Life, College (UCD), News, Ideas and everything inbetween!

The Harvard National Model United Nations 2012

2012-05-16T15:38:00.003+01:00

HNMUN 2012: Incredible experience with a great crew of UCD students.

Was delighted to be a part of the 58th annual HNMUN session last February. The conference, staffed entirely by Harvard College graduates, took place in the historic Boston Plaza Hotel and was comprised of over 3,000 students from Colleges and Universities around the world! The objective of the conference is to simulate the activities of the UN but most importantly to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of international negotiation.

My role within the conference was that of an NGO delegate. I represented CARE International, one of the worlds leading aid agencies dedicated to making long lasting, sustainable changes in poor communities. A lot of CARE's work focuses on working alongside women in developing countries as CARE believes given the right tools and support women in poor communities hold the key to ending poverty. The rest of my team represented the Burundi delegation.

CARE International

The NGO delegate's role is unique in that it offers the opportunity to explore a variety of committees in the general assembly as oppose to other delegates representing countries who are assigned to committees. This meant I was able to explore around on the first day of the conference and eventually pick what committee suited CARE internationals work best and where I could best apply CARE internationals perspective. As an NGO representative beyond knowing just what the issues are at hand your expected to provide in-depth solutions and programs for addressing the issues.

Eventually I chose the UN Human Rights Council that was dealing with the Topic of "Third generation Human Rights," a big part of which was Women's rights in developing countries. A number of inequalities were discussed and highlighted such as:

70% of the 1.3 billion people in poverty are women. This derives from their unequal situation in the labour market, their treatment under social welfare systems and their status, and power in the family.
A higher rate of unemployment among women than men is recorded in all regions of the world.
The average female wage is only three-fourths of the male wage recorded in 55 countries that have comparable data.
Women tend to occupy only 10% of parliamentary seats and only 6% of cabinet positions.
Women work longer hours than men in nearly every country – 53% more hours than men in developing countries and 51% more in industrial countries.

As an NGO I had to deliver an introductory statement in front of the entire committee! I outlined the impact and scale of CARE internationals work, how the organisation is funded, biggest challenges we faced and finished with how specifically I can add some value to the committee's discussions by applying example case's of Care internationals work and the results it has achieved. I had to adapt to keep it relevant but luckily there was a programme CARE run's I had researched called "pathway to empowerment," which touched on all the relevant points and issues that the committee were discussing in relation to women's rights. The programme actually turned out to be a perfect fit and ended up being included the committee's draft resolution with a specific mention of CARE international. The programme was based around going to the root sources of women inequalities in developing countries and set out development pillars including:

Increase the number of girls completing primary school through equitable, quality education; better transitions between grade levels; learning opportunities for older girls; supportive households and communities; and gender sensitive education policies.
Build girls’ leadership skills through diverse extracurricular activities; new social networks; empowering relationships with educators, families and peers; and participation in voluntary civic action.
Advocate for the rights of girls by addressing harmful traditional practices, reducing risk and vulnerability, and identifying role models and champions for girls.

All in all it was a great experience and I'd be lying if I didn't say there was some ridiculous partying done during the week also! Hope to return to HNMUN next year for 2013.

Team Burundi (4th from the left)

Loved getting this! Signed: "China"....cheers!

Author: Declan Egan

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Sunday Business Post Write up

2012-03-28T11:16:00.002+01:00

Our new web startup Popdeem.com got a write up on the Sunday Business Post today! Check it out here!

Working with the LauraLynn House and Developing 100Minds.ie

2012-03-06T01:24:00.003+00:00

Below I've wrote about my work this semester with Q-soc and the LauraLynn house whose mission is to "Put Life into a Child's Day, not Days into a Child's life." Also talk briefly about a new charity model I'm working on 100Minds.ie: aimed at proactive students!

