Archive for 2018
Strategic Movements: May 2018
Walmart took a 75% stake in Flipkart for about $15 billion. Flipkart was recently valued at $11.6 billion in April 2017. Nice premium. Big value of Flipkart: they know how to compete online. Jet.com wasn’t good enough for Walmart. Now it is going abroad. Good thinking. We are all on this planet together.
Read MoreBootstrapped Entrepreneur: Learning from Errors at Every Stage
My entrepreneurial endeavor is beginning to pay fruits, albeit 15 years after its founding. The path hasn’t been easy nor financially secure and I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to anyone. But then again, successful entrepreneurs don’t always choose to be entrepreneurs.
Read MoreThe Cost of Free
On the other hand, getting people to open up their wallets and pay for a service, especially if they’ve become accustomed to using it for free, is hard. That’s true for pay-only services and it’s also true of the attempt to split the difference between free and paid: freemium.
Read MoreBrits Give Insight Into Toys ‘R Us Failure
Another retail consultant Steve Dresser is also quoted in the BBC article: “Even if they (Toys R Us) didn’t want to give over their stores to the kinds of hands-on experience that you get in Hamleys or a Lego store, they should have done more to keep customers happy, been less functional, more on-trend.
Read MoreStrategic Movements: April 2018
”… Think of value generation and leadership development as the chariot wheels that support a transformation, and the quest as the horse that provides direction and momentum. Alignment of the three is critical if you want to reach your destination.”
Read MoreWhen Price Doesn’t Matter
If you find yourself in this situation, reducing price can help to clear existing inventory but it will not solve the fundamental problem of lacking a product that people want. Better to preserve what profits you can and invest them into developing a product that addresses a customer need.
Read MoreWill Nordstrom Survive the Amazon/Walmart Duopoly Onslaught?
As Amazon and Wal-Mart continue to dominate e-commerce, Nordstrom has been faced with a unique challenge of growing its own e-commerce presence, and continuing to promote its differentiators against this duopoly.
Read MoreDollar General Looks Good Today. Will Tomorrow Be Different?
From a business strategy standpoint, Dollar General has positioned themselves to avoid direct competition with Amazon and Walmart, having successfully demonstrated a way to deal with the duopoly’s increasing presence in the retail market.
Read MoreTariffs Defy Traditional Marketing and Pricing Thinking
Not only will the American economy be hurt, these actions by an American President with very limited knowledge about economics, will affect the economies of many nations.
Read MoreStrategic Movements: March 2018
In his book Pricing: The Third Business Skill, EJ Bouter made the case for pricing to become its own department, right next to finance, marketing, sales, and operations in chapters 14-16.
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