Jun Hao LEONG

Finance Presentation By Mr. Emilio Navarro

2010-07-25T04:35:00.001-07:00

DATE: 27 July 2010 (TUES)
TIME: 18.30 – 20.00 Hrs
LOCATION: E-012 Pinar 9 Building

Dear Friends,

The IE Finance Club together with IE Strategy Club is delighted to invite Mr. Emilio Navarro, with more than 35 years of experience in teaching and researching on management & consulting related topics, to share his experiences and insights on the challenges that have impacted, and will continue to affect, the current economic landscape.

The main issues that Mr. Navarro will cover during his speech at IE will be related to the roots and consequences of the global financial crisis with respect to UK, Germany, Spain and USA as well as ways the world will change after the crisis. More details related to the respective countries as shown below.

• UK: past and present of Northern Rock, Lloyds TSB, and HBOS.
• Germany: the current conditions of the financial system and the counter-measures that the government is introducing to strengthen the German financial system.
• Spain: the problems and measures that the current government is planning to introduce, with a particular focus to the problem affecting the Cajas.

The presentation will last approximately 1 hour, followed by 30 minutes Q&A session.

For registration please click here

Warmest regards,
Jun Hao LEONG
Director IE Finance Club

Casa del Libro

2010-06-19T17:38:00.000-07:00

1. What would be your decision? Would you stick to the previously developed Unix platform, or switch to the new Microsoft one?

My decision will be for the management team in casadellibro.com to convince Planeta group that keeping the current Unix platform and redesigning it would be a better decision than switching to the new Microsoft platform via cost-benefit analysis.

2. Which are the most relevant criteria for you to make the decision? Just name each criterion, and explain it very briefly.

In the order of priority, I will be analyzing the following four main factors, at the same time perform a cost-benefit analysis, before making a sound decision.

1. Adjusted Market Forecast – After the dot.com burst, one would have to re-evaluate the market trend in order to decide whether to switch to a new low cost Microsoft platform. If one evaluates that the market will continue to be in a bad shape in a long run (3-5 year horizon), then it would be wiser to switch to a lower cost platform. However, if one forecasts that the internet market would rebound to the 70-80 percent level prior to the dot.com burst within the horizon of 2 years, it might be better to stick to the current system and possibly even consider selling off 2 of the servers. I will lean towards the latter.

2. Key drivers behind this line of business (content management, E-commence and search engine) – The key to success in an online business is to be able to manage content easily so as to create a user-friendly platform for customers to search and make purchases. Adopting the Microsoft platform will lose this competitive advantage as compared to the Unix platform, which in turn lead to unsatisfied customers. Customer satisfaction is extremely critical for a company at its infant stage.

3. Stability & Security – Unix tend to be more stable than Windows. Also, Unix has more security features and is less prone to hackers as compared to Windows. This is important because the last thing a customer would want to face is for his/her bank account password to be hack.

4. Cost – Bearing in mind that the cost incurred for the current system is a sunk cost as well as the additional cost required to purchase the Microsoft platform, the cost saving derived from the low maintenance of the Microsoft platform might possibly require a long period of time to break even. This is of course on the assumption that there would not be any additional upgrade cost incurred by the Microsoft platform in the near future, if not sticking to the current higher end platform might be more cost efficient. However, we see from point 1 that this assumption is not likely to hold true.

In conclusion, saving cost is indeed important, but one must not neglect other more important factors that will directly undermine the existence of the business. And clearly we see Unix as the preferred choice.

Tesco – Do they enjoy an Information Technology (IT) - generated competitive advantage? Where does it come from?

2010-06-18T14:28:00.000-07:00

Tesco has definitely used IT to gain competitive advantage over its competitors as shown from the following strategies.
____________________________________________________________

Strategy #1: Improving Business Process

Through the implementation of RFID and its own partial ERP system based on the technologies of Oracle, Tesco was able to differentiate itself from its competitors while improving its supply chain process.

Role of IT: Enhance Efficiency

This improved the efficiency in placing, retrieving and monitoring inventories in its warehouses which saved time and storage space.

Outcome: To reduce the cost of doing business

The enhanced efficiency directly translate to cost savings for Tesco and also increased customer satisfaction through products availability.
____________________________________________________________

Strategy #2: Build a Strategic IT Platform

In 1996, Tesco brought its retail shopping online through the launch of Tesco Direct Service. Additionally, Tesco introduced other online services that allowed its consumers to compare products prices with its competitors, trade shares, interact with other consumers, with an aim to provide a positive and personalized online shopping experience. Furthermore, we see Tesco acquiring 35% stake in Groceryworks.com so as to venture in the US e-grocery market.

