I’ve been following Starbucks expansion in the US and am quite impressed with their expansion now into Russia. What impressed me more is a statement from Martin Coles, President of Starbucks International saying: “We do not spend a great deal of time focusing on our competition. The growth of other coffee chains can actually help Starbucks by increasing the overall coffee market. We are at our best when we have some competition.”

Several weeks ago we launched Pam Harper’s new web site Business Advancement Inc. and we are now pleased to announce the design, implementation and launch of Pam’s new blog. Click here to visit it.

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Alright, alright now. Before you go and dismiss surveys as a needed interpretation tool (because I told you so in my previous post) check this out as also reported in the wsj:

A study released by the National Bureau of Economic Research and prepared by Duke University professors found that teachers with master degrees had no impact on students performance regarding their math and reading year-end standardized exams. The factors that had impact were: experience in classroom, attending competitive undergraduate institutions and higher scores on licensing exams.

They therefore concluded that teachers with strong credentials should work with students who most need them.

So what does that mean and what do you think:

• Should these teachers work with the slower student or the most gifted?


• Shouldn’t we give more thoughts to what makes a superior teacher and invest in this?


• Next time teachers flaunt their master degree accomplishment, what would cross your mind?

See, and I told you to be careful with interpreting surveys results.

p.s. The study above examined teachers’ credentials alongside the scores of 75% of its students in grades 3 – 5 from 1994 – 2003.

The WSJ reported a study which was conducted at UCLA and concluded that women are “chattier” than men by 3% (I know my wife would debate that.) It also suggested that muscular men are twice as likely to have more than three sex partners than their less muscular buddies.

So I ask the following:

• What segment of the population was tested?


• What was their age group?


• How many were tested?


• What was their ethnic background?


• What part of the country was the study conducted at?

I could probably go on and on with additional such questions. Interestingly, I see more and more such surveys conducted on the web by companies such as eMarketer, Project Implicit, The Wall Street Journal and many more, which shows a growing trend and an accompanying public interest. Although I enjoy reading many such surveys and implementing survey technologies for our clients I believe there is inherited danger in their findings. The interpretation of the results should not be held as an absolute truth but rather as a rough guideline.

And other than that, I don’t feel strongly about it.

Good Surveying.

Chad

In my previous post, I talked about the world becoming one big HiFi spot. Well, American Airlines announced their plan to offer high-speed Internet service connection on their flights next year. What a great world we live in and it’s becoming better all the time.

An interview in the Wall Street Journal with John Chambers, CEO of Cisco, caught my attention. Below are the top five points:

1. Focus on markets transition and try to catch them at the right time.


2. Enter new markets with a sustainable differentiation.


3. Listen and take direction from your customers.


4. Develop a strong leadership team.


5. Innovate, innovate, innovate.

So how do you know it’s the right time to enter or exit a market and how do you know you have the differentiation needed?