Christopher Siewert's Blog

This is a reply to Tim Martiniak’s post, Carbon-Offsetting for a Clear Conscience?.

First of all, what is Carbon Offsetting? It is a process where corporations invest money in environmental projects in order to reduce their total carbon footprint and appear more socially responsible.

Tim believes that the demand for offsetting companies will grow due to a long run change in consumer preference towards companies that are certified to be environment-friendly. I agree with Tim, the importance of corporate social responsibility to consumers can be seen in the success of products such as Tom’s shoes, where CSR is a large part of their marketing campaign.

However this growth of carbon-offsetting may not be a good thing. Many governments have carbon caps on companies, or limits on the net output of carbon. Widespread use of carbon offsets could cause a decrease of environmental standards as companies focus less on their own environmental policies in favor of increased carbon offsets to meet their caps. Firms may ask the question: why find innovative ways to reduce my own pollution output when I can easily buy offsets? This shows an example of the problems faced in performance management. In this system, even poor environmental policies of the company will be rewarded if it purchases offsets.

 

References

http://www.nature.com/climate/2007/0711/full/climate.2007.58.html

http://www.biv.com/article/20121106/BIV0114/311069956/star-turn-for-vancouver-carbon-offset-company

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This article, titled Apple’s War on Skeuomorphism, outlines how recently apple is considering removing some of its skeuomorphs. These are product design elements that hint at something that used to serve a role in past products. An example is pretend spokes on a car’s hubcap or the fake turning of pages animation while reading books on an iPhone .

 

Microsoft has come out with its Windows 8 OS, and this features very few of these skeuomorphs, instead sticking to a clean modern look.

Apple is considering changing the design of its products to match this, fearing that its own designs are starting to look tacky or outdated. However I feel that these skeuomorphs may be tacky, but they add to the user-friendliness of the product. My grandparents can more easily use an iPhone because these features liken the iPhone to the products it is replacing. For example when looking through Apple’s Newsstand the bookshelf background makes it clear that you are sorting through material to read, making the app more easily understood. Whether this is an important design feature as more people become accustom to this new technology, and no longer need this hint of the past, remains to be seen.

 

 

 

 

Coming from Calgary, Alberta, I have heard a lot about the oil sands. Most of what I hear is from activists and news reports commenting on the large amount of pollution involved in extracting the oil, and about the huge impact on the dig site once the oil has been extracted. However it was nice to see a different point of view in this article, Why environmentalists should be open-minded about the oil sands. This article takes a very analytical approach to the oil sands, using an argument that I am familiar with from my Econ 101 class. It suggests we should continue to produce oil from oil sands until the marginal cost outweighs the marginal benefit.

However the main problem with pollution is that all the benefit goes to the company, while some of the cost is transfered to others in the form of global pollution and global climate change. Thus a system needs to be set in place to ensure that the correct amount is being produced, and that the entire marginal costs and benefits are included in a companies decision to produce. There are a few possible ways to do this, the article describes using a carbon tax, to transfer the global cost to the company. However I believe this is very risky if done by the Canadian government. Oil sands are already a lower profit margin endeavor than other types of oil distractions, to the extent that a significant drop in the price of oil makes them unprofitable as seen in the closing of oil sands projects during the large drop in oil price in 2008. Thus this tax could shut down oil sands firms, which would have a huge impact on Canadian society, as many people would lose their jobs.

 

 

Just the other day, my Grandpa sent me an amusing email. (Note that this is not a verifiable source, but still funny regardless) It stated that in 1954 a group of scientists were asked to create a prediction for the home computer of 2004. This is what they came up with:

Technology has developed at such a pace it seems impossible to predict the next technology wave of the future. However this article in McLean’s Business Blog suggests that Steve Jobs had discussed products such as the iPad and iTunes at a conference in 1983, just years after the first home desktop computer was created. This was the technology at the time:

This fact amazed me for a number of reasons. First was that Steve Jobs was so innovative and way ahead of his time. Second, he had the follow through to make his dream of these products come true, even if it took 20 years of work. The last few classes we have been discussing entrepreneurship and what it takes to be an entrepreneur. I think this is a perfect example of the combination of creativity, vision handwork and determination required to be a successful entrepreneur.

 

 

When I think of Star Wars, I think of daring heroes willing to take any chance necessary to save the day. When I think of movies, I think of excitement, fun, and creativity. I think of special effects and things blowing up.

