If  the United Nations was fully funded why would we need the Arc or social enterprise?

Social enterprise is a foundation in which citizens of the world can engage in mutual learning, whereas the United Nations focuses on humanitarian affairs and conflict reduction. While the state of society should be greatly improved if they were to be fully funded, many of its sectors do not get involved with the community directly. Instead, initiatives are based on donating resources, overseeing international law, and leading human rights campaigns to provide awareness, all of which remain impactful in the big picture.

However, social enterprise connects with the global community in a way that the United Nations cannot. For instance, similarly to Osei Duro, a social co-operative called Re-Wrap employs disadvantaged women in India to make reusable cotton cloth bags and scarves. Through providing the community with an ethical workplace, it allows its employees to gain economic independence and avoid potentially dangerous working environments. In addition, Re-Wrap allows for their employees to work remotely to meet the increasing demand for their goods. As a result, these employees are gaining entrepreneurial skills and are able to generate supplementary income for their families, or start their own small business. In return, Re-Wrap is able learn about the local culture and become a part of a growing economic neighbourhood.

The United Nations would not be able to connect with communities the way that Re-Wrap does. In a way, they are micro-financing the future careers of their employees and promoting competency in a variety of skills, instead of simply dropping resources, leaving, and hoping that the community will teach itself how to become sustainable. The effort that social enterprises and the Arc Initiative make towards integrating themselves into the community makes all the difference in maintaining a sustainable change in society.

Canadian online fashion company Wantering has been in rapid expansion since its debut in 2011. To account for their success, founder Matt Freisen has recently introduced offices in both Los Angeles and New York City. However, due to the fact that Wantering is still in its startup stages, he is only able to employ two employees in LA and four in New York. The homebase for the company still remains in Vancouver with seven team members. Freisen sees the importance in routine activities such as having lunch as a group because it “creates a bit of a family atmosphere and a team atmosphere,” within the team. Evidently, it is difficult to build a cohesive company culture where different departments are based at a significant distance from each other, particularly in the case where there are a mere two people working together at one location.

(source: glamour.com)

In the article, various industry professionals weigh in on their opinions towards resolving Freisen’s issues with respect to culture. They recommended gathering the entire company together for workshops, and to one day assemble the team in one location if the finances allow it. Jack Newton of Clio Software suggested to seek employee thoughts on common values. Allowing this to be a collaborative project prevents the company from reaching a state of homogeneity, which is a positive factor. The finalization of values facilitates future hiring and allows future hires to have a solid grasp of what the company stands for, and what they should do to uphold it.

(source: http://www.pecanpartnership.co.uk/what-we-do/culture)

I also suggest Wantering to take a look at their marketing structure, as this section and corporate culture are closely tied. The way in which Wantering markets itself towards consumers should reflect the values of Wantering employees as well. In order to be cohesive, the values of the company should be upheld to the highest standard, as that is not only how the employee views it, but how the public views it as well. At this moment, as long as every office location is aware and actively working towards common values, Wantering should be in no trouble at all in terms of company culture, despite differences in geographical environment.

Southwest Airlines has been a consistent leader in terms of sustainability in the past 44 years. Its growing clientele originates from providing reliable customer service, as well as competitive prices, that would not be found at other airlines. This year, Southwest is launching a new onboard entertainment service with music powerhouse Beats Music. Further satisfying the People category of the triple bottom line (shown below in the form of Venn diagram), Southwest understands consumer needs and aims to meet them to the best of their ability. Demonstrating their care towards people proves that “Southwest connects [their] Customers to what is important in their lives,” and with this information, they “continue to enhance [their] onboard offerings to remain current as [their] Customers’ needs evolve,” (Krone, Southwest CMO). Southwest differentiates itself through not only low prices, but through quality customer and employee care, community development, and environmental innovation.

