Thursday, 20 September 2012

How to Name your Company?



Think Vitamin recently put out a post about how to name your company. Their top five characteristics for what makes a good name are:
1) It's easy to remember
2) It's easy to spell and requires no explanation
3) It describes your business category
4) It describes your benefit
5) It describes your difference
They also suggest sticking to a few constraints including:
1) It has to be one or two syllables long – no more
2) Each syllable starts with a strong consonant (B, C, D, G, K, P, Q, T)
3) It's fun to say ("…that just rolls off the tongue")
Their examples of good names are: PayPal, Best Buy, and QuickBooks.
Here is how a few famous companies got their names:
  • Microsoft is the combination of MICROcomputer with SOFTware. It was originally named Micro-soft and the – was later dropped.
  • Yahoo! is an acronym for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle,” but the founders insist they selected the name because they liked the general definition of a yahoo: “rude, unsophisticated, uncouth.”
  • Sony is the combination of sonus, the Latin word for sound, and “sonny”, a popular slang term used in American culture when the company was named.
  • Hewlett-Packard was named when the founders filliped a coin to determine if the company should be called Packard-Hewlett or Hewlett-Packard.
  • Apple was the favorite fruit of Steve Jobs. He threatened to name to company Apple if his colleagues did not come up with a better name by end of day. The name stuck.
How did you go about picking your company name?
Referred to thinkvitamin.com

Characteristics of capabilities and resources of Carrefour.




Carrefour Group, the second largest retail group in the world in standings of revenue and third largest in revenue after Wal-Mart and Tesco. Carrefour operates mainly in Europe, Argentina, Brazil, China, and Colombia, but also has shops in North Africa and other parts of Asia, with most stores being of the size of hypermarket or even supermarket.
Carrefour has aptitude on being one of the top international hypermarket chains with the virtuous on their surpass capabilities and resources.
The Carrefour Group is flaring its Number One global position with the quantity rank of 1,163 hypermarkets in 30 countries. In 2007, expansion accelerated outside France, particularly in Asia, with the building of 36 new hypermarkets, including 22 in China – where the Group broke its record for store openings in a one-year period. This has brought them to be prominent in the hypermarket division. Carrefour expanded its selection of non-food products and upholds to the Carrefour brand. Tableware, Carrefour Home and Carrefour Selection (gourmet foods) made a outstanding entrance and drew rave appraisals from indigenous societies. Carrefour’s services are providing new opportunities to customers worldwide. Their services comprise of merchandise such as mobile phones, home computer support, travel services, credit cards and savings products.
In the year 2007, Carrefour added a new retail model to the hard discount format that made the lowest prices available to all consumers. Starting off with Dia-Markets, a convenience store of around 400 square meter with a focus on everyday shopping needs and high-traffic departments, including self-service fruits and vegetables, meat, poultry and fish, and a new section with prepared foods, such as sandwiches and individual salads. 70 Dia-Market stores opened in just one year and have met with great attainment. Carrefour then launched the Maxi-Dia concept, a supermarket with discount prices. Larger than a traditional store, at about 1,200 square meter, this format features a larger selection of non-food items. Maxi-Dia stores held up to 222 stores in just two years of its launch.
In order to persist competitive in its region, Local ingenuities expand consumer access. The assembly of Carrefour continually enlarges its own-brand offering, which are the combination of low priced products with primary market-priced items. Carrefour brands are available in every department within every body’s reach. All products developed by Carrefour meets a very strict specification, which are signed by suppliers and double-checked by regular audits at their manufacturing site.

