The United Nations is an international organization founded after the Second World War by  many countries committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights. Due to its unique international character, and the powers vested in its founding Charter, the Organization can take action on a wide range of issues and reach every corner of the globe. From my perspective, United Union is a fine international organization offering help when there is a global issue, but not a Third World countries problem. However, when it comes to the situation of undeveloped countries, the UN may not have enough time and effort to assist since there are amount of much more serious issues waiting to be solved. Therefore, that is the reason that we need the Arc Initiative or other social enterprise.

To be more specific, The Arc Initiative is a representative of social enterprise running by the Sauder School of Business and partnering with business people in Canada and students. Its main purpose is to provide solutions to Third World countries’ entrepreneurial business problems to increase economic situation. The Arc Initiative can help the local economy boom and gradually become economically self-efficient, which can bring positive change to the entire society.

Reference:

• http://skollworldforum.org/about/what-is-social-entrepreneurship/
• http://www.sauder.ubc.ca/Global_Reach/ARC_Initiative

After browsing through the blogs, Louise Zu’s post on Lululemon caught my attention. I agree that what Louise said that Lululemon did not solve the problem essentially, but lost a large number of loyal customers instead. Consumers brought an action against Lululemon because of the sheerness of yoga pants made out of their trademark Lyon fabric. Many people thought this incident has damaged Lululemon’s reputation and started to question the quality of Lululemon’s products. Lululemon was forced to recall this controversial product and offer a full refund. After the product recall, Chip Wilson, president & cofounder of Lululemon, blamed women’s figure for the problem of yoga pants in an interview. He announced boldly that the pants simply don’t work for some women’s bodies and simply rubs in the wrong places. Later, Wilson gave an apology statement for his talk, but the statement was thought as the worst statement on record.

From the perspective of marketing, this is certainly a disaster. In a short term, Wilson’s apology will do nothing helpful to the company but hurt its image again, leaving the company’s development in question. However, these years Lululemon has established a good relationship with customers and has a brand image that promotes healthy living in spirit, body and mind. I believe that if Lululemon is able to maintain its good product quality in its future development, it will still be competitive in the market.

You can also find Louise Zu’s post here: https://blogs.ubc.ca/jiayuzu/2014/09/30/personal-blog-3-lululemon-apologizes-after-threatening-to-ban-customers-for-reselling-products-online/

News about Lululemon can be found here:

1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/06/23/lululemon-still-suffering-from-sheer-pants-debacle-founder-in-warrior-pose/
2. http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/new-complaints-on-lululemon-website-about-yoga-pants-pilling-too-sheer-1.1524992

How will the market be like without any competitions at all? The battle between the two smart phone companies has been going on for the past decade. The latest market share of smart phones shows that Samsung takes 28.4% in the global market, and Apple is leading with 42.6% of the global market share. Together, the two smartphone leaders take a total smartphone market share of 70%. The competition among Samsung and Apple is very fierce. After releasing iPhone6 by Apple, it is reported that Apple is gradually eating the market share of Samsung; Samsung also acknowledged that it felt the threat of iPhone6 launch and apple. Samsung’s new product Galaxy Note 4 has sold 4.5 million units during its first month of availability, which is far from its target 15 million and also 500 thousands fewer than Galaxy Note 3 sold in the same time.

I believe that it is a good thing that the two large smart phone companies compete with each other instead of one of them monopolizing the whole mobile industry. Competition will promote the technological improvements at a faster rate. If Apple were the only existing company producing mobiles, its development speed would not be so fast as we see toady without the interference of Samsung. They are driven by mutual competition and pressure between them to innovate and produce better products.

