This article is from Canadian Business written by Peter Nowak in 6th Nov, 2014: http://www.canadianbusiness.com/technology-news/android-lollipop-5-security/

This article talks about how Android released a new system called “Lollipop”, as it increases the security for users. The application mainly blocks third party users from accessing important data and information from the users phones, such as credit card numbers and important passwords. Before this new system was released, Encryption, which is an option that people can turn on, prevents people from hacking your phone. However, it slows down the phone’s processor which makes everything slower. For average users that unlocks their screen 10-15 times a day, they would not like to turn on that option.

A few years ago, there were lots of articles talking about how google actually have access to all your personal information, whoever uses an android powered phone or has a gmail account will have their information released to Google Company only. This created a lot of debate between the users knowing that their chats, passwords are exposed to google, if others were able to hack google’s servers, they can obtain a lot of important information.

In my opinion, this will definitely improve Google’s reputation in terms of users security, however I don’t really see how this will improve the situation by a lot. Even though third parties might have a harder time obtaining important information in your phone, I am sure that Google still has all your information. If Google’s internet security is not as strong, hackers can still obtain the information. However as of now, the users get the option to increase their security without their phone slowing down. Also, this new system only works on newer phones, so for old phone users, their security is still not as strong

This post is from New York Times Posted on october 11th by William Turton: http://www.dailydot.com/esports/new-york-times-esports/

A month ago, the famous and most played video games, League of Legends, just hosted a championship game in Seoul, Korea. With a prize pool of 11 million dollars, more and more competitive players started forming teams to compete for first place. This article talks about how E-sports is a “power up” series that can lead to a profitable business.

This topic is very interesting to me because I also started playing 4 years ago, the company was founded in 2006 and I have seen it develop and improve. The audiences on this video increases exponentially each year, to the point where they host championships in a stadium. Comparing the first season with the 4th one, the difference in audience capacity has changed a lot. The article also compared how these professional E-sports players are just what LeBron James did to basketball. If NBA is like a profitable business with team management, constant changes on players, with audiences and large prize pools, I believe that League of Legends can be considered in the same category.

At first when I told my friends about how this game is a sport, but online, they didn’t believe me. After analyzing how the components of a sport which includes: competition, audience, teamwork, prize pool, training etc., they also believe that the potential of League of Legends is just as good as any other sports out there. For me, managing a team on something that I am interested would be a great opportunity. Doing something I love while making connections and gaining profit is what everyone wants as their job.

This article is taken from BBC news on the 7th November, 2014: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29947422

This article talked about how Twitter is expanding into Asia, despite the fact that they got banned from expanding into China in year 2009. This article appeals a lot to me because when I remember during year 2009, I remembered reading a post about how twitter got banned from China because the tweets may raise threats to the country. Knowing that China has a very tight censorship on digital content, I was not surprised that Twitter got banned. Moreover, they even created a substitute for Chinese people to use that is very similar to Twitter – Sina Weibo. In Weibo, all the content posted will be monitored by the Chinese government, but users gets the same feeling as using Twitter.

After 5 years, despite the fact that Twitter’s shares are down almost 36% and revenues falling short, they decided to expand Hong Kong in year 2015. In order to attract more users, China is their first priority with so many people, and even though they have been rejected, they are still aiming to expand into China.

I have been living in Hong Kong for my entire life and I have seen some changes in terms of increase in Mainland Chinese population living in Hong Kong. Over the past 4 years or so, Mainland Chinese would come over to purchase a lot of products, firms would expand into China. I remember my father saying how in a few years, companies from China will take over the economy in Hong Kong. From the pattern I’ve been observing, I think my father’s statement will come true as more Mainland Chinese companies will start to enter the market. In my opinion, I think that Twitter is making a good investment even though they are losing revenues because more Mainland Chinese people are coming to Hong Kong. This allows them to use Twitter freely as well and might increase their sales in the long run.

