Tag: business

The Long Tail, Why The Future Of Business Is Selling Less Of More (Chris Anderson)

MMM 6 Comments

Chris Anderson’s book The Long Tail, is one of the business books that I found really interesting and worthy of reading, in how it explains and advocates why the future of business is selling less of more, as it’s title clearly puts it.

It all started with an article Chris Anderson, who is editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine, wrote in Wired that was called “The Long Tail” and that became quite popular and famous; after that he started a blog about it and then expanded his thoughts into a book.

In short the phrase “The Long Tail” is to describe certain business and economic models where products that are in low demand or have low sales volume can collectively make up a market share that rivals or exceeds the relatively few current bestsellers and blockbusters, if the store or distribution channel is large enough and the necessary filters are available to drive people to find these products. Examples of companies using such a model are Amazon, Netflix, iTunes and Google.

The book and the concept are very interesting, and with the evolution of the internet it’s easier than ever to cater to all tastes and provide all products: general best-sellers and niche products, increasing the scope of products available for sale, and obviously the opportunities to make more revenue.

If you’re selling products, marketing them or just interested in business: I recommend you read the article as well as the book; they’re really interesting and provide several examples and rich insight into how the business world and markets are changing.

# Amazon: The Long Tail

Blue Ocean Strategy (W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne)

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Blue Ocean STrategyOne of the really interesting business books I’ve read and that I think are really useful for entrepreneurs and business people is “Blue Ocean Strategy (How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant)” by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne.

The book explores the authors’ vision of the kind of expanding, competitor-free markets that innovative companies can navigate. Unlike “red oceans,” which are well explored and crowded with competitors, “blue oceans” represent “untapped market space” and the “opportunity for highly profitable growth.

Using dozens of examples, from Southwest Airlines and the Cirque du Soleil to Curves and Starbucks, they present the approaches these companies took to open new doors for their businesses and reach out to satisfy untapped demand.

The key to create these “blue oceans” and navigate away from the fierce competition and into very profitable waters is through what they call “value innovation”, that focuses on utility, price, and cost positions, to create and capture new demand and to focus on the big picture, not the numbers.

The book isn’t just talk and theory, it actually provides a set of tools and frameworks businesses can use to develop their own “blue ocean” strategies. It’s more of a guidebook and action plan.

I personally found it to be a really great business book and very thought inspiring. A must-read for everyone involved in running a business.

# Amazon: Blue Ocean Strategy

The First, The Best, The Only…

MMM 12 Comments

There is a certain mindset that a number of businesses still have and marketing people seem to continue to base their efforts on, even though I think it’s quite a wrong and misleading approach; it’s the idea of claiming that they are the first, the best, the only or whatever other superlative they can come up with.

If you think of it, do these words really mean anything at all?

What does it mean if a company is the first to offer a certain product or service, if the second or third are doing it much better? It’s clear being first doesn’t necessarily mean having the best solution; It does show experience in some cases, but having experience without using it to roll out a quality product adds up to nothing really.

The best? Who said so? It’s definitely not for businesses to claim anyway. Being the best is really relative, and it’s up to the client to decide which solution fits their specific personal needs the best.
Many varying factors come into play that define what any given client views as the perfect solution for their needs, and obviously there isn’t one answer to everyone’s requirements.

And finally is there really anyone doing anything online that they’re the only ones doing? Unless it’s a totally useless or crazy idea, chances are a number of other people have already thought about it too, and have either launched a similar project or will be launching it soon enough. And even if the business does manage to be the first at something, it’s basically only a matter of time before someone rolls out something similar, if not better.

So obviously these superlatives mean nothing at all, and all they do is take the focus off what really matters: building a great product.

What I’d love to hear more businesses honestly saying is: “We’ve listened to your needs, we’ve done our very best to meet them, and here’s how…”

New Monthly Arabic Entrepreneur Magazine In MENA Region

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Entrepreneur MagazineThe first issue of the Arabic edition of the well known monthly magazine Entrepreneur is going to be published the beginning of June for the MENA region.

The original English language Entrepreneur magazine celebrated its 31st anniversary in May 2008.

The magazine’s focus on the entrepreneurial market has made it one of the leading resources for starting and growing businesses.

The new Arabic edition is published under license from Entrepreneur Media Inc. by Sawahel Al-Jazeera ltd. a publishing and advertising agency based in Riyadh, KSA, and will be distributed in all Arabic language countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

Johara Aletaishan, Chairperson of the new magazine, said:

“The aim of our new magazine is to promote the entrepreneurship culture among youth in the MENA region.

We want it to be an interactive magazine which links not only the editors to the readers but also reader to reader in the region to promote business activities.

The New Magazine “Entrepreneur –MENA” will cover all the topics which may be of interest to the entrepreneurs.”

