Skip to main content

Improvement Project of Science Construction CS

Abstract Science Construction’s business is in planning, developing and building road projects. The major of its clients are municipalities, city governments, and other public sector entities. While the bankruptcy rates for these clients is very low, when economic downturns happen, their ability to pay in a timely fashion also suffers. This leads to businesses such as Science Construction needing to take on additional debt and to find creative methods in order to stay afloat during times of recession. Methods such as selling accounts receivables at discounted rates and taking larger lines of credit through banks and other lending institutions are some of the ways organizations can remain viable when their cash inflows have turned into a trickle. Science Construction is asking the Turkish Courts to postpone their bankruptcy proceedings for a year while they attempt to restructure. Through this, suggestions such as forcing shareholders to pay their debt to the organization, gaining credi

The story of Netflix

In the late 1990's Reed Hastings, a former Peace Corp Volunteer, was running late to return a video rental. The fee for the late return of a rental video from Blockbusters at the time was $40 - enough to have bought the video outright.
Reed was furious about having to pay the fee - he decided to set up his own video rental business.
Leveraging his knowledge and skills in computer science; Reed set about creating the basis of his new video rental business. In 1999 the concept of NetFlix was born, with three key differentiators for customers:
register for membership via a website
rent DVD's delivered by mail
pay on a monthly subscription
There were several subscription options, but the most popular was a flat fee of $16.99 per month, to rent three movies at a time, with unlimited returns - and crucially no late fees!
The service had an immediate impact on the industry - it was a genuine disruptor to video rental market, in particular to Blockbuster that had built it's business around physical store locations and focusing on the big Hollywood releases.
Reed Hastings feels they would have been better positioned to keep the competition at arms length, if they had not IPO'ed (in May 2002) so early in the lifecycle of the business. By keeping control of the business for longer, they could have kept the strategy a secret. However, by becoming a Publicly Listed organisation, they had to disclose their future strategy. (Information Systems. A Managers Guide to Harnessing Technology. Page 59).
This disclosure allowed large competitors such as Walmart and Blockbuster to mimic the business model, but the only muscle they could flex was "price".
Competitors thought that being big, they could scare NetFlix. The reaction from NetFlix was increase it's prices, by adding premium services, but this was short lived, and they soon dropped the prices again.
But neither Walmart or Blockbuster could sustain their initiatives and fight a price war. By only competing on price, simply drove them further from the unique service that NetFlix provided.
It was a tough battle and many thought NetFlix would not survive. But they remained true to their concept and leverage technology at every stage of the journey to ensure they remained one step ahead of the competition.
Tech was the key differentiator. The business was built on the internet as dot com, but more importantly it was more than a membership, it was a monthly subscription business model.
NetFlix did not have the physical restrictions of a large "bricks and mortar" business, which required premium locations, staffing, and advertising.
NetFlix could carry more DVD's across more genres and deliver anywhere. In addition, it could supply niche genres to small audiences - a phenomenon referred to as "The Long Tail", meant it could provide a rental experience like no other provider. .
Geography, language and the pace of new releases were not a barrier for NetFlix. The cost to stock and ship an obscure foreign film is the same as sending out the latest Will Smith blockbuster. The long tail gave them "selection advantage", as well as scale, that traditional stores simply cannot match. (Information Systems. A Managers Guide to Harnessing Technology. Page 73).
Customer Feedback drive more demand. Each time a customer return a DVD, they are simply asked, "How was the movie"?
This feedback creates a dialogue and captures the customers preferences, along with genuine ways to refine the service and offering.
Feedback via "Cinematch", became the key to customer service
The willingness of consumers to adopt a monthly subscription model, along with zero penalty fees allowed NetFlix to create excellent customer relationships and as a result - low levels of "Churn" in membership subscriptions.
NetFlix was keen to engage in the "Hacker" approach to innovation, and launched a $1million reward for improving the Cinematch ratings engine via CrowdSourcing. Coders and developers across the globe took-up the challenge! Their customers gained from the added value that Cinematch brought them, and NetFlix leveraged the free PR that was attracted.
Tech is at the heart of NetFlix. From the online user experience, and the logistics of order fulfilment, through to managing the subscription payments and communicating with each member.
There are a number of technologies at play; each one of them being leveraged and pushed to it's limits to maximise the full potential of customer service.
Do not confuse "Innovation" with "disruption". Many organisations innovate, especially in fast moving consumer markets, as well as manufacturing industries - but very few actually disrupt. (Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2015/12/what-is-disruptive-innovation). In business - disruption describes a process whereby a smaller company with fewer resources is able to successfully challenge established incumbent businesses.
Organisations that prove to be "disruptive" often begin by targeting overlooked segments, gaining a foothold by delivering more-suitable functionality - frequently at a lower price.
...
https://variety.com/2018/digital/news/netflix-success-secrets-1202721847/
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/28/a-secret-to-netflixs-success-social-media.html
https://gigaom.com/2011/05/03/seven-secrets-to-netflixs-success/
https://hbr.org/2015/12/what-is-disruptive-innovation

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Improvement Project- Science Construction PLC

Abstract             This paper will look at Science Construction PLC and its ability to create an improvement plan to avoid total collapse/ bankruptcy.   This paper will layout the case study, what the major problem was regarding financial metrics, what alternatives or solutions could have been used and why it is important to business. Intro-                             Science Construction PLC (SCPLC) in as organization that supplies development, provisions financing and services to highways, roads, tunnels and viaducts within Istanbul, Ankatam, Ismir, Bursa, and Kocaeli Metro areas (Erer, 2013).             During the 2008 financial crisis the organization took a downturn since many organizations stopped making progress with rebuilding their infrastructures and focused on preservation during the crisis. This financial crisis was the biggest ever seen since the great depression and many organizations that were “too big to fail” needed to be bailed out by the governments (Amad

CHITTARANJAN IN 50s

Hi, Everybody, sometime some of you keep me asking about my days and time at Chittaranjan. This is natural, after all there are gaps of decades between most of you and me ! This has prompted me with an idea of writing this to share my old good days with those of you who are interested. Indian Railway under the British colonial rule was another group of companies with different British Managements. Since the different railway networks under all of them were used mutually for their own benefits. At places, different railway companies had the facilities of repairing and maintenance of their locomotives and passenger and goods carriages. To name a few, like Anda, Adra, Howrah, Liluah, Mughal sarai, Jhajha , these are they places I mention since they are quite closed by our loving Chittaranjan. The locomotives were imported from Manchester, England and few from Canada and Australia , all under the Union Jack. A good number of railway operational staffs were anglo Indians,

CASE STUDY: Blaze Manufacturing

CASE STUDY: Blaze Manufacturing Introduction Blaze Manufacturing is a textile manufacturing company based in the upstate of New York, United States. The company was founded in the early 2000s. The company specialized in the manufacturing of bedspreads and curtains for institutional customers, which includes Hotels and Hospital, and other hospitality outfits. This company operates as a job, and it does not mass produce inventory items for sale through normal retail channels. Insted the company placed its priority on producing goods to fill specific customer orders received. The company products are relatively standard layout and of high quality; bedspreads in all kinds of bed sizes, and curtains to fit various sizes of windows. According to the giving article each customer chooses the fabric, the colour and the styles that go into making the items it orders. Personalized and customized is also available for customers. Identify the problem: Define the problem in financial terms Blaze Man