Business Model

————————————————- Business Model Re-engineering MySpace Date: November 4, 2011 ————————————————- Word Count: 3742 Introduction Nowadays, increasingly more industries, especially the media sector, are facing a continuous change. In the case of media, this is mainly a result of steadily developing digital technology. Even though a company’s business model might have been successful for many years, it suddenly can start to become weaker.

The media market is quite competition-driven and hence a competitor with a new business model might alter the industry almost instantly (Business model re-engineering, n. d. ). In such a competitive market, the “strategy […] is about being different. ” (Eisenhardt & Sull, 2001, p. 116). This statement perfectly implies that companies and their products need to be so unique with such a well thought-out and innovate business model that they can create a competitive advantage.

However, this adaption of the business model in an ever-changing media environment turns out to be quite a complex challenge, since now many companies face a decline of customers and revenue. A good example for a business model that could not survive the changing media environment in terms of online social networking is the one of Myspace. Consequently, I am going to propose a re-engineering of its business model.

In this paper, I will focus on the problems of the current business model and carefully analyze the context of the market in order to propose a refreshed model that will help Myspace to survive and to compete more successfully in nowadays’ social networking market. Myspace needs a business model that provides value to its customers, guarantees a competitive advantage, as well as collects revenue (Teece, 2010). Myspace Myspace. com, which was founded in 2003 by Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson (Piskorski, Chen, & Knoop, 2008), is an online social networking ervice that is now owned by Specific Media LLC and singer Justin Timberlake (Specific Media Acquires Myspace, 2011). Specific Media LLC is a media company which sells advertising online with a technology that aims at targeting specific customer segments (Specific Media LLC, 2011). Specific Media LLC, however, has not been the owner of Myspace for long. In June 2011, the company bought Myspace for about $35 million and as part of the deal pop star Justin Timberlake took an ownership stake (Specific Media Acquires Myspace, 2011).

Before, from 2005 until 2011, it was owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation (News Corporation to Acquire Intermix Media, Inc, 2005). From 2005 until 2008, Myspace was the most popular social networking website in the world, as measured by the visitors. But the number of 75. 9 million visitors per month in 2008 dropped to 34. 8 million in May 2011 (Gillette, 2011). Problems Is Facebook Myspace’s biggest problem? Since 2008, Myspace has been continuously losing members which was at the time when it was overtaken by Facebook (Mack, 2008).

Myspace has been gradually losing its users which can be expressed by the declining members and visitors of the website. As from February 2010, the visitors decreased by 43. 3 per cent (Arrington, 2011) and the members shrunk by ten million within one month at the beginning of 2011 (Stafford, 2011). This decline brings along a dramatic loss in revenues which are solely generated by advertising (Enders, Hungenberg, Denker, & Mauch, 2008).

Facebook has now about 25 times more users than Myspace (Stafford, 2011) and it seems that members migrated from Myspace to Facebook, but there is other reasons for the failure of Myspace, mainly in terms of innovation. Myspace was performing really well at the time of News Corp’s acquisition and it barely had any competitors. However, with the rise of its first great competitor Facebook, the former leading social networking site had to confront one of its severest lacks: innovation! At the very beginning, Facebook entered a niche market, namely the one of college students.

Firstly, it was available to Haravard students, then more and more universities wanted to join Facebook and today, almost everybody is using this social network, no matter if college student or not (Piskorski et al. , 2008). Today, around 600 million users enjoy keeping in touch with people all over the world via Facebook (Cauwels & Sornette, 2011). Facebook managed this great success because it was innovative. New features have been added all the time since it has been launched, hence people were involved and kept coming back as a result of new innovations such as the ‘news feed’ at that time (Stafford, 2011).

While Facebook managed to be innovative all the time, Myspace failed to adapt to the market and did not add new features as Facebook did. Additionally, Myspace did not allow third party developers to create new features such as applications (e. g. Facebook – FarmVille etc. ), they rather kept everything behind closed doors. Therefore, Myspace lost the competition of controlling the market at the time between 2006 and 2008 and consequently it became boring (Stafford, 2011). Even though Myspace had certain features, they did not all work very well.

For example, members were able to create their own backgrounds either themselves or they could download an existing design from many providers who specialized in creating Myspace profile designs. This feature turned into quite a mess, problems, and confusion regarding certain profiles. The whole competition resulted in a confusing mess and one could not be sure on what Myspace was focusing. Not only because of the customized user profiles but also because of some other flaws in the site’s design, Myspace was confronted with security issues. Results were spyware (Hesseldahl, 2006), phishing, and spam (Webb, Caverlee, & Pu, 2010).

Another security fear was regarding the profile content. Users were concerned about trust and privacy and even law enforcement officials claimed, “MySpace is used by sexual predators to lure teenagers” (Dwyer, Hiltz, & Passerini as cited by Schrobsdorff, 2006, p. 5). The last problem I want to focus on is the revenue model. As previously mentioned, Myspace operates on revenues from advertising. Especially under the ownership of News Corp, the main focus was on generating revenue. It seemed that Rupert Murdoch solely focused on revenues and nothing else which is a great flaw for a social networking site, as it needs to focus on the onsumers. In 2006, Google pledged to pay News Corp as many as $900 million over three and a half years and in return Google was allowed to provide search services and advertising on Myspace (Piskorski et al. , 2008). For Myspace’s customer it seemed that the site was full of too much unorganized advertising, hence the website appeared unprofessionally (James, 2009). The previously listed problems of Myspace are mainly problems of the time when Myspace lost the competition against Facebook, and reasons why Myspace is not successful anymore.

With regards to the Business Model Canvas by Alexander Osterwalder (2009), I will focus on the problems based on the following elements: Value Propositions, Key Partners, Revenue Streams, and Media Channels. The element of value propositions “seeks to solve customer problems and satisfy customer needs with value propositions” (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2009, p. 16). I consider this part to be Myspace’s greatest problem regarding the issues of trust, privacy, spam, spyware, and phishing.

Furthermore, the lack of innovation was one of the major problems why Myspace lost that many users who constantly want to experience something new. With its lack of good and new features as well as its unclear point of focus, Myspace was not able to deliver value which would result in customers continue to use the social network. From my personal experience, I can say that Myspace faded into obscurity which can be backed up by the low number of users now, compared to the time of 2006 when Myspace was at its peak (Snyder, Carpenter, & Slauson, 2006). I was a Myspace user around 2006 as well, when I was 15 years old.

It seemed to be a meeting point for teenagers and for me it was not any different from the German social networking site ‘Schuler VZ’ except that it is international. However, as time went by, I decreasingly used Myspace as for me it always was too confusing and it could not compete with the German social network. Besides, I got spammed with advertising, random men (who were not at my age) thought it was a dating service, and it simply became boring. Therefore, I can state that Myspace’s biggest problem is that it is not valuable enough for the users. Theory

Firstly, I will focus on the value propositions as all the other elements, I chose to focus on, follow up on the value propositions. When looking at value propositions, I would like to consider the three types of value propositions according to Anderson, Narus, and van Rossum (2006), namely ‘all benefits’, ‘favorable points of difference’, and ‘resonating focus’. In the case of Myspace, it certainly would not be enough to “simply list all the benefits” (Anderson et al. , 2006, p. 2) since there are too many competitors in the Internet environment that share most of the benefits and values.

The ‘favorable points of difference’ approach is promising in so far that it distinguishes the valuable points that the competitors do not offer. However, I believe that Myspace does not present many highly valuable aspects over their competitors and therefore it would be most convenient to concentrate on the ‘resonating focus’. With this approach, I will focus on “the one or two points of difference […] whose improvement will deliver the greatest value to the customer for the foreseeable future” (Anderson et al. , 2006, p. 4).

In connection to that, I will of course need to study the greatest competitors with regards to their value propositions in order to highlight Myspace’s most valuable points of difference. Furthermore, I will need to research what customers expect from online social networking, what they value about Myspace, and what they generally find lacking in the social networking environment in order to develop ideas for a possible niche market. Additionally, for this customer value research, I will need to conduct research on focus groups with regards to problems mentioned in the previous section (safety and innovation).

