Category: Business Strategy

Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce and e-comm., is the buying and selling of products or services over electronic system such as internet and other computer networks. E-commerce is commonly used for net banking, online shopping etc…

This paper examines how globalization of e-commerce is impacting business in general. With the increase of internet-based technologies, it has been the reason for recent stimulus globalization. In this Information Age, Internet commerce is a powerful tool in the economic growth of developing countries. While there are indications of ecommerce patronage among large firms in developing countries, there seems to be little and negligible use of the Internet for commerce among small and medium sized firms. E-commerce ensures better business in the SMEs and sustainable development of economics for developing countries.

E-commerce allows companies to increase their sales in domestic and foreign operations and the flexibility afforded by the technology also provides less costly opportunities to locate operations strategically. E-commerce not only reduces communication costs, but also increases flexibility in locating activities. Research point indicates that internet technology has led to an increase in international trade (Freund and Weinhold, 2002, 2004). This is the evidence of how it suggests profits from foreign operations have also increased in recent years (Hilsenrath, 2005). In the emerging global economy, e-commerce has increasingly become a necessary component of business strategy being a strong catalyst for economic development.
Integration of information and communications technology (ICT) in business has evolved the relationships within organizations and those between and among organizations and individuals. The controversial current social and economic trends are globalization and the widespread adoption of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Many argue that these two trends are closely associated, each driving the other forward, and both being driven by other common forces, such as trade liberalization, deregulation, migration, and the expansion of capitalism and democracy (c.f., Held et al., 1999). Pohjola (2002) argues that the twin forces of globalization and the ICT revolution are combining to create the so-called New Economy, marked by higher rates of economic and productivity growth.

“Technology is both driven by and a driver of globalization, as both forces continually reinforce one another” cited by (Bradley et al., 1993).Specifically, the use of ICT for ecommerce in business has enhanced productivity, encouraged greater customer participation, and enabled mass customization, besides reducing costs. Prior to development in the Internet and Web-based technologies, the distinctions between traditional markets and the global electronic marketplace-such as business capital size, among others-are gradually being narrowed down.

Together with the appropriate strategy and policy approach with e-commerce enables small and medium scale enterprises to compete with large capital-rich businesses. On another plane, developing countries are given increased access to the global marketplace, where they compete with and complement of the more developed economies. Most of the developing countries are already participating in e-commerce, either as sellers or buyers. However, to facilitate e-commerce growth in these countries based on globalization phenomenal, the relatively under-developed information infrastructure must be improved. Significantly, economic trend of the past decade is the growing use of the Internet for conducting business.

Having the very best nightclub business plan is an important aspect of guaranteeing that your new nightclub is a success. It is in fact one of the first duties you have to do before you begin planning anything else. Nightclubs may be very profitable. Even so, like restaurants, heaps of them go under each day due to whether incomplete nightclub business plans or no strategy whatsoever. The greatest mistake you can make is considering that you do not need a strategy to start a new nightclub. People will not just come pouring in when the doorways open up. Even if they do, that is no guarantee that your nightclub would be a success.
The first factor you have to look at when compiling the correct nightclub business plans is to keep in mind that it is possible to be a part of everything. You can plan the way the bar should be run, you can plan how the dance floor should be laid out, and you can even plan where the lights should go and how they should shine. Not just that, but it is easy to integrate the DJs you recruit and their equipment into your nightclub business plans as well. If you intend to serve meals, your plans can incorporate provisions for the kitchen as well. After that, also, your plans can additionally consist of employing somebody else to do all of these things. Delegating responsibilities is totally up to you.
Naturally, there are additionally a number of other things to look at when writing up your nightclub business plans. For example, you will have to consider how you intend to run your nightclub. Even so, you do not need to concentrate solely on general operations. Quite the contrary, you need to look at how your nightclub should run on daily basis. Your plans additionally have to incorporate what sort of equipment you will need for every aspect of your club. Bar equipment, lights, the audio system, and so on: all of this must be thought of before you ever open up your doorways. On top of that, your plans have to incorporate the kind of music you intend to play as well. Are you going to have a rock club, a techno club, an emo club, a trance club? Do you intend to do a mix of genres or do you wish to concentrate on one specific genre?
In brief, your nightclub business plans have to incorporate everything. You even have to determine whether you wish people to get their drinks solely from the bar or whether you intend to have waiters and waitresses. In other words, planning a nightclub involves intense detail. If you keep in mind that, then you are one step nearer to success.

Developing a Position Marketing Strategy is determining exactly what Positioning is and why it is important. According to Wikipedia, positioning has come to mean the process by which marketers try to create an image or identity in the minds of their target markets for its product, brand, or organization. It is the relative competitive comparison that a company occupies in a given market as perceived by the target market.

Position is the customers overall perception of your business including its products and services. Position is what is in the mindset of your customer. If your positioning takes full advantage of your customers perceptions and you communicate this positioning effectively, it will set you apart from your competition and establish a solid first link in the purchase decision chain, also known as the awareness link. The awareness link shapes your relationship, and often the real purchase is made by the unconscious mind on the basis of awareness long before the actual sales transition is completed. Having good positioning makes for favorable awareness and sets you up for success right from the start.

Position can be very tricky in that its under your control yet it is not. To the extent that your customer may already have perceptions about your business, industry, products and services, those perceptions already are your positioning. You need to identify these perceptions because you can change your positioning. As a result changing customer perceptions with effective communications through your companys sensory package can influence the behavior that is consistent with the image you are trying to project to your customers.

Your positioning has to be genuine. It MUST be consistent with the reality of your business and it has to be consistent with the perceptions of your target markets or it will not be credible or believed. Positioning, based on false claims or a misunderstanding of your target markets, is a liability to your company. It can turn away prospective customers and weaken relationships with existing customers.

