Friday's Class

We will have our last class on Friday in FSC 903.

This will allow us to be sure about the technology and the air conditioning and we will have immediate access to a technician if there are any problems.

Make your alliances and your presentations interesting and creative...

In this assignment you can mix apples and oranges and you should probably throw in some dragon fruit.

Strategic Alliances

The strategic and substantiated alliance notes are now available on line.  You can get to them through the syllabus.

On Friday we will meet in FSC 903 for class.

Remember to think BIG, think CRAZY, think UNUSUAL for your strategic alliances and remember:
at least 1 design/communication company
at least 1 Hong Kong based company

Any questions?

Coming Class 13 11 09

This Friday there are a number of things we are going to do:


1. Beryl will present her Enterprise profile since she was sick the week everyone presented.


2. Your groups will casually present your shopping decisions from the Marketing exercise


3. We will discuss the nature and function of Strategic Alliances.  This will give you the foundation for your last assignment...


Your last assignment will be the creation and presentation of a strategic alliance which includes at least two companies, at least one HK company and at least one communication-related company.  


You will do your presentations on the last day of the class, Friday, 27 November.


You will work in groups of three for the project.  Here are your randomly generated groups for the final presentation:

eva t, phoenix, beryl

koey, terri, ray

veronica, ivy, tiff

eva d, grace, curry

xenia, winston, frances

ahbo, tina, katherine

annie, yuyan, yaShing

katie, stephy, alison

jessica, jenn, maggie

There are nine groups so each group will have a total of 15 minutes for their presentation.  This is a lot more time than you had for your enterprise profiles.

Study Guide

Study Guide for DGC 2130 – First Semester 2009-2010

Choose either Shaw Brothers (TVB) or Disney

Read the Annual Report, Review the History and Identify any other Internet sources which could be valuable resources for your thinking about your chosen enterprise.

Refresh yourself on Financial Measures and their meaning including:

   Ratio Analysis

   Growth Measures

   Profitablility Measures

   Profit Margins

Kinds of Creative Businesses

Marketing:

            4 Ps

            Marketing Mix

            Promotion Strategy

            SWOT

Job Satisfaction: Your Responses and the Ways to Maintain it in employees

Types of Economies and the related businesses

Value Chains

Consumer Buying Behavior

Basic Branding

Selling Work

Measures of Success in Media

If you have questions post them as a comment and I will answer them for all to see.

Internet Auctions

I have commented on your auction blogs about your Phase 2 plans.  Only one group, Tina and YaShing, did not lay out a promotional plan or tell me where they are auctioning their item.

Remember your Auctions must be complete and an item sold by 13 November 2009!

23 October 2009

 We will look at your Marketing Exercise results on 13 November 2009.

More than 15 minutes late:

Ray

AhBo

More than 60 minutes late:

Tina

Absent:

Phoenix

Presentation Schedule

Here is the presentation schedule for the Enterprise Profile Presentations.

You only have 5 minutes to present your company.  The time is tight and I will keep time to keep us on track.

Please upload your media to the computer between 9:30 and 9:40  before the rotation starts.

09:40 Koey So

09:46 Katie Chan

09:52 Beryl Chen

09:58 Veronica Jin

10:04 Terri Wang

10:10 Ivy Chen

10:16 Alison Ho

10:22 Annie Wu

10:28 Winston Law

10:34 Maggie Yang

10:40 YaShing Yu

10:46 Eva Dong

10:52 Ray Fu

10:58 Curry Li

11:04 Stephy Pang

11:10 Frances Wang

11:16 Phoenix Yeung

11:22 Tina Cheung

11:28 Eva Tse

11:34 Yuyan Mok

11:40 AhBo Li

11:46 Tiff Diu

11:52 Katherine Siu

11:58 Jessica Ward

12:04 Jenny Hui

12:10 Xenia Ma

12:16 Grace Lung

Your presentation and any text about your enterprise or any additional information you want to provide should be put onto, or linked to, your blog for this class.

I look forward to seeing everyone on-time in the regular classroom.

16 October 2009

PEOPLE NEED TO CLEAR THEIR CHOSEN PROFILE COMPANIES!!!

Here is some analysis of your ranking results and results from the long term study:

Your results are different, perhaps because you are from Hong Kong and China or perhaps because you are more interested in creative pursuits than the average worker.