Furthermore, the design is an important aspect of the value propositions as well. As I previously stated, the old Myspace design was quite confusing which resulted in safety problems. Hence, a new design is needed which is unified for every user, yet attractive and which does not allow bugs. Secondly, in relation to innovation, I will need to look at the Key Partners who will be part of the re-engineering of the Media Channels as well and concerning revenues. Through Media Channels, the company can communicate with its customers and deliver the value propositions (Osterwalder et al. 2009). Especially in the online environment, awareness can be raised with the help of other key partners. For example, you can share content from one website on another. Not so long ago, Myspace introduced connection opportunities to Twitter and Facebook (Myspace introduces mashup with Facebook, 2010) and also youtube allows sharing videos on myspace. Myspace’s connections to Facebook which will also help to generate user-specific streams according to the user’s Facebook profiles. However, Facebook for example, does not allow a connection to Myspace.

Accordingly, Key Partners are needed that would help promoting Myspace. Moreover, the former revenue model which only consisted of advertising, has proven to be quite annoying for the users, hence Myspace needs Key Partners who will not only make the website more appealing but also help to make revenue. Hence, research has to be done on Key Partners who are willing to help financing Myspace as well as who would be interested to offer for example applications (which then help the Key Partners as well). As I said before, Myspace faded into obscurity.

For this reason, I will also need to look at other media channels such as campaigns and marketing strategies in order to bring Mypsace back to people’s minds. In that relation, research needs to be done on what marketing strategies worked for successful social networks such as Facebook and also what media channels can help to basically re-introduce a media product like Myspace. Assumptions & Best Practices Review First of all I need to mention that Myspace decided in 2010 to focus on music and entertainment (About Myspace, 2010).

However, for now I will only consider online social networking sites as websites that focus on music and entertainment are not Myspace’s greatest competitors. Of course, I will need to take Facebook into account as Myspace’s greatest competitor and as today’s most popular social network which was the most visited website in June 2011 (Smith, 2011). Facebook first started in a niche market of college students and it got awareness from the very beginning. It did not use any special advertising campaigns to become popular but the promotion was rather by word to mouth (Mitchell, 2009).

The popularity has then been covered by newspaper articles and television which reported on the success (Ibid). Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook as a unique and intimate website and constantly added new features that kept the site interesting. Facebook is far more innovative than Myspace and therefore the members keep using it and promote it by word-of-mouth advertising. Similarly to Facebook, Twitter was initially successful in a niche market. At the beginning, primarily computer- and technology specialists as well as bloggers used Twitter for example to promote their blogs (How did Twitter become popular? 2009). Twitter could convince with its simplicity and real life experience. Real life experience in so far that people twittered news from certain events such as the Mumbai attacks or recently the uprisings in Tunisia as different to regular news channels (Ibid). The best practices that made Twitter and Facebook successful and popular are therefore word-to-mouth advertising and the Internet itself. Word-to-mouth advertising only worked because of the convincing and interesting designs and usability.

Both platforms are innovative, as they have been creating new features that make them enjoyable, flexible and interesting (The Success of Twitter, 2011). Those best practices worked for Myspace as well – in the beginning. However, the task now is to remake Myspace aware to people’s minds and the goal is that the users actually keep using Myspace because of the new design and value propositions. I would suggest sending a short and catchy email to the Myspace users which shortly introduces them to the new Myspace.

Users might want to get to know the new Myspace and then tell people about their good experience. Additionally, since Myspace is focusing on music, an advertising campaign might help to make new bands aware of Myspace’s ability to promote their work. Facebook uses an aggressive innovation approach, meaning that it comes up with new features that users initially might not like but after a while they cannot imagine Facebook without those new features anymore. Furthermore, Facebook constantly adapts the privacy settings in order to meet the customers’ needs with regards to safety (Blodget, 2010).

Innovation keeps Facebook interesting and worthwhile to continue using it. Another highlight it offers for their users are applications. Many software developers create applications for Facebook which make the site not only more interesting and entertaining but also help to generate revenues (Stone, 2007). With the help of key partners, Myspace can get help for its design as well as applications that help to make the site interesting. What is more, key partners help financing; hence Myspace would not only be dependent on advertising revenues.

As users find the amount of advertising quite annoying, Myspace can focus on less but personalized advertising. Those steps would help to make Myspace more innovative and it can easier meet the users’ needs in terms of design, safety, new features that make it worth to use. Research Proposal – Method Myspace needs change! More specifically, Myspace needs a re-engineered business model. The previous statistics show that the numbers of Myspace users decline gradually. If this decline continues, the once most popular social network (Bains, 2009) will soon be almost unknown or at least unused.

However, with further research on my previously stated ideas based on the problems of Myspace in relation to the Business Model, I will be able to help Myspace creating a new and innovative Business Model that will help to avoid further declining user numbers and to create competitive consistency in the environment of social networking. In order to study the value propositions carefully, I will conduct qualitative research. Only with qualitative research I will be able to gather in-depth understanding of the reasons why people do not use Myspace anymore.

I can gather such information in two ways: through interviews and through an online research community. With the help of a qualitative research interview I will gather the facts as well as analyze the meaning (Kvale, 1996). As a result, I will be able to understand the values customers need as well as the reasons and problems which caused the failure of Myspace. By using an online research community, Myspace can put “the customer at the heart of [the] marketing strategy” (Simon, 2009). Such research communities allow efficient and deep qualitative research online.

In such a community, members can discuss certain aspects such as new features and designs, and Myspace can adapt accordingly. Besides, a qualitative research online will probably bring more results since people rather take the time to discuss issues online. However, the qualitative Interview will also be needed because it is an additional in-depth analysis with face-to-face communication that enables immediate follow up questions and answers with high reliability. The qualitative research of both forms will be base on current or former Myspace users and also on general social network users in order to determine the general arget group’s values. Questions for both kinds of researches will for example include what they currently like about Myspace, what they do not like, why they use Myspace, or why they (stopped) using Myspace, what they generally value about Myspace, and their opinions about the competitors such as Facebook. For good measure a detailed research on the competitors and their best practices is essential. This can be done by further online research on the competitor’s strategies in order to find out what could work for Myspace as well. Plan

The following table provides an overview of the estimated time and costs for this project – subject to modifications. For now, I will conduct the research for three weeks, meaning that for example that the online community will be run for three weeks. Part| Time| Costs per hour| Costs per day| Creating online community(5 employees)| 8 hrs| EUR 10 (x5)| EUR 400| Leading discussion online(10 employees)| 3 wks (120 hrs)| EUR 8 (x10)| EUR 9600| Analyzing online community (10 employees)| 2 wks (80 hrs)| EUR 12 (x10)| EUR 9600| Developing questions for both onliny community and interview (4 employees)| 8 hrs| EUR 12 (x4)| EUR 384|

Interviews (5 hrs per day)(10 interviewer)| 3 wks (75 hrs)| EUR 12 (x10)| EUR 9000| Evaluation Interview(10 employees)| 2 wks (80 hrs)| EUR 12 (x10)| EUR 9600| Total Costs for staff:| EUR 38584| Further costs: Possible travel costs (for interviewers):ca. EUR 300 Equipment (for Interviewers – recorders etc. ):ca. EUR 400 Technical equipment for online community:ca. EUR 10000 Total Costs:ca. EUR 49284 The additional costs might not apply if the equipment already exists. All prices are including value added taxes. Reflection In this paper I laid the foundation for a re-engineering of Myspace’s Business Model.

Back in 2006 and 2007 I was a member of Myspace as well. However, I never liked this social network much since it was confusing, annoying because of all the advertising and I did not feel safe using it. Overall, it did not really work out. Now I am a Facebook user and I totally forgot about Myspace. Apparently, other social network users feel the same way which can be expressed by the declining number of Myspace users. Myspace became quite unpopular, fewer and fewer people visit that site and Facebook out-competed Myspace fast.

Therefore I analyzed the problems that resulted in the failure of Myspace. The main overall problem is innovation. Myspace failed to add new features in order to make the platform interesting and worthwhile to keep using it. Myspace totally faded into obscurity wherefore it is essential to re-engineer at the media channels. Also, Myspace did not allow third party developers to help designing the page and add for example applications which not only would make the network more entertaining but also help generating revenues other than advertising. Instead, members were able to design their own profiles.

