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Author: Krikor

Live Life Light

By Posted on Posted in ArabNet, Etiquette No Comments

Great posts by Michael Arrington (full post) and Mark Suster (full post) on how to interact at business events and conferences and (re) approach people.

Below are some points by Michael Arrington:

  1. Never underestimate the power of an introduction.
  2. Don’t approach someone when they are clearly in the middle of something.
  3. Don’t approach someone when they are in the middle of a mob trying to get their attention.
  4. If you get someone’s business card, never call them. Send an email.
  5. When you approach someone, don’t assume they know you even if they do.
  6. If you forget to tell them who you are, don’t get offended if they don’t know.
  7. If you’ve blown it to this point, for the love of God fix it.
  8. Look for body language. If you pay attention you can tell how engaged they are.

To know more about what is happening in the mobile platforms and applications, consider visiting the ArabNet 2011 Shift Digital Summit, from March 22-25, in Beirut-Lebanon, which will draw over 1,000 attendees and 80 speakers from around the world. It will include a Developer Day (March 22), Two Forum Days (March 23 & 24), and a Community Day (March 25).

By Posted on Posted in Airlines No Comments

Airlines are digging around to find new ways to charge fliers. In recent years airlines found new ways to push their profits, by charging for checked bags, or selecting a seat or other services that used to be included in their ticket price.

in 2008 airlines started charging for snacks and pillows, in 2010 such fees brought $22 billions.

By Posted on Posted in Hard Discount, Hypermarkets, Retail Distribution, Supermarkets No Comments

The Polish retail scene is not much different from the rest of East and West European markets, but when it comes to the Hard-Discount sector, a major player is out there and trying to control it 100% against the other smaller players who are way behind Biedronka in this race.

Today Biedronka (the ladybug in Polish) owned by Portuguese Jeronimo Martins has more than 1,600 stores located both in large cities and small towns around Poland and regularly visited by 58% of Poles.

Biedronka increased its sales by 29% in 2010. Such results placed the chain among the three largest Polish companies. According to Jeronimo Martins, Biedronka’s sales revenues for 2010 totaled around PLN 19.2bn (€4.81bn).

At present, the chain is comprised of 1,649 stores with an assortment of 900 products with 9 active distribution centers and 2 new DC coming in 2011.
In 2010, Biedronka opened 183 new stores and the plan for 2011 is 200 new stores and a total of 3,000 stores by the end of 2015.

The followers in this game are the Germans Lidl (380 stores) & Aldi (45 stores), the Danish Netto (200 stores) and soon to become discounter local chain PoloMarket (300 stores).

All 4 of them, are watching and monitoring Biedronka’s moves very closely but the latter is not even losing time looking around as they are busy being aggressive.

Plus the purchasing power that is now in the hands of Biedronka is not accessible by others, just imagine the pressure they put on suppliers and brand principles for a simple promotion operation in all their stores for a week or 10 days, let us say they will order an average of 3 cases of 1 product in 1650 stores, that is 4950 cases or around 60,000 units, so they can easily twist your elbow when it comes to price.

By Posted on Posted in ArabNet, Games, Mobile No Comments

Investors are making a high-risk bet that Angry Birds is the next big thing, a game that can expand beyond its smartphones origins.
Rovio, the Finnish developer behind Angry Birds, has just raised $42m from prominent investors. Rovio recently announced a commercial tie-in with 20th Century Fox on Rio, an animated film about birds. The developer will also launch Angry Birds on Facebook in May 2011.

To know more about what is happening in the mobile platforms and applications, consider visiting the ArabNet 2011 Shift Digital Summit, from March 22-25, in Beirut-Lebanon, which will draw over 1,000 attendees and 80 speakers from around the world. It will include a Developer Day (March 22), Two Forum Days (March 23 & 24), and a Community Day (March 25).