredit-20110408-1d7ok.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/audio/2011/apr/01/focus-podcast-development-microfinance

The Three Cups of Tea:
Another inspirational character has been Greg Mortenson- the author of "Three Cups of Tea".....whom apparently has been using charity money to promote his book sales!
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/20/us-books-threecups-idUSTRE73J3T420110420

Perspective on Tom's Shoes/Charity in General:


I recently heard about Tom's Shoes and found it an interesting someone inspiring concept.
Here is a different view of it:
First Tragedy, Then as a Farce- Slavoj Zizek
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpAMbpQ8J7g

Little more about him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavoj_%C5%BDi%C5%BEek

Soooooooooooooo after all this?
What now?

Motivation- Daniel Pink (author of Drive)

Animated TED talk:  http://hbr.org/2000/03/leadership-that-gets-results/ib

HBR "Labyrinth of Leadership"

http://hbr.org/2007/09/women-and-the-labyrinth-of-leadership/ib

Women and Leadership

This 2000 HBR article "Why Should Anyone Be Led By You?" was part of my assigned reading in my organizational management course:  full article:  http://www.people.vcu.edu/~rsleeth/MGMT691/Supplement/Why_Should_Anyone_Follow_You.pdf

First of all, I must point out that it is ELEVEN years old.  I pasted the excerpt below, but this is the basic outline:

1. Pose Question:  Can female leaders be true to themselves?
2. make assertion:  Gender difference can be used to positive or negative effect.
3. state fact:  Women WILL be stereotyped in leadership roles because small numbers.
4. state 3 major stereotypes as:  helper, nurturer, seductress
5. state:  women can avoid stereotypes by "disappearing" which is defined as "wearing cloths that disguise their bodies and trying to blend in with men by talking tough" --but don't recommend because... 
6. state:  can try to collectively resist....but "survival is often all that women have time for"...making it "impossible" to collectively resist
7. state:  "play into stereotyping to personal advantage" that women "knowingly plan the role of "nurturer" at work, but do it with such wit and skill that they are able to benefit from it."
8. Conclude:  playing into stereotypes bad because "it furthers harmful stereotypes and continues to limit opportunities for other women to communicate their genuine personal difference."

Here are a few of my issues:

1. Are they really posing this as a question?  Moreover- as a question that isn't answered? 
2. Unless you count the nurturer example as "positive," I don't really see the positive example and I doubt that it will come from playing into the "seductress" or "helper" stereotype.
3. fine.
4. what about the most prevelent:  bitch?  more female leaders deal with this than all of the others combine!
5. is this really true?  is it because the women are 50?  probably not.  also it seems to condone "disappearing" as a solution!  the reason why not to is weak
6. The feeling here is really hopeless.
7. being a nurturer is ok and many women ARE....this isn't "playing into a stereotype" by knowingly using your natural skills to the best of your ability at work.
8. Which harmful stereotype are they talking about?  Nurturer?  It seems highly ironic that one of that one of the key principles they are promoting  is "tough EMPATHY".....and empathy is a keystone of nurturing... 

excerpt  from HBR, 2000 "Why Should Anyone Be Lead by You?"":

Can Female Leaders Be True to Themselves?

Gender differences can be used to either positive or negative effect. Women, in particular, are prone to being stereotyped according to differences—albeit usually not the ones that they would choose. Partly this is because there are fewer women than men in management positions. According to research in social psychology, if a group’s representation falls below 20% in a given society,  then it’s going to be subjected to stereotyping whether it likes it or not. For women, this may mean being typecast as a “helper,” “nurturer,” or “seductress”—labels that may prevent them from defining their own differences. In earlier research, we discovered that many women—particularly women in their fifties—try to avoid this dynamic by disappearing. They try to make themselves invisible. They wear clothes that disguise their bodies; they try to blend
in with men by talking tough. That’s certainly one way to avoid negative stereotyping, but the problem is that it reduces a woman’s chances of being seen as a potential leader. She’s not promoting her real self and differences. Another response to negative stereotyping is to collectively resist it—for example, by mounting a campaign that promotes the rights, opportunities, and even the number of women in the workplace. But on a day-to-day basis, survival is often all women have time for, therefore making it impossible for them to organize themselves formally. A third response that emerged in our research was that women play into stereotyping to personal advantage. Some women, for example, knowingly play the role of “nurturer” at work, but they do it with such wit and skill that they are able to benefit from it. The cost of such a strategy?
It furthers harmful stereotypes and continues to limit opportunities for other women to communicate their genuine personal differences.

Why isn't there....

My 90 year old great aunt needs a simple phone.
I have AT&T service and they do not have a simple enough phone.
What they offered me just doesn't meet her needs!

Organization Management Tid-bits

1.  Use a stakeholder analysis.  This is a very useful tool when you REALLY need to make a change.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakeholder_analysis

2.  When you take a management job, it is extremely important to do a Management Transition Meeting.  Basically- you have to go through a Q & A to establish the rules.

5 Marketing Tid-bits

1.  USA Census data- very useful for marketing- http://2010.census.gov/2010census/data/

2.  To get "story" of people that live in particular place use:  PRIZM NE:   http://www.claritas.com/MyBestSegments/Default.jsp

3.  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Transformers cartoons were created TO SELL THE ACTION FIGURES!

4. Mother's and Father's Day promotion....also....to sell....

5.  Market Positioning statement:  To (target segment and need) our (brand) is (concept) that (point of difference)

David Kelley interview

http://www.fastcompany.com/1746447/qa-with-david-kelley-of-ideo#

definition of disparate

dis·pa·rate  (dspr-t, d-sprt)

adj.

1. Fundamentally distinct or different in kind; entirely dissimilar: "This mixture of apparently disparate materialsscandal and spiritualism, current events and eternal recurrencesis not promising on the face of it" (Gary Wills).

2. Containing or composed of dissimilar or opposing elements: a disparate group of people who represented a cross section of the city.

TPS Reports

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeoWIRn55eo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHEohDnITdA&feature=related

Well I think I hit a new high today.
I have officially learned what TPS is!
TPS= Transaction Processing System.