Carrefour guaranteed-partnerships involved 224 suppliers and 220,000 tonnes of fruit and vegetables. The Carrefour Group wants to give the opportunity to their suppliers to grow. In return, Carrefour expects its suppliers to provide high-quality, competitive, eco-friendly products produced in a manner that respects human rights. To that end, the group works closely with suppliers in an approach that focuses on the on-going development, based on data sharing and regular audits of performance. To the outcome of policy, manufacturers remain steadfast and reliable to Carrefour and store brands in order to achieve success.
With over 475,000 employees, the Carrefour group ranks among the top 7 private employers in the world. Carrefour aspires to be seen as a benchmark in human resources management and social responsibility. The group makes every effort to support the development of its staff members, who are, after all, its representatives in dealing with the company’s customers. Operating in over 30 countries, Carrefour gives priority to hiring local residents.
Offering some 30 retail trades and recruiting mainly in their catchment area, Carrefour stores reflect the diversity of the communities they serve. Creative methods are used to recruit candidates from varied backgrounds. In turkey, Carrefour group held an event with 4,000 new graduates, followed by a day-long open house that led to the hiring of masses of those young candidates. France hypermarkets are introducing recruitment channels available to all job seekers such as people looking for jobs have the option to also post their CVs via video on the job board and also have the access to speak directly to the Human Resource Department through mobile phone or email. Carrefour runs annual recruitment campaigns which as of March 2009 campaign attracted 18,000 visitors, who asked 2,500 questions.
The Carrefour group has managed to make high annual turnover out of the method of managing their corporation. As for it’s side profits, Carrefour has been very generous to give contributions in large scales to local communities. They have also provide man power resources to assist in those in those charitable organizations.
The Carrefour group has the resource to also anticipate global risk. To counter countries with group procedures have experienced an elevation accident rate in recent years. To include all risks related to each location, we updated the mapping of country risks. Drawing on multiple sources of expertise, the situation in each country was closely examined on the basis of nine criteria – political, health, economic, terrorist, natural, employment, infrastructure, crime-related and social-environmental.
Carrefour, owning up to their current motto in the employment circuit, Motivated Professionals dedicated to Customer Service. They certainly have tremendous capabilities and resources dedicated to ensure the extraordinary standards to animate by.

Referred to Case Study Carrefour

SME and its Challenges



The point of this article is to discuss the dynamics that inspire and bring about the internationalization of small and medium sized enterprises. And to study the important angels and ideas that are linked to the internationalization process of some of the firms in Turkey.

Small businesses internationalize their market strategy according to the stages model of internationalization, firms move consecutively through different stages as they develop their internationalization. Starting with no interest in exporting, progressing through exporting, and finally foreign direct investment modes such as joint ventures and wholly owned subsidiaries in both production and sales.

This model is represented by stages where a higher level stage represents more experience/involvement than the lower level stages. And each subsequent stage involves more commitment to the international market than the previous stage.



The relationship of the internationalization of small firm businesses is theorized based on six factors:
  • The size of the firms
  • The age of the firms
  • The technology level of the firms
  • The growth of the domestic markets
  • The level of competition
  • The international planning activity
This study showed that the ability to be an exporter was related to the business age, size, growth rate of the domestic markets and planning for exports, pursued by SMEs. The conclusion is that, for small firms, it seemed that internal and external factors were related to the level of international sales. The variables that were found to be related to international large firms were also related to our study-sample small firms.

Referred to 

SME exporting challenges in transitional and developed economies

The Authors

Kent E. Neupert, International Business Programs, College of Business and Economics, Boise State University, Boise, Idaho, USA 

C. Christopher Baughn, Department of Management, College of Business and Economics, Boise State University, Boise, Idaho, USA 

Thi Thanh Lam Dao, Business School, National Economics University, Hanoi, Vietnam




An Overview of Small Firms Development in Tanzania

This journal focuses on the functions and responsibilities of small firms in Tanzania and how their role in business can affect the economy at large. In the first part of the journal the scholar is stating that in developing countries such as Tanzania globalization cannot live up to its full potential. Competing globally in the African market is not an option but an economic imperative, therefore in order to thrive in the African market Tanzania has to focus on narrowing their deficit in trade and paying more attention to their export goods and the possibilities that can be laid before them in that field.



A study was conducted in 2002 about the owner-managers of handicraft enterprises; it was found that a large number of the firms had less than ten years of export experience and a very small percentage of the firms had more than ten year of experience in the export field. This shows that networks have value adding benefits to small businesses and the networks of the owner-managers initially facilitated entry into foreign market.
Results of the study have shown four typologies of networks commonly used by small handicraft exporting firms in Tanzania:
  • Networks with friends, customers and close family ties.
  • Networks with independent distributors in foreign markets
  • Networks with cluster members, local and foreign associations like AMKA, AEN, Chamber of Commerce.
  • Networks with local producers.
All in all, it is rather obvious from the findings of this study that partnering through networks and clusters is an alternative way for many small enterprises in developing country to end their isolation in the current liberalized and globalized world and to become competitive in foreign markets.
In the same layer, business growth in the current competitive environment will greatly depend on the ability of the owner-manager to establish networks.

The results of the case studies showed that networks have value adding benefits to small businesses; it also initializes the aid to enter foreign markets hence giving access to a more globalized industry.   


