商务案例(英文).doc

The failure of BBackgroundB was founded by two Swedish entrepreneurs: Kajsa Leander, a fashion model, and Ernst Malmsten. Before B, they had created the Swedish Internet bookstore in 1997 and sold it the following year. B was backed by Paris-based Europweb, the private investment company of LVMH Chairman Bernard Arnault; 21 Investments of Italy, the private investment company of the Benetton family; Bain Capital Inc. of Boston; and the New York investment firm Goldman Sachs Co.B first announced that it would launch by the end of May 1999; however, due to software problems, the web site actually launched in November 1999.The company failed to meet its sales targets by January 2000. It fired 100 staff members and reduced its product prices by up to 40%. In May 2000, Rob Shepherd quit as chief technology officer, the third high-level personnel loss in a month. Finally, On May 17,2000, after failed attempts at selling the site to other retailers and trying to get more funding from the shareholders , B announced that it was shutting down.The rights to the name B were acquired by F for 250,000 British pounds. In February 2001, B recast itself as a fashion and style portal that provided fashion advice and reviews. It also provided links to small boutiques where customers could go to buy the products. The new site was also less data-intensive making downloading easier.An Analysis of Firm StrategyB believed in the big-splash theory of firm strategy. The firm wanted to be a global fashion super retailer. The company hoped to have a major presence in multiple prominent fashion markets-at one point, it had offices in London, New York, Munich, Stockholm, Paris and Amsterdam. It aimed to leverage the power of the Internet by serving brands that were local powerhouses or global superstars to the consumers in these markets. And it intended to provide access to consumers in different multiple languages and transact business in multiple currencies.The vision for the firm can be summarized in one word: grandiose. Although this strategy can be faulted on many counts, envisioning a global reach is not in itself a mistake. It is, however, problematic to hope to achieve that all at once. Because the companys web site was launched simultaneously in several countries, the firm had to ensure that it had an effective presence in all of those countries. As a result, its resources were spread thin. The company may have been better served by starting small and spreading out over time.The company also failed to consider those companied with strong brand names that had already established strong presences in the markets that they wished to attack. Many of these companied had a long history in these markets due to catalog or bricks-and-mortar operations. Consequently, they had an advantage in resources, as well as in brand name.B furthermore chose a product category, fashion goods, that is hard to sell in the internet. Individuals like to touch and feel the fabric, try in a dress, and experience the product firsthand before buying it. In spite of these challenges, companies such as Lands End are successfully selling apparel online today by using systems such as virtual dressing rooms. Although B has a lot of functionality on its web site, it did not adequately focus in the functionality that could best help its consumers.The global vision for the company led to several execution problems. An ex-employee described a few.Multiple CurrenciesIf you want to trade globally, you cant only offer US dollars. As a result, you need to figure out a way to handle multiple currencies ranging from dollars to pounds to liras to francs, to deutschmarks, to kroners, etc. If you are planning on doing this well, you have to peg your prices to a particular value. However, you have to realize that prices are not the same in every country. In the end, Boo built a system that allowed us to set a different price for each country or set a single price for all countries.Multiple LanguagesGrammatical rules can hardly be standardized for several languages. The way we worked around it at Boo was to create a system