Lesson review 2.

Greetings earthlings!

So, let’s do the class review straightaway today. No postponing works. Conquering the art of mastering the time management!

FIRST! What have you learned in the class

Miss Elaine have read most of the students review and she said almost everyone mentioned about having an excellent communication skill and high confidence level, like her! Hahaha. Well, who doesn’t want to be like her, right? Anyway, during the class, we were divided into different roles to mimic the business world drama, yes it is full of drama. Among it are the investors, the competitors, the top managers, the employees, the suppliers & last but not least, the customers. We were given a situation to deal with and at the end of it, it is concluded that the ability to make alliance with your competitors in the business world will somehow benefits both companies, provided that everyone plays their role fairly.

SECOND! How do I feel about it

How do I feel about it? Yeah, maybe at first, the thought of questioning “Why on earth should I make alliance with my competitors? He’s my competitor, we should be competing each other.” Well, I don’t deny that. If it can be handled in a healthy way, by all means do proceed. But, after today’s class, my perspective has been revolved to a different level. If we were to use the strength of both companies & combine it together, it’ll be much more strong and imagine the outcomes. It might be quite shaky for the short-term but looking at the long-term, after a few advancements has been made, voila!

Look at the successful merge of Disney-Pixar. Mickey & Nemo. Pinocchio & Toy Story. The merger of legendary Walt Disney and everything-we-create-kids-adore Pixar was a match made in cartoon heaven. Disney had released all of Pixar’s movies before, but with their contract about to run out after the release of “Cars,” the merger made perfect sense. With the merger, the two companies could collaborate freely and easily.

Did the merger work? Well, take a look at the successful movies that Disney and Pixar have put out since: “WALL-E,” “Up,” and “Bolt.” Pixar has plans for twice-yearly films, unthinkable before the merger, and has certainly gained the expert advice from Disney when it comes to advertising, marketing plugs, and merchandising. When it comes to marketing to children, no one does it better than Disney. Even pre-merger cartoon “Cars” got the Disney treatment and remains a top seller in merchandising amongst 4 year old boys.

Next, have a look at Exxon-Mobil. Big oil got even bigger in 1999, when Exxon and Mobil signed a $81 billion agreement to merge and form Exxon Mobil. Not only did Exxon Mobil become the largest company in the world, it reunited its 19th century former selves, John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (Exxon) and Standard Oil Company of New York (Mobil). The merger was so big, in fact, that the FTC required a massive restructuring of many of Exxon & Mobil’s gas stations, in order to avoid outright monopolization (despite the FTC’s 4-0 approval of the merger).

ExxonMobil remains the strongest leader in the oil market, with a huge hold on the international market and dramatic earnings. In 2008, ExxonMobil occupied all ten spots in the “Top Ten Corporate Quarterly Earnings” (earning more than $11 billion in one quarter) and it remains one of the world’s largest publicly held company (second only to Walmart).

I think it’s safe to say that the merger was a success.

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THIRD! Where & how can you apply what you've learnt

Obviously, applying this kind of thing in the business world brings lots of good things to both companies, but, still there are failures in merged companies. So, in order to make sure the idea of collaborating and making alliance with other companies goes well, they need to know their weakness first. It’s a round table thing. Sit together and find out which hole to seal and don’t proceed by having a blame game going around. Nothing’s gonna change if that’s how it proceeds. This is where critical thinking applies. 

FOURTH! Others & comments

So, we were also given a task whereby we need to think of what kind of business we would want to run and things are getting a lot more serious because we also need to have evidence and stuff to support our plan. This is getting interesting but its quite a challenge to deal with as staying in different colleges would make it a little bit hard for us to discuss face to face. Let’s just hope it’ll goes well.

That’s all for now. Thanks for your time.

-RAJA MUHAMMAD NUR SAIFULLAH BIN RAJA OMAR, saiful

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