Business Archives

Eliminate Time-Wasting Activities in 4 Easy Step

What are three to five time-wasting activities that affect your day-to-day work? Can you think of ways to reduce the amount of time you spend on them? Wasting time on things that don’t produce results is unfortunate but unavoidable. In his book The Effective Executive, management consultant Peter Drucker offers four-step advice on how to minimize time-wasting activities and free up time for tasks that yield real, tangible results. Follow these four steps to root out your time-wasters.

Amazon and Zappos: The Fight for Acquisition

Why did Amazon want to buy Zappos? To what length did Amazon go to get what they wanted? Why did Zappos finally decide to sell to Amazon? In 2005, Zappos was well-known for its online, shoe selling business and Amazon wanted a part of it. Zappos wanted to remain independent but when Amazon sets its sights on an acquisition they always get what they want. Continue reading to learn all about the war between Amazon and Zappos.

Healthcare Conglomerates and the Pricing Effect

How do healthcare conglomerates work in America? What effect do they exert on the pricing of drugs in the United States? In the United States, healthcare systems in local regions have consolidated to provide negotiating power against employers and insurers—this has resulted in the pricing effect. Studies show that healthcare conglomerates in concentrated markets cause prices to increase by over 20%. Keep reading to learn about the rise of healthcare conglomerates and their implications for the United States healthcare market.

Peter Drucker: Efficiency and Effectiveness Dichotomy

What is the difference between efficiency and effectiveness? Which attribute do you think is more important when it comes to organizational performance? When it comes to results, Drucker differentiates between efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency is getting a lot of things done, while effectiveness is choosing and getting the right things done. Keep reading to learn about Peter Drucker’s efficiency and effectiveness dichotomy.

Amazon and the History of the First Kindle

How did Bezos predict the launch of the first Kindle in 1999? Did the creation of the first Kindle go smoothly? Why were book publishers upset about the Kindle? Although the first Kindle wasn’t released until 2007, Bezos predicted the Kindle in 1999 and Lab126 had started building it in 2004. In just a few short years, Kindle came to own 90% of the digital reading market, but book publishers weren’t too happy. Keep reading to learn about the history of Amazon’s first Kindle.

The U.S. Medical Device Industry: Behind the Scenes

How does the medical device industry work in the United States? Who are its main players? How much market share do they have? The United States medical device industry is dominated by a few major players: Medtronic, St. Jude Medical, Boston Scientific, Stryker, and Zimmer Biomet. Like other segments of healthcare, they have consolidated over time. Here is a brief overview of the United States medical device industry.

First, Break All the Rules: Quotes and Passages

Looking for First, Break All the Rules quotes by Marcus Buckingham? What are some of the most noteworthy passages worth revisiting? In First, Break All the Rules, Marcus Buckingham lays out the Four-Key management roadmap that will help you hire the right people, create a productive working environment, and guide employees to success. The following quotes and passages highlight some of his key recommendations and management best practices discussed in the book. Keep reading for First, Break All the Rules quotes by Marcus Buckingham.

What Is a Strength-Based Management Approach?

What is strength-based management? How can you maximize the strength of your employees to boost the performance of your organization? Strength-based management is a management style that is focused on the strengths of the employees. According to management consultant Peter Drucker, maximizing strengths —your own strengths and the strengths of those around you—is more effective than trying to fix weaknesses. Here is why to increase the effectiveness of your organization, it’s important to build the strengths of those around you, as well as your own.

Amazon: Competitive Advantage & How They Won

How did Amazon survive the 2007 recession? What did Amazon do to acquire Zappos and Diapers.com? Why did the Kindle cause so many problems? Thanks to Amazon’s competitive advantage in the market, they managed to thrive during the 2007 recession. The additional money allowed them to control the online market, which gave many other companies no choice but to be acquired. However, Amazon’s success didn’t come without issue. Keep reading to learn how Amazon slowly overtook the online market thanks to its competitive advantage.

Peter Drucker: Contribution Equals Results

What unique contribution do you offer to your organization? How does your contribution improve the performance of the business? Your job as an executive is to determine your contribution to the organization’s performance and results and to maximize it. According to management consultant Peter Drucker, contribution should be focused outward—that is, on what you can offer, as opposed to what you can get. In his book The Effective Executive, Drucker outlines several ways in which you can focus your contribution outwardly.