...three years * He could easily foresee the rise of Trivial Pursuit in Canada and its potential market and thus success in the US market (US market had approx 10 times the sales of Canada) * TV guide thought of involving themselves because of the monetary gain that the venture assured and supported the idea of working with a small company instead of a big one * Apart from the this Bob due to his earlier network had come up with an amazing idea of coming up with a TV board game * As an average American spent 7 hours on an average watching TV and thus the theme had chances of being enormously successful (The success of Trivia) * Kaplan had ample experience to be a good business advisor and guide * Lastly, an association with Kaplan brought Reiss in contact with Swiss Colony and HellenFactoring who were the other partners in Trivia 2) What risks & obstacles have to be overcome in order to pursue the opportunity successfully? How did Bob Reiss accomplish this? (Cover the Risks & Obstacles and steps by Bob Reiss in pursuing the opportunity successfully) * In this industry the fad of products was really high * The industry was highly competitive with big retailers having maximum say and share * R and R was a new and small player in this industry which was unknown to both retailers and customers so there were doubt of their acceptance * In order to achieve credibility, they went ahead with collaborating with TV Guide * TV Guide could...
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...Defining customers as those people and organizations for whom R&R creates value, R&R serves the following customers: 1. TV Guide; 2. American board game players, i.e. adults and children; 3. Retail outlets, which can be classified as mass merchandisers and department/gift stores; 4. The game developer, i.e. ‘a professional inventor’; 5. TV guide employees who develop the questions; 6. Sam Kaplan; 7. Sales representatives; 8. Kaplan’s supplier; 9. Swiss Colony; 10. Heller Factoring. Arguably, TV guide is a supplier/ marketing channel/ licensor, yet R&R creates value for TV Guide in the sense of creating a business opportunity. A similar argument holds for the other customers of R&R as well. If we look at the final consumers of the product, then according to the definition of Osterwalder and Pigneur, R&R serves a mass market. Taking into consideration the remarks of Mr. Reiss, who mentions that his customers are the manufacturers representatives and the buyers of major chains, we can argue that he distinguishes between input and output in his firm. Thus making the business model multi sided, the suppliers need many retail outlets to have their products for sale; and vice versa: the retail outlets require large production. The value proposition describes what value is delivered to the customer. Or, to be more precise, what are the bundles of products and services that create value for R&Rs customers. Given the limited space of 1 page, I will stick to the customers defined by Mr...
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...Reis and Trivia inc. accomplished. First of all the large established companies are driven by the resources they currently control. No large company controlled the knowledge nor the resources needed to design a new trivia game. Reiss, as an entrepreneur, saw the changing market and the opportunity it created. Secondly the opportunity was only there for a short period of time. Reis predicted that the new trivia game would sell for only one year. Larger companies want to invest in opportunities that are profitable for a more than one year. Reis exploited the opportunity with the (correct) assumption that it wouldn't last for more than a year. Finally, Reis, who outsourced all the steps of the production, development, marketing and sales process, was able to keep the risks for himself very low. A large established company normally does all the steps by itself and therefore has a larger risk. When one of the steps fails, the company will definitely lose money. Reis distributed the risk in such a way that that he and his company Trivia inc. had virtually no risk. The opportunity WHOOZIT is a different cook. The market has changed since the production of The TV Guide TV Game. In 1984 over 80 trivia games came to the US market. The sales for trivia games plummeted. The opportunity WHOOZIT therefore comes in a less favorable time than the “The TV Guide TV Game”. On the other hand, the WHOOZIT game is different than the existing trivia games. Where other trivia games...
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...R&R Case Write UP By: XXXXXXXXX Bob Reiss is an experienced player in the Toy/Game market. Currently he is deciding how to follow his successful TV Guide trivia game. He could try to create a spinoff of the TV guide game. He could launch a new proposed trivia game called Whoozit, where you guess people based on clues. Mr. Reiss has to make a decision launch Whoozit, a new trivia game, or try to spin off the TV Guide game. My recommendation is to launch Whoozit. The Whoozit game allows Trivia Inc. to leverage their skills developed in the launch of the TV guide game. Trivia Inc. has access to the channels, the manufacturers, and the pulse of the trivia market customer. The case indicates that Trivia Inc. had a preliminary royalty deal with the Bettman Archive, keeper of the images necessary for Whoozit. I think the addition of a magazine like People, Life, or Time would create a direct point of touch/access and lend more recognition to the endorsement. Another reason to launch Whoozit is the low cost of the endeavor. If analogous estimation holds true, Trivia Inc. could produce these units for about $5/unit and stand to make profits of about $2.00 per unit on 500,000 units. The total cost to launch The TV trivia game was $50K, but profits were over $2M net for Trivia Inc. If Whoozit could be executed as successfully as TV Guide TV game, it would be money well spent. Finally, the lessons that Reiss had gleaned from Trivial Pursuit’s US launch are incorporated...
