Staying Competitive in the Amazon Era

Shifting focus a little bit from the previous topics, I want to analyze the marketing and business strategy that Costco is using to be the greatest retailer in the world. Although market dominator, Amazon, generates the most revenue, Costco is actually a larger retailer than Amazon and all other retail companies. Yes you read that right!Costco, not Walmart, nor any other retail companies in the market.

The best thing about this is that they aren't scrambling around looking for new innovations to reshape their business to keep up. Instead, Costco has been sticking to what they know and what has been successful for decades. Costco has been able to remain competitive by keeping a lid on costs and using membership fees to offer better prices than competitors.  Costco has about 93 million loyal members, with about 90% of their members renewing their subscriptions annually. They also offer gas and an online shopping experiences for consumers that cannot be duplicated by any other competitor. They offer about 10,000 products on their website and app, including expensive items such as furniture, which you would not find in their brick- and- mortar locations.

Costco business model is set up so that they can be the last to raise prices, and the first to lower them. Although Amazon’s platform allows many consumers to save time and replace physical shopping through an online store or E-Commerce, Costco showed to be a retailer that customers are not willing to cut from their list of store visits. Suppliers also show that they want to keep a strong relationship with Costco by often negotiating for the best deals, even when prices(Inflation) rise, due to brands being able to trust that Costco will use the cost savings to keep price tags in stores down. Ultimately boosting their sales. Everyone is happy at the end of the day. It is a true win win for everyone. Business and Consumer.

Leadership-MGT

Having strong leadership is essential to the success of those who our counting on the actions of the one in charge. A leader is one who influences others around him/her to attain goals and understands each and every member on their team to a certain extent. It is important to understand everyone’s personal objectives and how they handle adversity. Using a democratic leadership strategy would help in the long run when it comes down to making a final decision that everyone can agree upon, and how to properly encounter different individuals with the understanding that everyone is different. As an employee, would you rather have your voice and ideas being taken into consideration, or just allow your boss/leader to act in a autocratic way. Vice versa, as a leader, which method would be most effective and beneficial to the company’s overall success?  Or even a sports team. You often see this problem in businesses/organizations that fail or are struggling.

Appointing someone to a leadership position who is not cut out, or simply have the traits to be a good leader can be poisonous to any business. However, people still get these positions and fail to lead their team or organization the right way. You can be the smartest person in the world, got a perfect score on your ACT, 4.0 throughout college, Dean’s List, all the formal education in the world, but still end up being a terrible leader.

I am a firm believer that being a good leader starts from within. It starts with you and your mindset. You have to first be true to yourself while leading. Basically be authentic. How do you expect people to follow you and be successful if you aren't true and real with yourself? As mentioned before people are different, and therefore they can lead in different ways,  but still benefit the group as a whole. A leader can be primarily vocal and uses their vocabulary to motivate and drive others. These are your typical “motivational speakers”.

A well-known speaker, who emerged during the civil rights movement, was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was notorious for his ‘I Have A Dream’ speech. Dr. King was iconic for motivating citizens, who were being treated unequally ,to protest in a peaceful manner and not retort with violence. On the contrary, You then have leaders who would rather lead by example. Work from the shadows in a way. They aren't typically as outgoing and vocal, but gets tasks done. They are often more independent and sets the example by their actions and work ethic. People would look up to them simply because of their work ethic and results that these individuals bring to the table. However, the best of the best out there, not just talking business, but all areas of life.

The best leaders are the ones who are not only able to just foresee a vision and achieve it, but one who can duplicate and create other leaders in the process.  Imagine yourself being able to duplicate yourself throughout your organization or sports team, a team full of good quality leaders who are all on the same page. Everything from production to chemistry improves across the board. It is almost like you are leveraging your efforts in a way through duplication and development of new and upcoming leaders. It is definitely an overall win for the organization.



-Calvin Jordan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/calvin-jordan-754573109/

Just Do It! Politics or Business?

“Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything” came from the most polarizing player in sports after the company, Nike ,featured Colin Kaepernick on their 30th anniversary ad campaign. By doing this, Nike is the center of attention on a serious controversial issue, a position that most companies have sought to avoid due to the negative impact that it can potentially have on their business.

Drafted in 2011, Kaepernick has long been a Nike brand ambassador. Kaepernick’s first public kneel was during the playing of the national anthem in 2016 to protest police brutality and mistreatment of people of color by authority figures when he played for the San Francisco 49ers. This protest not only started a trend of players across the nation ,through all levels competition, taking a knee, but also raised a din in American culture, sparking huge debates in sports,politics,business, and even entertainment. It has been two years since Kaepernick played an NFL game and the topic is still being discussed today. This led to the nation being divided into supporters and non supporters. People reacted to his protest with everything from Boycotts from the NFL to full-out support. The current President of the United States even spoke on this topic on his campaign trail, as critics began to exploit the protest for being disrespectful and unpatriotic to the US flag. After Kaepernick stopped playing for the 49ers, he filed a grievance against NFL owners under the league’s collective bargaining agreement. They stated that, “they colluded to deprive him of unemployment rights in retaliation for his leadership and advocacy for equality and social justice and his bringing awareness to peculiar institutions still undermining racial equality in the United States”.

Ok, so what does all of this have to do with the actual business itself? Well when Nike first Air’d their new ad, Many people were upset by this and started to throw out, burn, and cut their Nike gear. The #BoycottNike was trending on Twitter and Jon Rich, who is from the country band Big and Rich, tweeted,” Our Soundman just cut the Nike swoosh off his socks. Former marine. Get ready @Nike multiply that by the millions”. Bloomberg reports did show that Nike shares did slip as much as 3.9% in the early stages of this Ad.However, just a few days later , reports showed that Nike cap was at an all time high. This does not just directly affect Nike as a business, but all of the other businesses that sell Nike in their stores and have partnerships with the company. They all get negatively affected if more non-supporters  emerge than supporters. So this was a huge business decision to make for the company. However, it is not unprecedented for Nike to take a political stand on an issue. NIke had an “Equality” campaign in 2017 in which the company donated to numerous organizations and highlighted issues like the representation of the LGBTQ, Native Americans, and Aboriginal communities.

It is hard to recall the last time a big company made a marketing decision as complex as Nike just did with this one. Therefore, Nike decision was not only just a business decision, but a political one as well. This decision by NIke was a difficult managerial (upper level) decision. It certainly involved risk, uncertainty, and conflict , all which are characteristics of managerial decision making. The reason why the decision was risky is for obvious reasons. Nike could have potentially loss a lot of their customer base due to the appearance of Colin on NIke’s ad. Even the president of the United States spoke out against this issue and disagreed with the kneeling at the national anthem. It is a very touchy subject, and was extremely risky. It could be safe to say that Nike management team was definitely a little uncertain of the commercial ad and had some sort of conflict before finally reaching a mutual agreement to launch the project. It took a lot of research and understanding to figure out whether or not the advertisement would have a negative or positive impact on the company. Millions of people tune in on Sunday nights to watch NFL football. That is a lot of eyes , and when people see players choosing to take a knee for the national anthem rather than stand, they either support it or disagree with it. Nike struggle was to understand the society as a Macro, and determine if the ratio was in their favor or not.

This was a huge move for Nike and I believe that it will elevate their company far past other competitors. Nike has a strong reputation for doing the right thing and will always back their athletes no matter the pigment of your skin or your gender. They are always trending on social media, and are starting to reach business platforms as well. The question I have is, do they really stand for social justice and equality for all, or is this just an act to make them more money in the long run for looking like the “nice guys” who did the right thing despite all odds?