Banana Paper – It is creative but Is it profitable?

Responding to Cici Chen’s https://blogs.ubc.ca/cicichen/2013/11/14/banana-paper-innovative-but-unpratical/#comment-9blog, “Banana Paper innovative but unpractical,” I have the same concern as her. Let me introduce your banana paper first, “Banana paper is used in two different senses: to refer to a paper made from the bark of the banana plant, mainly used for artistic purposes, or paper made from banana fiber, obtained from an industrialized process, from stems and non-utilizable fruits.” I agree that the idea of having Banana Paper is very creative and one of a kind, yet it doesn’t seem as practical as I had expected. In order to market a product, this product either needs to have unique features or needs to be a necessity in our daily life. It is unfortunate that we don’t get to use Banana Paper in our daily life, since it cannot work as printing paper, sketching paper, and drawing paper. Therefore, I think it will be hard for them to make profit since their paper is not a necessity in our daily life.

Genetic modified food “YES” OR “NO”

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In response to Sarah To’shttp://blogs.ubc.ca/sarahso/2013/09/23/gmo-must-go-a-realistic-goal-or-utopian-fantasy/ blog, “GMO Must Go” – A realistic goal or utopian fantasy? I firmly believe that genetically modified foods should be further tested before they get promoted in the market. Some people argue that the benefits of GMOs are obvious due to rapid production and lower costs. However, the negative effects of GMOs cannot be denied. According to a “global research center,” “it’s proved conclusively that genetically engineered foods harm human health as growing numbers of independent experts believe.” The detrimental effects are causing a weaker immune system, and damaging the brain and the liver. The risks are thus enormous. What makes the problem worth studying is that many GM food are not labeled as such on the market. In the US alone, 80% of possessed foods contain genetically modified ingredients. Statistically, the most popular genetically modified foods are rice, corn, soybeans, and fruits. Many industries believe that “labeling” should be voluntary, whereas consumers demand labeling all genetically modified foods so that they can avoid purchasing them. If GM food does have a right to exist in the market, I profoundly disagree with the idea of not labeling the products. I consider this act extremely deceiving for consumers.

http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/gmfood/overview.php

http://www.globalresearch.ca/potential-health-hazards-of-genetically-engineered-foods/8148

 

Part 3 Steve Job’s Commencement–Facing Death

Facing Death is the last story Steve Jobs shared with us. I have to confront the death that often seems very far away. As we all know, Steve Jobs was diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas, which is nearly incurable. However Steve Jobs transformed this incident into positive energy. He revealed, “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.”  Steve Jobs asked himself if today was the last day, what would he do? Every individual will face other people’s comments, which may make us feel trapped by dogma. It is absolutely necessary to keep in mind that time is limited, so don’t let another’s voice drown out your inner voice.
(I chose to write three blogs on Steve Jobs’s commencement in that he was a revolutionary person who changed our lives significantly. His advice is incalculable and should be treasured as time goes on. )

Part 2 Steve Jobs’s Commencement–Love and Loss

Steve Jobs’s other story was about love and loss, which truly inspired me, and so I would like to share it with all my peers who are on their way to a bright future. Steve Jobs vividly described the devastating life-changing experience of getting fired by Apple at the age of 30, and he illustrated the pivotal thing about finding what you love. As a business student, i am scared of failure, risk, and unpredictability. Chasing your passion sounds a bit too luxurious and often not realistic to a university student: “It is awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.” On the way to find your passion, there must be ups and downs, but success only comes to people who do not give up. I was truly inspired when I heard Steve Jobs saying “So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

Part 1 Steve Job’s commencement – Connect the dots

In Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address, Steve Jobs delivered a thought-provoking speech at Stanford University’s graduation ceremonies. Steve Jobs mentioned the importance of connecting the dots. His experience of dropping out of a college and instead taking a calligraphy course at Reed College was anxiety-generating and even frightening, but now he confidently and unambiguously confirmed that it was the best decision he had ever made. After learning typography, he added that system to the first Macintosh computer, the one that gained him recognition. “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.” In a business area, when we start a new one or when we learn skills to expand our knowledge, we don’t know what these skills and unceasing efforts will bring us. However, if we believe that the dots will be connected and trust our intuition, our destiny, our life karma, then “Fortune will favor the prepared mind.” It will make a difference in the end!