Role of IT: New Business Opportunities

Tesco was able to leverage on the online platform as a means to tap into new business opportunities not only in UK, but globally.

Outcome: Create To create new avenue of sales

Tesco Direct Service captured more than 50% of the UK e-grocery market and by 2001, it was the number one e-grocer in UK. Its online platforms thus created new avenue of sales for Tesco.
____________________________________________________________

Strategy #3: Build a Strategic Customer Information Data Base

Through the use of NCR Teradata warehouse, Tesco was able build a data base through the information collected via the Clubcard and to provide a 360 view of its customers.

Role of IT: To provide quality and value to customers

Essentially, the Teradata warehouse allowed Tesco to understand its customers shopping habits and needs, and to subsequently provide what the customers truly n need and value.

Outcome: Maintain Valuable Customer Relationships

By targeting customers’ genuine needs and wants, Tesco was able to increase sales as well as established customers’ satisfaction, which was one of the most important factors in every business.
____________________________________________________________

In conclusion, it is through providing innovative IT services, differentiating itself, that create a competitive advantage for Tesco - the largest retailer in UK, and third in the world.

"At Tesco, technology is right at the heart of our business - helping to improve the shopping experiences for all our customers." - From Tesco.com

Should companies adapt to ERPs, or the other way around?

2010-06-14T02:59:00.000-07:00

Ideally, all companies would want ERPs to adapt to them so as to achieve the full potential of business benefits of the system via customization, which allow them to differ from standard industry practice, thus providing them with a competitive advantage.

However, customization (1 of 3 segments of the ERP system) comes with a price and requires time in the implementation of the system. Furthermore, Customization of the ERP software is limited which led to difficulties in adapting to new business processes. Also, ERPs are often seen as too rigid and difficult to adapt to the specific work flow and business process of some companies. Thus, we see that most companies in general adopting 2 of 3 segments of ERP namely, configuration (original system) and modification (slight deviation from the original system which does not require a huge amount of cost).

To be able to answer the question of "Should companies adapt to ERPs, or the other way around?" One would really have to come from the view point of cost-benefit analysis. Generally, small-medium enterprises lack the fund to introduce customization and even if they do, they are not able to generate as much revenue as large companies do, thus not being able to rip the full potential of the system. In such scenario, these small-medium enterprises would be better off either abandoning their ERP system or sticking to the original system. Thus, it is usually the large companies which have the deep pockets to introduce customization.

In conclusion, if the benefit of customization outweighs the cost (ie. sustainable competitive advantage), companies should ensure that the ERP system adapt to them and not them adapting to the ERP system.

Dell Hell

2010-06-12T16:01:00.000-07:00

On 21 June 2005, Jeff Javis posted a blog stating that Dell’s machine is a lemon and their service is a lie which further progressed into a collective blogging which led to a devastating impact on Dell. Dell at that point of time did not realize the power of blogs as they were not widely used and thought that they could address issues at their convenience. In this blog, we will analyze what went wrong and how Dell should have responded to this crisis.

Prior to the Dell Hell saga, Dell was expanding aggressively and was involved in cost cutting through outsourcing various stages of its value chain at the expense of customer satisfaction. The entire underlying issue was therefore the failure of Dell’s customer support services and its inferior product quality as shown below:

1. Speed --> The response time in answering customers issues and delivery of products was extremely slow and inefficient

2. Off-shoring --> Customers were encountering languages difficulty towards the technical support services relocation to India and other countries from US and UK

3. Blunders --> Incorrect delivery details and loss of items

4. Technical Incompetence --> Dell’s technical support team were not proficient in solving technical issues

5. Inferior products --> Due to cost cutting, products were outsourced without sufficient quality control which led to defected goods

All these issues could have been easily resolved if Dell had placed more emphasis in customer support services and had enforced quality control on its products. To be more specific, Dell could have expanded the capacity of its customer services support to decrease the response time and demand standards from the distribution companies which Dell had outsourced to if not seek for liquidated damages if these companies were unable to uphold the standards. Furthermore, Dell could have provided language training for its customer services officers who were not proficient in English. Dell should also had recruited better engineers and provide training to ensure technical competency of its technical support team. All this can be solved by investing the right amount of money. Clearly, the management do not see these issues as their main priorities. They were just focusing on cutting cost and couldn’t care less about the rest. This might also be one of the main reasons why Michael Dell was asked to resume CEO role after being out of the company for 2 years.