This post is based on one of my classmates, Matteo Stephan’s blog post. Link to the post is here: https://blogs.ubc.ca/matteostefan/2014/10/05/marriott-fined-600000-by-fcc-for-blocking-wi-fi/

A month ago, Marriott Hotel is charged with $600,000 for blocking customer’s Wi-Fi, and forcing them to pay double the price in order to get their wifi when they are using conference rooms. They have been receiving complaints from customers about the Wi-Fi for a while now. After the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) investigated the reason behind Wi-Fi blocking, they found out that Marriott hotel is doing it on purpose. Marriott Hotel stated that they blocked the wifi from outside was to prevent any “rogue wireless hotspots that can degrade service, insidious cyber-attacks and identity theft”, however they still paid the amount ($600,000).

Matteo perspective was very against Marriott Hotel’s decision on blocking outside wifi and charging double the amount on customers using their conference rooms. He said that being an industry that prioritises customer service, they should provide free wifi for any customers in their hotel. I agree with this point, especially since Mariott Hotel is famous for it’s quality in rooms and services. However I also thought about how this can relate to my high school.

In my own high school, we only have one cafeteria, run by one company and we are not allowed to order any other food outside of campus. This creates a monopoly inside our school since everyone’s forced purchase their products (food). No matter how high they set their prices, we still have to pay in order to get our lunch. This scenario can apply to Mariott Hotel, all firms want to maximize their profit, and since Wi-Fi is very common and high in demand, it is obvious to make as much profit as they can on this topic. Even though they should not charge customers double the amount necessary, having the power of a monopoly, they should charge them a reasonable price in order to gain more profit. Because with the extra profit, they can use it to develop their industry and make it an even better place for the customers to live in.

I have recently read a blog post by one of my classmate, Gurinder Mahal. One of his posts talks about how Amazon lowers the cost of e-books to increase profit and revenue. This is his blog.

He stated a really good point on how usually firms will increase their selling price in order to gain more profit, or they reduce their costs. E-books sold in amazon went from $14.99 to $9.99 as part of their strategy to increase profit. I also realized how e-books costs are much lower than normal books since it does not require any printing of paper. With such low costs, author, writers and Amazon can gain much more profit.

They decided to decrease their price due to the fact that consumers will become more attracted to their e-books since it can be treated as a “discount”. They would also require to buy a electronic device that can read e-books. On the amazon website, the first thing that pops up is how their product, Kindle, is the most “affordable — with one touch”. Since they gain more attraction for e-books, consumers are also forced to buy their product Kindle, as treated like a complementary good. In one way, Amazon is gaining more profit, and they are also increasing sales not just for e-books but also Kindle. Just like hitting two birds with one stone.

This blog is taken from Pandodaily and is posted by Michael Carney: http://pando.com/2014/10/27/how-motif-helped-two-11-year-olds-beat-ivy-league-mbas-in-an-investing-contest/

This article talks about how an online website called Motif helps two 11 year old create the highest performing motif. This motif was supposed to be a competition among almost MBA grads, however the winner were two 11 year old children. The article also talked about how their website makes investments a lot easier and through the data they are able to collect, they can analyze trends on how people invests on their website and collect useful information from it.

This blog post fits in with the day we learnt about entrepreneurs and how they always need start up money and a direction to go for. For example. at this time Ebola became a huge matter, maybe firms might want to start developing better drugs for this sickness. Just like kickstarter where other people are able to view your projects, motif allows others to view your “motif” and invest on it. There are a lot of categories that interests investors, they can then decide on how much they want to invest.

After reading the blog, I believe that investing got a lot easier and it does not limit to just businessmen or businesswomen with lots of knowledge on investing to be able to complete this task. We see children, people with other occupation with very little knowledge on investment able to earn same or even more than professional investors. I believe that this website creates a lot more opportunities for people who likes to invest and for entrepreneurs to learn.

