a) Provide a very brief summary of the case.

Monsanto is analyzing the Water Treatment Industry as a potential new market. They discuss in detail: applications, types of products, and services already provided during that time. The industry can be somewhat difficult to define. It seems better to determine the industry by the customer, in this case it is the end – user or consumer of the drinkable water. Then in 1999, as a result of increased demand for safe drinking water globally, Monsanto acquired a few firms that had experience in the water treatment industry, with specific knowledge and technologies, which subsequently would better enable Monsanto to break into the water treatment market and be competitive immediately by offering a broad complementary package of water treatment products and services.

b) Consider the domestic drinking water segment of Monsanto’s business. How best can that industry be defined? What are other ways of conceptualizing that industry? Will different conceptualizations lead to different strategies?

The domestic drinking water segment of the water treatment industry is extremely diverse and fragmented with many different firms operating in a wide variety of ways to get water into consumer’s hands. The case really breaks the drinking water segment down into two different categories, municipal and residential water treatment, the segments are determined by the delivery method to which consumers get drinkable water. Monsanto has already positioned themselves, through a series of acquisitions, to be on the clean water treatment side of the industry, as opposed to waste water treatment. More specifically, to easily compete in the municipal drinking water segment. Further development and focus is still needed on the residential water industry. For instance, Bottled water is considered a substitute for both municipal and residential water treatment products, but 1 in 4 bottles contains water from a municipal source. Furthermore, the bottled water industry has conglomerates from the beverage industry competing in the market. This signals to me that the domestic end user doesn’t mind as much about the delivery method of clean water, just so long as there is clean water available. Also of importance is the International markets, there is potential for greater growth globally it would seem, specifically, in the municipal water treatment industry through the sales of equipment and chemicals to treat water.

Keeping in mind also that the discovery of new water sources has been slowing down, a different way of conceptualizing the industry would be to consider water speculation and discovery. Monsanto could invest in R&D to pioneer new ways to find and collect clean water. This could develop into a much different strategy considering it could also include possible entry into the waste water treatment industry. There are also the geographic hurdles to getting drinking water to inhabitants to consider, and not all water treatment processes are best suited for every environment. Monsanto does have the advantage of operating in many different countries, and one possibility is to supplement its municipal water contracts is by also supplying bottling water, possibly turning a threat into a potential opportunity.

c) Pick the definition of the industry that is most appropriate above. In that industry, what are the three key drivers of success? Explain your answers.

The industry definition to best describe Monsanto’s water treatment segment is the clean water treatment industry. Key drivers of success would be vertical integration from water source to market, patent technologies, and consumer trust. Monsanto has the ability to transform an industry with the new acquisitions in patented technology. They want to touch that water as many times as possible in the treatment process, to let the water flow through its equipment. This means they should integrate the new technologies that they have acquired into the water treatment process, either by replacing older technologies, or integrating it into existing systems to work in conjunction with their chemical treatments plants. Furthermore, acquisition of water sources could play a key in developing competitive advantage.

NeoPets, Inc. Case Analysis

NeoPets, Inc. is an internet start-up that had struck gold in a time when many of its sister companies were feeling the pain of a market correction from asset hyper-inflation and subsequently shutting their doors. They clearly have the competitive advantage by being first to market with “immersive advertising”. Immersive Advertising is a key factor that has helped lead to their success over other online advertising firms that just used traditional banner and pop-up advertisements. Their website is #1 for “stickiness”. The data from Nielsen/Net Ratings showed the amount of time users spent on the site was over 7 hrs. So now, not only have they developed a new proprietary advertising model, but they had also developed an online environment that captured a non-typical massively multiplayer online game, or MMOG that created a loyal online social community. Finally, the nature of NeoPets audience was very unique. NeoPets audience consisted of predominantly older youth and younger teens that had to be knowledgeable or computer savvy to some degree in order to be able to interact on NeoPets website. NeoPets also was unique in the fact that the majority of their user base was female, which was unusual for many online gaming communities. The combination of their audience and advertising model made NeoPets a very attractive service for firms looking to market their products online using an industry that had pretty much collapsed from within.