Differentiation is more than just simply being different from your competitor. You need to be preferentially differentiated and this is why it is important to be positioning your company in your target markets. I read many articles and blogs that constantly say being able to identify how your product or service is different is one of the factors that will make or break your business. You may ask why? It is because being different AND being able to successfully communicate that difference will secure a welcome niche in the marketplace for your business. To create a differentiation that will not be imitated, you have to think beyond your core benefits of your business. The companies that have succeeded in maintaining their differentiation over the years and werent intimated are those that innovated in qualities beyond the core benefits of their market. Be the innovator of qualities and think ahead and look outside the forest.

There is a systematic process for developing an effective positioning for your overall business. It is a step-by-step process, but it is not automatic and does not happen overnight. It requires careful thinking and insight from you from the inside of your business to position for the outside perception of your business. It requires that you know your target markets (see last weeks blog Your Target Market and the Need to Focus. It takes time, but with proper understanding of your target markets, you will have a foundation in place for building a positioning strategy that will draw your target customers to you. EXHIB-IT! has been working on our position strategy for the last few years after our competitor moved within .2 miles from our showroom where we had been located for a number of years. We took for granted that our competitor was across town and knew we differentiated our businesses and it did not hurt that we were on opposite sides of town. However, when our competitor moved this close to our location where we had been for 7 years at the time, misperception in the community occurred. Our company names are similar (as are about 500 exhibit names in the USA). We focused on position strategy, which has allowed us to grow 122% over a 2.5 year period. It was not an easy process in the beginning, but once we identified our target markets, along with our secondary flanker markets, it made it easy for us to have a position strategy.

To be effective and create a position strategy, the first step is to determine the general classification of your products and services. They can be classified into one of three ways (1) a true product, (2) a commodity or (3) a brand. Think about what you sell and which category it falls into and how that affects that way you are positioned in the minds of your prospect or customer.
Many companies confuse a solid marketing strategy with pure tactics, also known as a brand juice. Visual identity with clever tag lines and a creative “essence” advertising package through your sensory package are all key ingredients in brand juice creation, but they are only supporting elements. To be effective, such supporting elements must be part of a more comprehensive plan.
After determining your relative standing in the market and how the market sees you compared to your competitors, this will affect how you develop your marketing communications as you decide to either reinforce your current relative standing or try to change it, work on these five steps below.

1.Determine what the dominant gratification mode and purchase preference of your target market segments are. To do this, you look at the psychographic characteristics of your customer – which are the perception and behavior modes. You look at the interpersonal, objective and introverted modes and what the purchase preferences were regarding experimental, performance and value of your products and services and apply these to the way you create your positioning statement.

2.Develop other key psychographic characteristics of your target market. Study your existing customers (as this is your most cost effective approach to studying the characteristics) and look for clues to customer perceptions that will help shape your positioning strategy.

3.Redefine your product or services. Begin setting yourself apart and create a unique place in your customers minds to define your product or service in terms of its features and emotional factors that are important to your prospective customers. Then write your positioning strategy which should be a brief paragraph for each target market segment that provides an overview of your positioning by gathering all of the key positioning elements and pulling them all together.

4.Develop your unique selling proposition also known as an USP. This is your slogan, your tagline, and is an expression that will become closely linked with your business. It should be something catchy and easy to remember and should also contain a basic message about your company that elicits in your prospective customers the emotional gratification that they can expect from your business through its products and services.

5.Develop your positioning statement to be more explicit and an expanded version of your USP that explains and gives the rational justification for it by identifying what your business does, the result customers can expect from doing business with you, and how you are going to achieve that result.

Again, be sure to review this information and update it periodically to keep the information current. Your Position Strategy should be evaluated constantly by using metrics and updated periodically to keep you current with your prospects and customers needs.

Crucible Risk Consulting can help develop an operational model to fulfill regulatory directives for the management involving banking, financial risk, and ensuring investment capital adequacy inside banks and satisfy the set expectations for credit, market, liquidity, operational risk as mandated inside the Basel II and also III accords. We can enhance or make a robust risk infrastructure and also the management information capability to enable submission with greater potential for superior decision producing and ease the execution of risk measurement and also management.

High returns on investment could be a reward regarding high risk, but choosing a high risk may well not always result in higher returns and worst still results in a financial disaster. Each time, a business overlooks this specific fundamental tip of organization, and then it is likely to face extreme ramifications. Companies tend to forget the particular difference between choosing a blind risk along with a calculated risk.

The process of creating any talent management strategy has become instrumental in transferring leaders’ mindsets to determine their people as a competitive advantage. Leaders used systems thinking to name who was essential to keep existing business and drive home based business. This created discussions forcing executives to operate through differences associated with an opinion regarding your value and contribution.

Several global businesses today include achieving impressive efficiencies and also savings through various techniques. But it is no longer enough. Organizations that would like to reach the next level throughout performance will need to challenge on their own to fundamentally transform the procurement perform.

Each of our business transformation consultant comments within the importance of being confident that your desired significant change is applicable and appropriate I will be your business strategy “fit-for-purpose” in addition to correctly aligned with what is happening in at the particular operational level? Maybe in order to attain your strategic objectives you’ll want to merge with and/or attain another company or maybe organic growth is what’s needed.

A top-notch and well-defined vision encompasses a sense of urgency to overcome any complacency that could be exhibited by stakeholders. It clarifies the typical direction for a big difference. It also motivates and motivates visitors to act in the proper direction and facilitates align employees actions while using organization’s strategic aims. For maximum effectiveness, the vision should be clear, focused and easy to communicate.

A successful transformational leader could have certain qualities to guide and influence others to create fundamental, not only towards the external world, but also to internal procedures.