Lastly, I would like to talk about how they can use this data that they collected to help investors in the future. This is just like marketing, collecting data from surveys and make a better judgement on a solution or what to do for the next step.

This article is from First Nations Drum: Announcing the Aquaculture in Canada Initiative (http://www.firstnationsdrum.com/2014/07/anouncing-the-aquaculture-in-canada-initiative/)

The Aboriginal Aquaculture Association (AAA) announces that they are now initiating a plan to preserve the aquaculture in Canada. This whole project’s main goal is to work together with First Nations to “develop renewed community economies based on sustainable, responsible aquaculture” and support First Nations in taking part in this project. In this article, the few main facts that is important about this type of business is the fact that over 50 aboriginal groups across Canada has developed aquaculture business venture and partnerships. By cultivating certain types of fish for example, fin fishes and shellfishes, it can generate more economic income for the country and for the aboriginal groups.

AAA will help First Nations achieve these goals by providing services like development and preparation of business plans, feasibility studies, preparation of project funding proposals and help with the provision of advisory and aftercare support. Aquaculture is able to generate around $2 billion for Canada, and by supporting this industry they can further generate more income and also reduce the unemployment rate.

This article is perfect for using the PEST model, in the political side of view, one line in the article said “support will be needed to address the ongoing challenges such as lack of capital and policy constraints.” Which does show some concerns for this industry, however the main focus will not be in the political side. In terms of economics, with this action plan, they are not only generating more income for households but also revenue for the government. They can also lower the unemployment rate and cultivate 56 different types of fish which might be useful as stocks in the future, which is very beneficial. As for Social sector of this model, it might be the equipment they are using or the certain culture of fishing that made it more difficult for them to have a sustainable income, but having this plan provides service that can provide aid to business in need. Technology plays a big part especially in modern days, they can provide machinery to catch more fishes, or just containers that keeps the cultivated fishes alive and healthy.

Article I’m relating to is from The Globe and Mail posted on 29th September, 2014. (link:http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/umbrella-revolution-brings-hong-kong-to-a-halt-in-push-for-democracy/article20823168/)

In September 27th, citizens from Hong Kong started a peaceful protest named “occupy central”, in order to fight for their democracy. Hong Kong citizens was informed that the potential candidates for Hong Kong’s government in year 2017 will be elected by China. This lead to students going on streets for protests, blocking main areas of Hong Kong. Students started to skip school, workers stopped working and the market wants to shut down, which lead to a lot of inconvenience. My goal is to express my point of view in a business perspective.

With the students blocking major roads in Hong Kong, the productivity of Hong Kong will slow down. Relating back to the operations class, even with companies that can maximize the profit through operations, these unpredictable events will still hinder their productivity line. Since China is trying to pursue communism while Hong Kong citizens are pursuing democracy. If Hong Kong’s protest is successful, the relationship between Hong Kong and China might weaken, which will negatively effect Hong Kong’s economic market. This incident is also a type of marketing, but instead of marketing of a product it’s marketing the concept of democracy.

The article I chose from is in the optional reading for class 3 prep, the title of this article is “CVS vows to quit selling tobacco products” that was written in February 2014. The summary of this article talks about the Company, CVS, decides to stop selling any cigarettes related products by October this year. Relating to business ethics, even though the company is about to lose over $2 billion from not selling cigarettes, they are still providing healthcare to diseases related to smoking in pharmacies. CVS is being responsible not only to the customers that purchases their cigarettes but also to the society. By having not only the marketing or accounting sector of the company working together, the company also used scientists and pharmacists to ensure the customer’s having proper treatment after purchasing their product. Referring back to Freeman’s Stakeholder theory, the executive of CVS made this decision not just to satisfy the customers but also showing his or her employees and shareholders that he or she has the responsibility for selling cigarettes. Quoting from the article, CVS has made “an unprecedented step in the retail industry” and predicted it would have “considerable impact”, and I truly support that.