The places where you do find agreement are on the importance of having your work appreciated and being "in" on decision making as well as the relatively lower importance of wages, opportunities for growth and promotion and loyalty which you all rank two points higher than the people from the American studies.

You are far more interested in interesting work, ranking it first and five places higher than the Americans.  You also rank the importance of working conditions five places higher while you rank job security five places lower.  The biggest difference is your ranking some sympathy at 10th place while the workers in the big survey rank this factor 3rd.

By standardizing the scores to rank ordering a number of interesting but not significant differences can be found in the data (They are not significant because not enough of you fit into the various groups) but...

Sellers are more interested in job security than anyone else except our two administrators.  Sellers rank it at 5 and administrators at 1, while everyone else is between 7 and 10.

Sellers are the least interested in loyalty.

Journalists and Persuaders rank loyalty the highest at 3 and 2 respectively.

Journalist and Persuaders rank being "in" the lowest at 7th and 8th.

Journalists are also the only students interested in some sympathy placing it at 6 while the next highest is 8 with all others at 9 and 10.

Authors, and there are three of them, rank feeling "in" at first position with our pairs of inventors and administrators rank it second.  Sellers put it 3rd while the next closest is 5th.

Questors, 3, rank tactful discipline the second highest at 7 while the highest is far and away our pair of inventors who put it at 3.

To remind you of the list of rank order options:

     Full appreciation for work done

     Good wages

     Good working conditions 

     Interesting work 

     Job security

     Promotion/Growth opportunities 

     Personal loyalty to workers 

     Feeling “in” on things  

     Sympathetic Help on Personal Problems    

     Tactful disciplining         

The only differences between students from Hong Kong and the mainland were in the desire to be "in" on decision making and the need for tactful discipline.  Mainland students ranked the desire to be in at one place higher than those from Hong Kong but all of you

DON'T DO SPEC WORK!!!

Milkxhake: Hong Kong Hug&Kiss

you can work for free but do it for people or an organization or a cause that can't pay you anyway.

Javin and Wilson did this to make people feel better after SARS they didn't do it for money.

A Logo is the front door of a Brand so it is important that people remember it.

the Brand is the Heart of Marketing...it is the place where people love or hate your enterprise

Your recall of logos seemed to based on a number of factors.

The least important for us was the position of the logo on the screen.  There seemed to be a lot of power on the top row and on the four corners

The most important for us is that you remembered logos that you know and with which you have some sort of connection.  You have created an emotional bond with that enterprise so you remember seeing its logo in a very limited amount of time.  While we did not explore the nature of those bonds they are certainly connected to your experience with the brand and perhaps in some cases your sense of loyalty to the brand.

Another factor was potentially the color or design of the logo, which is important for design.

In the next class we will talk more about the rest of Marketing and expand on the Four P's with a discussion of SWOT analysis and a Marketing audit.

until then...

Absences:

Eva Tse

Koey So

9 October 2009 - Factors that make you unique

What to remember from this lecture:

People are not the same as machines, real estate and intellectual property, they are not HOMOGENEOUS and INTERCHANGEABLE

This is even more important when working with creative people as they have different needs and demands than people in more ordinary jobs.  Check out the list of unique attributes by clicking the Blog title.

A human being needs to be treated with respect

Organizations, where employees have above average attitudes toward their work have:

38% higher customer satisfaction scores

22% higher productivity

22% better employee retention

27% higher profits

Study shows the following factors in Job Satisfaction

37% workplace support

32% job quality

3% job demands

2% earnings and benefits

26% individualized

Workplace support and Job Quality are two factors which can be controlled by managers and cover 69% of the issues related to Job Satisfaction.

Here is a little extra to think about:

Ten Tips for improving Job Satisfaction among Employees:

1. Pay fairly and well

2. Treat each and every employee with respect

         Respect is “the state of being regarded with honour or esteem.”

         Every person should be treated with the same regard that you give yourself.

