Estie

By: Leo Sun

The following is a classic story, often used by socialists to highlight the “evils of a capitalist society” – the small town grocer gets mercilessly taken out by the new Wal-Mart in town. The small town grocer may have an established customer base and friendly relations with the community, but it simply can’t match the low prices offered by Wal-Mart. Being a large national company, Wal-Mart has the sprawling global resources and is willing to sacrifice margins to take out local competitors. In the end, customer loyalty means nothing and the grocer goes bankrupt, decades of hard work decimated overnight. This is a well-known anecdote referring to the impact of globalization on small businesses. Once you start up a new business, you plunge into an ocean populated by a few smaller fish, which compete with you for food, and lots of bigger ones, eager to eat you alive. […]

By: Ryan May
There was a time when the concept of creativity was only associated with writers, painters, musicians and similar people in artistic professions. But with the ever-increasing necessity of cultivating a unique brand personality, the need for creative thinking has transitioned from the arts into everyday business. In addition, the act of producing a product that distinguishes itself from competitors in a marketplace where differences are often hard to come by demands a high degree of creativity both in innovation and marketing.

As a result, it’s now become commonplace for companies – both large and small – to adopt policies that foster creativity and thereby promote innovation.

But what is meant by creativity? And how can it be harnessed effectively?

Defining the Creative Environment
Creativity is the mental and social process used to generate ideas, concepts and associations that lead to the exploitation of new ideas. Or to put it simply: innovation.

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There was a time when social media was considered by some as a passing fad. Something that “the kids” were using that businesses could never really benefit from. Over time, the skeptics were proved wrong. There are over 3 billion internet users—and over 2 billion of them have active social media accounts. Popular social platforms have become marketing giants, offering businesses valuable data about their customers and a (mostly) free way to reach them. The jury has spoken: social media for business is no longer optional.

If you’re wondering how social media can benefit your business, look no further. We’ve outlined key points below.

1. Gain valuable customer insights
Social media generates a huge amount of data about your customers in real time. Every day there are over 500 million Tweets, 4.5 billion Likes on Facebook, and 95 million photos and videos uploaded to Instagram. Behind these staggering numbers is a wealth of […]