Category: Business
The Challenges of Open Innovation
Two factors take up the function explaining the phenomenon of open innovation 1. The ability of the industrial complex to satisfy the demand for certain goods Demand and incumbent companies’ ability to produce change at different speeds exist in ill balanced environments. There is a pocket of opportunity for open innovation — though it is [...]
Why Facebook’s IPO is Screwed (Sort Of)
So there’s a pretty critical aspect no one seems to be discussing regarding how valid the valuation on Facebook is; a few days ago, the maximum price tag placed was USD 5 billion … now speculators have doubled that amount. The former can make sense, but what is the latter based on? Have they not [...]
Why IBA and CBM are Karachi’s best business schools
When studying at a business school, we wonder how some are better than our own. We hear from our teachers and seniors about how the alumni come back and make all the difference. More than the knowledge gained, networking matters the most. As a whole, graduates from IBA and CBM return to their colleges and [...]
Recession Creating Morgan Stanley Handling Facebook IPO
The world of social media has grown exponentially click by click. Now its crown jewel, Facebook, is expected to launch what may be the biggest initial public offer ever seen, virtual or real. It’s opened up new scrutiny of Facebook and the social media landscape it occupies. Experts note that Facebook has learnt from the [...]
Amazon Pisses Off Shareholders for Future Rewards
In an era where making the shareholder happy is priority number one, its refreshing to see a company like Amazon looking towards a more long term strategy, after announcing the intentional allocation of retained earnings towards expansion baskets instead of chunky profits for stockholders. Obviously share prices fell nearly 9% following the announcement, but like [...]
How 2012 Banking Can Improve – Channel Management
The link between a client and the banks products or services is closed tighter by smart channel management, which represents the key towards bringing the major elements of a bank together. With little to no changes expected in client usage and an across the board trend of below average client satisfaction, a challenge for most [...]
What 2012 Banking Needs
For all loans to be at a higher spread, the banking model for the future is simple: more lending to higher-quality borrowers and less lending to low quality borrowers. Rather than on returns that are subsidized by loan products, many bank services such as checking accounts and debit transactions will be priced on their individual [...]
Local business magnate quits smoking, scares tobacco companies
At approximately 1:15pm, the CEO & Founder of Five by Five Communications announced his intention to quit smoking on his twitter. The announcement has been met with intense panic from the tobacco & drug industry, who fear other marketing and advertising community members who admire the millionaire may follow suit in his honor. The CEO [...]
How 2012 Banking Can Improve – Smart Segmentation
Demographics have played a consistent role in providing banks with data on client segmentation, but with today’s new age market they must go one step further with psychographic profiling & segmentation. By 2015, banks will have to adopt a behavior based segmentation strategy and one that is needs based. Familiar demographics such as age, gender, [...]
SOPA Could Have Bankrupt Google
One wonders why the biggest search engine/tech house of shiny apps would support a grass root cause against Internet based IP’s. One could argue that said company was created by the same generation that opposes said bill and is merely standing besides its fellow generation members. One could assume so much more, but in the [...]
3 Obvious Reasons Apple Will Never Produce in USA
Dustin Dwyer’s latest story on Apple brings up in detail 3 points we all knew at the back of our heads as to why Apple will not manufacture its products in the USA. Excerpt from the article: 1. Cheap labor Apple executives may not want to admit it, but Liker says one of the biggest [...]
How 2012 Banking Can Improve – Intelligent Pricing
On the subject of building client relationships, few banks have consistently used pricing as a USP; instead relying on following or matching their local competitors – much like fruit sellers in and around a area block. Solution: Banks need to move towards more innovative models and away from a “one-size-fits-all” approach; what this does is [...]
How to be an annoying S.O.B. job seeker
Also known as, how to ‘get your email ID blocked for eternity’ and ‘become part of a recruiters sadistic twisted death fantasies’ … 1. Apply without meeting even a single MINIMUM job requirement Asked for 5 years minimum experience in marketing, get an onslaught of CV’s from supply chain specialists for 4 years living in [...]
Wikipedia to Protest SOPA by Blacking Out
Since early December 2011, nearly a thousand Wikipedia users have been openly debating as to whether they should protest the oncoming SOPA bill like other sites have planned. Well the votes are in as yesterday Jimmy Wales tweeted: “Student warning! Do your homework early. Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday!”
Why 2012 Banking Needs Social Media
While its no secret that the general population has a strong sense of mistrust towards banks, whats even more surprising is how little banks are doing to win them over. After all, no one will just walk in with their hard earned savings if rumors suggest your bank is saturated with thieves or annoyances. I’ve [...]
