Business

Setting Goals in Life, Pacing Yourself for Success

Written by: juicebox

Have you ever felt beaten around by missing goal after goal in your life? Maybe you can just never finish something on time? When you feel like your getting nowhere in life, maybe it’s time you re-evaluate how you determine your goals.
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Popularity: 4%

Business

The Learning Organization

Written by: BuddhaBen

The “learning organization” is a concept based on the 1990 work of Peter Senge titled, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. Here, Senge defines the learning organization as humans cooperating in dynamical systems that are in a state of continuous adaptation and improvement. The idea is that for a given organization to be successful, it must continually be learning and adapting in order to respond to changes in its environment. Also, because the group itself learns, some aspects of knowledge are retained despite the system losing a member. Essentially, the collective intelligence is greater than, and survives that which is the sum of its parts.

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Business

Nokia: Building on the No.1 Spot

Written by: Gaurav Bhola, MSM, Managing Editor & Community Manager

The world’ largest cell phone maker missed the boat on the slim handset wave but it is not worried. The Finnish cellular phone giant is finally launching a slim handset, the Nokia 6300. The Nokia 6300 builds upon the company’ tradition of feature rich competitive mobile phones.

Nokia and Sony Ericsson did not initiate any slim cell phones during 2006, as Motorola continued dominance of the slim phone market with the Moto Razr. Motorola the No. 2 cellular company in the world grabbed the slim phone initiative; Nokia missed the opportunity to capitalize this market share.

Nokia has struggled in recent years to gain market share in the U.S. But in other countries it is a huge player. At the end of 2006, Nokia had 35.1% global market share, compared to 20.6% for Motorola, 12.2% for Samsung, and 6.9% for LG.

Nokia has done phenomenally well in penetrating emerging markets, especially Asia and Africa. In China, Nokia is filling in the gap left by Motorola, who once had the stronger presence. Motorola has been languishing from the effects of deteriorating phone prices amidst tough competition in emerging markets and against Nokia.

Nokia’ potency lies in its large range of phones that cater to high, mid, and low end consumers. Also Nokia’ strengths are its distribution systems and product innovations, where it has winning formulas tailored to each country. A good example: for India, Nokia produced dustproof keypads, critical in dry and unpaved areas of the Indian Subcontinent.

Ingenious and in-depth country-specific research and development efforts have helped propel Nokia to $3.7 billion in Indian sales for 2006. Now the company stands as a market leader in India, the fastest-growing cell phone market in the world.

However, it is in the U.S. where Nokia is in the constant shadow of Motorola and others. Nokia lost the No.1 spot in 2004 to Motorola mainly due to the lack of design advances such as the clamshell phone. It again lost the opportunity with the popularity of slim phones such as the Motorola Razr. The company has not been successful in penetrating beyond the low margin, bottom end cell phone market in the U.S.

But that may be changing soon. Nokia is establishing a new design studio in Espoo, Finland. It seeks to win back the U.S. market share that it had dominated for seven years previous to 2004 by elevating importance of design in product development.

Nokia now sees form as a critical part of function in the global arena. The company has come to the conclusion that fashion-conscious consumers exist at every level of the income spectrum; whether the consumer lives in a village in China or in Beverly Hills, aesthetics are important. The Nokia heritage of product innovation combined with new jazzed up design is going to be a tough formula for competitors to beat.

Popularity: 7%

Business

OPEC Continues Meteoric Rise in Oil Prices

Written by: Gaurav Bhola, MSM, Managing Editor & Community Manager

The demand for oil continues to rise. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said oil demand in 2008 would increase by 1.6 percent or1.34 million barrels per day to 86.94 million bpd. OPEC stated on Monday that oil producing rivals, use of alternative fuel sources, and conservation by consumers would be monitored as this would have dire future consequences in the demand for crude from the exporter group.

OPEC’s July Monthly Oil Market Report stated that, “The outlook for the oil market in 2008 is shaping up to be quite similar to the current year, with continued tightness in the downstream supporting high product prices and frequent refinery outages exerting further upward pressure, despite the healthy crude oil market,” According to OPEC’ assessment of high gas prices reflected strain on refineries, oil speculation, and the tense political atmosphere.

The price of gas keeps rising even though there isnt a shortage of oil. The International Energy Agency which serves as adviser to 26 industrialized countries stated in its July report that they foresee demand for oil rising by 2.2 million bpd in 2008; an estimate that dwarfs the OPEC’ outlook by 860,000 bpd.

The thirst for oil is growing unabated. Last week, the London Brent settled up $1.17 to $77.57 bpd just a dollar short of last August’ all time record high of $78.65. OPEC expects the refinery capacity to grow by 1 million bpd next year, far short of demand increase. Global oil consumption for next year is expected to rise to 1.45 million bpd. Since last year the group has decreased oil output by 1.7 million bpd and is planning to re-examine the continuation of the cap on supply when they meet this September.

Ultimately, OPEC and the global oil conglomerate for short-term monetary gain are exploiting consumers and indirectly propping up fledgling future competitors in alternative fuels due to incessant high prices.

Popularity: 3%