Also a very important issue to NeoPets, for a number of reasons, was globalization. First off, they have created a niche marketing strategy in an IT based industry and developed a very large and loyal user audience which they’ve managed to keep to themselves, so far. One of the threats posed by globalization is that there are already other media companies that have similar product offerings already out in the offline market in other countries that haven’t developed their product into an interactive online media such as NeoPets. Similar kinds of games and/or cartoons in the offline markets already exist that, in essence share several similarities to NeoPets in terms of storylines, characters, and play style. These included Tomagotchi or Giga pets, both a hand-held game with similar a similar play style to that of NeoPets in that the player had to take care of a virtual pet. Also, Dragon Ball Z which was an anime cartoon that consisted of collecting pets with special powers and has a large fan base following, the cartoon has spawned the creation of a plushies, a card game, and movies; much like NeoPets’ Doug Dohring hoped to do with the NeoPets. Albeit these few examples do not use an as enriched or as dynamic gaming/advertising medium as NeoPets does online, but they could pose a threat if they moved over to the internet arena because of their already existing popularity offline, they would be in a position to compete directly with NeoPets for internet users.

Mr. Dohring wants to control the growth of the company and the image of NeoPets. One of the biggest opportunities for NeoPets is that the company is still young and in a rapid growth stage. NeoPets is still reinvesting its profit back into the company to fund growth and is very agile, and even though it is self funded at this point, due to the competitive nature of the internet industry and rapid rate of technological change, they could easily be in international. Furthermore, a joint venture might not be what is best for long-term growth, remember Dohring also sees potential by expanding globally into markets where his current multinational corporate customers are already doing business and has a strong desire to turn NeoPets into a franchise and in that aspect to bring Green Dot on as a minority equity holder would also allow NeoPets to continue to control its own growth and intellectual properties as it sees fit. Globalization, does offer another option there is an opportunity for merchandising and/or co-branding further, to take the Kraft Mac’n’Cheese print ad even further, to continue to expand “virally” through companies that they already work with. The company, again, is very young and spread mostly through the internet by word of mouth but has already achieved so much popularity. Apply the same viral principal to NeoPets international growth strategy, greater advertising revenue could be generated through co-branded merchandise launch with a multinational firm that 1 is already a client, and 2 also operates in the same geographic markets that NeoPets wishes to enter into as well.

Maybe it is because I am feeling sentimental, maybe it is because I am tired of working on the same 5 different posts for this website (curse of a perfectionist), or maybe it is because props are way past due to my friend Chris over at Monkeybulb.com. I always love reading his take on special advertisement and marketing campaigns. So in the spirit of the holiday season, I bring you not one, but two ad reviews from yours truly as a tribute to Monkeybulb.
First up, Jones’ Big Ass Truck Rental and Storage.

The funny thing is, everyone has to have an old printer stored at their house. I know there is one at mine, maybe I should give him a call later. To further add proclaim to this ads effectiveness, I challenge you to find me anyone who would turn down a drunk sale? After all that, the ad really took it home with the pitch “If you got weed, I’ll store anything offer.” I couldn’t believe my eyes or my ears! Great job, now this ad applies to so many different demographics at once it was almost perfect, you’ve got anyone who’s not dukes of hazard also. To say the least the replay value of this spot was delightful. If only Cox Communication ran this ad as many times as they ran their own shameless self-promotional ads for their cable to which I was already subscribing too, I might still have cable today (but that’s a topic for a later discussion).

Next up, and on a more serious note, This Is Reality, this ad was very well done. I’ve gotten pretty tired of all the “green” marketing that is going on right now. Retail is the worst of it, believe me (again another one of those posts I was telling you about). So the fact that this spot takes a shot at the fabricators of clean coal advertisements reality got me into it. It even made me check out their website, sign up, and write this post to inform you about it too. Well done indeed if it can motivate even me to put this much effort into it. Hopefully it did for you also.Oh and if you are curious about whether or not the website for Jones’ BA Truck Rental & Storage was real or not, you can check it out here too.

Speculation on the North American Monetary Union, aka the Amero, has been increasing in recent months. This may just be a result of the economic recession that the U.S. is facing, but regardless, more people are talking about it almost a decade after it was first proposed in 1999 by Canadian economist Herbert G. Grubel. Mr. Grubel introduced the idea in the release of his book, which it’s release was the same year that the European Union implemented their currency, the Euro.

With the growing notion that corporate globalization, is the way of the future it makes perfect sense as to why the Amero would be a good thing. With the US economy in a state of financial turmoil it seems to make sense that the Fed could be using an invisible but guiding hand to lay the ground work for a majority to willingly accept the Amero proposal, and minimize any opposition.