This feature, however, resulted in an overall confusing design and safety problems. Safety problem arose from the bad software as it was easier to install for example spyware. Myspace could not meet the values that the customers need. Aside from bugs such as spyware, spam and phishing, users experienced a great lack of trust and privacy in that online network. To sum it up, I focused on the re-engineering of the following parts of the Business Model Canvas by Osterwalder and Pigneur (2009): Value Propositions, Media Channels, Key Partners, and Revenue Streams.

All parts of the business model are connected though. That is why I analyzed all parts with regards to the others. My idea is that Myspace needs to be innovative. It can do so in analyzing both the values of customers and the best practices of the competitors and then adapt accordingly. With this method, Myspace can add new feature that will surely meet the customers’ desires. This is connected with a new design and key partners. Key partners can not only help with the design but also with innovation by adding applications that make Myspace more interesting.

Furthermore, key partners would create another method of generating revenues. Then, Myspace would not only depend on advertising revenues and can reduce the annoying advertising to unostentatious, user-personalized advertising. After its changes, people need to be made aware of the new Myspace. This can be done with a short and catchy email to Myspace members who will then positively experience the re-engineered Myspace and spread the word. Additionally, television and Internet advertising campaigns might help to bring Myspace to the people’s minds.

I am convinced that those methods and the further research, suggested in form of qualitative interviews, qualitative online community research and qualitative research on the competitors, would help Myspace to survive the competition in the online environment of social networks as well as stop a further downfall. References About Myspace. (2010). Retrieved November 1, 2011 from Myspace http://www. myspace. com/pressroom/2010/11/myspace-introduces-mashup-with-facebook/ Anderson, J. C. , Narus, J. A. , van Rossum, W. (2006). Customer Value Propositions in Business Markets. Harvard Business Review.

Arrington, M. (2011, March 23). Amazingly, MySpace’s Decline is Accelerating. Retrieved October 29, 2011 from http://techcrunch. com/2011/03/23/amazingly-myspaces-decline-is-accelerating/ Bains, L. (2009). Facebook Overtakes MySpace as Most Popular Social Networking Site. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://www. switched. com/2009/01/27/facebook-overtakes-myspace-as-most-popular-social-networking-sit/ Blodget, H. (2010). Ignore The Screams–Facebook’s Aggressive Approach Is Why It Will Soon Become The Most Popular Site In The World. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://articles. businessinsider. om/2010-05-17/tech/29991115_1_ceo-mark-zuckerberg-facebook-s-pr-innovation Business model re-engineering. (n. d. ). Retrieved October 27, 2011 from AMR International http://www. amrinternational. com/services/corporate_and_business_unit_strategy/business_model_re-engineering Cauwels, P. , Sornette, D. (2011). Quis pendit ipsa pretia: facebook valuation and diagnostic of a bubble based on nonlinear demographic dynamics. Retrieved October 30, 2011 from Cornell University Library http://arxiv. org/abs/1110. 1319 Dwyer, C. , Hiltz, S. , Passerini, K. (2007). Trust and Privacy Concern Within Social Networking

Understand some basic terminology in IS Examine how IS supports a major company’s business function (UPS case) information and technology strategy Required Readings Chapter 1, Text, pages 2-35 Preparation and Questions Read the UPS case carefully, peg. 23-24 What are the inputs, processing, and outputs of Pup’s package tracking system? What technologies are used by UPS? How are these technologies related to Pup’s business strategy? What problems do Pup’s information systems solve?

What would happen if these systems were not available? SIS – Collaboration through Technology Introduce the Team Contract Understand the basics of collaborative behavior Examine different types of collaborative technology that can be used to support team behavior Choose a collaboration platform for your team Required Readings Chapter 2 Collaboration Information Systems, pegs. 41-71 Questions and Preparation What experiences have you had with collaboration tools in the past? Have you used Keep, Google Docs, SMS Tools to get projects done? Have you ever worked on a virtual team? How did collaboration work when you could not work face to face?

What are some of the criteria that you are thinking about in choosing the appropriate collaboration platform for your team? Be sure you understand the pros and cons of the different collaboration tools described in this chapter . SIS – Competitive Strategy: Competitive Advantage through the Web Objectives Identify how technology changes are affecting industries and businesses within different industries. Example of Blockbuster, Nettling Examine how different impasses (Ezra and TAX) make different technology choices to support distinct strategies Understand the concept of the “Long Tail” Reading Text, pages 83-104.

Movie Rental Business: Blockbuster, Nettling and Redbook SMS Tools “Long Tail” How do the various players create and capture value? (movie studios, theaters, DVD retailers, Blockbuster, Nettling, Redbook, On Demand, Apple TV) What factors led to Nettling growth? How should Blockbuster have responded? What Factors led to Redbird’s growth? Why did it capture a market already dominated by others? What are the key success factors in movie rental? How do Blockbuster, Nettling and Redbook compare on these dimensions? What’s next? What advice do you have for players in this business?

SIS- Business Process, Information Systems, Information Nomadic Field Manual: Understand at a basic level what a business process is Understand how to map a business process Understand the relationship between business processes and information systems Text, Chapter 4 “Business Processes, Information Systems and Information” Pages 105-123. Nomadic FM on Business Process Complete the assignment in the Nomadic Field Manual before you come to class. FM Assignment due in class Review the BPML on page 110 Identify one or two key business process that your company will need to develop.

What is the information that will be required? How would you map one of these processes? SIS – Applying Process Thinking Understand how to improve the business processes of a small company Understand how to link business process improvement with information technology support Create a process map for your business Readings 1-888-Jungian Pegs. 133- up to “Possible Information Technology Solutions”, peg. 137. What are the business problems that Marcus King is facing? Bring to class a map of the major business processes that are described in the case.

What does your process map reveal about the information problems that King is facing? SIS – Database I To understand what a database is To understand the difference between spreadsheets, databases and files To understand how businesses use database software to access critical information for managing all aspects of the business To explore how to construct a relational database Text, Chapter 6 “Foundations of Business Intelligence: Databases and Information Management” pages 149-166. Be sure you can identify the following: a) Primary key(s) b) Relationships c) 1 and the many side d) Foreign Keys What is an entity?

Understand the basics of tracking customers as they click through your website Understand how to measure the value of Internet advertising Understand different types of Internet advertising such as banner ads versus pay per click Text, peg. 239-250, Mended. Com confronts “Click-Through” Competition, What does the Advertiser want? (sales, leads, product awareness? ) What are the best metrics for measuring success? What specific consumer behaviors determine whether or not a business model produces the desired results? How would Heather Yates Justify buying impressions rather than click-through?

What are her alternatives? What is the difference in value between a general interest site vs.. A niche site to a consumer? Which is the more defensible business model from an advertising standpoint? What steps can Mended take to address emerging competitors? SIS I-Technology Infrastructure Define IT infrastructure and describe its components. Identify and describe the stages and technology drivers of IT infrastructure evolution. Assess contemporary computer hardware platform trends. Assess contemporary software platform trends. Text, Chapter 9 “IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies” pages 251-298

What has been the business impact of declining costs for communications and integrated circuits? What kinds of infrastructure are needed to make the phone work? (Hint: it’s more than Just the phone) Review the definition of cloud computing on page 245. What is the likely impact of this shift on the software industry? Microsoft? Apple? What is the likely impact on businesses? Consumers? SIS 2-Developing and Acquiring Information Systems Chapter 10, pages 299-347 Nomadic Field Manual Exercise on Systems Analysis and Design Complete the assignment in the Nomadic Field Manual before you come to class.

This model worked fine when the labor in India was relatively cheaper. But now with the annual growth of approximately 9-12% in the wages of Indian IT workers, the clients are looking for other options. Back Office Management : or the Ties was major based in India. But with continuous increase in the wages of the labor, the focus is shifting towards Philippines, Vietnam, China and some Latin American countries. Linear Model: In the earlier years of IT revolution, the Indian IT impasses exponentially increased their employee base, which resulted in the linear growth of the company.

