Using your classroom teams in their online Wiki sites, have students conduct the following studies: Examine an industry that is centered on a dominant design. Review the historical underpinnings that lead to the initial success of the company that forged the dominant design strategy. Examine the competitors and their evolution. Has the configuration of competitive…
New consumers around the world want products. Companies need to figure out how to leverage their global footprint in order to capture new market shares. Foreign business in countries such as Denmark may be small, but their exporting activity is in excess of 40% of the country’s GDP. The US no longer dominates the world…
The Eurozone economy continues to wallow in dismal results. Inflation fell to 1.8% in February, but unemployment overall rose to 11.9% in January, which represents 19 million people out of work. The unemployed include 23.6% of youth under 25 years of age. Consumer demand dropped and the Markit Eurozone Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index, at 47.9…
Gold-mining returns to California after a six decade hiatus. Canadian company, Sutter Gold Mining Inc., controls mining rights to approximately 3.6 miles of the California Mother Lode Gold Belt in Amador County, California. The primary focus today is the Lincoln-Comet zone of the Lincoln Project that is at the heart of the Mother Lode region. …
Iron ore mining costs rise beyond control for Anglo American’s Minas-Rio Brazil project. Permit and licensing difficulties with the Brazilian government led the company to write down $4 billion in the project value this month. This may be the first of other write downs, as costs continue to rise over three times beyond the original…
Purchasing power parity (PPP) is the rate of exchange between two currencies that results in equal purchasing power in each of the economies. Since 1986, the Economist has published the Big Mac PPP index in which the price of a Big Mac in one country’s currency is divided by the price of a Big Mac…
Wim Bastiaanssen is the founder of Water Watch, a consulting company that produces exploitable information on agricultural conditions using information gathered from satellites that is processed through proprietary analytical algorithms in order to measure water consumption and then can be transmitted to on the ground mobile communication devices for exploitation. The company conducts survey work…
At this year’s Davos World Economic Forum, Nestlé CEO, Paul Bulcke, advises that government and government officials need to think longer-term. The policy-making activity appears to be disconnected from economic activity. Sustainability issues, such as water usage, are important to the Nestlé business model and for society in general. Through innovation and careful attention to…
Using your classroom teams in their online Wiki sites, have students conduct the following studies: Choose two countries listed on the Big Mac index discussed in this month’s Tech Tips. Conduct a PESTEL analysis of the factors relevant to the fast food industry in each country. Does the Big Mac index provide any insight? Explain.…
Using your classroom teams in their online Wiki sites, have students conduct the following studies: Choose two of the countries listed in the WEF Global Competiveness Index 2012-13 and the Global Innovation Index 2012 studies presented in this month’s research section. Compare and contrast the data provided and conclusions made. What does this information suggest…