Reflection Essay on Employee Motivation

CASE 2 ENTELLIUM, DIGG, PEERFLIX, ZAPPOS, AND JIGSAW: SUCCESS FOR SECOND MOVERS IN E-COMMERCE Case Study Questions: 1) Is the second-mover advantage always a good business strategy? Defend your answer with examples of the companies in this case. Front-runner businesses can: Increase services given during and after a sale, intended to guarantee a satisfied customer. Although the product you sell through e-commerce may completely satisfy the customer, the extra services given by company will often determine whether it get repeat and referral business.
Poor or nonexistent customer service can result in negative word-of-mouth advertising that will turn people away from company business. Using secure protocols in electronic payment service and support the mutual trust and secure access between the parties in an e-commerce transaction by authenticating users, authorizing access and enforcing security features. Front-runner businesses can build a good reputation for high quality, guaranteed satisfaction, and top customer support while shopping and after the sale service.
This would challenge the second-movers and make it a little more difficult to compete against the front-runners. Front-runner businesses can watch and examine the second-movers and improve on their plans and strategies. Front-runners can offer new, smart, attractive, and innovative products and services at competitive prices. Increase their ownership and control through acquisition. This is where one organization purchases another so that the buyer assumes control.

Increase the amount of investment needed to enter into the market, thereby deterring attempts made by the second-movers to reach in ‘first place’ or discouraging them from competing at all. Form contracts with main suppliers and manufacturers in the market. Keep all of their business plans and strategies confidential. This could be done by having all employees sign confidentiality and non-competition agreements. Own the ideas of its employees, once it is done on the company’s time using the company’s resources, by asking them to sign agreements passing rights over to the employer.
Netflix could also start trading DVD’s online for a low flat rate. Regular Netflix consumers know the brand and may be loyal to them online as well. This could take away from Peerflix’s market share. Hoover’s could provide contact lists in addition to its extensive research on companies, so users would get two sources of information for the price of one. Pertaining to the examples in this case, second movers have been competing successfully. Number 1: Be better, faster, cheaper, easier Entellium offers something different from Salesforce. om by being better, faster, cheaper (40% less) and easier (user-friendly and offering 24/7 customer service). Trip up incumbents with tactics from other fields Inspired by MySpace, Digg offers a better, more marketable tech news site than Slashdot. The Digg website actually allows users to blog about anything they want, not just technology. Readers can even vote on any story, image, etc. they like the most, which can make it to the front page for everyone to see/read. Number 3: Swipe their business models and start your own race Peerflix learnt from Netflix’s business plan- easy renting by mail and eBay-trading items online.
People can exchange DVD’s without bidding, for a 99-cent transaction fee. They can keep the DVD’s or sell them to others unlike Netflix where one has to return their rentals. Follow the biggest leader you can find Looking at the case concerning Zappos- they were not growing at first because they focused on the wrong competitors, the target market was minute and they did not carry inventory. The online shoe seller was not thriving. They had to realize who they were really competing against. Zappos’ main competitors were not other online shoe .
Sellers that carried a limited amount of brands and catered to small niches; but were brick-and-mortar shoe stores. So, they built relationships with suppliers to improve customer service; and deliver exactly what the customer wants and on-time. Aim for the leader’s Achilles’ heel Jigsaw developed a new kind of contact subscription service where all the names and addresses in their database came from their users. The users themselves ensure that the listings are accurate and current. Real World Activities: 1) Use the Internet to research the current business status of all of the any companies in this case. Are the second movers still successfully using their strategies, or have the first movers foiled their attempts? Have new strong players entered the markets of the first and second movers, or have business, economic, or societal developments occurred to change the nature of competition in these markets? New features to grow and engage community Building on advertising infrastructure Building on successful partnership with Microsoft Ongoing sponsorship opportunities Ongoing publisher and trade partnerships
Zappos followed the biggest leader and now they are in front and winning the race. What makes Zappos so successful is its company’s culture and its superior customer service. Thus, there is a lot of customer retention and word-of-mouth advertising for the company. Jigsaw seems to be doing well. The case states that its database surged from 200,000 to 2 million contacts since 2004. Now, Jigsaw provides an online business directory of over 11 million business contacts. Dun & Bradstreet subsidiary Hoover’s offered extensive research on companies but little on contacts.
Their website now explores a database of 28 million public and private companies, more than 36 million people and more than 600 industries. 2) Assume you will start an Internet-based business similar to one of those mentioned in this case or another one of your choice. Would you be a first, second, or later mover in the market you select? How would you differentiate yourself from other competitors or prospective new entrants? Break into small groups to share your ideas and attempt to agree on the best Web-based business opportunity of the group.