Responsibilities of a CTO, CPO and CSO...etc.

Some preventive measures that the executives could follow to avert any personal humiliation or tangible/intangible damages to the company.

The CTO, CPO or CSO should have strong ethical values and should convey that by his/her actions to the rest of the company. He/she should have strong commitment for the company that he/she is working for.

The CTO, CPO or CSO should also have strong personal moral values and should make sure that all his/her activities should be directed for the betterment of the company and shouldn’t include any personal interest.

Again, the CTO, CPO or CSO should act professionally and respect the decision of the board of directors and shouldn’t get involved in any sort of retaliation process to harm against the company that he/she has worked for.

I am in nontechnologial area.....do I have to worry about technology???

In this global environment that we are in right now, where competition is driving everybody and everything, executives can’t help but to make sure that they are knowledgeable about technology irrespective of their specialized fields. They need to make sure that IT is in total alignment with the business functions of that particular company. If there is a harmonious existence of IT and business functions, reciprocating each other, the potential business ramification for any company will sure lead to the way of success and prosperity. Technology is always evolving. Something that a software developer is using today might turn out to be obsolete a after a couple of weeks. Thus the executive has to be always on top of this volatile nature of technology and lead the company by confronting the threats in the proper manner and in the process making opportunities, tapping onto them and bringing in profit for the company.

What are the technical responsibilities of a CEO......???

Understanding technology, especially in the areas of security and ethics is extremely important for a CEO, especially at this point of time era that we are in right now, where employees feel vulnerable to privacy infringement more than ever. The CEO needs to make sure that he/she commits himself/herself to the fullest when it comes to secure the privacy of its employees as well as for the privacy of the company’s intellectual properties and other copyright documents.

CEO’s actions have an immense effect on the culture of the organization. If the CEO provides good examples of ethics and sets a high standard of ethical standard in his/her company, chances are high that the employees of that particular company would be ethical as well, resulting in a healthy productive company. We all saw just how few unethical people can bring in havoc for a company with the example of Enron.

What does website tell about strategic initiatives...........at least to me........a dissection of some organization's website.......

1. VERABRADLEY.COM :-

Vera Bradley remains steadfast in its commitment to excellent quality, dependable service and tasteful, innovative designs. It has earned a reputation as a leader in the gift industry. Creating stylish quilted cotton luggage, handbags and accessories, the company combines smart product designs with distinctive and colorful fabrics and trims. And that does come across through the content of their website.

2. TOYOTA.COM :-

Toyota believes that their value is the same as the consumers. They are hard-working, active in the community and committed to the environment. They enjoys diversity thus creating jobs in the process. They are on a constant drive to make history and to build cleaner and greener cars. And they try to convey those commitments through their website.

3. BESTBUY.COM :-

Best Buy operates a gobal portfolio of brands with a commitment to growth and innovation. They sell consumer electronics, home-office products, entertainment software, appliances and related services through more than 1200 retail stores across the US, throughout Canada and in China. The support the communities in which its employees work and live through volunteerism and grants that benefit children and education. And those commitments surely do come across through their website.

4. IPFW.EDU :-

IPFW has this mission to offer a broad range of high-quality undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education programs that meet regional needs; to support excellence in teaching and learning; to advance and share knowledge through research and crative endeavor; and to work with the community to develop intellectual, cultural, economic and human resources.

Effectiveness IT metrics and its impact on Friendster

We could use effectiveness IT metrics to help place a value on Friendster by focusing on Friendster’s customers, suppliers, employees, partners and more importantly the sponsors to make sure that they are satisfied with the application that Friendster has been functioning on. We could assess whether the particular application is easy to use for the users or not. We could also make sure that the customers are having a good experience on the Web with Friendster and aren’t getting distracted by pop-ups or other form of bugging advertisements. Any kind of unwanted distraction from the users’ point of view would act as an impediment for Friendster to compete with its other competitors like Match.com.

Efficiency IT metrics and its impact on Friendster

We could use efficiency IT metrics to help place a value on Friendster by paying our attention to the existing technology that Friendster is using for the time being. Then, we could use that existing technology to be the benchmark for Friendster for the time being and for future endeavor. After then on, we could monitor and measure against this benchmark to make sure that Friendster’s technology is functioning in the proper manner or not. This metrics would be immensely important as far as operating in the Web environment is concerned, for Friendster.

Saving time at the grocery store

I hate waiting in line at the grocery store. It’s really frustrating to wait in line for such a long time when it should be a smooth process. Right now, what we do is, we get a shopping cart as soon as we enter into a grocery store. We do our groceries. And then we have to stand in a long line to pay for the items that we bought. Unless you are lucky enough, you might have to wait somewhere between 10-15 minutes to pay off. It takes such a long time because the lady at the counter is swiping each and every time that we bought through the scanner. That process can be reengineered. We could have an installed scanner with the shopping cart. And as we take each item and put it into the cart, we swipe it through the scanner installed at the shopping cart. And then as we reach the counter, the lady at the counter only have to take the payment, saving her the time to swipe each and every item that we bought. Thus, it will save lots of time, money and effort, both for the buyers as well as for the sellers.

SAAB..............why not SCM????

A supply chain management would be really beneficial for Saab. It could provide Saab with the ability to obtain key management information to drive business decisions in line with its strategic goals. Almost like the same way that Trek has got benefited from it Saab can act in the same manner. It can give its 220 U.S. dealerships an easier and quicker way to enter their orders and get information. It will surely help Saab to increase its revenue and lower its inventory cost. In that manner, they could at some point of time, will be capable enough to compete with its competitors in terms of advertising and funding.