Citation:

1. http://www.ibtimes.com/apples-iphone-6-pre-orders-are-beating-samsung-galaxy-note-4-korea-1713754

2. http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Market-Rankings/comScore-Reports-July-2014-US-Smartphone-Subscriber-Market-Share

Once I saw this blog written by Molly Cantrell-Kraig, an independent and strong-minded woman, I could not resist commenting on this topic. I believe that in fact, there is no perfect people in this world, and everyone has shortcomings. In front of flaws, some people try to conceal or feel self-abasement, and dare not to communicate with other people, which will make other people feel hypocrisy and unreal and are not willing to contract with them. Actually, when facing the shortcomings, what people really need to do is to face the weaknesses calmly, to challenge themselves bravely and to admit the disadvantages courageously. Get honest about the flaws and everyday is an opportunity to face and deal with the shortcomings.

Especially for a company, if it has no weaknesses or disadvantages to overcome, the only result for it is to be eliminated by the market no matter what competitive place it is in (industry leader, follower, newcomer). Don’t be afraid of any shortcomings; we can even be secretly pleased of the our shortcomings, which are the potential for our progress to success. Through improvement, the weaknesses can continuously make self-improvement so as to be honored, awarded and promoted.

You can also find Molly’s blog here:

http://www.successful-blog.com/1/how-admitting-weakness-makes-you-stronger/

In July, the real estate market in Canada reported by CBC has finished boom, except for three hot 3 cities, Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary. Here, I would like to talk about Vancouver, the city where we live in. In 2014, another housing price statistical report of international city survey said that the housing price of Vancouver ranks only second to Hong Kong, taking the 2^nd place in the world. However, during recent years, Vancouver has always been the hot area inhabited by Chinese people; probably because of the continuous flowing-in of immigrants from mainland China, large amount of luxury houses are bought, which leads to the surge of housing price in Vancouver. Also, as Vancouver has been rated as a city which is most suitable for living for many years in a row and is also a large immigrant city with millions of inhabitants, there is large demand on houses; the housing price of the whole BC province is far higher than that of other provinces, and in some parts, the housing price is the double of cities with the same scale. Without solid capital and income, it is very difficult to buy a house in Vancouver.

The way Vancouver increases the price of a house may result in a failure in response to sustainable development because it destroys the normal orderly flow of real estate. Additionally, it doesn’t help in shrinking the gap between the rich and the poor then create community disharmony.

Reference:

1. <Demographia’s 10th annual survey of 360 housing markets in nine Western countries> http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-s-housing-2nd-least-affordable-in-world-1.2505524
2. http://www.thestar.com/business/2014/10/10/canadian_housing_boom_is_over_except_in_hot_3_cities.html#

On September 19^th, 2014, Alibaba Group was officially traded on New York Stock Exchange. Its market value reaches $231.439 billion, going beyond ones of Facebook, Amazon and eBay. It becomes the second largest Internet Company in the world, next only to Google. Additionally, Alibaba is very likely to be the largest IPO event in the global financial history.

I find that the way of Alibaba to the success differs from that of other companies. Since foundation, it has established a clear business model. It didn’t create any breakthrough technology or produce any new product. Instead, it skillfully developed and applied the relevant technologies of the Internet as well as utilized a large number of venture capitals and cooperated with commercial partners to establish the online trade market.

Besides, in its early stage, Alibaba lowered the requirements for the access of members. It applied the membership system to attract enterprise to login and register so as to collect trade flow and active market. While members browse information, they also bring continuous information flow and tremendous business opportunities. To be specific, it has a business-to-business e-commerce website and an online payment transaction system. With such an open and free trade platform, it can build a close relation between micro-enterprise and individual customers.  

Jack Ma says, today, China is and will be influenced by Alibaba. Originally, Alibaba founded aimes to change the commercial model of China so as to change China. I am more looking forward to the further development of Alibaba Group. 

Link:

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29282407

Historically, Canadian aboriginals are the earliest inhabitants in Canada, the owner of this land. The Canadian government gives much respect to the Canadian first nations. Only the first nation people are allowed to live in the residential areas of aboriginals. The government does not have the right to perform business activities, open up mines, establish factories or collect taxes in these reserved land. But some first nations do not always cooperate with the government. For instance, the government of the B.C. province decided to establish a large-sized hydro-electric power project to develop the petroleum, natural gas and mining industries in the area. The project would go through many protection areas of the first nations, therefore the aboriginals obstructed the project with reasons like impairing their rights to fish and hunt as well as the ceremonial purposes of the area. They refused to cooperate with the government. They also sent a chieftain delegation to negotiate with the government, impeding the economic development of the B.C. province.