Presenting Susan in the LauraLynn House with the UCD Q-Soc donation (Aware I look like a giant haha)

The LauraLynn Children’s hospice foundation was setup in 2001 as a result of the enormous personal tragedy of Jane and Brendan McKenna which saw them lose both their precious daughters Laura and Lynn, inthe space of just two years. I’m proudto have used my influence on the UCD Quinn society committee this year to showthe other Q-soc members the great work this hospice does on a day to day basisand the impact and difference it makes to children suffering from life limiting conditions and also to their families. This year’s UCD Q-Soc Apprentice Competition was proudly in association with the LauraLynn house and thanks to the greatwork of the Society and its Auditor we we’re able to raise €750 to help further the amazing work that this organisation carries out.

Myself and RTE Dragon Niall O'Farrell on the night of the UCD Apprentice.

The aim of the LauraLynn house is toestablish a children’s hospice to provide care for children who have life limiting conditions or illnesses, and for whom curative treatment is not possible.It is a tragic reality for a family to face the realisation of their child/children not reaching adulthood. The LauraLynn house aims to alleviate some of the painand suffering.

The hospice, which officially opened in September2011 has already reached and touched the lives of over 300 children and their families. It has 8 bedrooms with en-suite accommodation, and comfortable livingareas just like a large bungalow. The great thing about the LauraLynn house is thatit also caters for the families of the child, it has family apartments on location where Mothers, Fathers, Brothers and Sisters can come and stay and benear their child, especially when a child is being cared for at end of life.The hospice was built and designed to enhance the care and comfort of thechild. Other facilities include a family room, a quiet room, music and playrooms, outdoor water features, a quiet garden and a multi-sensory room.

Clink here to donate to the LauraLynn house now!

The LauraLynnHouse helps to:

Enhance End-of-lifeservices to children with life-limiting conditions.
Providefamily accommodation
Provide practicaland emotional support to those caring for a sick child.
Respite care, not only for the sick child, but for the family and siblings.
Givingfamilies choices: To stay and share the care of their child. Be there as a family, or leave the child in respite care and take a break away, knowing theirchild will have the same loving care as they themselves give. Spend more time with the other children in the family, who are often left out and choice whenthe end sadly comes

After working with Susan in fundraising at the LauraLynn over the course of the semester, I came up with a new idea to further help raise money for this incredible organisation! I recently took up the module "Service Learning" for semseter 2 which involves working hands on alongside national charities to help them reach objectives such as setting up a social media presence and strategy, attracting new potential members and even setting up entire fundraising events. There are some great charities on board such as the Make a Wish Foundation and the DSPCA. Thankfully the Lecturer has allowed me to use the module time to develop my idea and try and gain some traction with testing and research. My idea which I've outlined below is a website and movement called 100minds.ie:

100Minds will aim to make a real impact by focusing on one social problem in the Irish communityand concentrating all participant efforts on that problem to raise money. The programme itself will consist of 100 students from a wide range of Academic disciplines e.g. Medicine, Business, Science, and Engineering. The 100 students involved will have to raise €1,000 each by thinking up creative fund raising ideas and testing their social entrepreneurial skills.Theoverall goal is to raise €100,000 that can be given to a specific cause/charity or hospice. The entire projects is made by students for studentsand so will aim to have the top graduate recruiters as sponsors. This will encourage proactive job seeking college students to get involved with the project and view it as an opportunity to gain exposure to one of the sponsor companies graduate programmes/internships, for example PWC/KerryGroup would be ideal sponsors.

The website for 100Minds will play a big part: Students will apply on thewebsite to become part of the project by sending in their CV and a 1 page proposal outlining how they intend to raise the €1,000. Once the money has been raised and donated to the cause- each student participant will be given a log into the website where they can access their own personalised profile, where theycan outline the challenges they faced, how they overcame them and overall what skills they learned from the process (They can also include pic’s and videos ofwhatever events they organised/ groundwork done). So the website and personal profile page will validate each of the individual student’s efforts and serve them in their job hunt as more frequently recruiters will look to Google search/LinkedIn and Social Networking sites when analysing potential candidates.