Neil Perlman, President of Entrepreneur Media Inc. – said :

“Entrepreneurial leaders drive economic success for themselves and their respective communities, and we’re pleased the first issue of Entrepreneur – MENA will carry this message to the region’s Arabic language countries. It’s invaluable for us to have the magazine’s message translated by Sawahel Al-Jazeera Ltd. to support young leaders in their entrepreneurial pursuits.”

From the titles shown on the cover of the first edition, it looks like it will be bringing some really useful content to entrepreneurs in the Arab region; with some local content, and some translated material; one thing I hope they’ve taken into consideration though is to not just translate some of the business articles as is, but to take the Arab business environment and context into consideration, and try to adapt these articles to the region.

# Entrepreneur MENA

Cisco, World Bank Support Silatech To Help Arab Entrepreneurs

MMM 2 Comments

SilatechSilatech is an initiative that was launched by Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned of Qatar, to develop employment and business opportunities for young people in the Arab region.

Global networking heavy-weight Cisco, which is one of the founding members of Silatech and its global strategic technology provider, has just announced that it is extending its support for the social and economic development initiative, through working to deliver a technology platform for young entrepreneurs and businesses, primarily in the Arab world, to help them to drive programs for economic growth.

They will be developing a collaboration platform including services such as video conferencing and blogging, that will help individuals, businesses and other concerned organizations to collaborate on projects. They also aim to deploy a mix of traditional and social networking tools to connect today’s youth with other entrepreneurs and established businesses across the region.

The two companies also plan to co-operate on the establishment of entrepreneur centers for young people in the region, which will offer training courses on building and growing business and using IT to enable business success.

On the other hand, the World Bank Global Partnership for Youth Investment announced that they would support Silatech through two of its strategic pillars – Thought Leadership and Investment.
They will be offering financial products and business development service support to encourage financial intermediaries to invest in the youth micro enterprise market across the region; in other words, the aim is to  establish a scheme, which would see young people with new business ideas helped when seeking loans from commercial banks.

The Global Partnership will also assist Silatech to reach across the World Bank Group to support youth investment across the Arab World and participate in country-level missions and strategy development that could lead to co-financed and scaled projects and knowledge products based on global best practices.

# Sources: ITP, Zawya

Rules For Revolutionaries (Guy Kawasaki)

MMM 2 Comments

Rules For Revolutionaries (Guy Kawasaki)One of the very good books I recommend for entrepreneurs aiming to launch the next big product or service, is Rules For Revolutionaries: The Capitalist Manifesto for Creating and Marketing New Products and Services by Guy Kawasaki in collaboration with previous coauthor Michele Moreno.

Guy Kawasaki was former chief evangelist at Apple Computer, is currently Managing Director of Venture Capital firm Garage Technology Ventures and founder of Alltop.com;

This was the first book I read by Guy Kawasaki, and I truly enjoyed it; His writing style is really light and entertaining; yet precise, clear and straight to the point.

The book is divided into three parts, whose titles alone show the book’s style and tone:

1. Create Like a God: This part discusses the way that radical new products and services must really be found, thought of, developed and updated.

2. Command Like a King: This one explains what kind of leaders are truly necessary in order for such revolutionary products and developments to succeed, the best way to market them and how to avoid the usual big mistakes.

3. Work Like a Slave: This last part focuses on the kind of commitment that is actually required to beat the odds and change the world, and how clients should be dealth with and treated.

A concluding section presents a bunch of entertaining and inspirational quotes on topics like technology, transportation, politics, entertainment, and medicine that illustrate how even some of history’s most successful ideas and people have prevailed despite the scoffing of naysayers.

This book is a very interesting read that I recommend for everyone looking to create a new product or service; it really provides a bunch of very useful advice and tips and gives you pointers on how you should go about it all.

# Rules For Revolutionaries (Guy Kawasaki)

Business Plan Or No Business Plan?

MMM 16 Comments

As I scour the internet going through bunches of articles and blog posts, and as I read more and more business books looking for more advice and tips on launching startups and running them, one of the main questions that keeps coming to mind is that concerning the business plan.

On one side you have the people who tell you to forget about writing a business plan, and to invest that time into working on your startup, getting things off the ground and moving, and that your business plan will come easily to you later on when you’re well established.

On the other side, of course, are the people who think a business is not a business unless you seriously think about and formulate a business plan for it, and that it’s best done at the very beginning so that you know what your goals are, where you’re taking your startup and how you’re actually going to make money to keep it alive.

Both opinions hold a certain amount of truth and logic in them, but if you’re an entrepreneur thinking of launching a business today, which bit of advice should you follow?
Is there a middle ground between the two?

Personally, I think it’s very important that the entrepreneur have an idea about how they plan to generate revenue to sustain their business and grow it from the beginning, but still move forward with an open mind about it all, fully knowing that their idea could change with the evolution of the project.

