I realized that when I Google my name Dina Lu, this website is one of the first results.
I created this blog five years ago for a course called Business Fundamentals in my very first semester of first year in university. I thought it would be a good idea to update this blog so that people who search for me don’t think I’m still in first year.
I graduated from the Sauder School of Business in May with a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance and International Business. I clearly remember in first year when I was taking Business Fundamentals and writing this blog, I had no idea what I wanted to do. Five years later, I now have a much better idea of where I want to go in my career, as well as who I am as a person. Seven weeks ago, I started a full-time role with the British Consulate General in Vancouver. It’s pretty awesome so far, and I would love chat further with you about this. You can connect with me on LinkedIn.
Blogging has been a huge part of my life for the past 12 years, and this UBC blog is one of the eight blogs I’ve created. After second year of univeristy, I went to Kenya for two months and documented my experience in my Kenya blog. In my third year, I started dinaludi.com as a platform where I could share my thoughts, experiences, and advice about travel and university life. Today, I still use that blog as a place where I can share interesting things that are happening in my life.
My experience at UBC was definitely rewarding and valuable. Life’s a journey and I can’t wait for all the exciting things that I can be a part of in the future.
Emily’s blog post caught my eye because I don’t think I would ever want to pay $4 for a milkshake…
I then realized that her blog post was about Starbucks, an ever-successful coffee company that has essentially dominated the coffee industry. The “milkshake” is a Frappuccino, a delicious drink that I buy often on scorching summer days to refresh myself. I take back what I said in the first sentence.
How does Starbucks thrive within the coffee industry? This picture in Emily’s post sums it up well:
The value proposition that Starbucks offers to its customers is that its customers belong to a community; it is a “home away from home” (Starbucks psychology, ABC News). For instance, Starbucks has created its own language for coffee drinks and cup sizes. A Frappuccino is a milkshake, a tall is a size small. The first few times I ordered drinks from Starbucks were interesting as I was not aware of the special terms used. I would say medium and have the barista correct me that it was a grande. No wonder Starbucks has made its way to the top. Customers buy the experience of being part of a tight-knit community.
In my Business Fundamentals class yesterday, Janice Cheam, founder and CEO of Energy Aware, spoke about how she sped along the road to entrepreneurship.
It was very inspiring to hear that it all began with an entrepreneurial course in her fourth year at the Sauder School of Business. Working with a few other students, Cheam wanted to develop a product that would help people become aware of the wasteful amounts of energy used in daily life. Today, Energy Aware has grown and works with various parties, such as the Village on False Creek for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, to encourage energy efficiency.
Out of the hundreds of students that graduate with a Bachelors of Commerce degree each year, few become successful entrepreneurs. I think what made Cheam make it was her passion to really enforce the idea of energy awareness. She was very persistent with her idea; she struggled with funding the project, and in the end, the company began with the winning money prize of a competition. I admire how she never gave up. It is always the first steps that are the largest leaps, and Cheam managed to succeed in overcoming the difficult barriers of starting up a company.
I agree with Sutton and Templeton. Connecting back to my Business Fundamentals Class 14, whose focus was “People, Culture, and Teams”, Sutton’s blog and Templeton’s article emphasizes again the importance of organizational structure. Whether an organization has a flat or tall organizational structure affects its employees in ways good and bad depending on the organization’s size, complexity, and nature. Generally, flatter structures facilitate better communication between employees and top management, while taller structures require most of a step-wise communication path between the two. Nevertheless, employees and employers should be treated with the same respect; as Sutton puts it in his blog post, “When leaders believe and especially act on this belief, all sorts of good things happen”.
“Go Ahead and Take Off, for as Long as You Like” curiously sparked my attention on Wall Street Journal’s homepage. Essentially, the article talks about how some employers from small companies offer their employees unlimited paid vacation time. Interestingly enough, this isn’t stupid; offering unlimited vacation time actually fosters trust and motivation for employees, leading to better work performance.
The topic of Class 14 of my Business Fundamentals class was coincidentally “People, Culture and Teams”, which was mainly focused around organizational culture and how employees are encouraged by the work environment and the people they work with. I have never heard of companies offering unlimited vacation time, so when I stumbled upon this article, I wanted to investigate how and why this works.
