Cindy (Jia Xin) Li's Blog

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/lower-wireless-prices-lead-to-worse-service-telus-tells-crtc-1.2782870

TELUS, being one of the three major wireless carriers in Canada, argues against the industry minister’s suggestion to introduce a fourth, cheaper carrier in order to increase competition and reduce prices for the reason of sustaining the quality of their service.

In analysis of Telus’ stance, it can be seen that Telus does not use cost leadership as a competitive advantage. Instead, it utilizes differentiation as a strategy to gain customer loyalty. According to Dan Pontefract, TELUS’ Chief Envisioner’s blog: http://blog.telus.com/team/peeling-back-culture-as-a-competitive-advantage/, Telus has many internal strengths that they focus on, such as customer relations management, community connections, and advanced technology. Though Dan Pontefract may carry biased views for Telus, I analyze that Telus is capable of being one of the three major Canadian wireless carriers due to its unchanging adherence to maintaining these differentiated factors in their approach and service, which attracts more customers.

Upon viewing Dan Pontefract’s blog, I realize that the supreme quality guaranteed by TELUS ensures its brand loyalty, where the customers are less concerned about price than quality. Hence, TELUS is successful in maintaining a unique competitive advantage through differentiation, and should develop more ways to sustain that advantage instead of switch to cost leadership at the expense of quality.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/11/business/coleman-recalls-inflatable-swimming-tubes-from-walmart.html?src=busln

My analysis shows that by taking the 20,000 rubber tubes off the shelves at Walmart, the Coleman Company successfully maintained its reputation and customer loyalty as it displayed to the public its determination to adhere to its ethical principles.

As Friedman asserts, the social responsibility of a business is to increase its profits within fair regulations. Hence, by recalling its rubber tubes, Coleman demonstrated that it will not deceive its customers with poor quality products in order to increase profit. Rather, by fixing and compensating for this mistake, Coleman continues to create value for the community as it follows its corporate social responsibility. It does not try to satisfy only the shareholders’ desire to gain more profit by finding cheap means of production. Conversely, Coleman also attempts to fulfil the interests of its customers, which are one of the many important stakeholders of the company, according to Freeman’s Stakeholder Theory.

Finally, it is recommendable that the Coleman Company continues to value the interest of its customers in order to gain more trust and uphold the brand’s reputation.