Now, moving into what happened after the introduction of Dell Hell, we identify some outstanding issues or concerns which blew up the situation and led to the downfall of Dell.

1. Not tracking and responding to critical issues not only on the blogs but on the internet

2. Not being honest in admitting their faults --> pushing the blames to others (eg. It was the distributors’ fault in delivering the product slow or to the wrong address)

3. Misconception of the sellers being in control rather than the buyers --> not putting sufficient emphasis in listening to the customers

4. Not having sufficient channels for customers to voice their concerns

5. Inactive in engaging its customers to find out their problems

Thus, we see that if Dell had been more honest, admitted its mistakes, and resolved the issues promptly as in response to Jeff Javis’s blog. But before solving the issues, Dell should first find means to track customers concerns efficiently, and the most effective and efficient manner is to provide more channels for customers to voice their concerns. In the model context, we see companies using various online platforms such as Facebook, Skype, Blogs etc in communicating with their customers in receiving feedbacks.

On the positive note, Dell did tried to tackle the about issues by taking the initiative of investing $150m in their customer service operations in improving it. Furthermore, the launch of Dell’s official customer services blog coupled social media site IdeaStorm also helped lesser the impact.

In conclusion, we learned the power of internet and more importantly, never take customers inputs lightly. It is very difficult to rebuild a reputation but destroying it is extremely simple. Word of mouth is a very power tool or element in a business and one would want it to go the negative way as shown in Dell Hell.

Facebook | The Winner of Social Networks

2010-06-05T16:02:00.000-07:00

FACEBOOK is a social networking website founded by Mark Zuckerberg with his college friends in February 2004. The real customers of Facebook are enterprises who advertise on Facebook. Thus the more users there are (currently Facebook has about 500million and an estimate of 630million users by 2011), the more amount of traffic and useful information the site generate, and the more valuable will Facebook be.

Here we will be analyzing two key subjects related to Facebook and how they would possibly evolve in the near future.

TOP ON THE LIST – PRIVACY & SECURITY

Since launched, Facebook has been subjected to mostly privacy and security issues until this very day with the most recent case related to the launch of “Instant Personalization”.

More importantly, in trying to achieve their business model, Facebook tries to “open up” so as to attract more companies into the Facebook advertising world. On the other side, Facebook users are complaining about the issue of privacy. The outcome of dissatisfied users might lead to the following outcomes; (1) Reduction in the sharing of data and interaction (2) Falsification of data (3) Reduction in the clicking of Ads (4) ABANDON FACEBOOK

Hopefully Zuckerberg is not really in a denial as mentioned by him in a recent press. Facebook should really look into this privacy issue, maybe making it easy for people to opt out of unwanted applications, before more Google employees deactivating their Facebook accounts.

SECOND ON THE LIST – SOCIAL NETWORKING PLATFORM TO CONQUERING THE WEB?

Facebook is definitely the most successful and popular social networks in this era. The introduction of “Open Graph” which consists of the following three products, social plugins, open graph protocol and open graph API, allowed us not just to connect to friends on Facebook, but to numerous things all over the web.

Zuckerberg explained on the Facebook Blog: “we are making it so all websites can work together to build a more comprehensive map of connections and create better, more social experiences for everyone. We have redesigned Facebook Platform to offer a simple set of tools that sites around the web can use to personalize experiences and build out the graph of connections people are making.”

It is evident that Facebook is moving towards web domination and these new features had already created privacy concerns from the public. From my opinion, it is a huge gamble; a make it or break it situation. Zuckerberg is definitely pushing the traditional social network to new heights but whether it will be successful really depends on the receptiveness of the consumers. On the other hand, Facebook should also look into its potential competitor, Google perhaps, and consider possible actions and reactions when expanding its boundaries.

CONCLUSION

We would be seeing more bold initiatives coming in the near future if the current introduction of “Open Graph” turns out to receptive from the users. If all is smooth for the next 2 years, Facebook should be capable of creating a semantic web in a longer run.