As a result, the cooperation of first nations play a really important role in the development and progress of a company. Regarding the first nations, it allows them to earn an interest by providing the reserved land. If the aboriginals establish a friendly cooperation relationship with companies and firms, it will be a very wise decision, favor the development of companies and benefit both sides.

Reference: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/First+Nation+chiefs+stage+Site+showdown/10215965/story.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/background-the-indian-act-1.1056988

Recently, this ‘umbrella revolution’  has become a hot topic among people. As is read in Cherry Zhu’s blog, Instagram joined the list of social networking services blocked in mainland China as lots of users shared images of Hong Kong protest.  In addition, WeChat, a messaging app, was down in Hong Kong, and the search results of ‘Occupy Central’ and ‘Hong Kong Protest’ was banned from Sina Weibo, China’s main microblogging platform.  Also, Chinese authorities had blocked a variety of Google services such as Google search and gmail in China in June.

I agree Cherry ’s opinion that running a media business in China is not really easy. Chinese censorship have restricted so much resources that people can access to the freedom of speech. Under the control of the Party, the reports of issues like protest and ethnic strife will be blocked for sure, because the Party and the government does not want to incite social unrest. Chinese government has also steer online conversations away from sensitive topics.

Chinese internet companies are regularly issued with lists of restricted keywords, and often censor blog posts and other content to avoid trouble with the authorities. For example, if Sina Weibo does not restrict the term like ‘Hong Kong Protest’ , the authorities will exert pressure on the sina leader and may affect the operation of the website system.

Link:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/cherryyijingzhu/2014/10/01/blockage-of-instagram-in-china/

A Dunkin’ Donuts employee Maria Fernandes never woke up after taking a quick nap in her car. She has been desperately struggled in three part-time jobs for a long time.Her death have highlighted people the difficulties of part-time workers. Most part-time workers have two or three jobs at one day and it is possible that they have to lie about their other jobs or hide the fact that they have children. Most of them live in a tough life and they desire a full-time job as well as benefits.

This calls on the government and society to establish the labor union to protect the welfare of part-time workers. The company management never takes the initiative to improve work conditions, welfare and salary. They are only concerned with profit maximization to get bonus at a time. The real problem is the conflict between worker’s salary and company’s interest.

People need work to make a living and support their families. Only a few employers are willing to pay enough wages for their employees to perform their duties. Most of workers, even in developed countries, not to mention the rest of the world, still need to depend on employers to earn a living. Besides, the company needs those workers holding these positions. If the labor union is founded, the part-time workers at least have a chance to fight for the decent salary and primary welfare. 

Reference:  http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/sep/30/maria-fernandes-dunkin-donuts-part-time-work-hours-schedule-crisis#start-of-comments

In the early September, Apple released its new line of iPhones to the world, both of which are larger and thinner than the previous ones. The entire world queues for iPhone6; even some people were camping outside the Apple Store.10 million phones were sold in the first weekend, breaking the previous record set last year by the iPhone 5S and 5C.

However, iPhone 6 Plus owners have turned to report that their smartphones were bending under the pressure of pants.

What is the one needed to be blamed? Skinner pants? Or the technology of the thinner devices?  While it’s definitely possible that the thinner, larger iPhone 6 Plus may be bent after being crumpled in your pocket for a long time, all we’ve seen so far are early reports from a few people.Also, Apple has responded to the reports of bent iPhone 6 Plus, indicating that it is “extremely rare”, and in fact, only nine people out of all customers have complained.

After the thing like bent iPhone 6, Apple’s priority should be improving the quality of its product and in this way, people are more willing to purchase Apple’s product without caring how it would be bent.

Link:    http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-6-plus-bending-issue-2014-9