The great thing about this isthat it’s really a win-win for all involved. The student raising the money is getting great value from the process, they’re getting involved, they’re part of making a real difference and they get great exposure on the website with theirprofile that’s validated with great Company sponsors. The charity receiving the donation (Which if we bring this to implementation will be LauraLynn!) is receiving a sizeable amount of cash that can really impact on their work, and of course and most importantly, the recipient’s lives are directly improved as a result.

If anyone reading this is doing a masters next year and would like to get involved, email me: Declan.Egan@ucdconnect.ie

Author: Declan Egan

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Trying new things with MockOrals.ie

2012-02-04T23:23:00.000+00:00

Just read a New York Times article regarding the increase of music lessons on webcam's, decided I'd blog a little about my own website mockorals.ie

There's no doubt that e-learning is really gearing up to become a big part of education, not just in schools but at home too. MockOrals.ie provided me with the opportunity to try and develop something students themselves would actually use whilst also focusing in on a niche aspect of the Junior and Leaving Cert (meaning I could maintain a clear focus and not get bogged down by attempting something on too big a scale.)

People often make this mistake, don't get me wrong thinking big is the only way to think. However sometimes to bridge the opportunity with the vision, you have to scale your idea down and use that as your tester. This is not only a great way to study and learn everything about your market but it's also great for really nailing down your concept and flagging down major potential problems early.

After doing some market research and conducting trial practice exams with real teachers and students on Skype, I realized that this could work. I also had some strong results from a questionnaire I distributed to 100 leaving cert students from 4 different Dublin schools, 68% said they would use and pay for the service.

The website offers oral exams online in Irish, French, German and Spanish and at all competency levels (Higher, Ordinary and Foundation). The webcam sessions themselves are delivered on the popular online communicational tool Skype. This as we all know is a free service that can be downloaded and used on any computer. The added benefit here is that the youth of today (I'm old now) have a Skype account or know how to use it. I'm also looking to add GoogleTalk to the mix.

So why the Oral examination?

Well do you remember yours? Mine was a disaster! I remember the night before reading and writing out notes trying to embed the various conversational topics and picture sequences in my head, like literally sear them in my brain. I knew I wanted to create something to do with e-learning and webcam's- so I just sat down and thought what element of secondary school could be improved with webcam's and an experienced teacher on the other end of the feed.

I mean when you think about it- why isn't all learning geared up to the Oral examinations practical based? The oral examination is essentially a very easy exam to prepare for. You know the standard conversational topics coming up, you know the role plays and the picture sequences - so why did the majority of us (and don't lie) come out of our orals pale faced. Replying "it went well" to your parents and friends, when really randomly saying "GO TOBAINN" and Is maith liom ag dul go dti sa scannan" just didn't quite cut it.

OR, maybe you did study, you worked hard, organized your notes, prepared your self on good conversational topics and had all the role plays and picture sequences down to a tee. And what happened? you froze, or you got shook in the first 5 minutes blind-sighted by a curve ball....

Smoking ban??ASK ME ABOUT MY HOBBIES.

My point here is and what the oral exam is also a lot about is confidence. You need confidence not just with what you know and what you've learned but also in communicating that effectively. It's as simple as that, and that's what I wanted this website to offer: practical experience, instilling confidence in the student and great feedback and tips after to correct and improve. Now there's a winning combination that gives real value to a student.

I've learned though from talking to students and doing one or two focus groups as well that the website can do even more than that. The oral exam itself accounts for a very large percentage of a student’s final grade, a total of 25% for that language subject. Meaning a good performance can add serious points to the overall CAO effort. Funny thing about that is- most leaving cert students don't appreciate or truly grasp the concept of continuous assessment, they look to the final exam, its all JUNE JUNE JUNE. It wasn't until after my second year in college that I truly appreciated the massive impact a strong continuous assessment has on your final grade (serious eureka moment).

So again I felt Mockorals.ie was adding another benefit- it put the focus on the oral exam. It doesn't just shine the spotlight though it shows the oral for what it really is- an absolutely nailable exam that can add serious points to your final grade!