 

Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot reluctant to serve costumers for a second round

“Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot” is a well-known restaurant founded in 1999 with over 300 chain restaurants internationally. Recently, some visitors have complained that “Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot” is unwilling to serve customers for a second round. For an all-you-can-eat restaurant this behavior is not acceptable. In order to determine whether this rumor was reliable or not, I decided to visit this restaurant on Sunday, Oct.13th. After finishing ordering the first round of dishes, we received the dishes promptly, in 10 minutes. Later, we asked for the menu again and started eagerly in on a second round of ordering. After waiting for 20 minutes, we were served lettuce and cabbage. We decided to remind the servers and asked them to rush our food order. After another 10 minutes had passed, we only received a reluctant plate of mushrooms. Because the store policy states that the dining time has to be limited to two hours, we were forced to leave without receiving another two plates of beef and some fungus. For a well-known and highly regarded restaurant, such behavior is totally unacceptable. I wonder if the strategy of making profits implies taking advantage of costumers and not serving sufficient potions of food on time. I guess I will have to wait a long time for an answer from “Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot” from Burnaby.

BC banks are renovating their branches to attract clients

Listening to the Spa music as the hot towel is served, staring at the delicate painting on the wall when the aroma of latte is filled in the room. Now is the time to talk about banking. After reading the article, “B.C. bank changes with the times to compete for new clients and keep old ones,” from “Canadian Press” written by Linda Nguyen on Sept29th, it is undoubted that banking industry are becoming more competitive. The North Shore chief executive Chris Cartliff, confesses that clients are looking for a value exchange. According to research, many clients perceive banking as going to a dentist. Therefore, many banking managers notice the importance in improving the banking environment, and treating the clients with care and comfort.

Expanding Vancouver Shipyards to provide job opportunities in the skilled trades

On October 7th, KEVIN GRIFFIN and MATTHEW ROBINSON from Vancouver Sun visited the Vancouver shipyard in north Vancouver. The government has awarded 3.3 billion federal contract to Vancouver shipyard for ordering ten new non-combat ships. The goal for this project is that to provide more job opportunities in the skilled trades. The president of Seaspan Shipyards, Brian Carter, has announced that their aiming to modernize the North Vancouver shipyard with a cost of $185 million. At this moment there is only 150 workforce, but within three to four years, the workforce will increase to 1000. Federal Public Works Minister Diane Finley claimed that Canadian ship workforce is able to develop 2 billion dollars per year to benefit the Canadian society. I believe that this project is going to benefit Vancouver’s economy as they expected to generate more than 15000 jobs in the next 30 years. More importantly people who are apart of the workforce are paid as much as $47 per hour which is a stable salary.

BlackBerry’s fail marketing strategy leads to massive lost

Blackberry lost over 900 million dollars, and laid off over 1000 employees. After the announcement,  BlackBerry’s stock dropped 20 percent. Chief executive Thorsten Heins said: “We are very disappointed with our operational and financial results this quarter and have announced a serious of major changes to address the competitive hardware environment and our cost structure.” On Monday, Sept. 23rd, Fairfax agreed to buy “BlackBerry Limited” with $4.7 billion.
BlackBerry and iPhone were leading in all smart phone sales five years ago. BlackBerry did not find its position in the cell phone market while iPhone was continually exploring new technology and new inventions to make its products more eye catching. After Samsung introduced its smart phones, it became the biggest rival of all other smart phone companies. When Apple company foresaw the power of touch screen phones, it introduced more products on its App store to enhance sales. Samsung didn’t discover any new IT, and stayed with its fancy keyboard. To elaborate, BlackBerry didn’t do a great job of targeting its costumers. BlackBerry’s initial plan was targeting the business man and government costumers. Without an advanced technology development BlackBerry automatically lost its market to iPhone. From an advertising point of view, BlackBerry failed to position its brand. While iPhone was targeting countries such as China and Korea to increase sales, Samsung was hiring stars to be brand spokespersons to increase brand popularity. BlackBerry should have opened up its market internationally to attract more consumers.

Lac-Mégantic disaster oil incident posts a vast threat in the world

As the explosion toke place in quebec, canada; it has caused over 47 death and blocked several neighbourhood roads. This incident posts a vast threat on the community, and has risen heated decision on in the world. People who live in explosion area are forced to live their home, the members of this company should apologize for not only causing such tragic incident, but also adding inconvenience to people who are involved. They should stand up in public explaining the cause of the incident and their preventions in the future.Moreover compensate the victim’s family, and apologize nationally for adding environmental harm to the world. Oil suppliers are a big component of world’s economy, this incident will lead into a drastic change in stock market. As a quebec citizen, their life is threatened from pollution and damage in the homeland, which has a negative influence in the world.