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The traditional branding paradigm involved heavy upfront investment and tightly managing the image via controlled communications in hopes of creating dominant brands that could be leveraged to cultivate loyalty and a long-term, steady stream of profits. However, social media can drastically alter consumers' behavior and their brand preferences. This rapidly evolving landscape has left managers at a loss, and what they are experiencing is likely the beginning of a tectonic shift in the way brands are managed. In this article, we take a close look at the building blocks of branding and also examine the core of social media. After careful analysis of the two, we discuss the likely impact social media will have on the practice of brand management. We conclude that it will extend beyond the narrow confines of the use of social media as a message platform, to the core of how markets are targeted and products are delivered. We make recommendations regarding how companies can manage various facets of branding in this new marketplace.

Since 2006, Alcatel-Lucent, an international telecommunications equipment manufacturer based in Paris, France, has been conducting boot camps for its employees to provide business training and help them monetize their innovative ideas with a view to creating value for the company. The program has led to 32 projects of which two have been commercialized, three transferred to business units within Alcatel-Lucent and one spun off. In 2012, however, the boot camps were discontinued due to a cost reduction program aimed at making the company cash-flow positive. Now, in June 2014, after a change in top management and a desire to regain the innovative edge against its competition has revived the idea, the company’s director of Open Innovation & Intrapreneurship is facing three dilemmas: how to reconcile the big business intolerance for failure with failure-prone intrapreneurship, how to design a forward-looking component into intrapreneurship and how to change the design and architecture of the boot camp in its new edition.

Since 2006, Alcatel-Lucent, an international telecommunications equipment manufacturer based in Paris, France, has been conducting boot camps for its employees to provide business training and help them monetize their innovative ideas with a view to creating value for the company. The program has led to 32 projects of which two have been commercialized, three transferred to business units within Alcatel-Lucent and one spun off. In 2012, however, the boot camps were discontinued due to a cost reduction program aimed at making the company cash-flow positive. Now, in June 2014, after a change in top management and a desire to regain the innovative edge against its competition has revived the idea, the company's director of Open Innovation & Intrapreneurship is facing three dilemmas: how to reconcile the big business intolerance for failure with failure-prone intrapreneurship, how to design a forward-looking component into intrapreneurship and how to change the design and architecture of the boot camp in its new edition.

In July 2012, a senior manager in the corporate strategy team of General Electric (GE) was wondering what changes he should recommend for its strategic plans in the MENAT region (the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey and Pakistan). First, the senior corporate strategist wanted to get a better understanding of how regional management had succeeded in growing its business despite the barriers it had faced, such as political instability, difficulties in dealing with family-owned firms with affiliate relationships, and institutional corruption. Second, given predictions of sluggish growth in developed markets, it was clear that GE MENAT would be an increasingly large part of GE's revenue base. The key challenge was how to continue to sustain GE MENAT's growth rate while maintaining the high corporate standards for which GE was known.

Rocket Internet, a unique technology incubator based in Germany, invests in and develops startups in Europe and emerging markets that are versions of successful technology firms primarily located in the United States, such as eBay, Zappos, Amazon and Groupon. Fundamentally, the company seeks to reduce the uncertainty of entrepreneurial startup ventures by imitating proven business models and replicating them in other geographic regions. Rocket Internet has recently begun to expand into emerging markets more aggressively, and its chief executive officer must now decide on the best strategy to continue the firm’s global expansion.

An entrepreneur and co-founder of a private, non-deposit-taking, non-bank financial firm in Africa took his company public following a decade of phenomenal growth and strong performance. Established in an era when the traditional financial institutions would not grant credit to small and medium enterprises, the company successfully pioneered a wide variety of unique services in the non-bank financial services industry. Capitalizing on the failure of formal institutions to meet the needs of the informal sector, the entrepreneur had achieved organic growth by providing short-term loans and complementary services to customers in the neglected segment of the financial services market. The image of a high-performing company, coupled with the successful initial public offering surpassing all expectations, put tremendous pressure on the company to continue to grow the enterprise and deliver superior performance. To obtain substantial funds from the investing public, the onus is on the entrepreneur to select and pursue an appropriate strategy to keep the enterprise on a growth trajectory.

