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SYNOPSIS

A field trip was made to Korea. Our group picked Korea’s Telecommunication industry and in particular their best player in the field SK telecom as our study object. In addition to understanding their business operation, how they reached No 1 in their market and their strategic road maps to become a key player in the World’s Telecommunication industry our Group attempts in this report to apply our insights of SK telecom’s successful factors into a hypothetical business plan.

The business plan is called EMbA

SK telecom, our insights

We summarize below, in brief, our insights of the SK telecom business case

1. SK telecom leverage on the Korean culture, i.e. Korean love products and services originated from its own country. Very seldom you see advertisement and sales outlet for internationally known competitors from Japan (e.g. SONY, Toshiba etc) and you see very few foreign brand automobiles on the road. SK telecom is therefore able to use Korean market as the “test bed” for new products and services and revenue stream of these new attempts would be sufficient to drive newer innovations.
2. The “red ocean, blue ocean” concept. While most countries, and their operators, go for GSM Korean telecom operators insist on investing and exploring potential of CDMA making them first and No 1 in many respects. Adding the cultural effect to this Korean feel very proud of SK’s technological achievements.
3. Compete in markets that others have forgotten, e.g. Vietnam and Mongolia etc. These are very new and small markets which bigger International players have ignored. These are markets that treasure the presence of SK telecom and because of the limited exposures of these countries they will be surprised at SK technological achievements and know-how.
4. SK invested heavily on PR centre and building an image of technology innovator. SK truly believes in the future wireless communication is everywhere hence the slogan of “Ubiquitous Life”. The propaganda of that belief drives not just their immediate “left-circles” (customers) but also other businesses (“left-circles” of “left-circles”) that may invest in wireless telecom enabled devices and services (e.g. home appliances, banking, vending machines, content providers etc).

Our Plan

Our plan is named EMbA meaning “Executive Management book Archive”

The “b” is in small letter to distinguish it from Chinese University’s EMBA programme. However the association is obvious.

The Concept

• Leverage on CU business graduates’ (target members are business administration faculty undergrad and postgrad students and graduates) affinity to the University and professors (point 1 of insight above). Same as Koreans, these graduates feel proud of being a CUHK alumnus.
• Government promotes life-long learning. You can’t learn without books, hence the concept of “book Archive”. Whether you like it or not most students/graduates have to read books. However there are already lots of different kinds of bookstore serving different segments of the market, e.g. “Page One” (葉壹堂 ) for middle class and above, Joint Publishing (三聯) , Commercial Press (商務), Popular Book Store (大眾) etc for the general public and Swindon (辰衝) for the rich professional and specialists etc. The traditional market is a “red ocean” that is not worth competing. The “blue ocean” must be something different and unique. The initial target customer base may be small but the potential is great when it get radiated. (point 2 and 3 of insight above).
• The image of EMbA will be built on an academic setting, serious but relaxed, and a culture resembling EMBA unique feature that is “中外古今”
• Learning doesn’t stop after you leave the University. In fact learning is everywhere and it is important that business executives go back to books and exchange ideas and experience with others and refresh themselves in an environment that they feel comfortable with.
• “Book, Learning, Experience sharing” are ubiquitous, i.e. you can’t live without food for your soul and this concept promotes perpetual learning and experience sharing with your friends, alumni, professors and guest speakers. This is point 4 of our insight. In ubiquitous computing computers are all around the individual. The EMbA concept takes on that with a step further. Everyone in EMbA is both a client and a server, i.e. you are there being served by the people, the platform, information and services available but at the same time you could serve others.
• Our concept is not to compete directly with the traditional bookstores but to serve a niche market (i.e. CU business student/graduates). This is a disruptive concept which traditional bookstores cannot follow.

What it is really?

It’s a mix of below

• Private club for members but guests are most welcomed;
• Relax environment for coffee, reading and chats;
• It’s a place where you find solutions to your business problems either from books, case studies, video archives or from other members of EMbA;
• A platform providing information and services from sponsors or members;
• Meeting/contact point for serious business talk, academic research, interviews etc;
• It is a node in the network;
• A place where you offer solutions to help others, be it business issues or career related;
• A place where you bake flour into cakes, bring concept to reality;
• A place where you can browse 2nd hand donated books, case studies; buy new books especially those authored by CU professors.

What do you get from EMbA?

• We serve cakes and coffee (likely to be “Pacific Coffee”) and “fatboy” like big sofa for relaxed reading of books. Alcoholic drinks will not be available as we don’t compete with “embago”, we supplement what they don’t provide.
• A “book archives” section where members will donate their management related books in an English style library setting;
• There will be a couple of small rooms (perhaps for 4-6) for booking by members for private talks/discussions;
• There will be big screen to show video archives, again management issues related, such as those from Prof David Ahlstrom in MGT5021 Human Resources Management;
• Professors will appear regularly and announcement will be made at EMbA’s blog/website and via email subscription. Each appearance of the professor will be linked to a management related theme.
• New books for undergrad and postgrad programmes will be on sale there at a discount for CU students and members;
• Notice boards for recruitments, temporary helpers, garage sale….almost anything you can think of but EMbA will not be acting as agent or charging any fee of transactions;
• There will be a glass partitioned kids corner for those under 6 that may come with their parents;
• There will be virtually no limit to what EMbA can do or can be. As the network of smart students/graduates is growing larger and stronger there is no limit to our imagination.
• Last but not least, match-making will be naturally occurring events in such an environment for which EMbA will not be held responsible for outcome. Andy and Lorain will lead this part of the business and will be our spokespersons/promoters.

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