With captivating detail, the originator gives extraordinary delineations and analogies in the matter of how these plans will play out in our future lives.

1)      Design

Incredible arrange in our lives is key, from contraptions, automobiles and furniture to things like "butterfly" tickets that may have impacted a presidential choice. Diagram is segregating to every business as things must be dependably simple to utilize, beautiful, littler, force viable, ergonomic and suitable. Extraordinary arrangement is major to incredible things and Redirected instinct grants us to perceive how people use things to achieve a recognizable change  Today its fiscally critical and eventually compensating to make something that is not basically functional however is moreover great whimsical, or enthusiastically enamoring. Everyone, paying little admiration to calling, must develop a creative sensibility. We may not all be faultless.  But today we might as well all be originators

2)      Story

Pink delineates story as "context enriched by emotion”. Story is the way information has for the most part been passed beginning with one period then onto the following. Notwithstanding the way that truths are as of now open immediately and fundamentally complimentary, story will remain discriminating in light of the enthusiastic Impact. It's the enthusiastic part that makes information stick.

The focus when our lives are flooding with information and data, its lacking to marshal a fruitful dispute.  The substance of impact, correspondence, and understanding to oneself has transformed into the capacity to moreover outline a urging record.  We are our stories.  We must listen to one another's stories.

3)      Symphony

As Pink says, "Symphony is largely about relationships. “The Conceptual Age will compensate the people who can see companionships between obviously unnecessary regions. They will be multitasks. They can blend their taking in of diverse capabilities and aptitudes to push the "breaking point" of recognized practices: for example, some person who takes their data of math into the helpful field or someone who applies their data of music to business thoughts. What's in most magnificent ask for today isn't analyzation however union seeing the totality of the circumstances, intersection breaking points, and having the ability to join exceptional pieces into a catching new whole. A standout amongst the most perfect methodologies to make the slant of Symphony is to deduce how to draw

4)      Empathy

The thought of having the ability to enter an alternate individual "shoes" has reliably been seen as an essential activity property, yet this competence will be in significantly higher ask for later on. Everyone could be more productive by being thoughtful delegates, people, accomplices, specialists, lawmakers, masters, lawyers, therapeutic orderlies, organization people and essentially any conceivable part in our social request. Pink offers a few methodologies to upgrade your sympathy capacities. Sympathy is the ability to stay in others' shoes, to see with their eyes, and to feel with their hearts. It's feeling with an alternate individual, sensing what it could be need to be that single person. Empathy makes us human.  It is an ethic for living.

5)      Play

This part talks about a man who has made "laughter Clubs" all around the globe and the positive impact they are having on business and neighborhood.  The Conceptual Age will allow us to join together both work and play. An uncommon instance of this is the film beguilement. The maker advances a guard that motion picture redirections are a colossal a bit of our future by accommodating us obliging item as for film redirection use by adolescents. Play is ascending out of the shadows of irrelevance and tolerating a spot in the spotlight. Its essentialness shows itself in three ways: 

Ø  Games

Ø  Humor

Ø  Joyfulness 

6)      Meaning

As a social request, we are on a high power chase down significance. Pink alludes to a report from USC titled A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America. In the report, most significant feeling of being was described by most executives not as religion, yet as the fundamental needing to uncover reason and significance in one's life. Around a huge amount of distinctive things, the segment suggests the rising in reputation of mazes. Expecting that you don't know the first thing, mazes are round, unhindered mazes that end at the center where one takes a loose walk and contemplate.

We live in a universe of shocking material abundance.  That has freed innumerable people from ordinary fights and liberated us to look for after extra imperative yearnings: reason, transcendence, and significant fulfillment.

Expert systems

“It is a computer system that emulates the decision-making ability of a human expert systems are designed to solve complex problems by reasoning about knowledge, represented primarily as IF-THEN rules rather than through conventional procedural code. The first expert systems were created in the 1970s and then proliferated in the 1980s. Expert systems were among the first truly successful forms of AI software” in other words, expert systems simply are computer programs that allow us to solve complex problems that would otherwise require a human expert in that field.