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...Harvard Business School 9-386-019 Rev. November 15, 1987 R&R During the summer of 1983, Bob Reiss observed with interest the success in the Canadian market of a new board game called “Trivial Pursuit.” His years of experience selling games in the U.S. had taught him a rough rule of thumb: the sales of a game in the U.S. tended to be approximately ten times those of sales in Canada. Since “Trivial Pursuit” had sold 100,000 copies north of the border, Reiss thought that trivia games might soon boom in the U.S., and that this might represent a profitable opportunity for him. Reiss’ Background After his graduation from Harvard Business School in 1956, Reiss began working for a company that made stationery products. His main responsibility was to build a personalized pencil division, and he suggested that he be paid a low salary and a high sales commission. He was able to gain an excellent understanding of that market, and by 1959 could start on his own as an independent manufacturer’s representative in the same industry. His direct contact with stores that sold stationery products revealed that many of them were beginning to sell adult games. He decided to specialize in those products. In 1973, Reiss sold his representative business to a small American Stock Exchange company in the needlecraft business in exchange for shares. He then set up a game manufacturing division and ran it for that company, building sales to $12,000,000 in three years. Reiss decided to go into...
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...Q.1. What factors created the opportunity for Bob Reiss and the TV Guide Game? 1. Demand for “Trivia” products were on the upswing, and had yet to reach the U.S. 2. Success of Trivial Pursuit in Canada was crucial 3. Reiss’s experience in the logistics and lead time concerns of manufacturing in the toy industry 4. Reiss’s personal connections: • Kaplan (Equity) • Helen Factoring (Billing & Accounts Receivables) • Swiss Colony (production and shipping) • Suppliers for books, boards and boxes Q.2. What risks and obstacles had to be overcome to pursue the opportunity successfully? 1. Advertising (Did not possess the Advertising budget of larger companies, i.e. Parker Bros.) 2. Public’s interest in Trivia Games declining (Over saturation can/will occur rapidly) 3. Manufacturing with little lead time 4. Cash Flow 5. Sales 6. Competition (mainly Trivial Pursuit) How did Bob Reiss accomplish this? 1. Advertising Strategy 2. Offering incentive(5% ad allowance) to dept. stores for placing ad in print 3. Free media publicity 4. Ensured product would be available for sale before “fad” of Toy/Game had occurred 5. Utilized personal experience and intelligence to create an efficient product design (booklet, instead of cards) 6. Business Partner Kaplan 7. Sales Strategy 8. Price Point was set significantly...
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...$12000000 within three years * He could easily foresee the rise of Trivial Pursuit in Canada and its potential market and thus success in the US market (US market had approx 10 times the sales of Canada) * TV guide thought of involving themselves because of the monetary gain that the venture assured and supported the idea of working with a small company instead of a big one * Apart from the this Bob due to his earlier network had come up with an amazing idea of coming up with a TV board game * As an average American spent 7 hours on an average watching TV and thus the theme had chances of being enormously successful (The success of Trivia) * Kaplan had ample experience to be a good business advisor and guide * Lastly, an association with Kaplan brought Reiss in contact with Swiss Colony and Hellen Factoring who were the other partners in Trivia 2) What risks & obstacles have to be overcome in order to pursue the opportunity successfully? How did Bob Reiss accomplish this? * Offering incentive, 5% ad allowance, to department stores for placing ad in print * Free media publicity * In this industry the fad of products was really high * The industry was highly competitive with big retailers having maximum say and share * R and R was a new and small player in this industry which was unknown to both retailers and customers so there were doubt of their acceptance * In order to achieve credibility, they went ahead with collaborating with TV Guide * TV Guide could...
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...BoReissROBERT REISS Robert “Bob” Reiss, HBS 1956, started out as a waiter at resorts in upstate New York. He moved on after HBS to run the personalized-pencil division of a small New York company. He saw that as an opportunity to learn about running a business while someone else “picked up the tab.” He then started a sales rep company and soon stumbled on opportunities in adult games like chess and magic. Eventually he sold his company to a needlecraft company. Bob then founded R&R to create and sell games, including the TV Guide Trivia game produced during the Trivial Pursuit craze in the 1980s. Bob described his entrepreneurial career in a video interview from his office in Boca Raton, Florida, in February 2001. Interviewer: Amy Blitz, HBS Director of Media Development for Entrepreneurial Management. The Early Years I grew up in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn. Both my parents worked. They taught me a strong work ethic and a strong sense of morality. They also taught me to never, ever complain about anything in life. I had a brother who was three years younger than me. We grew up in a very competitive environment. We weren’t aware that it was competitive since that was just the way things were. Sports were everything in our world. We had millions of street games in front of the house. Basketball was the big sport, because in Brooklyn we didn’t have the big playing fields, so everybody played in the schoolyards. Three-man basketball was the game all weekend long. In the winter...