The Future of Information Systems | Perspective from a Vice President in Microsoft

2010-06-04T23:16:00.000-07:00

While speaking to a Vice President of Microsoft in Brussels recently, it was evident that Cloud Computing is the direction for Microsoft in the future. Without going into the details of SaaS, PaaS, IaaS and HaaS, cloud technology simply is a technology that was long introduced during the formation of gmail, ymail etc. Cloud today and in the future is to have a data base center where enterprises and individuals are able scale up or scale up operations on the computers so as to have the flexibility and efficiency of not owing softwares on computers and hardwares such as large data centers.

Microsoft, who is currently market leader in cloud computing, see cloud technology as the solution to Europe's aging population, as cloud targeting at enterprises would effectively reduce capital expenditure and operating cost as well as decrease employment, and this effectively reduce the impact of the aging population.

Currently, Microsoft has 2 data centers supporting the Europe and 5 data centers for US for cloud technology. Furthermore, Microsoft demonstrated the flexilibility of cloud with open source application through the integration Linux and Microsoft OS for one of events organized by IonEARTH, a global race positioning company. Companies like Domingo Pizza and Starbucks, also purchased "on-demand" services from Microsoft during certain unique peak periods. In essence, Microsoft is selling the 'time' required to used their specific services as such data space, bandwidth, application linkages etc. and companies are able to customize what they require.

The main issues which are hindering the advancement of cloud is security and legal. This explains why Microsoft's clients at the moment comes from the manufacturing companies and Small-Medium Enterprise (SMEs)where information is less sensitive. Microsoft's aim to move into the Banking and Financial Institutes and eventually to the government organizations where secrecy is of utmost importance. Currently Google, AOL, Amazon are Microsoft's main competitors in cloud technology and it will be interesting who would emerged as the market leader in time to come.

Google | The World's Biggest Internet Search Company

2010-05-29T13:54:00.000-07:00

Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1995 and its mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Google’s business Model is based on the four functions namely SEARCH – ADS – APPS – MOBILE as shown from the video above.

In this post, we will analyze the three current issues or threats that Google is currently facing or might be facing in the future which would threaten its position.

TOP ON THE LIST - ANTI-TRUST REGULATION

Google, the largest advertising agency, ad network, search engine, online videos and web email provider, has raised discussions regarding anti-trust issues of its dominating position in many industries.

Microsoft argued that Mozilla’s Firefox derives bulk of its revenue from driving Web traffic to Google’s search engine and also the possibility of having Google Chrome OS on Windows PCs, would lead to an overall domination of Google in search advertising. Microsoft further added that Google Books tend to lock in business partners and content, and exclude competitors, thereby undermining competition. Recently, Gary Reback, who almost single-handedly brought the antitrust regulation on Microsoft, is now contending Google to air the Foundem couple’s complaint that Google’s “objective” algorithms search that dropped Foundem intentionally in Google’s search results. Also FTC is enquiring the antitrust implications of the ties between the boards of Google and Apple, sharing of director. To make things worse, the privacy issue from Wi-Fi sniffing further aggravated the mistrust between Google and federal regulators.

With all the above mentioned issues, the federal government is examining Google’s acquisitions and actions in closer details and this would, from my opinion dampened Google’s sustainability and more so on its further expansion as they would have to be more careful before making a move. Failure to do so would result in monetary and reputation loss which will drastically affects Google’s competitive advantage, and a direct loss in market share.

SECOND ON THE LIST – THE RISE OF THE MOBILE INTERNET

Google has succeeded in becoming leader for web navigation which is also the most popular type of web navigation, namely search. However, with the introduction of mobile internet, coupled with Apple's early dominance in this market, the concept of web search is truly threatened for the first time. The smartphones — especially the iPhone with so many specialized apps (Yelp iPhone app to search for local restaurants, Linkedin app for quick people search etc) and no qwerty keyboard compel consumers not to used Google in searching information. However, even smartphone with full qwerty keyboard like BlackBerry, typing is still far slower than pointing, scrolling, and selecting apps. The convenience provided by iPhone might lead to behaviour habit of users reaching for the smartphone instead of the laptop in search for information, would reduce the number of people using Google’s search engine. However, the main issue currently face is the difficulty of finding the right app one amongst so many apps. This issue is definitely not a showstopper and it is a matter of time when an appropriate solution is introduced. Thereafter, the smartphones industry would become the most widespread global computing platform and maybe this is the main reason behind Google’s efforts in making Android successful with the strengths of AdMob.