I've done all the research and I'm currently looking for teachers to partner with the website to offer time slots that students can purchase and book through the site. I've got a lot going on at the moment with college and Study Buddy so I'm looking to tweak the website a bit and roll out the service November 2012 for the run up to the Mocks and Oral exams in April 2013! Yeah it's cyclical but like I said, sometimes you've got to scale your vision down and use that as your tester. All in all I've enjoyed setting it up and bringing it from the Idea phase to near commercialization.

MockOrals.ie Mission: “Committed to preparing students for their Oral Exam, ensuring they achieve their potential by providing a team of outstanding teachers who impart tuition and examination of the highest quality on our website”

New York Times Article: (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/11/us/music-lessons-on-webcams-grow-in-popularity.html)

Author: Declan Egan

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AirAsia

2012-01-29T01:19:00.000+00:00

A few people said they enjoyed my post on Ryanair! So I thought I'd write a little about the airline Air-Asia who run an identical Low cost carrier model. (Perhaps because Conor McCarthy-former Ryanair Director is a co-founder!)

In December 2001, AirAsia was taken over by private entrepreneur Tony Fernandez. The company originally started out as a Malaysian government controlled Airline and offered customers full on board services with all the trimmings. Fernandez acquired the debt ridden airline for the abysmal share price of $0.26.

Given the time of the takeover by Fernandez, it was a significant risk. The acquisition took place shortly after the September 2001 terrorist attacks in new York, and the subsequent downturn of the airline industry that quickly followed. However Fernandez saw opportunity- aircraft leasing costs were at rock bottom prices and due to the mass lay-offs in the airline industry at the time there was an abundance of cheap affordable labour available.

The company's business model was completely restructured and made into Asia's firstlow fares airline. Fernandez saw the incredible growth of the no frills airline business model in Europe with company's such as EasyJet and Ryanair and knew the potential it would have in Asia. The low cost carrier model proved a huge success. An executive team was formed and spearheaded by Conor McCarthy, the former director of RyanAir, in the hope that Air Asia could imitate the low fares no frills concept.

Air Asia executed the cost leadership strategy excellently introducing ticketless travelling and offering only one cabin class with a free seating policy. It positioned itself in the regional market as the cost leader with the promotional tagline “now everyone can fly.” Air Asia fareprices are an incredible 40% to 60% lower than those of rivals and facilitates the quick and easybooking of seats through regular fare promotions on its website, AirAsia.com

However the cost leadership strategy is not without its risks. The most significant ofwhich is imitation by competitors. To combat competitors imitation cost leaderscan increase the value of the good or services it provides to customers.

AirAsia’s success inspired many low cost carrier imitators in the region andeven resulted in a price war with Malaysian airlines. AirAsia combats imitatorsthrough focusing on its low cost core competency but also by extending itsservice offering, allowing customers to purchase financial services such astravel insurance. Businesses looking to implement a cost leader strategy mayonly feel it applies to large businesses that can avail of bulk purchasing and downsizing. However small businesses can also be cost leaders, perhaps not to the extent of larger competitors’, but any firm that reaps the advantages oflow costs is essentially adopting some element of cost leadership into its strategy. AirAsia started in 2002 as a three aircraft operation, significantly lower than the major airlines fleet in the region within six years it hadexpanded to 72 aircraft's.

Author: Declan Egan

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Adopting a lean strategy to Knowledge work- Is it possible?

2012-01-21T21:43:00.000+00:00

Read an article today on applying a lean strategy to knowledge based work, couldn't really see how it was possible until I looked at from my own perspective of knowledge work in college

The creation of the lean production line by efficiency wizards Toyota has spawned numerous approaches to improving operations and has been the forefront of their strategy ever since the company’s beginnings, when they assessed fords production and said “we can do it better.”

In regards to all things “lean” these improvements range from “relentless attention to detail, commitment to data-driven experimentation, and charging workers with the ongoing tasks of increasing efficiency and eliminating waste.”

Since Henry Ford’s Model T, the lean way of thinking and producing goods has continuously driven the latest innovation processes and waste elimination initiatives by some of the biggest and brightest brands out there.