Crypton Future Media, a music software company based in Sapporo, Japan, developed Hatsune Miku (HM), a singing voice synthesizer software program (Vocaloid). Users entered lyrics and melodies to create songs, which were then sung by Hatsune Miku, a 16-year-old female virtual singer featured on the software packaging.<br><br>Initially targeting professionals, HM unexpectedly caught on among amateurs who produced music, lyrics, artwork and videos, which they shared via websites such as YouTube, Nico Nico Douga and Crypton's Piapro. Users often worked collaboratively, and by March 2014, Miku had over 110,000 released songs, 170,000 uploaded videos, 1,000,000 created artworks and nearly two million Facebook "likes." Miku's popularity led to international media coverage and numerous new business opportunities for Crypton. She held sold out "live" concerts worldwide, starred in her own video game series produced by SEGA Games and was "hired" to advertise for companies including Toyota, Google and Domino's Pizza.<br><br>Six years after the initial launch, Crypton and its chief executive officer were faced with a series of challenges related to the future development of their virtual idol and the businesses that grew around her.

This note draws on academic work, as well as social and economic data across several countries, to provide a basic understanding of some of the differences among capitalist systems. It begins with a description of the system of capitalism, and characteristics that to a greater or lesser degree are universally shared. It then moves to describing two models of "comparative capitalism," as well as examining state capitalism. Finally, for additional perspective the note provides cross-sectional and time-series data for social, economic and political metrics for five different capitalist systems - China, Germany, Japan, Sweden and the United States.

Global consumption of petroleum products stood at just more than 90 million barrels per day by the end of 2013, and was expected to increase to 91 million or more by the end of 2014. Petroleum companies were constantly exploring the planet for new oil reserves to meet this voracious demand for fossil fuels. Because three-quarters of the earth was water, it was evident that these oil reserves were largely underwater; however, until the end of 2013, very few players had explored this opportunity. Although reaching deep-water drilling sites posed various challenges - environmental, political, technological, etc. - offshore exploration was the future of the oil and gas industry.Because of its very successful campaigns, Cairn India was ideally positioned for offshore exploration. Capturing and capitalizing on the opportunity of offshore exploration would give it an edge, but the question remained: Would it be better to gain the prime mover advantage or wait for other players to start the process so that it could learn from others' mistakes and reap benefits later?

In December 2013 a group of angry protesters blocked one of the commuter bus provided by the large Silicon Valley firms (known as "Google buses") which was stopped in San Francisco on its way to the company's headquarters 40 miles south. The protests were a tangible manifestation of the sharp increase in tensions between citizens upset with changes they saw in San Francisco and the "techies" and technology companies they held responsible for the disappearing middle class, increased homelessness, languishing public education, and a sense of departure from the unique culture and values of the city's past. This case explores some of the substantial economic inequality problems facing San Francisco, and how much responsibility for creating or exacerbating the problems rests with the government, technology firms, their employees, and the nature of capitalism, among others. It also allows for discussion of what technology firms and the "techies" might do to help alleviate the problem.

Just before the celebration of the 2014 Chinese Lunar New Year, Tencent, the world's fourth largest Internet company, launched a mobile application for its popular WeChat platform: the Red Envelope. By clicking on a virtual red envelope icon, gifts of money could be sent to or received from friends and family to celebrate this special occasion. Combining a Chinese cultural tradition with modern social networks, this simple initiative soon became a major milestone in China's mobile market. It brought more than eight million users to Tencent's WeChat Payment platform in the first eight days after the New Year, helping the company break the barrier of mobile payment adoption among its vast user base and giving it a significant advantage in the country’s competitive mobile payment market. This somewhat unexpected, record-making success, also made many companies rethink how to survive and thrive in China's rapidly growing technology sector.