Referred to 

Small Firms' Internationalization for Development in Tanzania Exploring the network phenomenonThe AuthorsLettice Rutashobya & Jan-Erik Jaensson

Entrepreneur Stories: Carlos Slim Helu



He has been called the Warren Buffett of Latin America, but on the most recent Forbes list of the world's richest people, the Mexican born Carlos Slim Helu bumped the great American investor down to third spot.

With an estimated net worth of $67.8 billion, Helu is the richest person in the world. He is known for never cracking a smile, but Helu's current monopoly over the telecommunications industry in Mexico must surely make him one happy businessman.

With his hands now in all of the retail, banking and insurance, technology, and auto parts manufacturing industries, Helu shows no signs of slowing down.
There is no one in the world quite like Carlos Slim Helu. Until his recent jump to the top spot on the Forbes' list of the world's wealthiest, he was something of a mystery to the business world.
So, just how did this son of Lebanese immigrants become one of the wealthiest people in the world, and a household name across an entire continent?

“When you live for others' opinions, you are dead. I don't want to live thinking about how I'll be remembered."

Technology is going to transform people's lives and society everywhere in the world. I spend most of my time studying new technologies. My main task is to understand what's going on and try to see where we can fit in.
I think one of the big errors people are making right now is thinking that old-style businesses will be obsolete, when actually they will be an important part of this new civilization. We think that there will be an entrepreneurial reconversion' of many companies that have lived in the industrial era and now are becoming part of this new civilization.
It's not a question of arriving [at a new company] and putting in a whole new administration but instead, arriving and ‘compacting' things as much as possible, reducing management layers.
We want as few management layers as possible, so that executives are very close to the operations. We also don't believe in having big corporate infrastructures.
I’ve always said that the better off you are, the more responsibility you have for helping others. Just as I think it’s important to run companies well, with a close eye to the bottom line, I think you have to use your entrepreneurial experience to make corporate philanthropy effective.

He worked in relative isolation, with no computers in the basement of his drab two-storey office building. But, his seclusion should not be mistaken for a weakness. Indeed, his power is so great, that when he did suffer a weakness in the form of heart surgery a few years back, his companies' shares actually began to tremble.
When there is a crisis, that's when some are interested in getting out and that's when we are interested in getting in.


Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship: Small & Medium Enterprise

Small firms play an important role in Entrepreneurship. Increasingly, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are confronted with international competition and are forced to play a role in international markets. Usually SME have a small financial base, a domestic focus and a limited geographic scope.  


This study inspects the obstacles faced by SMEs along their path of internationalization. The work also extracts the full understanding from managerial experiences examining the problems faced by SME exporters in two different markets, transitional and developed, which are represented by two countries Vietnam and USA.
The markets in both countries are transitioning away from their historical bases to new economies. Vietnam used to be a country that depends on its agricultural goods but now has a more oriented economy with exports playing a larger role. Vietnam has made a very noticeable transformation and development in terms of building their economy and their market growth. But Vietnam still faces some obstacles regarding their government regimes because being a socialist country has inhibited them from improving the development of effective private sector managers.
Evidence shows that many managers do not have the efficient skills and support to contend with the upcoming growth that the competitive global market is demanding.
Idaho USA has gone from being primarily a producer and processor of natural resources and agriculture to a producer and exporter of technology-based products, Idaho’s main production industries include but are not limited to wood products, food processing, agricultural products and high technology manufactures.
Idaho has also developed its ways to overcome the demand of the global market and has started to focus on high technology manufactures more than agricultural products which was its main source of export. This change has brought Idaho exports from US$1.5 billion to US$3.2billion in terms of products profits and outcomes.

A study was conducted in both countries to find out the difficulties of conducting international business and what the solutions to overcome those difficulties are. In Idaho managers face problems such as inadequate training for customers, international measurement standards and understanding logistics in the receiving country. Managers understood that those problems cannot be avoided and the solution to those obstacles is to learn how to deal with them and find solutions after their occurrence.
In Vietnam many companies have difficulties related to poor product quality or products that didn’t satisfy the importer, these problems are usually not limited to exporting but they are a result of poor efficiency, and poor understanding of customer satisfaction. In order to over come those problems they have to improve there management skills in a major way, and have a full understanding of the product quality expectations in the international marketplace.
In conclusion the comparison of businesses in Idaho USA and Vietnam provides surprising similarities and striking contrasts.




