Blog 7 – ethical insight

Blog 7 – ethical insight

Ethics is a difficult subject. It reflects every aspect of our decisions. A definition of ethics is given by merriam-webster.com, “rules of behavior based on ideas about what is morally good and bad”. The thing that makes ethics so difficult, is the line between right and wrong, because the line sometime is so thin. This subject is especially interesting because it reflects both individuals and firms. Some people think that firms have les responsibility to be ethical, but I think that everybody has a responsibility to be ethical and I don’t believe it when people say that it is all about making money for the firm and that it is impossible to connect those. And if money is power, then firms have the power to change a lot and behave accordantly. I have often heard people saying that the well being of our world or the individual is to big an issue to be something a firm should handle, but I will try discussing what they could do and what the consequences will be if they don’t.

Lets start with kids. The article about Teen and Tween beauty has a headline saying, “How can marketers capture the attention of the distracted teen and tween audience?”( Romanowski, 2013, p.2). This show how badly marketers want to understand their customers and that is not necessary a bad thing, it is important to understand the need of the customer and be able to meet them. But when are you trying to understand them and when are you crossing the line of privacy. It just makes it more important when it is children they want to influence. If we teach the children that it is okay to gather information about people and use it for your own good, then that is what they will grow up with and believe is the right thing. Ethics is not fixed believes they change and is decided by the majority of people.
For example CoverGirl launched its line of NatureLuxe products, it encouraged viewers of its TV ad to visit its Facebook page in order to get free samples and they also work together with Americas Top Model. This is all to get the Tweens and Teens attention. They can influence the children to believe you have to wear makeup and look like a model to be pretty, which can be damaging for a child. There has been a lot of talk about children’s self-esteem in the beauty world, but it still haven’t really changed and I believe this is a ethical problem that you can actually do something about.   

Companies also uses other medias to collect data, for example the new technology with a mannequin who is collecting data for the shop about the customers. This is exactly the line between right and wrong that is so difficult to find. I think that it crosses the line as soon as it can recognize the customer and collect data about the person without the person knowing it. And even though that is where I think the line is, it is said in the article “The golden ticket is getting to the point where they’ve got my details, they know what I bought last time I came in.” (Roberts, 2012, p.3). This will increase the customer service, but I think it is all about how much information about you there is out there, if people now what you will do before you even know it yourself it becomes scary. I also think that people allow more and more of this kind of information gathering. Social media does it now, if I made a search about some sport shoes and then go in to my facebook account the adds it suggest for me is sport shoes, if I go from in a relationship to single, there is suddenly adds for netdating on my account. It all shows how transparent our lives are.

This transparency goes from both companies to individuals. The Documentary Blood in the Mobile shows the connection between our phones and the civil war in the Congo. The documentary got spread really fast and made awareness about how companies have to be aware of their suppliers. Social media and the collecting of data it makes possible can have a negative side for companies. If it got known that for example Nike were collecting data by secretly filming people, and finding more information afterward on the internet by breaking the privacy of the individual, it would spread fast. This shows that ethics is also easier to control now because it is so easy to find out if people are breaking the ethical rules. But I also believe that ethics is changing because of how easy information gathering is and our own sharing of information through social media. 

bloodinthemobile

Blog 5 - Visualizing insights

Blog 5 – Visualizing insights

I have chosen to look at food trucks because it is a very difficult field. Most people only eat there if they pas and they have prejudice about the cleanness and health of food trucks that makes it harder for the trucks to get costumer. But on the other hand, food trucks are fast and something many people chose for lunch.

I also find food trucks inspiring because we don’t have them in Denmark, so it is exciting to have to understand a product that is so new to me. I will try to show why people buy food at the trucks in a illustrative way.

Buying

One of the main problems that this graph shows is that 43% don’t buy food because of lack of food trucks in there environment, it tells us that not many people would go to a food truck for only the purpose of going there, which is shown in more depth in the next graph. And further there is 33% who knows where the trucks are but haven’t purchased in the last 12-month.

Buying behavior:

Buying behavior shows even further how difficult it is for food trucks. It is only 5% that plan their consumptions for buying at food trucks and 31% only buy if they walk by it. This emphasizes how big a factor convenience is for the costumer. But on the other hand there is 20% that buy because of graving, so it means that the food trucks have the ability to differentiate themselves to the taste of the customer.

Weakness/Strength

Weaknesses and strengths are often very close linked, what is a weakness for one food truck may be an opportunity or strength for another one. That is why some of the columns are the same to show how it is both.

The first column show how it is both a strength and a weakness that people only buy when they walk by, this means that a good location means a lot and that it is really important to find a way to get people to want to go to the food truck even thought it is not on the way.

16% of people don’t go because of lack of cleanliness in the food trucks; this is an opportunity for the food trucks that get known for being clean because 51% say it’s among top 3 of reasons to visit.

9% don’t go to food trucks because they think they are not fresh and of low quality and 16% say that healthfulness is really important. This shows again how a weakness could become a strength.

