Business is Marketing

In the global village, national pride is no longer decided by mere military superiority, but by the combined might of soft power, including cultural influence and the ability of a nation to spawn “global homegrown brands...” “Google is history as far as I’m concerned.” These were the words of a former English schoolteacher Jack Ma. In 1999, Jack Ma launched Alibaba.com from an apartment in Hangzhou, China. Essentially Alibaba.com serves as an e-commerce aggregator, bringing together buyers and sellers. Forbes named it the “Best of the Web” for five years running. Sitting in the manufacturing-hub-of-the-world i.e. China, the company, with its strong understanding of Chinese culture and business practices, is ready to take on biggies like eBay, et al and is sure to emerge as a leader in China – the world’s largest online market. Answer the following questions – who is the world’s largest mobile phone operator? Who is the world’s biggest maker of air conditioners? Who is the top selling b...

Corporate Espionage is an expensive & dangerous proposition. But that has not deterred the leaders of Global Inc. to get their hands dirty. They say, all is fair in war, business & politics. But is it? A strange story leaked into the British press in the 90s about Richard Branson. It said that the garbage man refused to collect trash at a Branson owned nightclub because it included HIV infected needles. The story was baseless. However, it was not some gossip column that came out with this story. It was a well planned strategic move involving senior corporate executives of Virgin’s competitor, British Airways. Lord King, the British Airways Chairman, conducted a smear campaign against Branson – one of Britain’s wealthiest and best known entrepreneurs. BA’s PR Consultant, Brian Basham had been intentionally undermining him and his company’s reputation in the press – why? Well although Virgin was small, yet it posed a potential threat to the huge national carrier, BA, especially o...