In response to Peony Au’s blog post about Starbucks unique culture, I have to agree that it is Starbucks dedication to quality and customer service that makes them such a successful company. Whenever I go to the Starbucks on campus I am amazed by the amazing service despite how busy the store is the barista finds the time to ask how my day is. Starbucks customization and dedication to customer service promotes a friendly atmosphere which makes buyers willing to pay a little more for their coffee especially when its customizable. In addition to Starbucks customer service values, they do extensive amounts of exceptional work for the global community. For example, on their website they are promoting their initiative of building “greener” stores to save more energy. The new design is visually appealing to customers, beneficial of the environment and saves energy which in the long-run will reduce costs. Another shared value initiative is how Starbucks is encouraging employees to volunteer in the local community and this year they hope to reach 1 million hours volunteered. This allows Starbucks to engage with the local community on a personal scale without accumulating any costs for the company. Overall, Starbucks is a very good example of a company with extensive shared value.

In Christopher Ratcliff’s blog post on Econsultancy’s website, he talks about the success of Michael Kors first advertisement on Instagram. The ad was shown to a select demographic in the US and received 218,000 likes in 18 hours which resulted in 33,000 new followers for Michael Kors. This is the first ad posted on Instagram and although the ad received 20% negative feedback, there were 20 people who expressed interest in purchasing the product. The biggest success for Michael Kors was obtaining 33,000 new followers because they can market future products to them directly for free by posting pictures of new releases. Instagram is an effective form of marketing today as they have 150 million active users. Utilizing this social media may increase sales but since it is in the beginning stage of sponsored advertisements it is difficult to tell. Companies who advertise on Instagram can measure the success of their advertisements by comparing the number of likes on each post and how many new followers they obtain from each post. This allows the companies to see which ads work best and expand on them. The blogger stated ” It’s difficult to tell how much of the [below] engagement was accrued just through the novelty, or notoriety, of being the first advert posted on Instagram.” Only time will be able to tell if Instagram advertisements are successful, in my opinion I think they will be since Instagram is growing so fast.

In response to Colin Lam’s post about Coin’s new credit card replacement venture, I do not think Coin will be a very successful company. There are several weaknesses with this venture that puts a limit on potential success. A significant weakness with the card, mentioned in the Daily Mail, is the fact that the card is using older technology since it does not contain the new chip/pin or pay wave technology. Critics worry that as countries move towards more secure features the device will become obsolete. Coin also has the weakness that the technology in the card could malfunction resulting in a bad reputation for the company. As well as the risk of a technological malfunction, the card cannot be used if the users smartphone is outside of a certain radius. While the company markets this as a strength since they see it as a security feature, it is inconvenient for the user because they cannot use their sole method of payment if they ever leave their phone at home or if their phone battery dies. I believe that coin has a good venture idea due to the fact they are solving a common inconvenience with their product but in order to be successful their product should not create other inconveniences.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/colinlam/2013/11/16/cash-in-on-coin-a-new-credit-card-replacement/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2508082/Coin-wants-replace-credit-card-wallet.html

It is a known fact that Google offers amazing and original services and opportunities to its employees such as, slides, free food, nap time, laundry service, free cars and time to innovate, but is this Google’s culture? Shannon Deegan, VP of HR said in a presentation to his peers “This is not really the Google culture. This is the cost of doing business in our market.” Meaning these features do not define Google’s culture but rather, embody their values and corporate culture. Google believes in treating their employees right and giving them opportunities to innovate and design brilliant ideas. Google tends to have a “work-life balance” culture and in order to sustain this culture they offer free services that allow employees to love their job which results in very low employee turnover and absenteeism. This means employees love going to work because it appeals to their values as well as the company’s. Google is known for its 20% time where employees must devote 20% of their time at work each week to innovating. This benefits the employees as it allows them to be creative and it benefits Google because they get new and potentially profitable ideas. This factor, as well as Google’s other services, embodies the company’s culture of “work-life balance” and innovation.

When company’s started advertising on the popular social networking website Facebook, they were only provided with information that members publicly displayed but now Facebook is getting more specific. Gokul Rajaram, product director for ads at Facebook stated: “our goal is to improve the relevance of ads people see on Facebook and the efficacy of marketing campaigns.” Facebook plans to do this by tracing what websites Facebook users visit and then expose them to personalized ads on their news feed. For example, if someone was looking to buy a new car and visited Toyota’s website, Toyota would be able to advertise on that persons newsfeed. Facebook is bringing together information and technology in order to provide a competitive marketing strategy in which they can charge more for. They use technology to obtain the information and then sell to advertisers for more than typical websites would because it is personalized. Facebook is doing this in order to raise their stock price as it has declined since the initial price offering. As technology advances we see more of this type of specific advertising where companies are able to obtain more and more personal information.

With the anticipation of Twitter’s upcoming IPO, the corporation has implemented image/video previews into users “timelines” with the hopes that the multi-media integration will compete with competitor websites such as Facebook. Twitter hopes that since Facebook has been so successful having an integration of pictures/videos on their newsfeed that by implementing this feature into the Twitter timeline, it will increase Twitters consumer growth rate. This is vital for Twitter especially with the present concern on Wall Street that Twitter’s recently slowed growth rate will have negative effects on the success of its upcomming IPO. This is a clever move on Twitter’s behalf as it could increase the number of people using Twitter; and more importantly, the modification may be more appealing to advertisers who can now market their product more easily using Twitter since the user will be directly exposed to the ad rather than having to open a link. In addition to displaying picture previews the renovated timeline will also display previews of videos which will play automatically; this allows for more versatile advertising. It is crucial for a company to set an appropriate price on the primary market shares considering the fact that the company will obtain all the profits from these sales and thereby increase capital. If Twitter’s price is too high for the market demand they will not maximize profit; therefore, it is important to generate a great demand and price your stock accordingly. Considering the uncertain forecast of Twitter’s IPO due to slowed growth and lack of information, this strategy should attract new users and advertisers thereby cohesively attracting new investors, and result in a successful IPO.

