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  • alijafferi 1:31 pm on October 27, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

    A Ray of Hope for Capitalism? 

    In the turn of the 21st century we saw capitalism take hit after hit, as it was criticized all over the world. In a time like this, a single altruistic act can have a revolutionary impact.

    Riot police stand guard during an anti-capitalist Blockupy demonstration in Frankfurt May 31, 2013. Thousands of demonstrators from the anti-capitalist Blockupy movement cut off access to the ECB in Frankfurt on Friday to protest against policymakers' handling of Europe's debt crisis. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski (GERMANY - Tags: CIVIL UNREST BUSINESS POLITICS CRIME LAW)

    Hailed as one of the most celebrated thinkers in the world of poverty alleviation, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus, started his multi-billion dollar Grameen Bank from an act of compassion. On a visit to a Bangladesh village, Yunus discovered people so poor that they could not pay for the raw materials needed for their tiny businesses, which led him to lend 42 of them $27 out of his own pocket to break their poverty cycle (1). This began microcredit, lending to the poor.

    According to Muhammad Yunus, “In a conventional business you go into business to make money … To do that you need some people to work for you. So they are a by-product of your main objective. In a social business, creating employment for these five people is the objective.” (1)

    Grameen became an effective model for poverty reduction and female empowerment, copied throughout the world. Now, a new generation of businesses, deemed “social entrepreneurship”, seek to create shared value, meaning that they obtain long-term sustainable profits while simultaneously advancing the economic and socials conditions of the communities they work in (2).

    The true power of social entrepreneurship is that it is self-sufficient, unlike a non-profit which relies on donations. It still draws upon aspects of capitalism; however, where traditional capitalism is incomplete, the “social” is what completes it by adding a humanitarian aspect. Social business is effectively a true agent of change, offering a ray of hope for the future.

    References:

    1) http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/13420d7c-3be2-11e3-b85f-00144feab7de.html#axzz2isUT8rAC

    2) http://www.waterhealth.com/sites/default/files/Harvard_Buiness_Review_Shared_Value.pdf

    Pictures:

    http://www.dw.de/europeans-blockupy-the-ecb-in-frankfurt/a-16851232

    http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/muhammad_yunus_8_1_11/

     

     
  • alijafferi 7:31 pm on October 21, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

    High/Low Strategy… Rationale behind the 5C 

    So the initial exasperation felt at the release of the Iphone 5C is winding down considerably. Now we rarely tend to hear cries about the pointlessness of releasing an almost identical phone to the flagship Iphone, albiet with somewhat lower quality performance and somewhat lower price.

    iPhone 5C

    Infact, the rationale and strategy behind this move is quite apparent. Before the rapid rise of Samsung as a major smartphone player, Iphone could afford to ignore the low end market side. However, due to the dramatic increase of cheap smartphones in the market, for Apple to maintain it’s share of the smartphone industry, it has little choice but to make both a cheap smartphone and an expensive one1. This strategy of marketing to both the low end spectrum and high end spectrum seems to have been effective – a recent report states that the demand for the 5C has increased substantially, over a 30% rise from the week of the initial launch2.

    One can respect Apples initiative and willingness to adapt to a changing market.

    This Tuesday, the highly anticipated new line of Ipad will be revealed2. The question is will Apple employ this high/low strategy in the tablet industry as well?

     

    References

    Al Akkad, O. (2013). What to expect from Apple’s iPad announcement. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/what-to-expect-from-apples-ipad-announcement/article14963892/ on Oct. 21, 2013

    Cole, S. (2013). iPad 2 remains Apple’s most popular tablet, iPhone 5c demand growing. Apple Insider. Retrieved from http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/10/21/ipad-2-remains-apples-most-popular-tablet-iphone-5c-demand-growing on Oct. 21, 2013

    Picture: http://www.geek.com/apple/iphone-5c-rumor-roundup-colors-specs-and-a-lower-price-1569298/

     
  • alijafferi 4:40 pm on October 6, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

    The Ultimate Currency? 

    Bitcoin, a virtual peer-to-peer currency, as represented by a physical coin.

    Can there be advantages to a decentralized, non-physical currency that has never been counterfeited?

