20% of students graduating from Harvard in the year 2009, who are now active within their roles in the business world, have pledged to the M.B.A oath to work towards “the greater good” which is essentially a more ethical business world. Along with graduates from this prestigious school, other top universities such as Colombia University and University of Pennsylvania around the world are beginning to see the importance of being ethical in our “era of immorality” where many merely see a business degree as a self-centered means to make money.

Corporate social responsibility, or business acting in an ethical way, is a vital component in our modern business world as I believe that a focus on merely making money could promote of world of immorality. Corporate giants in the business world should veer off from the sole purpose of making money and put more attention on improving upon our community much like what a percentage of the graduates from this school are focusing their attention to.

Therefore more and more universities should integrate ethicality into their business programs while still maintaining the concept of making money, as is what the majority of business seek to do.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/30/business/30oath.html

Innovation has always been rewarded within the business world. From monumental breakthroughs in technology such as the invention of the internet, to simple, small steps forward in innovating such as a mere tweak in a manufacturing system to cut costs. However the next big thing in technology that may make its way into everyday life in the near future is possibly the 3-D printer.

Essentially it is a machine that can physically “print” an object such as a violin, or a skull with computer input. Currently the market is relatively small but rapidly growing as in 2012 the market for this type of product was worth $2.2 billion where it grew a staggering 29% from 2011 therefore it is very possible that the market for these types of machines will develop and become very popular in the foreseeable future. Also the big name that markets these machines is “RedEye” a company based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. It is highly possible that this particular company may experience considerable growth in the years to come and thus shares in the company can be seen to grow exponentially as the popularity and development of this type of machine grows. It may be rather expensive to produce this type of product en masse currently, but after the product is commercialized and made to be more efficient, costs may drop and practicality of using 3-D printers may be experienced.

Nowadays having a Facebook account is similar to having an internet connection. The company is currently worth around $100 billion and has over a billion people with an account therefore it would be a wise decision to invest in such a company as it can reach a vast amount of clientele internationally, however how much longer will Facebook last? Similar to many trends nowadays empires rise and fall, other large companies such as Myspace and Blockbuster were extremely popular in the past however due to innovation and ever changing trends these companies became bankrupt. Lets say blockbuster, due to the fact that movie goers have been moving more towards online streaming and downloading of movies, the physical renting of DVD’s and tapes became obsolete and thus due to innovation the company became bankrupt. Therefore there may be a possibility that a certain innovation may make this financial giant obsolete in the foreseeable future.  Therefore analysis of the companies’ business in the future must be taken into consideration before more investment should be placed into the business. At the end of the day I personally believe that the life cycle of Facebook may still survive for the near future however it may be unreasonable to believe that Facebook may remain therefore many more generations to come.

http://newsroom.fb.com/

It is a popular comment of businesses that employees are a company’s greatest asset, where employees are a firm’s “competitive advantage” as quoted by Anne M. Mulcahy. As employees are considered a very valuable resource, it is of notice that a recent article on the economist describes the increasingly pressing issues of unemployment in the American regions. The article describes a decreasing labour-force participation rate, which is the percentage of working age population that are either currently working or looking for work, where the percentage has dropped from 66% in 2007 to 63.7% in August 2013 which is a 35 year low. This may evolve into more of an issue as if this trend continues a shortage in labour may occur meaning companies will become more inefficient and have an increasingly difficult time in operating their companies. In order to begin addressing this issue and working towards increasing this statistic’s percentage, governments may want to increase minimum wage or improve on company’s employee benefits to increase working aged people’s incentives to work before this labour shortage evolves into a real issue. http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21586810-rising-disability-claims-may-explain-americas-shrinking-labour-force-missing

Is it possible that more and more students in UBC in the Sauder school of business only care about making money once they graduate? Surely there is more to a student than merely making cash after their post educational career. I believe that it is the right of a school to teach kids more about making a difference in our world and change it for the better than merely making money, this is rather evident in the business school because that is the main goal for a company is it not? However teaching kids aspects such as social responsibility, caring for their environment, and being ethical within their work is just as, if not more crucial to a student’s education. Personally I believe that the UBC business program does this rather well as students are put into a rather international learning environment and are taught not only skills that would assist in running a business properly, but also about being ethical in doing so  by exposing kids to problems within the darker side of the business world and how to avoid taking part in them. There are also several lessons taught on how simply making money is not enough to have a successful business, for example how businesses need to achieve the concept of a triple bottom line.

