Social entrepreneur is has becoming an ever growing business. Solar sister, one of the most successful social entrepreneurs, is a gender-focused social enterprise with the triple bottom line at its core. Solar Sister empowers women with more economic opportunities. The women-centred direct sales network brings solar technology to the people in rid Uganda, Rwanda and Sudan. People there can use a more health source of light instead of the dangerous and unhealthy kerosene lamps.

In my point of view, the Solar Sisters brings lights, hope and opportunity to the communities. Not only do they care about making profit, more importantly, they care about the wellness of the community. I think all entrepreneurs should learn from the Solar Sisters is that it created shared value. As we go into social entrepreneur, the triple bottom lines should be the centre of the business.  Solar Sisters has become one of the most successful entrepreneurs due to the fact that they see the opportunities others did not see, and that they truly cares about the community. That is something we need to learn while we are at the Sauder School of Business and in our lives.

Resources:

The Solar Sister homepage

ASHOKA: Katherine Lucey Becomes Ashoka Fellow for her Work in East Africa | Ashoka Innovators for the Public

Art SUMO: 10 of Our Favourite Social Enterprises

I found Nam Do’s blog post on “Intense Leadership Style” to be very interesting. He discussed whether yelling a good way to increase the efficiency in big companies.

Yelling at employees may seem like an extreme way to manage the company. However, if managers yell only to show his great passion for the business instead of humiliating and demeaning people, then it is acceptable and may even affect the company in a positive way.

There are many different leadership styles due to the managers’ personalities. One can be smooth and persuasive, or passionate and determinate. As for me, I would chose to be with someone that is enthusiasm and have great influence on other people by the way he does his work and the way he talks. I believe self-motivated managers are those who are personally successful and also motivate the people around them. Yelling, as mentioned in Nam’s post,  is one of the most direct ways of showing the leader’s passion and power. Power is the greatest motivator. The followers can have a better understanding of what they are expected to do more clearly. They are more motivated by passionate speaker than those who give long boring lectures.

Resources:

Harvard Business Review: Is it OK to Yell at Your Employees?

Toostep: Does a boss have the right to yell at his employees?

Zappo is a company that sells shoes and clothing online with word of mouth a key driver of business. Even though most people would not choose to buy shoes online, Zappos has a surprisingly high level of customer base. This is mainly due to its high quality service and its healthy company culture.

Zappo emphasize huge on it’s customer service. It aims to provide customers with “the WOW through service”. Unlike many other companies, Zappo has invested huge on it’s IT, including it’s homepage, and the online transaction service. Besides, the company offers toll-free customer-service. Customers can call the company and report any problem they have and can count on the company to solve the problem. I am personally quite impressed by their call centre. Their employees are working in a live and comfortable environment with their offices decorated in all kinds of accessories. They are truly passionate for their jobs in Zappos and the whole company is like a big family. With this healthy culture, they are able to offer a much better customer services.

Zappos’ customer service shows how important the organization culture and human resources management are to a company. “Culture is how organizations ‘do things’.” (Robbie Katanga). With the employees and customers being satisfied about the company, Zappo is able to work actively and efficiently.

Resources:

Zappos: http://www.zappos.com/shoes

The Australian: Jon Wolske tells how Zappos put the WOW into its corporate culture

The New Yorker: Happy feet

After browsing through the blogs, Annabelle Chen’s post on Lululemon caught my attention. Annabelle said in her post: ”Lululemon’s reputation as a reliable brand seems to be nothing but a memory of the past”. Customers filed a lawsuit against Lululemon, complaining about the sheerness of yoga pants made out of their trademark Lyon fabric. Many people believe that this incident has damaged the company’s reputation and started to question the quality of Lululemon’s product.

However, I don’t think one incident would have that much an effect on Lululemon. Lululemon has built up huge customer base over the years by offering high-quality clothing that has a durable athletic apparel. Besides, Lululemon has differentiate itself by building up brand image. It sends out positive message to the public and focus on sustainability. Lululemon also offer free yoga classes to promote healthy living lifestyle.

 Mistakes are inevitable, what’s important is how the company react to the mistakes. Lululemon’s reaction to the incident is quite reliable. They stopped selling the lyon fabric pants and provide full refund. Of course Lululemon should attach great importance to this incident to make sure it will not happen again. But with their good relationship with the customers and their unique brand, I believe Lululemon will keep up the good quality products and will still be competitive in the market.

Resources:

The Globe and Mail (October 1, 2013): Lululemon lawsuit over too-sheer pants gets lead plaintiff

 Fashion Week Daily (April 4, 2013): Lululemon’s See-Through Pants Fiasco Results In A Firing

The CEO of Sandstorm, Nolan Watson, video chatted with us from Singapore earlier today. He told us his experience in the business world, and how he started his now one of the most profitable companies–Sandstrom Gold. I am greatly inspired by his experience and his words.

Graduated with an accounting degree in Sauder, Nolan started off in Deloitte and became the youngest CFO in Silver Wheaton at the age of 26. Always wanted to start his own business, Noland quitted his job in 2008 and started Sandstorm Resources. He then talked to us about the challenges and difficulties the company has to deal with alone the way.

The video chat with Nolan gave me great inspiration. The most important lesson I learnt was “never give up”.  Starting a business can be hard, but as long as you have faith and keep on fighting for what you want, you will succeed eventually. Nolan also inspired me to go around when solving a problem. When the financial crisis in 2008 affected the trust between the banks and the company, Noland went around raising money from the rich. From Nolan’s hiring policy, I learnt that we need to be good at what we are currently doing to get better opportunities.

