Week 8: Leadership Style

 I took the leadership quiz and the result shows that my leadership type is both participative and delegative and what I lack is authorative style. I know that good leaders utilize all three styles depending on the situation. At the end of quiz, it has given me some guideline about which situation leaders use suitable style.

• Use an authorative style  if an group member lacks knowledge about procudure.
• Use a participative style with group member who understand the objectives and their role in the task
• Use a delegative styel if the group member knows more than you do about the task. 

In reality, I rarely use authorative leadership style because I think that it will push my teammember too much and build a gap between us. I hope to buile a cooperative relationship with my members and I know that we should learn from each other in the work. I firmly believe that creative thinking always comes from a happy working atmosphere.

Week 6: Inbound & Outbound marketing

In my opinion, I think that a company is able to survive on inbound marketing, relying on come up of Internet technology and other new technology. However, companies have rarely done like this. I'd like to say that even though outbound marketing is getting less and less effective over time, it doesn't need to be abandoned.

The main difference between inbound marketing and outbound mareting is relationship between a company and customers. Traditionally, marketing focuses on getting customers from mass market through excessive and inappropriate advertising and promotion. The new idea of inbound marketing is focusing on getting found by customers. It seems to be surprising how we have known about these companies before we want to get their products. The Internet has changed and promoted the way we communicate in daily life. We go through forums, company official websites, and other social media like facebook and twitter on which many companies post their new types of products and activities earliest. Inbound marketing is not only cost effective but also comforts customers. The customer has greatest option to get these information when they want. On the contrary, outbound marketing is also considered as interruption marketing because a person uaually gets hundreds of bulk mails and advertising on TV and radio. I am personally bored with them and try to block them out because I don't need them completely.

The reason why I don't support get rid of outbound marketing is that it helps to build brand recognition. Under strong outbound marketing, we definitely hear and see some brands again and again. I believe that these brands will have a deeper impression on your minds than those without outbound marketing.

Week 5: The business model behind Apple’s iPod/iTunes

I think the value proposition of Apple's iPod and iTunes is to provide an integrated entertainment experience of music, video, books, and apps to mass market. Unlike other products targeting a narrow market, iPod and iTunes have a very broad target market, a global market no matter where you are or how old you are.

I strongly think that one of the most significant factor of success is Apple's relationship with its customers. As we have seen, Apple has a wonderful after-sale service and advertising always impresses us much. Those purchasing Apple's products have a strong brand loyalty because hardware design and mareketing are quite distinctive so that switching cost should be very high. I believe that Apple is implementing a differentiation competitive strategy since price and cost are not advantages of Apple. Sales channels are very wide from apple stores, apple.com to retail stores but price is completely uniform. I think this kind of pricing helps to reduce inbound competition.

 Key partners are music & video producers, publishers, application developers, and hareware OEMs. Apple also keeps a good relationship with them and establishs a win-win situation. Revenues come from large hardware revenues and downloading revenues from Apple store. Employees salaries, manufacturing costs, and marketing & sales compose of Apple's cost structure.

Week4: Discuss Porter’s 3 competitive strategies

1. Cost Leadership

In cost leadership, a firm sets out to become the low cost producer in its industry. The sources of cost advantage are varied and depend on the structure of the industry. They may include the pursuit of economies of scale, proprietary technology, preferential access to raw materials and other factors. A low cost producer must find and exploit all sources of cost advantage. if a firm can achieve and sustain overall cost leadership, then it will be an above average performer in its industry, provided it can command prices at or near the industry average.

2. Differentiation

In a differentiation strategy a firm seeks to be unique in its industry along some dimensions that are widely valued by buyers. It selects one or more attributes that many buyers in an industry perceive as important, and uniquely positions itself to meet those needs. It is rewarded for its uniqueness with a premium price.

3. Focus

The generic strategy of focus rests on the choice of a narrow competitive scope within an industry. The focuser selects a segment or group of segments in the industry and tailors its strategy to serving them to the exclusion of others.

Week 4: I-MOS Semiconductors

- Would you invest in this business? Why or why not?
From this business plan, it looks that investing in this business is quite prospective. However, I must to investigate this field and potential market further before I make the decision. Turning to a consulting company may be the first step for me because I need more useful information about this field that I am not familiar with.

- How strong is the company's industry position?
The company has achieved a breakthrough that solves a problem plaguing the semiconductor industry for the past 30 years. This technology offers a 1000x reduction in static power dissipation and a 30 percent increase in chip performance, contributing a lot to development of semiconductor industry.

- How clear is the value proposition?
The company is dedicated to solve the Static Leakage Problem faced by semiconductor industry for past 30 years. The I-MOS solution not only dramatically reduces static power consumption and increases chip performance, but it does so without increasing semiconductor fabrication costs. The I-MOS solution is cost-effective, by working in conjunction with standard CMOS processes, and increases manufacturing efficiencies, due to lower device variations.

- How targeted in the customer base?
As we see, the company is intended to commercialize this technology by licensing it to three main target customers, which are integrated device manufacturers, fables semiconductor companies, and semiconductor foundries.

- How unique is the business model?
This business model looks not so unique. The company derives multiple revenue streams from each licensing arrangement: the manufacturers pay I-MOS an upfront license fee and a per chip royalty fee, and the foundries pay a per wafer fee. This model should be kind of universe in this hi-tech industry.

- How protected is the IP?
IP is well protected because they hold the patent right. But the company is not the only one to hold IP.

- How experienced is the management?The management seems to be well experienced. Especially, the marketing team knows how to launch the technology to the market.

Week 3: Strategy and the Internet

At the first glance, most people think that the Internet brings more benefits than negative effect to the industry strusture.In the article, the author holds a different attitude toward this proposition. He states that most of trends the Internet has brought about is negative. It's during my undergraduate study that I learned Porter's five force model for the first time. So I am not unfamiliar with the idea. This model helps us to anaylze the current situation of industry.

As for the first factor "the intensity of rivalry among existing competitors" in the model, the Internet is an open system, enabling competitors access to offerings the company is providing. Thus, it eliminates proprietary offerings and  intensifies the rivalry among competitors. The use of the Internet also tends to expand the geographic market, bringing many more companies into competition with one another. In the end, competition focuses on price mainly.

The second factor in the model is barrier to entry. I think that appearance of the Internet reduces barrier to entry sharply because the Internet technology makes access to channels and physical assets easier. Moreover, the Internet creates a new sales force. As for the threat of substitute products or service, the Internet makes the overall industry more efficient by expanding the size of the market. At the same time, it also mitigats the difference between offerings.

No matter for bargaining power of buyers or suppliers, the Internet still has more negative effects on them. The Internet shifts bargaining power to the end consumers and reduces switching costs of consumers. The Internet provides a channel for suppliers to reach end users, reducing the leverage of intervening companies. Internet procurement and digital markets tend to give all companies equal access to suppliers, and gravitate procurement to standardized products that reduce differentiation. Reduced barriers to entry and the proliferation of competitors downstream shifts power to suppliers.