Great examples of near pure monopolies
A big hat tip to one of my students Arno Albici for spotting a superb article in the Economist about a cluster of mid-sized Japanese manufacturers who continue to enjoy near pure-monopoly power in highly specific, high value-added businesses. decades of industry expertise and reinvesting profit to fund high levels of research and innovation continue to give these companies a remarkable competitive strength in the market. The barriers to entry for rival manufacturers are very high and this helps to explain the limited contestability in the global marketplace.
For example:
Shimano earns around $1.5 billion a year by supplying 60-70% of the world’s bicycle gears and brakes
YKK makes around half the world’s zip fasteners by value,
75% of motors for hard-disk drives in computers come from a firm called Nidec
90% of the micro-motors used to adjust the rear-view mirror in every car are made by Mabuchi
“Many technology products have become commodities, but certain components have not, since they require continual innovation. So entry barriers to the business of making them remain high, and although the margins on the final goods have deteriorated, the margins on specialised, high-end components are still juicy.: Much more here
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GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer choose to collaborate on HIV drugs
Here is an excellent highly relevant article on cooperative behaviour between oligopolistic giants. Two of the world’s biggest drugs companies GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer have announced a plan to merge their HIV treatments in a joint venture. ViiV Healthcare is an attempt for both companies to limit the risks of costly races to find new profitable treatments for HIV/aids and give them an opportunity to counter the loss of the revenues as these companies lose patent protection and are open to competition from generic drug makers. It is a strong reminder of the very high fixed costs of research into new drugs; the long lead times between new drug development, testing and finally getting it to the market. And also the impact of the entry of generic drugs into markets once patent protection runs out. The new company has a 19% share of the global drugs market, in comparison to the Californian company Gilead’s 31%.
Drug firms’ collaboration pools HIV treatments (Independent)
IPO of HIV business is ‘up to shareholders’ (Telegraph)
Hot wiring the brain to pay off more debt
This report for Radio 4’s Money Box programme is a superb example of behavioural economics in action and in particular the anchoring effect. Researchers have found that by putting a small minimum required payment at the bottom of credit card statements, people’s brains are wired to pay less back than if no such minimum was posted. The result is that debt takes many years more to repay and the accumulated interest to the lender is naturally much higher. Offering low minimum repayments each month seems seems intuitively to benefit the borrower - making the servicing of debt appear more manageable on a month-by-month basis. But the anchoring effect in fact lifts the profits of finance houses.
Anchoring describes the human tendency to rely to heavily or ANCHOR on a trait or piece of information in particular. Natural human nature is to rely to heavily on certain pieces of information and then adjust to that piece of information to account for other elements of the circumstance.
When a price anchor is established for a product, it serves as a reference price for all similar products and substitutes. For example, when bread-makers were first introduced to consumers in the USA at a retail price of $275, consumers were not prepared to buy them. However, when a similar product was priced at $400, consumers flocked to buy the $275 bread-maker because they perceived it to be available at a bargain price. This was because their price anchor had shifted from $275 per bread-maker to $400. Anchoring a price for a good or service at a higher level helps to attract consumers to products priced below the level of the anchor.
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Warning - Businesses at Risk from Economic Recovery
An excellent recent article in the ACCA magazine examines an interesting phenomenon - more businesses collapse at the beginning of a recovery than during the depths of a recession. Its all to do with working capital…
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Power Nodes - Using Economics to Make profit
Here is a fascinating article in the Times with Philip Thornton from Clarity Economics interviewing Mia de Kuijper an economist who can help companies to master the dynamics that govern their chances of success. Would be excellent for A2 students wanting some fresh ideas on management in an age of rapid technological change and a world of near perfect information. Her new book Profit Power Economics is due for imminent release.
