Blur Career Path
By Kostas Panagias | May 4, 2008
When I was a student I was planning of working as a regular line manager in a multinational or big Greek company. My dream was to thrive in a competitive environment and advance in top management.
In the last 2 years however this attitude of mine has completely changed. I now crave to start my own company and work there no matter how big or small it can be! I know I have strong creativity and I am good at generating fresh ideas. However to start a new business, it takes more than just ideas or even unique -one time only- opportunities; capital is needed and risks must be taken. I am willing to take risks but I don’t have the necessary capital to invest; not yet. I am in a really big dilemma: to save money for an MBA which is of course absolutely necessary for career advancement or save money to invest in my ideas and start a business? It’s a great dilemma with 2 great restrains: money and time. What would you do?
Topics: Management, Personal Development, Business | View blog reactions | 1 Comment »
Economy in recession
By Kostas Panagias | April 21, 2008
Greek economy faces a great recession. I experience it every day when I visit electronic & electric stores. Merely a customer visits a store. Most of the employees wait the whole day to pass without doing anything! It is true that the World’s economy faces similar problems and the recession doesn’t concern the electronics industry only, but every business sector & section. We only hope that some events will revive the market, at least temporarily (events such as Euro 2008, Olympic Games 2008, etc.). People avoid spending money anymore, not because they choose to save but because they don’t have many.
On the contrary there are many occasions that I see people making bad purchases (read this post) and spending a lot of money purposeless! It is very strange & contradictory indeed and confuses me a lot but it is the reality.
Topics: Strange World!, Consumer Behavor, Business | View blog reactions | No Comments »
The importance of Sales
By Kostas Panagias | April 20, 2008
Selling is the most important business function because it brings ”home the bacon”! Without sales there cannot be revenue and without revenue there cannot be business; that’s for sure!
On the contrary, I think sales are not considered as much important by the average consumer and people tend to look down on salespeople. Selling is considered as a bad work but the truth is that every salesman should be happy & proud of what he/she does.
I think that this notion is caused by same bad occasions of the past. However, it’s high time that attitude was changed and people realize the value of sales and salespeople!
Topics: Sales, Business | View blog reactions | No Comments »
Samsung’s New LCDs
By Kostas Panagias | April 18, 2008
This week Fourlis Trade: the company that trades the products of Samsung in Greece, launched the new LCD’s series for 2008: Series 4, 5 & 6.
The new TV’s are owesome and we expect to continue being leaders in TV market & hope to increase our market share! Currently we have 30+% market share and we constantly increase our difference with the second brand. Chances are that with the new LineUp we will continue to pace very fast and lead the whole market. In fact most competitors are trying to copy us in an effort to catch up. Samsung right now holds the competitive advantage in both technology and design and forms the trends in the whole industry.
At the same time we try to increase our position in other product categories such as mp3’s, videocameras, digital cameras, etc.
Topics: Innovation, Technology, Business, Marketing | View blog reactions | No Comments »
Akismet
By Kostas Panagias | April 13, 2008
Akismet is a wonderful plugin for WordPress that vastly decreases spam comments! I used to get many spam comments and I had to spend a lot of time to scan my (old) posts to delete them. There were days that I had to delete about 60-70 spam comments! Since I activated Akismet (about 2 weeks ago) I never even received one yet.
Topics: Blogging, Internet, Braincharger.net News | View blog reactions | 1 Comment »
Stock Management
By Kostas Panagias | April 10, 2008
A proper stock management in retail stores and in wholesalers is something that can play a major role in the development of a product category and in the whole economy in general.
Just imagine this: Many retailers find hard to sell the old and outdated models (bad stock) so that wholesalers have to wait before they launch the new updated models. This market is fallen far behind other economies which have moved forward 2 or 3 generations of the respective product category.
This issue (of stock management) is responsible for the delayed arrival of new products and models that are found in more economically advanced countries. It’s very common to have to wait many months for a new product that have just launched in the USA or other European countries to arrive in Greece!
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Greek consumers & bad purchases
By Kostas Panagias | April 9, 2008
The Greek consumer does not make any sophisticated purchases: He/she doesn’t look for prices in many different retail stores, he doesn’t do any research on what he is going to buy, nor does he browse the web / e-shops for special offers and as a result he ends up, many times, with an outdated but overpriced model that a retailer wants to get rid off (bad stock!).
In my job I regularly see stores that sell a product even double the price it should be sold and I am wondering how those businesses can be sustained in a “competitive” economy! However, to my surprise, I realize that those stores can do very well and thrive in their business environment.
Topics: Sales, Consumer Behavor, Business | View blog reactions | 4 Comments »
Which is better: Use an ad network for your blog or find a potential advertising client personally?
By Kostas Panagias | April 8, 2008
Ready and fully customizable solutions are very attractive as an option. Google’s Adsense or Adbrite for example are huge advertising networks that deliver efficient advertising to one’s blog or website. These solutions are immediately ready to work. The offer and demand is handled by the ad network. On the other hand finding potential clients that may want to advertise in one’s blog or website is definitely a more difficult task. It takes both time and effort and it might also lead to a disappointment. However one can achieve better deals when establishing long term cooperation and fully customized – better integrated solutions. The later is a tough challenge but its rewards will be great if applied correctly.
Which of these two, do you prefer?
Topics: Blogging, Internet, Advertising | View blog reactions | No Comments »
Interactive marketing and its shiny future
By Kostas Panagias | April 7, 2008
Interactive marketing is going to have a great future. I reason this statement in the current and upcoming technologies and media use and consumption. Moreover there are many examples of some quite successful campaigns based on interactive marketing.
Interactive marketing is using mainly the internet as the interactivity platform but this is not necessary. Interactive uses the customers’ desire for control. A corporation can now establish a connection and a close relationship via interactive marketing. The business can let the customer make decisions over the product’s features, build communities around a brand or a product, entertain him/her and greatly expand the product’s accompanying services.
Topics: Innovation, Internet, Technology, People, Marketing | View blog reactions | No Comments »
Must listen business podcast!
By Kostas Panagias | April 6, 2008
If you are into management (in every managerial position) or in the path to becoming a manager and you take your career serious you cannot afford not to listen to “Manager Tools” Podcast! This podcast is really awesome; you will listen many practical advices and learn a lot of stuff about real management in practise. There are countless topics discussed at full length, tools and situations that a manager will be called to face through his/her career.
I strongly recomment this podcast to all people working in every business sector. I try to listen regularly and I am also looking for old missed podcast.
Topics: Management, Personal Development, Business, Marketing | View blog reactions | No Comments »