(source: http://www.chess-llc.com/TBL.aspx)

Their community and environmental initiatives range from the development of a Green Plane, ameliorating fuel efficiency, to LGBT outreach, many of which began near the launch of the company. Following the triple bottom line framework has rendered Southwest Airlines a profitable company for 41 years straight. In addition, according to MarketWatch, it is more successful compared to its competitors at +0.88% change.

 (source: MarketWatch Nov. 5, 2014)

Southwest Airlines is the ideal exemplar for companies who are skeptical towards valuing social/environmental sustainability equally with economic performance. Southwest differentiates itself through not only low prices, but through quality customer and employee care, community development, and environmental innovation. Its legacy will not rest simply at being a means of transportation, but with its winning points of difference.

Southwest Airlines’ business model proves that enterprises who make an effort to connect with the planet and the people will not impede upon profitability, but instead catalyze it.

33 year old Casey Neistat tells stories. He previously worked for HSI productions as a commercial director, but nowadays he makes his living off of freelancing. Him and his brother gained traction through the HBO series “The Neistat Brothers,” but the show ended promptly due to artistic differences. While his brother pursued a career in independent film-making, Casey threw himself into the marketing world.

(source: Casey Neistat for J. Crew)

From his interview with AdWeek, he reveals that he “never tells clients what [he’s] doing explicitly” in order to maintain his voice in his digital content. Nowadays an increasing amount of companies are looking to expand their online media presence, which gives Casey an endless amount of clients, ranging from Nike to Mercedes. Neistat’s creativity flows through each video. His personal brand is built through his non-advertisement related content. His candid style is incredibly distinct, with casual voiceovers and jump-cuts. The public loves it, considering that his most-viewed video is at 13 million views. Companies are slowly beginning to see that consumers want real people associated with their products in order to be convinced.

What Neistat stated about the downfall of Apple advertisements is understandable, however I have still found myself enjoying the new iPad commercials. Featuring the composer Esa-Pekka as the face of their products appealed greatly to myself, as well as other music lovers. Nonetheless, I feel that Neistat spoke a certain truth about the lack of risks that Apple has taken in terms of marketing. It simply does not exude creativity. The belief that “the product will sell itself” is true in terms of sales of the iPhone6, but Apple is no longer an innovative leader in the world of advertising like it was before.

Would Casey’s directorial style fit in with Apple’s minimalist platform? Maybe not, but considering the disparity in Youtube views between Neistat’s branded videos (Nike Fuelband shown below) and Apple’s originals, it might also be time to make a change and evolve with the world of digital media.

In Carolyn Lee’s post on extreme prices in the Vancouver real estate industry, I found myself in agreement with many of her statements. Carolyn suggests moving to a province with a booming economy, such as Alberta. They have an increasing amount of high-skill job opportunities and homes are much more reasonably priced compared to those in British Columbia. In recent years, many of my friends, from dental assistants to make-up artists, are relocating to Calgary and Edmonton. Although they were all well-trained from legitimate educational institutes, they were working with a high school student, myself at the time, in retail. There is simply an insufficiency in terms of skilled-job opportunities here. However, away from Vancouver it is less financially demanding to start a family, and it is less challenging to develop a career. The combination of few high paying jobs and increasing housing prices leads to an influx of foreigners who invest in Vancouver real estate, instead of local taxpayers owning the land themselves.

The price of property affects businesses as well. In order to save on property costs, traditional fixed offices are often replaced by a mobile working environment. It is said to “improve staff morale and raise productivity,” which directly benefits the business itself.  The Globe and Mail provides the Top 10 Ways to Succeed in a Mobile Work Environment, in which it suggests using technologies like Skype to stay connected to work anywhere in the world. This allows employees to reside in areas of lower real estate prices, such as Edmonton, while working for a company based in Vancouver. While this shoulders more responsibility on the employee, most are willing to take on more and grow as a business professional and learn how to work independently. Having a mobile work environment is a pragmatic solution for businesses to combat the skyrocketing real estate prices in cities like Vancouver.