Referred to emeraldinsight.com

Entrepreneur Stories: Howard Schultz & Starbucks


There is no refuting the impact this company has made on the coffee culture in the United States and also around the world. Today, Starbucks is the largest coffee house chain in the world. As of March 2007, the chain includes 8500 company owned stores and 6500 licensed stores in 42 countries, for a total of over 15,000 stores globally. The fashionable retailer has clearly transformed the consumer preferences and coffee drinking habits of an entire market over the last thirty years.
Two teachers Jerry Baldwin and Zev Siegel, and writer Gordon Bowker were the inventive founders and opened the first Starbucks store in Seattle, Washington in 1971. The three collected $8000 in cash and loans as start-up capital.
The original concept, inspired by their friend Alfred Peet (Peet's Coffee and Tea) is also the place where Zev Siegel worked for a summer to learn the trade. Alfred Peet propose to the three to open a store in Seattle's Pike Place Market to sell premium coffee beans and specialty coffee equipment.
The founders of Starbucks, with the permission of Alfred Peet, fashioned their first store after Peet's popular Berkeley coffee house. Peet supplied the green coffee beans for roasting in their new store. Very likely, Starbucks wouldn't be where they are today without the early influence of Alfred Peet. By 1980, only nine years after the first store opened, Starbucks was the largest coffee roaster in Washington with six retail outlets.(Marie Bussing-Burks, 2009)

In 1981, Howard Schultz, a sales representative for Hammerplast, a Swedish company supplying Starbucks, couldn't help notice how many plastic brewing thermoses Starbucks was buying. Schultz became very captivated with the Starbucks operation and in 1982, Baldwin hired Schultz as the head of marketing.
Soon after coming on board, Howard Schultz attended an international housewares show in Milan, Italy. He was fascinated with the passionate coffee culture he found in Italy, and as the story goes, he sampled his first cafe latte in Verona, Italy. Apparently, he was even more impressed with the cafe culture he encountered with customers sipping espresso for hours in fashionable coffee house surroundings. The epiphany for Howard Schultz, and in retrospect, an absolutely brilliant marketing idea, was to model a retail cafe business in the fashion and style of the great "old world" coffee houses of Italy, and bring the same community and coffee culture to the American market.
Schultz brought the idea to Baldwin. Baldwin wasn't particularly interested in selling espresso by the cup and rejected a business shift that would distract Starbucks from their original focus of selling whole coffee beans. Nonetheless, Baldwin did let Schultz test a modest espresso bar in a corner of one of the stores.
Howard Schultz, convinced that his idea was a big winner, eventually left Starbucks in 1985 to start his own business. He called his new venture Il Giornale, named after the largest daily newspaper in Italy. Il Giornale enjoyed immediate success selling espresso drinks.
In 1987, Schultz raised enough capital with local investors and purchased Starbucks from Jerry Baldwin and Gordon Bowker for 3.7 million. Schultz combined the Starbucks and Il Giornale operations and re-branded everything back to Starbucks with a goal to open up 125 more stores over the next five years.
Expansion continued for the successful coffee retailer and the company went public in 1992. In only five short years in 1997, Starbucks had grown tenfold. Today, Starbucks is a household brand name in over 40 countries around the world. Even though pundits continue to predict the demise of Starbucks as they relentlessly push the commercial envelope to keep up with shareholder expectations, let's be willing to acknowledge the fact that Starbucks raised the bar and transformed the coffee industry.

Success in Management

This article explains the reasons why some businesses fail over the years and some others maintain their success. The number one perspective of a successful business is through the process of strategic management.
There are four steps in strategic management which consist of Formulating, Accomplishing, Monitoring and Repetition, (FAME). These steps will help business executives maintain their success and reach their goals.
The first step, Formulating, determines the target of the organization. In Formulation it decides “where the organization is now, where it wants to go, and how it plans to get there.” This process is developed by executive team because it demands creating the course of the organization.


The second step, Accomplishing, is the time to carry out the proposed plan and start working on it. This step is very crucial because usually the team gets less motivated as the work load progresses, so it is very essential to keep motivating the team members. This is done by assigning different responsibilities and tasks to individuals to help them feel important and needed. Another way to motivate is to provide recognition to your employees and acknowledging their involvement in the organization, like saying a simple “Thank you” or a cash incentive.
The third step, Monitoring- Managers should make constant monitoring on the team members to make sure that the plan is being carried out as discussed. Monitoring is the integral part of every project from start to finish; it should be executed by all individuals and institutions which are part of the project.
The fourth step, Repetition “is the difference between long term success and failure” with every repetition the organization will see better enhancements that can be made to the plan. Like the existing elements will be modified new mechanisms might be added and attention and resources might be reorganized.
After implementing these four steps the long term success and stability of an organization will be attained. Strategic management can help improve businesses to reach their goals and accomplish their objectives.

