Clarence Lam's Blog

Li, Jing Wei (Jack)’s Blog: Online Hurricane

Undeniably, technology has become a big part of our everyday lives. If we were compare technology to pills, it has progressed from being a stimulant to being a depressant. At first technology has helped us become more efficient in everyday tasks, but we’ve become so dependent on it that it has become an addication – something we can’t live without. Which is why if you were to start a new business, creating a website is the perfect marketing strategy to garner attention. With the low implemented costs of sustaining a website, you’re able to target a large customer segment. Whether it be the local crowd or the global mass, a website can take your business to new heights as long as you utilise it efficiently – it can become your companies strongest weapon. What about newspaper ads you say? No way Jose, what do you see 90% of the time when you walk onto a bus or a subway? I’ll tell you, phones and lots of em. The world is not what it used to be from 10 years ago. Technology has taken the world by a storm and people must change with the times if they wish to producing a thriving business.

Zhang, Zhen Yi’s Blog: Do Alcohol and Work Mix??

I agree with David’s point that employee satisfaction is key in making any business a success. When employees are happy with their jobs, productivity is bound to be greater than when employees are unsatisfied. That being said the business in this article has a very peculiar organizational culture in which alcohol is actually being given to employees within the workplace.  Is this method really necessary to provide employee satisfaction? I’m a big fan of this company, Deskbeers, as they advocate the idea of  relaxation to their employees. I mean what better way than to pop open a few beers on a Friday night with fellow employees to relieve a stressful week? It’s a fun idea, but I can see a mountain of problems arising from consuming alcohol within the workplace. It’s definitely important to motivate your employees but I feel like this idea is overstepping boundaries. As the CEO of a company, it’s important to build and maintain strong relationships with employees; however there are many other ways you can connect with employees besides buying alcohol for them, as I believe it will promote unhealthy work habits in the long run.

Snapchat

How does Snapchat, a business which has basically no assets, no revenue, and does not follow a business model canvas become so successful?  Likewise to its competitor Facebook, Snapchat was founded by a college student whom introduced the app initially to college students before it popularized to the general public.

Just recently they’ve received an offer of 3-billion dollars from Facebook and 4 billion from Google to buy out their company, only to decline their offer. Some are questioning the decision of the greenhorn CEO. But what is with the craze of Snapchat? What differentiates it from the rest of social media apps? Well first off, the ideology behind it is new, fresh, and appealing which is why it’s so well liked by the social mass. “It’s everything Facebook isn’t.” The idea is based off of not leaving behind any traces information behind. Personally I don’t doubt the decision-making of 23-year-old Evan Spiegel. For a business to thrive, the CEO needs a strong sense of ambition as well as a high level of risk taking. With such a great mindset and a strong passion for change, I personally believe that Snapchat has the potential of being the new Facebook

Google Investment

Google has recently made their 14^th invested into renewable energy as they put $80 million dollars to open 6 Solar Energy Plants. They’ve stated their future goal: to have 100% of its energy completely renewable. It’s going to be a lengthy process but currently 33% of their energy is already coming from renewable sources.

Why Google is such a respected company is because they’re not only looking to make profits for themselves, but to also help better the world through their innovations. They are a true example of a social enterprise. Google not only looks out for its employees with benefits such as the 20 percent time program, which allows employees to spend 20% of their work time on their own individual projects unrelated to work, but they also care about how their company affects the rest of the world. This short term investment causes them to lose money, however Google realizes this method will be beneficial to both them and the environment in the long run. Instead of running a business to solely make a profit, companies should strive with both human and environmental outcomes in mind, as Google proves that it can be done.

Sexual Harassment

Being the head of a business, you really have to be wary of your personal decision making as  they affect the business as a whole. Prime example being Mark Hurd, chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co. Back in 2010, Mark Hurd was faced with accusations of sexual harassment of a fellow employee in his company. Mark has essentially, “violated the company’s business standards.” Shortly after this news was released to the public, stock shares plummeted at an alarming rate; and mere hours after trading had closed, stocks went down 8.3%.

The image and values a business is strongly correlated with the owner: the personal decisions of the owner affects the business, and outcomes of the choices made by the business affects the image of the owner. Not only did this stunt cost Mark his career, but it affected every single employee at HP as well as every single stockholder who held a share of HPQ. In a sheer instant, everything that Mark had worked so hard for came crashing down. Although Mark was later acquitted of the charge, the damage which had been dealt could not be recovered.

Faulty Products

Back in 2009, Hewlett-Packard, a multi-billion information technology corporation, experienced mass complaints from the public due to defective products. HP ignorantly sold faulty products, despite  knowing that the Nvidia Graphic chips they had in their computers were flawed. Shamefully, this multi-billion dollar company did nothing to fix a known issue. Is this unjust treatment fair to a consumer? Is this how a business should run? With problems such as “screens going blank or overheating, leading to system failure” HP just sits there pretending to oblivious. Even worse, consumers who were affected by these faulty products were “ineligible for repairs or an extended warranty” because these computer were not covered by list of affected machines issued by HP. Honestly, what kind of pathetic customer service is this? They’re scamming their customers into buying these products and then pretend they’re not at fault when they happen to “break down”. It scares me to think that there are such big businesses out there with such low ethics.

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.

Groundwater Extraction

Nestlé, a multi-billionaire Switzerland organization, takes 265 million litres of water from B.C. every year for a staggering price of $0. Due to lax groundwater regulation laws Nestlé is able to steal our freshwater and sell it back to us for a profit.

From a business perspective Nestlé is doing nothing wrong as they are not breaking any rules or regulations, however from an individual perspective it raises ethical question. How can a company simply take our water, and reap the profits without taking any penalties? Businesses tend to think of how to maximize their own profits holding little regard to anything but themselves –  they prioritize their own well-being which leads to low ethical values

There can be serious implications when we look at this in a long-term view.  When do you suppose Nestlé will stop pumping out the water from underground? Logically, it would seem to me that they would stop when there is no more water supply.  It’s water that is owned by the people, not a corporation. We, as consumers, have to cease this insanity by stopping ourselves from buying their bottled water and telling them that what they’re doing is wrong. They’re not going to let down their greed if we keep feeding it.