BUS3500 Week 1

The interesting from the introduction in this class was learning about the  four Huntsman School of Business Pillars. I had never even heard of them prior to this class.


In class I found out that we have to set up accounts in Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn. In addition to setting up these accounts, we were told that we needed to start a blog. So therein lies the main reason for this blog.


A few points stood out from the reading. They are certainly things that I'll try to remember. The first was illustrated by a study that showed if customer attrition was reduced by 5 to 10 % a 75% increase in profits could potentially be realized.


Second, we learned about the market orientation. Netflix was a company we talked about in the case study. The founder was shocked at his $40 dollar late fee and got the idea to start Netflix. To me it served a need that the customers wanted.


Third, along with the Netflix case there was one other thing that I found to be very interesting. Empowerment, I loved reading about the idea of empowerment. Empowerment means giving employees a small budget or authority to make the customer happy. This ability to spend money without permission to make the customer happy not only achieves that goal but it also gives the employee a sense of ownership. The sense of ownership that the employee feels leads to hard work, accountability of the employees actions and self management. It gives employees a vested interest in the success of the company. A win for all parties involved.  


Lastly, to me, customer satisfaction was the main emphasis of this chapter. Creating value for the customer and providing what they want. Long term relationships are very important part of building a great company. In fact 80% of Starbucks business is from it's loyal customers. (Those who make approximately 18 visits per month to the store) As Prof. Allen stated "a one time sale isn't very profitable."