Starting with a small pilot centre in Hyderabad in 2010, a chain of quality dialysis centres had grown to 25 centres by mid-2014, with plans to expand to 100 by 2017. As they planned for this growth, the three co-founders had several questions with respect to NephroPlus's business model, partners, staff, systems, processes and culture playing on their minds. With the threat of competition looming large, they knew that they had to work hard to achieve both high quality and affordability as they continued with their fast-paced growth.

Although 46 similar products were on the market when Intuit launched Quicken, in 1983, it immediately became the market leader in personal finance software and has held that position for three decades. That's because Quicken was so well designed that using it is intuitive. But by the time Smith became CEO, in 2008, the company had become overly focused on adding incremental features that delivered ease of use but not delight. What was missing was an emotional connection with customers. He and his team set out to integrate design thinking into every part of Intuit. They changed the layout of the office, reduced the number of cubes, and added more collaboration spaces and places for impromptu work. They increased the number of designers by nearly 600% and now hold quarterly design conferences. They bring in people who have created exceptionally designed products, such as the Nest thermostat and the Kayak travel website, to share insights with Intuit employees. The company acquired one start-up, called Mint, and collaborates with another, called ZenPayroll, to improve customer experience. Although most people don't think of financial software as a category driven by emotion or design, Smith writes, Intuit's D4D ("design for delight") program has paid off. For example, its SnapTax app, inspired by consumers' migration to smartphones, led one user to write, "I want this app to have my babies."

Seeking and giving advice are central to effective leadership and decision making, and they require emotional intelligence, self-awareness, restraint, diplomacy, and patience on both sides. But managers tend to view these competencies as "gifts" that one either has or lacks. The authors argue instead that they're practical skills you can learn and apply to great effect. They draw on a large body of research to identify the most common obstacles to effectively seeking and giving advice--such as thinking one already has the answers, defining the problem poorly, and overstepping boundaries--and offer practical guidelines for getting past them. The authors define the five stages of advising: (1) finding the right fit; (2) developing a shared understanding; (3) crafting alternatives; (4) converging on a decision; and (5) putting advice into action. Each stage includes suggestions for seekers and for advisers. Example: At stage 4, when it's time to narrow down the options, a seeker might review discarded or briefly considered ideas, and his adviser might play devil's advocate--to check for confirmation bias. Overall, the authors' guidelines amount to a fundamental shift in approach: a creative, collaborative way of understanding problems and crafting promising paths forward--which often requires an ongoing conversation.

For organizations to prosper, managers in the middle ranks must feel empowered to identify and promote the need for change. People at this level gather valuable intelligence from direct contact with customers, suppliers, and colleagues; they can often see when the market is ripe for a certain offering, for instance, or spot signs that a partnership won't work. But for many reasons, ranging from a fear of negative consequences to compliance with a top-down culture, they may not voice their ideas and concerns--and even when they do, they often struggle to persuade the people at the top. The authors studied "issue selling" in a range of organizations, roles, and industries, identifying seven tactics associated with success. Managers should (1) tailor their pitch to the goals, values, and knowledge of decision makers; (2) frame the issue to show how it supports a strategic goal; (3) manage emotions (their own and their audience's); (4) get the timing right by, say, attending to a boss's preoccupations or watching larger trends; (5) involve others, both in and out of their networks; (6) adhere to organizational norms, such as how leaders prefer to receive information; and (7) suggest solutions, or at least propose ways to find one. Issue selling is an ongoing process that requires groundwork and patience. Midlevel managers who do it effectively get decision makers' attention and make a real difference in their organizations.

All too often, when we think we're projecting a certain image to others, they perceive us very differently. This happens in part because people tend to make judgments unconsciously and automatically, influenced by various biases. But research from social psychologists can help us understand the flaws in human perception and make sure we're judged fairly. According to the author, someone meeting you for the first time--or reassessing you later--is likely to be viewing you through various lenses: the "trust lens," to decide if you are friend or foe, the "power lens," to assess your usefulness, and the "ego lens," to confirm a sense of superiority. Halvorson suggests specific ways you can use this information to put your best foot forward. To be trusted, project warmth and competence. To appeal to someone more powerful, demonstrate your instrumentality in reaching his or her goals. And to be seen positively through another person's ego lens, be modest and inclusive. If you need to overcome a bad impression, you can complement these strategies with others that will make people want to revise their opinions of you. By thinking strategically about how we all form our impressions, you'll find it much easier to come across as you intend and be seen in a favorable light.

