Prediction Market at Google

This week’s article is very interesting with a new level of forecasting and predicting practices in Google’s world. This predicting practice that uses collection of people to bet on future happenings created an amazing result of forecasting with larger crowd. Even though its applicability is widely different in different companies, the system used in Google may not able to be duplicated easily. However, I don’t understand why big trading companies are not interested in setting up such a system, so that they minimize their margin of errors in their trading activities.

Threadless case

This is another very interesting business idea. This company goes well beyond a conventional business organization. Threadless is a company that is able to take advantage of external but close community. This online organization created a power house of innovative T-shirt designers. The creators of the company were able to have employees (the external community) who work for them with no written employment agreement and salary. What an awesome idea!

The company is different in its unique culture of communal decision making. If it is not for an online organization, it is unthinkable to make half- a- million people vote for a potential product on a regular basis.

This unique business process is facing a challenge. Although the company is tapping into unexpected opportunity, it has put the management in a big dilemma. As exciting it is, growing for this company might jeopardize its very identity. The management has to answer many questions before jumping into commitment. Are volume and deadlines compatible to the current culture of Threadless? What would be the reaction of the community? Will the new level of demand be catered with out disrupting the current production procedures?
I think the management has to see every possible ways to keep the current success of the company intact. If the danger outweighs the benefits, it is worth declining the offer

Facebook

Facebook has demonstrated its strength by correcting all the shortcomings of former social networks. Its creators made decisions that kept the network evolve by coninusely catering the need of its customers. Many other social networks,such as Linkdln, tried to target a certain niche markets. However, Facebook stood out by gradually minimizing the gridlock of restrictive approach which helped the site to grow faster and bigger.

Facebook’s approach to host other applications propelled the popularity of the site by creating a win-win situation for both Facebook and the application program providers. I believe that Facebook’s ability to create a huge online community has made it the most powerful online platform.

Wikipedia

The birth of Wikipedia created a big pool of free articles in the Internet community. These articles with a vast array of information touch every little part of our life. It is really amazing how this media grew this big with no investors’ exorbitant cost. This collaborative media is a real Cyber community with a representation of every walk of life. Even though its weakness in terms of authenticity is highly criticized, I believe its benefit out weighs the harm. Some errors, which would eventually be cleaned up by the community anyways, are less concerning than getting an access to an ocean of knowledge.

Bzzagent

This is a very interesting case that tells us how creativity takes business to an absolutely unique dimension. Bzzagent is using word- of -mouth to promote products by just letting people like you and I participate in reviewing products. In return you and I get free stuffs such as gums and cookies and companies like Bzzagent pocket millions of dollars. That is really neat.

Apart from its uniqueness, It is interesting to see how the creator of this marketing idea is gravitated to another strong marketing tool -“blogging”. I am not quite sure if “blogging” will reinforce the business process that the company is following currently. Regardless, the management is taking an effort to make blogging an integral part its marketing effort. This shows that despite Bzzagent’s strong marketing stand, the management does not want to take a chance of being left out in the “blogging” arena. Just to be at a safer side it is good to be part of groundswell in good time.

Brightcove

From this week’s case, I was able to know who the major player is in the online TV and video ad industry. Undeniably, Brightcove is leading the market with better consumer and user experience. However, the company has missed a big opportunity of creating “YouTube” way early before the current “ YouTube” was launched. Although, Brightcove is leading the market in the online TV idustry, competitors such as Joost could take a significant market share using a cost effective business model that minimizes bandwidth costs for companies.

