Winning ( Chapter 20 ) Here, There, and Everywhere - Outlook of luxury goods market in China

In the final chapter of Winning, Jack Welch lists out several questions which he misses in the previous chapters. I pick out one of the questions about China which it becomes the greatest competitors among the world.

Q: We spent the last ten years bringing our company up to speed with training and process improvements, and with our low-cost labor, we were extremely competitive. But now we’re getting killed by China. How can we stay alive?

Jack Welch reports that a lot of workers from villages in other countries are coming gain a job in the factories in urban areas. They are all threaten by the massive of cheap labor and well educated engineers in China. In fact, Beijing organized the Olympic Games 2008 and Shanghai held the 2010 World Expo, everyone would like search for business opportunities in China in these 2 major cites.

Three old warhorses of competition are introduced by Jack Welch. They are cost, quality and service. He recommended the managers to find ways to reduce the production cost around 30-40% and implement the six sigma methodology in the production line. Take a look of the CEO of Starbucks Howard Schultz, he visits China twice in a year for studying the 500 Starbucks branches in China. He finds out there is an enormous speed of growth of sales revenue in China than other countries. The cost of the frappuccino in Hong Kong and China is nearly the same. However, there is a significantly difference in the cost of labor and rental of the store in China than in Hong Kong. China can provide cheap labor which can reduce the cost in the production line.   

Recently, China is poised to become the world’s largest market for luxury goods by 2020. Several reports from Hong Kong Trade Directory Council indicate that the growing of household income in every Chinese family would like to spend money on luxury items. Chinese consumers would like to travel to US and UK in Chinese New Year Holiday. They would like to purchase luxury branded name goods such as Louis Louis Vuitton and Hermès. Plenty of retails in New York and London would like to hire the staff with Mandarin language over the period of Chinese New Year. Upgrade the quality and service could be a competitive advantage among the others.

Instead of investing in China or upgrading the staff quality in luxury goods outlets, Jack Welch introduces the companies to join venture with the Chinese company. On 27^th December 2010, Walmart is poised to take a stake in China’s fast growing online retailer 360buy.com. The world’s biggest retailer is teaming up with online ecommerce business in Beijing. The ecommerce is growing fast in China. The local citizens would like to purchase online. It is around 420 million internet users in China and the researcher predicts China’s online shopping market will exceed 1,000bn yuan in 2013. Nevertheless, you can look at China and fee victimized. Or you can look at it and be excited about conquering the challenges and opportunities it presents.

2010 Shanghai World Expo Official Theme Song

Starbucks to Expand in China


China Luxury Boom Moves Inland


《北京欢迎你》 完整清晰版 - Beijing Welcome You!

Winning (Chapter 18) Hard Spots - Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister of United Kingdom

 

Every industry, office room or working area, you should find a bad boss. You can find out plenty of rumors and complaint in the forum group about the bad boss in his / her working area. Obviously, a bad boss can kill part of our soul, positive energy, commitment and hope. If you feel sorry for yourself in this way, please quit this kind of thoughts. Jack Welch builds up a chart to indicate the leaders according to their results.

Type 1: Good values / Good performance	Type 2: Bad values / Bad performance
Type 3: Good values / Bad performance	Type 4: Bad values / Good performance

Most company CEO or senior mangers would like to hire type 1 leaders. The type 2 & type 4 leaders would be faded out very soon. The senior level should spend time to coach type 3 leaders to improve the performance.

According to the book of “The End of The Party” by Andrew Rawnsley, several staffs in Downing Street No 10 have physically attacked by the former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.  

• Hit a senior aide who got in the way as he rushed to a reception at No10.
• Physically pulled a secretary out of her chair as he dictated a memo to her.
• Hurled foul-mouthed abuse at two aides in his hotel room in America in a state of semi-undress after reports that he had been snubbed by President Obama.

Althrough he denied those claims, one female officer reports to the news reporter that he is not easy to work for. Other rumors about this Prime Minister are similar the same. No one likes to work with a boss which has bad temper and physical violence. Many people would likes the prestige of working in the high performing division, but they hated his day to day nastiness. As a result, bad reputation is generated very quickly between the election period.

