Joseph's "Just My Thoughts"

To succeed in business, you must have business skills. Business skills can only help you earn money, not create it. The success of a business lies in "dealing with people" rather than "business skills." Dealing with people is the hardest thing in this world. Commercial skills and techniques can lead to small successes, but to achieve great success, we must be able to judge and deal with people well. Above all, we must be patient and love people. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

A surplus value is generated between the stages of consumption and production. The linking of production to consumption is referred to as "sales," in other words, doing business. The values added result in an increase in assets. Consequently, the refund of value-added tax (VAT) does not signify the return of lost profits, but rather the loss of business revenues. This is an unfavorable outcome. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

In business, capital means business funds. A successful entrepreneur often says, "I started my business without any capital". It's partly true, but it's a lie. The entrepreneur just said that capital means only cash. However, all kinds of businesses need to be fundamentally business funds in any even not cash. The entrepreneur didn't count the founder's labor cost. No inputs, no outcomes. The uncounted labor costs are called "alternative costs" or "opportunity costs". This comes from comparative advantage. If the entrepreneur doesn't accept the uncounted labor cost as a debt, the entrepreneur is equivalent to losing the profit due to opportunity costs. Please always remember this. There is no free lunch in this world. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Umbilicaria esculenta is a kind of mushroom. To pick this mushroom up, a picker must climb a high mountain and approach a dangerous cliff because this mushroom is growing up between rocks. Therefore, umbilicaria esculenta is more expensive than other kinds. One day, the TV show "Korean's Dinner Table" on KBS 1TV showed an episode about the mushroom picker and his old mother. "Don't sell this mushroom at a high price." said the mother, because this would be sold at a higher price, many pickers would die from over-picking even dangerous situations. We should deeply consider what is the mission of our businesses. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

DuPont, a global chemical company, has one core value: Safety. The company is well known for adhering to its core values which stem from its historical background. DuPont began as a gunpowder manufacturer during the American Civil War. In 1884, DuPont's CEO, Lammot du Pont, was killed in an explosion. This accident stimulated the catalyst for DuPont's realization that safety should be a core value of the company. Here's a true story as an example. Two DuPont employees were on an overseas business trip and needed to take a taxi to a meeting, but the taxi only had seat belts on the passenger side. They would be late for the meeting, but DuPont policy dictated that only one person be put in the cab while the other took a different cab. Core values represent a company's identity and mission, and complying with them is a crucial challenge for any organization. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Success always has two faces. One is achievement and the other is complacency. There's a term in business administration called the " Competence Trap". It refers to the belief that if people cling to and repeat past successes, they will continue to be successful in the future. Xerox, which invented the world's first personal computer; Chrysler, which missed the SUV market because of the success of the minivan; and Kodak, which invented the world's first digital camera but failed to aggressively market it for fear of losing its main business, film. Humility is not an etiquette, but a shared destiny essential to success. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

The reorientation and expansion of a business should be planned and decided in terms of customer synergies, not company synergies. It may be more successful to offer a customer who buys apple jam an extra slice of bread to spread it on than to provide a customer who buys apple jam an extra jar of peach jam. It's easier for the jam seller to give away an extra jar of jam, but for the customer, the bread is more valuable than the jam. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

The 'Bregenz Festival' opens every summer season in Bregenz, Austria. Although a population of 20,000 this is a small town, 250,000 visitors come here for a month, and the economic effect is perhaps 150 million euros. The site of this festival combines a stunning landscape surrounded by the 3rd largest lake in Europe 'Bodensee' and the Alps with cultural goods such as an opera and exhibitions. The best part is the floating opera stage set up on the lake. The annual opera stage stirs curiosity all over Austria. There are many reasons to go to Bregenz only to see the stage. The opera stage, which changes every year and is built on a beautiful lake, is the only one in the world. Whether it is tourism or business, there must be a reason, "Why come here, or why do business with you." - Joseph's "just my thoughts"

Questions. Who is the biggest threat to GM? 1. Hyundai Motor 2. Tesla 3. Google 4. Consumer Well, how about this? 1. Which gasoline car should I buy? (Competitor: Hyundai Motor) 2. Should I buy an electric car or a gasoline car? (Competitor: Tesla) 3. Should I buy an autonomous car? (Competitor: Google Waymo) 4. Should I buy a car? (Destroyer: Consumer) In this context, the biggest threat to GM is a shared car service company like Uber. Innovative technologies trigger market change, but business models are ultimately the most creative and disruptive. Innovative technology comes next. The biggest causes of business problems are business models first, and the second is business models too. In other words, the key to success is the same. The original business model has to change and evolve. - Joseph's "just my thoughts"

Starbucks Korea sells a 355ml tall size cup of Americano at KRW 4,500. It contains 3.5% solid matter to at least manifest tastes and flavors. The rest is just WATER. We should simultaneously drink 96.5% of the water to get just a few 3.5% together. The average production cost of 1ml of tap water in Seoul is KRW 0.00051. That's the same as paying about KRW 4,000 for a cup of tap water of about 350ml. We would think of how much we make money by selling coffee, but it's our misunderstanding. As an excuse for a few solid matters of "coffee", they're selling tap water at the unbelievable price of over KRW 4,000. They're making money with the cheapest solvent 'WATER', not 'COFFEE'. But almost all businessmen are trying to sell the solid matters of 3.5% at a high price. The reason, businessmen cannot make money is they make the wrong selection which cannot make money since the beginning. The making structure is first, and the effort is second. - Josep

One of the most important essentials of business is cognitive dissonance resolution. When researching who watches the Ford Motor Company commercials the most, the results are not potential customers but purchased customers. They want to confirm that their decisions were right or to receive continuous support after their purchases. Because we can never go back to the past, getting confirmation and support from someone makes us easy and comfortable beyond our regrets. So the company's strategy should focus on repurchasing the existing customers, not the new ones. In many business cases, businessmen should avoid assumptions or predictions. We shouldn't run a business depending on our thoughts only. - Joseph's "just my thoughts

"Discount" is the sacrifice of the value-added you have created. Failure to produce Value Added will result in no profit, and there is a greater chance that the net worth will decrease as much as the profit that has been reduced. The problem is the customer. "Discounting from the start" and "selling at a discount" are strictly different for customers. Neither can do it right if the sellers don't know the "cost". Surprisingly, many businessmen do business without knowing the value they add and the cost. - Joseph's "just my thoughts"