This model was relevant when the cost of labor was relatively cheaper. But since the past 4-5 years, the clients prefer fewer staff and bill them on a “pay as you go’ model. Innovations and productivity-enhancing tools, frameworks, solution accelerators and managed services engagements have changed the outlook. This non-linear growth model can enable revenue growth without commensurate headcount growth. Emerging Business Model in Indian IT Industry Change is the only constant and this has been proven again when we talk about the trends observed in the Indian IT industries.

Each model has an expiry date and to sustain and keep growing in such a scenario, one needs to constantly innovate and adopt the latest and updated trends. In the same line, the Indian IT Industries need to urgently initiate transformations across different dimensions that the industry works upon – scale, talent, market, models and capabilities. Another trend, observed currently at the Cognizant Technology Solutions Pat Ltd is about the SCAM (Social, Mobility, Analytics, Cloud) model. SCAM is an integrated stack, where every function enables another to maximize the effect of each other.

This model helps in effectively solving the issues of an organization which is more connective, collaborative, real- time and productive. In the current and upcoming scenario, almost each organization will have to be more connective and ever before. Now it is also the time to focus more on business intelligence, collaboration and customer facing technologies, instead of the traditional process automation strategies. The management of big data and data inning to find the relevant trends and relations is already a part of the strategy in most of the E-commerce and related fields where customer interaction is direct.

Customer-centric solutions and blended delivery is going to help the industry emerge as a strategic business partner to global customers. Global delivery models which provide onshore, marathoners and offshore solution to the clients are the key to acquire the customers around the globe and increase the global footprint effectively. Finally, Cloud Computing, that also facilitates to offer Anything-as-a-Service or (AAAS) is the ewe trend that is developing and is predictably soon going to be observed in every IT or Ties provider organizations.

AAAS includes major Software as a Service(AAAS), Infrastructure as a Service (alas) and Platform as a Service (Pass). Other examples of AAAS include storage as a service (AAAS), communications as a service (AAAS), network as a service (NASA) and monitoring as a service (Mass). Data Consultancy Services Limited Incepted in 1968, Data Consultancy Services a member of the Data Group has become one of the largest IT services firm in the world based on its record of outstanding accessibility. They are the world’s first organization to achieve an enterprise-wide Maturity Level 5 on both COMIC and P-COM.

In the list of Forbes World’s Most Innovative Companies ranking, TTS is ranked 40, making it the highest-ranked IT services company and the top Indian company. Going by the revenues, it is the world’s 10th largest IT services provider. Brief History The TTS was incepted in the year 1968 as the “Data Computer Centre” for the Data Group, the main purpose of which was to provide computer services to the other group companies. One of the main assignments was to provide the punch card services to another group company, Data Steel (now DISCO). In 1975, it started with the campus recruitment program. Learn how IKEA has essentially changed the way

In 1979, it went global by delivering systems to the Swiss company SIS Coelenterates, Canadian Depository System and Johannesburg Stock Exchange. In 1981, it established Data Research Development and Design Centre (TRADE), Indian’s first dedicated software research and development centre. In 1999, TTS saw opportunity in E-commerce related solutions and formed a separate division for the same. This division was, by 2004, contributing half a billion dollars to TTS. On 25th August 2004, TTS became a biblically listed company. Currently, the TTS has over 300,000 employees at 199 offices in 45 different countries.

The current market capitalization of TTS is about $84 billion, which is higher than the next 4 big IT companies in India namely, Informs, Wiper, HOC Technologies and Tech Maidenhair. Financial Data Stock Price as on Fri., 21st August, 2014 – INNER 2516. 45 (BASE) For last two months, it is an increase of over 18% The revenue has grown by the CARR 28. 47% over the last 5 years. The revenue for 2013-14 stood at 81809 scores. Business by Topography and Sectors Maximum of TTS revenue is comes from the North America, I-J and Europe. While India accounts for only 6. 71% of the total revenue earned, the rest of the world accounts for 93. 9%. The maximum revenue earned by the TTS comes from the Enterprise solutions and application development and maintenance. Growth Strategy TTS’ success is credited mostly to its global footstep. TTS has the maximum global reach compared to any other Indian IT companies. After its geographic reach, the TTS also expanded to have wide industry coverage and service capabilities. Coupled with deepening existing client relationships, building or acquiring emerging businesses and adopting or creating new business models and business solutions through continuous innovation, the TTS is right on track to achieve its longer term goals.

Key elements of the growth strategy are: Customer Eccentricity: Acquire new clients, nurture and deepen customer relationship Full Services Capabilities: TTS offers comprehensive range of products and services, which makes it one stop shop for various clients Global Network Delivery Model (MIND): TTS uniformly delivers services to global customers from multiple locations across the globe. This model has become the benchmark of excellence to the software development. Strategic Acquisitions: Though TTS has, in its whole term acquired a considerably less number of companies considering the fact that it has always been cash rich, but each of these acquisition have been very select markets, strengthen verticals and enhance service offerings. Non-Linear Business Model: As per this model, TTS can have revenue growth without considerable growth in the headcount. This is possible through continuous improvement in the productivity enhancement tools, software products, solution accelerators and managed service agreements.

Chief clients list BAN, Agilest Technologies, Lillian Life, AVIVA, British Airways, Chrysler, Cisco, Deutsche Bores Group, Electronic Arts, Handy, INNING Group, Microsoft ,National Insurance Company, Qualm, Sony, Data Power, Woolworth Informs Limited Established in 1981, Informs is one of the largest IT services firm in the world owing to the consulting, technology, and outsourcing solutions. Informs is the first Indian many to offer its employees stock options in the year 1993 when it went public. It is also first Indian company to be listed in NASDAQ in the year 1999.

Informs became a global company right from the start. It currently holds offices in 32 countries with over 1 50,000 employees and market capitalization of close to $26 billion. Brief History Informs was incepted in the year 1981 with seven founding members. It’s first client was Data Basics Corporation in New York. Its first international office was opened in the year 1987 in Boston, US. In 1993 it went public and was the first company to roved the ESP. (Employee Stock Options) program. In 1993, it opened office in UK and laid foundation for expansion in Europe. In the year 1998, it started Enterprise Solutions practice.

Just one year after that, it touched the milestone of $100 million revenue gets listed in NASDAQ and achieved COM level 5 certification. In the year 2000 and 2001, it doubled its revenue the two consecutive years. In 2006, Mr.. Nary Murphy retired as the CEO of Informs and Mr.. Kuris Supranational became the new CEO, who continued till 2011 and made way for the new CEO Mr.. K V Kamala. Since then, Informs has been observing a very slow growth rate. Financial Data Stock Price as on Fri., 21st August, 2014 – INNER 3340. 35 (BASE) For last two months, it is an increase of over 1 1. % The revenue has grown by the CARR 21. 85% over the last 5 years. The revenue for the year 2013-14 stood at 50133 scores. Business by topography and sectors While India accounts for only 3% of the total revenues earned by the Informs, US and Europe contribute to the 85% of the net revenue. Informs accounts maximum revenue from Financial Services and Insurance sector. Growth Strategy Informs growth strategy has been primarily divided into three time lines: Informs 1. 0 The strategy applied by the Informs during the year 1981 to 1996 is primarily called Development and Maintenance, Software Re-engineering.

During this time, Informs focused on establishing global delivery model, trust with the client and emphasized a lot on the quality. *Above image taken from the Informs Investor Presentation IQ IFFY Informs 2. 0 During this time (I. E. 1997-2011), Informs grew based on the model that was established in the previous years. Additionally, four axes were defined: First, expanding into other industries. It invested in building industry knowledge Second, expand the suit of services it offered to include enterprise solutions, infrastructure management, testing, as well as business process outsourcing. Third, increase the global reach by becoming US centric with significant expansion in the Europe and I-J Fourth, the clients where , 95 to 97 per cent of Informs’ business comes from repeat clients Informs 3. 0 Currently (I. E. 2011 onwards), declares itself to be an IT Consulting and Servicing firm. Currently, the balance of Informs’ business – 65 per cent, remains on optimization, essentially the roots of the business’ growth. Around 30 per cent is consulting-led transformation type and then about 5 per cent falls under the banner of innovation.