1. There must be a high-trust culture in the company because employers are giving a huge freedom to employees.
2. Employees love the idea that their company values work-life balance.
3. There hasn’t be much abuse of the system; in fact, employers noticed that employees felt the responsibility to be more thoughtful when taking off time and they even notified their colleagues of their time off to coordinate team tasks and such.
Over the last two decades, social enterprises and entrepreneurs have drawn closer to the heart of business, quite literally.
Runa Tea is a social enterprise that sells guayusa tea, cultivated by farmers in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The company brings long-lasting positive impact to more than 1,700 indigenous farmers by providing a source of income, as well as planting over 150,000 trees annually. The tea is fair trade and organic, and although it contains the same amount of caffeine as coffee, supporters reap many more health benefits with the “energy focused” drink.
Because Runa was started in Brooklyn, most of its distributors are located in the US. The store locator shows that there is one store in Vancouver that distributes Runa, sadly.
The company supports a great cause, and I hope to see it quench the thirst of more individuals in the future.
After reading Maria’s blog post “McDonald’s gives consumer “upper hand”, I checked out McDonald’s video, which answers the question “why does your food look different in the advertising than what is in the store?” Seeing the final comparison between a burger hot off the the grill and a burger designed delicately for an ad, I immediately pondered to myself why the world’s largest burger restaurant chain would show customers that their fresh burgers are not made up to par with their mouth-watering ads.
I agree with Maria’s statement that the campaign is a double edged dagger. On the one hand, consumers receive answers to their questions, which improves consumer-company relations; on the other hand, the answers to questions do not always bring light to McDonald’s, as seen through the use of appetizing burgers in ads which don’t meet the criterion in actual restaurants . Nevertheless, I think that the campaign has brought awareness to McDonald’s desire for a more honest and truthful front.
In the International Finance Center Mall in Seoul, Korea, shoppers will soon find that advertisements are very much suited to their age and gender. The touch screen information kiosks in the mall contain new facial recognition technology that will scan a face and then show ads that are appropriate for that certain shopper. (Read Wall Street Journal’s article “Big Brother, Now at the Mall” for the full details.)
My first thought after stumbling upon this article was that these facial recognition kiosks were a little intrusive, although innovative. I would not be able to stroll around that mall in Seoul without feeling self-conscious; in fact, there are some concerns about privacy with the facial recognition technology. After a bit more research, I found that this facial recognition technology has already been in use for some time in Japan and the US. For example, the Venetian resort, hotel and casino in Las Vegas uses facial recognition technology to suggest restaurants, clubs and entertainment to people who pass by the displays. The usage in Japan, however, is more commercialized.
Advertisement is catching up as the world becomes more technologically advanced, but how do we judge when it has gone too far?
The craze for the new iPhone is ridiculous these days. It was just two weeks ago when Apple’s iPhone 5 could be first held preciously in the hands of Canadian smartphone users.
But, Apple may no longer be gleaming with joy. Foxconn’s iPhone plant is “paralyzed” as thousands strike in central China due to rage over rigorous quality controls and demand that workers work through the holiday. The iPhone has already been short in supply, and the strike will most definitely contribute to the supply shortage.
Probably the most significant damage will be to Apple’s reputation. Customers, who perceive Apple to be that fresh, innovative company with quality gadgets will now see Apple through a new lens. They will think about the factory workers behind that brand, the workers who work long hard hours at low wages to produce some of the world’s most expensive gadgets. Through this, I am reminded of Nike and their deal with sweatshops.
All in all, the ethics of a company can affect the reputation and perception of the company. If it has good ethics, the brand will have a better reputation; if not, then it will be most likely be frowned upon.
It is especially difficult these days for a mobile phone company to prosper in Canada because of competition with the big three (Telus, Rogers and Bell), but Wind has been rapidly growing since its entrance into the wireless telecommunications industry in December 2009.
Wind’s point of difference in comparison to the big three is its cheaper plans that offer more minutes, texting and data. As a matter of fact, I switched from Koodo to Wind in August because I was looking to upgrade to a better plan for university. What caught my eye was Wind’s limited-time plan of $29 for unlimited local calling, Canada-wide texting and data. Also, I wouldn’t be bound to a contract, but instead, I would have part of my phone bill put on a on a monthly tab.
The look of Wind is also something that makes it stand out. Its consistently bright orange ads not only attract customers’ attention, but makes the colour orange associated with the company. The ads of Bell and Telus are quite plain compared to those of Wind; Rogers’ is a bit better with the deep red. What do you think?