What this article suggests, and what makes it so interesting, is the theory and practice of applying the lean concept to knowledge work. It challenges that knowledge work “which unlike car assembly-is not repetitive or easily defined” can be made lean if organizations draw on certain principles. Immediately I was sceptical. My understanding has been that the underlying principle and effective nature of lean thinking is that it has always applied to manufacturing and production lines.

It suggests that not only can lean principles be applied to knowledge work but they can also improve it through; “faster response time, higher quality and creativity, lower costs and reduced drudgery and frustration.” Reading on I was amazed to find how applicable lean was to knowledge work.

The article draws on 6 principles for knowledge workers to follow to apply lean strategy processes.

Continually Root out all waste
Strive to make tacit knowledge explicit
Specify how workers should communicate
Use scientific method to solve problems quickly
Recognize that a lean system is a work in progress
Have leaders blaze the trail

From a college students perspective it’s fascinating to apply these principles to the knowledge work of, for example, a College group assignment or project. Doing this has really shown me that lean principles do indeed extend further than to just repetitive assembly lines and can be stretched to exectuing a lean strategy for college work.

Continually root out all waste- Apply the 5 why’s to make “waste” obvious. Why am I attending this group meeting? Why am I doing this part of this assignment? Why is this relevant? Using this methodology can get to the root cause of everything and can filter out unnecessary parts of project work that are really just there to fill the page but bear no real significance to the assignment objective.

Specify how workers should communicate- when multiple people are involved in a project just as in college group work, effective communication becomes imperative. A lean system can set down how communication should be articulated so as to avoid the bombardment of emails to other group members allowing the message of the communication to get lost. Define who in the group project should be communicating, how often and what, to avoid confusion.

Have leaders blaze the trail- As with all group efforts, the real involvement to the project success usually falls on one or two key participants. This person who in college terms is usually coined "group leader" is necessary and plays an important role in motivating and monitoring the overall performance of the group. It falls on the group leader to ensure that project deliverables are put in on time so to allow the overall report to be put together, ensuring it flows, is relevant and is presentable.

The best way to approach the article was to look at it from the college group work perspective and doing so has already given me some tips of how I can apply a lean strategy; ask the 5 whys, establish how communication is taking place and establish who is going to spearhead the effort and take the role of team leader.

Author: Declan Egan

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#CulturalAdaptability

2012-01-19T23:32:00.000+00:00

Cultural Adaptability- more relevant now than ever in the workplace. Think Irish students have great cultural adaptability- We've been lucky enough to enjoy the boom times and travel all around europe and beyond and we also have a lot of exchange students in our class groups in college offering their views and opinions to projects.

Employees at all levels of contemporary organizations bring different beliefs, values, languages, expressions, gestures and customs with them to work. Cultural differences represent a massive challenge to all global organisations. So how can we define culture? And just how much of an impact can it have with achieving organisational goals? Geert Hofstede, a pioneer in his research of cross-cultural groups and organizations defines culture as “the collective programming of the human mind that distinguishesthe members of one human group from those of another. Culture in this sense isa system of collectively held values.”

Today’s global workplace is more diverse and complex than everbefore. The effective management of a global supply chain requires organisationsto adopt a new type of skill set; cultural adaptability. Cultural adaptability is fast becoming an integral component in management, it is the willingness and ability to recognize, understand andwork effectively across cultures. It is the appreciation that approaches and styles picked up in one region do not translate well in another. Managers of Multinational corporations interact daily with colleagues, bosses, suppliers and contractors from different cultures. In order to effectively operate in line with goals and targets across multiple regions, they must think and react with an open mind and respect that culture is a learned experience that starts at childhood.

Cultural Adaptability and Crocs Inc.

The growth and profitability of Crocs Inc, the makers of funky brightly coloured shoesusing an extremely comfortable plastic material called “croslite” has trulybeen astounding. Since the companies humble beginnings in 2002, Crocs has grown from a new start up venture initiated by three friends from Colorado, to a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. Today Crocs products are sold globally, in 90 countries and the company is a world leader in innovative casual footwear for men, women and children. The Croslite material used in every croc shoe production boasts many advantages to traditional shoe designs and has been a major source of the success of the company. The Croslite material is easy to wash, prevents odours and moulds to the foot combining comfort and function.