                          

“The Devil wears Prada” is a 2006 comedy drama film. Anne Hathaway stars as Andy Sachs, a fresh graduated student who goes to New York City. She gets a job as a co-assistant to a powerful and demanding fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep. Miranda treats everyone below him with the same kind of bad behavior, intimidation, belligerence, arrogance, neglect, secrecy or sarcasm. Andy knows this position is over a thousand girls’ dream job. She would like to meet all the commitments from the icy editor in order to stretch her abilities in fashion business. She keeps asking for why do I work here anyway? Leaving school and stepping into the real world could be difficult when facing a bad boss. However, it could be a trade off of salary, experience or the friends in your working place. In this story, Andy overcomes all the hurdles. She gets the network, experience and friends in fashion industry. She upgrades her dressing skills, communication skill and problem solving skills. Imagine you are the role of Andy Sachs, if you face the bad boss in your working area. Please consider the trade off values, if it is no worth, please leaves gracefully.

Gordon Brown in Rawnsley's 'The End of the Party'

The Devil Wears Prada. Trailer

Winning ( Chapter 17 ) Getting Promoted - Yao Ming, the captain of Huston Rockets

Everyone wants to be promoted in their field. However there are no real shortcuts. Some smart persons can be promoted within a short period. The others would think those persons are lucky. To be honest, luck is only a very tiny factor in the process of getting promoted. A series of key factors you need to add in your duty in order to move to a higher position. Jack Welch indicates the key factors within 2 sentences.

     1)      Do deliver sensational performance, far beyond expectations, and at every opportunity expand your job beyond its official boundaries.

     2)      Don’t make your boss use political capital in order to champion you.

      If you wish to be promoted, you should delivery sensational performance to your field, try to expand your job’s horizons to reach the unexpected activities. Those improvements include results, unit’s result and the company’s overall performance. Get on the radar screen which means you should prepare a mind map / blue print of the forecast for the company's initiatives. Moreover, you should care the subordinates with the same carefulness with your boss. Spread your positive attitude around your working field and amassing mentors as much as you can. As there is no one right mentor, there are many right mentors. Finally, you never concerns setbacks. In the crises management chapter, I indicate that the low level staffs are waiting for senior level managers’ solution to solve problem. You should restore yourself with full energy in a very short period whenever you receive failure. Carry out the possible decisions and manage your whole team with ambition is the senior level mangers’ behavior.

    

     Yao Ming is a professional basketball player in Houston Rockets of NBA. He is one of China’s best known althletes with sponsorships with several major companies.  He was born in Shanghai and was selected by Houston Rockets as the first overall pick in the 2002 NBA Draft.

      Yao joined the team of Shanghai Sharks junior team when he was 13 years old. In 2002, he decided to enter the 2002 NBA Draft. Huston Rockets selected Yao with the first pick of the draft and he became the first international player ever to be selected first overall without having previously played US college basketball.

      It seems to be Yao is lucky to be NBA player in Huston Rockets as a Chinese. If you review his early life, he was trained 10 hours per day in Shanghai Sharks junior team. Once he entered the US national NBA basketball pitch, he would code with a different culture, language and lifestyle with his teammates, coach and managers. He would face the racism joke from other teams. He got a positive attitude and spread it around from US NBA to worldwide. Never the less, he signed up the commercial with PEPSI, Coke-Cola, Reebok, Visa, Apple and Mc Donald’s. His team images became the icon on the bottles to promote himself, basketball and sport. He also commicates with his fans in offical web site, twitter, facebook and TV show etc. He passes his Chinese NBA player image to the entire world.

       

      In 2009, his documentary film was released, “ The year of the Yao” showing the childhood, teenage and career in Huston Rockets of Yao Ming. This can provide an alternative channel to understand his life and history. The audience can find out the growing path of Yao from a junior basketball player to one of China’s most recognizable athletes. His outstanding performance in China, US NBA and Olympic Games 2008, he has led Forbes Chinese celebrities list in income and popularity for six straight years and MVP of 2001, 2003 and 2005 FIBA World Championship etc.

