New times, new concepts

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1812IE Focus | By Enrique Dans, Professor at IE Business School

The concept we have had of computers to date is set to disappear under a landslide of Internet realities that offer a new way of working online. Google´s announcement of its project to launch an operating system, Google Chrome OS, is not just another announcement in the hyperactive wasteland of technology news. The announcement is something more than that. It is a change of concept that affects the definition of a computer and what we do with it. Something that is going to change the way we work.

For many years now a computer has been the machine used to do the same things that were done without it, only more quickly and more efficiently. The word processor was a post-modern typewriter that produced results that were aesthetically better in less time by separating the composition process from the printing process. The spreadsheet was a “calculator on steroids”, which avoided the sequential repetition of chains of operations by placing them on coordinates. A bookkeeping or salary application was the fast way to tackle a monthly task that was both tedious and repetitive. For workers, a computer was a machine they used for doing the same thing, but more quickly. And to do that, they needed hardware, an operating system and the right applications. Last century´s computing system: buy a computer, which comes with a large, heavy operating system “that has everything” (including a computer and a game of solitaire!) and then buy the programmes you need to “do things”.

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Online MBA – against the crisis

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It is curious to see how flexible we are when we are affected by an economic crisis. Suddenly, established business models are changing within weeks. Companies develop creative solutions to their problems they had for years – and these solutions are working well from spot. Of course, some corporations have to lay off people, but…

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White brands: heroes or villains?

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White brands: heroes or villains?

IE Focus | By Carmen Abril, Professor at IE Business School

Things are not often black or white, but rather tend to come in varying shades of gray. The world of white brands is no exception. They are no better or worse than other products, but they are certainly competitive.We are currently witnessing a controversial debate on white brands in Spain owing to the rapid growth they have enjoyed in recent months, where they have reached 38% of the sales of packaged large-consumption products.

As a result of this situation, which, on the other hand, is nothing new, many manufacturers, such as Danone, Nabisco and Kellogg´s, among others, have launched a massive advertising campaign to clarify certain concepts that consumers supposedly confuse regarding the manufacture of white brands in the hope that the message hampers their growth.

The importance of the issue and the controversy it has caused is worth taking a look at. First of all, we should start by giving this type of brand its correct name: if, by white brands, we understand undistinguished products based purely on their composition and ingredients and directly comparable with others, such as generic drugs, the name given to these products is incorrect.

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Free Competition and Good Strife

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IE Focus: Free Competition and Good StrifeIE Focus | By Miguel Herrero de Jáuregui. Professor. IE School of Arts & Humanities
In the light of recent events the dogmas of economic theory have been brought into question, with perhaps one exception: free competition, as defended by the Ancient Greeks.
Many dogmas of classical economical theory have been hastily reviewed in recent times. But I am led to believe that there is one which resists criticism from almost all sides, apart from a few nostalgic diehards. Free competition seems to stand today as a pillar of new and revised models much as it always has from the times of Adam Smith. The first theories on the benefits of competition are, however, much older. In Greece, more than 2,700 years ago, Hesiod began his Works and Days with these lines (see this previous post on translation of ancient poetry).
So there was not only one race of Strifes, but all over the earth
there are two. A man would praise the first one after understanding her.
The other is blameworthy: and their spirit is wholly different.
For one fosters evil war and battle,
being cruel. No man loves her, but men, forced
by the will of the inmortals, pay honour to harsh Strife.
But the other was born the first from dark Night,
and the son of Cronos, who sits above and dwells in the aether, set her
in the roots of the earth: and she is much better for men.
She wakes up even the shiftless to work;
for a man grows eager to work when he sees another
rich man who hastens to plough and plant
and put his house in good order; and neighbour vies with his neighbour
as he hurries after wealth. This Strife is good for mortals
And potter is angry with potter, and craftsman with craftsman,
and beggar is jealous of beggar, and bard of bard.
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Jacques de Larosière in the IE Leadership Forum

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Jacques de Larosière, former governor of the Bank of France, former director of the IMF, adviser to BNP Paribas and president of the Strategy Committee of the French Treasury Department, gave the keynote address in the latest edition of the IE Business School Leadership Forum. Larosière is currently President of the Larosière Group , comprised…

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International MBA: Change in Action 2009

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Between the second and third core periods of the International MBA curriculum, students explore – through a series of presentations from outside experts, online simulation, interactive workshops, group work and on-site company visits – the challenges and opportunities of discontinuous change. Topics will vary each year to include climate change, demographic change, nanotechnology, or the…

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