ECONOMICS & MACRO MARKET
Consumer Confidence Index stands at 52.5 (1985=100), up from 46.4 in February. The Present Situation Index increased to 26.0 from 21.7. The Expectations Index improved to 70.2 from 62.9 last month. The rise of confidence index might be supported by improving job market. The Conference Board Employment Trends Index™ (ETI) rose in March for the seventh consecutive month. The index now stands at 94.4, up from February's revised figure of 93.7. The index is up 5.5 percent from a year ago. Over the past three months, all of the index's eight components have been improving.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.1% in March. The U.S. Import Price Index rose 0.7 percent in March. The increase was attributable to higher prices for both fuel and nonfuel imports and followed a 0.2 percent decline in February. Export prices also rose 0.7 percent in March after declining 0.4 percent the previous month.
Dow Jones Industry Average has been climbing since we forecasted its continued rise when it was at 10,566.02 on March 9, 2010. While economic situation is improving, the market is yet to see signs of sustainable growth, leading to a volatile path in the foreseeable future.
STRATEGY & MARKETING
CVS Goes Upmarket
As businesses reach a plateau, firms often conduct out-of-box thinking and look for more growth opportunities. One of the common choices is switch to more profitable market segments. By moving from “Always Low Price” to “Save Money Live Better,” Walmart Stores, Inc. seems to have difficulties in its journey for its upmarket repositioning and the company has a lot to learn from Target Corp. Incidentally, drug store CVS was also on the journey to go upmarket. After failed to lure the makers of pricey cosmetics, skin care, and fragrances to offer their products to the drugstore giant, CVS decided to create a brand new retail environment that would be adjacent to its core pharmacies yet offer a totally different shopping experience - Dubbed Beauty 360…
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Why Internet Retailers Should Pay Attention to Where Potential Customers Live
While the Internet holds immense promise for reaching retail customers far beyond traditional trading areas, new Wharton research indicates that customers discover online retailers by offline word-of-mouth, online word-of-mouth, online search and magazine advertising. Old world dynamics, such as neighbors sharing word-of-mouth recommendations, therefore, can still have powerful effects on Internet sales. In another case, researchers investigate people whose shopping needs might be different than most of the people in their geographic area – preference minority. For example, young parents living in a zip code populated mostly by elderly people would find fewer offerings in local stores because the retailers need to devote the bulk of their shelf space and inventory to meeting the demands of the majority of their customers. Preference minority customers are more likely to purchase online for niche brands and less price sensitive…
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They Key Pillars of Business Model
All successful business ventures need a clear business model and experienced investors will want to see it before making an investment. Business model tells us how a business makes money. The key pillars of business model are 1) customer value proposition – how your product or service helps to solve a problem or provide a benefit; 2) a foothold – where is the niche customer segment of early adopters; 3) differentiation – how your customers view your offers as meaningfully different; 4) pricing…
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INNOVATION IN BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY
Monsanto: Winning the Ground War
While products of disruptive innovation may lead to great business opportunities, market acceptance and readiness could be a life-or-death challenge. When Hugh Grant took the top job at Monsanto (MON) in May, 2003, the company's nickname in some quarters was "Mutanto." A growing chorus of critics warned that Monsanto's genetically modified plant seeds would wipe out the monarch butterfly, give people virulent new allergies, and reduce the planet's agricultural diversity. During the 12 months preceding Grant's elevation, Monsanto's stock price fell nearly 50% to $8 a share. In fiscal year 2002, the company lost $1.7 billion. Fewer than five years later, Monsanto is thriving. The company’s net income leaped 44% last year, to $993 million, on $8.5 billion in revenue. Monsanto shares, which closed at $104.81 on Dec. 5, have risen more than 1,000% during Grant's tenure. At 58.6, the company's price-to-earnings ratio is about two points higher than Google's (GOOG). Here is a fascinating story showing how Monsanto capture stakeholders’ needs and concerns and came up with its product mix and marketing strategy to attain market acceptance…
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Are You a Walt Disney or a Roy Disney?
Everybody knows Disney. The next time you are marveling at the wonders of Disney, make sure you remember Roy. While Walt was dreaming about his Magic Kingdom and making a mouse talk, his brother Roy was actually making sure that Walt's dreams would come true. Roy was the operational genius; a yin for Walt's yang …
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Co-Creation: Not Just Another Focus Group
Several years ago, I conducted simulation for product innovation at City University’s MBA classes for future concepts of iPot. Students were divided into competing groups. They are required to view themselves as and communicate with teenagers – typical iPot users, gather and prioritize the requirements of the target customers, and develop future concepts of the products. As they saw how similar the features of new iPot and eventually the iPhone are to the concepts that they had developed, they were very excited. This approach of getting customers involved in product innovation has been named as co-creation and become increasingly popular in industries. This article talks about how this approach has been successfully adopted by companies like Unilever…
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LEADERSHIP & ORGANIZATION
Beware the Siren’s Song - Maintain Self-Control by Avoiding Temptation
Homer wrote of Odysseus that he was so worried about the allure of the siren’s song, he put wax in his shipmates’ ears and had himself tied to his ship’s mast and, furthermore, erroneous beliefs about one’s capacity for exercising restraint can lead to maladaptive self-control strategies. Unlike that hero of mythology, though, most people overestimate their capacity to control their impulses, according to a researcher at the Kellogg School of Management. His four fascinating studies show that people in a cold, non-impulsive state will overestimate their impulse-control capacity; people in a hot, impulsive state will have a more realistic view of their capacity for impulse control; and people who perceive that they have a high capacity for impulse control will expose themselves to more temptation and will ultimately exhibit more impulsive behavior...
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Why Business Leaders Should Act More Like Artists
If you are a manager, especially a manager with technology and engineering background, please take your managerial palettes out and copy the creative class. Artists are more inspired communicators, as they are always trying to inspire a response through their art, and they also collaborate and learn together better than their more numerically-inclined, left-brained brethren…
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How the Mighty Fall: A Primer on the Warning Signs
The author of Good to Great, Jim Collins, on how to spot the subtle signs that your successful company is actually on course to sputter—and how to reverse the slide before it's too late…
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