Friday, April 29, 2011

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!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

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

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

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"