In the last week, Facebook and Netflix announced controversial changes in there business strategy that have both companies experiencing backlash from some of there favorite people, the end-users.
Some consumers would say that the changes the two successful companies made were unnecessary, arrogant and lack real benefits to their customers…And they would be right.
Netflix gave its customers a short ‘heads-up’ notice this summer when they announced a rise in pricing for its video renting service that would start in September. Later that month, the leading video rental company immediately saw negative responses to there new business model and launched an emergency PR strategy to stop the bleeding from the self-inflected damage.
Netflix reported a $7.40 decline in their stock price and a severe drop in user-subscriptions that is said to be in the millions. And let’s not forget the rebirth of Blockbuster, who announced this week that they will start to offer live streaming and other home video rental services.
To make matters worse, CEO Reed Hastings sent all of his users an apologetic email that tried to atone for the poor communications and reasoning behind the company’s recent decision. The first line of Mr. Hastings email, “I messed up. I owe you an explanation.”
Facebook users frustration is more deep-rooted and has more to-do with privacy issues & purpose. Simply put, consumers want an explanation for the frequent tweaks and overhauls that forces them to study up on how their personal information is shared.
Over the years, the leading social activity application has developed a reputation for making unannounced, secretive changes to its web platform without passing it by its core audience. What started as a pleasant distraction for college students has turned into a social communication dependency. How else do you plan on interacting with your thousands of friends at one-time?
Disgruntled Facebook users hope that Google can answer this question with their new social networking platform called, Google +. We’ll just have to wait and see if the new platform is strong enough to give Facebook a real competitor. Something Zuckerberg and friends haven’t seen in years.
To read more about negative backlash , click on the link below:
There is a new scam going on at Wall Street and it doesn’t involve bad credit loans or foreclosures.
The big players have finally found a way to make millions of dollars off of education and the federal government is helping them.
How? For-Profit Institutions.
QUICK FACTS
While students at for-profit schools make up only 10 percent of the college-going population, they consume almost a 25% of all federal financial aid.
The majority of a for-profit school’s revenue comes from federal grants and loans.
Critics of for-profit schools say such institutions use high-pressure sales tactics to recruit students, provide easy access to federal financial aid, load them with debt.
For-profit colleges spend almost 25 percent of their total revenue on getting people to come to the college and only about 10 to 15 percent on instruction once the student is there.
You can always tell when a company is headed for disaster. How you ask? When the company stops being proactive and looking for new ways to improve. Case & Point. Symbian, Nokia’s out-of-date software that has never been updated since the early 90′s.
The Finnish-based corporation recently announced to its investors, that the company is fighting to break-even and is expecting low sales for another disappointing year.
Nokia, for many years, was the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile phones. They controlled the mobile market, during the mid 1990′s and continued as a top performer in the industry all the way into early 2001.
Most of this success was due to Nokia’s low cost for manufacturing and their logistics network that placed phones all over the globe. As of today, Nokia is continuously losing its share of the smartphone market to its well-known competitors, Google and Apple Inc.
The root of Nokia’s problem is the out-dated Symbian software that is pre-installed and has never updated to a modern version. The pre-historic software lacks the simple user interaction and phone applications that consumers look for in smartphones.
Nokia Phones using Symbian Software
In February 2011, Nokia finally took steps needed to rectify this enormous problem by entering a profit-sharing agreement with Microsoft Corp. that would allow the company to abandon its Symbian operating system and make smartphones using Windows software on Nokia’s newest smartphones.
This alliance with Microsoft is not expected to payoff for at least a year and some experts are still not sure this will help the company. The partnership will greatly limit the company’s revenue capabilities, considering Nokia can only offer consumers and wireless carriers devices running on its old software platform.
So how to you make up for millions of dollars in lack of sales and bad management decisions? By cutting jobs.
Nokia announced it would shave $1 billion dollars from their bottom line by eliminating 7,000 jobs. Stephen Elop, CEO of Nokia and former president of Microsoft’s Corp.’s business division, admits that the process hasn’t been easy. “A transition like this is difficult. It is the case that certain competitive forces, in particular Android, are really gaining momentum in certain regions.”
The company has 132,000 employees and plans on concentration all of there efforts on the last two remaining markets that they still have a leading position in. Europe & Asia.
Mr. Elop believes the key to resurrecting Nokia’s mobile division is by focusing on the key problems listed below:
Inventory Control Issues
Global logistics
Marketing support
Research & Development (Phones & Operating Software)
I believe it will take a miracle for Nokia to catch-up to its rivals. There is just too much ground to make up and the company still has not started to develop the next line of Nokia Phones that will be able to compete with Apple or Google.
In my mind, its time to wave the White flag. Nokia is a sinking ship. It’s struggling to break-even, and the company has no other product extensions or lines to atone for the mobile sector. It’s only a matter of time.
Every CEO should constantly look at his or her business model to see if it can be tweaked. Especially if the business model has been successful in the past. Don’t become stagnant. Stay fresh and on top of your game.
It takes a lot of patience and understanding to become a great fisherman. There are certain techniques and rules to follow in order to score a big catch.
Unfortunately for me, I had to learn the hard way.
My first couple of fishing trips were a disaster because I had no knowledge on how to fish. I remember fishing for hours and coming up empty handed.
Some of my basic mistakes:
Not securing the bait on properly
Fishing by too many people
Not buying the right equipment
(Fishing Bobbers, Tools, Weights, Bait, etc.)
And other common mistakes.
As I got older, I started asking around for advice. I use to visit the local bait shop before heading out to talk strategy with the clerk or other fishermen. The results drastically changed. I went from coming up empty-handed after hours of fishing to catching a few small prospects.
(Most of them were too small to brag about.)
The point is that I had to learn from my failures. I had to analyze what worked and compare it with what didn’t. Over time, this process would produce a large database of successful techniques and strategies that work.
This information would be viewed as “priceless” to someone who is fishing for the first time. Not only would they probably perform better, but they would also save tons of time in frustration and bad approaches.
The same can be said about business. There are certain techniques and strategies that make some people successful and some bad approaches that will leave you empty-handed.
That’s why experience is so important in the business arena.
Learn from bad marketing campaigns
Learn from unsuccessful sales meetings
Learn how to master Cold Calling
Learn how to execute a marketing plan.
Yes, it takes time and it takes patience, but the knowledge you will obtain over the years will be worth it.
It’s a simple question to answer, but for many of my peers, it was difficult to come up with a list of accomplishments that would bring them personal fulfillment.
I was only asked to name 2 personal goals, but i decided to take it a step further. So I sat down for about 30 minutes in a quite room and wrote down 10 personal goals that I felt would bring me personal fulfillment in life.
Here’s a couple of them:
1. To have a successful career.
2. To maintain a healthy mind, body and spirit.
3. To create generational wealth for my family.
4. To be a good father to my kids and devoted husband to my wife.