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...Did you know? Lapu-Lapu is not the one who killed Magellan… It was an arrow from the men of Lapu-Lapu!!!! Our country has been given different names. In ancient Chinese records, traders called our country “Ma-I”, which means Land of barbarians “Chin San” which means Mountain of gold’s,” Liu-Sang which means “Land adjacent to the mainland”, and “san Tao” or “Three lands”. In the geographical works of Claudia’s Ptolemy in 105 C.E (Common Era), which appeared in Magini’s edition, our country was called Maniolas. Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, a Spanish Navigator, gave the name Felipinas in honor of King Philip of Asturias. Did you know? Spain used the sword and the cross to colonize our country. Ferdinand Magellan The Portuguese navigator and explorer Ferdinand Magellan was the first European to cross the Pacific Ocean and the first person to command an expedition that sailed round the world. Magellan’s voyage has been called the greatest navigational feat in history. National Flag Magellan was appointed by the king of Portugal to go to the Spice Island to get some Spice but suddenly they have landed on the Island of Cebu in the Philippines, and all they taught...
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...5 step problem solving strategy: * Step 1: Identify what’s being given * Step 2: * Clarify what’s being asked. * If necessary, rephrase the question * Step 3: * Select a strategy * Trial & error, search, deductive reasoning, knowledge-based, working backwards * Step 4: Solve using the strategy * Step 5: Review the answer KUDOS method for solving work problems: * K = Known * U = Unknown * D = Definition * O = Output * S = Substantiation Mathematics exam preparation tips: * Stay ahead of the game * Make a cheat-sheet * Know the format of the test and information that’s fair game * Make a mock exam * Attend the review session * Get help early Exam taking tips: * Arrive early and prepared * Listen & Read instructions carefully * Memory dump first * Skim the test and form a plan * Answer questions sequentially * Apply the guessing rule Multiple-choice tips: * Scan all the choices * Avoid word confusion * Beware of absolutes Free-Response tips: * Show partial work * Don’t forget units * Don’t be fooled by blank space "Problem Solving in Math" Tutorial Summary : | Problem solving in mathematics is important to fully comprehend due to the frequency of them in algebra and higher mathematics courses. Strategies to solve word problems are introduced to aid in the problem solving learning process.A common...
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...PHILIPPINE TRIVIA Longest Underground River The world's longest underground river system accessible to man can be found at the St. Paul National Park in the province of Palawan. It is 8 kilometers long. Largest Philippine Wild Animal The largest Philippine wild animal, the tamaraw (Bubalus minodrensis), is a dwarf water buffalo similar to the carabao except that it is smaller and its horns grow straight upward into a "V" form. It is found only in the island of Mindoro. Highest Mountain The highest mountain in the Philippines is Mt. Apo, a dormant volcano found in Mindanao, at 2,954 meters (10,311 feet above sea level). It is considered as the "Grandfather of Ail Philippine Mountains." Mt. Pulog in Luzon is the second highest at 2,928 meters (9,604 feet). Largest City The largest city in the Philippines is Davao City. With an area of 2,211 sq. km., it is about three times the size of the national capital, Metro Manila. Oldest City Cebu is the oldest Philippine city. Longest Religious Holiday Filipinos celebrate the world's longest religious holiday. The Christmas season begins on September 1st, as chillier winds and Christmas carols start filling the air, and ends on the first week of January, during the Feast of the Three Kings. Only Christmas Theme Park Paskuhan Village in the province of Pampanga is Asia's only Christmas theme park and the third of its kind in the world. Yoyo The popular toy, the yoyo, was invented by 16th century...
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...Question : What country produces Rioja wines? Answer: Spain Question : Who was the favourite daughter of Shakespeare's King Lear? Answer : Cordelia Question : Which is the brightest star? Answer: Sirius Question : Which star has collapsed into itself? Answer : Black Hole Question : Which is the heaviest star? Answer : HDE 269810 IN Magellanic Cloud Question : Which Australkian city includes the suburbs of Cottesloe and Subiaco? Answer : Perth Question : Who discovered Oxygen in 1774? Answer : Joseph Priestly Question : Name the author of A Town Like Alice Answer : Nevil Shute Question : How many Earth years does it take Pluto to orbit the sun? Answer : 248 Question : What name is given to the central part of a fleshy fruit, containing the seeds? Answer : The core Question: What letter appears to the right of Y on a keyboard? Answer : U Question : What is it that makes soda water fizz? Answer : Carbon Dioxide Question : What disease is the Sabin Vaccine used to prevent? Answer : Polio Question : Name the actor grandfather of Drew Barrymore. Answer : John Barrymore Question : Who is the female host of the television show, Better Homes and Gardens? Answer : Noni Hazlehurst Question : Which comedian once said, "A well-balanced person has a drink in each hand"? Answer : Billy Connolly Computer Quiz Abacus is considered as the first known counting device and it was orginated from Asia. Abacus worked on a place-value notion...