    Does such a currency exist? Yes. Bitcoin. The “digital currency” made its appearance in 2009 and has steadily become more widely used and accepted (1). This new form of money manages transactions over an open source network (2). But do bitcoins have any real value?

    Ultimately, it is society that decides whether something has value or not (1). If there is a significant amount of people that trust it, then yes, it can be used whether or not it is backed by banks or governments. On August 6, 2013, in verdict of a case involving bitcoin scam, a Texas judge stated that people value Bitcoins as currency and should be treated as such — including offenders being subject to charges from the U.S. Security Exchange Commission (3). Furthermore, the currency has been used to facilitate an underground network for illicit drug trade called Silk Road (4).

    It is clear that there is a growing demand for bitcoin, which may create a storm in the world of business. By accepting bitcoin as a form of payment, businesses can increase their popularity by opening themselves to the growing market of bitcoin users all over the world. But what are the long term implications of this?

    References

    1) http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/bitcoin-faces-its-critics

    2) http://bitcoin.org/en/

    3) http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/bitcoins-real-money-ruling-creates-stability-says-expert-1.1368763

    4) http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/silk-road-s-alleged-mastermind-how-the-fbi-caught-him-1.1894067

    Picture – http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/bitcoins-real-money-ruling-creates-stability-says-expert-1.1368763

     
  • alijafferi 11:01 pm on October 5, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

    A Berry Bad Move? 

    We’ve all heard about Blackberry. And we’ve all seen its empire come tumbling down. Now, let’s take a peek at last year before its demise and see what the slipping company has been doing to retain investors…

    Extreme pressures in the world of business can sometimes lead to not-so-honest actions. Many well recognized companies have been involved in scandalous cases of fraudulent financial accounting, including Enron and WorldCom(1). This type of fraud usually involves the skewing and embellishing of financial reports to make a company seem more desirable to investors.

    Although there are measures taken to try and prevent this (GAAP, external audits), it is still a part of the business world. Recently, a law suit has been filed against Blackberry Ltd. on behalf of thousands of shareholders who purchased BlackBerry stock from Sept. 27, 2012, to Sept. 20, 2013, claiming that executives tried to deceive investors by misrepresenting the state of Blackberry’s operations(2). Blackberry has faced similar lawsuits in the past, such as one alleging the misrepresentation of the financials of the PlayBook after its failed launch in 2011(2).

    Did Blackberry intentionally try to deceive its investors, or was its fall just plainly unforeseeable?

    References:

    1) http://www.coso.org/documents/COSOFRAUDSTUDY2010_001.PDF             2) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/blackberry-hit-with-securities-shareholder-class-action/article14713440/                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Picture – http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/photo/21638823.cms

     

     
  • alijafferi 12:35 pm on October 3, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

    Locking Horns With the Law 

    Ryanair’s philosophy of “cutting costs right, left, and centre” allowed them to aggressively dominate an emerging market while maximizing profits. But what happens when such a corporation tries to cut costs in the wrong places?

    Europe’s largest low-cost airline Ryanair was recently slapped with hefty lawsuits amounting to over €9m for skirting France’s labour laws. By hiring workers in Marseille under Irish contracts rather than French ones, Ryanair avoided high French social charges and saved 30%. But, of course, the French government made a move when they realized that the workers were paying no taxes in France.

    Despite Ryanair arguing that these workers were working on registered Irish aircrafts and had already paid their taxes to Ireland, the court’s judgement held the fine for Ryanair. However, the interesting thing here is that large corporations fight for their profits and make their own moves, rather than just adhere meekly to the rule of law. Ryanair pledges to appeal the verdict, while in the meantime, they have already pulled their operations outside of Marseille, and relocated about 200 jobs to rival airports in Spain, Italy, and Lithuania in protest.

    Ryanair stated that traffic for the month of September had risen three percent from the year-ago period to 8.10 million passengers. Annual traffic to end September grew two percent to 80.4 million passengers. But the question is, how will these allegations affect Ryanair in the long-term?

    References:

    http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/02/ryanair-fined-french-court-labour-laws

    http://invezz.com/news/equities/5847-ryanair-share-price-discount-carrier-hit-by-euro-8m-penalty

     
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