Introducing monetary unions can do some amazing and unique things. It alligns countries political ambitions and requires them to work together in the interest of everyone’s financial well being. It could be said that in the future, it may not be a country that is considered a world super power, but a monetary union. Creating a monetary union in North America would ad some liquidity for the citizens by allowing them to use the same currency in a larger geographic area. Furthermore, strength in numbers, China is often viewed as a friend best kept at arms lenght. Their population is driving their economy right now, and by implementing the Amero, it would put more people under the Amero “flag”, China and Mexico both have inexpensive labor forces, the Amero would allow the US and Canada to take advantage of Mexico’s labor and help level one of the strategic advantages that China has.

The US trade deficit with China is a cause for alarm and Americans pray that they don’t call on our debt, but if we were to implement the Amero, even though the debt is the US’s to pay, it would severally stress the US’s economy which subsequently would be under the Amero. The pressure which would be put on the Amero, instead of a US dollar, is divided amongst 3 political borders instead of just one. Sort of a cushion… for Americans anyway. Or maybe a parachute to save ourselves from crashing completely, then again it could be the anchor that drags Canada and Mexico down with us.

My site was describe by my good friend, Chris Kindrick over at Monkeybulb, as a green conscious blog for an unconscious world! Even though I have definitely taken a conscious life-style shift to use best practices and maximize energy efficiency, my green thumb outlook on the world some how mixes or combines with my thoughts and worries about the state of our financial economy. Politics, Economics, Businesses, Consumers, Finances; how they are all so influential over one another. The direction that I feel we are heading in as a country has severely diminished my outlook on the future of civilization as we know it for some time to come.

My thinking is that we are being guided, by what or who I don’t know yet, or if I can even describe the thoughts accurately, might be better to say feeling, gut feeling. I’d like to think that this feeling is just humanity’s will at work and that we are guided by some higher power.

“Progress, man’s distinctive mark alone not God’s and not the Beast, God is, they are, man partly is and wholly hopes to be.” – From “A Death In The Desert” by Robert Browning

But then again, it could just be the foreign investors who control our federal reserve, and the fact that our government operates a financial system based solely on debt. George W. has really taken to heart the slogan “Owe the bank 3 million and the bank owns you, owe the bank 3 trillion and you own the bank.”

The longer I think about it, the more utopia and doomsday scenarios both race through my mind. A great many of Sci-fi movie scenes come up, and while most of the ideations are all well and good, happy scenes like the famous cartoon “The Jetsons”, and the world we live in is independent from oil, and national borders and governments cease to exist because of world peace. The trip in between is what I am most curious and sometimes worried about. My anxiety gets the best of me and then thoughts like the world population is going to have to collapse to reach the state of utopia in my dreams.

With talk of the Amero coming up more frequently, I can’t help but think that there is no denying now we are in a state of globalization. The path that the US seems to have gone down is one that resembles Freud’s instinctual state of Thanatos, or self destruction, but then as with all things as dynamic and diverse as the human race, Eros, the instinctual state of creation and life. Cyclical states of change vs inertia.

Business cycles seem no longer relevant in today’s business world. Today we live in bubble cycles, which is to bad because historically a bubble that had a globally devastating aftermath would only happen about once every one hundred years. A change every one hundred years, Eros was the norm, Thanatos only came around every now and again, just like wildlife fires.

Even though it is widely disputed the first bubble is credited to the Dutch Tulip Traders of the 1630s, but in the 21st century we have seen 2 bubbles burst, dot com and real estate. The real estate bubble in my eyes only occurred to offset losses of the dot com bubble. So the financial sectors are playing games with the political sectors, and while I am not a history buff, I would bet that if I researched long enough I could probably trace the reason for the all the historical bubbles back to some sort of change in legislation on a governmental level to benefit people in the financial sector or vice aversa.

Ultimately, I believe the Amero will be good for the US, and furthermore Canada and Mexico, but it is what we as Americans will have to endure for the majority to be willing to accept the change. President Bush has deliberately been driving down the value of the dollar for at least 2 years now. Is this to prepare us for the acceptance of the Amero? or is the Amero just part of the long agenda that progress and globalization will have for us?

I look at the European Union, while political borders are still present, the Euro has aligned the financial interests of all the nations with in the union. It has brought these people a little closer together by giving them a common bond with which to perform transactions with. I believe that with the development of a North American Union, our financial interests will be the same as Cananda’s and Mexico’s. Financial Borders will be the new rule of thumb. Destruction of the US dollar to create change and acceptance of the Amero. Eros and Thanatos always at work, always in tandem.

Much like when we see videos and pictures of a forest fires destruction in California we morn for the loss, instead we should celebrate the change and rejoice for the new life that comes in its place.