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...truth, and it is better it should go first than last.” -Hugh Walpole “Science is simply common sense at its best, that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic.” -Thomas Huxley “Science is like a love affair with nature; an elusive, tantalising mistress. It has all the turbulence, twists and turns of romantic love, but that's part of the game.” -Vilayanur S. Ramachandran “Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.” -Oscar Wilde “Science may never come up with a better office communication system than the coffee break.” -Earl Wilson “Science is nothing but perception.” -Plato “Science is the father of knowledge, but opinion breeds ignorance.” -Hippocrates 15 SCIENCE TRIVIA •Did you know? The earliest fossil cockroach is about 280 million years old 80 million years older than the first dinosaurs. •Did you know? The tungsten filament inside an incandescent light bulb reaches a temperature of 4,664 degrees Fahrenheit when turned on. •Did you know? Unlike many substances, water expands as it freezes. An ice cube takes up about 9% more volume than the water used to make it. •Did you know? The only elements that are liquid at room temperature are bromine and mercury. However, you can melt gallium by holding a lump in the warmth of your hand. •Did you know? If you pour a handful of salt into a full glass of water, the water level will actually go down rather than overflowing the glass. •Did you know? There...
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...generaría interés en los juegos de trivia en el mercado estadounidense. Al escoger el tema tv para el juego, tenía la ventaja que la familia estadunidense miraba cerca de 7 horas diarias de tv. Además, sabía que si su juego se fabricaba bajo la licencia de la TV guide (revista), podría su proyecto fortalecerse y ser más interesante, ya que se vendían cerca de 18 millones de copias de esa revista cada semana. Además, el “Trivial Pursuit”, no tenía promoción en tv y tampoco contaba con una campaña de relaciones públicas. El juego de trivia de TV es para ambos sexos y es de interés tanto para adultos como niños. Además, Bob creía que el juego podría ser introducido tanto en tiendas de lujo como también, en locales de ventas más masivos, asimismo aprovechar el mercado de la venta por correo. Por otro lado, el precio del juego sería inferior que los precios de la competencia, y últimamente la venta de los productos vendidos bajo licencia, habían estado creciendo de manera geométrica. 2. ¿Qué riesgos y obstáculos debieron ser superados para conseguir el éxito de la oportunidad? ¿Cómo logró Bob Reiss lograr esta tarea? Bob tenía que capitalizar el “género” de juegos de trivia, aprovechando el fenómeno que generaría el “Trivial Pursiuit”, pero a su vez tenía que diferenciarse de este juego. Para ello el juego de Bob, no tendría que cubrir los temas cubiertos por el “Trivial Pursuit”, pero sí tendría que poder jugarse en un tablero de trivia. Escogió el tema televisión. Bob,...
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...1. Behind the Scenes: Nestlé Carola Trinkle • Andrea Restrepo • Christine Lee Jason Schron • Jesse C. Vaughan May 2, 2011 2. 3. Strategic Analysis 4. SWOT Analysis Internal Environment Strengths : Strong reputation, largest global food company, brand equity, historical expertise Weaknesses : labor condition controversy, coordination and communication problems External Environment Opportunities : health conscious consumers, organic markets, new technology Threats : rising commodity prices, many strong competitors for each brand product, government regulation 5. General Strategy Product Differentiation Strategy “ Renovation and Innovation” of products and brands. Their portfolio ranges from baby foods, bottled water, coffee, chocolate, drinks, ice cream, and petcare Mergers and Acquisitions with Peter, Cailler, Kohler Chocolats Suisses S.A and joint ventures with L’Oreal, Coca-Cola, and General Mills Low Cost Strategy Majority of products are produced in-house Operational Effectiveness Nestlé Continuous Excellence (NCE) program addresses increasing efficiency in standard operating procedures, consistency and manufacturing management 6. Current Strategy Premiumisation Promoting premium products like high-end coffee and chocolate brands Launched a new tea-brewing system called Tpresso Emerging Markets 45% of sales by 2020, $7 billion over 2 years Asia, Latin America and Africa Growing population, rising disposable income 7. (Cont.) Health Science & Nutrition Concerned...
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