MBA Geek

It’s interesting to see how new products evolve, sometimes out of innovation, sometimes out of a gap in the market. It’s particularly interesting when the gap in the market is artificial, created by legislation that couldn’t even have been conceived a few years earlier. Take for example, the e cigarette market. It’s highly unlikely that unless legislation was created that stopped people from smoking indoors, this market would never have really materialised. Instead today, the market is booming and new products keep getting developed all the time to extend it.

I’ve never really seen one of these, but I’m curious to think what a real smoker thinks of them. Are the adequate in times of need, or are they just a fad?

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Mavenlink. All opinions are 100% mine.

Have you ever heard how great communication is the pathway to success? Well, one advantage of the online world is that there are a number of tools that can help companies and consultants manage their interactions with each other, with clients and with other third parties. One such platform is Mavenlink, an online cooperative workspace provided as a hosted service which can be accessed just anywhere. Mavenlink is designed to help you through the complete lifecycle of your projects, from lead generation, all the way to providing invoicing capabilities and showing off you completed projects to potential clients.

The website is free to try for 30 days, so you don’t even need a credit card to check it out. After that there are 3 different tiers of service you can opt for. There’s a free service that lets you create 1 project. You can invite unlimited participants, but not have another project. The top tier costs $39 per month lets you have unlimited projects and 5 users on the system. Which package you go for depends on what volume of work you intend to use it for.

If all this sounds like it might interest you, go ahead and check out Mavenlink. It might change the way you work and deal with your clients.

Have you realised how many outlets put so many tempting right next to their check out? Well, the whole purpose besides point of purchase displays is that they work on your base desires. It’s called impulse buying; the urge to buy something you hadn’t originally planned to purchase and a lot of retailers make use of this to boost their sales.

So, whether it’s chocolates, booze or cigarettes down at your convenience store, or pretty knick knacks at the haberdashery, just keep in mind that they’re probably things you hadn’t planned to buy, so why would you buy them at all?

The GPS market is an example of how market leaders cannot sit on their laurels. If you had to ask someone who the leaders in the GPS field were six months ago, they would have mentioned Garmin and TomTom. However, a few months ago, Google entered the market offering free turn-by-turn navigation on their phones, followed by Nokia giving away navigation software for their phones. Have a look at Garmin’s 6 month stock graph and see if you can spot when that happened:

Regardless of which market you operate in, whether you are in the business of selling toasters or searching for the best auto insurance quote around, just because you’re the market leader, there’s no reason to suspend innovation. Everything can change from one day to the next.

This recession has dealt a fatal blow to a number of different companies all around the globe. But it’s interesting to see that some sectors are effected more than others. For example, companies that use lots of gearing are particularly exposed to this climate, as money is in short supply. Companies producing real goods are less exposed, but again; it depends on what they are selling. Companies operating in niche markets, like low cost items like bags, or high value items, like oximeters operate in a market that is still exhibiting demand. Mid range items tend to be a bit more exposed; they don’t have the appeal to retain their value and when consumers are looking to save, they switch to lower cost items.

How is YOUR company doing in this recession?