A blog I found about Netflix was quite a shock to me. In Maclean’s Business Blog, Nick revealed how Netflix, the biggest provider for movies and television shows online, knows which TV shows and movies its subscribers are dying to watch— by tracking piracy sites to decide which content to purchase.

Opposite to Nick’s view, I believe it is a smart strategy for Netflix to track piracy sites to decide what to add to its online streaming service. Buying content on popular movies and televisions shows is a fundamental strategy for Netflix. As we have talked about in COMM 101, this strategy allows the company to know what to expect from the customers. It is of the best interest for the company to invest their money before they know the qualities of the products. And the most direct and accurate way is to check customers’ view through the torrent sites.

In addition, the service Netflix offer can solve  piracy problems. As was said by Netflix’s ted Sarando, “the best way to combat piracy isn’t legislatively or criminally but by giving good options.” (Stuff (May.1st, 2013)). Since people are provided with a more convenient way of watching the shows on Netflix, they will chose Netflix over the torrent sites, which are illegal and has lower image quality.

Links:

Maclean’s Business Blog (Oct.10th, 2013) How Netflix knows who wants to watch what

BBC News (Sept.16th, 2013) Netflix studies piracy sites to decide what to buy

Stuff (May.1st, 2013) Netflix’s Ted Sarandos talks Arrested Development, 4K and reviving old shows

Mazda company is launching a brand new Mazda3, the 2014 version. Mazda, still in the early stages of a transformation, needs a unique brand positioning in order to get into the mind of the customers.

The competition in car industry is brutal. With the existence of hundreds of  car companies, it is difficult for one company to have a much better sell over other companies. Mazda is neither the first to enter the car industry, nor is it a huge manufacturer like Honda or Toyota. Therefore, it is essential for Mazda to find an unoccupied position where it can be the first. However, Mazda3 is trying to enter the compact car segment with the image of a better design and the guarantee of a better performance. According to the customers, the quality of Mazda was not the best. The company promised to fix the problems and come up the the new product promise to run faster and longer in the new Mazda3. However, this can hardly be considered a unique brand because the company is simply fixing the disadvantages. It will strengthen the customers view of the cars low performance if not given a new brand image on Mazda3. The company needs a unique brand to differentiate itself in order to attract more customers.

Below is a perceptual map I drew to see the points of difference between Mazda and other car companies.

Resources:

Mazda company(2013). Mazda3, 2014 version. Revived from Mazda Car Company

The Globe and Mail (2013, October 3rd). New Mazda3 enters the toughest market in Canada.

National Post (2013, October 1st). New Mazda3 takes a good thing and makes it even better.

BlackBerry announced on September 23th that it had reached a $4.7 billion deal with Prem Wasta and his firm, Fairfax Financial, who want to take the business private.

This transaction is said to be a good thing for BlackBerry because it buys time for BlackBerry to fix itself while staying off the media. The company will still exist in the same form but no longer has to issue quarterly reports, layoffs, or compensation. They will be able to go silent and hide negative financial results while they work towards a long term comeback.

However, I don’t think a go-private transaction would take the business to a much better state. Even though going private would give BlackBerry some time to breath, it will not help the company execute on its strategy any better than being public would. The company will operate in the same way whether they got the media’s attention. Besides, getting a transaction share is not like they are getting a big injection of money, which would greatly recover the company’s finance. However, I do wish the best for BlackBerry and hope it can get back up and compete again.

Resources:

1. The Economist: Time For Plan Z

2. The Globe and Mail: BlackBerry weighing privatization

3. Reuters

4. The Week: Out of it’s misery-BlackBerry considers going private 

In 2006, Dell Ranks No. 8 in Fortune magazine’s annual list of the most-admired companies in the United States. My analysis shows this is mostly due to dell’s direct business model.

Firstly, Dell can greatly improve efficiency by speaking directly to the customer. They can adjust their offer in response to the customers’ request in a shorter time. Secondly, by eliminating the intermediaries, Dell could dramatically reduce its channel costs. Finally, this also creates more options for customization. The establishment of www.dell.com has opened up the company’s product to a considerable number of potential customers. By visiting the site, not only can customers order their PC, get technical support, but they can also download updates to their software. The more channels there are for the customers to buy products, the greater revenue the company will get.

Even though going direct to the market has many advantages, not a lot of company actually do this because of the high responsibility and the variable service the company itself has to offer. However, Dell’s business has proved that going straight to the market can lead to success for the company.

Sources:

http://www.dell.com/

http://www.gaebler.com/Dell-Direct-Model-to-Success.htm

http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~homaei/projects/files/ITM-Dell.pdf

Some time ago I saw a brand commercial produced by Pepsi. In the video, a  kid tried to get drinks from a vending machine. He  got two Coca-Cola and put them under his feet just to reach the higher button for the Pepsi Cola. Usually competition shown on television isn’t that blatant, so this commercial specifically got me thinking, is it ethical overshadow other brand by claiming the superiority of its own product?

The PepsiCo commercial clearly overshadows Coca-Cola’s popularity in children in that commercial, giving it a connotation by letting the boy walked away without the coca cola. According to a Businessihub post, “overshadowing a brand to increase the market penetration for one brand is considered as an unethical process by many.”

The two companies have been using manipulation and comparison advertising in recent television commercials in order to draw attention from a competitor’s brand to their own, which is a negative comparative advertising. There are obviously better ways to promote one’s product than to disparage others.

But there isn’t all downside on this situation. Even though the commercial made by both companies may seem unethical, by competing with each other in this way, both of the brands promote their brand names and become more well-known.

links:

pepsi, banded commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DijFob8vxgI

pepsi, summer time is pepsi time:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s21q2TL27Wc