It is obvious that expert systems have a huge impact on many areas in our life. For example, we can use expert systems in health, education, business, accounting … etc. today, we will emphasize on expert systems that used in education. There are many filed that we can use expert system in education such as educational planning, decision making, mange student records, student consulting and spatial education program.



       It is shown in the fig1that expert system uses human knowledge captured in a program to find a solution for the specific problem. Computer Aided Instruction (CAI) is the best program for expert systems for dealing with expert heuristics. CAI simulates the teaching approach of an experienced teacher. It based in learning individual students according to their abilities and their speed. CAI is developed in there stages 1- conceptual stage 2- design stage 3- implementation stage.

Artificial neural network

“In computer science and related fields, artificial neural networks are computational models inspired by animals' central nervous systems (in particular the brain) that are capable of machine learning and pattern recognition. They are usually presented as systems of interconnected "neurons" that can compute values from inputs by feeding information through the network”. [1]

In some Nigerian universities there are poor quality of collages of graduates. So they apply examination systems. These universities applied artificial neural network (ANN) application. This application will help the faculty members to predict the likely performance of a candidate being considered for admission into the university. “Inspired by the structure of the brain, a neural network consists of a set of highly interconnected entities, called Processing Elements (PE) or units. Each unit is designed to mimic its biological counterpart, the neuron “

Groupon Company

Groupon Company

The Groupon Company is a deal of the day website, which provides its customers with discount gift certificates that can be used in local and national companies. Groupon started its operations from Chicago in 2008. Up to 2010, the Groupon Company has spread its services to 150 markets in North American and 100 markets in Asia, South America and Europe. The company has registered users up to 35 million.

At the first year of its earning release in 2011 as a public company, it has made a loss of $9.8 million, which has badly disappointed the investors of the company. Like Netscape, the Groupon Company has failed to capture the   value and despite many promises, its performance was contrary.  The Groupon cannot sustain its competitive advantage in the market because the customers of Groupon are not willing to pay it even the cost of its products. This is just because it could not have maintained its value. As the Groupon grows, its costs are skyrocketing as a percentage of its revenue.

Marketing expenses rose to 37 percent from 15 percent, which is far greater increase than its competitors are. The selling and administrative costs rose to 33 percent form 25 percent.The reason for this phenomenon is the lack of long-term relationships with its customers, which has, lessens the revenues for investors. Moreover, there was a lack of loyal employees, which in turn generated the deficiency of loyal customers. This lack of loyalty and sustainable relationship has affected the long-term competitive advantage of the Groupon Company. (Peter, 2011)

Nucor Steel and Competitive Advantage

           Nucor Steel Company’s social ecology has made the company capable to excel the three tasks regarding the accumulation of knowledge:

1. Creation of knowledge form the direct experiments

2. Getting or acquiring the external knowledge

3. Retain the knowledge that is created externally

The Nucor Steel got the access to the superior human capital by finding the skilled and hardworking plants in the urban areas. The company attained a competitive advantage by attaining a leading position in those locations by offering the highest compensation packages to the employees and thus inclined them to work with the company. The company attained such a popularity that some 1200 people applied for only eight job positions. In this way, the company became able to make superior it’s hiring and selection criteria and employed the dedicated, goal oriented and self-reliant people for the company.

The companies like the Groupon, having the all other skills to successfully operate the business in the market have the wide variety of chances to become superior by attaining the competitive advantage in any area of their business. They can build the foundation by investing in the continuous and on the job training and orientation programs to cultivate the skilled marketing personnel in the company.

Just like the Nucor Steel, the Groupon can motivate the talented individuals by offering the rewards for the better productivity. In simple words, the incentives should be the function of output. In this way, the employees can get the good chances of growth by discovering the new techniques of performance. (Joseph, 2010)

References

Joseph, D. M. (2010, 01 22). How Companies Rebuild Competitive Advantage. Retrieved 02 06, 2014, from Bloomberg Business Week: 

Peter, C. (2011). Memo to SEC: Groupon Has No Competitive Advantage, Stop Its IPO. Forbes, 10.

