Eun Jung Kwack

Word Count-976/ PIN-10584

Ways of Surviving in the Fast-shifting Market There are lots of factors that have an effect on company’s management

strategy—exchange rate, the condition of a market, raw material costs, and so on. Each of these factors is related to companies’ decision on production. However, besides all of other things, business entities are concerning much about consumers’ tastes. It is because consumer is the one who let companies actualize their goal—to maximize profit. Since consumers are likely to be swept by trend, business entities are trying to keep up with any trend which is in vogue. Usually trend is temporal, so it is becoming harder for companies to respond quickly to it. However, business companies are responding comparatively fast to a trend. There are several examples which show how business strategies adapt to a trend to satisfy consumers, and from these we can think about what could be the most appropriate respond of business entities. As time goes by, more and more people are concerned about their well-being. Compared to a life style of the past—which had emphasis on fast pattern—nowadays, many people want to slow down their life pace. Before, most part of the society only pursued the modernization and development without considering other factors in life, in order to elevate society’s living standards. Regarding to what we have achieved so far, we can say that we have been quite successful; however, there are also bad effects that have been resulted from fast-tracking development—such as pollution, dense population in certain big cities, and so on. The term ‘well-being’ not only means a certain life style, but it also has a significant implication that we start to notice the quality of our life. As consumer’s life style has changed, business entities had to follow it to survive in the economic field. Slow food movement that started in 1980’s in the opposition of fast food, forced companies to focus on it. Also, as eco-friendly and energy efficient products are preferred by the LOHAS—life of health and sustainability, many firms start to transform the way of producing goods. For example, organic cosmetics have become common in these days, and foods that do not contain any artificial flavors are increasing. There is another case of companies’ adaptation to follow the trend. Unlike past days, consumers easily fulfill their demands. That is to say, as people pursue more convenience than ever, there are growing numbers in one-stop stores and houses provided by business entities. Just by dropping by one-stop stores, like French Carrefour and American Wall Mart, consumers can purchase whatever they want—ranging from food, clothes, office supplies, to etc. Furthermore, this so called ‘one-stop’

Eun Jung Kwack

Global Initiatives Symposium in Taiwan 2009

Eun Jung Kwack

trend extended even to consumers’ housing pattern. Multi-purpose apartment complexes have been built and this has become another housing culture. Fitness club, convenience store, reading room, swimming pool, seminar room and other facilities are prepared for residents.

Especially for the last instance, the way of responding to a trend is more important than other adaptation. That is because company caught consumers’ demand, even though they do not have an actual idea of multi-purpose complex apartments. It was a business entity engaged in construction which made the most of a trend it faced. In this case, we can say that business entities created the trend by themselves. This is more important when it comes to fashion field. Actually, fashion is set on a stage of Paris, New York Collection, and so on. People want to buy clothes displayed at these collections, and clothes become a trend. There might be some hints of what is being in vogue and what consumers want, but utilizing these concepts is complicating and requires company to observe closely whenever a trend is being firmly fixed. It would be hard to survive in a market, if a company stands back—not taking any actions to a trend, and other start to precede the company.

By self-renewing, company has to be used to fast changing trend to survive in the severe competition of a free market; the most representative firm is Apple Corporation. Apple Corporation grasped the importance of design, and they indeed succeed in commanding big part of the market. Even though other companies’ products have better contents and are even easier to use, many consumers choose to purchase Apple’s i-Pod and MAC book. In Korea, the percentage of people using Window operating system is almost around 90%, but still many people love to buy Apple computer in spite of the vexatious process of re-installing Windows operating system. In addition to this, other companies which engaged in MP3 market, for example Samsung, has more various functions. None the less, lots of people end up deciding to buy i-Pod, which has no function of recording and can not provide Korean radio broadcasting. Though Apple Corporation’s products have fewer functions than other companies’ goods—because of their innovative marketing strategy which focus on design—Apple Corporation could have equal competitive power in a market. This success can be achieved by Apple Corporation’s organization. Circumstances for communicating freely among employees are one of the most essential elements. By sharing many diverse ideas from one another, workers can think more creatively beyond departments to which they belong. There should not be any hierarchy that would suppress initiative voices derived from the bottom. By disorganizing the centralized structure, even the idea from the terminal clerk can be easily developed and spur others’ creativity. There would be no

Find the Next Wave to Ride On - New Business Strategies in the Changing World

worse circumstance than which prevents workers from saying what they want to share. Playfulness, dynamic thinking, and all kinds of opinion should be regarded as weighty to make a company create a novel marketing strategy or adapt easily to a current trend. Let workers feel free to think is the key strategy in managing a company. This would be the proper answer for companies to follow the stream of fast-shifting trend.

Global Initiatives Symposium in Taiwan 2009

Eun Jung Kwack