This post is in response to Tyler Merten’s post “I-Pod, I-Pad, I-…”

In his post, Tyler mentions that Steve Jobs did almost no market research. Jobs believed that “It isn’t the consumers’ job to know what they want. It’s hard for consumers to tell you what they want when they’ve never seen anything remotely like it.” Entrepreneurs are innovative and have to be a head of the game.

Steve Jobs introducing the very first iPhone

I have to agree with Tyler but only to a certain extent. I do believe that Steve Jobs envisioned many consumer products, but I highly doubt that there was no market research involved. Without market research, there is no possible way that Steve would know what the consumers want. I myself could dream up a revolutionary product, but if it does not satisfy consumer wants, the product wouldn’t sell, and would render useless. I believe that he envisioned his products then tailored it based on the markets demand. The statement that Jobs wasn’t meant to be taken seriously, but to possibly give aspiring entrepreneurs the motivational boost.

Sources:

https://blogs.ubc.ca/tylermertens/2012/11/15/i-pod-i-pad-i/

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/4GN8KHnfUWFkN2yaU4_QyQ–/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9Zml0O2g9NzM2O3E9ODU7dz05NTA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/9a36c0ed73b9c216fa0e6a70670016d9.jpg

As mentioned on their corporate citizenship blog, Microsoft is offering a total of $40,000 to several developers who can come up with a ‘Social Good’ application for their new Windows 8 Operatin system. Their new contest celebrating the launch of their new operating system is aimed for “developers to create apps that positively impact the world around them”

Microsoft’s latest product the ‘Surface’ running their latest operating system ‘Windows 8’

As talked about in several classes in COMM 101, Social Entrepreneurship is growing in popularity everyday. However, not many people have the access to the start up capital to fund their ideas. But with hat Microsoft is implementing now, it will put some doubts to rest and become truly a win-win situation for everyone!

Entrepreneurs can start their new business through application developing as it is cheap, and requires only a user and their computer at the bare minimum. The general public will benefit from the social good application produced. Microsoft will gain a great brand image, as a result, consumers will want to purchase their new Windows 8 products. Truly a great strategy adopted by Microsoft.

For more information on the contest, or if you want to participate, CLICK HERE!

Sources:

http://uncrate.com/p/2012/06/microsoft-surface-tablets-xl.jpg

http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoftupblog/archive/2012/11/05/announcing-the-windows-8-apps-for-good-contest.aspx

This post is written in response to Carmen’s Lee post “Sears Canada Reduces Losses”

In her post, Carmen mentions that Sears has been declining in sales, due to American retail chains entering the Canadian Market. However, despite the decline, Sears has slowly been recovering, through an improvement in operations. Their losses cut in half, but still not back to normal capacity.

Personally, I never really knew how much Sears was affected until reading Carmen’s post. I realised something was wrong after their store at Downtown Vancouver closed down, but I thought it was just cause of the particular branch’s problem, not the company as a whole.

A picture of the Sears at Downtown Vancouver closing down

 I think that Sears should recognise their competition, and instead of just addressing operations, address the marketing side of the situation as well. They should identify their point of difference, relative to consumer demand, and see how they can use that to their advantage! Possibly deal with the human resource, offering better incentives to employees as well, because happy employees lead to effective and efficient work!

Sources:

http://www.vancitybuzz.com/image.php?src=http://www.vancitybuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Sears-Closing-1024×764.jpg&w=650&a=t

https://blogs.ubc.ca/carmenlee/2012/11/15/sears-canada-reduces-losses/

Back in June, Japan enforced the law against piracy which would allow anyone who sold, bought, uploaded, downloaded or even watched unauthorised media to be prosecuted.  Furthermore, Internet Service Providers (ISP) would have to pay fees to allow the music companies to keep constant surveillance over their customers. This law has caused a huge decrease in sales for the music industry, as consumers have become so afraid to download legitimate content, in fear that it may be fake, leading to them being arrested. A recent consumer survey showed that 68% of the polls spend no money on purchasing music. This has been the highest in Japan in over 10 years.

This is a great example of what Tom Dobrzanski had to say in COMM 101 class about how bands feel about illegal downloads. As he quotes, it is essentially “free marketing” helping spread the word of the band, so why try to resist it?

Record labels continuously complain about loosing tons to illegal downloads but honestly, in this day and age, there is little to no way of stopping piracy. Even with the laws set in place it is still very possible to copy content. Back before torrenting was popular, kids would buy a CD, rip it off on their computer and simply transfer it to someone elses thumbdrive. If we were to go further back, kids would hold cassettes recorders by the radio to record their favorite song!

To any bands or record labels reading this now, why fight a battle you can’t win? try to find the brighter side of it, because without consumers listening and buying your music, you would not exist.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zolas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torrenting

http://sourcefednews.com/japans-anti-piracy-laws-hurt-revenue/

http://www.japantoday.com/images/size/x/2012/11/download.jpg

This post is written in response to Christopher Merritt’s blog post “Hurricane Sandy is Affecting Retail Supply Chains”.

Here’s a short news report from ABC news about Hurricane Sandy.

Businesses have been drastically affected by Hurricane Sandy. Their inventory, damaged; Transportation logistics reduced in frequency, resulting in businesses being unable to fulfil consumer demand. To make matters worse, the holidays are around the corner which usually means high demand for goods. Furthermore, third party transportation cost have been increasing as there is a ‘shortage of capacity and fuelling affecting their service to customers’. Christopher ends by stating that it will be a while before things go back to normal.

In my opinion, this will put a huge amount of pressure on the role of operations in the supply chain. As now, they need to double their efforts to get the right product at the right place, at the right time, in the right amount in the most efficient manner! Especially in time for the holiday season.

It is crucial at this time that the operations manager and marketing manager have excellent communication. I have to agree with Christopher that the situation will only improve slowly. Therefore only high demanded items should be supplied and less of the low demanded. That way cost will be saved from transportation, as there will be a better chance of sales of a highly demanded good than a lower one. Which will ultimately lower average cost in the short run. Making the best of a bad situation.

For more information on Hurricane Sandy click here.

Sources:

http://blog.ryder.com/2012/11/hurricane-sandy-is-affecting-retail-supply-chains/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/hurricane-sandy-causes-evacuations-closings-throughout-east-coast/2012/10/29/8eac52ba-2162-11e2-8448-81b1ce7d6978_story.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZFlxuU1FRY