Kindlenomics
Amazon has announced that it will start shipping the Kindle e-reader in the next few days. Leander McCormick-Goodhart is doubtful about whether this spells the end of books. The Kindle device is part of an increasingly contestable market space whose size is set to rise sharply in the months and years to come. I have added a few links to Leander’s blog post. According to Chris Nuttall in an FT blog last month “there are now more than 45 e-reader models available worldwide, according to E Ink, the dominant technology provider for their displays.”
read more...»Swine flu vaccines and elasticity of supply
The scale of the ordering of swine flu vaccinations by governments across the world is eye-wateringly large! GlaxoSmithKline plc - one of the world’s biggest pharma companies has reported that governments around the world have so far ordered 440 million doses of its pandemic swine-flu vaccine Pandemrix. GlaxoSmithKline has been engaged in a tense race to get new swine flu vaccines onto the market fighting the likes of Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis AG and AstraZeneca to win contracts for public health programmes. For students of the price mechanism it is a fascinating example of many supply and demand concepts at work:
The challenge of scaling up production to meet huge levels of demand - this has involved out-sourcing
The relative importance of fixed and variable costs in developing and manufacturing/distributing a new drug
The elasticity of supply of vaccines to meet short term health requirements
The oligopolistic race to win and protect market share
Economies of scale in production
The balance of power between the major buyers and the multinational drug suppliers
Price discrimination tactics
The Guardian reports that:
“The company makes the vaccine in Dresden and Quebec but the demand is so great – about 60% higher than for usual seasonal vaccines – that it is also outsourcing production to third-party manufacturers.”
According to the Wall Street Journal
“Glaxo hasn’t released information on cost per dose of the vaccine. However, Chief Executive Andrew Witty said in July that Glaxo was charging wealthy nations $10.26 per H1N1 vaccine shot and developing countries less. The drug maker is also donating 50 million doses to the World Health Organization.”
The Independent reports that
“The United States has begun a massive campaign aiming to vaccinate 250 million people against the illness by year’s end.”
And the Times reports that “total booked orders for the drug are worth about £2.2 billion — a significant sales and profit windfall as a result of the swine flu epidemic”
Price elasticity of demand for stamps
The BBC reports that PostComm - the postal service industry regulator has given initial backing for Royal Mail to increase the cost of a standard first-class stamp by three pence. This would take the price up to 42p. At the same time, standard second-class stamps may rise by 2p to 32p. How will consumers respond to the price change? For many the price hike will have little effect - most of the stamps that I buy can be reclaimed as stationery expenses. But many smaller businesses spend heavily on mailshots as a part of their marketing. A rise in mail costs may cause them to consider making more effective use of their customer databases so that - for example - a 3000 mail shot volume is better targeted than before. Do you think that the price elasticity of demand for stamps is price inelastic - at least in the short term?
The Royal Mail is subject to a price cap agreed with their industry regulator. Since the Royal Mail‟s current price control was agreed in 2006, the Royal Mail has lost 9% of its mail volumes over the three year period to April 2009, largely through shrinkage of the total market including 20% of stamped mail. The Royal Mail has also had to face up to increased competition as the postal market has been fully opened up to competition.
Shrinking mail volumes has the effect of reducing capacity utilisation of their collection, sorting and delivery capacity and leads to a rise in the unit costs of the business. The Royal Mail is required by law to operate a universal service across the UK; it is a business that requires substantial economies of scale to remain profitable.
Explaining Creative Destruction
Leander McCormick-Goodhart provides an overview of the concept of creative destruction
read more...»There is something in the water - the story of V-Water
The market space for enhanced water is getting crowded! Sales of ‘smoothies’ are down by more than fifty per cent this year but the volume of enhanced water bottles being bought is proving more resilient to the recession. And the growing amount of shelf space in the supermarket aisles given over to the likes of Firefly, Vitamin-Water, Just-Juice, Vitsmart and V-Water is testimony to the high margins these products generate. Chris Coleridge, co-Founder of V-Water gave a relaxed, entertaining and thoughtful presentation on the growth of his business to the Eton College Entrepreneurship Society on Thursday night. A large audience - fortified by a generous sample of the six flavoured drinks on offer - grilled Mr Coleridge on his business after he had taken time out to explode five myths about start-ups.
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