Business Schools Ranking (for entrepreneurs)

There are ranking of 10 best universities in US that offers some of the most innovative programs for fledgling business owners.

1.DePaul University, Chicago (At DePaul's Ryan Center for Creativity, entrepreneurship students, local business leaders, and alums learn better ways to brainstorm new business concepts in sessions led by experts on creative thinking.)

2. Florida International University, Miami (Claiming the largest minority enrollment of any institution in the U.S., FIU has brought diversity to the world of student startups. Courses on international trade emphasize starting ventures that aim to trade with South and Central America and the Caribbean).

3. Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. (Harvard has 17 endowed chairs in entrepreneurship. All 900 MBA students are required to take an entrepreneurship course in their first semester. To teach new-venture development, Harvard uses its classic case-study format -- with a twist: CEOs of the companies under discussion are invited to participate. Recent visitors: David Neeleman, CEO of JetBlue, and fashion designer Kate Spade)

Full article>http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fsb/fsb_archive/2006/03/01/8370304/index.htm

How about if IUJ would position itself as a school for Asian Entrepreneurs or Asian Leaders?

Tiger Balm - An ordinary Asian product becomes an international brand

Hi,

The article in the following link is all about an ordinary product that becomes an international brand.
http://www.brandingasia.com/cases/tigerbalm.htm

Tuna

Panasonic brand replaces Matsushita Electric Co.

Hi,
Here is a news about panasonic brand where it is stated the reason of changing the corporate name into the brand name.

Tuna

Panasonic brand replaces Matsushita Electric Co.
The Panasonic brand is about to go corporate. Matsushita Electric Corporation of America, the North American headquarters of Osaka, Japan-based Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., will soon formally take on its best known brand name as its corporate name. As of January 1, the company will be known as Panasonic Corporation of North America. "Panasonic is the name that customers and channel partners have known us by for years," said company chairman Yoshi Yamada. "We want to take advantage of the tremendous brand equity and good will that research tells us is built into the Panasonic name, so it makes great sense to call our company Panasonic."
"In addition, we are also in the midst of a huge transformation of our company's systems and organization. By putting the Panasonic name on the revitalized company, we want to underline the dynamic change going on within the organization." In all, nearly 50 Matsushita entities in the U.S. and Mexico, ranging from Matsushita Electric Corporation of America headquarters in New Jersey to factories and research and development units, will take on the Panasonic name between January 1, 2005, through December 2005. For example, the world’s leading integrator of in-flight entertainment systems, Matsushita Avionics Systems Corporation, based in Bothell, Wash., and known in the industry as MAS, will be renamed Panasonic Avionics Corporation on April 1, 2005. And in Columbus, Ga., Matsushita-Ultra Tech. Battery Corporation, a battery-making joint venture with Kodak, will change its name to Panasonic Primary Battery Corporation of America on the same day. And the company's plasma TV R&D base in Highland, N.Y., Plasmaco, Inc., will become Panasonic Plasma Display Laboratory of America, Inc., on January 1, 2005. Similar changes in corporate naming will take place in Matsushita Electric subsidiary companies in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and Oceania, and South America over the same period. The Matsushita corporate name, which comes from company founder Konosuke Matsushita, will be retained by the parent company and its subsidiaries in Japan where it is widely known and respected and its association with the Panasonic brand is well understood.

Source:http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/news/articles/story_2185.html

The Economist book on Brands and Branding

Just saw the advertising about new book on "Brands and Branding" issued by Economist. Here is the link, seems interestinghttp://www.biz-community.com/Article/196/82/5669.html

GE's Universal unit pays $600MM for iVillage

With only $30MM in revenues and less than $9MM in profits for its most recent quarter(120MM/36MM annual run rate), iVillage is being acquired so that Universal can market itself to a "key demographic" group of customers.

From today's WSJ article: "Acquiring iVillage will enable us to bring our programming to a large and passionate online community," said Bob Wright, GE vice chairman. "We look forward … giving our advertising clients new and exciting ways to reach a valuable demographic."

In the last few years, New York Times Co. bought About.com, News Corp. bought social-networking site MySpace and Dow Jones & Co. purchased financial-news service MarketWatch.
NBC Universal said it envisions iVillage as the "centerpiece" of its digital strategy and expects to grow its digital revenue to about $200 million in 2006, including iVillage.

(via co. website) iVillage Inc. is a leading women's media company and the number one source for women's information online. Established in 1995 and headquartered in New York City, iVillage Inc. (NasdaqSC: IVIL) is recognized as an industry leader in developing innovative sponsorship and commerce relationships that match the desire of marketers to reach women with the needs of iVillage.com members for relevant information and services.

BenQ-Siemens Acquistion a branding prespective!!

I think the following might be an interesting case to follow on the branding strategy. BenQ a Taiwan based group acquired Siemens Mobile devices business. In this acquistion Siemens would be getting 50 million euros worth of BenQ shares. Siemens would be giving all its mobile business including the 3G technological patents, management and its Human resources.
As part of the transaction, BenQ Corporation will gain the exclusive right to use the Siemens trademark for mobile phones for a period of 18 months from closing and co-branding rights to BenQ-Siemens for a period of 5 years from closing

Here is the link about this acquistion:

http://www.gsmarena.com/say_hello_to_benqsiemens-news-125.php

Googlism?

What is Googlism?

Ok, I far as I can tell, it's not a new word. And it actually is not tied to "Google" in a corporate sense. But http://www.googlism.com does offer some interesting advantages for a Brand Manager.

Take for example, Ukrops (http://www.ukrops.com/about/about_ukrops.asp). This is a relatively small grocery store chain back in Virginia, USA. It has managed to differentiate itself from other stores by offering a new look and a much higher level of service. When you put "ukrops" into "Googlism"... this is what you get: http://www.googlism.com/what_is/u/ukrops/.

It's not perfect, but it looks like it can give you an idea of what people may be thinking when they Google your brand.

Lincoln

6 new products from Microsoft Vista

Breakthrough or attempt to cath up the trend: Microsoft is planning six versions of the next incarnation of its Windows operating system. See details here http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4754462.stm
and here http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/feb06/02-26WinVistaProductsPR.mspx

The Future of Branding in Higher Education

I found an interesting article on branding in higher education.
Take a look at this page:

http://www.stamats.com/applications/stories/futurebranding.asp

Yas

Lenovo makes a name for itself

Lenovo starts to be as Lenovo not as IBM in the U.S. market after buying IBM's PC unit.
Renovo will launch newly designed, low-cost notebook and desktop PCs which will be called Renovo 3000s.
We will see the result of their brand strategy in near future.

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2006/tc20060223_512286.htm?chan=globalbiz_asia_more+of+today%27s+top+stories


Takeshi