Noh Review on Marketing - August 31, 2012

Harvard Business Review "Marketing Is Dead" by Bill Lee

Overview: This article discusses how the traditional marketing (advertising, public relations, branding and corporate communications) is not as effective any more. The author suggests peer influence and community-oriented marketing which fit better into the current trend.

Key Lessons:

• Buyers often get their information from other sources, such as the Internet, word-of-mouth and customer reviews. The current social media trend has made the traditional marketing communications irrelevant and ineffective. Consumers are less influenced by the traditional marketing methods these days because there's no place for traditional marketing in their purchasing decision.
• Extending traditional marketing logic into the world of social media does not work. For example, the effects of marketing on Facebook are controversial.
• Peer-influence-based, community-oriented marketing has a better chance of creating sustained growth through authentic customer relationships.
• Community Marketing: As a consumer, you are more likely to trust what your neighbours or friends have to say than salespeople or corporate website content. Accordingly, you should focus on aligning your company's social media efforts with community-oriented buying experience.
• Peer-Influence-based Marketing: Get customer influencers to talk positively about your products. 
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) shouldn't only be based on the money that the customer pays you through his purchases. You should look at the potential value of that customer, including his social status, influence, power and the size of his network. 
• Reward the best customer advocates and influencers with social capital, such as reputation, access to new knowledge and larger affiliation networks instead of traditional cash rewards or discounts.
• Florida Teen Tobacco Case: In order to reduce the teen smoking rate, the State of Florida got influential customer advocates (cool teens who were student leaders or athletes) to deliver the message. Instead of pushing the traditional warning message, which consisted of the critical health problems caused by smoking, they utilized people who had the most influence on teen smokers. As a result of the peer influence, teen smoking in Florida dropped by nearly half between 1998 and 2007.

Article: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/08/marketing_is_dead.html

Noh Review on Leadership - August 29, 2012

1. Harvard Business Review "Who Can Teach Leadership?" by Gianpiero Petriglieri

Overview: This long article talks about how you can minimize the resistance from your audience when teaching leadership or leading a group. How can you come across as "qualified" in the eyes of the audience? The author argues that it is all about gaining trust. This can be especially interesting for people who are currently guest speakers, executives who deliver presentations to their staff members, or simply anyone interested in public speaking.

Key Lessons:

• We learn to lead through the experience of leading and following.
• If you embrace different perspectives and values, your audience will learn more deeply from you and make the most out of their learning experience. Your ability to maximize their return on experience comes before your qualifications or work history as a lecturer.
• The audience always wonders how trustworthy the lecturer is. Trust likely decreases when 1) the lecturer seems less familiar 2) the lecturer does not prove that he understands or values the concerns and aspirations of the audience 3) the lecturer does not take the views of the audience into account.
• If you are a lecturer or presenter, you must accept the fact that there will often be skepticism (mistrust with curiosity) and cynicism (preconceived rejection). In order to overcome these, it is critical for you to establish the audience's trust  as soon as you see an opening.
• In my opinion, you should focus less on your history, past work experience or names of fancy executives whom you met. Rather, you should explain to the audience in detail how you plan on enriching their knowledge and maximizing their learning experience in the given time that you have. If you show that you truly care about their needs and learning experience, you will gain their trust a lot quicker.

Article: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/08/who_can_teach_leadership.html

2. Harvard Business Review "Three Leadership Traits that Never Go Out of Style" by Vineet Nayar

Overview: In this short article, the author goes over 3 leadership traits which always stand out. They are discussed below.

Key Lessons:

• 1) Trust: If your team members realize that you trust them unconditionally, they will feel empowered. This often leads to innovation, risk-taking attitude, and higher morale.
• 2) Empathy: If your team members see that you truly care about them and their feelings, they will more likely enjoy their work. This often leads to a more connected office environment and higher productivity. 
• 3) Mentorship: If your team members realize that they have a mentor that they could rely on, they will feel more confident and secure about themselves. Once they see you as their mentor, they will find it easy to talk to you and approach you. This often leads to better teamwork and motivated employees.

Article: http://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/nayar/2012/08/three-leadership-traits-that-n.html

Noh Review on "Samsung vs. Apple" - August 27, 2012

1. Bloomberg Businessweek "Apple Gets $1 Billion From Samsung—Nothing Changes" by Paul Barrett

Overview: This article is about the patent trials between Samsung and Apple. The author briefly discusses what went down in the court and the implications of Apple's win.

Key Info:

• Result of the first of many patent trials in the U.S: Samsung must pay Apple $1.05 billion for infringing 6 of the 7 patents for Apple mobile devices
• But, it is too early for Apple to celebrate. Samsung will appeal the San Jose verdict soon, and there are other continents and areas for these many patent lawsuits.
• For Apple, this is not just a battle against Samsung. It is Apple's shout out to the other rivals, such as Motorola and HTC.