As online media becomes more and more prominent in popular culture, Google’s Youtube is putting a larger focus on advertisements. Their business model allows content producers to create what they like and for advertisers to decide with whom they would like to work, as opposed to traditional method of marketing executives advising each and every move of the filmmaker. For Youtube, this point of difference inspires innovative collaborations between users and businesses. This is what funds their existence. Income is generated through advertisements on videos, and the more the content is seen, the more cash flows into both the hands of the content producer and the pockets of Youtube. A key piece of information from analytics proves that those with consistently large audiences distribute videos of superior quality, whether it may be in lighting or camera quality. It is now understandable that Youtube is building physical infrastructure to foster the talent who are working on their platform.

On November 6, 2014, Youtube will be debuting another physical studio in New York City, on Madison Avenue no less. The street name, now synonymous to America’s advertising industry, was a key factor to Youtube’s choice in location. On top of providing a creative space for “youtubers,” creating a physical location allows major companies to discover that the online platform also hosts creative output that can “rival traditional television in terms of production values and marketing potential.” NBC has recognized this fact and their development on Youtube with the Tonight Show and Saturday Night Live has increased their viewership.

While the space itself is not revolutionary, the newly developed BrandLab sets the New York location apart from its counterpart in California. BrandLab allows companies such as Maybelline to physically connect with content producers and expand their creative limits.

Perhaps Youtube’s original value proposition was simply to create a video-sharing platform that is accessible to anyone. Nowadays, Youtube is a online community dedicated to connecting content producers with both viewers, and companies who wish to expand beyond traditional advertising. 

Enbridge has been facing constant scrutiny in the past couple of years ever since they announced the development plans that would exploit aboriginal territory and cross through their lush forests. This debate has been a hot topic and is extremely complex, from the economic pros and cons to the social and environmental impacts towards the citizens of Kitimat, BC.

Protests have been ongoing since the commencement, and the public outcry has only increased due to the widespread of negative publicity. To overcome these issues, Enbridge hired Jim Prentice, the premier of Alberta and well-loved figure by the BC aboriginal community, to give insight towards how to resolve these conflicts. He revealed the severity of resistance coming from the coastal communities and suggested Enbridge to relocate their production, at which they should have further political success. The Northern Gateway Project, despite putting up a good fight, is now a “total non-starter”.

Industry forces and key trends strongly affect the Enbridge’s business model for this particular project. The coastal nations of BC, one of the key stakeholders of Northern Gateway, are fiercely objected to the development that will inevitably destroy the natural environment and the traditional communities. Their opposition leads to complications in Enbridge’s business model, especially when one of their key partners prevents them from conducting their key activity of transporting resources.  The societal and cultural trends of BC demonstrate the increasing amount of support towards environmental causes and aboriginal empowerment, which only further reduces the probability of the construction of the Northern Gateway Pipeline.

In business, it is easy to forget about the stakeholders who seem external to the task at hand. However, they remain an important component to the big picture. If Enbridge had hired someone like Jim Prentice to survey the communities before they decided on the venture, there would not be quite as grave a situation as they have now.

Netflix has infiltrated the lives of humans of every demographic: from toddlers who delight in Dora the Explorer, to teenagers who stream Gossip Girl while doing homework, to working citizens who follow their original productions like Orange is the New Black. After the success of such shows such as Orange is the New Black and the dark animated comedy, Bojack Horseman, an increasing amount of celebrities are more than willing to put their names on a Netflix production. It only makes sense that they dive into films as well. Their major point of difference that convinces studios to work with them is that they provide more freedom in terms of production. Less guidelines to follow means more artistic liberty and the opportunity to produce something that has been turned down by, for example, Lionsgate.

