CEO interview: Company folded but the great learning experience surpasses all regrets
9 November 2012 — Christoffer Winquist (38), the CEO of Rewindy, recently decided to close the shop. In this interview he shares his one-year experience of building the company from an idea to the beta launch. While deciding to give up was a hard decision, he says that he has no regrets. The learnings from Rewindy last a lifetime, and he is now looking for new opportunities, potentially as an entrepreneur.
CEO interview: Cloning proven startup business models into Korea
7 November 2012 — Patenting business models is a costly and time-consuming task, let alone hard to enforce in many countries. Hyemin Lee (28), CEO of People & Co., discusses her experience in accelerating her startup with the Samwer brothers of Rocket Internet, the copycat kings of Europe.
CEO interview: Finding the optimal funding approach for a startup in Korea
26 October 2012 — Jong-ik Kwon (31), the CEO of iPetBrand, is an entrepreneur with a solid academic background. The idea for his current venture, iPetBrand, stemmed from Mr. Kwon’s love for animals and people who care about animals. iPetBrand seeks to integrate the vet network with the value chain, and Mr. Kwon’s vision is to make iPetBrand the most recognized brand in pet care. To fulfill this, he needed funding. We talked to Mr. Kwon about his fundraising experiences.
Securing strategy implementation through iterative operating model design
21 September 2012 — One of the most common debates in management literature is whether the strategy or the operating model should deserve more focus. The answer is usually something in between – strategy alone does not determine a successful company, but an operating model does not do that either. The trick lies in designing the equilibrium between these two; ensuring that the strategy is implemented through a good operating model design.
Using a (massively) participative strategy process for corporate change – lessons learned
21 September 2012 — The competitive environment of all companies, whether large or small, is getting increasingly complex and fast-changing. To address this, the strategy process in many companies has been developed towards larger participation. Using crowdsourcing as a part of the strategy process seems to be the topic of the day among consultants advocating new approaches.
Stochastic budgeting – forecasting large uncertain sales projects
21 June 2012 — Today’s markets are increasingly sensitive, and analysts react strongly to even the slightest unexpected events in a company’s performance. The efficiency of markets to share, disseminate and analyze data is seen in the increased volatility that seems to affect companies even in the most stable industries. Sales budgeting and forecasting is an area where even basic improvements can yield a much deeper insight into the company’s situation and outlook.
From pricing theories to concrete analyses, decisions and actions
20 June 2012 — Everyone acknowledges that pricing is a key contributor for business results. However, pricing is much more than setting up a right price level. This article gives an overview on how pricing analytics should be done, what are the key decision points in a pricing model and what must be taken into account to ensure a successful implementation of a pricing model.
Pushing innovation and cost effectiveness through Design-to-Cost
5 April 2012 — In industries such as automotive, IT and telecom the drive for continuous innovation while reducing costs have long been the norm. The same trend has spread to other areas as well, touching both products and services; customers want more, but they want it for less. There is an increased demand for simultaneous innovation and cost reduction