LAST ON THE LIST – TOO MANY DIFFERENT MARKETS?

Without any doubts, Google is definitely the leader in search. However, Google in trying to achieve its mission of organizing the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful has led it to a diverse range of products which inevitably create a whole new set of competitors across the digital media and technological spectrum. In fact, Google is into so many businesses that it is hard to track all of them. Below is a summary of Google’s possible competitors (not an exhaustive list) and their corresponding products.

Apple – Smartphone (iPhone), online music (iTunes), Browser (Safari)
Google – Google Android, MySpace and Pandora, Google Chrome

Microsoft – Brower (Bing)
Google – Google Chrome

Amazon – e-book store, Amazon’s Elastic Computing Cloud (EC2)
Google – Google Book, Google’s Apps Engine

Facebook – Facebook connect
Google – Orkut offers Google Friend Connect

Yahoo – Search and Advertising (Joint deal between Yahoo and Microsoft), watch videos or stream music
Google – Google Chrome, Youtube, MySpace and Pandora

Mozilla – Browser and default search engine
Google – Google Chrome

Nokia – Smartphone (recent deals with Microsoft is all set to bring Office Mobile to Symbian devices)
Google – Google Android

IBM – Areas of collaboration tools (Lotus Lives)
Google – Google Wave

Most of the competitors are ready to poise serious threats either alone or in collaborations against Google. And Google’s revenue and reputation might be at stake if not dealt with properly.

Where is Microsoft Today?

2010-05-22T05:51:00.000-07:00

INTRODUCTION

In 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft and now, Microsoft is a leader in the field of computer programming, with $58.43 billion of revenue in FY2009. Its software products run from operating systems, personal computers, mobile phones, and other devices to software development tools, video games, and hardware such as the Xbox 360 and Zune. Mission of Microsoft "To enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential".

STRENGTHS

Huge Global Brand name

Rapid product development - Microsoft is also known for releasing new product updates and product fixes throughout its network, for example, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010.

Wide distribution channel easily accessible to the consumers and businesses

Cash rich – Ability to conduct intensive R&D

Consumers might be resistance to change in the short run

WEAKNESSES

Lack the openness in sharing its software’s programming codes which does not allow modification by external programmers if bugs or malwares are detected

Lack strong customers care service

Failure of Windows Vista - Poor performance and reliability with hard and software incompatibility issues and lack of driver support

Market has matured – Difficult to change the market

OPPORTUNITIES

Diversification during the past years via expansion into the gaming arena, for example Xbox and government agency like the military, for example, Command and Control solutions are built on a robust and security-enhanced Microsoft platform designed for military messaging and situational awareness to increase accuracy

THREATS

LINUX (open source, easy to use and can be obtain free of charge) and MAC (interactive interface and good graphic design and presentation software)

Competing with other established players, for example PlayStation in the gaming industry

Government control

Internet explorer vs Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox

Piracy issues

CONCLUSION

As of today, Microsoft is still the leading company the software industry (“With the release of Windows 7 in December 2009, Windows finished the year with roughly a 92% market share, as well as an 80% market share among enterprise customers and a 63% market share in web browsing through Internet Explorer.” – Microsoft.com), we can see that it has issues to combat to prevent the loss of market share to competitors. Windows Vista was not successful but Linux and MAC did not really capitalize on the opportunity. Another of such plunder, Microsoft might face the music.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Microsoft should listen to the desires and wishes of the customers and to conduct R&D in ensuring that it’s products is of superior standard as compared to its competitors and it’s after sale services. Microsoft should also combat the issue of piracy by ensuring that their products are pirate proof.

Information Systems Session 5 & 6 - 19/200510

2010-05-21T23:18:00.000-07:00

In Session 5, we learned about the following:

The Main Positive Effects of Technology

1. Reduce search time (simplified information access)
2. Brought distant places closer (buying online)
3. More interactions (computer networking)

How the Net works? (http://www.warriorsofthe.net/)

Activate IP --> Packet --> Label --> Address: URL --> LAN --> Accidents (error correction) --> Router and Swtich --> Network Interface --> Proxy Server --> Firewall --> Error Correction / Acknowledgment --> Webserve

Twitter

We can see a increase use of Twitter from companies as show below:

1. Comcast Cares and Telefonica uses Twitter as a channel for customers to provide feedbacks and because of this convenience, people expressed their concerns more and thus these companies are also able to tackle their concerns and thus increasing satisfaction index. Some banks are using Twitter, Facebook and Skype to communicate with their customers.