Chief Clients ICC Bank India, State Bank of India, Birth Retailer, PepsiCo, US, the Co-operative Bank, I-J Wiper Limited Wiper Limited is a multinational System Integration and IT Consulting services company, headquartered in Bangor, India. It is formerly known as Western India Products Limited. As of March 2014 the company has a presence in sixty-one entries with 147,452 employees servicing over 900 large enterprise corporations. On 31 March 2014, the market capitalization of the company was approximately INNER 1. 27 trillion, which makes it one of Indian’s largest publicly traded company and seventh largest IT services firm globally.

Skim Preemie is a major shareholder in Wiper with over fifty percent of shareholding. Brief History Wiper has a history back to 1945 when it was established as Western India Vegetable Products Limited in Enameller, Maharajah’s. It went PIP for capital in February 1946 and ventured in to the IT industry in 1981. It established software products and exports subsidiary, Wiper Systems Ltd. In 1983. In 1985 it pioneers in marketing indigenous Personal Computers. Entered IT services in the asses – the pioneers in developing the Offshore Development Center concept.

Software business is assessed at SEE-COM Level 5 in 1998. It was listed on NYSE in 2000. It is the first company in the world to be assessed at APPC Level 5 in 2001. It entered the BOP business in 2002. It entered the CEO-energy business in 2008. It demurred its non-let businesses into a separate company named Wiper Enterprises Limited with effect from 31st March 2013 Financial Data Stock Price as on Fri., 21st August, 2014 – INNER 535. 85 (BASE) For last two months, it is an increase of over 7% The revenue has grown by the CARR 10. 8% over the last 5 years. Total revenue observed in 2013-14 is 6618 million dollars.

Traditional offline business models have been adapted for the internet but remain very similar online as to the offline world. In essence all models provide some form of product or service in exchange for financial reward. However not all online business models are equal. Selecting the right model for your online business warrants careful consideration because each model requires different skills and time commitments to operate. Not all models will suit you or compliment your business interests.

Also, you will discover that different business models will appeal to you at different stages of your career as an online marketer. Auction Model Love a good garage sale? Are you an expert or enthusiast in a certain field? Are you a wholesale or retail merchant looking for an additional sales outlet? Or were you already familiar with buying and selling your wares at the traditional auction houses before the advent of online auctions? You may well enjoy the global reach of online auctions. Many people have made a lucrative online income by selling goods through auction sites such as eBay.

An enormous amount of information has been written on building a successful eBay business. So if this interests you, create an account and dive in. E commerce Model The home of the online shopping cart. Standard requirements for this model are a merchant account, enticing pictures and descriptions of your wares, a shopping cart and a secure method of payment. You can sell your own range of products or opt for a dropshipping model. Dropshipping is where your site takes the orders and another merchant fulfills the orders on your behalf.

With dropshipping you don’t need to worry about taking care of inventory or deliveries. Subscription Model Create a website packed with interesting information on a particular niche then charge a membership fee to access the site. Create a ‘free to access’ website packed with information on a particular niche then charge a membership fee to access a members only area filled with extra goodies. Create a newsletter and charge readers a monthly reader subscription fee.

Create a focused community group, such as a forum and charge users for ccess to certain areas of the forum. You get the idea of the subscription model. Advertisement Model As with the subscription model, create an interesting, content rich site which generates lots of traffic. You may then attract the interest of an advertising sponsor who will pay you for advertising space on your site. Alternatively, if your site is not yet well established you could still sign up for a Google AdSense account. Advertisements related to your content will be placed on your site and you receive a payment each time a user clicks on an ad.

Affiliate Marketing Model The advantage of this model is you don’t need any products or services of your own, which means you can get started right away. As an affiliate marketer, you promote, recommend and market other peoples products or services. You get paid a commission when a customer buys the product or service from you. Or you can get paid when a customer completes an action such as clicking on a link or entering their email details into a form to receive further information. The percentage commission you earn per sale usually ranges from 25 – 75%.

The amount of money you can earn per sale or transaction can vary wildly from a couple of dollars to hundreds of dollars per sale depending on what you are selling. Often a prerequisite for selling an affiliated product is that you buy the product first. However this is not always the case and many companies are happy for you to market their product or service without making an initial purchase. Multi Level Marketing Model As with affiliate marketing, the multi-level marketing model does not require you to have products or services of your own.

MLM has existed for decades offline but has more recently found it’s place in the online marketing arena. As a multi-level marketer you become an independent representative of an MLM company and you recommend and market the company’s products or services. You get paid a commission on each sale you generate. There is usually a joining fee involved before you can become a representative. This is generally in the vicinity of a few hundred dollars. The primary difference between affiliate marketing and multi-level marketing is that as an affiliate marketer you get paid only for the sales you personally generate.

As a multi-level marketer, again you get paid a commission for sales you personally generate. But furthermore, you can also build a team of marketers who join the company under you and then you get paid a lesser commission for sales your team generates. If your team go on to build a team of their own you get paid again on sales activity generated by their team… and so and so forth. Commission percentages and compensation plans vary from company to company. Because it is such a highly leveraged business model the percentage commissions are usually much smaller, ranging from 0. 5 – 10%.

The idea being that small increments amass to a large income by leveraging the combined efforts of many people. Top Tier Business Model The top tier business model shares similarities with both the affiliate and the multi-level marketing models, but has some unique differences. The affiliate model pays for sales generated directly by the affiliate marketer (one level deep). The MLM model pays you for sales generated by you or your team sometimes down to infinite levels, so you can benefit from the efforts of a person you may never even meet, albeit at much smaller percentages.

However between the single level compensation model and the multi-level compensation model there is a a third, top tier model which falls loosely in between. A top tier model is an affiliate model that usually pays one to two levels down. The thinking is that by paying more than one level deep you still benefit financially from the leveraged efforts of your team. However by not paying commissions to as many multiple levels as a traditional MLM, a top tier company can instead afford to pay a much higher commission at the first and second levels (closer to the vicinity of 50%).

Another key difference with a top tier business model is they are usually more expensive to join than an MLM. A top tier company is often a minimum of a couple of thousand dollars to join. However the benefit is that your commissions are also much higher, usually in the high hundreds to thousands. The thinking is that this model requires much less effort and much less sales to generate a viable and healthy income. Information Product Model This model is often the most lucrative of all. Your information product can be a downloadable ebook, a physical book sent by post, courses delivered as range of mixed media content such as videos, voice recordings, CDs or DVDs or it can be software which meets a customer need.

You can market the product yourself and retain 100% of the profit. Or, alternatively you can affiliate your product and have an army of marketers selling on your behalf for a percentage of the sale. Leveraging the marketing strength of many affiliate marketers simultaneously can generate huge interest and massive turnover. But keep in mind your product will need to be good in order to attract the attention of affiliate marketers – they have their own reputations at stake by recommending your product.

Realistically, many online businesses build a web presence which combines a number of different business models. This monetizes the site in several ways to create multiple streams of income. For example elements of the subscription, advertising, affiliate and information/product models may be used all together on one site. Another site may use e commerce, auction and advertising all together. There are no hard and fast rules, just do your homework and understand what is involved.

Introduction

Blogging has emerged as a multi-faceted online networking tool for socialisation and organisational linkage purposes in the public and private sector. Blogging as a tool for social linkages stemmed from the first blogs as comprising the journals or diaries of individuals open for public viewing. Since the blogs contains options for comments, this allowed people who know or stranger to the blogger to comment and connect to the blogger. This happens on a global scale resulting to the multiplication and overlapping of linkages.

However, blogging has evolved in functionality, particularly in the field of business. Now, blogs not only constitute channels for social relationship building but also comprise a venue for business advertising and sales activities. This operates through the idea that business firms seeking to expand or widen their online market can tap into popular sites with a vast number of regular following through advertisements. Blog content has also evolved to accommodate product, service or company reviews, commentaries, tips, or guides on a vast range of business related topics that support the promotional activities of business firms.

Popular & successful blogs in the world

Since enterprises prefer to advertise in blogs with the most number of readers, whose profile matches the target market of the firm, readership volume for blogs becomes an important consideration. The popularity of blogs is determined in three ways: access statistics, citation frequency, and blog affiliations.