     In between 2005-2010, Yao was suffered with a broken bone in his left foot. He quited several games in the season which caused the lost of the team. In order to gain a long term resoration of his physical health, he did not play any games in 2009-2010. Besides, he didn’t concern setbacks in his injury. He participated in many charity events such as NBA’s Basketball Without Borders program. He also hosted a telethon, carried out a charity auction, charity basketball match etc.

     The western citzen reconzies Chinese as a Kufu icon. Back to 70s, 80s and 90s, several martial arts film stars from Hong Kong are very outstanding. They are Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li. Starting from 2002, Yao Ming becomes a global hero in NBA basketball match. It is a sudden change from martial arts legend to MPV legend in western culture.

     Jack Welch recommend to the readers that there is no shortcuts for the path of being promoted. Yao Ming is the good example of being promoted from a junior basketball player to a global hero. He plays the match and trains with his team in a congenial condition. He shares his love to the audience, fans, family and teammates. He never gives up when he was badly injuried. He can expand his image through different channels and carrys out several charity events. If you want to be promoted, please consider your performance which can brings out good results across your team, company, your conuntry and the whole world.

    

Yao Ming Mix: The Great Wall of China [HD]

yao ming - the gentle giant

The Year of the Yao


Jay Chou & Yao Ming Pepsi Commercial

Winning ( Chapter 16 ) The Right Job - Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple

Coming to this chapter, everyone who lefts college will enter the real society. Some person can work for one job or industry for his whole life. Others will change several job natures according to his / her career path. Usually, successfully persons really understand their own gift or talent; they can choose their right job in the early twenties. Jack Welch lists out several criteria in choosing the correct job. May be you can take notes for these points.

1)      A word about pay: If you need to survive, the amount of wages reaches the top of the list.

2)      People: If you find everyone in your team can reach consensus and you can learn from each other. This can be an ideal job for you.

3)      Opportunity: A firm can be a new college for you where you can learn, stretching, growing and keep moving forward.

4)      Options: A good job can be acting as a stepping stone which you can jump to another firm with better offer in a few years later. A good job can be working in a large firm with good reputation or working in a growing firm with plenty of experience which you can gain. This experience can fulfill your resume and waiting for head hunters.

5)      Ownership: You should work in a firm for reaching your own dream rather than working in a firm for reaching someone’s dream.

6)      Work content: Every job has bad days and good days. You can find something about it which is love and feeling. If you can’t find any pieces of feeling and love motion. This is not your right job or industry.

     Steve Jobs, the chief executive officer of Apple. He also previously served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios. He carried a speech in Stanford University in 2005. The speech was about his life and career. It was divided into 3 parts.

     The first story was he started in college at 17 years old. He had no idea about his career life with his degree. He dropped out the college life and decided to take a calligraphy class. The lessons were about serif and san serif typefaces. 10 years later, he added this value into the first Macintosh computer. He encouraged the students to learn the subject with great interest which can connect in your future.

     

  The second story is about love and loss. In his 30s, Apple fired him and replaced his position with a young talent. In the first year, he was devastating. He still loved his work and he started the computer animated studios which were Next and Pixar. The most successful animation film Toy Story was created remarkable events and Apple bough Next and he returned to Apple. The period of jobless was the hardest time in his life. However, it was the medicine which he needed. He won’t give up. He convinced himself he loved his job, life and the people around him. He met his wife in his animated studio. He recommended everyone to find the job which you love and stay there.

      My third story is about death. A few years ago, he was diagnosed with cancer. The report was he only had 6 months to live. He prepared his affairs in order and decided to stay with his family till the end. One day, the doctor collected the cells from the tumor and evaluated that this type of cancer could be curable.

      Everyone will die in one day and don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.

     He recommended the students stay hungry, stay foolish. Keep learning and keep dreaming.

      In the end of this chapter, Jack Welch reports the similar concepts from Steve Jobs. He recommends the readers to find their first real job. The job which you love the people in there and the idea and concept of the job nature; you should be true and realistic to present to everyone in the working area. It is difficult to act someone to work in there. If you decide to leave, please find a job first rather than leaving your position instantly. Since, it is easier to get a job rather than you are jobless. If you are jobless, you need to show the self esteem in any job interview. Don’t let present yourself with a swagger. You need to project realism and optimism. As a result, the boss wants to hire the prospective employees.

Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

HD - Rocky Balboa (2006) - inspirational speech

Rocky Balboa Kinetic Typography


Pursuit of Happyness Scene

Pursuit of Happyness - You got a dream?

Winning ( Chapter 15 ) Six Sigma - Andrew Mason, the founder of Groupon

Six sigma is quality improvement program for large enterprise. The program includes the operational efficiency, raising its productivity, lowering its cost and improves product design process. Moreover, the program can speed up the delivery time to the end users and builds better leaders. In this chapter, Jack Welch doesn’t explain the six sigma in detail, he primary focuses on two applications.

The first application is designing the process into simple and repetitive activities from a complex situation. It is the internal process of elimination the unpleasant surprises and broken promises. The top levels employees should discover the root causes of inconsistencies. Spend time on studying and make the process from complex into simple production line. Then pass the skills to the lower level employees. Thus the whole process will be manageable.

The second application is making the decision to determinate the right actions in the process. The senior level employees should monitoring the external process every moment and study the update statistical analysis. They also involve sophisticated level of training. Since the market trends, customer’s behavior and the economic factors are changing every moment. They need to update the information everyday in order to meet the requirement from the clients.

Andrew Mason, one of the 40 under 40 CEO who defines a new concept of purchase. He is the founder of Groupon which is group purchasing method on web 2.0. Groupon is a deal of the day web site that is localized to magjor geographic markets in US, CA, Brazil, France and UK. The first city is Chicago in Nov 2008. According to the record of October 2010, it serves more than 150 markets in North America and 100 markets in Europe, Asia and South America and has amassed 35 million registered users.

This new concept of purchasing online is to generate a certain amount of buyers to purchase the same service or items at the same period of time in the same location. Buyers can purchase the service or items in a discount value. The sellers can use this selling method as a new kind of promotion in online platform. This can elminate the waste of time for every single buyer and sellers and speed up the delivery in the whole process. The senior mangers in Groupon is applying the second application. They study the bussiness with outstanding reviews. They find out the major buyers are young, educated, female customers. As a result, Groupon focuses on the health, fitness and beauty markets in other countries. Moreover, they use social marketing sites such as Facebook to promote the idea.

Jack Welchs defines six sigma in a simple way. He suggests do not use six sigma to implement to your industry or business. He recommends the CEO should understand the two applications and design a new working process in your industry. 60% of time and effort is used on reviews and designing the new working process. The rest of the 40% will focus on elemination the variation. He also indicates that setting the correct concept is the key factor in the designing process. The right concept is to gain the huge part of your customers sticky is meeting or exceeding their expection. Groupon is the best example of creating win win situation in online business.

Learn How Groupon Works!

Groupon on Fox Business

Winning (Chapter 14) Mergers and Acquisitions - Google, Youtube and Android

Merging is a very common way for large enterprise to gain world of synergies, industry convergence benefits or revenue synergies, cost savings and increase shareholder value. A successful mergers create a dynamic where 1+1=3. Jack Welch indicates 7 pitfalls for all the CEO to avoid these happenings.

1)      Who become the CEO / leader after the merged enterprise?

2)      Fail to assess cultural fit.

3)      Reverse hostage situation.

4)      Too timidly, a merger should be completed within 90 days.

5)      Conqueror syndrome, installs its own managers everywhere.

6)      Paying too much.

7)      Resistance from the acquired company’s people from top to bottom.

Several mergers cases are very successfully such as, eBay and Paypal, Google with Youtube and Android. Today, I pick up Android for the review of this chapter. Android is a mobile operation system. This company was purchased by Google in 2005. Google collaborated with Android and released the system to the world. Now, Android OS smartphone ranked first in US market.