Source: http://www.forbes.com

Their newest partner, the Weinstein Company, will be collaborating on the production of the sequel to Hidden Dragon, Crouching Tiger. This will debut on the Netflix site, available to all subscribers, and in select IMAX theatres. Their announcement was well received by the public, however AMC Theatres and Wanda Cinema are skeptical towards Netflix as a production company and they have demonstrated their distaste for showing a Netflix film in their theatres. Their lack of enthusiasm will only feed to the success of Netflix and the Hidden Dragon, Crouching Tiger team. For those who wish to see the sequel to a classic, they may either subscribe to the online service or they already are a member. It is believed that this release will revolutionize the film industry as a whole.

Although Netflix has minimal transparency in regards to viewership numbers, it is clear that their strategies are working. Under Porter’s Generic Strategies, Netflix falls in a similar category as Wal-Mart: low cost and broad market. The addition of original movies to their already broad market will prove to be successful, considering the quality of work they have done in the past with the original series. Consumers will then be further incentivized to purchase the low-cost subscription for their service, and become less and less likely to go out and spend more cash to enter physical theatres. The tradition of hitting the theatres on a Friday night is quickly being replaced by nights on the couch streaming an old favourite. Now you can soon stream new movies in the comfort of your own home.

The state of the film industry: revolutionized by Netflix.

From Victoria’s post we are able to grasp the manner in which dominant companies evolve to avoid tumbling into a state of insignificance. She put focus on John Chen’s work with Sybase in the strategy department, how he took a “failing start up” and salvaged the company within ten years.

Similarly, the former powerhouse search engine Yahoo has been falling in a downwards trajectory ever since the the widespread emergence of Google. Marissa Mayer, CEO, announced that the total revenue has fallen another 3% within the last quarter. China’s Alibaba public offering beginning this past Friday does not help situations either. Yahoo shares have declined 8% within two days post Alibaba going public. These are only the most recents events within this past week. Yahoo is quickly, as in the words of Victoria, “[losing] their market share to competition and [fading] into obscurity.”

The larger user platform, Reddit, has replaced the function of Yahoo Answers. Google and Alibaba have replaced their once state-of-the-art search engine, and superior online news platforms have replaced their news. Yahoo is in dire need of a strategic change. In my opinion, they target such a wide demographic, only to reap few returns. Yahoo needs to focus on finding a way in which to differentiate itself from all the other dominating online companies, whether it may be from putting a stronger focus on fantasy sports  or re-evaluating their marketing plans.

Either way, any company must learn to transform within the fast pace of technology, and be aware of how quickly competition can catch up and render your business obsolete.

Amongst the hectic crowds lining up outside malls and Apple Stores, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4 has inconspicuously begun pre-sales as well. For those who do not follow tech outside of major news outlets, the Note 4 does not have a place in their minds. Although it has a 16-megapixel camera and a high definition screen, the hype of the iPhone has overshadowed its release. The poor timing of this situation leaves the early orders of the Note 4 down 40% than what it was at for its previous device.

(source: www.techbaap.com)

What set the Samsung Galaxy Note series apart from the iPhone was its size; the large screen appealed to the vast Asian market. However, this year with the release of the iPhone 6 +, its lack of cult-following poses a serious risk to sales. Those who once purchased the Note 2 or Note 3 will now be more inclined to switch to the user-friendly iPhone, which allows functions such as iMessage and Facetime with a broader population. I myself have fallen into the so-called “iPhone 6 effect” and pre-ordered a device and gave up on my Samsung Galaxy. The truth is, the majority of my peers use the iPhone, which often leaves me outcasted in certain App Store only applications and left out on group iMessage conversations. The iPhone is simply more convenient. Although the mandatory single-platform was seemingly imposed at first, I have slowly but surely built up my repertoire of all Apple products, which in reality, facilitates all the functions it has to offer.

(source: http://store.apple.com/ca/buy-iphone/iphone6)

Little of those who use Samsung, or any Android, show brand loyalty, thus making customer retention an incredibly difficult task. Even Min-Jeong Lee, reporting from South Korea itself states that “the odds don’t look great for the Note,” despite its popularity in Korea in the past. Unfortunately, at this time, it seems that competing with Apple in the consumer market is an impossible feat.