First is through the volume of people accessing the blog documented automatically by the website’s functions. Popular websites usually accumulate millions in blog access statistics in a year. The most popular blog according to Technorati in 2006 is the blog by Xu Jinglei.

However, this method of determining popularity does not provide accurate or sufficient measures to support blog popularity because this does not ensure that all the people accessing the blog actually read the posts or found the content useful especially in their purchasing decision.

Second is through the frequency of citations made of the blog in the World Wide Web. This involves the use of search engines to look into how many other blogs or sites have referred to the blog. In using the Google search engine to determine the frequency of Internet citations for the blog Boing Boing, the blog rated by Technorati as the leading blog in 2005, results showed that including the two links found directly leading to the Boing Boing blog, there are 2,710,000 citations for the blog.

This provides a significant measure of popularity since the number shows that more than two million other sites refer to this blog through reviews, commentaries, recommended links, or other purposes. In searching the blog name in Google, the complete blog was placed in quotations marks to ensure better accuracy of results.

Third is through blog affiliations such as blogrolls and permalinks. Blogrolls are lists of links to blogs [See Figure 4 in the Appendix] while permalinks refer to a kind of URL for a particular blog posting that lasts for a longer period to allow viewing for within a certain period. Blogrolls supports the popularity of blogs by the referring site riding on or enhancing the popularity of the blog. Permalinks allows a long period for blog post viewings so that popular posts can be viewed by more people increasing the popularity of the site.

Blog affiliations provide an important measure for popularity by indicating that some blogs are actually being read and found to be important to refer to other people. One site that collates news and information from blogs is tailrank.com that has a long list of blogrolls.

To derive accurate popularity data, a number of websites conduct or feature blog popularity statistics that use one, two or all of the popularity measures discussed above. Some of the more established websites are tailrank.com, Technorati.com, Alexa Internet, and eBizMBA.com. The table below summarises the most popular blogs according to four different websites.

Characteristics of popular & successful blogs

Although these most popular blogs fall under differenct categories, there are common qualities that explain the popularity of these blogs. First, the blog names or titles clearly provide the topics being focused in the blogs. Common topics in three of the four website rankings are money and how to earn money, technology or gadgets, and leisure or entertainment. Concurrently, it is also these three topics that constitute the most popular concerns of the world population. This means that by covering these topics, these blogs were able to gain a high number of viewers, citations or links.

Second is the catchy blog name or title. Although there are millions of blogs discussing money, technology and leisure, these blogs reached top ranking through their catchy names so that in selecting from a list of blogs on these topics based on search engine results, the most appealing blog name or title would likely be selected. Third is the timeliness and relevance of the topics posted in the blogs. All these top blogs featured by the four websites are updated on a daily basis. To allow for timeliness, these blogs feature the most recent posts upon access and arrange the previous blog postings according to time period such as per month and year.

Fourth is the credibility and trustworthiness of the sites based in part on the reputation of the blogger. Most of these top blogs have become associated with a single or small group of bloggers that have established a good reputation in the blogosphere. This means that blogs that become popular are those that provide sufficient background or profile of the blogger or bloggers.

Fifth is the strength of linkage of the blog to the blogging and online community. Links are established through cross-blog citations or blogrolls. This creates an impression in the blogging world, including blogger and viewers, on the role, status or position of the blog and blogger in the virtual community, which in turn influences the perception of reliability and accuracy.

Benefits of blogging to business firms

Due to the tie-up of blogging and enterpise, a number of benefits for businesses emerged by networking with blog service providers (BSPs) and bloggers. These benefits encompass sales transaction links and marketing. The benefits derivable by business firms from linking with blogs are parallel to the various blog models.

First benefit is having an additional channel for advertising. Depending upon the popularity and focus of the blogs, advertisements could be through banners that appear on the homepage and remains on the page even if the viewer is already navigating the site to lengthen the exposure of the viewer to the advertisement by catching attention, niche advertisements targeting the viewers of blogs specialising on particular topics, or sponsorship advertisements by business firms sponsoring blogs exclusively providing reviews or commentaries on the firm and its products, services or brands.

Second benefit is by having an indirect sales channel through the placement of product links, special offers, and banners that when clicked leads to the firm’s online sales site. This works best in blogs catering to a particular product, service or concept or blogs targeting a particular group of viewers consistent with the niche market of advertising firms. Third is by having channels for reviews and commentaries that could enhance the value of products or services. This works especially when the blogger holds a certain degree of expertise over the product, service or business concept or the blog provides highly reliable and accurate information on the firm’s industry or products.

Fourth benefit is having an added public relations venue. Promoting the company and its product and service offerings constitutes a move that brings the firm, products or brands closer to the targeted and potential customers. This would then translate to higher revenue generation. Fifth benefit is having a reliable external source of lead information.

There are blogs that primarily engage in lead generation by specialising on an industry or product. Information sharing is either offered to business firms or contracted by companies. Lead generation is important to firms in determining their competitive position and as a measure for determining the achievement of their business goals.

Although there are no exact figures on the expected increase in profit margin by engaging in the network model of blogs, the link between advertising or marketing through blogs and profit margin is positive. However, the extent of the increase in profit relative to the marketing cost depends upon the selection of the appropriate blogs and blog models.

Normally, the decision on which blog or blog model to select depends upon the scale of viewers of the blog together with the consistency of the population targeted by the blog with the targeted or potential market of the business firm engaging in this network channel. This means that while profitability is imminent, its actualisation highly depends upon the marketing decisions of the company in selecting its blog media.

Model of blog service provider (BSP), blogger & enterprise collaboration

Based on the characteristics of blogs and the benefits they provide to enterprises, the model that fits this relationship is an extension of the relationship marketing model. Originally, relationship marketing refers to the principle of conducting business strategically by focusing on the maintenance and improvement of existing relationships with consumers instead of creating links with new consumers. This model emerged from the direct selling model, which explains its focus only on the maintenance of existing relationships.

Relationships with a great number of people are difficult to achieve in direct or personal selling. However, with the Internet virtual relationships are easier to create or maintain because of real time communications and online sales venues. The expanded relationship marketing model involves the creation and maintenance of multi-party relationship by the business firms with the purchase of creating and communicating value to consumers. Business firms can engage in a relationship with blog service providers for the inclusion of their advertisements or links in all hosted blogs.

This maximises the exposure of a wide range of viewers to the firm, brands or products that supports the creation of relationships with new consumers and the provision of a link for existing consumers wanting to engage in online transactions. This relationship creates added value to consumers by bringing to them information and the means of making an actual purchase at their convenience. Business firms can also directly engage in a working relationship with bloggers for the posting of advertisements, reviews and commentaries on the company as well as its brands and products.

This relationship communicates value to consumers through information and reviews to support consumer purchasing decisions by differentiating the brand or product from its competitors. Business firms also engage in direct relationships with consumers through its website, with the sales and after-sales services corroborating or fulfilling the value communicated through blogs. Through the wide reach of blogs, business firms are able to create relationship with new consumers and maintain existing relationships as long as it can meet value communications.

Conclusion

Apart from the benefits previously discussed, blogs are still evolving in functionality. This means that more benefits, especially niche marketing benefits catering to the specific target markets of business firms, would likely arise in the future. As the number of blogs and opportunities for blog-enterprise collaboration increase resulting to intense competition among blogs with similar contents or functional structure, since there are more blogs and bloggers as well as linkage opportunities, providing viewers with the option to select from the long list of blogs and bloggers, bloggers would likely be pressured to innovate on new blog types and structures such as specialising on niche markets or specific topics and target audiences.

Competition improves blog-enterprise partnership by catalysing improvements to the blogging system and processes together with the creation of better marketing opportunities for business firms through reliable and trustworthy blogs specialising on a particular product, service, technology, process, system and other topics.

These developments would influence the online marketing activities of enterprises through more channels with greater reliability or credibility. Moreover, the popularity of blog-enterprise collaboration would likely lead to the development of best practices to guide business firms in utilising this new network channel. The experiences of earlier business firms that engaged in blog advertising or marketing provide valuable insight into new models of blogging in the business context.

