Friday, March 27, 2009

Business case study(2)--Motivation strategies

Today is my second time to take part in Business case study class ,I like this case study class , not because all the materials are coming from Harverd Busniss school, it is real case happened in this world and interesting and related to our daily life .You are not only learning business , but a way of thinking , a way of management .This month's topic is a sensible study for me as I am a new sales in this field.

I think every employee especially sales persons all focus on 3 main things at work: income;incentive and self development. To a certain extent,a sales team can represent a company's value ,culture or branding. this part of people are so though to handle , So motivation strategies can really drive them and help company to get win-win .

Today's class case is between 2 real estate company JB Miller and Bond Properties. 2 famous Real Estate company in America, we have a huge discussion about their Motivation strategies:


All the discussions were base on a assumption that :The average house sales in America is US$120k

lets look at these 2 company's incentive strategies :

JB Miller

Each year JB Miller recruited dozens of real estate agents to work in BJ Miller’s network of over 100 offices across the San Francisco Bay area.

Each sales person received a base salary of US$24k/year plus a commission based on sales volume. JB Miller’s monthly bonus system was based on the following:

Target A: Sales of US$100k – receive US$2k
Target B: Sales of US$250k – receive US$4k
Target C: Sales of US$500k – receive US$10k

The company and the board was focused on sales. besides above they also had some spacial extra incentive plan to the top sales:

Each year the company invited top sales people to an offsite in Las Vegas
in 2004 instituted a “Gold Key” club through which the top sales people in each region each month would be admitted to the club – they would receive certain dinners, be listed on plaques and would have a gold key on their name cards.

Bond Properties

Bond Properties less focused on motivational trips or clubs, Bond’s attracted sales staff through a simple compensation system.

Bonds paid an annual base of US$35k plus a straight bonus of 4% of any home sold.


Actually these two strategies all have pros and cons, JB Miller's bonus parabola is steeper than Bond Properties, it means that you will feel stable in Bond properties, and face more big challenges in JB Miller, for instance, for the month bonus, if you sale less than 3 houses a month , than be a Bond Properties' stuff will earn more than JbMiller, if you can sale more than 4 house a month , you will get higher bones as a JBMiller's stuff.

For me , I rather prefer JB Miller's strategies but make some changes:

1.I will put more percentages bonus to the Target B sales, because just few people can be the top, your main business will from this middle area.

2. I will keep it's top 10 sales incentive programme but add some self development project and health or family benefit .

3.Also, I will have another incentive project for the most 10 top potential sales, although their sales volumes are not so much at the beginning , but they have passion , have some potential qualities to be the top sales, so I will give them more training and chance to let them feel be care``````

Lots discussion in our class, finally in the group discussion part, I was voted again to be our group's presenter , I feel proud that every time they vote me to speak and present in front of our class, it is a chance to practise my speaking English and my dialectic logic thinking,I really treasure this and will keep attend this class, to improve my Business case analysis skill .

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Newborn club’s name



After about 3 months preparation, finally we have created a brand new English toastmaster club name"Rainbow bridge" in Guomao center .

Toastmaster International club is a very famous English club for people to improve their English speech skill and leadership skill .In EF school , we've already have 15 toastmaster clubs in most centers, I will not use much words to introduce what a Toastmaster Club it is , you can log on to Google to find lots answers:
http://www.toastmasters.org/

The interesting part is that we are the founders of a new club, so we can create things like name,logo etc. I like this kind of feeling of "raising a newborn baby".There are lots things to take care,a tough job but unforgettable and worthwhile as well.what I want to share with you is the funny process of voting the club's name tonight.