The Australian-born industrial designer likes to have direct access to clients' CEOs and needs to shut himself away for his creative work. His extensive travels have taught him that "design is a borderless occupation."

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. How do people process different inputs and make complicated decisions? Researchers have long sought to shed increased light on the inner workings of the human brain and how people process different inputs and make complicated decisions. The topic is of particular interest to managers. This article reviews a selection of recent articles from academic journals. The researchers examined the following topics related to decision making: •How "psychological distancing"can mitigate the negative effects of information overload; •How greater ambidexterity -- the ability to switch between practices supporting "exploitation"of familiar options and "exploration"of new ones -- can lead to better decision-making performance; •How well-designed decision default rules can lead to desirable outcomes; •How allowing one's mind to wander can lead to as much satisfaction with one's choices as controlled methods; •How seeking advice affects perceptions about competence; •And how people tend to overemphasize past performance in creating expectations for the future.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Globalization has made anticipating disruptions and managing them when they occur more challenging. Although companies originally moved production offshore to countries such as India and China to take advantage of lower labor costs, events such as Iceland's 2010 volcanic eruption and the Japanese tsunami in 2011 have shown that the vulnerabilities of extended supply chains are real and serious. Lean supply-chain practices, designed to keep costs low in a stable business environment, can increase risk levels during disruptions due to the lack of buffer capacity. While companies tend to focus on the supply side of their supply chains when scanning for potential risk factors, they also need to pay attention to the customer side. Approaches to risk management such as enterprise risk management (ERM) and business continuity management (BCM) can help companies avoid supply-chain disruptions and recover normal operations quickly. But in the authors'view, they rely too heavily on risk identification when many of the risks are unpredictable or unknowable before the fact. They also depend on statistical information that may not exist and address each risk independently. Finally, they are predicated on the goal of returning to a stable operating condition. Based on their work with a number of companies, including fashion retailer L Brands Inc. (formerly known as Limited Brands), Dow Chemical, Johnson & Johnson and Unilever, the authors present a comprehensive framework for assessing supply-chain vulnerabilities and addressing them through enhanced resilience capabilities. The framework, which they call Supply Chain Resilience Assessment and Management (SCRAM), is based on an explicit characterization and prioritization of the vulnerabilities that make an organization susceptible to disruptions, and the capabilities that help an organization anticipate and overcome disruptions.

Since the establishment of the first Meizhou Dongpo Restaurant in Beijing in 1996, Wang Gang and his wife Liang Di have opened more than 100 chain restaurants in China and foreign countries, and set up the group headquarters, logistics center, R&D center and central kitchen. Meizhou Dongpo has grown into one of the most stable large catering enterprises in China. The enterprise entered the stage of rapid development in 2000. Meizhou Dongpo Group has annual operating revenue of over RMB 1.8 billion, accumulative consumers of over 20 million persons-times and more than 8,000 employees. Meizhou Dongpo has transformed its small-restaurant operation model at beginning into present operation model of large catering group chain. Wang Gang believed Meizhou Dongpo must take the path of standardization to become a large-scale Chinese cuisine chain enterprise. Standardized management has always been the most important development strategy at Meizhou Dongpo. Wang Gang accelerated the standardized management of Meizhou Dongpo after 2000, realizing production and processing standardization, management standardization and service standardization. The year 2013 was important to Meizhou Dongpo. On December 18, 2013, Meizhou Dongpo Beverly Restaurant in Los Angeles was opened, and "Wangjiadu" series products of Meizhou Dongpo were also sold at various supermarkets in the U.S., marking a step of internationalization taken by Meizhou Dongpo. Regular chain, standardization strategy and international development are priorities of this case.