business strategy | Cooler Insights

The Rise of the New East: Book Review

Ben Simpfendorfer of Silk Road Associates

Are China and India still the “factory” and “outsourced service provider” of the world? How big is the market for Muslim-friendly products and services? What are the promises and perils of trading in the East?

In a sweeping expose on the dynamic forces shaping the “New East”, Ben Simpfendorfer’s The Rise of the New East provides an in-depth view of how the economic resurgence of Asia and the Middle East are changing global markets. Spanning halfway round the globe – from Turkey to the United Arab Emirates to India, South East Asia and China – the book brings one on a fascinating tour of the complex business characteristics governing our neck of the woods.

June 3, 2014 • Content Marketing • 1 comment

Can marketing scale Maslow’s pyramid to achieve transcendence? (courtesy of Prakash Advani)

What is the real purpose of your product or your brand?

Does it meet a customer need? Solve their greatest problem? Eliminate a nagging pain? Or help them to be more productive?

The Death of the Music Album

March 30, 2014 • Business and Management • 1 comment

Katy Perry’s Prism isn’t getting off to a colourful start (courtesy of The Katy Perry Wiki)

Katy Perry is a global mega-star.

Her music videos on YouTube generate hundreds of million views (over 201 million for “Roar”). Her Facebook fan page has almost 60 million “likes”. Over 47 million followers worship her on Twitter. Her hits (like “Fireworks” and “Teenage Dream”) are so well known that anybody from school kids to grandparents are humming along to their melodies.

March 27, 2014 • Social Influence • 1 comment

Russian psychologist/psychiatrist Bluma Zeigarnik (source of image)

What do video gamers, book worms and waiters taking multiple orders have in common?

Well, they usually remember what they have not completed until the task is done. And then, it literally gets wiped out of their system.

Source of image

Catalysed by the ubiquitous social web, our lives are becoming inseparable from that of our networks. We are addicted to the constant online “strokes” delivered by our friends, and crave their likes, shares, comments and retweets.

Like it or loathe it, much of what happens in real life (IRL) is intimately intertwined to how we behave in the virtual world. And we’re lovin’ it.

Sustainability and Longevity

March 9, 2014 • Business and Management • no comments

Can your business outlast you? (courtesy of Ignorance is Bliss)

Who are the poster children of business success these days?

More often than not, they are innovators and iconoclasts like Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos. Companies like Google, Amazon, Apple and Starbucks are admired – and even worshipped – for their abilities to buck the trend and swim against conventional wisdom.

Can Small Really Become The New Big?

February 26, 2014 • Content Marketing • 2 comments

Courtesy of Chorus + Echo

I just read an interesting HBR blog post by Hemant Taneja on The Economies of Unscale. In the post, Taneja claimed that the advent of global manufacturing, trade, and the Internet have created a new playing field for small businesses.

Quoting from the post:

Are You Thinking in New Boxes?

February 23, 2014 • Business and Management • no comments

Courtesy of Applicant

We all know that the world is changing at a blinding pace. Yesteryear’s market leaders like Barnes & Noble, Kodak, Blockbuster and Tower Records fade away. Meanwhile, new business darlings like Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google take the stage.

Time and again, we’ve been told that if we don’t think “out-of-the-box” and reinvent our businesses, we will suffer the same untimely fate. The challenge, however, is how.