My operations management coursework was based on the ECCO A/S – Global Value Chain Management case study which is an interesting paper on ECCO A/S (ECCO) who have been very successful in the footwear industry by focusing on production technology and assuring quality by maintaining full control of the entire value chain from “cow to shoe.”. ECCO [...]
Do you adapt or redesign your business model for the Internet?
I follow mma, which for those of you that do not know it is a very new sport that has only been popular for about 10 years. After watching UFC 134 at the weekend it dawned on me that its development has a lot in common with the Internet which is a relatively new technology . In mma [...]
Reflections on my MBA first year at Cass business school
My friend Richard has an excellent blog called Cass Reflections if you have not read it, you should, he has an excellent writing style that draws you in. His blog inspired me to write a reflection of the first year of my executive MBA at Cass business school. What I have learned about an MBA [...]
Working with and leading multicultural teams
I am off to consult in Brazil next week so I have been brushing up on how to work effectively with multicultural teams. Most people recognise the value of diverse teams in terms of delivering more varied viewpoints and ideas, but in order to lead effectively you need to take into account cultural differences. The right start A face-to-face [...]
Strategy and the parenting advantage
The only way an MBA is worth the price is if you apply the teaching to your professional life. I had a superb lecturer for strategy II, Dr Paul Raspin, he created a lot of value with his teaching and I captured that value by charging my clients to put that knowledge into action. A recent [...]
Cass MBA exams: A new way of revising in the 21st century
I have just finished my last set of exams at Cass business school for my MBA, phew! Big sigh of relief! I have had a few days to reflect on what I did well and what I could have improved on it suddenly dawned on me how much my exam revision technique has changed. When [...]
Google Chrome, changing browsers and changing behaviours
Due to a bug in Firefox 4 I recently moved my default browser over to Google Chrome and I have been really impressed. Chrome does everything just a bit better; it is a bit faster, a bit easy to use, a bit cleaner with the interface, all of these add up to a big overall [...]
Betfair IPO transaction analysis
For my finance coursework we had to analyse a IPO transaction from the last twelve months. This was one of my favourite assignments to date as Betfair is such an interesting company with a fascinating finance history. In the early days of online betting exchange market, there were two major players: Betfair and Flutter. Flutter [...]
Analysing Betfair’s business model
Introduction to Betfair Andrew Black, a one-time professional gambler, and Edward Wray an ex-JPMorgan derivatives trader founded Betfair in August 1999. Today Betfair is the world’s largest international online sports betting company and the world’s biggest betting community. The company has over three million registered users who bet on sports events and play online games [...]
Blue ocean strategy vs. Porter’s five forces
Are you a five-forces disciple or a blue-ocean enthusiast? I.e. Do you try to dominate existing markets or try to create new ones? Basic economics models state that if an industry is profitable then new companies will enter the market and increase competition, thus driving down profits to marginal cost (where everyone more or less breaks [...]