What I never considered is the “business” behind the movie, because in fact movies are products too. This article titled ‘Star Wars’: Disney’s Latest Empire from Business Week changed my perspective. It suggests that Disney’s purchase of Lucas Films last month was mainly a move in risk management.

This is because Disney estimated that the next Star Wars movie was likely to be more successful than an undetermined new movie they could make instead. Now that I think about it, this makes a lot of sense. It is the same as a company buying the patent to a well know product that already has a high level of demand. There is a certain assurance and a guarantee of some revenue with a tried and tested product such as the Star Wars franchise.

This is interesting to me as I always have considered film to be an art form, however it is rooted in business much more than I previously thought.

 

 

 

 

Mark Bonchek and Chris Fussell’s Harvard Business Review blog post, Can Bigger Be Faster? in the Harvard Business Review was very interesting. They suggest that there is often a trade-off between size and speed. Large corporations get efficiency with economies of scale, but are often slow to adapt. Smaller companies can easily change .

However large businesses also want to be able to adapt quickly to changes in the market, and this post suggested that companies looking to do so should look to an unlikely place for guidance, the US military. It then proceeded to list a number of recent changes in the military that allowed it to remain large while increasing its agility and speed of adaptation. This was interesting because a number of the changes that the US military employed are very similar to Zara’s supply chain operations as discussed in class.

For example: They state that in order to increase speed of adaptation the organization has to build  more internal relationships. The special operations unit of the army did this by removing the original structure of each individual only connecting with his or her boss, peers, and direct reports, and instead established a “team of teams” structure.

Less of this >

And more of this>

This increased connection and relationships is evident in Zara’s operations through the communication from store owners to designers, allowing their speedy creation of current styles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Internet comic challenges a few assumptions that many people make about branding. First, popular convention is to put brightly colored labels on grocery products to make them aesthetically pleasing. However, it is very possible that in a crowded isle of different colors a plain white label would stand out. Second, it proposes a sort of brand paradox; the products are branded by their uniqueness in the fact that they have no brand. I then did research to see how well this actually worked; The No Name brand of household products uses a similar tactic.

This brand, introduced by Loblaw Companies Limited in the 1970s, aimed to provide similar, if slightly less quality, items for a bargain price. Price was its point of difference, which they emphasized using unique marketing strategies such as this:

Overall, this approach was very successful. No name became the best-selling food brand in the mid-1980s, and had a certain status for customers who wanted to be seen as savvy shoppers. This reminds us that a company’s brand identity is not simply its name, its label, or its colors, but the feelings or attributes associated with the company. It is how the company or the product is viewed by the public. The company chose the commercials, the name and the plain packaging all to get the customers to view the product as plain, simple, and cost-effective.

References

. “brandchannel.com | Loblaw Companies Ltd. | No Name Brand | No Name | Discount Brands | Recession Brands | Generic Brands | Canadian Brands | print version.” brandchannel.com | always branding. always on.. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Oct. 2012. <http://www.brandchannel.com/print_page.asp?ar_id=433§ion=profile>.

“Super market man”, Maclean’s, November 3, 1986

“Retailers fight slump by pushing generics – thestar.com.” News, Toronto, GTA, Sports, Business, Entertainment, Canada, World, Breaking – thestar.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Oct. 2012. <http://www.thestar.com/article/571945>.

 

Ben Gardiner’s post How American Retailers will save the Canadian Business argues that Target opening up 165 stores in Canada and replacing Zellers will be beneficial to the Canadian economy, helping consumers and retailers alike. His main arguments are that the new Target stores will increase foot traffic in malls, create jobs, and will keep many dedicated Target fans from crossing the border to shop.

Although retailers that don’t overlap products with Target may benefit from the increased traffic in malls, overall Target poses a large threat to current Canadian retailers such as Canadian Tire and Sears.  According to Sears CEO Calvin McDonald, Sears overlaps with Target in about 70% of its merchandise. Due to their similar product lines, many retailers will engage in a price war as they strive to differentiate themselves from their competition. This may be beneficial to consumers, but major Canadian retailers are bound to take a hit, especially considering Target store sales are expected to be 200 to 300% higher than the Zellers they replaced. For more info: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/on-target-time-the-race-to-prepare-for-a-new-rival/article4573270/

Links for More Info

http://business.financialpost.com/2012/10/01/target-to-steal-sales-from-sears-canadian-tire-barclays/

Whether or not this change will increase employment is an interesting question, but is too large for the scope of this post. Read about the 10,000 laid off Zellers employees who protested the change to Target at http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/08/22/target-canada-zellers-protest_n_1822223.html