As an international student I find the topic of this blog being “Vancity-Buzz” a very useful tool in helping with getting to know my new home for my studies. I find the actual blog site rather insightful and has a modern up-to-date look to it thus making it very appealing. Also it could be a very useful tool for a variety of International students who are in Vancouver for university such as myself in order to start getting acquainted to the new culture and people of my new city. As a business I believe that it has several strong aspects of the business and could be a possible leader in blog sites, becoming more and more popular nowadays due to the dominance of internet in the lives of people around the world.

Furthermore I would also like to emphasize that as an international student, getting used to the new culture and being up to date with the happenings in a new city can a difficult adapting process, but this blog site seems very helpful as it is easy to access, user friendly and is simply rather convenient to use compared to other means of keeping in touch with news such as the local newspaper. In conclusion, it is a very strong business in providing quality services to its clientele. Hence I do agree with the article by Shomas to a great extent.

The date of November 8th 2013 was a grim day for life in the Philippines. Thousands of  lives of displaced and more than a million were reported homeless which is even more critical as the archipelago in south east Asia called the Philippines is already a rather poor country as it is a 3rd work nation, thus relief efforts without the aid of separate nations, would prove very difficult as these types of rescues are very expensive.

In an effort to assist the Philippines the concept of corporate social responsibility can be preformed to a great extent as this devastating occurrence may give an opportunity for several businesses to donate a portion of their sales towards victims of the tsunami. Furthermore the companies s that would practice this type of empathy may in the end do better in a business sense as their existing or potential customers may perceive the business in a better light and thus the company would seem more appealing as it would be a socially responsible company. Despite the immediate loss of profit from the portions of sales donated to these typhoon victims, in the grand scheme of the businesses’ lifespan, the boost in its corporate image may greatly offset the fact of a portion of sales being donated,

http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21589916-one-strongest-storms-ever-recorded-has-devastated-parts-philippines-and-relief?zid=306&ah=1b164dbd43b0cb27ba0d4c3b12a5e227

A new interesting device has recently hit the markets, and some may see it as a disaster however it does seem to have its place within our world of ever developing technology. It is the Lumoback posture sensor, and it does what its name suggests, it senses bad posture and beeps to correct it in an attempt to improve people’s postures.

It has a rather steep cost of $150 however customers claim it to work rather effectively in improving posture probably by the constant reminder of the device. There are several points of difference for this product as it has a rather unique market and thus there are few substitutes of its nature, because of this it is difficult to identify points of parity as the product is rather unique. If considered to be a part of products assisting in posture, there are few to name and since it integrates itself into an app on an iPhone that allows people to track their progress, it suggests a rather up-to-date piece of technology and would seem to do rather well in the future for those it targets within its respective market. However the price is rather steep for merely assisting in one’s posture however customers do respond to it being very reliable, convenient, and effective and therefore its success may does have a high probability in increasing as time passes.

http://www.businessinsider.com/lumoback-review-2013-10

It is a widely known fact that tobacco  companies around the world make huge profits out of selling their products, cigarettes. These companies with questionable corporate social responsibility, according to a recent article, are facing the problem of a new substitute for cigarettes in general, the electronic cigarette.  The article claims that the consumption of the electronic cigarette will overtake that of regular cigarettes as quickly as within the next decade, as studies do show that this type of cigarette are much safer and do less harm to the human body compared to their standard counterparts.

This may be an issue for certain companies such as Phillip Morris, a leading tobacco brand, as this entrant of a new competitor may cause the sales of their main source of revenue to drop sharply. A way these older cigarette companies may deal with this issue however, may be to implement market development and take advantage of this boom in popularity in e-cigarettes. If these tobacco companies can successfully integrate electronic cigarettes into their product pool, they may avoid the negative implications of the trend of decreasing standard cigarette usage.

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21586867-regulators-wrestle-e-smokes-tobacco-industry-changing-fast-kodak-moment