Critical Insights Vol. 1 Issue 6

ECONOMICS & MACRO MARKET

According to the Conference Board, economic indicators have improved in February with both leading and coincident indices increased 0.1% and lagging index increased 0.3%. Although the Consumer Price Index published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics stays unchanged for All Urban Consumers in February, the prices of goods and services consumed showed some increase given the fact that the prices of foods and energy dropped in February. The data indicate that the economic recovery is pretty bumpy and fragile at best.

The recovery of the Dow Jones Industrial Average has come close to the 11,000 mark and its short-term advance seems to be unsustainable. From long-term point of view, the stock market is expected to be volatile in 2010.

STRATEGY & MARKETING

iPad for Enterprise?

My students at University of Washington are fascinated by customer perception. If customer perception is more or less mysterious to you as well, take a look at that of iPad. It is supposed to be about web surfing, email and photo and movie watching experience for consumers, according to Apple’s promotion campaign. Customers, however, want a stretch – taking it into an enterprise product category. With over 150,000 applications already produced and much more on the way, customers’ “wrong” perception has a pretty good chance to be proven right…

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Wal-Mart, Deviating from Its Fundamental Strategy, Suffered Negative Same-Store Growth

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, has seen better days. Yes, profits rose 22%, to $4.63 billion, in the fourth quarter of '09. Even coming out of the Great Recession, many consumers are trading down to shop at the discount superstore. However, for the third straight quarter the store saw negative same-store sales growth; during the last three months of 2009, same-store sales dropped 2%. Overall traffic in Wal-Mart stores was down too…

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Microsoft Office for Free?

Two years ago, I wrote to a Microsoft executive, urging the company to offer Microsoft Office for free. The idea is to deliver an online version of Office and provide links to highly relevant online information on the interface using user’s context for automatic search. Given customers’ concern with privacy, the most likely early adopters would be enterprise users who need to gather information from intranet. According to an IDC report, Microsoft has made a progress in this regard and the company is going to offer to corporate customers web-based versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint for free early this year...

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INNOVATION IN BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY

Innovation and Air Sandwich

Chances are, you're already familiar with the concept of the Air Sandwich, if not the term itself. An Air Sandwich is what happens when the leadership within an organization issues orders from 80,000 feet and lobs them down to the folks at 20,000 feet. A former Autodesk employee talks about how air sandwich prevented vision from being realized…

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The Fundamentals of Innovation

As the economic environment stabilizes, there's a temptation for executives to return to business as usual. And although much about the future of the economy is uncertain, an expert says that a return to the recent status quo would be a colossal mistake…

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Chips with “Designer Salt”

PepsiCo will soon introduce a secret new ingredient that improves the healthfulness in its Lay's potato chips: "designer salt" whose crystals are shaped and sized to reduce the sodium intake consumers ingest with each chip. Pepsi recently pledged to reduce the average sodium per serving in its products by 25% over the next five years. As consumer and government pressure for healthier food products mounts, PepsiCo's move attempts to get ahead of the curve of potential demand shifts or new regulations…

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LEADERSHIP & ORGANIZATION

How to Survive in an Unhappy Workplace

When you don't like your job, going to work every day can be a challenge. Your problem might be with a bad manager, that you constantly feel stretched to the breaking point, or that you are resentful about taking a pay cut. Or, the whole environment may just feel toxic. You might need to stay in your job because it provides health benefits, or maybe you're only staying while you look for another position. Whatever your reasons for being unhappy, you need to maintain your professionalism and prevent a bad attitude from sabotaging you. The principles you need to remember: 1. Differentiate between what you can change and what you can't. 2. Take responsibility for making a change. 3. Focus on making the best of a bad situation. 4. Don’t assume nothing will ever change. 2. Don’t allow negative thoughts to rule you. 3. Don’t go it alone…

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What Makes Us Happy?

What makes the human heart sing? It is not about great wealth, good education, or high IQ, It is about strong ties to friends and family and commitment to spending time with them. There are three components of happiness: pleasure ("the smiley-face piece"), engagement (the depth of involvement with one's family, work, romance and hobbies) and meaning (using personal strengths to serve some larger end)…

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Does Your Passion Match Your Aspiration?

Leaders who create extraordinary new possibilities are passionate about their mission and tenacious in pursuit of it. Many people have good ideas, but many fewer are willing to put themselves on the line for them. Passion separates good intentions and opportunism from real accomplishments…

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