where the copy was translated by hand by people who were fluent in the language. Unfortunately, another problem cropped up: British English and American English are EXTREMELY different. On the one hand, to be accepted by markets in different countries, the content has to be in different languages. Moreover, the language and product selection must be sensitive to the local cultures in order to truly appeal. B may have underestimated the cost of achieving this on the Web.On-the-Fly Tax CalculationIn the US, its relatively easy to deal with taxation. Where it gets tricky is when your servers are located in one area and your offices are in another. Technically, that is two locations, In the case of Boo, it got worse. For example, a sale to France was taxed three ways. Why? Quite simple because the company has offices in Paris, its servers were located in London, UK and its distribution center was in Cologne, Germany. However, the interesting part of the problem was were making a sale but not delivering a good in the UK, delivering a good but not making a sale in Germany, and making a sale and delivering a good in France.Integration with Multiple Fulfillment PartnersThe main issue here was dealing with different file formats for DeutschePost and UPS. What we ended up doing was create an EDI link to those guys and create a set of filters for each of them. A simple answer to a simple problem but this little answer cost about ISO man hours of work as the content had to be migrated from the old setup to the new one. Because the original database was originally set up wrong, we had to totally reorganize the schema and refit the content into it.Problems with the Web Site B had spectacular problems with its web site when it first launched. The site was designed with excessive graphics, movies, audio, and video. Every product on the B web site had a 3-D image. Photographing the products to create these images cost up to half a million dollars a month. An analyst for Forrester Research rightly points out that this was the wrong strategy for web site design at the time because “99% of European and 98% of US homes lacked the high-bandwidth access needed to fully benefit from the site.” The company rolled out a site for low-bandwidth users in February 2000, but the target market had already been alienated. Moreover, B was built using Macromedias Flash program, which at the point of the launch, was loaded on the computers of only a small proportion of the population.The initial response to the web site was awful An article in the Wall Street Journal reported:On Day 1, according to Boo, only 50% of consumers who typed in the address www.B actually made it onto the site. There were a variety of reasons: The site didnt run on some combinations of browser software and hardware, particularly Macintoshes. The abundance of graphics and animation made it extremely slow, even for customers with high-speed connections. Many of those with low-bandwidth connections found it impossible to access the site, or simple gave up, Boo says. And, worst of all, those who did manage to make it onto the site were unable to purchase anything because of a glitch in the checkout process that unexpectedly returned customers to the opening screen just before the transaction was completed. The Web usability guru Jakob Nielsen wrote this scathing review in December 1999: B takes itself too seriously. Instead of making it easy to shop, the site insists on getting in your face with a clumsy interface. Its as if the site is more intent on making you notice the design than on selling products. Boo should be congratulated, though, on running a site that supports 18 countries equally well in terms of both language and shipping.Screen PollutionBoo insists on launching several of its own windows. This site is simply slow and unpleasant. All product information is squeezed into a tiny window, with only about one square inch allocated to the product description. Since most products require more text than will fit in this hole, Boo requires the user to use a set of non-standard scroll widgets to expose the rest of the text, 