Business & Finance

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 26 mar 2014

Different stages of the startup and new venture formation have different needs and requirements. Some startups, due to the very nature of their formation and development have sufficient resources and expertise to grow and succeed independently. But others may not have what all is required to build a successful business. For this incubators and accelerators play an important and critical role within the entrepreneurial and startup ecosystem to fund, support and mentor these fledgling ventures. Incubators and accelerators have different approaches and dynamics to lead startups towards their common goal of achieving success during initial stages. According to Phil Morle, founder and CEO of an Australian incubator - incubators get things started from scratch and build business as a solution to a problem; acts as co-founders and generate ideas and find problems internally and through their networks; it's outsourced innovation. While for accelerators the core idea is investment and investing capital in a good idea in return for a small amount of equity, says Niki Scevak, founder of an Australian accelerator. According to him, accelerators - are geared for competition; they aim to drive faster growth in innovative companies within a stipulated time frame; accelerators are a platform that provide resources and assistance to founders and entrepreneurial teams who themselve drive their concepts and ideas, build and develop them and make decisions. Read on...

Business Spectator: Incubators vs Accelerators: Choosing the right start-up path
Author: John Treadgold

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 19 mar 2014

Professor Edgar Schein of MIT defines culture in his book 'Organizational Culture and Leadership', as pattern of basic assumptions and beliefs, the learned behaviors, shared values and norms that define the work in an organization. Culture plays an important role in building and developing relationship of organization with its stakeholders. In large organizations culture generally gets evolved and established over a period of time through multiple iterations. But in case of smaller entrepreneurial companies with fast paced environment, culture can have critical impact on the success or failure of the venture during its formative stages. Article explains with examples the importance of culture in new companies and how it can be consciously and deliberately created by entrepreneurial teams. According to the author, culture can be intentionally designed but it has to be 'lived', thus helping the company to overcome ups and downs of the start-up environment. Moreover it is also a strategic resource similar to technology, brand or people that can be central to the success of the company. Read on...

Forbes: Building Culture In A Tech Start-Up
Author: Candida Brush

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 12 mar 2014

Wearable devices have the potential to become a part of human lifestyle, but for their sustained use they should be able to induce long-term healthy behavioral changes in users. According to Michael A. M. Davies of MIT, companies developing wearables have to understand the importance of three factors of behavioral science - habit formation, social motivation and goal reinforcements - to overcome the challenge of sustained engagement and provide long-term health benefits. Research by Endeavor Partners found that 1/10th of the US comsumers above the age 18 owns a modern activity tracker but half of them no longer use it. A large percentage of wearable devices have fatal user experience flaws and fail to fulfil one or more of the nine baseline criteria of product design (selectability, design, out-of-box experience, fit/comfort, quality, user experience, integration ability, lifestyle compatibility and overall utility). For successful and effective wearable devices and related services, companies have to incorporate the insights provided by the science of behavior change. Read on...

VentureBeat: How to make wearables stick: Use them to change human behavior
Author: Michael A. M. Davies

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 10 mar 2014

Marketers are always trying to find innovative ways to connect and build relationships with the consumers. Experiential marketing does the same and assists brands and companies, by creating events in public setting like malls, stations, conferences etc and even online, to directly interact with their prospective customers through experience with products and services. The relationship building can be a two way process and companies can utilize experiential marketing to gain customer information and data in return. The article explores this value exchange by utilizing experiential and marketing research to build and retain customers and cites various examples of companies that are doing it right. Experiential marketing can provide opportunities for data capture through use of latest technologies and attractive deals in return for interaction with the brands. Read on...

CREAM: How experiential will become a new form of market research
Author: Will Northover

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 05 mar 2014

Influence is an important aspect of human personality that provides the ability to affect and attract others. Psychologist Herbert Kelman of Harvard University wrote about 'social influence' and considered 'compliance' (agreement with others in public, disagreement in private), indentification (influence due to likeness and respect for a specific personality) and internalization (agreement in both public and private) as three processes of attitude change. In the article John Hagel III explores the changing nature of influence in the dynamic world of today and recommends ways to achieve more influence. According to him the conventional approach to build influence included - by providing answers; by demonstrating strength; by being a hub of a network of like minded people that further persuaded others through the answers that were provided. But in the transient world of today the answers lose value rapidly as the new and better ways and methods displace and make the older ones obsolete. Therefore he suggests the new way of building and retaining influence by asking questions. Questions have the ability to invite participation and provide the opportunity to co-create and co-develop answers and solutions by sharing ideas and insights. But the challenge is to frame the right and effective questions to get valuable insights. He suggests - ask broad questions; questions where stakes are high; questions with depth that require consistent effort over extended period of time; questions that provide step by step answers that encourages continued participation. Asking questions demonstrates individual's vulnerability that helps in building trust-based relationships in the initial stages. Moreover it enhances the ability to access tacit knowledge of the participants. The new approach also requires mobilization of a new kind of network, more mesh-like, connecting every participant with each other, thus providing unexpected and evolving ways to co-explore. This assists in building creation spaces with smaller teams connected with each other and getting together when required. To demonstrate the influence in action, John Hagel provides the example of Santa Fe Institute and its formation by a group of scientists led by George Cowan, and participants - David Pines, Stirling Colgate, Murray Gell-Mann, Nick Metropolis, Herb Anderson, and Peter A. Carruthers. They all represented different fields but all came together to seek answers to the questions about potential common themes regarding complex adaptive systems that cut across traditional disciplinary boundaries. Read on...

