Celine Chen's Blog

My comments on Twinkle Dhawan’s blog post: I agree with what Twinkle has said about working with people you don’t like. I believe that by doing so, one gets the opportunity to explore the mind of someone who thinks differently from you. Although it will be challenging to combine ideas together, the synergy should prove to be valuable. Each individual brings something unique to the table thanks to our personal backgrounds, life experiences, and personalities. The only issue that I see is the culture that may result from this situation….read more

I stumbled across Seth Godin’s short blog post about his perspective on digital assets. Here is an excerpt from his post that stuck with me. “Easy come, easy go. The digital asset that matters is trust. Awareness first, then interaction, and maybe a habit, but all three mean nothing if they don’t lead to permission and trust. The privilege of connection. Everything else is slippery.” He is saying that physical assets are more valuable than digital assets as the former has longevity and is tangible. I do agree with his reasoning about…read more

Prior to looking at the class reading for the People, Culture, and Teams, I had already read part of Tony Hsieh’s book “Delivering Happiness.” He talked about how he got to where he was today, including all his past ventures before Zappos. He also went into detail about how company culture at Zappos differed from everyone else. My end goal is to become an entrepreneur and run my own business. While I’m not sure exactly what that entails, I know that I will come across having to manage people. Before reading…read more

Second Cup is a small chain of coffee shops struggling to stay afloat due to the competition from big and famous names like Starbucks, Tim Hortons and McDonalds. It is a very competitive market and Second Cup has tried several times to boost their name and sales. After working on our second group assignment and giving recommendations to our chosen small business, it’s interesting to read an article that suggest ideas that use the same tools we used. For example, the company has been advised to “improve beverage innovation, expand its menu…read more

This article from Vancouver Sun talks about the First Nation’s position against BC Hydro’s new $8 billion hydroelectric project. This project includes a damn and a generating station that operates on the Peace River First Nation groups are concerned with the environmental impacts of this project, including the destruction of farmland and wildlife. BC Hydro firmly believes that hydroelectricity is the clean and sustainable energy that should be used to support energy demands of the growing population. For BC Hydro, the First Nations’s stance is a political factor that influences the…read more

Marketing is one of the specializations in business that I am interested in. I found an article on Forbes looking into how three companies, GE, Burberry, and Heineken, market their products and brand in their respective competitive industries. The world is evolving into a more face-paced and technologically reliant place where advertising techniques from a decade ago does not work anymore. Consumers function differently, and as what we learned in class, individuals are overloaded with information from various platforms including television, billboards on the highway, newspapers, and our phones. It makes it…read more

As the retail industry is getting more and more competitive, Walmart has altered its business strategy to compete against their rivals. Looking at this case study through Porter’s Generic Strategies we learned in class, it is evident that Walmart’s approach is categorized under Cost Leadership Strategy. They target a wide market as they sell all types of products ranging from clothing to electronics. They also strive to sell their products below average retail prices to earn a higher percentage of market share. Target operates in a similar fashion to Walmart by offering…read more

While checking up on Globe and Mail I found an interesting article that caught my eye: From Healthy Fries to Segways: Why Most Products Fail. It discusses and questions why new products seem to struggle on the market. Often it appears that companies do not thoroughly develop their product, from marketing and pricing strategies to researching and determining if there are willing consumers to purchase their product. Many large companies are cutting corners to get to the finish line and end up failing instead of succeeding. This made me realize the significance of…read more

The Economist’s article, When the Jobs Inspector Calls, discusses and analyzes the struggles of companies who aim to be socially responsible. Many companies find it difficult to maintain a clean and ethical working environment in their factories including safety, wages, working hours, and underage labour due to the managements that handle their outsourced factories. One interesting point that caught my eye was the influence of societal pressure on big brands to ensure that their products are created under socially responsible conditions. If media catches wind of a company not holding…read more