Contract Drivers - FedEx's Problem

(12/18/2012) FedEx's ground delivery drivers are not known for their great services. There are several videos (see below) showing the drivers of FedEx's ground delivery carelessly dumped the packages that should be handled with care. There is another bad story of FedEx. A FedEx's contract driver dropped hundreds of packages (right before the busy Christmas shopping season) when he "accidentally left open the door to his truck."

FedEx Ground is a subsidiary of the FedEx Corporation. The drivers working for FedEx Ground are independent contractors, not FedEx's employees. It might be a cost concern that FedEx maintains such an operational model. But will FedEx's business reputation hold if stories like these keep coming to light?

The followings are several old videos about FedEx drivers.

Hasbro Listens to the Voice of Customer

(12/18/2012) Toy company Hasbro will launch it successful product - Easy-Bake-Oven - to be boy friendly responding to a 13-yo girl's request. Currently,  Easy-Bake-Oven is only available in purple and pink. "McKenna Pope, 13, of Garfield, N.J., got more than 40,000 signatures on her online petition at Change.org and the support of celebrity chefs including Bobby Flay, who backed her call for Hasbro to make a gender-neutral oven and to include boys in the ads." Who says a kids cannot change their world?

Foxconn's Style of Management

(12/17/2012) French reporters get an exclusive report about Foxconn's employee management (Apple's biggest contract manufacturer).



(12/18/2012) An interesting article on Wall Street Journal found that the workers of Foxconn are unhappy: "the newly implemented labor law in China is making it hard for employees to earn a living because they are working fewer hours at the higher overtime rates." What a cultural difference, right?

SKED Rescue System

(12/17/2012) I saw this news on a Taiwanese website. It is a SKED rescue system used in a tragic car accident (Chinese) and the rescue team commented that "SKED is light, convenient and effective". Here is the product webpage about SKED rescue system.

Imagination and Open Mind

We are limited by our framings.

Imagination Becomes Reality

Farmland Value Is At All Time High

(12/13/2012) Thanks to high price of grains and commodities, Iowa farmland's value increased 23.7% from 2011. Here, you can see the statistics of 2011, which was at all time high then too. Wow, much more profitable than the stock market investment.

AdTrap

(12/13/2012) Is it real? Is it really happening? AdTrap will block the online advertisements for you. Not just the annoying pop-up ad, it blocks all ads comes to the pages you visit no matter which browser you use. It is good for users, but will be a disaster for advertisers. I really want to get one.

Mourn for A Short-Lived Gadget.

(12/13/2012) If we only count from 1999's ebook reader device (excluding the failed Apple Newton), eBook reader has lived for just 13 years and start dying. It just cannot compete with multifunction touch-screen tablet. I will say it prematurely: "It had a good life."

A la Carte Pricing Might Be More Normal in The Future

(12/12/2012) Buying airline tickets now need to pay attention to a lot of add-on fees: bag fee, early boarding fee, aisle-seat fee, etc. I think a la carte pricing might be more normal in the future. We used to buy flight tickets only by its class. Want more room and better service? pay more money for a higher class seat. A la carte pricing came to existence in recent years as airlines struggled to make profit. They started to 'invent' these add-on fees. It is a disaster to consumers. As consumers will not know what is the final price (s)he may end up paying, there is plenty of room that airlines can confuse consumers to pay more than they originally wish. The Department of Transportation wants to solve this issue which the airlines and third-party sites are battling, but it seems the problem is more complicated. Recently, Southwest Airlines will charge $40 for those B/C group passenger to get an A class boarding pass.

A la carte pricing is nothing new (relatively new in the airline tickets). Our cellphone bills, home phone bills, cable bills, ... are obvious examples. Do you really understand all items and the compositions of your bills? Most consumers don't understand at all. In business, we call it "revenue management." Through proper arrangement of the service packages, consumers often need to select several service items to fulfill its needs. Each item may not cost much, but combining them together may turn into a stunning sum when the consumer receives the bill. In economics theory, it is based on "price discrimination" or "price differentiation." Through proper pricing scheme, the supplier can maximize its profit and consumers with various needs can find the right 'product/service' that fulfill their needs.

On 9/11/2013, NBC News says that the airlines collected $27B in various fees in 2012. It is obvious that these fees keep many airlines afloat. Without those fees, many airlines will have been in deep financial troubles. Note that the passengers are not forced to pay those fee.

Redbox Takes on Netflix

(12/12/2012) Redbox takes on Netflix with a cheapter unlimited streaming plan. Will it become a blood shedding price war? I guess not. But I am not surprised with Redbox's move at all. Its time has come. (After my trial experience on redboxinstant.com, the number and quality of their unlimited videos are terribly meager. I will not continue to subscribe. 2/2/2013)

FexEx Overcharge

(12/11/2012) Are we overcharged by FedEx for years? An executive of FedEx reveals this news that can make this express giant in trouble.

Happy Returns

(12/7/2012) You happy, retailers are happy too.

Android's Product Rollover Dilemma

(12/4/2012) I found this is a very article to talk about product improvement and model generation rollover problem in new product innovation. Except the maker of Galaxy -- Samsung, other makers of Android smartphones cannot launch a product that can really compete with Apple's iPhone neck to neck. The strategy of these makers is to launch a lot of Android phones more frequently. (In Taiwan, we use a term "機海戰術", indicating the makers just make a lot of models.) This is partially due to lack of negotiation power with wireless service provider, hence the makers need to differentiate their own product with more models for various carriers. (Apple has one model for all carriers.) For android's users, it triggers more frequent and quicker "buyer's regret" because their new phone will be 'dated' in several months. (Apple renews their iPhone roughly every year.) Another bad impact for Android makers is they will need to provide more software updates for their various models with various versions of Android OS. Do you see the headache of Android makers?

Shed Tears for Seriously Money Burning Startups

(12/4/2012) I was one time in a company like this. Several months after I joined that company, I knew immediately that company would not last long as long as that CEO is in charge. I prepared myself for applying a graduate school in the US. Luckily, this company filed bankruptcy two month after I quitted my job.

Monkey's Reaction to Unequal Pay

(12/3/2012) Based on an 2011 research, the gender wage gap for American working women of all ages was 82.2 percent. Huffington Post has a new about monkey's reaction to unequal pay, extremely hilarious. This is part of the video on the Monkey's experiment. 

iPad Only Daily News will be closed

(12/3/2012) This iPad-only news overestimated the influence and user's reliance on iPad. The Daily is over. It lived only 22 months. Is Huffington iPad Magazine still on Apple's news stand?

World Cheapest Tablet

(12/2/2012) The world Cheapest tablet DataWind's Ubislate 7ci will cost $40 in India and some developing countries (The article is from Fast Company). Will it close the digital gap between the haves and the have-nots?