SAAb without CRM.....a loner

Saab could never have been able to coordinate its sales and marketing effort had it not implemented a CRM system. As it can’t compete with its competitors in other advertising campaigns and funding, it had to differentiate itself from others. Thus it became imperative for Saab to implement the CRM system and take a leading edge over others.

SAAB and CRM.......good synergy

Saab very well understood that it couldn’t compete with its competitors in terms of aggressive marketing campaigns, reduced prices, and inexpensive financing. So it had to implement something that would make itself unique and at the same time gain competitive advantage amongst its competitors. Thus, they opted for a CRM system called Siebel Automotive. It helped Saab’s call center employees with a 360-degree view of each customer, including prior-service related questions and all the marketing communications they have received. In addition to that, Saab’s dealers got equipped with a powerful Web-based solution for coordinating sales and marketing activities. These capabilities helped Saab to measure the sales results leads, recommend more efficient selling techniques, and target its lead more precisely in the future.

Any barrier for VOIP????......thus, any hope......???

The biggest barrier to entry for this VOIP would be to convince customers that it would be safe and secure. Customers might be reluctant to give out their credit card information through cell phones which might get intercepted and thus exploited. So safety will act as a huge barrier for this new technology. And also the fact of uncertainty of getting together the wireless operators, credit card companies and retailers to work seamlessly would be another biggest concern for the advocates of this new technology.

My view about VOIP

I view VOIP technology as a potential threat to traditional telephone companies. As we have seen, the traditional telephone companies has already lost thousands of customers to cell phone companies. If this trend continues (cell phone companies coming up with constant innovations), the traditional telephone companies would face extinction in the years to come. So, I would recommend them to fight fire with fire. That is, the traditional telephone companies should also implement such technology for the user through which they can pay their bills. And also the fact remains that traditional phone companies can always take the advantage of using VOIP with which it can make long distance calls at a cheap price. For example, Vonage is doing exactly that and reaping profits out of it. The other traditional phone companies will also have to come up with new ideas and innovations if they don’t want to become obsolete.

End Result

iPods rivalry, right now can only be with Zune by Microsoft. The rivalry isn’t intense I guess, as many had thought. But then again there is a cold implied rivalry going on between them. The perennial one I guess, like the one between MAC and PC. I think ther aren’t many rivalries amongst the manufacturer of Walkmans as they are concentrating more on portable mp3 players nowadays.

The situation right now..........

Supplier power is high for iPods because buyers have few choices of whom to buy iPods from. In fact, they should have to buy it from Apple authorized iPod retail store/online store. We can ignore auction sites like eBay here for the sake of argument. We can, if we want, buy a Mercedez Car from eBay, but that deosn’t necessarily make eBay the best place to buy Mercedez Car from. Supplier power is low for Walkmans because customers can buy different Walkmans from different manufacturing companies as there is a plethora of them out there.

For iPods, threat of substitute products or services is low whereas it the exactly the converse for Walkmans. iPods doesn’t have any suitable alternative right now, though there are other mp3 players as well, but feature wise it still has the competitive edge over other mp3 players. Threat of substitute products or services is high for Walkman as portable mp3 players itself is a threat which to be honest has made the Walkman in today’s world, obsolete.

Applying Porter’s 5 Forces model to iPod and Walkman

For iPod, buyer power is still really low because it’s still Apple who is bringing iPods into the market. Whereas, buyer power for Walkman is really high because at this time I think there are no companies who can boast that they are the trendsetter when it comes to producing Walkmans. Sony was prominent, but then again that was a long while back. Nowadays, more and more companies are concentrating on compact portable mp3 players rather than Walkman.

For iPod, threat of new entrants is low whereas threat of new entrants is high for Walkmans. There are significant entry barriers for a new company to come up and challenge iPods. The sort of facilities that Apple has pampered its customers with its iPods would be really hard for a new product to mimic and pose a threat against Apple. For Walkman, almost any other company can enter into the market without confronting any barriers and can excel if they want to.

How do I prepare myself to compete in this environment?

This answer is a continuation from my answer to the last question. I think the student should make himself/herself proficient in a certain skill which would make him/her unique and hard for the employer to say no to. The student should have to keep in mind that it’s really easy for a candidate to get lost in the pool of other eligible candidates in this era of flatter world.

How will I get impacted by this?

A student performing a job search doesn’t have to confine himself/herself within the country that he/she is in. If the candidate has the affinity to relocate I guess he/she can easily do that because all the information about jobs is available in the Internet. I can apply for a job in Australia if I would like to, being in the USA. And the other aspect that I need to touch in this regard is the fact of competition. It would increase a lot because a reputable company in my city might be having applications pouring in from a distant country. So I need to make sure that I have the edge over candidates from other countries.

Is the world actually flat?

I do agree with Friedman’s assessment that the world is flat. And it is in the process of getting flatter even more. But before I venture totally into my affirmative answer I need to clarify that it’s relative to a certain extent. Yes, the world is flat and is getting flatter with each passing day, technology and communication wise. I ordered several of my books over ebay from a seller who is in Indonesia, something that would have been impossible even to think about just a couple of decades back. That does convince me that the world is flat. But when it comes to development of different countries, I think that the world isn’t flat, rather it’s round, round as it ever could be. Several countries in Africa are still in a dark age while we surf the Internet in the developed country communicating with somebody in another part of the world.