20 words at a time. Getting to a product requires precise manipulation of hierarchical menus followed by pointing to minuscule icons and horizontal scrolling. Not nice.Miss Boo, the Shopping AssistantShe is prettier than Microsofts Bob but just as annoying. Web sites do need personality, but in the form of real humans with real opinions and real advice. I prefer the interactive content experiments in the sites magazine section, such as a feature on the similarities between stone-age living and some current fashion products.Whats a Boobag?Its a shopping cart, actually, and unlike other carts it contains miniature photos of your products. It is also possible to drape the items on a mannequin to see how they look as an outfit, though too much dragging and low-level interface manipulation is required.In general, B became a victim of Internet time. Businesses move faster in Internet time; e-tailing system takes much longer to develop. In this case, the web site was not fully designed when it was launched, which meant changes had to be made in public, reducing consumer confidence.The Badly Designed Advertising CampaignAnother problem faced by B was that it overspent on advertising early on. It created a great deal of consumer interest, but then the web site launch was delayed by about five months, during which time, consumers finally got fed up.Anticipating a May 1999 launch, B announced a two-year $65 million advertising budget after hiring the London ad agency BMP DDB. The agency created a campaign showing geeky kids playing sports in cool clothes that would be available from B.According to Marina Galanti, the second marketing director, when the launch got delayed, the ad campaign was modified to make it “more about mood and attitude and less about sports.” The launch was rescheduled for July and teaser ads began running in magazines. However, teaser campaigns work only when the firm knows exactly when the final product is going to be available. In this case, the tease campaign backfired because the site did not launch until November 1999. It also placed the spotlight on the company while it was still tinkering with the web site.The company believed in going on an all-out blitz rather than building the business gradually. As described in a Wall Street Journal article, ”the company launched press, television, cinema and outdoor campaigns in six countries and expanded to nine others, spending about $25 million-much of it still owed to the agencies that created and executed the ads.”Poor Management QualityB has also been criticized for poor management quality. The firm had few management controls and many of the personnel were consultants with little relevant business experience. The company is also said to have been too enamored with the fashion industry: senior managers were rewarded with five-star hotels and first-class airline tickets to attend fashion shows in cities such as Paris and Milan. Early employees were also rewarded with Palm Pilots and other perks. B set out to do too many things and ended up doing none of them. The site was designed to create an immersive online retailing experience, but most users did not have broadband connectivity to benefit from it. The ad campaign built traffic to the site when it was not up. The management quality was poor and in the end, Boos failure did not particularly surprise anyone who had worked for or with the company. Future attempts at building a global online apparel retailer will surely learn from the experiences of Boo.Discussion Questions1、Translated into Chinese失败的B一、背景 B是由两名瑞典企业家建立的：Kajsa利安德，一位时装模特，和Ernst马尔姆斯滕。在B建立之前，他们在1997年创造了瑞典网上书店并且在第二年将其出售。 B被基于巴黎的欧洲网站，私人投资公司LVMH集团主席伯纳德阿诺特返还，并得到21家意大利公司的投资，包括贝纳通家族，波士顿的贝恩资本公司和纽约的高盛投资公司.B首次宣布将于1999年5月底推出，但由于软件问题，该网站实际上是在1999年11月推出的。到2000年1月公司未能达销售目标。它削减了100名员工，并减低了产品价格的40%。 2000年5月，罗布牧羊犬辞去首席技术官职位，这是本月第三次高层人员流失。最后，2000年5月17日，在试图将网站出售给其他零售商，并获得更多的股东资金计划失败后，B宣布倒闭。 F以25.0万英镑的价钱收购了B这个品牌。 2001年2月，B将自己重塑为一个以提供咨询意见和评论为时尚和风格的时尚门户网站。它还提供到客户可能购买产品的小商店的链接。新网站仍然称不上是是下载容易的数据密集型网站。 二、企业战略分析 B崇尚飞溅理论的公司战略。该公司希望成为世界时尚超级零售商，能够在众多著名时尚市场中占有一定地位。它在伦敦，纽约，慕尼黑，斯德哥尔摩，巴黎和阿姆斯特丹等地设有办事处。其目的是利用互联网的杠杆效用，通过服务品牌战略成为这片市场上对于消费者来说的当地强国或者是全球超级明星。