However the foundations of Croc shoes’ explosive revenue growthand presence in the global marketplace lay not just in their innovative and eye catching designs but also in their highly flexible supply chain model formed by a culturally experienced and aware management team. Crocs displayed its cultural adaptability in two simple strategic moves:

1/.Forming the Management: In the early stages of the Crocs development the company formed a management team composed of individuals from the electronic contract manufacturing industry, known for its global presence and dynamic nature. This new team had extensive experience in global manufacturing operations, mergers and acquisitions, and sales and marketing. Croc's now had an experienced management team who had a cultural understanding of global production accustomed to manufacturing what the customer needed, when it needed and responding rapidly to changes in demand.

2/.the right partners for Global Production:This globally aware management team were quick to learn that only contract manufacturers in Asia had the corporate culture to support the crocs manufacturing model. Manufacturers in Asia were flexible and could produce high volume, would take risks with croc's, purchasing new machinery for croc production and invested in growing the business through a mutual win-win relationship. Crocs were quick to realize that manufacturers in other parts of the world could simply not rival with Asian manufacturers responsiveness and commitment. As of 2006 over 60% of croc shoes are produced in China.

Author: Declan Egan

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Good Listening skills, not just a CV filler!

2012-01-19T19:40:00.000+00:00

“My father said: You must never try to make all the money that's in a deal. Let the other fellow make some money too, because if you have a reputation for always making all the money, you won't have many deals."

Quote by the late powerhouse Oil Industrialist, Paul Getty, capturing with great simplicity, the importance of win-win situations in Business.

Negotiation is at the centre of this concept of “win-win” and this article highlights, how even the most diverse stakeholders can reach agreements where all parties involved can feel appreciated and respected.

How can you advocate for a low carbon future when your company is among the largest emitters of carbon dioxide in the United States? A question James Rogers of Duke Energy is asked a lot. In the beginning Rogers was the newly appointed CEO of Personal Service Indiana. A company that in 1988 had just written down a €2.7 Billion loss on a half constructed nuclear plant. The reason? The plant development was halted halfway through by environmental groups, resulting in PSI’s largest construction project being shutdown. The company’s finances were in disarray, morale was low and the company had lost touch with its stakeholders and customers.

It was then that Rogers developed the plan; 100 days of listening. The idea, set out entirely by Rogers himself, was to meet with the companies many stakeholders in an attempt to” identify issues, set priorities, figure out who to trust and start repairing and rebuilding relationships” No matter what guidance he sought from the already established and veteran PSI board, he was always given one piece of advice, do not meet with any environmentalists. Internally, the idea of the CEO talking to the very groups who caused the recent meltdown was met with such resentment that Rogers almost decided to change course.

However Rogers prevailed and met with the leaders of the environmental groups. For him the goal was to come away with a better understanding of the group’s point of view and to see the issue from their perspective. He was quickly able to focus in on three of the opposition’s core beliefs; “ Nuclear energy was too costly, waste disposal was unmanageable, and the additional 2,360 megawatts of base load generation capacity wasn’t needed.” Rogers although disagreeing with some points, listened.

After the meeting Rogers realised that environmental risks had to be integrated into company decision making. In hindsight the lack of this function a result of the construction plant disaster. The company decided to convene and negotiate with its diverse stakeholders, especially environmentalists, to write a public statement about environmental considerations in future business dealings so as to never again “ waste billions of dollars on half constructing a plant.” Management would warn this would only empower groups that opposed the operations of PSI, but that was exactly what Rogers wanted to do.

With the help of the many stakeholders of PSI the company negotiated a 10 point corporate Environmental charter, allowing a total integration of company decision making with environmental risk.Rogers’s ability to treat the Environmentalist point of view and perspectives with respect and appreciation is a great example of putting agendas aside and simply listening to the needs and concerns of the other party. The nuclear plant construction was halted yes, but the 10 point charter allowed PSI to "plant a stake in the ground."