If Eros were to take place 100% of the time, nothing would change ever. Life would go on, nothing “bad” would ever happen. Death and destruction would be words that were forgotten. However, the same would be true if Thanatos were to be ever lasting. Death and destruction for everything, never any new creation, no new life. We would be inert, running pegged to one side of the spectrum or the other, light or dark, white or black, good or evil. But to have both means that we can at least continue towards change and progress. Inertia vs Change, i like to think it keeps us in the grey, with a balance of good and evil, and just enough light to see our hand in front of our face.

What is Mcdonalization, and is it bad for a society? Mcdonaldization is a term coined by George Ritzer in his book The Mcdonaldization of a Society. Ritzer explains the process of Mcdonaldization as a society becoming more like a fast-food restaurant through the adoption of four prominent characteristics. Efficiency, calculability, standardization, and control are the four characteristics of Mcdonalization, and these characteristics might seem like good things to any rational person. However, any process that adopts these characteristics, no matter how rational or good it appears at first glance, has the potential to turn out detrimental to society and even possibly transgressing the four primary characteristics of said process.

Ritzer based his work on Max Weber’s work. The only difference is that Weber compared society to a bureaucracy (which Mcdonalds is a bureaucracy so I don’t see much of a difference) with the same four characteristics. What makes Ritzer’s critical analysis stronger is that it has been updated with a modern bureaucracy that is identifiable by most people on this planet. Ritzer’s Mcdonaldization is the same thing as Weber’s rationalization and the structure these processes impose on human social interaction and thought process furthers the process even more and it is not a process that is easily reversible. The differences between someone who has gone through Mcdonalization and someone who hasn’t, is comparable to a domesticated animal and a wild animal. Granted this is a rough comparison, but the difference between the two is as apparent. While the four characteristics of Mcdonaldization have proven themselves successful over the years, the success has come with a grain of salt. In the past half century the effects of Mcdonaldization have become more apparent. Mcdonaldization is depersonalizing the social institutions that our society puts so much value in. In the past both individuals and society has a whole bought stock in our inalienable rights, but recently there seems to be more value placed on material goods. This attitude has taken over many of our social institutions and the negative effects have become blatantly obvious, the most prominent is the dehumanization of daily life, social interaction, and how we perceive our own lives.

This is a trend that needed to end yesterday. I think everyone can agree that this world is not a perfect place, but can anyone agree that the dehumanization of humans is in anyway going to help make this world a better place to live in? Unfortunately, people can be institutionalized to certain ways of life, and our society has been institutionalized to this way of life. So changes will not, nay, the changes cannot come overnight like a dream. No matter how badly they are needed.

http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/archives/2008/04/rising_food_pri_1.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/world/americas/18food.html

1. Why are food prices rising across the world? In the U.S?

Food prices are rising due to the increase usage of corn in ethanol production. This takes extra corn away from the food supply. The ripple effect has moved over to other grains, since there is less corn, they are feeling the effects in added demand for their use as a substitute. Even meat and poultry products are feeling the effects because of the increased cost in feed. The U.S. uses 25% of corn produced for ethanol production! This is outrageous, on top of that according to the USDA projected corn production is expected to be down 8% for 2008 in the U.S. due to farmers planting other grains to take advantage of other grains higher prices.

2. Is this a short-run or a long-run problem? Why?

It is a short-run problem that if not addressed quickly and properly could turn into a long-run crisis. Oil is at record prices, so we looked to ethanol to help alleviate some of the pressure put on the oil supply. The issue is that the U.S. uses corn to produce their ethanol to substitute for oil, but this is a major cause of the increases in food prices, and as long as we are using corn for this purpose it will continue to put pressure on food prices. The U.S. uses about 20 – 30% of its farmland for biofuel production, this farmland could be used for food production of course.

3. Are there any solutions to this on the horizon?

There are many alternatives to corn ethanol production that would help relieve some of the pressures that it has put on our food prices. Brazil has had tremendous success with sugar ethanol production and has become energy self sufficient. In addition they have a nation wide ethanol network and 90% of the automobiles manufactured in Brazil run on ethanol. Will this work for everyone, I don’t think so, but we can follow Brazil’s example. Sugar ethanol production does not take away sugar from our food supplies and the farmland used to produce sugar has taken away about 2-3% of land from grazing land for cattle, although, this has not hindered their beef production. In the U.S. the first algae biofuels plant went online April 1st in Texas. Biofuels from algae produce 30 times more energy per acre than corn or soy, so this is a start.

**4/21/08 my discussion board post for my Economics of Mgmt and Strategy. What are your thoughts/comments?