Q1. Look in a business magazine for entrepreneur & its success and a successful CEO. What had been to their motivations, what were their problems and up to what measure were their success?
The DAMAS Group is an international integrated jewellery and watch retailer operating in about 18 countries with around 450 stores, and the leading jewellery and watch retailer in the Middle East, based on number of stores. The DAMAS Group founded by Mr Mohammed Tawfique Abdullah. Mr Abdullah began designing, crafting and selling gold jewellery to retailers in Syria in the early 1900s. In 1955, the family business moved to the UAE when Mr Tawfique Abdullah’s son, Mr Mohammed Taher Abdullah, moved to Dubai and opened a goldsmith’s shop under the name Al Abdullah Jewellery Traders LLC (“AAJT”). The first retail outlet of AAJT was opened in 1959 and the gold wholesale operations began in 1970.
The CEO of DAMAS GROUP Mr Taher Abdullah and his three sons, Tawfique, Tamjid and Tawhid, first developed the Damas brand in order to promote and market jewelry products in 1970. In 1985, Damas retail stores started selling international brands. In 1988 Damas began the launch of its own brands. In 1988, Damas began the launch of its own brands. In 1995, Damas established the Diamond Division. In 2000, The first Les Exclusives boutique was opened in the UAE. In 2004, Damas purchased Stefan Hafner, a high-end Italian jewellery business. In 2005, Damas raised AED 521 million through a private placement. Damas’ operations further expanded into Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Italy, India and Japan through investment in jointly controlled entities and associates. In 2006, Damas established a 30,000 sq. m. manufacturing unit in the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre. In 2008, Damas was listed on NASDAQ Dubai following a successful regional and international initial public offering (IPO) to the institutional investors.
The CEO of DAMAS GROUP Mr Taher Abdullah strategy is to be a leading multinational in the jewellery and fashion industry and a house to international brands. His aim is to delight customers by offering luxury wrapped in trust with the help of a team of dedicated professionals. He is successful because of his marketing and merchandising strategy to develop its brands and products based on customer segmentation according to demographic profile. He makes his own designs and he employee best designers from all over the world mainly from India. Mr Tawhid Abdullah Awarded "Best Entrepreneurial Mentor" .
The major problem faced by Mr Taher Abdullah was the Kuwait war with Iraq in 1992. The tension in the Middle East was raised to record levels. Many Gold shops in Kuwait were looted. And the business in the Middle East was suffered. Another major setback of DAMAS GROUP was in 1980 during IRAN and IRAQ war. The price of Gold rocketed from $250/oz to $850/oz. Mr Taher Abdullah continued to buy gold, was gambling and earned millions of dollars. But when war cools down the price of gold declined back to $250/oz again. The DAMAS GROUP was seriously indulged in trouble. But due to its good reputation in the market, he got credit from the gold market to start business once again. He struggled hard and brought innovative products by acquiring his own creative designers, workers and started manufacturing mixture of western and eastern style jewelry products of 18K, 21K and 22K Gold. His new designs are appreciated and liked by entire Middle East and now even in India and Pakistan.
The competitors of Damas Group are ALUKAS GROUP (Indian) and ARY GROUP (Pakistani). Alukas Group is famous because of its advertisement and Amitabh Bachan partnership. But still Damas Group managed to stay at top because of its better designs, quality and advertisement campaign. Damas brand ambassador is well known Lebanese singer Nancy Ajram, very popular in Middle East.
Today, Damas is the No1 Jewelry brand in Middle East and Asia. It seems it will also compete the Tiffany & Co (which is the world's No1 jewelry brand) because Tiffany & Co is very expensive and they deals in 14K gold products.
Damas also opened in Pakistan, now three branches in Lahore. Also opening in Faisalabad. DAMAS GROUP is expanding very fast as compared to any other group. Mr Tawhid Abdullah showed interest investing in Pakistan and expanding his group by saying that "Pakistan have a lot of gemstones. And the UAE could mine for the gems with the help of technology."
Q2. Both entrepreneurs and managers confront financial problems. Do you think their problems are different in nature? Do you think financial pressure affect their behaviour? Do some research on the case of STEVE JOB and Macintosh computer? What forced Job out of Apple & back?
