Our own locally founded Aritzia has finally caught on to the cyber-selling game and has recently launched it’s online storefront with the expectation that it will increase profitability for the company. The CEO of Aritzia, Brian Hill, hopes that the new website will inspire people to purchase from them, by putting in a lot of time and effort into the development of Aritzia‘s site over the past two years. Hill stated that the expansion into the e-commerce industry has been an extremely different process to that of the traditional brick-and-mortar stores in which he has had previous experience with.

With the setting up of their site, Aritzia has had to invest $10-million dollars in order to cover the costs of everything ranging from hiring more staff to boosting capacity at its distribution centre here in Vancouver. In addition to that, an updated management system with handheld computers and a call centre with longer operating hours has been set up for increased efficiency. Despite the many problems that Aritzia has had to overcome in order to successfully launch this website, it has become evident that the e-commerce business is a crucial marketing tool in today’s heavily technology-centred marketplace. Perhaps in another 10 years time, businesses with no online storefront will be an extinct species.

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Social enterprises often take on a one-for-one approach where customers buy a product and a similar product is then donated by the company to someone in need. This type of model has been adopted by many well-known businesses such as Toms and Warby Parker.

Although this approach has worked well for Toms Shoes, the business has come under much criticism for only tackling the problem of children not having access to footwear on a surface level rather than digging deeper to the issue’s roots. This is where Warby Parker differentiates itself, by taking it a step further than Toms and actually working with people in developing countries to train them on how to become entrepreneurs and set up their own businesses. This allows a continuous cycle of jobs and investment, rather than allowing these developing countries to slip into a state of dependency on charity.

David Gilboa and Neil Blumenthal, the co-founders of Warby Parker, are convinced that businesses acting ethically and earning a profit are not negatively correlated factors but rather, can be achieved hand-in-hand. Their vision for the company is surely one that will help many people in developing countries by providing them with the opportunity to gain the skills in order to sustain their own lifestyles and is a business model that other companies can definitely learn from.

It seems that a lot of what we learn in business school is focused on employee motivation rather than other aspects of employee management, so what intrigued me greatly was this blog post from the external blog source The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur regarding maximizing employee talents. So how exactly does one make their employees more talented and skillful?

Mike Michalowicz has addressed a couple of main tips in order to successfully invest in employees and help them to improve and enhance their talents. He suggests that employers take a more personal approach when interacting with employees and taking the time to ask them what their personal goals are. He also highlights the importance of having clear goals and encouraging employees to know where they are headed, so that they will have a clear direction and can work on striving for these goals. He believes that by establishing a strong connection with your employees, a strong sense of loyalty can be built and an improvement in employee commitment will develop.

Through the implementation of these tips, Michalowicz feels that it would help a company to retain its employees and reduce the turnover rate, which can cut training costs and inefficiency greatly. This article interested me because of it’s focus on improving employer and employee relationships, which is extremely important to the successful running of a business. Without a doubt, the ability to form and maintain strong relationships with others is a skill that is necessary for all aspects of life, not just within the business domain.

It is what the name suggests – a dining experience in complete darkness. ‘Dark Table‘ is a local restaurant here in Vancouver that embodies what social entrepreneurship is all about. The concept behind this blind dining experience is an attempt to provide customers with an experience of the heightening of senses which occurs when sight is removed. This unique idea has sparked a lot of interest within the local community and what has brought even more positive publicity for the restaurant is the fact that all the employed servers are blind.

The owner of ‘Dark Table’, Moe Alameddine, is proud to provide employment for the visually impaired. In BC, the unemployment rate of the blind is a staggering 65-70%, which means that an opportunity such as the one that Alameddine is providing will be extremely hard to come by. Alameddine has said that “It was really hard in the first couple of months in Montreal to train people when I started. I didn’t have any experience with blind people and I had to start by teaching them how to come to the restaurant on the bus.” Although there were many obstacles that needed to be overcome at the beginning, the positive effects of this business venture will be greatly felt by the visually impaired community of Vancouver.

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From reading a blog post written by my fellow classmate Christian Legazpi on the consumption of shark fins, I was compelled to comment on it because of how closely it relates to me on a personal level.

Although the government here in Canada has motioned a ban toward the consumption of shark fin due to the endangerment of the animal, many restaurants in Asia simply don’t care about these issues and continue to exploit this profitable market. Not only do restaurants in Asia continue to distribute shark fin soup, the majority of consumers either don’t know or don’t care about the consequences behind their actions.

In 2011, Gordon Ramsay visited my hometown Taipei where he tried shark fin soup for the first time and commented that the fin itself was ‘tasteless’. He could not comprehend why people would pay such a large sum of money for this delicacy and was appalled by the huge demand. His visit led him to campaign against the brutal and destructive shark fishing industry and the creation of a 47 minute documentary on his discoveries was made. Here is a short snippet of the video below:

Christian’s blog post has been extremely educational in terms of illustrating the brutal and inhumane processes of this controversial issue. However, I do disagree with him when he mentions the ‘small popularity of shark fin soup’, as this industry has continued to thrive because of the great demand. Yes, abolishing shark fishing may lead to black market trade, but this topic is undeniably unethical and governments should be doing more to educate their citizens.

Air Canada has been undergoing plans to start a separate low-cost airline service under the ownership of Air Canada but with a different name. They are planning to reduce costs by increasing the number of seats in their carriers by 20% as well as lower employee wages and more flexibility in their work rules.

Oftentimes, companies will name brands under their ownership separately in order to differentiate them from one another. It is incredibly difficult to reposition a brand so once consumers have formed their own brand associations with Air Canada, it would be hard for them to change their opinions. Therefore, by using a completely different name for their new airline, consumers will base their opinions on their first impressions and hopefully associate the new airline as being low-cost and not from their previous connections with the Air Canada image.

Apart from the launch of their new low-cost airline, Air Canada is also considering adopting a premium economy class which would provide yet another alternative for their consumers. These expansion decisions by Air Canada have allowed them to position themselves in different segments of the market and to appeal to the tastes of different consumers, hoping that this method will help increase their profits.