Edge Perspectives: The Big Shift in Influence
Author: John Hagel III

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 05 mar 2014

Joseph Shumpeter defined 'economic innovation' as - bringing a new product, a better or new process or method of production, developing a new market, exploring a new source of raw material or creating a new and better form of organization of industry. In the article Michael Scholl proposes 'commercial innovation' as an approach to bring new products and services into the market by identifying existing customer needs and willingness to pay (WTP) in areas where available products and services don't fulfil customer needs. Thus expanding the existing market with speed and market-oriented focus. He argues that commercial innovation should not be confused with 'product re-launch', that companies often use to bring existing products into market with different name and market strategies to enhance product life-cycles. He provides recommendations to implement commercial innovation - keep the idea secret as it may affect organization; designate separate task force to work on this initiative; shift R&D budget to this task force; be quick to implement and act on the plan. Read on...

Real Business: The key advantages of commercial innovation
Author: Michael Scholl

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 25 feb 2014

Information transparency in the functioning of the public and private organizations is key to improve processes and eliminate corruption and exploitation. David Cameron, PM of UK, intends to drive this 'Transparency Revolution' in global trade. Nick Murry in this article points out the critical role that sustainability would play in supporting transparency in business exchanges, particularly in case of dealing with emerging markets. Being responsible and sustainable are recognized as two most important criteria for modern businesses. Richard Branson's 'The B Team' project is also intended to create awareness about the profitable benefits of social and environmental responsibility. Companies are applying sustainability principles in their supply chains to drive efficiency and manage risks. The suppliers from emerging markets, to build and maintain relationships with global businesses, have to be open about sustainability, maintain international standards and practices, publish data and assure, as much as possible, to mitigate risks associated with emerging market supply chains. Read on...

Supply Management: Sustainability key to the transparency revolution
Author: Nick Murry

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 23 feb 2014

Content Marketing Institute defines 'Content Marketing' as "Marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience - with the objective of driving profitable customer action." Over a period of time the content has grown enormously in all media like internet, TV etc and so do challenges related to differentiating and competing on the basis of content for brand development. In the article author provides strategies to have effective content marketing on the internet - First, Stop Calling it Content (brands need to become publishers); Define Your Mission (for successful brand publishing define what is being offered to the world); Strive to Hold Attention, Not Grab Attention (think in terms of delivering experience that not only brings the users back but also motivates them to share the content with their circles); Creating a True Value Exchange (focus on value proposition to the world alongwith the specific benefits of the brand to users); Forget About Content Strategy and Focus on Content Skills (develop skills that provide useful and meaningful content experience). Read on...

Forbes: How To Do Content Marketing Right
Author: Greg Satell

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 14 feb 2014

China's manufacturing goods industry with its modern mass production factories and cheap labor is one of the most dominant and competitive in the world. Will 3D printing affect and transform Chinese manufacturing? In the article, authors of the latest book 'Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing', Melba Kurman and Hod Lipson, share their insight and opinion on how 3D printing technology changes the dynamics of the Chinese manufacturing sector. Among the skeptics is Terry Gou, the CEO of one of the largest manufacturer, Foxconn. But the industry is now adopting the technology, although a bit late as compared to US and Europe. There are now seven 3D printer manufacturers located in China and the world's largest 3D printer manufacturer Stratsys, based in US, planning to open its office there. Moreover the technology will also assist China to evolve into high-end manufacturing and related services. Chinese government is considering it as priority and mentions it in their 12th Five Year Plan. The key goals include - investment in R&D; move up the value chain and focus on high-end & high-margin manufacturing in biotech, IT, innovative materials etc; upgrade skills of the labor force. During the course to achieve the goals there will be challenges. 3D printing technology may not totally displace the current mass manufacturing but it has the potential to find its own niche for premium custom products and services, both for the domestic and global markets. Read on...

Yahoo News: How 3D Printing Will Transform Chinese Manufacturing
Authors: Melba Kurman, Hod Lipson

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 14 feb 2014

3D printing is the latest manufacturing technology that can create objects by depositing material layer by layer directly from a digital file. Development of individualized products based on customer specifications and needs is an advantage of the technology. It is used for both prototyping and manufacturing in variety of industries like medical applications, architecture & construction, industrial design, automotive, fashion etc. According to Andrew Maher, 3D printing can provide operational efficiencies as the products can be manufactured in proximity to the point of delivery and consumption. Survey by DHL Supply Chain mentions that 3D printing will become prominent in the next 10 years while several companies are in the process of introducing the technology into their operations in next 3 to 5 years. Read on...

Brisbane Times: Shape of things to come
Author: Carolyn Cummins

Latest             ⊲ Newer Posts             Business & Finance             Older Posts ⊳             Last