I took my first class in core and corner on Tuesday night.
Frankly speaking, I just take it as an opportunity to practice my English and to get myself more ready in the English speaking environment. But I got to say the course was quite amazing. My teacher, Albert, who was an IT consultant really made the class different. He not only helped us, around 7 participants, practice their English but also provided us lots of biz knowledge and cutting-edge thoughts. I would like to share some great conversation in the class with you guys. Hope that it also gives you some new ideas to find out the news things from the material in your hand already.
The subject we had supposed to be about “some fastest growing tech companies on Biz 2.0 list”. (Biz 2.0 is a very cool magazine and everyone should take a look if one wants to know what the world will evolve to be in next generation.) Reading the articles in advance, I tried to come up three points to summarize these successful stories. First, these companies have their own core competency. Second, they all grab opportunities resulting from society changes. Third, they all aim to expand their business through enlarging biz scope but keep concentrated on the current competency, which I considered not easy for companies looking for growth, you know.
In the class, Albert kicked off the discussion by asking everyone, “Why don't you run your own business?” Some of us responded to him the same answer I got – we have no core competency. However, Albert turned down our guessing. He said he would put it in this way – we don’t have a unique theory for business. Yes, theory! What he means is that there are theories behind every business and its brand, the theories that make the companies and their products attract the certain customers in a certain way. For example, what is Apple's theory? The answer is - People are willing to pay more for the products sexier. This theory makes Apple the way it is today and attracts stupid consumers to pay more for its iBook, iPod series, and the coming iPhone. Moreover, I am one of those stupid consumers and now I know why I got hooked to this brand. Want to know something more. 85 degree Café – The price you pay for a cup of coffee in Starbucks can get you a cup of joe with a piece of cake in our stores. So people went into 85 degree café always leave the store with more than a cup of coffee. This brand is not selling the coffee actually but the great satisfied feeling more than coffee itself. Hagen Daz – Coz your tongue is stupid, you might go to Hagen Daz if you are looking for some premium ice cream. Notice that the premium we talk about here is not the quality of the ice cream but the brand image of the brand. HD is a biz coming from New York but it has a European name, why? Coz it makes this brand more premium. That's all.
We got lots of talks about the theory but skipped the most of articles. I don't know whether there would be anyone blame on that we didn't go through all the articles but, for me, I felt totally ok. Once you step into the core thinking, you can use the idea across as many things as possible. Always look for the cause, not for the effect.
Last not the least, I started to ask myself, “What is my theory?”
The subject we had supposed to be about “some fastest growing tech companies on Biz 2.0 list”. (Biz 2.0 is a very cool magazine and everyone should take a look if one wants to know what the world will evolve to be in next generation.) Reading the articles in advance, I tried to come up three points to summarize these successful stories. First, these companies have their own core competency. Second, they all grab opportunities resulting from society changes. Third, they all aim to expand their business through enlarging biz scope but keep concentrated on the current competency, which I considered not easy for companies looking for growth, you know.
In the class, Albert kicked off the discussion by asking everyone, “Why don't you run your own business?” Some of us responded to him the same answer I got – we have no core competency. However, Albert turned down our guessing. He said he would put it in this way – we don’t have a unique theory for business. Yes, theory! What he means is that there are theories behind every business and its brand, the theories that make the companies and their products attract the certain customers in a certain way. For example, what is Apple's theory? The answer is - People are willing to pay more for the products sexier. This theory makes Apple the way it is today and attracts stupid consumers to pay more for its iBook, iPod series, and the coming iPhone. Moreover, I am one of those stupid consumers and now I know why I got hooked to this brand. Want to know something more. 85 degree Café – The price you pay for a cup of coffee in Starbucks can get you a cup of joe with a piece of cake in our stores. So people went into 85 degree café always leave the store with more than a cup of coffee. This brand is not selling the coffee actually but the great satisfied feeling more than coffee itself. Hagen Daz – Coz your tongue is stupid, you might go to Hagen Daz if you are looking for some premium ice cream. Notice that the premium we talk about here is not the quality of the ice cream but the brand image of the brand. HD is a biz coming from New York but it has a European name, why? Coz it makes this brand more premium. That's all.
We got lots of talks about the theory but skipped the most of articles. I don't know whether there would be anyone blame on that we didn't go through all the articles but, for me, I felt totally ok. Once you step into the core thinking, you can use the idea across as many things as possible. Always look for the cause, not for the effect.
Last not the least, I started to ask myself, “What is my theory?”
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