         Refrain from putdowns, criticism, personal attacks

         Encourage others to state their views

         Support each other – even if you don’t agree

         Practice active listening

         Express  yourself assertively (not aggressively or passively)

         Collaborate (not compete or collude)

         Trust each other…unless and  until trust is violated

3. Praise Accomplishments and attempts (Positive Feedback)

         Praise should occur four times more than criticism     

         It should be given Promptly    

         It should be given verbally and in writing     

         It should be given Publicly&Privately    

         It should be given Sincerely

4. Clearly communicate goals, responsibilities and expectations

5. Recognize performance appropriately and consistently

         Reward outstanding performance

         Do not tolerate sustained poor performance – coach & train or remove

6. Involve employees in plans and decisions

         Solicit their ideas and opinions

         Encourage initiative

7. Create opportunities for employees to learn and grow

8. Actively listen to employee concerns

9. Share information – promptly, openly and clearly

         Tell the Truth with compassion

10. Celebrate successes and milestones reached – organizational and personal

BE SURE TO REVIEW THE PRESENTATION GUIDELINES AS YOU PREPARE YOUR PRESENTATION FOR 30 OCTOBER.

PEOPLE NEED TO CLEAR THEIR CHOSEN PROFILE COMPANIES!!!

Absences:

Ah Bo
Grace
Xenia
Maggie
YaShing

More than 15 minutes late:

Katie
Tina
Ray
Stephy
Eva T.
Frances

2 October 2009 plus Forbes.Com Link

Notes on Financial Lecture


Budgeting

     Yearly Budgets

     Capital Budgets
(These are for buying new equipment.  These budgets fall outside of the year to year operational budgets)


Financial Statements

    Balance Sheet

    Income Statement

    Cash Flow


Ratio Analysis

    Liquidity Ratios

         Current Ratio: Curr Assets /
                               Curr Liabilities

         Acid Test Ratio: Liquid Assets /
                                  Curr. Liabilities

    Debt Ratios

          Leverage Ratio: Total Liabilities /
                                   Total Assets

         Debt to Equity: Total Liabilities /
                                 Total Equity

     Capitalization Ratios

          Long Term Liabilities /
         Total Shares of Common Stock


     Growth Measures

          Growth of Revenue:

               Curr period(mth,qtr,yr) Net Rev – Prev Per Net Rev /
               Previous Period Net Revenue

          Growth of Operating Income

              Curr period(mth,qtr,yr) Net Inc– Prev Per Net Income /
              Previous Period Net Income

          Growth of Net Worth (Owner’s Equity)

              Curr period(mth,qtr,yr) Net Worth– Prev Per Net Worth /
              Previous Period Net Worth

          Growth of Assets

              Curr period(mth,qtr,yr) Total Assets– Prev Per Total Assets /
              Previous Period Total Assets


    Profitablility Measures

           Return on Sales: Net Income/
                                    Total Revenues

           Return on Assets: Net Income/
                                       Total Revenues

           Return on Equity: Net Income/
                                      Owner’s Equity

           Price-Earnings (PE) Ratio: Market Price of a share of common stock /
                                                    Earnings Per Share


     Profit Margins

           Cash Flow Margin: Cash Flow (AfterTax Net Income+Interest/Deprecication/Amortization) /
                                             Net Rev (Revenues – Operating Expenses)

           Net Profit Margin: Net Income (Revenues – Expenses & Taxes) /
                                             Net Rev (Gross Revenues Less Commissions)

Auctions

I have connected with all of the auctions that I can get to from my blog.  If you don't have a comment on your auction blog then you need to make sure that I can connect with it from here.

See you in the morning.

Economies of Scale and Media

Let me provide some further explanation on Economies of Scale in relation to media:

Basically an Economy of Scale says that the more units you buy the less you will have to pay for each unit.

For Example:
     10 units cost $50 each
     100 units cost $40 each
     1000 units cost $35 each
     10000 units cost $30 each
     100000 units cost $20 each, and
     1000000 units cost $10 each

Therefore if I can buy more units I can sell them for less but since I have more units I can make lots more money.  This means that someone who has only one store can only buy a few units and must pay more for each unit and must sell each for a high price.  Someone who has a 10 stores can buy more units and buy for less and therefore sell for less.  And it goes on and on up the ladder so that the biggest group of stores can buy and sell for less and essentially put the smaller stores out of business because consumers want to pay less for the same thing.

Now in film or music or television or video games the greatest amount of cost is associated with production or creation of the unit, while with normal goods the greatest amount of cost is associated with manufacturing (there is always a cost associated with each unit sold).  So, once the cost of content creation is met through ticket sales, song downloads or game unit sales then each additional ticket, download or game is nearly pure profit.  The scale is actually a cliff where once costs are met then there is only profit (this is not true in manufacturing).  When you add to this the impact of popularity then there is added momentum created by the buyers who helped you meet your costs, they inspire others to pay for the experience too.

