Clarence Lam's Blog

Electronic Cigarette

The electronic cigarette, otherwise known as the e-cigarette,

was invented in the 1960’s but was not popularized until the past decade. As of now there are currently more than 250 brands with a wide range of flavors.

As stated in this article, the tobacco industry worries as this new substitute may put them out of business in the prospective future. A very similar comparison can be made to their current situation with the past rivalry of Kodak and Fuji, where Fuji prospered and Kodak withered away due to their persistent refusal of advancement into the digital world.  The E-cig shows the new technological growth mankind has made, though not yet tested completely, they’re currently more “healthy” than regularly cigarettes as they lack tobacco in their makeup. In terms of style, they’re almost identical with just a few aspects lacking, and E-cigs gives users the smoking sensation that they may crave for yet puts them out of harm’s way at the same time. With such a vigorous new product on the market like this, I wouldn’t be surprised if cigarette companies ended up like Kodak.

Guide To Business

I am a colossal fan of the TV series Breaking Bad, but throughout the years I’ve never realized the business aspect of the show. For those of you who are not die-hard fans, like me, it’s a story about how an average high school chemistry teacher gets diagnosed with cancer and eventually proceeds in the production of methamphetamine to provide for his family after he dies.

There are some key lessons to be taught throughout the show, the first being: businesses who gain tremendous growth are from unanticipated places, because they are the ones who bring in new and fresh ideas into the industry. Walter White, previously high school chemistry teacher, uses his chemistry research knowledge to create the purest meth possible; a high school teacher would really not be someone you expect to cook meth. Using Breaking Bad as a real world parallel, there are 3 things which make a prosperous business:  ambition, quality, and partners/alliances. All of these are accurately displayed throughout the show. In the end of the show, however, we finally see our hero, Walter White, go to shame. There were many opportunities for him to walk away as a wealthy man, however he continued his journey because of his lust for greed which ended up making him a criminal. He put himself above everyone else and was even able to justify the killing of another person because of money. In conclusion, running a business can eventually turn a sane person into a lunatic as they eventually lose sight of their purpose and disregard morals and ethics – shown in Breaking Bad.

Innovation

With the constant releases of new products, it’s no wonder that Apple has risen to the top spot as the #1 company in the world. How Apple has been able to achieve such massive success throughout the years is because they’re not limited in their business perspective and they look to expand towards new ideas: the new iphone 5s being a prime example with its new state of the art fingerprint scanner. The new fingerprint scanner is simple and reliable: exactly what Apple stands for. Apple became the number one company through the introduction of technological innovations. They take risks in adding new features in their products to differentiate themselves from competitors, which led to their undoubted success.

In addition to product variety, they’re clearly able to target and satisfy the needs of their audiences. An example being our class: the first day I walked into Comm 101 I saw that 90% of students were using a macbook. With all the different laptops out there, 90% of our class had Apple laptops. Honestly, even when the word apple is mentioned, some people tend to think of macbooks/iphones rather than the actual fruit. It just shows how strong their brand identity is, and how big of an influence they have on people.