There’s no messing around with group projects, you’re not working on your own, so things need to get in line to make sure that everyone gets the same effort from you that you would give to yourself. That stated, group-work does have both its benefits and its pitfalls. It’s good to know there are people you can rely on, and 8 heads are generally better than one, but you really need to make sure everyone pulls their weight, and luckily enough for me, it looks like I’ve landed in a group that will.Onto the learning, Zara is first up on the agenda. Its strengths are employing fashion experts as employees and looking to them to be the market research team. The company has in place a system of that keeps their product line up to date, continuously updating its stock, looking into the trends of purchases and making sure they lead the way for what the customer will purchase.
Apple, oh how I hate thee, let me count the ways…No, I’m not a Mac enthusiast, but I will give them credit, they’ve got marketing genius working for them. I just recently took a trip into an Apple Store, against my own free will of course, and have to agree, they create tremendous value for their customers. They’re trendy, have high differentiation and an efficient and easy to use design, leading the way for most technology (though their mp3 players suck).
Next we turn to Dell. Never has one company caused me to have so many conversations with a member of the Indian populous. My hate for their customer service aside, they’ve got quite the supply chain. They’re great with providing cost control that increases the value to their customers and are on target for global growth.
We ended with a discussion on RFID. Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders. RFID is considered the technology that should lead the future of transactions. It is right now being tested as a means to track freight containers, but looks to have applications in inventory for stores, and will most likely give customers a more real-time list of what items are in stock with a company. Walmart has integrated a bit of this technology into its day to day business functions, but some people have voiced opinions on tracking products purchased as being an invasion of privacy, as if used a certain way can track your day to day actions…but we’re not living with Big Brother just yet, so the technology seems to have descent possibilities associated with it.