2. Another avenue for companies to leverage Twitter's users is when users posts their wish list on Twitter. Company can then try to tap on these potential customers. Twitter is extremely powerful to companies in this aspects.

In Session 6, we learned that Foursquare is a Geo location, personal, real time application that harvest data (data stream) on reviews, types of places, demographic, location where customers visit, the retails' popularity and we can also find out possible competitors through these data collected. For more in-depth analysis please refer in my previous blogs.

Although I understand that the success of Foursquare is actually pegged to the number of users and more importantly, the data they create, I did not know that there is actually a term associated to it. The term is "crowdsourcing". The main difference between crowdsourcing and ordinary outsourcing is that a task or problem is outsourced to an undefined public rather than a specific other body. This is an extremely powerful tool. Not only social networking application can make use of the idea of crowdsourcing. Businesses can also create crowdsourcing like how Starbucks create a forum to tap on ideas from the public (See - http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/ideaHome).

Another important thing I learned today is the "Initial to change". Currently the number of users are increasing exponentially and that existing users had created a network and reputation, accumulated points and badges, and this causes a huge resistance for Foursquare users to rebuild everything if they were to join a new similar platform. This effectively demonstrated the initial to change. This effectively is Foursquare greatest competitive advantage. Thus, if Facebook or Twitter tries to launch a similar application to compete with Foursquare, chances of them succeeding is very low.

Investment Report | Research and Analysis of Foursquare

2010-05-18T13:45:00.000-07:00

IS $100 MILLION IS A FAIR VALUATION FOR FOURSQUARE?

In Sept 09, Foursquare was only valued at $7 million – $14 million. Recently, Yahoo is targeting Foursquare at $100 million. We see the spike in valuation within just a short span of time and my question is whether $100 million is a fair valuation for Foursquare? In 2007, we see Facebook turning down an offer of $1 billion by Yahoo Inc. back and in 2008, Twitter rejecting Facebook’s offer of $500 million in 2008. Apparently $100 million may not be so much after all if Foursquare is able to rise up the ranks of Facebook or Twitter in time to come.

Some VCs explained that Foursquare’s valuation of $100 Million was due to the fact that there isn’t that many good start up companies to invest in despite them having the money to invest. Thus, a slightly above average company may be valued beyond the fair valuation due to demand and supply factors. Furthermore, they are investing not because they believe that Foursquare would gain mass market adoption but in hope that larger companies will believe that Foursquare can gain mass consumer adoption and purchase it at a higher price. However, to understand the valuation of Foursquare, I will be analyzing their fundamentals in two main aspects namely competitors and revenue stream.

COMPETITORS

The closest competitor of Foursquare at this moment is Gowalla, which is another location-based social networking service. Both applications are good in providing games, incentives and rewards. Gowalla is available in 7500 cities as compared to Foursquare’s 100 major cities. However, in due time, Foursquare would be available almost anywhere. Foursquare on the other hand trumps Gowalla in aspects such as friend management, check-in location accuracy, value added features like a city guide device, to do list and device support. Thus, by comparing the pros and cons of two of the leading services, clearly Foursquare outshine Gowalla and if this continues, Foursquare would eventually take over as the market leader for location-based services. Furthermore, Foursquare is like a complement to Twitter, it serves as a feature set to Facebook, it is not completely about map like Google Latitude, and its interest is not in local businesses like Yelp. Thus, Foursquare is right in the middle of all of these folks and not being a direct competitor to them.

REVENUE STREAM

Foursquare’s short and medium term revenue will be generated based on location-based advertising while its long run revenue would be based on genuine world-wide advertisements and promotions. To further illustrate Foursquare’s long run revenue stream, we see Foursquare moving beyond the retail sector to strike deals with companies like Zagat's, Bravo and the History Channel. Furthermore, with the increased in the number of users, 50% - 60% every month, Foursquare expects to hit 1.5 million users by the end of May, which highlights the potential of moving towards mass market adoption in due time if the trend continues. Personally I feel that that Foursquare’s future market would be enormous. For example, government agency such as tourism board, charitable organization and event organizers could leverage on Foursquare to create more awareness and publicity for a fee. Also, Foursquare might want to enter into a joint venture with Linkedin to further create career networking opportunities anywhere and anytime for those who are willing pay a subscription fee to enjoy the exclusive information. Users will have the option to display or not display their information so as to avoid the issue of privacy.