Final Thoughts:

You have to wonder if the company had merely listened to these environmentalists groups in the first place when initial planning for construction was under way, how much different the situation could have been. If the company had adopted Rogers’s approach of “empowering” stakeholders so as to make them feel respected, appreciated and listened to, who knows? They could have negotiated and reached an agreement. After all, the 3 core beliefs of the opposition weren’t exactly earth shattering.

The power of listening is as important in business as it is in day to day life. The lesson that can be taken away from this example is to always be open to engage in negotiations with opposing parties and to treat the views and opinions of other stakeholders involved with respect and if needed, action.

Author: Declan Egan

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Differentiation and The Nintendo Wii

2012-01-18T22:03:00.000+00:00

Below is my analysis on a Case Study today I read today on Nintendo and how it completely disrupted the gaming market with the Nintendo Wii-Amazing what you can do by just thinking a little differently.

From the bus stop on the way to work, your internet browsing at home, to the branded coffee cup in your hand, we are bombarded daily with hundreds of marketing messages and brand communications. The drivers behind these corporate campaigns are a range of diverse and inter related goods and services all fighting and competing for your attention and ultimately, dominant market share. Differentiation today, is more important than ever.

To put it simply by adopting a differentiation strategy a firm’s aim is to produce unique products and services for customers who value differentiated or innovative features more than they value low cost. A prime example of this would be the growing trend in popularity of Apple Inc products and the increased use of Google chrome and Google apps- all of which have innovation and design orientations. Through uniquely satisfying customer needs, firms that follow a differentiation strategy are able to charge premium prices and gain significant customer loyalty in the process. However differentiation should not only be subject to the technology industry. Dynamic capability can be utilized within any organization to identify possible primary and support activities that allow a firm to differentiate a good or service.

"Differentiation is the essence of strategy, the prime source of competitive advantage"

In the year 2000 the gaming industry was ruled by three big players; Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. The level of competition between these companies was fierce and the industry was driven by their products; Sony’s Playstation 2, Microsoft’s Xbox and Nintendo’s GameCube.

The strategies of this “big three” and the innovations of the industry were focused on furthering the technological advancements of their products. A battle consistently won by Sony’s Playstation console. The integration of better graphical displays, increased hardware capacity and faster processing speeds were the sources of higher perceived customer value and competitive advantage.

It was not until 2006 when Nintendo began to implement a differentiation strategy that the dynamic of the industry shifted. Nintendo identified potential risks facing the industry, the most worrying of which was the ever growing complexity and the high user involvement required of video games, something that had no appeal to non gamers and people with busy lifestyles. Nintendo devised a radically different strategy aimed at targeting non gamers in order to create a potentially greater market free of demographics, experienced gamers and gender. Nintendo “thought seriously about what a game console should be” and launched its new console the Nintendo Wii in 2008.

“For some time we have believed the game industry is ready for disruption. It is what we all need to expand our audience. It is what we all need to expand our imaginations.”

(Iwata - President of Nintendo Co. Ltd 2006)

Nintendo saw what the gaming industry what was doing and identified the potential of creating a console that would appeal to non gamers. The bridge to this opportunity was the Wii which incorporated innovation, design and a disruptive technology to the gaming industry, Motion Detectors, enabling real life simulation of various sports and games. The success of the Wii even allowed Nintendo to become Japan’s most valuable listed company after Toyota in September 2007. Many businesses would argue that they do not possess the tacit knowledge necessary to achieve “disruption through differentiation”

I read a great article in the December issue of HBR by Zook and Allen where they called the development and implementation of a differentiation strategy the “Great Repeatable Business Model”- It really is a great title and fits perfectly! Differentiation, as a strategy is certainly here to stay, as more and more businesses opt to implement it to remain competitive it is important they do not necessarily view it as requiring a complete re invention of the company’s products or services. Many businesses and top level managers hear the term differentiation and immediately think -new marketing research, new product development and of course, new costs. Differentiation strategy is more effective when viewed as a process for fundamentally building on core competencies, identifying the unique competitive aspects of your businesses offering and then delivering that differentiation to the customer.