The competition is getting strong, especially with Google acquisition of YouTube. Brightcoves has a challenging future yet with enough funding that could be used to execute its future strategy. I believe that the company needs to evaluate every angle possible to maximize its competitive advantage. Hence placing multiple bets would be the best option

Google Inc

Google is one of the most successful internet based companies in the world. Within few years, it was able to takeover a big portion of the market share of search engine industry. Although, Google’s strategy is to benefit from the wide spectrum of market opportunity, it seems that the company is stretching itself a little too much to keep its dominance. Despite all challenges of expansions, it is amazing to see how this company controlled the market with its neat product that is not limited by international boundaries. Quite interestingly, this company is able to create a global family under a single umbrella. My native language “Amharic” is one of the 110 languages that Google has included in its service

NetFlex

I like to watch movies occasionally. To satisfy my occasional needs, Blockbuster was perfect for me. There was a store located few blocks away from where I live. I used to stop by every weekend or so and pick a couple of movies. Well, that was before this store had been closed. I was not sure yet if I have to switch to any other service. This week’s article, however, reminded me this Blockbuster’s store. Could this store be one of the victims of NetFlex’s competition?

The internet platform has changed the face of many industries. Many middle men have lost their importance due to the internet channel. It was not long ago that we needed to be on the phone for minutes, to make our airline reservations with our travel agents who were equipped with reservation systems. It was not long ago that we had to fully depend on brokers to deal with our stock transactions. The internet technology has created many detours to its users. The need for those middlemen has dwindled significantly. Given this trend, I could not understand why this powerful channel was undermined by Blockbuster’s management. To make things worse to Blockbuster, Netflex was continuously revising its business model and value proposition to the point where its customers think about Netflex when they think about movies. Unless Blockbuster comes up with some innovative content delivery system, it will not be too far to see it leave the market.

BitTorrent and Warner Bros. deal

This case is a good example that shows how solid strategic plan and strong management vision makes a company meet its goal. The dream of Bram Cohn did not come true without a cautious move in the risky movie industry. At some point, BitTorrent was able to be considered an industry standard to move big files around. Bram’s business model is not the only one that gives this service to the public. But it stood out due to a well thought strategy and smart move by its management.

Though, there were many unsuccessful companies who had a value proposition of transferring huge files efficiently over the internet, BitTorrent, with its management, was strong enough to make it through tough legal hurdles and strong resistance from the movie industry. The management was successful to penetrate the market by creating collaborative work, especially, with the movie industry association. Eventually, film studios like Warner Bros. knocked at the door of BitTorrent due to Bram’s and his crew’s relentless effort to make the product the safest and reliable among its users. This achievement is largely because the company was able to win the hearts and minds of the major players of the industry.

EZBOARD

This week’s case shows how a successful internet based company is challenged internally and externally and how the right action by the management could avert the danger of bankruptcy of a company.

Though the company enjoyed a large customer base for a while, few strong competitors were immerging with a new technology and more versatile software than that of Ezboard. I believe that former Ezboard management was comfortable with the status quo due to the fact that they undermined the strength of the small customer based competitors and the number of customer base EZboard had. The company spent its resources fixing old and low capacity software instead of looking for other options. Ezboard is at a crossroad of huge success or failure depending on the outcome of planned changes of its new CEO. Robert Labatt, the new CEO, seems the right person to turn around the danger that the company was facing. Actions such as cutting costs and boosting efficiency by minimizing duplication of efforts kept the company out of possible bankruptcy. With high fixed cost structure, it makes sense to focus on the cost reduction measures to make Ezboard remain relatively low marginal cost company. Labatt’s cost cutting measures were not futile. In 2004, he was able to trim his monthly cost by 30%. Revenue showed a positive trend with 20% growth for the remaining of the year as well. In addition, after its marketing survey Ezboared was able to see its market base and their preferences (I think this should have been done way early)

The cost cutting action taken by the new CEO being the first step, changes such as product upgrade and price structures that Ezboared new management was ready to implement could make or break the company’s future. However, the strategy that these changes are going to be implemented has an impact on the effectiveness of the change. A “big-bang” approach for a very delicate customer base such as Ezboard’s might pose a danger of losing clients to the competition. Hence, changes need to take place slowly with enough cushion of time for correction.