Ben Weber's Blog

If the United Nations was fully funded, programs like the Arc Initiative and social enterprise would not necessarily be needed. However, these programs and organizations are compliments to each other, not substitutes. With programs like the Arc Initiative they work directly with entrepreneurs to help them grow their businesses and better their communities. Similarly to the Arc Initiative, Engineers Without Borders (EWB) has a similar practice. The UN is more focused on aid and relief than helping local business owners specifically. Having programs like the Arc Initiative that has a clear focus that has a larger impact on these communities in terms of business.

If the United Nations is fully funded in the future, it could also develop programs similar to the Arc Initiative does, but this does not mean that the UN should be the only organization to run these types of programs. By having more organizations could run these programs, there is a greater opportunity for the local business owners to experience the different perspectives. A case in point is EWB and the Arc Initiative. These two programs are very similar, they work with local businesses throughout countries that do not necessarily have the prior knowledge of running businesses.

Courtesy of Forbes

Aarman Bondar’s post regarding Uber and the threat that it will bring to the already well established Canadian system of transit is interesting, however I have to disagree. Although Uber does threaten Taxi services, it is not a major threat to any other form of transit anywhere in Canada, if it were than public tranist such as busses and subway’s would be obsolete due to the already established taxi services. In addition, while the transit system is excellent in major city centres such as Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto (to name a few), transit is subpar to say the least. For instance, transit is rather poor in places like Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and even Alberta—where the majority of people drive vehicles to and from their destinations. Many places in Canada could seriously benefit from the addition of Uber as an alternative form of transit.

As far as threatening taxi services, Uber is threatening the taxi industry as much as Tesla is threatening the combustion engine car industry. I personally do not see Uber as a threat, rather, I see it as an opportunity for taxi companies to improve their system. The current system of booking and getting a taxi is rather tasking and can only be improved by the addition of Uber. Unless the taxi industry decides not to respond to this innovation, they will end up in the exact same position as Blockbuster—irrelevant. New competition in the private transportation industry is refreshing. For so long taxi’s have had an unwavering monopoly on this specific type of transportation and that has led to the industry as a whole being stagnant.

Bring on the competition. Competition is what leads to progression.

Courtesy of Yahoo News

An article written by Oscar Hui about a florida condominium complex and an ad agency in Auckland wanting to change its name in order to disaffiliate itself with the terrorist group ISIS. Many companies have fallen victim to this same predicament. While Oscar does mention that Reis and Trout recommend avoiding abrasive names that could tarnish a company’s reputation there is still an underlying question of whether or not company’s should make the change. While ISIS is a major issue at present, most everyone recognizes the fact that these companies are named after the Egyptian goddess Isis (Goddess of Magic and Life).

It is ultimately a company’s decision on an individual case-to-case basis whether or not they should change their name, there is also the possibility that in the future, ISIS will not be a major threat or news centric issue, and a company who changed its relatively unique name to a more generic name in haste would lose business to the same name sharing hinderance that Reis and Trout advises against.

The bottom line is not clear cut, however, if a company has a name that is well thought out and unique (similarly to Isis), than a name change will essentially become a sunk cost. If a company does not have a creative name readily available, it is best not to rush the decision to change the name, because this could cause more than just a sunk cost for the company—it could hinder the business throughout marketing as well (not just accounting).

Bombardier has recently been pushing to overcome the barriers to entry of the commercial aircraft industry. Unfortunately, the company has run into a couple of major issues during the flight testing stages. This is a serious setback to Bombardier. If they want to gain entry into the commercial aircraft industry with their new “C” class jet, and gain clients like United Airlines, Bombardier is going to have to either reposition its manufacturing competition, or differentiate their aircraft somehow.

Since the former is nearly impossible with the recent downfalls of the company’s on-ground engine fire in the plane, and worried investors, they are in no position to pursue this strategy. However, if they can differentiate their product in some way, such as offering t.v.’s for passengers, something United Airlines has been implementing in their planes as of late. Another suggestion is to introduce a design in the plane so that the stewardesses can push the food carts through the aisles without having to change the position of the cart (some planes have a curve in the aisle between economy and economy plus). Something relatively minuscule that could potentially differentiate the product, the better the chance that Bombardier will have to gain entry into the commercial airline industry.