In conclusion, Foursquare does has a sound business model with relatively undefined market boundaries. It is interesting and fun, and more importantly, it creates value to both the buyers and sellers. Foursquare is like the ‘invisible’ middle man for anyone in any parts of the world. With all the facts gathered, I believe Foursquare’s current valuation is fair and will continue to rise as I trust that it would be able to rise up the ranks of Facebook and Twitter in time to come. Thus, I would RECOMMEND A BUY.

REFERENCES

http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/25/four-vc-firms-battle-for-foursquare-valuation-goes-stratospheric/#ixzz0o6hTF0zu

http://www.androidpolice.com/2010/04/08/foursquare-may-walk-away-from-100-million-are-they-crazy-or-thinking-big/

http://joetrippi.com/blog/?p=2958

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/04/07/businessinsider-why-vcs-think-foursquare-is-worth-100-million-2010-4.DTL#ixzz0o8RlRJaJ

http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/company-news/foursquare-ceo-dennis-crowley-my-phone-rings-off-the-hook/19446003/?icid=main|aim|dl9|link1|http:

http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/03/foursquare-location-apps.html

Foursquare Business Model

2010-05-07T12:04:00.000-07:00

From my research online, Foursquare's business model is simple yet amazing.

Foursquare was launched initially as an application that allows you to find a friend, track your location and at the same time play a game. In April 2010, within a short span of 1 year, Foursquare has managed to have 1 million users, and is being pursued Yahoo Inc., which offered as much as $125 million.

Seven months ago, Foursquare launched their beta advertising platform which is Foursquare for Businesses. This platform allows retailers highlight discounts or special offers relation to their rank to users who check-in nearby. Businesses will be able to get information about the users who patronize their stall such as:

1. Total number of check-ins
2. Special offers or discounts redeemed
3. Details of Customer including how often and the location they came from and the location they are going too

Foursquare for Businesses is a build on to the product; a necessary and critical addition to the basic application and it is this potential to advertising which enable it to be such a simply yet attractive business plan. If this current trend continue to expand and the audience continue to grow, marketers will definitely put money into Foursquare as part of their advertising effort.

Thus, the challenge is sustainability. Innovating to sustain or increase the interest of users, coupled with attracting more marketers to believe in this market through word of mouth or advertisements, would inevitably be the way in which Foursquare has to adopt.

IE - Singapore Club Madrid Chapter Founded on 6 May 2010

2010-05-06T13:50:00.001-07:00

Today marks the significant day in which IE - Singapore Club Madrid Chapter is founded. The objectives of the club are as follow:

1. Increase awareness of Singapore
2. Connect IE students to businesses in Singapore
3. Foster a strong community for people with interest in Singapore
4. Promote IE's brand in Singapore

In this changing environment, and being a new club, we will inevitably face uncertainty. We have to learn as we go, staying agile and adaptable. I sincerely believe that everyone in this team is unique and possesses a spirit of excellence. Below are the names and appointment of the management team of IE-Singapore Club Madrid Chapter.

1. PRESIDENT - Jun Hao LEONG

2. GENERAL SECRETARY - Rakesh SINGH

3. VICE PRESIDENT FINANCE - May Lynn HO

4. VICE PRESIDENT MARKETING & COMMUNICATION - Marte RUIZ

5. VICE PRESIDENT MARKETING & COMMUNICATION - Shumei LAM

6. VICE PRESIDENT FINANCE SERVICES LIAISON - Sri SIRAM

7. VICE PRESIDENT FINANCE SERVICES LIAISON - Adrian PAVELESCU

8. VICE PRESIDENT CONSULTING LIAISON - Vinit GOSWAMI

9. VICE PRESIDENT CONSULTING LIAISON - Bhuan AGRAWAL

10. VICE PRESIDENT SPECIAL PROJECTS - Alain CAIGNARD

11. VICE PRESIDENT SPECIAL PROJECTS - Geumjoo LEE

Information Systems Session 4 - 050510

2010-05-05T13:51:00.000-07:00

One of the keys things I learned today was the issue of friction between online purchase versus physical purchase. More importantly, I learned that technology is a great friction reducer and this can be illustrated through buying online.