The industry impact if the focus on blockbusters.  If I can spend lots and lots of money and people think that will make a good movie and go see it then I will only want to make the movies that are going to make lots and lots of money.  The logic is that spending money makes people want to see the movie and it will make money.  The truth is that good stories make good movies, good singers and songwriters make good records and good stories and experiences make good games.  It has nothing to do with how much it cost to make.  But the attitude persists and it makes it more difficult for smaller projects to break through.  The people who make hits get to try and make more hits but the untested are left out unless they get unusually lucky or are tremendously persistent and resilient.

Internationally this means that these media from large media producing countries, e.g. USA and India, can be sold for any price at all anywhere in the world.  Remember, it is a near pure profit transaction.  So, the guy in HK with a great idea for a TV show for HK people can be easily undersold by the foreigners because he still has to pay for production.  The question the manager asks is do I go with a show with a proven track record from abroad that I got for cheap or do I pay for a new show, even from an experienced producer, that has to get made and has an uncertain level of success.  So, the manager balances uncertainties and goes with the cheaper product because both shows probably have the same chance for success or failure.

This goes beyond a simple explanation of Economies of Scale but the Economies of Scale in Media are unnatural.  They are attractive because of the potential for profit beyond the break even point (the place where revenues meet cost) but the opportunities to make a hit are limited by the people who control access to the audience and in the Internet world the opportunities to make a hit are limited by access to people attention in an environment that is overwhelmed with content, good and bad.

25 September 2009

I am working my way through your auction proposals.

Everyone did well with the Success Exercise but no one came even close to completing the list.  Which is good.  You will get the results next Friday.

Key points from today:

Making money in media is very far from making money with a very specific product or good.

It is possible to sell individual units with books, magazines, newspapers, movie tickets, dvds, games.

Money can also be made through subscription

Advertising is the core of making money with media.  Media need to acquire audiences that are valuable to advertisers and people that want to sell their actual products.

Product placements are another form of advertising which occurs in a wide array of content.

Measuring audiences is done in different ways in different media.

Movies, Video and Music all benefit from economies of scale which drop to zero when the cost of creative production is met.  So, every dollar made past the break-even point in almost complete profit.

Remember:

Potential Audience    Available Audiences     Actual Audiences


Potential audiences are everyone with the abilities or technologies which make it possible to consume your content.

For a book it means everyone who can speak the language it is written, for a cable TV show it is everyone with cable television, for a computer game it is everyone who has a way to play a game, etc.

Available audiences are everyone who is available for connection to your content.

For a book it means everyone that shops at the stores where your book is sold, for a cable TV show it is everyone who is watching their cable television, for a computer game is is everyone who owns the specific platform that will allow them to play your game.

Actual audiences are those that are actually using, reading, watching, playing or experiencing your content.

The actual audience depends on the available audience which depends on the potential audience.  The bottom line in media and design is the audience, whether it is a corporate or business audience for the communication designer or a mass audience for the 3D animation company.


until the next time...

18 September 2009 After Class

You have survived and completed the longest lecture that you will have this semester.  All other class periods will involve additional activities and media beyond my voice.  It is, however, a very important lecture as it gives us all a framework for understanding the focus of well run media enterprises, local and international.

Neither Disney or Shaw had the RIGHT approach but both had successful approaches which were built on the personality and goals of the people who started the companies and the environment in which they developed and grew.  Shaw started with business at the core.  Disney started with content at the core.  Shaw stuck with their core abilities and opportunities which presented themselves within China, HK, Singapore and Malaysia and then reached out.  Disney built a brand and vision and then found ways to use that Brand to expand the company and increase income.

Single most important fact: The name, likeness, signature and portrait of Walt Disney was worth more than 46 million US$ to the Walt Disney Company.  That is BRAND POWER.

We have moved from macro issues of Economies and Markets to Large Scale successful businesses.  Next we will look at various ways to measure success in a Communication/Creative Enterprise, large scale and small scale.

Also next week you will need to post on your blog the item your group is going to offer in an internet auction.  Each group member must have their own blog and this information will be presented in each blog.