Read more about Bombardier in the Globe and Mail here.

The Montreal Canadiens are not only a professional hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL), they are a global brand. Recently, the marketing team at the organization has been devising a plan to reach it’s fans on all corners of the globe, while promoting their sponsors at the same time. Their solution was Club 1909—a loyalty program for fans that offers them the opportunity to partake in competitions, buy Habs apparel, while at the same time gathering data about the fan base. Marketing at the organization have even found a way around the NHL rule that a sponsor is not allowed to affiliate with a team outside a 75 km radius of the arena. By hosting competitions they could reward someone with an Air Canada plane ticket to see a game, and thus promotion of the club is able to become much more widespread.

As a Montreal Canadiens fan myself, I can attest to the fact that this program will be widespread and popular among Habs fans. The Montreal Canadiens have some of the most loyal and dedicated supporters in the NHL, and the point system that the organization is using will be a major attraction for potential sponsors. Club 1909 also opens the door for the organization to stretch the rules that the league has put on teams marketing, which will prove to be vital to the organizations success in keeping a loyal fan-base and also recruiting new fans from around the world.

Article: Montreal Canadiens Launch a cannonading drive for loyalty.

Seth has a valid point. He argues that Apple is shifting away from functionality and towards luxury because “the luxury maker doesn’t really fear hearing that her food isn’t cutting edge.” Meaning, Apple does not even flinch when someone mentions their phone permanently bending, the software having bugs, or there being a serious security breach in the iCloud servers. It is quite evident that none of these things matter to companies like Apple—as long as they still have a stranglehold on consumers. I have become increasingly aware of the drop in quality of the iPhone lately, however, like a large portion of consumers who use smartphones, I continue to use the iPhone. I get questions quite frequently asking me why I would want to purchase a phone that is so obviously inferior to Androids, and my answer is simple—convenience. It is simply more convenient for me to have an iPhone because it automatically syncs with my Macbook (one product that I truly believe has not suffered in quality).

Apple is not the only company that disregards the need for a overall better product. Seth also mentions in his article that Honda makes some of the best cars on the roads, however people would rather buy a product that is more luxurious with potentially less features in it. This is a simple mind game that companies like Apple play to force consumers down the consumer funnel whether they have the best product or not, and they can afford to do so because they are the top company in the smartphone industry at the moment and not even bent phones is a reason for most people to switch products.

While the large part of Chilcotin area that the B.C. First Nation is trying to claim as a tribal park is outside of their entitled region, it is not preventing the First Nations from claiming their hunting, fishing, and trapping rights in the region. Even if the First Nations are trying to prevent Taseko Mines Ltd. from constructing a mine that is on land entitled to them from the provincial government, the mine may not be built anyway. This is because the Federal government has denied the company the right to a mine because of contamination of the water and ecosystem. It was Taseko’s original plan to destroy the lake all together.

Taseko should be following closely the environmental section in the PESTLE Analysis. They should be using eco-friendly practices and following pollution laws. It is and should be the government’s first responsibility to protect the environment in Canada, and if a company like Taseko is not willing to respect the environment, they should not be able to build in this region. This brings up ethical issues within the company. It appears that they are willing to sacrifice the environment for profits, which in the 21st century, should no longer be occurring to this extent. Taseko does not need this mine. They have other projects in places like Arizona, for example, and therefore building in B.C. is not a necessity. Unless they can develop a way to mine in the region without disrupting the ecosystem or polluting the environment (which is nearly impossible), then the company should think about the long term effects that their company will have on the region and realize that this is not good business—even though profits can be made.

Read more about the conflict here, on Vancouver Sun’s website.

Image taken from the article above.

Unfortunately the title is slightly misleading. With the release of the Passport, a phone that is clearly focused on business professionals, Blackberry could very well be on the rise to capture themselves a small market share in the smartphones business. However, gone are the days of Research in Motions prime, where it seemed as if everybody on the street had a Curve or Bold. The new Passport is tapping into a market that they “virtually invented in 1998 with the first BlackBerry.” 

