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.