Before Next Week You Must:

Start an Auction Blog (use a picture of yourself that makes you identifiable)

Sign on as a Follower of this Blog

Meet with your the member(s) of your group

Post on your blogs the thing you are going to offer in an Internet Auction

It was mentioned to me that sometimes people trade through Internet Auctions.  If you want to take goods in exchange rather than money that still counts as a successful auction to me.

Until then...

Class Absences
Tiff Diu

More than 15 minutes late
Stephy Pang
Katherine Siu

18 September 2009 Before Class

I have decided to change the auction exercise a bit. Rather than turning in your three reports on paper you will do your three reports through your blog. This means you will need to have the right document on the right day and then I will be able to make direct comment on your work.


So, everyone will need to establish a blog. I will then go to your blog and sign on as a follower. You will then neeed to come to the blog for this class and sign on as a follower. I need for you to put your picture on your blog so that I can make a direct connection between you and your information.

I have figured out the groups for the auction assignment. These are based on your psychological tests and then blind assignment within the identified psychological profiles.

Here are the groups for your auction assignment:

Ivy & Eva Tse

Stephy & Curry

Katie & Koey

Tina & YaShing

Xenia & Tiff

Katherine & Alison

Phoenix & Ah Bo & Maggie

Jenny & Eva Dong

Ray & Veronica

Yuyan & Terri

Frances & Annie

Beryl & Winston

Jessica & Grace

Please remember to sign on as a follower to this blog, including an identifiable picture of yourself, and start your own blog for the purpose of discussing your online auction.

11 September 2009

Everyone did well today.  You all gave serious considerations to your stores and provided a rich body of information about how they work, how they look and the amount of design going on inside.

Everyone needs to do work on their presentation skills.  You need to work better as groups and integrate each other into the presentation.  With more team work the presentations will then be tighter and shorter.  You all have a good handle on the visual aspects but need to work on the verbal aspects.

Giving some thought to your presentations and our discussions I think it is better to place City Super into the Service mode.  They have definitely not created a shopping experience worthy of an experience economy but by providing additional information, videos, recipes and educational content within the store they have definitely created a grocery store worthy of a service economy.  They create a different experience than the other two types of stores but it is still primarily grocery shopping.

Next time we will look at the different kinds of communication, media and design related enterprises and then we will take a closer look at the development of the Shaw Brothers company and the Disney company.

4 September 2009

The first day of class is done.  We have started out with everyone learning where we will go in the class and what we are going to cover.  Next week the students will need to sign a paper that indicates that they have read and understand the syllabus.  Need to be clear on what is expected.

Next we jumped into the personality tests.  The "Design Matters" exercise groups are based on the Jungian profiles of the group members.  Next week for the Internet Auction assignment the groups will be created on the basis of the Enneagram Scores.

Here are the groups for the Design Matters exercise:

Park n Shop
     Veronica
     Winston
     Eva Tse
     Ivy

Park n Shop
     Curry Li
     Lincoln
     Tina
     Jenny

Park n Shop
     Grace
     Katie
     Eva Dong
     Katherine

Wet Market
    Jessica
    Tiff
    Ah Bo
  
Wet Market
    Ray
    Xenia
    Stef
    Koey

City Super
    Alison
    Yuyan
    Phoenix
    Annie

City Super
     Terri
     Beryl Chen
     Frances
     Maggie

The results should be interesting.  Remember the presentation is only 3 to 5 minutes and you need to shoot some pictures to back up your discussion of

a) Conscious use of Design to support the function of the shop.
b) Unconscious use of Design (Visual elements, standard elements, methods of presentation, layout...) to support the function of the shop.
c) Additional design that might improve the experience for the people who buy their food at the shop.

You need to think about the kind of people who come to the particular shop you are analyzing as you consider the role and opportunity for design within the store.  These stores reach out to particular kinds of people and you need to think about who those people are before you can improve the ability of the shop to reach its customers and potential customers.

Today's Quote:
"Forgiveness is easier to get than permission."

I will provide the auction groups before the next class.

This is the first post for the Design Management blog.  Each week after class I will give a summary of events and keep everyone up to date on where we are on the calendar and if there will be any changes.  You can ask questions here and I will provide all the information I possibly can.  This should be empowering for everyone involved so please take advantage of it.