Ethical Dilemna

As I thought about situations with competing goals or values I quickly thought of my time selling pest control in California.

When selling pest control the goal is to make money and you can't sell if you don't promote the product. Therefore it is essential to tell the potential customers about all the benefits of the product. They have a right to know all the benefits that they are getting. At the same time the customers have a right to know the product's downsides.

The most difficult issue is limited time. A salesman, particularly a door to door salesman, only has a short amount of time to convince the potential customer to buy the product. The question is how to balance the explanation of the benefits and downsides of the product in the short amount of time provided. If the salesman tells all of the negatives right up front the buyer would never purchase the product, which isn't a good option. If the buyer knew all of the positives and all of the negatives then he/she may buy the product despite the negatives, but there is normally not enough time.

I always wonder how to balance the two sides. I don't have time to explain all of the negatives, and if I focused on the negatives then I would be lying, but if I focus on the positives I wouldn't be telling the truth either. It's difficult to balance the explanation of both positive and negative and to be completely honest with both. I figure I have to do my best and give them all the information I can.

Strategy Journal Entry #4

"Wal-Mart's new strategy goes back to basics: Saving money"

Recent articles about Wal-Mart in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times talk of a change in strategy. Not too long ago Wal-Mart started moving away from the "every day low prices" strategy to selling some higher priced products, but quickly realized after research that it was a bad idea. The research showed, "that its diverse customers — from poor mothers in Arkansas to upper-middle class dads in Connecticut — want the same thing from the chain: low prices."

Wal-Mart's strategy of low prices over the years has turned it into an international giant, but moving away from that strategy created a misalignment, because they quickly moved away from what their customers wanted. Wal-Mart's Chief Marketing Officer said they need to proceed "with an eye toward who shops at Wal-Mart's stores, rather than who executives would like to shop at its stores." The only way to bring that alignment back into place is to offer what customers want and that's low prices.

Strategy Journal Entry #3

"Google Closes In On Video Website"

As I read the Wall Street Journal today I noticed the article above about Google. The point of the article was to say the internet companies are more aggressively seeking media as a method to keep users online and using their services. They give the example of Facebook which does an excellent job of keeping users online for long periods of time.

Online video and television is another excellent method of keeping users online, therefore Google is looking to purchase Next New Networks Inc. which is a video website.

This all ties into strategy because of the system of activities model. I believe Google views having online television/video as an essential piece of its system of activities and since they aren't strong in that area they are making acquisitions to get there. Happy Valentines Day!

Strategy Journal Entry #2

According to the article, "China Bank Takes Aim at Germany," a government owned bank in China is one of the final bidders to purchase a bank based in Germany. The bank appears to be changing its strategy to expand into Western markets. The bank will then be able to do business in Germany that it can't do in China. Government regulation in the two countries is extremely different and expanding into the western market will likely open up new opportunities that can't be obtained in China.

Arby's Put on Auction Block - WSJ

According to the article in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2011 Wendy's/Arby's Group Inc. plans to sell the Arby's chain. This is due to the fact that Wendy's is in a better position to steal market share from rivals and expand overseas.

The Wendy's/Arby's Group management likely sees that what they are good at is running Wendy's and not Arby's. In the Good to Great book we learn that the "great" companies focused on the areas of the business that they were set to succeed at and got out of the types of business that they aren't good at. This looks like what is happening with Arby's and Wendy's. Their "system of activites" (Porter's model) is clearly better in Wendy's because they are clearly succeeding in that area while struggling to have a good system of activities in the Arby's chain.