A Modern Tale of Two Cities
There continue to be a number of compelling business story lines emerging from our global neighbors in the Middle East, many of which have more to do with commerce than with war. One such example is the contrast in cultures, strategy, and environmental factors we see emerging in the neighboring cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Both are cities in the United Arab Emirates. Most of us are more familiar with Dubai, a city that not too long ago identified it was operating on borrowed time with respect to its rapidly diminishing oil reserves, and launched a full-scale frontal assault on diversitying its economy toward tourism, commercialism, and what many of us westerners might refer to simply as "bling." The photo to the left is of Dubai's indoor ski slope (yes, skiing in the middle of the desert) at Dubai Emirates Mall. The city has been given a lot of credit as an example of a municipality that did a true situation analysis and then implemented an aggressive strategy to reach newly defined objectives.
Despite My Opinion, the Kindle Is Working
After browsing through a bookstore several months ago, I made the declaration that no matter where technology takes us, “I still love books.” There is just something about the smell of a fresh book, the sense of accomplishment you feel while watching your bookmark move deeper into the pages, the ability to share the experience by passing a favorite story along to a friend. You can browse shelves of your collection and be reminded of inspirational lessons and adventures gone by. There is just something special about a book.
Thus, you can see why I have nicknamed Amazon’s Kindle as iPod’s ugly stepsister.
Amazon appears to be capitalizing on the same digital appeal that makes Apple so successful — innovation, value and convenience. For book publishers, it’s another revenue stream that will allow them to keep producing the material we want to read. I will admit all of this is good business, even if the product is not for me.
People are certainly buying in. According to its Wikipedia entry, the Kindle sold out within six hours of its November launch, and Amazon.com is still having trouble keeping them in stock (even at the $400 premium). Sony’s version appears to be on back order as well.
It’s not on my Christmas list, though. I would rather escape with a book that I can still read despite the sun’s glare. Technology, hands off my books. Who’s with me?
Social Networking–The Next Big Wave in Advertising
While many of us "over 30 somethings" are still learning about this whole online phenomenon called "social networking," Red Herring now reports that by 2011, one half of all online adults and 84% of all online teens will use social networking on a monthly basis. It's here and it's not going away anytime soon. In fact, Facebook, a website many adults still view as a play toy for students, was recently tagged with an enterprise value of an astounding $15 billion.
Worldwide, online social networking advertising expenditures are expected to reach $1.6 billion and push past the $4 billion threshold by 2011. The two biggest current players in this arena (70% of the combined market) are Facebook and Myspace, whose joint successes have been fueled by web-savvy teens and college students. But with such high stakes for future advertising revenues, other players are emerging. Many of us now receive regular invitations from colleagues far and wide to join their LinkedIn network--a service clearly differentiated to appeal more to working professionals.
Strictly Business Officially Open for Business…
Yesterday (Thursday), our Belmont College of Business Administration Blog went "live." The day came and went without a a lot of fanfare. However, we would like to note that the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which had dropped by 100 points earlier in the day, rebounded to close at 41 points higher as Strictly Business site visits peaked later in the day. Coincidence you say? Most certainly. But we are excited about this new blog tool and the potential it holds for enhancing the learning experience here in the College as more and more of our faculty and alumni business leaders join the list of active content contributors.
Be looking for additional posts in the coming weeks and months on everything from entrepreneurship to healthcare management as our 20-plus faculty authors begin to add their thoughts and postings on a variety of current business topics.
Need a Loan? Try Your Neighbor
Next time you're in the market for a personal loan, you may find that the lender with the best financing terms isn't your friendly neighborhood bank. It may instead just be your friendly neighbor...period. That's right. More U.S. consumers are taking advantage of an old, but new again, concept of borrowing from other consumers through a personal loan clearinghouse such as Prosper (http://www.prosper.com). It's all part of a new trend in personal finance called "social lending.'
Picture Prosper as what would happen if Ebay went into banking. Would-be borrowers go on-line and enter information about how much money they need, what interest rate they are seeking, and how long they need to pay the money back. What allows this process to work are the investors out there, dissatisfied with their current rates of return, who now have the option to review these potential borrower profiles on-line and bid on the ones they like best. Lenders have the potential to earn significantly higher returns on their funds than they would through typical investment channels (an overall average of 9.28%). What does Prosper get out of all this? They charge a modest fee for both the borrowers and lenders in exchange for their services.
Social lending is growing in popularity at a very fast rate, rising from $27 million in 2006 to in excess of $100 million projected for 2007. With the Web as a catalyst, the practice is projected to hit $1 billion in loan volume by 2010. Many of us have lived next door to a neighbor who was a banker. Soon, our neighbor may be the bank itself.
Retirement Homes–A Better Way To Do Business
Yesterday, a few of us from Belmont were treated to a first-rate tour of the national headquarters and on-site assisted-living community for a company that is continuously improving the post-retirement living experience for numerous U.S. seniors and their families.
Life Care Centers of Americahttp://www.lcca.com/index.cfm, was started in 1970 as a single-unit retirement home in Cleveland, Tennessee by Forrest L. Preston in his hometown of Cleveland, Tennessee. Since then, that initial concept has been continually refined and improved as the company has grown to more than 260 skilled nursing, assisting living, retirement, home care and Alzheimer's centers in 28 states. Their corporate culture is grounded in the Judeo-Christian ethic of treating people (which includes their residents, families, employee associates, and any stakeholders) with respect and dignity. As many of us already believe, that's a winning recipe for both the short- and long-term horizon.
The company's mission and values have been highly-defined from the outset, and everyone from the Owner and CEO all the way to the front-line "associates" (leadership views everyone in the company through that lens as an associate instead of the more traditional title of employee) know why they exist in that organization and how they add value through their service to all customers and company peers.
If you're in the market for an assisted-living community, I'd check them out. But if you're a business leader looking for a winning recipe for your organization, you also ought to take a look more closely at how this company operates. I'm convinced their recipe for success translates very well to any industry.