References

1. Blood, R. (2002). The Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog. Boulder, CO: Perseus Books Group.
2. Bruns, A., & Jacobs, J. (eds.) (2006). Uses of Blogs. New York: Peter Lang.
3. Gordon, I.H. (1998). Relationship Marketing: New Strategies, Techniques and Technologies to Win the Customers You Want and Keep Them Forever. New York: Wiley & Sons.
4. Holtz, S., & Demopoulos, T. (2006). Blogging for Business: Everything You Need to Know and Why You Should Care. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Kaplan Business.
5. Kline, D., & Burstein, D. (2005). Blog!: How the Newest Media Revolution is Changing Politics, Business, and Culture. Wilton, CT: Squibnocket Partners, L.L.C.
6. Marlow, C. (2004). Audience, structure and authority in the weblog community. Presented at the International Communication Association Conference, May, 2004, New Orleans, LA.
7. Weil, D. (2006). The Corporate Blogging Book: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know to Get It Right. Willow Creek, PR: Portfolio Hardcover.
8. Wright, J. (2005). Blog Marketing. New York: McGraw-Hill.

This is the business model of Lehman Brothers that includes the general details about the operations of the business that will address all its functions including factors such factors as the expenses, revenues, operating strategies, corporate structure, sales and marketing procedures as well as the details of the day to day functionality of the corporation.

Lehman Brothers is a company founded in 1850 that deals with international finance and assure that it handles the monetary needs of its stakeholders well. These include the businesses, governments and metropolitans, the customers who are institutional and individuals of high worth internationally. Furthermore, it also ensures to sustain the leadership positions in equity and fixed income sales – in areas of trading and research, investment banking, private investment management as well as asset management and private equity. (Lehman Brothers, n.d.).

Mission Statement

• For the firm. Lehman brothers believe to attain success from the strength of their people using the distinctive qualities of the firm that aids them in hiring the best individuals who can work with their full commitment and can cope up well with the team and for this, they attract the best talent after which they train them and facilitate their development.
• For the clients. The culture of the firm helps in bringing the best to meet the needs of the clients and to provide value by delivering innovative solutions.
• For the shareholders . The employees of the firm work with full commitment to build value for the firm that aims to deliver higher returns to all the shareholders. (Lehman Brothers, n.d.).

Worldwide Offices

Lehman brothers have offices all around the world with its world headquarters in New York and other offices in London and Tokyo. (Lehman Brothers, n.d.).

Diversity and Inclusion

The firm strictly believes in diversity and has also included it in their vision in order to operate the business. The definition of diversity by firm is the difference in thought and perspective of its stakeholders that should be valued. Moreover, it also aims to integrate diversity into every aspect of their business. The firm believes in its success by selecting the best candidate from the talent available and employing him for the right jobs that he is capable of, besides this Lehman brothers also promote diversity at their workplace and for this they dedicate their momentous time and resources.

The employees of the firm in its different offices located in Americas, Europe and the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific are committed to enriching the culture of the firm as well as to develop the environment for the employees and for this, there are councils that work to augment and to implement the diversity plans of the business. Furthermore, Lehman brothers also sponsor programs that are being held locally as well as internationally so that diversity could be promoted. (Lehman Brothers, n.d.).

Philanthropy

The philanthropic activities that are supported by the firm aids the not for profit organizations in a way that it works to ensure that the quality of healthcare improves, promotes arts and culture and also provides with the educational facilities for the children especially those who are underprivileged and Lehman brothers also works in order to achieve these goals so that it can strength its relationship with its stakeholders. (Lehman Brothers, n.d.).

Sustainability

The firm also provides solutions that are related to the environment and social issues as it has a vision to build value for their clients through this.  Moreover, it is an investment bank that is responsible for its activities and gives high returns to its shareholders.

Lehman Brothers Sustainability Principles

There are certain principles that are being followed by Lehman Brothers and the principles that are suggested by the firm are also reported on a regular basis in order to ensure that they are also being implemented. The firm is also environmental friendly and this can be proven in a way that it intends to reduce the harmful effects of the environmental and social impacts led by the operations after which its risks are assessed and action is taken. The firm also encourages its employees to develop innovative solutions that can help in reducing the impact of the social and environmental affects.

Moreover, the firm also delivers opportunity in a way that it looks for opportunities for the business in every array related to the commercial, environmental and issues related to the social benefits after which its market based solutions are proposed after which the firm applies knowledge and understanding of financial markets to develop and implement innovative environmental and social market-based solutions. Research and analysis is conducted on the issues mentioned above and the results of the research are available to the public. (Lehman Brothers, n.d.).

The way of managing the firm is the ‘one firm’ approach that is adopted by the firm to do business and this enables them to fully utilize the resources of the firm so that they can give the best to their clients, moreover Lehman Brothers maintains leadership positions in equity and fixed income sales, trading and research, investment banking, private investment management, asset management and private equity. It is one of the top investment banks in the world and the network of the firm is very important that helps the firm to solve the diverse financial needs of the clients.

References

1. Lehman Brothers. (n.d.). About Us. November 1^st, 2008. Retrieved form:             http://www.lehman.com/who/
2. Lehman Brothers. (n.d.). Mission Statement. November 1^st, 2008. Retrieved form:             http://www.lehman.com/who/mission/
3. Lehman Brothers. (n.d.). Worldwide Offices. November 1^st, 2008. Retrieved form:             http://www.lehman.com/who/offices/
4. Lehman Brothers. (n.d.). Diversity and Inclusion. November 1^st, 2008. Retrieved form:             http://www.lehman.com/who/diversity/
5. Lehman Brothers. (n.d.). Philanthropy. November 1^st, 2008. Retrieved form:             http://www.lehman.com/who/philanthropy/
6. Lehman Brothers. (n.d.). Sustainability. November 1^st, 2008. Retrieved form:             http://www.lehman.com/who/sustainability/

This innovative hammock Is for outdoor adventurers who want a lightweight hammock with extra comfort out of their camping and hiking equipment. Also provides the already present therapeutic attributes that a hammock offers such as eing suspended and allowing the hammock to rock to let people fall asleep quicker. The – Zewlk Quadrecllne Geometry Hammock (actual hammock name not yet given) is included in the Camping & Hiking equipment industry and in the outdoor furniture industry.

That – provides extra comfort, durability, and support for the lower extremities and lower back to eliminate the U-shaped effect of normal hammocks that causes a person’s legs to rise above their chest thus resulting In poor circulation to the legs and making them fall asleep after a short period of time in the hammock. Unlike – Hennesy Hammocks, REI’s Eno Hammock, Trek light Gear, Coleman’s Weekender hammock. Our product ” Quadrecline hammock called so for the provisionally patented quadrecline technology implemented in the hammock.

The mechanism provides five points of support and stability as opposed to two in typical hammocks. These extra the person is in more of a supine position with their knees bent as opposed to having the person bent into a U-shaped causing discomfort. This lift brings the user further off the ground, eliminates the U-shape effect, and still keeps the user’s knees bent to provide extra circulation and comfort. The research we conducted in devising this analysis was done primarily through online databases such as Ibisworld.

With the information provided by these databases, we were able to conclude that hammocks are categorized within the hiking and camping equipment industry and the outdoor furniture industry. Within the hiking and camping industry, the brothers at Zewik divided the camping segment into two different segments: backpack camping and car camping. The target segment for this product are the car campers because backpack campers are the twentysomething year olds who park their car and venture miles out into the wild for ays at a time living on the provisions brought from the car.

Car campers are classified as active, recreational, and adventurous but do so with less risk as they remain in close proximity of their car. Ill. Industry & Market Assessment Zewik would be classified under the competitive category of hiking and camping equipment. Within this category, various products are included such as tents, sleeping bags, outdoor cots, lawn chairs, and other hammock manufacturers. The main competitors to Zewik include Treklight Gear, Coleman, L. L. Bean, and Hennessy Hammocks. The hiking and outdoor equipment store industry is a $4. illion industry with a projected growth of 5. 2% through 2018 (Ibisworld). Of the total revenue earned through sales, outdoor equipment account for 30% of those sales which allows us to infer that hammocks account for an even smaller percentage of those sales (Ibisworld). Connected to the hiking and outdoor equipment store industry is the camping and RV industry, which is another tremendous market with a reported revenue of $5 billion and a projected growth of 2. 1% through 2018 (Ibisworld). According to the RVIA (Recreational Vehicle Industry Association) the verage age of RV owners is 48.