How detailed these initial ideas or plans have to be depend on the size of the project and the investment being put into it; sometimes they can be just a tiny thought scribbled on a post-it note, and some other times it’s a big elaborate document.

The importance of having this idea of how the business ‘can’ eventually make money is for it to serve as a guide, a reference point for the entrepreneur to keep in mind as they build up their business, and develop different paths towards that goal, and explore other new ones that open up for them along the way.

What are your thoughts on the issue? Business plan or no business plan?

The Tipping Point (Malcolm Gladwell)

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The Tipping Point (Malcolm Gladwell)Every entrepreneur’s dream is to see their new product or service catch on, break into the mainstream and reach widespread adoption. Malcolm Gladwell’s book ‘The Tipping Point‘, published in 2002, talks about just that: the point where products, services, messages or ideas tip over and become a big success.

The book explores the concept of “epidemics” and how ideas, products, messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do, and what it is that makes them tip over and become an epidemic; starting from the influential kinds of people who can spread the message, to the stickiness of the message itself and the context in which it came to exist.

The book also discusses the three pivotal types of personalities that trigger “word-of-mouth epidemics” and help spread the message: Connectors, sociable personalities who bring people together; Mavens, who like to pass along knowledge; and Salesmen, adept at persuading the unenlightened.

It’s a very interesting read and provides a new way of thinking for how to handle promoting a product, idea or message; and how to eventually make it a success.

The book is very well written, in a really simple style, explaining the different concepts and ideas and giving a number of examples to illustrate everything, making the discussed points even clearer.

This book is recommended to every entrepreneur looking to build an effective marketing strategy for their new business; it really gives you a new perspective and line of thought that is very interesting and could help enormously in generating the required buzz around your ideas and creating a hype around your products, which should eventually result in more sales and success.

# The Tipping Point – Malcolm Gladwell

Don’t Start A Startup, Start A Business

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Jason Fried, from 37signals, wrote a great post last week on Signal vs. Noise, titled Start a business, not a startup, in which he talks about the importance of handling a startup as the business it is supposed to be, and the obvious rule that any business needs to generate revenue to live on and grow.

From the moment they go live, startups are as real as any other business. They are governed by the same set of market forces and economic precepts that wrap around every other company, new or old.

At the atomic level, all businesses need to generate revenue to pay their bills, grow their business, and stay in business. The sooner they find themselves in the black, the better chance they’ll have to survive.

[…]

A poorly run startup is a poorly run business. A wonderfully run startup is a wonderfully run business. I don’t believe there are many great startups that are bad businesses. Maybe less than 1%. If the business is bad the startup is bad. A great idea, maybe, but a great business, no.

So if you start something up, start a business, don’t start a startup.

— Jason Fried; Start a business, not a startup

I think this is very important in an age where the speed and ease of getting things off the ground makes many people overlook or delay the very crucial business planning part of building their startup; while some others have a business goal as simple as being acquired by X or Y of the giant companies.

Some of what’s going on nowadays reminds me a bit of the first internet bubble, when everyone launched startups covering every imaginable idea with no business model whatsoever, aiming to cash out with an IPO. Now it’s no longer IPOs they’re after but acquisitions by bigger players. That will come to an end too, as those big players start considering how they are going to fit those startups into their bigger picture and make more money out of them.

Another thing to consider is that even if you’re after someone acquiring your startup, you’ll certainly have better chances of getting a better deal if your startup actually generates money and will bring an extra financial value to them.

The Art Of The Start (Guy Kawasaki)

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The Art Of The StartMany books have been published, walking new entrepreneurs through their first steps of setting up and running their business, but not all of them come from someone like Guy Kawasaki, former chief evangelist at Apple Computer, current Venture Capitalist and successful entrepreneur who has been involved with several startups over the years.

In his book “The Art Of The Start“, as its name suggests, Guy talks about the art of starting a business and how each and every task at hand should be handled; from identifying your customer base and writing a business plan to raising capital and bootstrapping to recruiting, establishing partnerships and building brand identity.

‘The Art of the Start’ shares all the essential steps to launch great products, services, and companies, as well as the ways you can unleash the entrepreneurial thinking and creativity that can keep you ahead of the pack.

Kawasaki provides readers with GIST, Great Ideas for Starting Things, that include his field-tested insider techniques for bootstrapping, branding, networking, recruiting, pitching, rainmaking, and buzz building.

The book is a very handy resource for anyone starting a business, giving them a checklist of points they have to focus on and consider to get their startup off the ground, up and running.

At different points, it does feel like the book is targeting technology startups seeking venture capital a bit more than others, but for entrepreneurs in the Arab world who don’t have as much access to venture capital for the time being, the focus should be more on the lessons and less on the specific details in these parts of the book.

#Amazon : The Art Of The Start (Guy Kawasaki)