Alexander Lee's Blog

Sony’s new game console, the playstation 4, was just released on Friday and sold more than 1 million consoles in the first 24 hours (CTV News). According to CTV, Sony anticipates to sell 5 million consoles by March. My friend Faiyaz Moosa, blogged the day before the release of the Playstation 4 wondering about which console, the Playstation 4, or the Xbox One, which will be released on the 22, a week after the Playstation, will receive more positive publicity and a greater success rate. He noted that he believes customer loyalty will have a major impact of customer decision on what to buy. He also stated that they are substitute products and stated, why would someone wait an extra week to get a similar product. Because they are substitute products, that factor in which I believe will influence which console outsells the other is the price at which it is sold. Sony has priced the Playstation so that it is $100 cheaper than the Xbox. In my mind as a consumer with no brand loyalty to one, why would I buy a similar product that is $100 more expensive and has similar functions. I believe that because of the lower price point, the Playstation will outsell the Xbox in sales.

Faiyaz Moosa’s Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/faiyazmoosa/

In recent news, Canada has faced a large decrease in tourism since 2000. Over the past 13 years, visits to Canada have dropped by 20% despite the recent boom in world traveling. Tourism is one of the worlds fastest growing businesses today, currently holding 600,000 jobs in Canada and accounting for 2% of the national GDP (CBC News). Last year in 2012, 16 million visitors had landed in Canada, with most being from the US, UK, Germany, and France. The country responsible for the largest drop is the US. The main reason for the decrease in American tourists is the increase in Canadian dollar strength, making it more expensive for Americans to travel here. This seems to be a problem for several businesses throughout Canada, that some international businesses have stopped doing business in Canada from the increasing price for them due to our increase in dollar strength. This raises the question, “How much is the Canadian economy being impacted due to to loss of business in Canada due to high prices?”. The firm Deloitte recommends that Canada needs to learn to tailer more of our businesses towards tourism, to increase travel and international business in Canada.

“It’s clear that strengthening tourism would have a positive impact on Canadian companies and our overall economy,” says Deloitte partner Ryan Brain.

For More Information: http://www.rcinet.ca/en/2013/06/28/tourism-down-decreased-promotion/

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canadian-tourism-declines-despite-world-travel-boom-1.2426675

A new friend of mine, Cole Christiansen, had recently blogged about our class discussion in the lecture of “People, Culture, and Teams” and how creating a positive work environment with many employee perks help increase productivity in activity and lowering turnover rates, but also wondered, what other large companies create a positive working environment. The company thought of, was Google. Google has a tremendous amount of employee perks, such as free food, many unique amenities, dry cleaning, concierge, the list keeps going on. From studying these two companies with positive work environments, it raised the question, does a positive work environment with many employee perks always keep employees happy and prevent turnovers? To answer the question, I looked at the company EA (Electron Arts). EA offers many perks to their employees such as Google and Zappos do, including amenities such as arcades, soccer fields, gyms, and high tech lounges, but are their employees happy? One of my high school friend’s cousin used to be a programer at EA, and said his time was less than enjoyable, where he eventually left the company for another gaming studio. Working at EA, the employees are under constant stress and pressure, creating a negative work environment. So even though companies may have many employee amenities and perks, a positive work environment is not always created, it comes down to the management.

Cole Christiansen’s Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/colechristiansen/

Once one of Canada’s most prominent companies RIM, now Blackberry, has faced yet another grim statistic within the last quarter. Already this year, with the fall of the Black Berry stock, making the company go private, the company has been facing financial hardship. It was released today, from market research firm IDC, BlackBerry’s global share of the of smartphone market in the third quarter this year has dropped to only 1.7% compared to last years third quarter 4.1%, a change in 41%. While Black Berry has decreased, Google has took a lead on global share, now holding 81% of all smartphones around the world, an increase in 51% from the same time last year.

One of the ideas in which we learned to create a company through entrepreneurship is the method of Lean-Start up. This is different from a regular start up company, as the product or service which the firm provides, adapts and changes with the customers wants. This is one problem Black Berry did not realize. Blackberry’s distinction on their phones was their keyboard, something in which phones companies moved away from to go to touch screen. Because Blackberry did not adapt to customers’ wants, and retained upon a product which did not change, they had lost many loyal customers, demand, and brand image, resulting in their downfall.

Based on our in class discussions, creating a shared value between customers and people surrounded by the company is beneficial both towards the company and the consumers. Many companies create shared value, such as the local yoga store, Lulu Lemon, and shoe company Toms, but a company in which exemplifies the definition of Creating Shared Value is the food company Nestle. Nestle is very involved in helping communities in developing countries. In many cases, Nestle helps provide clean water, education, as well as helping increase productivity in these communities by providing techniques and educations to locals.

More companies such as Nestle are needed in todays market, giving back to the communities to which has helped its success. By creating shared value with communities increase their brand image as well, create a more sustainable lifestyle for those living in that community. With this brand image, it allows Nestle to charge a higher price for their goods, while still retaining the demand for their products, as it can be viewed that they are using their money for creating value in communities. Nestle’s executive committee stated their main goal is, “bringing Nutrition, Health and Wellness into the lifestyle in today’s world. The 4th Nestle Healthy Kids Program is expected to benefit 6,500 children to enhance their health and nutritional education”

Nestle does truly live to their motto, “Good Food, Good Life”

For more information on Nestle’s global initiative: http://www.nestle.com/csv/nestle