How does the concept of shared value relate to the plans for the Enbridge Pipeline to take place? Where does the boundary lie between generating natural resources to good use and helping the environment? An insightful blog post showing the relation between the two caught my attention and caused me to examine the relationship shared value has with a project of this magnitude. The post commented on how different perspectives of the project would have different views. If we solely focus on the people living in the Alberta community, the pipeline project would increase employment and provide their community with an economic boost. But does this directly correlate with shared value? The answer is no, while the pipeline project would benefit the local community it would be disadvantageous to the Canadian economy as a whole. The pipeline project is projected to cause an increase in the price of oil and causing a serious impact on the country. Another factor to take into consideration is the severe environmental implications this project will have.

While the concept of the Enbridge pipeline seems beneficial to the local community, this is just a short term strategy to provide a quicker way of transporting oil and provide more employment. For the project to succeed it needs to implement the concept of shared value and fully evaluate all the aspects. For this to take place, the goals and benefits provided for individuals has to be beneficial to the economy as a whole.

What role does Business Technology Management (BTM) has in the modern business world? According to the article by Joe Mullich in The Wall Street Journal; a great deal.

The article highlights the idea that for years MBA programs as well as executive training programs have solely focused on the technical side of integrating technology with business management. Which for many, can be a major turn off as business people shouldn’t be focusing on simply computing software (management information system) but rather on business technology management. They should be focused on a type of management that blends information with technology in order to make decisions more effectively. People should then be able to provide detailed reasoning, without being too technical, why certain technology can improve inventory ratios or supply chains or simply the way the business operates.

The success of the business is greatly dependent on the various areas of the business and the numerous people, to be able to successfully work together. Having someone who is business savvy and able to understand the mechanics and technology behind the business would be a tremendous asset to any company.

The article highlights what the average avid businesses savvy person knows about Blackberry’s decline in the business world, but also brought up an interesting point – Blackberry’s way out. Among all the other declining figures of the company’s books (45 percent sales drop and $965 million loss recently reported), was the notion that the company had a 32% increase in companies utilizing their servers.  If Blackberry were to zone in on its network and security-software capabilities, it may just be able to survive. With Blackberry’s main competitors, Apple and Android, able to produce and adapt their companies to fit the needs of the ever-changing smartphone market, Blackberry needs to focus on another customer segment. As the article puts, “BlackBerry has to stop thinking just like a smartphone maker and more like a software shop that caters to all if it’s to survive.” In addition the once promising international market in Asia and Latin America have also dropped 28 and 62 percent respectively, further cementing the fact that Blackberry has to completely change its current business model and instead of competing with efficacious rivals in the smartphone industry, differentiate and take on its own niche appealing to businesses.

Abercrombie & Fitch have been under public scrutiny over last few months with their CEO, Mike Jeffries, claiming to solely market their clothing towards “cool, good-looking people.” But the inquiries haven’t stopped there as they recently announced a new line of anti-bulling T-shirt aimed at students. The article highlights that only problem is the T-shirts aren’t available in plus sizes – the very reason why the company was under so much scrutiny in the first place.

With consumers becoming more aware of the brands and the products that they are endorsing through their expenditure, the importance of a strong brand image is more important than ever. The CEO has claimed that “No young people should ever feel intimidated, especially at school, whether for the clothes they wear, or because someone perceives them as different.”

But is this message consistent with the actions that they have taken? No, claiming that the brand is inclusive is completely futile without the necessary actions to back it up. The brand implications from all the negativity has been devastating towards the company’s image and the company has to re-evaluate its marketing and values in order to ever be successful in the industry again.

As the rise of social media falls upon us, the use of hash tags by companies to interact with consumers has grown exponentially. As shown in the article, Starbucks has done just that as they endorse the coveted Pumpkin Spice Latte. Through the use of promo codes contests, the customers are fully integrated into the experience as they are encouraged to enter with pictures with #PSL and #Celebrate10, revelling in the tenth year that the innovative drink has become available.

Many other industries have followed the social media trend as HomeSense designed a similar contest with the prize being a gift card towards their renovation dreams. All of which show how adaptive and influential hash tags can be. Businesses have become more tech savvy with their marketing as they realize the potential that hash tags have, not only do they collectively show what products consumers want and provide immediate feedback, but with marketing that focuses on building customer relationships.

This shows that marketing is truly about responding to the needs of the customer segments. As the traditional forms of marketing and advertising wears down, the age of hash tag has dawned leading to the most involved consumers yet.