Knowledge Management

Knowledge Management has a lot of importance nowadays. The knowledge management is considered more important than the machinery, equipment and building in an organization. Thus, the organizational knowledge and its correct management are the sole sources of competencies and victory against the competitors of the organization. In the modern internet age, knowledge management is a power. Through knowledge management, the companies are trying to know what their customers want and how to be competitive. Following are the two real world examples of companies. (Eisla, 2009)

Knowledge Management Failure in Calibro Company

Calibro is a large pharmaceutical company based in Switzerland having its labs all over the world. The knowledge management system was implemented in the company in order to provide a collaborative work environment for the staff working for the new drug development. It was expected that this project would lead to faster development among the distributed research staff and the project was named as Baleine Bleue (BB).

The project was not supported in different times especially when the direct support of management was needed. The main role of failure of knowledge management in Calibro was due to the lack of commitment and management support and the management was not familiar with the dimensions of the knowledge management.

Another factor due to which the Calibro is no longer competitive is the wrong selection of the knowledge project manager. The unsophisticated manager had no expertise in the knowledge management and that is why they caused many problems in the implementation of the project. The project manager of knowledge could not control the project effectively and they could not pass it safe. The employees who were selected as the team members of the knowledge management team also did not have competency for this duty. (Peyman, 2005)

Knowledge Management of LeaseCo. And competitiveness

The LeaseCo. Recognized the opportunity of good knowledge management by bidding aggressively on the novel, unpredictable and complex lease opportunities. They were involved in leasing the personal computers in 1980 in order to get unique knowledge from these experiences. The company realized a double advantage by preventing that knowledge from its competitors. The company first invested in its platform for strategic knowledge and then learned enough about the client in order to profitably and competitively prices the leases according to the future opportunities with that client. The clients in turn without going out for competitive bids, through mutual learning contracted with the LeaseCo for the future losses. In this way, the company maintained a sustainable knowledge base barrier to the competition. (Irma & Rajiv, 2008)

Wal-Mart VS Kmart

Walmart VS Kmart

 

Let’s begin with this question “what are the main factors that drive companies to succeed while others languish.” To answer this question, we have to take two companies compare between them and evaluate their strategies. In my opinion, I think any company that wants to compete with other companies and wins the war has to have a clear goals and strategies, but more important it should provide value for its customers.

 For example, the big discount stores which are Walmart and Kmart. One of them is growing and winning the war and the other is losing, of course you know who is wining without point on it. Even more, some people don’t know what the Kmart is. In the past, anyone knows Kmart. It was a successful company but what happen. Why Kmart lost the competition, even more, yesterday “Sears recently announced it will close its Shelby store in April, after more than 60 years in business in the county.”  According to Dr. Don Caudill, professor of marketing “While the reasons for the demise of Sears may be copious, complicated and uncertain, one of the most significant factors was a failure in market strategy,”    other reason might be true is the company failed to attractive customers spatially middle class. Also, one of the most reasons that Kmart lost the competition with Wal-Mart is Sears Holdings spent $215 million in measured media on Kmart last year, but Walmart had $622 million in measured media spending in 2011. On the other hand, Wal-Mart knows how they give value for their customers. Wal-Mart knows how to play on “always low price” for a big number of products such as food, prescriptions and electronics. They succeeded in convincing customers that they are always the cheaper than any company else in market. Also, the play well on the product VS service which means they avoid products that needs services such as furniture. Moreover, they use privet brand and exclusive offering and the management of urban locations.

In conclusion, I would like to say that Kmart is struggling to find its way to play. As Harry Cunningham, the founder of Kmart said “Sam Walton (the founder of Walmart) “not only copied our concepts, he strengthened them “    

 

Sources:

Leinwand, Paul, and Cesare Mainardi. "Advertising Age." HBR Blog Network. N.p., 15 Dec. 2010. Web. 23 Jan. 2014.

Tessnear, Matthew. "With Local Sears Closing, What's Kmart's Future?" Shelby Star Header Logo. N.p., 21 Feb. 2014. Web. 23 Jan. 2014.