Article: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-08-24/apple-gets-1-billion-from-samsung-dot-and-nothing-changes

2. Harvard Business Review "Who Cares If Samsung Copied Apple?" by James Allworth

Overview: This article provides an interesting view on the argument that Samsung copied Apple. The author discusses how the fierce competition and all the copying have fuelled Apple to continuously come up with innovative products.

Key Lessons:

• Author's View: Before asking whether Samsung copied Apple or not, it is important for us to determine how it would affect consumers and other companies in the future.
• Apple's argument "If our competitor copies us, it is impossible for us to keep innovating" is flawed. Regardless of what they claimed during the lawsuit against Microsoft, Apple continued to unveil the iMac, OS X, iPod, iPhone and iPad. Rather, the fierce competition accelerated Apple's innovation. The logic is that the competition fueled Apple's awareness for R&D and their speed in innovation. 
• According to The Knockoff Economy: How Imitation Sparks Innovation, innovation stops without protection from copying. Great innovations often build on existing ones - and that requires the freedom to copy.
• Regardless of the outcome of this court case in the U.S., there will be no material change in Apple's innovation or pricing. Even with Samsung's win, it will not result in slower development of Apple's products.
• There are already so many lawsuits going around in the world, which suggest that everyone is already copying each other. Instead of having lawsuits as their defence, the most ideal solution would be for the leading companies to innovate at such a rate that their competition can't copy them fast enough. This would be a win-win for both consumers and and the innovators.
• In my opinion, this isn't always a feasible option, especially for smaller companies with less funding on R&D. However with what Apple has, Apple can't complain about this solution.

Article: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/08/who_cares_if_samsung_copied_ap.html

Noh Review on General Business - August 26, 2012

1. Harvard Business Review "It's More Important to Be Kind than Clever" by Bill Taylor

Overview: This article is about how efficiency should never come at the expense of humanity. Before asking how your business can improve its productivity, efficiency or analytical procedures, it is important to recognize that it exists for humans. Reading this article would make you think about Corporate Social Responsibility again.

Key Lessons:

• If a business sacrifices humanity in order to make more profits, it will lose its people and customers.
• It is more important for a business to be geared towards humans and their needs.
• Panera Bread Case: Although a small act of kindness does not normally make headlines on newspapers, it does these days thanks to SNS. Word of mouth is extremely powerful these days on Facebook and Twitter because it can spread very quickly. Hence, positive word of mouth can even beat the payoffs of traditional marketing methods. 
• Technology, business analytics and efficiency are shaping today's world. However, we must remember that our business/company/organization exists for people. If our company has a promising product which is expected to bring high profits but the product has a low chance of harming the user, we must rethink about this product. Even if the chance of harming the people is significantly low, people and their safety come before our profits.

Article: http://blogs.hbr.org/taylor/2012/08/its_more_important_to_be_kind.html

2. Harvard Business Review "Morning Advantage: What it Really Means to Be a Compassionate Leader" by Kevin Evers

Overview: This short article discusses how to be effective as a compassionate leader. Reading this article would make you realize that being compassionate isn't as easy as you think.

Key Lessons:

• Compassion can enhance productivity and bring profits.
• It is important for a leader to confront difficult situations and drop the fear of being unkind to his people. We should not confuse compassion with kindness. Compassionate leaders care about their people, but they also know when to engage in tough conversations in order to fuel their development and growth.

Article: http://blogs.hbr.org/morning-advantage/2012/08/morning-advantage-what-it-real.html

3. Harvard Business Review "Why Remote Workers Are More (Yes, More) Engaged" by Scott Edinger

Overview: This article shocks you by throwing a surprising fact: remote workers are more engaged and committed than employees whom you work with in the office. The author provides why this is the case by giving you realistic views on the office environment as opposed to the virtual environment.

Key Lessons:

• People at work these days overuse emails and messengers in order to communicate with each other. Even for people who sit metres away from each other in the office, actual face-time or an in-person conversation does not happen because technology has made it so much easier to communicate with someone just sitting at your desk.
• When a leader is physically distant from others in an organization, he will make extra effort to make contact. He will try harder to connect with the people and get to know the people better. 
• Virtual meetings tend to be more focused and concise because each remote worker has other duties in his life. Everyone on the team values his time and respects other workers' time.
• It beats our common sense, but remote workers tend to be more engaged and productive than people who work in the office. 
• Obviously, the engagement or commitment of workers is case by case. If you are a leader working with people in the office, remember to increase face-time with your employees. It is important for a leader to be approachable so that his employees feel comfortable in the office, leading to better in-person communication and teamwork. 

Article: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/08/are_you_taking_your_people_for.html