Greg Keenan’s article “WestJet to test its luck in Ireland” describes the Canadian-based airline’s plans to test the skies of Ireland. With seasonal, non-stop and direct flights, the airline will be getting a better picture of the European market before attempting a full-force entry. As we have learned in September, WestJet cuts costs by implementing a single fleet of Boeing 737-700; there are less costs for things like training and maintenance of potentially different planes. However, to break into the European market and compete with other airlines like Air Canada means that WestJet has to adopt bigger and wider plans to satisfy demand.

In the meantime, people say that the airline is focusing on regional expansion and the prospect of 76-seat Q400 turboprop airplanes. At this point, industry analyst Walter Spracklin wrote “WestJet is essentially establishing a European beachhead and working on increasing brand recognition, we don’t see WestJet bringing on a new wide-body aircraft type into its fleet with the next three to five years” (para.13). With its iconic usage of a single fleet of airplanes, Westjet is in the right for trying to show its point-of-difference to consumers; of course, it is always ideal to truly see if it is fit to fly in European skies.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/westjet-goes-trans-atlantic-with-new-dublin-flight/article15455464/

In Justin Uyeno’s sophisticated and well-illustrated blog, he has one superb blog post related to corporate social responsibility based on an initiative right here in Vancouver, BC. The post “Vancouver’s toxic waste turned into gold” vividly lays out the plan of the City of Vancouver and TerraCycle Inc. to collect cigarette butts with designated bins and extract “cellulose acetate, which can be used to produce plastic pellets for shipping and plasticized lumber” (para. 1). (See Video)

I agree that there is definitely shared value present in this green initiative in terms of re-conceiving products and markets. Upon closer inspection, we address the social issue of smokers’ bad littering habits, the environmental issue of compiling cigarette butts, and the economic opportunity to transform something wasteful into more usable resources as demonstrated by TerraCycle. While the company may be able to generate profits with this partnership and unique recycling method, the City of Vancouver continues to make green progress which can translate to “increased tourism and standards of living” (para. 2).

Hopefully in no time, instead of asking the question of “what are we gonna do with all these butts?”, we will be asking, “but, what butts?”

https://blogs.ubc.ca/justinuyeno/2013/11/12/vancouvers-toxic-waste-turned-into-gold/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/news-video/in-world-first-bc-installs-butt-bins-to-recycle-cigarettes/article15392684/

In Aaron Lattimer’s blog, there is a fantastic post about Twitter’s recent and successful IPO. Aaron’s “Worth the Wait?” tells about how Twitter recently had its initial public offering with share prices at about $26; peaking at $50, the shares appeared to settle around $46. It is safe to say that  “Twitter has made history as being the largest IPO in the US technology market ever” (para.3). Although the stock is relatively cheap compared to other technology giants, TWTR definitely performed to the high expectations of bull-investors.

Aaron brings up two key points about how Twitter has never made a profit in the last few years  and its revenue streams, specifically advertising, are very prone to skepticism. Twitter is already a heavily cluttered service; with constantly updated feeds, users tend to just scroll through much of the news feed or simply search for tweets from users or under topics they are interested in. Advertisements may be easily brushed off unless the social media company is able to develop a way to constantly display ads without annoying the users. There are also limiting factors of the service like the small screens of devices like Aaron mentioned.

While I believe Twitter is a solid social media service that is here to stay for the time being, it will relatively stay at its current market value until it finds a more revolutionary way to effectively deliver powerful ads to consumers. As a relatively cheaper stock, we may not be able to expect too much at all. Then again, Facebook’s IPO was full of surprises…

https://blogs.ubc.ca/aaronlattimer/2013/11/12/worth-the-wait/

In “Getting Your Business Online: Optimizing Your Website,” Francis Moran gives us some tips about how to make websites well-known, at least in search engine statistics, on the internet. As the third installment following previous blog posts about making websites and other online content for one’s business, this blog post is certainly interesting in telling readers about tools like “indexing” and the usage of key-words to make websites more prominent in search results. Statistics like appearances in search engines is definitely a type of intelligence technology for both the business and the search engine itself. For example, Google needs such statistics to constantly refine its search algorithms to suit user needs; on the other hand, the business needs to know how it strong its presence is on the Internet and how well it is generating traffic, if any at all.

The “Bell Business Blog” is definitely a great resource for anyone interested in or currently operating a business. The blog features a lot of content pertaining to the usage of modern technology, both mobile and Internet-based, in today’s business setting. As young business students in an ever changing world, we should definitely take advantage of a blog that seems to be constantly growing with us.

http://businessblog.bell.ca/internet/getting-your-business-online-optimizing-your-website/

Carl Greenwood’s article “Four new Netflix Marvel superhero shows include remake of Ben Affleck’s Daredevil” tells about Netflix’s future plans to collaborate with entertainment giant Marvel to create several series that will debut exclusively on Netflix in 2015. There will be around four series, each with spanning 13 episodes; in the end, there will be an Avengers-reminiscent assembling of all these new superheroes. The “Daredevil” will also be rebooted.

Having recently discussed Netflix in class, it is quite intriguing to see how the streaming company is not only obtaining more content from other companies but also creating original and exclusive content at the same time. Looking at Marvel’s past, present, and future projects, the firm has always been accustomed to a huge a budget to produce very large-scale and spectacular movies; that said, Netflix will definitely be investing a lot of money in this collaboration in hopes that the payout will be worth it. If the first few episodes are truly captivating, it will be enough incentive for consumers to spend a little bit of money and become new subscribers of Netflix’s streaming service. The company is adding to its value proposition by creating original content with big companies.

Super hero fans may just assemble and start a trend of using Netflix in anticipation of Marvel’s upcoming work.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/four-new-netflix-marvel-superhero-2802556

Kat Cole was once a selling beer and chicken wings at Hooters, even when she was attending high school. She was raised by a single parent, who she attributes her absolute success to. The moment in life where she seized and attempted to encapsulates her beliefs and goals are a lot about what is at the center of Cole’s examination about people and about how to do business: focus on the positive, even across a wide experiential or cultural background. By focusing on the good in a situation or in a person, Cole says she sees, “possibility where 99 percent of human beings do not”. This led her to her most acclaimed piece of work, ever since she jumped ship at Hooters at the age of 19, where she then progressed onto receive an MBA in Australia, without having a bachelor’s degree.

She created a simple seven-step guide for like-minded, entrepreneurial, young go-getters like her.

1. Never say no to an opportunity

2. As a leader, listen really closely to your employees

3. Gratitude is good, but in moderation

4. Donate your time. It will come back threefold

5. Find a way to see every challenge as a change to learn

6. Don’t remind your colleagues that you are young

7. Think bigger. Always think bigger than even think you should

It is with these seven factors that have encompassed her success to be her thing. She claims her ability to see the possible in the impossible people and situations. Because she can see the potential, she attempts to help people go further, past seeing their own prospective, and translating it into a reality.

From Cole’s example,we are able to see that any passionate and good-willed individual is capable of achieving success through perseverance and the insight to keep looking beyond boundaries. This is one of the definitive traits of an entrepreneur.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/227970