These are the people that also account for more than 2/3 of demand for campgrounds. Climate and geography play a tremendous role in Zewiks start up as it influences what activities people perform on any given day. Here in the northeast, camping is only achievable 6 months out of the year, whereas when Zewik reaches the southeast, camping will be more accessible throughout the year. Geography plays the largest role in determining the success of Zewik because if the climate of a certain region isn’t suitable for camping, then people will be deterred rom purchasing outdoor equipment if they have no use for it.

Currently, Zewik has a provisional patent placed on their Quadrecline technology which does indeed protect their property and gives them a competitive advantage as they have established their differentiator in the market. Household discretionary income also plays a factor in determining how successful Zewik may be. After a household pays its taxes, the leftover money can be spent on luxuries and other recreational activities such as traveling and camping. If a household’s discretionary income is too high then there is more incentive to travel broad as opposed to traveling a few hours to a rural area outside of a person’s residency.

The target demographic is the segment with an average income between The raw materials used for Zewiks Quadrecline hammocks vary from the nylon used in the actual bedding to the wood used in the quadrecline mechanism providing the extra support. All of the different components (nylon, parachords, paint, wood, etc) costs approximately $100 per hammock. The demographic targeted by Zewik is currently families aged 48 years old with young children in northeastern states such as Vermont, Maine, and western Massachusetts with an average income of $54,995.

This segment is typically college educated as they have a discretionary income sufficient enough to travel within the country but not enough to travel abroad. Also they are the segment with the discretionary income and the leisure time available to participate in spending recreational time camping. The psychographic targeted is active, adventurous, health-conscious families that enjoy participating in outdoor activities. As for current trends within the camping industry and the hiking and outdoor equipment industry, according to Ibisworld, the camping industry and the hiking and utdoor equipment industries are growing but at a slow pace.

The hiking and outdoor equipment store industry is growing at a rate of 2. 1% with a projected growth rate of 5. 2% and the camping and RV industry is growing at a rate of 2. 4% with a projected growth rate of 2. 1%. Both are in the mature stage of the life cycle as consumer’s discretionary income is directly correlated with the state of the economy. Another trend is the increasing amount of participants in sports (Ibisworld). From the years 2004 to 2014, the number of participants has grown by 17. 5% to 18. 6% and is projected to rise to 19. of health conscious Americans in 2018 (Ibisworld). As health becomes a more disheartening issue, more Americans are becoming aware of the effects poor health can cause. Realizing that life isn’t measured in longevity but by the quality of it, is constantly reinforced by green initiatives by companies and food ads that feature the number of calories it has. As Zewik attempts to penetrate this growing and prosperous market, the difficulty to enter is high as their product, the quadrecline hammock, isn’t a necessity for camping.

It isn’t a substitute for the tent so shelter is still needed and the hammock sn’t as accessible or convenient as a lawn chair to provide temporary relaxation from a long hike or venture into the woods. The difficulty of entering this industry is fairly difficult as competitors already utilize mass production and outsourcing for inexpensive manufacturing. Also imported goods dominate US markets so new entrants would often be competing on price. Firms within the industry face pressure from cheaper imports and high material costs as companies compete on price, quality, and product range.

Zewiks business model has its strong and weak points. They are the innovators of new way to not have to sacrifice comfort for lightweight. Their hammock isn’t meant to be a substitute for shelter but it supplements the available furniture one would need to get off his or her legs and rest. The design of the hammock is what gives Zewik their competitive edge in the market. It offers an easy to mount and comfortable hammock that is still lightweight and portable. Recurring revenue will be obtained through sales alone of its hammocks as Zewik does not have any other “legs” to acquire additional cash flows.

Further along in the future to obtain a larger and sleeping bags with added comfort. So far to protect their products and technology implanted, they have registered for a provisional patent. As for financing, the bank they requested a loan from could only give them a percentage of their cash flow but they did not have a current cash flow so they were declined. The $20,000 invested into Zewik has been from the two founders’ pocket. The market for hiking and camping equipment is considerably large. It reports revenues earned at $4. 7 billion (Ibisworld).

This specialized hammock is a shopping product in that consumers often perform research prior to their purchase because it s seen as an investment. Consumers turn into money managers as they are looking to fulfill a desire and want to ensure that they are making the best decision when their money is at risk. In this case, the particular money manager Zewik is looking for is the car camping family with young childen that is looking to add comfort to their array of outdoor furniture. Reaching majority market for Zewik will be nearly impossible as the competition is entirely too high.

REI already has 45. 19% of the market share, followed by a not very close second with VF Corporation 12. 9% market share. For this firm to flourish, a few things need to happen in a certain amount of time. A location needs to be established for them to conduct business and operate. Zewik needs to be able to segment its markets and effectively reach them. Gaining brand equity and brand loyalty is another issue. A brand like L. L. Bean has established itself as a trustworthy and reliable brand that offers outdoor gear and equipment.

One guaranteed way to gain bran equity and a considerable amount of the market share would be to obtain a military contract as they only employ American companies. One of the founders had slept in his hammock for 3. months and said even with his scoliosis he had no pains or aches for lying in it for an extended period of time. Sailors and soldiers are some of those people who also spend months at a time sleeping on cots, hammocks, or other substitute beds. Also establishing a distributor could dramatically increase sales as they are also working on a website to sell their products via online.

The 4Ps of Zewik would be an estimated price of $295. After researching other models of hammocks, their markups were almost 50%. With a cost of $100 to manufacture, I think the hammock could be priced at a fair $124. 95. The promotion urrently is through the internet and word of mouth through their local country clubs but performing demos in outdoor stores and extending their brand name to recognized stores like REI could deem beneficial. Placement of the hammock is currently nonexistent for their current model. Standard US Postal Service could prove to be sufficient if it can be accommodated.

For the amount they are currently manufacturing, Zewik does not need to invest in heavy equipment to manufacture their hammocks. After their initial investment of $20,000, they would need to sell 1000 hammocks before they break even which, nder the right measures, is very feasible. In order to deliver their products to the customer, Zewik will have to create an efficient shipping method, as they do not have a retail store. There are ways to minimize costs and take advantage of shipping in this day and age, so that would not be too much of a problem.

For make-or-buy to outsource to Asia for cheaper manufacturing and labor. The Zewik team right now consists of the two founders. One is a Rhode Island School of Design graduate and special effects wizard, and the other, his brother, is an industrial designer. For the small scale business they conduct, I think this is fine but f they do wish to increase their sales and overall market share I think they will definitely need some expertise in the fields of marketing, sales, accounting, and legal as they are trying to establish a nonprovisonal patent on their product.

Lastly a few skilled laborers could build the hammocks allowing the managers to focus on logistical issues rather than manufacturing and lighten the burden for the founders. A SWOT analysis of the hammock entails the following: Strengths: comfort, lightweight, therapeutic, easy setup, set up in most places Weaknesses: price, lack of patterns, need two poles to build, unestablished brand Opportunity: growing market, health is trending, domestic travel is increasing (Ibisworld) Threat: climate, geography, state of economy, liability Since Zewik is not willing to take a bank loan their most critical risk factor is their startup cost.

Since Zewik has their predicted startup costs at $114, 500, this would be a devastating loss if things turned south in the first year. That number does not even include all the time and money that has already been put into the product. Another critical risk factor is the fact that Zewik will not have a physical headquarters to sell their product, as most of their competitors do. Zewik will have to design a website that can handle all the customer’s needs without the use of a physical retail store.

One more critical risk factor would be that the hammock sector of the “hiking and outdoor equipment market,” accounts for roughly 3% of sales in that market. Even though Hiking and Outdoor Equipment is a thriving industry 3% is not that much. Zewik will have to use their diversified design to capture a large portion of that hammock market. Their finances are not entirely covered as the only investors are the founders themselves which they want to minimalize risk.