We are all familiar with the long lines outside of Apple each time a new product is released in store, but have you ever wondered why they never seem to have enough product to meet the outstanding demand?

Since Steve Jobs’ passed away, Tim Cook (former supply chain director) has taken Jobs’ place as CEO. Prior to Jobs death Tim Cook was referred to as the “supply chain guru” as he ensured efficiency along the production line while Steve Jobs’ focused on Apple’s innovation. Today, while Cook is prioritizing his role of CEO, the supply chain is suffering without his expertise; supply is not meeting consumer demand, especially with the iPad Mini’s. Why? Because Samsung is no longer supplying Apple with the iPad mini display Apple’s alternative supplier is AUO. AUO is a new supplier; therefore, they are “not able get the volumes that Apple needs, so essentially, there’s just one supplier.” Apple’s stocks have taken a plunge in response to their product shortage and inability to innovate. Although having a higher inventory turnover rate is productive and cost efficient, Apple’s inventory is too low which is costing them because their supply does not meet demand which then results in lost revenue.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2012/10/26/apple-cant-innovate-or-manage-supply-chain/

Recently Sharp has been struggling with its sales and recorded a significant net loss of $5.3 billion in the fiscal year ended in March of this year.  As a result of Sharp’s lack of success the company has decided to innovate diversify their product line. Sharp plans to experiment with new technology to grow strawberries in Dubai. The technology would kill germs, bacteria and mold on the fruit by growing the fruit under careful conditions and Sharps new technology. Sharp’s target markets would be growers in the Middle Eat because their strawberries are expensive and quick to spoil. While Sharp’s net-income has been in significant decline due to the decrease in demand for their smartphones/televisions they have seen an increase in demand for their solar sell products; therefore, they have decided to pursue agricultural technology. By readjusting their main focus, Sharp needs to take into account the relevant costs of adding new products at the cost of producing less televisions/cellphones. They will have to allocate capital and resources to design, produce, market, and sell the product. As well, Sharp needs to take into account the fixed and variable costs associated with this production process. If they are not successful in the process they will not break-even and their net-loss will increase in the next fiscal year. However, we have seen that innovating is a good decision for a declining business; after all, it was Blockbusters lack of innovation that forced them into bankruptcy. If Sharp weighs the costs in contrast to the forecasted profit margins of their new innovation, they have the potential to redeem their revenue streams.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-27/forget-tvs-dot-sharp-sees-a-future-in-strawberry-farming

Mercedes, the industry leader in luxury cars, has introduced a new discounted sedan targeted towards “less-affluent buyers.” By appealing to consumers other than their primary “blue chip” buyers Mercedes hopes to attract younger buyers and keep them as long-term customers as they “climb the corporate ladder”; once the younger buyers have a larger income they will be able to afford Mercedes’s higher end vehicles. The decision to launch this product is a bold move on Mercedes’s behalf because there is the risk of losing “blue-chip” buyers for their high-end cars as they downshift to the more affordable market. Mercedes’s is modifying their business model by enhancing their customer relationships and revaluating their customer segments. Mercedes’s is expanding their target market by attracting consumers who would like to buy a Mercedes’s but cannot afford one while still maintaining their relationship with current customers who buy their higher-end models. Mercedes’s has a unique strategy by attracting new customers who are not necessarily the most important segment right now, but will be in the future as their income increases. As a result of modifying their customer relationships and segments by introducing a new product, Mercedes’s also have to revise their production operations. The company must evaluate the costs of supplies/equipment, production, as well as marketing and distributing it to the customers. Mercedes’s has proved to be successful by changing their business model and as a result car sales were up 6.7 percent in September 2013.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-02/mercedes-cla-sedan-with-budget-price-outsells-high-end-models-in-u-dot-s-dot-debut#r=com-ls

This past year a tragedy occurred in a clothing manufacturing plant in Bangladesh when a building collapsed and in result killed over 200 factory workers. It was found that Joe Fresh (owned by Loblaw) had been producing clothing in this factory which had been reported by employees to have large cracks developing in the structure but managers did nothing preventative with this information. Corporations will often make sacrifices to maximize profit such as outsourcing operations to countries with less regulations and significantly cheaper labour. Joe Fresh sells discounted clothing and as a retailer they are pressured to keep prices low. Once Loblaw was exposed by the media for manufacturing clothing in unsafe working conditions they were obligated to take the necessary steps to prove they are an ethical company to protect their brand name. Loblaw expressed its condolences and promised “to have its own people on the ground in Bangladesh who will report directly to the company” in order to prevent a reoccurrence of this unfortunate event. Loblaw as well as many other clothing manufacturing companies signed “The Accord on Fire and Building Safety” which is a five year contract intended to improve worker safety in Bangladesh. Corporations need to have more transparent supply chains in order to prevent such tragedies from reoccurring in developing countries.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/05/15/bangladesh-factory-joe-fresh-loblaws-safety-pact_n_3275213.html

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/canadas-joe-fresh-among-brands-made-in-collapsed-bangladesh-building/article11540359/