I ran across a posting actually recruiting candidates into a school's Ph.D. program in Management. This is very bad news for the field - I remember when I first joined, there were about 5 jobs for every graduating Ph.D. student. Today, not so great, and it is clearly showing up in the pipeline. Consider it an early warning of a shrinking field. Wonder what the second order effects will be?
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- Posted Admin on November 04, 2005
In a discovery that I made while researching how companies cascase communication, I ran across the following little snippet:
In a recent survey of 1,103 employees
86% of employees reported that
their bosses thought they were great communicators
But only 17% felt their bosses actually communicated effectively! Clearly a lot of room for improvement.
For more info, have a look at Boyd Clark's book
The Leader’s Voice (Select books, 2002)
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- Posted Admin on October 31, 2005
So things are getting desperate in Japan. All those years of recession have resulted in deep cuts in the available workforce just as it's roaring economy is expanding demand. So what are the second-order effects likely to be? One is to enhance legal immigration. Japanese officials are really wierd about this. For instance, entertaining a huge debate about 100 visas for Filipino nurses, while permitting without question 98,000 so called entertainment vias for Asian women (many of whom work in the sex trade) (Business Week - Nov 7, 2005, p. 55)
But perhaps the biggest opportunity for women (and for Japan) will be to get more women into the workforce. At the moment, when you get married, your career in Japan is just about over in many companies, leading many of Japan's brightest women to politely decline the whole marriage concept, leading to fewer families being formed, fewer births, and a vicious cycle of population decline. Japan's women work at a far lower rate than those in say the US. 55% in Japan work at some kind of job while 62% do so in the US. And once they are working, who knows what other changes they might stir up? You might even get women enthusiastic about starting families again.
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- Posted Admin on October 30, 2005
This comment was in response to a reporter's inquiry about Gillette and the 5-bladed razor
The blade madness in my opinion has to do with the longstanding competition between the major players in the industry. For years, BIC (a French company specializing in cheap, plastic stuff) has been trying to persuade men that shaving is a commodity and that 19 and a half cents should just about do it, while Gillette has poured millions, if not billions, into persuading guys that more blades are better.
I mean if 2 blades are better than 1 blade, and 3 blades are better than 2 blades then 4 blades must be better than 3. Imagine the shock on the part of Gillette when they were beaten to the market by typical also-ran Schick who were able to offer a Four (count em, Four) bladed product ahead of Gillettes launch. It had an interesting effect of turning Gillettes own branding and advertising investments against them.
Gillette responded by pushing their own 4 blader to market ahead of schedule and then racing forward with a five-bladed offering. They also consented to be acquired by Proctor and Gamble, which to me signals that they kind of hit the end of that particular strategy.
Where will this end? I dunno. I imagine we will someday have tiny little tanks crawling across gents faces. Actually, a more realistic disruption in shaving will come from new materials. Imagine a blade made out of super tough ceramics that you never need to replace, or hair dissolving shaving cream that means you can shave quickly without any blades at all, and only a couple of times a week.
As to guys being better off? Shaving is still shaving, and for most men it is not fun, no matter how you modify the experience.
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- Posted Admin on October 28, 2005
I was recently asked by a reporter how grocery stores could compete with Wal-Mart. Here are some ideas.
To compete against the 'everyday low price' theme of Wal-Mart, supermarkets have to find some way of differentiating themselves -- they can't rely on the old approach of luring in customers by price promotions or loyalty cards. Stores that can't figure this out -- with Albertson's decision to seek to be acquired being a recent example -- will find they have no choice but to sell out or shut their doors.
One approach is to offer products that appeal to customers with a different sensibility than your typical Wal-Mart shopper. Costco, for instance, has deliberately targeted small business owners as its key segment - people who might be open to buying a bottle of champagne, but appreciate getting it for a good price. They've kept Wal-Mart's Sam's Club at bay for years with this strategy.
Trader Vic's is another example of a store that has differentiated on the basis of fun and interesting products. OOps - as a comment points out, I meant Trader Joe's, not trader Vic's (which I believe is a beloved bar at the old Plaza Hotel in New York).
The Dollar Store can actually offer even lower prices than Wal-Mart, by starting with low-priced selloff goods and not stocking anything that is acquired through first-run channels.
Some supermarkets have started to differentiate on the basis of the quality of what they stock, rather than a commodity item for a low price. One of the fastest growing grocery segments is that for organic foods. Whole Foods Market has taken tremendous advantage of this approach by appealing to customers who wouldn't dream of buying mass-produced beef or veggies at a gigantic Wal-Mart store.
There will always be customers who just plain don't like the Wal-Mart shopping experience - the crowds, the lines and the mess. By creating clean, nice spaces, a market can compete.
Some groceries also compete effectively by really understanding their clients. One of my contacts in the business found that his clients behaved differently according to the time of the week! Monday to Friday, they were all about in and out, convenience, and no fuss. Come Friday night, all of a sudden they turn into galloping gourmets who need 47 flavors of vinegar and fresh lemon grass for their weekend culinary creations. What he used to do was re-set two aisles of his store every Friday afternoon (dubbing it the 'gourmet experience' section) and set them back again on Sunday night. That kind of tailoring is hard for a Wal-Mart to pull off.
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- Posted Admin on October 07, 2005