Author: Declan Egan

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Ryanair + Price= Quality

2012-01-17T17:01:00.000+00:00

Just seen some tweets of people hating on Ryanair yet again. This always frustrates me, imagine how many less trips, sights and experiences we'd have without the low cost airline.

The word quality bears no significance in today’s Ireland.

A nation still in the midst of its worst recession ever and yet it seems as though general consumer prices are still the same. Quality in terms of a paid service should include many things, but in today’s market it filters down to one fundamental: Price.

I guess it really comes down to how you perceive Quality and indeed value. And that’s exactly the problem. There is a totally backwards concept of it in Ireland today. Take the general ravings of the public of the poor customer service and unfair charges of Ryanair (you were warned not to go over 20kg!), something that infuriates me.

Yes it seems that the horrific customer service, outrageous charges and the all in all uncomfortable experience of flying with Ryanair culminates directly into a service of definite bad quality. Meaning that less people are flying with Ryanair right?

Well, Not exactly. In July 2010 Ryanair became the first airline in Europe ever to carry more than 7 million passengers in one month. Today the airline flies to over 1,100 routes and to more than 155 airports in 26 countries. It seems that in amidst of all this bad press exists, dare I say, a quality service. Why else would so many people fly with Ryanair as oppose to competitors’?

It doesn’t take a genius to know why either; price. No matter how much we hate to admit it, the Ryanair service plus its price equals excellent quality and when taking a quality-value based approach, quality and value are two of the same.

In the words of the eccentric CEO of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary commercial air passengers should no longer be perceived as “delicate creatures” reliant on “free pillows, blankets, and tea.” Flying should be “quick, efficient, safe” and above all else “affordable”.

Ryanair won’t be winning any customer service awards or indeed most comfortable flyer 2012, but when perceiving quality In relation to price Ryanair is the market leader in Europe. With a focus on internal efficiency and external effectiveness, Ryanair meets customer expectations by offering a commoditized way of getting from A to B and exceeds customer expectations with price.

Author: Declan Egan

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Innovation and P&G

2012-01-17T10:53:00.000+00:00

Read an interesting article today on how P&G have tripled their innovation success rate

Innovation is truly at the heart of Proctor and Gamble and has allowed them to achieve tremendous year on year growth. However in the early 2000s only a very small percentage of its new products were meeting their revenue and profit targets.

Fast forward to today and P&G has tripled its innovation success rate, the result of a strategic effort by P&G over the past decade to systematize innovation and growth. P&G has no misconceptions of their history and completely understands how innovation is an incremental part of the company’s success story.

P&G recognized growth "couldn’t come from simply doing more of the same thing” CEO Bob McDonald notes “We know from our history that while promotions may win quarters, innovation wins decades.”

A key example of this strategic effort is that of “Tide,” A laundry detergent and the company’s biggest brand. The well established “Tide” brand performed consistenly for P&G. Early 2000s however, it was no longer growing fast enough to support P&G’s needs.

A decade later and Tide’s revenues have almost doubled. How you ask? Well previosuly the tide brand consisted of only one product; laundry detergent. Today however, the tide name has an extensive product mix (Tide Stain Release, Swash Odour Spray to name a few).

P&G has also taken the brand to emerging markets. With research showing that 80% of consumers in India wash their clothes by hand, P&G saw an opportunity. The team came up with “Tide Naturals” which cleaned clothes well without causing irritation to the consumer’s skin. Perfecting this innovative surge was P&G’s pricing of TideNaturals, 30% lower to comparable cleaners.

Tide is a shining example of taking product and adding the innovative prowess of P&G and their vision to create new product lines.

But what about an entirely new business Model? Can P&Gs innovation stretch that far?

It seems so. Tide Dry Cleaners was setup when a team began exploring ways to disrupt the dry cleaning market and arose from the general conception of traditional dry cleaners being, “unfriendly, dingy” places with inconvenient hours. It's appears that P&G's innovation is as sustainable as it is brilliant.

Author: Declan Egan
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