Category Archives: Doing Business

Business Ideas/Plans, Etc.

Will AOL rise again?

Phoenix, a legendary Arabian bird is said to periodically burn itself to death and emerge from the ashes as a new phoenix; according to most versions only one phoenix lived at a time and it renewed itself every 500 years.

AOL is reduced to ashes, in just five years since its merger with Time Warner. Most of the analysts and shareholders take the name of the company with a sense of nostalgia, almost writing off its future. They do not rule out the possibility of Time Warner selling AOL soon.

“AOL largely sat on the sidelines as the internet evolved over the past six years,” says Kevin Werbach of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Does it make it very difficult for AOL to bounce back? What is AOL upto after the recent departure of Steve Case, AOL’s controversial co-founder, from the conglomerate’s board?

Will the revamped AOL.com signal the rise of the phoenix? The Economist has more.

Marketing

Marketing and Psychology

The study of marketing begins with the study of psychology.

If psychology is the “systematic study of human behavior,” then marketing is the “systematic study of human behavior in the marketplace.”

Virtually every principle of psychology has an application in marketing. Take “imprinting,” for example.

The first brand in a new category will imprint itself in human minds as the original, the authentic, the real thing. Kleenex in tissue. Hertz in rent-a-cars. Heinz in ketchup. Starbucks in coffee shops.

In an article in Advertising Age, Al Ries explores the close relation between Marketing and psychology.

 

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Doing Business, Etc.

Vinod Khosla on entrepreneurs

An entrepreneur is someone who dares to dream the dreams and is
foolish enough to try to make those dreams come true.

Deciding what you don’t know, and whose opinion to trust on what
topic may be the most important decision an entrepreneur makes.

Innovative bottom up methods will solve problems that now seem
intractable- from energy to poverty to disease. Science and technology ,
powered by the fuel of entrepreneurial energy, are the largest multipliers
of resources we have to solve our many social problems.

The right way to build a company is to experiment in lots of small ways,
so that you have plenty of room to make mistakes and change strategies

More at http://www.khoslaventures.com