There is a paradox in the food truck industry, people want it to go fast but at the same time they don’t use the Internet for ordering or payment. That is why it is so important that the food trucks are fast when people go, else it can become a weakness. In the same category is how easy the food is to eat, if it is impossible to walk with many people skip it because convenience is such an important factor.

What people prefer:

This circle explains even further what people prefer and what they go after when they buy food.

Heard about food trucks:
Most people hear about the food trucks from other people, 21%. As shown above not many use the Internet when they have to purchase or pay and the same counts for finding the food trucks. Where only 6% follows food truck online and only 11% share there stories about the food places on social media sites. This makes an opportunity if people start using the Internet for finding food trucks and the food trucks at the same times makes it easier to find them.

Blog 4 – Business Model Analysis Report

Blog 4 – Business Model Analysis Report

Novozymes

Give me a brief description of the company:

Novozymes history started in 1921 where people discovered how to extract insulin from animals for human use. In 1925 Harald and Thorvald Pedersen founded Novo Terapeutisk Laboratorium. That lead to the first factory in 1935 and in 1947 Svend Frederiksen discovered a way of extracting both insulin and enzymes from the same pancreas, which lead to the first patent. When Novo reached year 1974 there shares got on the Copenhagen stock exchange and they where the first Scandinavian firm to get on New York stock exchange in 1981. Novo and Nordisk merged and became Novo Nordisk in 1989. In 2000 Novo Nordisk got split into three independent companies: Novo Nordisk A/S, Novozymes A/S and Novo A/S.

Novozymes is a biotech company with headquarters in Denmark. They have 5,800 employees and 6,000 patents. Novozymes market share in the global marked was 47% in 2011.

There focus is enzyme production and the core business is divided into 3 different areas: industrial enzymes, microorganisms, and biopolymers. The industrial enzymes are used in household care enzymes, food and beverage enzymes, bioenergy and feed enzymes, and other technical enzymes. Microorganism is used for institutional and household cleaning, wastewater treatment, aquaculture, and bioagriculture. The last area is biopolymers which is mostly used for pharmaceutical and biomedical use.
Novozymes is further world leader in bioinnovation, which means that they believe that biotechnology can make everyday products sustainably.

Why is this company interesting to you? 

There are 2 reasons why I choose Novozymes. First Denmark is known for there medical center called Medicon Valley, it is one of the leading research places for cancer, diabetes, neuroscience, inflammation and infectious diseases. Medicon Valley started because of the interplay between businesses, hospitals, universities, and public research institutions. Because all the different intermediaries are located closely there is knowledge sharing, innovation, and an interest for intelligent and bright workers to come. I find it really inspiring to work in an environment that is constantly changing and where you have to be the first with the new ideas to be able to compete. It also gives a security that if you find your job getting boring you just have to cross the street to find a new firm.   

The second reason I have chosen Novozymes is because I have always liked biology, but even though I truly considered studying medicine or biology it just didn’t feel like the right way for me to go. Where business was something I could se doing and working with, but at the same time I still miss biology. If I could work in a place where you find new and sustainably ways to make our planet work I would be inspired every day I went to work. I find it truly inspiring how you can make the nature, in and around us, to become something to use in different everyday products and use it in a sustainably way.

Who are the 3 to 4 primary customer segments that are most important or that you are most interested in analyzing in this report?

One of the biggest costumers are the ones who uses enzymes in there production of food and beverage this include a lot of different companies. One of the uses of enzymes are in the production of beer based on barley at Harboe, a Danish brewery company. Novozymes are also selling enzymes to baking companies who uses the enzymes to ensure that the bread keeps being soft. These companies are very dependent on the enzymes to be delivered precisely because they work with product that gets to old fast and need to be handled with care.  

 

Another big costumer segment is the ones who use microorganism for cleaning. Novozymes has for example replaced oil based ingredients and non renewables with biological enzymes and microbial agents so the high performance cleaning solutions can be maintained for the costumers but at the same time it helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and conserve water. This costumer segment has a lot of restrictions and therefore it means a lot if they can decrease the pollutions that follow hard chemicals.

Pharmaceutical and biomedical costumers are also an important group. Novozymes is the world leader in recombinant products and technologies supplied to medical devices and drug delivery market.

One of the stakeholders that also could be categorized under costumers NGO’s. Novozymes have recently worked together with World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature to map where biosolutions could eliminate the first billion tons of CO2. I really find these consumers interesting because they also need the newest knowledge about what happens in the biological world if they want to change anything. So while they sometime is working against the big firms, they also needs them.

Please be sure to cite any sources that you use here.

Websites:

Medicon valley:

http://www.mediconvalley.com/content/us3/facts

(visit: 10/7/13)

Novozymes:

http://www.novozymes.com/en/Pages/default.aspx

(visit: 10/7/13)

Novozymes Annuels repport 2012:

http://report2012.novozymes.com

(visit: 10/8/13)

Børsen:

http://borsen.dk/nyheder/virksomheder/artikel/1/263080/novozymes-kunde_vokser_staerkt_paa_vaskemidler.html/?utm_source=relatedright

visit: 10/9/13)