Referred to ezinearticles.com

How to use Procrastination as a Time Management Strategy




Procrastination is the deferment of actions or tasks to a later time, Psychologists often cite this human behaviour as a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any task or decision.
Procrastination is known as a negative human behaviour that affects one’s time management skills and results in the postponement of responsibilities.
But this article states that procrastination can be used as a time management strategy if used in a specific manner. This article also talks about the ways of changing habit to becoming a more productive individual.
Procrastination makes a person focus on doing trivial things rather than doing the vital task, because they are much easier to perform, but that is a poor time management strategy. It might become a very long lasting habit and might have very catastrophic effects on the quality of a person’s life.
You can use procrastination to work with you rather than against you by doing the feared tasks and more vital tasks even though they seem harder to accomplish at first but once a person starts undertaking those tasks positive thing will occur. Like finding that your fears were unfounded, your energy levels increase, and your self-confidence and self esteem increase.



Trying to do Important things first will also push back the boundaries of your comfort zone, and will get you motivated and inspired to get even more tasks accomplished.
The key to controlling and ultimately combating this destructive habit is to recognize when you start procrastinating, understanding why it happens and taking active steps to better manage your time and outcomes.
In order for a person to get into the pattern of procrastinating the minor tasks and performing the vital tasks, you need to outsource the less important items on your to-do list. Identify your distractions and eliminate them and schedule time to handle the stuff that is important. One of the most important things is that you need to start doing tasks now rather than later. Whenever you have some important tasks to do it, start working on it as soon as you remember it and try not to delay it.

Referred to ezinearticles.com

Entrepreneurship 101


You've decided that you want to own your own business. You've got a great idea you're sure will take off, and you're pretty sure you have what it takes to become an entrepreneur. Whether you'd like to run a company on your own or with partners, your goal is to be a successful entrepreneur, and being a successful entrepreneur often depends on being prepared in a few key areas.

No matter what business you plan to start, working through these critical areas will vastly increase your chances for success. If you're lacking in any of these areas, you might not be ready for the world of business ownership. So, review the list below and make sure you're prepared to take on the challenge of entrepreneurship and realize the success you're striving for.

Here are tips to start with;

Choose Well - Spend an adequate amount of time deciding exactly what kind of business it is that you want to get involved in. Of course you want to choose one that can make you money, but it also needs to be something that you truly enjoy. It's also a good idea to go with something that you already know a lot about or can easily research and gain the understanding required to run your own business. Choosing an Internet based business is a great choice because they're often very low cost and have high growth potential.

Remember the Money — Once you've decided on the type of business that you'd like to start, it's time to figure out how to fund it. This may include getting a line of credit or perhaps even an SBA loan. You will need to bring any frivolous spending to an end as well. Of course there are plenty of success stories that include bootstrapping, so you might not need a ton of money, but this element is not something to overlook. After all, statistics show that the majority of business failures are the result of a lack of funds.

Find Customers Fast — It's best to do what you can to land customers as early as possible. There are a couple of reasons for this. The first is obvious — money. The second, and actually more important reason is that new customers can give input which will help you build your products and services into something they would be interested enough to buy more of or even pay more for later. Customers can help us to build amazing products just by engaging them and listening to them. So think about where you'll find your first customers and be ready to sell to them as quickly as possible.

Be Ready to Work — Working your butt off is the only way your new business will be as successful as you hope it will be. This doesn't mean you can no longer have fun or that you should ignore your family. This is the time when you need to make like a Super Hero and do it all!  Others do it all the time, so you can too!

Check your Commitment — This is one key that most successful entrepreneurs site as most important to their success. Make sure you're ready to go into this venture full-force. Stick with what you're doing, even at times when you're asking yourself if it's all worth it. Backing out at the first (or tenth) sign of difficulty can be an epic mistake. Be prepared to stick with your new venture through good times and bad times.

Consider Partners — While many entrepreneurs prefer to work alone, having other people on board can benefit you immensely — especially if they're more experienced or have skills you don't possess. Consider bringing on a good, solid partner early on in the process. Leave your ego behind and realize that a small piece of something larger is so much more valuable than a larger piece of something that is small — or worse yet, non-existent!