One of my professors seized on the start-up’s inability to articulate a clear value proposition to its users. I don’t believe that it matters, but apparently he did because I’m now going to fail the class. Twitter isn’t so much a service with a specific value proposition as it is a platform for all sorts of services. It is a way to search what people are saying right now. It is a way to communicate and converse with a group of people using your phone. It is way for companies to share information with their employees easily in real time. Yes, it’s a microblogging service too.
I’m not a particularly huge fan of Twitter and don’t derive much value from it, but I think I’m on the wrong side of the fence on this issue. But at least I’m closer to the fence than my professor. “Value proposition” and similar terms are the exact thing that made me cringe when I considered going to business school. Now that I’m in business school, they make me want to vomit. They’re often irrelevant in the way that businesses conceive of products to reach potential audiences, especially in the world of web 2.0 with modular applications and platforms. Quite simply, if users find something valuable, they’ll pay for it with time or money, if not both. Will people pay for Twitter? We’ll see. Whether its owners can articulate the reason is beside the point.
MBA BS Marketing, stupidity, Twitter, value propositions
Someone at the University of Hawaii posted this Harvard Business paper online. It says “DO NOT COPY” all over it, but is still totally readable and will save you a valuable $6.95. Also, unlike the version you would buy from Harvard, this version doesn’t expire in six months. (Unfortunately, the “DO NOTE COPY” watermark doesn’t expire either.)
MBA Uncategorized business plans, Harvard, HBS
You could buy this case from the Harvard Business website for $6.95, or you could just download it here DRM-free from Stanford’s site.
MBA Uncategorized Case Studies, GSB, HBS, Stanford
Really, that’s what my professor told the class: you go after them with baseball bats. Beforehand, however, you must become allies with the local police, who will then guard your home from retaliation.
Other methods for busting the union involve inciting a strike and then hiring enough scabs to have the union decertified, bankrupting one of your subsidiaries–which allows a judge to void your collective bargaining agreement–or, finally, going offshore.
In preparation for a strike, it’s important to be near rails, where you can transport goods during a trucker’s strike. Another transportation method is to use non-unionized, private trucking companies. They are very expensive, and your striking union workers will likely slash their tires. However, the private truckers often carry guns.
That’s all from one class.
MBA BS baseball bats, scabs, strikes, unionization, unions