Blackberry does not have any resources to actually discredit the smartphone giants like Apple and Samsung (although it seems like Apple is doing a fantastic job of this all by themselves), so they smartly opted to appeal to the business world and establish a niche market who prefer a physical keyboard over a touchscreen keyboard.

While Blackberry has become nearly irrelevant in the past years, their phones still bring major value to the smartphone market. Blackberry phones have always been the most secure on the market, from BBM to acquiring their own email servers to keep people protected. This is one area where Apple is losing customers at the moment, with the leaks of iCloud pictures from celebrities. In addition, many people have switched from Blackberry to Apple in the past and as of late, consumers are not impressed with Apple’s “Bendgate” and software issues. In fact, it could be argued that ever since the passing of Steve Jobs, the company has been declining in the quality and innovation that Apple customers have grown to love.

Blackberry released the Passport at the right time. It has the opportunity to reach out to business professionals and companies that want their information secured, while also developing a niche market out of people transitioning away from other smartphones, like the iPhone for example.

The article referenced in this blog post can be found here.

Image can be found here.

CEO and founder of Tesla Motors, Elon Musk, recently tweeted that Tesla is “unveiling the D and something else.” This tweet and release that has only been speculated about at this point, has brought a substantial amount of publicity to Tesla. It appears to be a step forward in many peoples’ minds, however, this could be a stall by the company in the case that the Model X is behind schedule. While the “something else” is still a complete mystery, the “D” could quite possibly mean a new drivetrain is coming to a new version of a Model S.

If Tesla releases a Model S with all wheel drive (AWD), then the car will become more appealing in colder climates. For example, a Model S with AWD could potentially help the company expand into the rest of Canada with more ease, or even the northern United States. Regardless of what Musk is unveiling, it is certainly good for the business. Since the announcement, Tesla shares have risen approximately 5%.

The way Musk and Tesla has decided to release the news is uncannily similar to the unveiling of Apple products. Usually there is an enormous uproar when Apple is about to announce the release of its latest iPhone, and with excitement comes much speculation and hype towards the company. This is exactly the type of publicity that Tesla needs since they have fallen quiet for quite some time with no new releases since the Model S. Marketing has been a weak point for Tesla previously, however, they could use the momentum they have gained in the past week to launch a marketing campaign that could boost sales as well.

Sources from Forbes, and Will Oremus’ blog (Slate’s senior technology writer)

Apple has been under fire from not only the general public, but companies within and even outside of the tech market recently. What is now a trend on twitter, “#bendgate,” refers to the problems that consumers are having with one of Apple’s latest products, the iPhone 6 Plus. According to reports, if the phone is put under pressure, whether that be through sitting for long periods of time with the phone in a skinny jeans pocket, or simply applying too much torsion on the phone, it can develop an unsightly and permanent bend near the volume control buttons.

Companies such as Samsung, and LG have partaken in the opportunity to criticize Apple for the defect. Samsung posted a picture on twitter of their phone the Note Edge with the caption, “Curved. Not bent.” LG took a similar approach, promoting their device, the LG Flex, with the caption, “Our phone doesn’t bend, it flexes… on purpose. #bendgate.”

Companies like Samsung and LG are taking advantage of what Ries and Trout call, “Repositioning the Competition,” by promoting by criticizing Apple’s new release in an attempt to gain new customers. The mobile device market is almost completely fixed, and lately, there is not a lot of opportunity for unique positions that can be held. In order for a company to gain market share from Apple, this is certainly an effective approach.

Although the iPhone 6 Plus has been getting a lot of criticism for being cheaply made, Apple has released a statement assuring the public that there has only been nine customer complaints of having a bent iPhone. In addition, Apple stated that they use “high-quality materials,” and a bent phone is “extremely rare.”

Click here to read more in this BBC article: “Apple says bent iPhones are ‘rare'”

Image taken from BBC article above.