At the beginning everyone gave their ideas names, Ken said that it could call "Bridge"which means that our club is a way enjoying learning English , Becky suggested "Rainbow" because it gives people hope and happy, Carter prefer "warm nest ",he is a man who are major in advertisement, he want our club to be the second family for every member in Beijing.Miko, a beautiful girl ,want to name our club as "Dingdang cat", a famous Japanese cartoon cat character,it represent magic, represent every dream can come true.Do you want to know what names I suggest?haha, I suggest "B2B", not" business to business", but "bridge to brilliant", make sense right ? and the other name I want to show is "SOS" ,means every member can get help in learning English in our club, also It represent "super orator success "`````

We argued all the names for several minutes but could not make a decision,then we voted again and again and finally made a comprimise ,a mixed name "Rainbow Bridge" won.

Rainbow Bridge Toastmaster Club is a place to enjoy losing face and try to speak English as much as possible, also when you meet some difficult things in your life,come here and forget your normal role , play English with us and you will see the Beautiful hope just like rainbow after a heavy Rain! -----just like this flash , the little girl singing the song
"some where over the rainbow"

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_cf00XMjQ5MzczNzI=.html

Cheers!



Friday, March 6, 2009

Win to survive

My first mainland sales meeting in AE today, I was shocked by a news, Ada, one of my Beijing sales teammate, was going to leave us. After the probationary period the company decides not to offer her a full-time contract. On the list of sales teams consisted of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, her performance was on the bottom. Leader said that sales team played the most important role in a company, so qualify person was a must, for those persons who were not showing their ability in the quarter one, she would not waste her training time to wait until the next

That is the difference between foreign company and Chinese company, less human, no under table,just business to business. At that moment, stresses and strains were all full in my heart. I realized that I am standing in an invisible battle field. Win to survive, or you will died

Friday, February 27, 2009

[转]When religion calls, even rich people come

To his friends and colleagues, Jim O'Donnell was the highest of the city high-flyers: tall, successful, and, of course, very rich.

That was until two days ago. On Monday Mr. O'Donnell sent a memo around the office of his London stockbroking company. He told the staff that he was going to leave the glamorous world of international finance--and $1 million salary--to become a Roman Catholic priest.

Mr. O'Donnell's new salary will be about $10,000 a year. But, in the Catholic religion there are higher wages waiting in heaven: eternal life.

The decision stunned colleagues. One member of the office staff said yesterday, "When we read the memo some people laughed; they didn't believe it was true!"

But the man who was once an American football player and went to Princeton University is well-known for his strong religious feelings. His new job will start next summer in a poor parish back home in America.

A spokesperson from the Catholic Media Centre in London told journalists, "People can feel they are successful and rich and yet somehow they don't feel happy. When religion calls, even rich people come."

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Business case study class

Today is my first time to join this Business case study class,which was teached by EF's China CFO, Logan Wilox. He took his Master of Business' degree at Harvard Business School.His teach style was so different like other teachers in EF, more compact and forceful.Let me felt like I was in Harvard.

Before this class we received a business case material :Zhongshan TV company now is an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacture)company, and is a leading supplier to several overseas brands including Panasonic Sanyo and Sony. now It face an opportunity to buy a USA famous TV company , It will let Zhongshan transfer from OEM to a company own their world class brand . But at the same time , when the opportunity knocks , it always accompanied by other risks: lack of experience owning a brand , running an foreign company```````

The first part was call " Cold call ", Logan will ask one of us some questions about the case, I was pointed to answer this "cold call", how nervous I was! my questions was to summarize the whole case in short words~~~ not bad ,I summarized it very clearly.:)

The second part is case study,Every one read a paragraph then very quickly to summarize and show their opinion . I learn some useful business words like:
IPO-initial public offering
R&D -research ,development
ROI-return on investment
`````

The third part was the most challenge, We divided in to 4 groups, 2 in the positive side, the other 2 in the negative side. After 10 minuts discussion, very group choose one person represent the group to show thier reasons, I was lucky to be our group's represet person , although our group had the most youngest persons in our class, we are so young to have such business managment experience, we were so brave to show our oppinion ,I received with warm applause at the end!

I like this class and sure to continue!