Creativity and Ethics: Case Study on Ruslan Kogan

Ruslan Kogan is an Australian entrepreneur and founder of Kogan.com. Since his early ages, Ruslan was interested in technology he started working for himself at the age of nine. He used to collect lost golf balls, clean them and sell them to golfers. Later, Kogan left this well-paying job and started selling TVs online from his father’s garage.

He started the TV business by approaching television manufacturers claiming that he was interested in buying 100,000 TVs, giving the manufactures the proposal to send him a sample unit at a low price.

He has continued with his entrepreneurial spirit, and currently, he has grown to be one of the best dealers in consumer goods such as electronics, beauty, furniture, toys, travel, and appliances. His products are not only being consumed in Australia but also reach the international market, including countries such as China, United Kingdom, and Hong Kong.

Kogan entrepreneurial success has been attributed to the strong work ethic his parents inculcated in him.Ruslan Kogan is one of the best Australia master online retailers. This is because traditional people in business were slow to embrace the internet and build websites that are easy to navigate. Kogan was bright and opportunist, Ruslan explored the positive sides and identified the benefits that can be achieved from online business.

He used third parties to research the Chinese TVs manufacturing sector he used advice from the researchers to supply the products to China.The entrepreneur also recognized the hazards present and ensured that he avoided them by all means possible. He was swift to learn the point at which things might go wrong, by doing so, he was thus able to shield himself from the danger of failure. In the early stages of his business, Kogan used to personally follow the TVs batches. Once they arrived, he made sure he never lost sight of the truck until it reached the store. Fortunately, through gradual growth he has now acquired an automated website: Kogan.com. This sites now allow him to monitor any of his consignment online without being physically present at the store. The story of his first foray into personal label TVs provided him some insights into his approach to business, and that is the reason behind his success and sustainability.As his business began to grow, Kogan started attracting free publicity. He uses every opportunity and makes his product cheap and affordable to the clients.

His core business is not selling of stuff rather it is an analytic data company that masquerades as an online shopping site. The company’s main aim is to predict what each client will be interested in buying it seeks at delivering the right product as soon as the customer logs in. Kogan.com forecasting engine combines some marketing channels such as email, mobile, and suitably makes an accurate prediction of the possible purchase allowing Kogan.com to have less inventory, thus less wastage, and fewer prices. Kogan utilizes Google trends product, which helps him decide, the stock on the site and the type of products to offer to various clients.

The site helps adapt to customers’ behavior as they interact with it. More than seven million Australians have subscribed to the Kogan.com database system since its establishment in 2006. Kogan’s private branded product sells at a lower price than the global brand. Kogan has lately improved his website with the addition of verticals. He has also expanded into mobiles and entered into a partnership with Vodafone, another creative strategy that has worked to his gain. The company earns commissions in each of the subscribers who sign up the subscribers are expected to increase with the planned increase of the services offered by Kogan.com.

The company has also moved into travel after the owner discovered plenty of resorts in Asia that were keen to fill the available beds. Also, the entrepreneur entered into the partnership with an insurance company in Holland, a partnership that involves risk-based pricing. Where, Any product that is added to Kogan.com, any product that an entrepreneur identifies an opportunity in the market adds to the site. Moreover, Kogan.com can sell its product at Amazon platform. This website has been on eBay for many years as well doing business in Trade me in New Zealand.In addition to the expansion of the product line, Kogan also expanded the locations the firm has branches in most of the countries such as Belgium, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, and the US.

This international expansion and the competitive pricing has led Kogan to be a consistent retailer. As Kogan states on his website Technology can make the world a better place. His primary objective is to make products more affordable to everyone. The success depends on his ability to develop his business as well as others.The innovation at Kogan has undergone a series of developments and value addition. The entrepreneur first identified the opportunity in the market and analyzed the trend in the Google, thus allowing him to add new product according to the customer’s need. Kogan also went ahead to look at the problems that the clients were encountering while trying to shop online. Also, Kogan thought positively, he thought of all the possible outcomes that he will get from his online business.

The entrepreneur went ahead and developed creative ways of making his business profitable and fruitful. One of the creative ways was to have a private brand on his product and making it cheaper for clients to access the product. Also, the entrepreneur has automated his website such that less human labor required to handle the product. Moreover, he ensures that once clients sign into the site, they can quickly identify their preferences and thus, can provide the customer with exactly what they needed. To be able to do all these it has taken him entrepreneurial and leadership skills that enable him to execute his duties with much responsibility.Applying proper ethical standards in internet marketing reflects on the business. A good code of conduct has a direct impact on every aspect of company’s business. It affects the firm’s brand image and consequently the sales, advertisement, marketing, and the sales. Also, ethics affects the workers and how they represent the company online.

Most of the ethical and global issues in information technology apply to e-business. Some of the ethical areas in online business include web tracking, privacy, internet fraud, legal issues, copyright, domain names, and disintermediation.The ethical dilemma that faced Kogan was to ensure the privacy of information as well as providing credible data to their clients. The company is dealing with a lot of people online, so it had a challenge of ensuring that the customers privacy is protected.

The initial step taken by the firm was to sit with the gather information on how to overcome the issue. The firm also draws information on how visitors use the site through the log files. They have application service that has relevant data from the records, giving customers pertinent information without misleading them. When dealing with B2B and B2C perspective, Kogan ensured that the words, pictures, videos and whatever is being shown are actual information about the company.

The second step was to identify all the stakeholders and what they value. Kogan identified the consequences of the issues like loss of customers trust and damaging the company image.

Therefore, he evaluated the rights. The right to protect customer’s privacy and the right to receive credible and reliable information. Since Kogan was brought up with good business ethics, his character and integrity are the driving forces behind his sensitivity to personal privacy. Any form of communication between the company and the client is private, communication such as email or direct communication is personalized to guard personal information.Furthermore, Kogan sells products that are accurate and authentic.

When the firm buys an item, they check first as soon as they enter into the company store, thus ensures that they do not sell counterfeit products to its clients, both locally and internationally. Also, the firm buys product direct from the manufacturer so that they are sure the origin of the item. Kogan checks any product and services they are dealing with, they verify with the manufacturer. Kogan comes up with creative ideas of automating his system, thus, enabling him to monitor every product that enters the firm. Kogan only deals with trusted suppliers, every provider is checked first.

Finally, Kogan applied ethical principles outlined in business codes of conduct, including ethical principles such as online business should assure the safety of client’s data. Adhering to such important ethical principles and also the fact that Kogan has to be creative Explains his success.

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