To avoid the failure of cultural fit, Google let the Android development team Open Handset Alliance to cope with the hardware, software and telecom companies. The Open Handset Alliance is the founding team of Android, this team collaborate with other telecom companies to develop the open standards for mobile devices. Since Google is a search engine enterprise, it is difficult to develop mobile platform from its own. This action can avoid the failure of cultural fit. On the other hand, Google releases Nexus One, this mobile is used to complete with apple iPhone. This phone can be described as Android powered Google phone.

Another new feature of Android is Android market. This Android market is available from 28 August 2008. It is the official download location for applications and games for Android powered devices. The users can purchase applications which support 29 countries. In Nov 2010, around 160,000 applications are launched from Android. In the future mobile market, Android OS will develop applications with popular internet sites and services such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.

Jack Welch points out that mergers mean change. It is part of the growing process for large enterprise. Google avoids the 7 pitfalls, it can develop a new mobile phone Nexus One with Android. Android can develop its own OS with several mobile companies and new applications with popular web sites. It is a good example of 1+1=3.

Android 2.3 Official Video

Google Nexus One - Video Preview

Winning (Chapter 13) Organic Growth - Nintendo Wii

Starting something new from inside something old, it is a very exciting moment in every business. It is slightly the same as Change. We can add new ideas, process or manpower in Change process to gain the growth at the end. This topic is about starting something new which this new ideas are no longer exists in the market before. Jack Welch suggests the senior level management should spend plenty up front, put the best, hungriest and passion people in leadership roles. They should make an exaggerated commotion about the potential and the importance of the new venture. They should find the right balance between supporting and monitoring the new venture.

Nintendo Wii was released by Nintendo in Nov 2006. It is the seventh generation console of its video game console and it is used to compete with Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3. It has some many breaks through for this video game console with the traditional Nintendo game console, Xbox 360 and Play Station. Xbox 360 are major in online network platform, Play Station are major in Blue Ray movie disc. However, the consumer would like to purchase a video game console for fun, love and family culture. Nintendo seeks this idea and they set up a develop team on new venture in video games development. Eventually, in Dec 2009, wii broke the record for best selling console in a single month in United States.

A distinguishing feature of wii is its wireless controller and senor bar. The player holds the wii remote at a pointing device in front of the senor bar. The senor bar would detect the movement in three dimensions. The players can control the remote in 360 dimensions in front of the TV set. Nintendo launches the wii sports, it allows the multi players join to play the game at the same time. They can perform the movement in real direction such as golf, tennis, base ball etc. This kind of playing method is against the traditional controller. Thus so many motion games such as Mario Kart, Mario & Sonic in Olympic games etc.

Another new venture of Nintendo is the traditional character Mario. This character is first appeared in 1985. In 2007, the design team develops the new feature of Mario’s motion in Mario Galaxy. Mario can be displayed in 3D in the story background in space rather than Mario adventure land. Mario Galaxy 2 will be released in Dec 2010. The player controls Mario in 3D planets rather than the traditional 2D platform.

In 2008, the Olympic game is organized in Beijing China. Nintendo links up the former competitors Sega and design a game which is Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. Sonic is the major character which is used to compete with Mario. This game is officially licensed by the International Olympic Committee (ICO) through exclusive licensee International Sports Multimedia. This is the first cross over for two different kind character platforms. The player can select their favorite characters to compete each other on the field.

Jack Welch indicates that if the CEO sets up the right path to the new venture and adopts 3 guidelines as in above, a perfect storm will come out. No one can estimate the new technique can rock the world like wii. Start to move to a new venture is starting from something old in the business and entering a new generation which is unknown. Nintendo sets up the correct path to a new venture. They research the demand from the consumers and develop a new video game system. They listen to the voice from the consumers rather than develop a new technique without observes on the consumers. In the middle of the development, errors can come out in any moment. Thus the CEO has to choose the best, top of the list staff in the R&D team. He should state the potential and the importance of the new venture and admit to accept all the failures in the prototype stages. Finally, the perfect storm is launched in the market and rapid growth for the new business in its company.

Wii Sports Trailer

Mario & Sonic at The Olympic Winter Games

Super Mario Galaxy 2 E3 2009 Trailer

New Super Mario Bros. Wii Preview

Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Games