Why 2012 Scares Automakers
PakMediaBlog staff reporters spoke to a few automakers across Karachi earlier this week to find out just why exactly regional HQ’s are pumping less funds into the country (aside from the self sufficient surplus balance of trade created by the greatest regime of all time) as well as the reluctance of independent VC’s to do [...]
UBL’s Pathetic Front Lines Employees: Good for Getting Customers
You would have often heard that customer is the king, well, not always when it comes to providing services and then demotivated staff is suicide for the organisation which UBL seems to be going through these days, at least this is what I observed during my recent trip to UBL’s Tariq Road branch. They seem [...]
Google Super Weapon Will Kill Facebook + Twitter
The gist of this Google blog post tactfully explains how their new service will eventually destroy all that Facebook and Twitter have to offer; users of Google+ can find searches customized towards their area’s of interest and not be limited to content that Facebook and Twitter creates within its own ranks. The blog should have [...]
Top 5 Reasons Start-Ups Fail
1. No experience in failure Abid Butt loved the idea of ‘changing the game’ while working at Maersk Line … and while his idea’s were appreciated, not most really panned out. What’s important is, he not only tried but he used the mistakes to create contingencies against which he now owns e2e Supply Chain, a [...]
Why Obama’s Should Fire His Chief Economist
After paying attention to trends, common sense dictates that the president must bring prosperity to rich and poor like by freeing up private enterprise and reducing the size of government spending. On the advice of his Chief Economist, Obama has declared that capitalism has never worked. How convenient. He wants to preserve the middle class [...]
Top 5 Sunday Articles
To ensure our readers are ahead and informed, we’ve compiled a list of informative articles for easy reading for a prepared start on Monday morning: 1. As more American’s opt for a cheaper educational experience abroad, they also do the unexpected by staying there … full article on the American Brain Drain can be found [...]
Hyperstar Pakistan: The Next Big Thing?
A significant cog in the marketing cycle is retail, but it fails to be comprehensive and is unable to be independent except with the constrained integration with brand owners or the scale of a chain. Volume-based discounts such as those offered by Hyperstar in Karachi can prevent small stores from competing even on price with [...]
Dunkin Does Care
In response to our previous post, Ayaz Abdullah (Country Head for International Franchises Pvt Ltd) got in touch with PakMediaBlog to clarify some of the points made. After going through the critique from PakMediaBlog, PMB fans and DD fans who have encountered similar issues with the Schon Circle branch, the following has been brought to [...]
Branding Pakistan, “Which Country Can Do More For Your Peace?”
Is this how they are branding Pakistan? An injured ‘Peace Facilitator’? Do they even advise for viewer discretion for such advertisements? It’s odd how bloodshed and turmoil have collectively been associated with the country that is decaying from within because of corrupt termites and obviously when Pakistan is at the mercy of a destructive political [...]
Witness Lays In The Making
Kennedy+Castro created this experiential on ground activation for PepsiCo snack division in South America: The idea was to demonstrate the purity of Lays Chips, by giving customers a chance to add the ingredients themselves and produce a bag – using potatoes, oil and salt. Coming soon to the most important POS. Important is code for [...]
An Ideal Islamic Financial System: A Critical Look at Practiced Islamic Finance
Islamic Finance is a growing industry which is constantly evolving and has been competitive to reach and sustain its growth momentum amid even the Great Recession and beyond. Assets of the global Islamic finance industry are estimated to grow to around $1.6 trillion by 2012 (Source: Reuters). Lately, the Vatican said that banks should look [...]
@Walmart: The Path of Billions
The recent launch of @WalmartLabs, is working towards utilizing the data collected online in customer social networks in an attempt to reshape the future of shopping. This is just one of the many efforts by global retailers to capitalize on the e-commerce push. Like other retailers interested in making billions in revenue, Walmart intends to [...]
Plagiarism? IoBM vs. CLIU
This is the vision statement of IoBM, a business school regarded by many (including myself) to be the 2nd best in Karachi. Now read this mission statement of Charles Linz International College. The matter was brought to my attention my a Pakistani student studying abroad, and has since been heavily discussed on Facebook and LinkedIn. [...]
Campaign Watch: Arby’s Curly Fries
Toronto-based ad agency Blammo released a series of politically charged TV Spots for their client, Arby’s. You must be wondering, politics and French fries? Between a heated race for Prime Minister and various high-profile provincial battles, 2011 has truly been the year of the election in Canada. And with an overabundance of attack ads, Blammo [...]
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