它计划提供多种语言的渠道与消费者沟通，并且实现多种货币交易的交易业务。企业的目标可以归纳为一个词：宏伟。虽然这一战略在许多层面上都有缺陷，全球范围的设想本身没有错。然而，问题所在就是希望所有的一切一下子实现。由于该公司的网站同时在多个国家推出，公司必须确保它在所有这些国家的有效存在。结果，公司的资源就被分散的很薄了。该公司如果通过成立一个小的公司，然后随着时间的推移不断地扩大市场也许会得到更好的发展。该公司还没有考虑到与那些已经确立了强势市场份额的优秀品牌公司相伴而行，以实现他们的最终目标。许多与他们同处于这片市场上的公司，由于使用目录经营或是传统加现代的经营手段已经在这个领域存在相当长的历史。因此，他们不仅在资源上存在优势，而且在品牌上也同样有优势。 B此外还选择了很难在互联网上销售的时尚商品这个种类。因为个别的人在购买之前喜欢接触和感受衣服的面料，试穿，并第一手来亲身体验产品。尽管存在这些挑战，但是有很多公司，例如Lands End通过使用虚拟更衣室系统就在网上销售服装方面取得了很大的成功。虽然B的网站上有很多的功能，但是这些功能并没有集中在最大限度地帮助其消费者。 该公司的一名前雇员针对导致这些执行问题的原因，从国际视野方面进行了简短的分析：1、多币种 如果你想进行全球贸易，你不能仅仅提供美元。因此，你需要找出一种方法来处理从美元到英镑，到里拉，到法郎，到德国马克等等的多种货币交易。如果你想要把这方面做好，你就要把价格固定到一个特定的值。但是，你必须认识到，价格在每个国家都是不相同的。最后，B建立了一个系统，让我们设立一个对每个国家都不同的价格表，或者是所有国家都相同的价格表。 2、多种语系 语法规则难以作为多种语言的标准。我们在B的工作方式是建立一个由语言流利的人组成的人工翻译系统。不幸的是，另一个问题出现了：英式英语和美式英语非常不同。另一方面，不同的国家由于市场接受，交易内容包含不同的语言。因此，语言和产品的选择必须注意当地的文化，才能真正有吸引力。 B可能低估了在网上实现这个目标的费用。 3、快速切换税计算在美国税收问题是比较容易处理的。但棘手的是你的服务器位于一个地区，而办公室设在另一个地区。从技术上讲，这是两个地方，在B情况下，它变得更糟。例如，对于销往法国的货物有三种 征税方式。为什么？很简单，因为该公司在巴黎设有办事处，它的服务器设在伦敦，英国和它的配送中心是在德国的科隆。然而，问题有趣的部分是碎语英国值提供销售不提供运输；对于德国只提供运输而不提送销售；对于法国是既提供运输又提供销售。4、集成多专递合作伙伴 这里的主要问题是涉及对DeutschePost和UPS不同的文件格式。我们终于实现了与合作伙伴建立连接的电子数据交换，并为每人创建一个过滤器集合，针对简单的问题给予简单的回答，但这些小标准答案要花费约一个标准工时，并且它的内容必须迁移旧的安装新的。因为原始数据库最初建立错了，我们不得不完全重组模式并且改装它相应的内容。 5、网站存在的问题B的网站在刚推出的时存在很大的问题。该网站过度安置了图形设计，电影，音频和视频。B网站上的每款产品都有三维图像。运用拍摄创造这些图像的费用每月高达50万美元。一位分析师准确地指出在当时那是一个错误的网站设计策略，因为99%的欧洲家庭和98%的美国家庭缺乏高带宽来访问网站并从中获益。2000年2月该公司推出了低带宽用户网站，但是目标市场已经疏远了。此外，B还是用Macromedia的Flash程序，建成了只能在小部分人电脑上运行的Flash。最初的反应是可怕的网站中的一个华尔街日报报道：在第1天，根据Boo的统计只有50%的用户点击www.B进入了网址。有多种原因：这个网站没有运行在浏览器软件和硬件的组合上，特别是Macintosh。丰富的图形和动画制作非常缓慢，甚至高速连接的客户也这样。Boo说很多低带宽连接的用户发现无法访问该站点，或简单放弃。最糟糕的是，那些试图要都买东西的用户不会再买了，因为他们在结账程序马上要完成的时候被意外地返回了刚开始的页面。网络可用性大师雅各布尼尔森在1999年12月写了这个严厉的审查：B对自己要求的太严厉。代替简单的购物，着重于外表的修饰。就好像网站更多的是让你注意它的设计，而不是要出售的产品。屏幕污染 Boo坚持推出几个自己的门户。网站速递缓慢。所有的产品信息，挤进了一个很小的窗口，只有约一平方用来产品介绍。由于大多数的产品需要更多的文本空间而不是让文字来适合位置，Boo要求用户使用一套非标的准滚动部件来发送文本，每次20个字。要想购买产品要求精确的分层操作菜单，根据图标指向和滚动条。这些都不是很好。 Boo的购物助理 购物助理比微软的鲍勃漂亮，但是很烦人。网站确实需要个性，但在实际的意见和建议方面需要真人的形式。在网站的杂志篇章，我更喜欢交互式的内容。 什么是Boobag？ 这是一个购物车，实际上，它不像其它的推车有产品的微型照片。虽然需要太多的拖延和必需的低层次界面操作，但它可以把衣服套在模特上面让用户看到整体搭配的效果。 一般来说，B成为互联网时代的受害者。企业在互联网快速发展阶段;电子跟踪系统需要更长的时间来发展。在这种情况下，网站在推出时并不能很好的设计，这就使得制作必须要公开消费者的信任也会下降。 不好的广告活动设计 B面临的另一个问题是早期广告的严重超支。这引起了消费者的极大兴趣，但后来该网站推出推迟了约5个月，在这期间，消费者终于都厌倦了。 B在1999年5月宣布，他们在聘用伦敦广告代理后两年间的广告预算为6.5亿美元。这些代理设计了一个活动：一群孩子穿着从B购买来的帅气衣服做运动。当推出被延迟时，根据第二个营销总监嘉海滨蓝蒂透露，其广告被修改为更多地设计心情和态度而很少关于运动。推出的时间被推迟到了7月，那些挑逗性的广告也开始发表到杂志上。然而，引逗宣传工作只有在确切地知道该公司有产品是才用。在这种情况下，取笑运动适得其反，因为一直推迟到1999年11月才推出。它也被列入了网站修补的行列。 不完善的管理质量 B也被批评质量管理不善。该公司有很少的管理控制，并且几乎没有相关经验的业务顾问。该公司还表示其过于迷恋时装业：高级管理人员被鼓励住五星级酒店一流飞机去参加服装展。例如巴黎，米兰时装秀。早期的员工还奖励掌上电脑和其他津贴。B该做的事情太多，但最终都没有做。该网站的目的是创造一个身临其境的网上零售商店，但是大多数用户没有宽带连接去从中受益。广告活动没有提高网站的访问量。Boo的质量管理很差，以至于最终它的失败并没有令为它工作的员工以及它的合作伙伴感到吃惊。想要建立全球网上服装销售的应该借鉴Boo的失败经验。2、The reasons for the failure of B There are four points:1The Firm Strategy. B believed in the big-splash theory of firm strategy. It is problematic to hope to achieve that all at once. Because the companys web site was launched simultaneously in several countries, the firm had to ensure that it had an effective presence in all of those countries. As a result, its resources were spread thin. But it didnt serve by starting small and spreading out over time. have no multiple currencies multiple languages was translated by hand by people, its hard to translate it correctly On-the-Fly Tax Calculation is poor its hard to come true the Integration with Multiple Fulfillment Partners2Problems with the Web Site .The site was designed with excessive graphics, movies, audio, and video. Every product on the B web site had a 3-D image. It cost very much, and the customers who lacked the high-bandwidth access cant benefit from the site. The Flash program can only be run on a small proportion of the population. On Day 1, only 50% of consumers who typed in the address www.B actually made it onto the site. Screen Pollution the Shopping Assistant is annoying 3The Badly Designed Advertising Campaign4 Poor Management Quality3、Was B doomed more by its faulty strategy or by its poor implementation?B was doomed more by its faulty strategy. Strategy is the ge