My research to why online buying grew was due to the following reasons, mainly

1. Rise in transportation costs

2. Decrease in telecom costs

3. Increase access to the internet

Furthermore, the technology of online purchases platforms offers a larger selection of products, coupled with the decrease in searching cost, inevitably led to more competitive prices. However, with all the pros stated below, one cannot engaged their 3 main senses (smell, touch, taste or try) when selecting the product.

In conclusion, if one is able to create a technology in which consumers and feel, smell and even taste via a virtual product which will be launch from a laptop, there will be absolutely no need to step out of the house to do any shopping. A radical technological innovation indeed and I do not foresee it to happen anytime within the next decade. One this particular technology can come true, I believe one will not need to travel overseas to attend anymore meetings.

Information Systems Session 3 - 040510

2010-05-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

Yet another amazing and insightful lesson on Information Systems!

Today, I learned about how I-Tunes entered the music industry and the reasons for successfully capturing a portion of the market share without the telecommunication companies seeing it comign. I have also learned that it is almost impossible to stop the sharing or downloading of songs or videos in this era when there are so many websites on the internet such as Megaupload, last.fm, The Private Bay, BLIP.fm etc which facilitate the downloading or P2P sharing. Thus, in order to survive in the current environment, we will need to adapt and to innovate in order to be competitive in the current paradigm. Constantly living with the old school thinking and staying in the comfort zone will not bring any companies anywhere.

Next, we spoke about the introduction of SKYPE and how it changes the paradigm of the telecommunication's industry through the introduction of digital voice communication. Some telecommunication companies were forced to re-model their business model in order stay competitive in the market. We can also see that some telecommunication companies are precluding the use of SKYPE via their mobile wireless network to ensure that they do not loose their main stream of revenue. I truly believe that the telecommunication industry will continue to evolve in the coming years and instead of waiting for things to happen before reacting, companies should start anticipating future challengers.

At the end of the day, no companies would want to end up like how BRITANNICA was made obsolete by ENCARTA or how ENCARTA eventually was replaced by WIKIPEDIA, (non-profit) organization. Therefore, the best chance of survival is to be innovative and to adopt a continuous improvement policy.

Interstate Programme 2010

2010-04-30T13:09:00.000-07:00

Each year, IE Business School co-sponsors the Interstate Programme, an annual venture that brings together students enrolled in elite MBA programs in the US and Europe to analyze developments in the European Union (EU) and its relations with the US in a global context.

This year, I was fortunate enough to be 1 of 7 students selected to represent IE Business School for this prestigious event. Interstate 2010 will be held on from 30 May to 2 Jun 10 at Renaissance Hotel in the heart of Brussels. Meanwhile, I will try to research and absorb as much information as possible so as to better prepare myself for the programme.

I'm looking forward towards this event and to share the knowledge and experience gained with my peers subsequently.

Information Systems Session 2 - 290410

2010-04-29T09:09:00.000-07:00

Today we learned about industry disruption and the difficulty in keeping up with the speed at which technology is changing. Personally, I believe that key to success in this era is to embrace technological change with an open mind. In this way one will be more willing to learn and improve him/herself to ensure relevancy in the working society.

As mentioned in my last blog entry, there are many applications which I would like to explore. Today, I explored an application called http://delicious.com/ and I posted a tag under imbaa32011. There are a few entries which I'm not sure if they are from A3 but at least I saw Juanccarillo's blog being tag under imbaa32011.

Now, my question for industry disruption would be: What do you think is the next disruptive innovation in the market, and what big names will topple as a result?

Please feel free to air your opinions. Adios amigos!

Information Systems Session 1 - 270410

2010-04-28T09:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my first day on INFORMATION SYSTEM (IS) and I was very fortunate to have Enrique Dans, one of the most IT savvy person I have ever met, as my professor.

For those who understand Spanish, you can find his blog at http://www.enriquedans.com. He uses his blog to air and exchange academic ideas which I feel is an excellent and innovative way to communicate. More importantly, he keeps up to date with the latest IS development via numerous online newspapers and journals. Do try to goggle his name if you are interested to find out more about him.

As this is the first time I'm blogging, I will keep it short and sweet. Basically, after attending Enrique's lesson, I began to feel the importance of IS especially in this era. I will be exploring Google Reading, Delicious, Manager Email, Twitter and Foursquare in time to come. Meanwhile, I will continue to explore the beauty of Blogger and hopefully Enrique can give me a few tips if he happens to read my post.

Adios amigos!