The entrepreneurs and mangers confront different financial problems because an entrepreneur is a person who has control of a company, and assumes important responsibility for the natural risks and the outcome. He is a motivated leader who combines land, labor, and capital to create and market new goods or services. And manager is a person who uses the management skills for planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization. The problems of entrepreneur are Political instability, Presence of inflation, Capital, Inadequate of infrastructural facilities, Inadequate of Government support and Type of business to establish. The problems of manager are management of production of goods, management of labour group, staffing and directing the organization.
Yes, Financial Pressure affects their behaviours. As 2008-2009 Global recession (Financial Meltdown) forced CITI GROUP to cut 50000 jobs. And many other big companies HSBC, APPLE, GENERAL MOTORS cut jobs. And unemployment rate rises to record level. Many managers across the globe has to suffer the financial meltdown by loosing their jobs.
Steven Paul Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computers had been trying to hire Pepsi's John Sculley since early 1983. In April of that year he succeeded. But Steve and John discovered that they did not get along and one of John Sculley's first actions as CEO of Apple was to boot Steve Jobs off the Apple "Lisa" project, the "Lisa" was the first consumer computer with a graphical user interface or GUI. Jobs then switched over to managing the Apple "Macintosh" project begun by Jeff Raskin. Jobs was determined that the new "Macintosh" was going to have a graphical user interface, like the "Lisa" but at a considerably lower cost.
Seventy-four days after the introduction of the "Macintosh", 50,000 units had been sold. Apple refused to license the OS or the hardware, the 128k memory was not enough and a single floppy was difficult to use. The "Macintosh" had "Lisa's" user friendly GUI, but initially missed some of the more powerful features of the "Lisa" like multitasking and the 1 MB of memory. Jobs compensated by making sure developers created software for the new "Macintosh", Jobs figured that software was the way to win the consumer over.
In 1985, the "Macintosh" computer line received a big sales boost with the introduction of the LaserWriter printer and Aldus PageMaker, home desktop publishing was now possible. Steve Wozniak returned to college and Steve Jobs was fired, his difficulties with John Sculley coming to a head. Jobs had decided, to regain control of the company away from Sculley, he scheduled a business meeting in China for Sculley and planned for a corporate take-over, when Sculley would be absent. Information about Jobs' true motives, reached Sculley before the China trip, he confronted Jobs and asked Apple's Board of Directors to vote on the issue. Everyone voted for Sculley. After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985, Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher education and business markets. NeXT's subsequent 1997 buyout by Apple Computer Inc. brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded, and he has served as its CEO since then.
Q3. What is innovation role in competitiveness of a firm? Can a company survive without innovation? The coca cola company is most admired on Fortune’s list. Is there any difference between coca cola and Xerox?
Innovation plays a vital role in competitiveness of a firm. The companies who brought up with new ideas and innovative products make the difference in the market. They not only generate good revenue but also captured the market. If a company brings the innovative product in a market at the right time only then it is highly profitable. If a competitor launches that innovative product first then he will captured the market. So, timing is also key factor to launch the innovative product.
A company cannot survive without innovation. The companies who don’t adopt changes early suffered from losses because the customer demands the better product and services. So improvement in products comes from innovation.
The Coca Cola Co is the most admired company on Fortune's List in the beverages category. The Coca Cola beat Pepsi Co and it's admired because Coca-Cola is still a classic. The world's largest beverage-maker remains one of the world's most recognized brands; its drinks are consumed nearly 1.6 billion times a day. Still, like almost every company facing the recession, Coke has lost some but earnings still beat expectations.
Xerox Corporation sits atop the newly published Fortune magazine list of "The World's Most Admired Companies" in the Imaging and Office Equipment Category. Xerox up from last year's No. 2 position, surpassing Fuji Photo Film is third, followed by Canon, Kodak, and Konica.
Yes, there is a difference between these two companies as Coca-Cola Company is the beverage company, manufacturer, distributor and marketer of non-alcoholic beverage carbonated soft drink whereas Xerox Corporation Xerox Corporation is a document management company which manufactures and sells a range of color and black-and-white printers, multifunction systems, photo copiers, digital production printing presses, and related consulting services and supplies.
REFERENCE
http://www.damasjewel.com/articledisplay.aspx?mid=33&id=25
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrepreneur
http://bizcovering.com/business-and-society/seven-problems-of-entrepreneur/
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa051599.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs
http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/coke/stories/2009/03/03/fortune_coke_admired.html
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/mostadmired/2009/snapshots/100.html
http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/business-ethics/6766016-1.html
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