Reading a post made by classmate George Parry a week prior to this post, I wanted to follow up on the roots of Energy Aware and what it means to turn the goals of a project from school into reality and something of significant worth and dedication. George comments on the product and how it is an innovative idea, particularly in our market of Vancouver where the city’s goal is to become the “Greenest City by 2020”.

In the mood for a Green one?

During the first week of classes, Paul and Jeff told us about how we’re coming into a system as inputs and exiting as outputs. The system (UBC undergrad, or whatever one may pursue before/during/after) changes an individual and prepares them for the real world. Janice Cheam is an excellent example of what Sauder is capable of producing with her joint venture in Energy Aware. Janice kept the concepts that were learned in her Marketing classes and took it into serious consideration: What product will I make that will attract and cater to a constantly growing audience? How will I differentiate my product? The company’s green-themed website left a good impression and also shows a lot of potential.

“Would you like some cheese on your controller that?”

What’s next? A survey about the activity of crows that are periodically invading your backyard while you’re showering? The strategic placement of advertisements has taken innovative forays into the marketing world and has made significant advancements since its induction, whenever that induction may have been or if it can even be speculated because of natural human tendencies and the mind’s need for constant change, thus resulting in innovation.

Strategic advertisement placement will always exist, but the methods will become redundant and may even be rather annoying to the consumer. Generally, we’ve become used to seeing advertisements during breaks of our favourite TV shows, at bus stops, in the newspaper, etc. We’ve accustomed ourselves to the placement of these particular advertisements because they have been and continue to be effective.

With the new initiative Microsoft and Subway are attempting, it seems as if the world is running out of space to become innovative. It seems as if there aren’t any more bus stops to paste ads on, TV shows are being shortened, and subsequently commercials are being shortened. There comes an extent to innovative marketing, and the extent has been reached, maybe even prior to Subway’s bold move, about when and how to use advertisements.

In a recent article on the New York Times, Robert C. Pozen, a sessional lecturer at Harvard University, writes about the tendency of office workers to artificially earn paycheques by finding methods to work their way around lengthy hours at the desk. He cites long meetings, abundant reading, and mere working speed as potential problems to the paycheque flaw.

“Hey Jim, check out this proposal…Just kidding, but check out the flight on that thing eh?”

Work is done not simply to be finished, but to accomplish and build to your knowledge base. Many times, we find ourselves rushing to complete assignments not knowing what the main purpose really is. A prime example is attending math class and subsequently writing the seemingly difficult exams. Certainly math can be a painful process and numbers and figures may not have any relevance at all– yet, the thought process involved is very crucial to the development of how you approach problems in general for whenever you need to be solving problems. And yes, problems will always exist to be solved. Taking the time to absorb knowledge will pay many dividends for when professionalism comes knocking at the door. When work needs to be done, it will be done, and efficiently, because you’ve spent the hours to get where you are.

Pozen’s article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/business/measure-results-not-hours-to-improve-work-efficiency.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0&ref=global

Collective bargaining is a long an arduous process that mostly seems like a rhetorical high school debate catered for passionate individuals seeking to harm the opposition (I mean hey, aren’t we all here for the marks?). What marks translate into at the grown man’s game level is something that leads to nothing different than the outcomes we witness at the high school scenario.

The NHL and its Players’ Association claim to be interested in answering the question but have only been in a constant tug-of-war match for a while now. Making an agreement between two parties is one of the most interactive and constructive processes known. The motivation to start the season seems to be at an all-time low and it seems like the only way to get things done were to be if the two parties could meet in a compact room, be locked in, and make a deal. On the outlook of the situation, fans simply don’t have an alternative to watching the NHL. Rather, they, myself included, are forced to wonder how and why the process should be so difficult if the concluding result would be hockey “for the fans” anyways.

URL: http://www.theprovince.com/sports/lockout+Bettman+Fehr+quietly+restart+talks/7351656/story.html

For years, we’ve been sending letters as a form of communication. We have lived to tell tales through the primitive and important act of sending and receiving. Communication as such has proven to be of significance to everyone. Whether it’d be the king unravelling the call to arms, the colonel receiving word of imminent attack, grandkids wishing Grandma well on her 80th birthday, the way of the physical letter has had its way historically and globally.

“According to a U.S. Postal Service study, correspondence such as greeting cards fell 24 per cent between 2002 and 2010. Invitations alone dropped nearly 25 per cent just between 2008 and 2010.”

With the social media wave riding in full stride, the rate of greeting cards’ movement has significantly dropped. As a timely substitute, social media has allowed a new method of communication to take place. A never-ending hub of social connections strengthened by the innovation of many young and dynamic minds has caused a shift in consumer habits. Facebook and Twitter are prominent in the social media picture and are leading this market. Despite their somewhat seemingly infinite convenience, traditional methods should still be used as a gesture of formality, we shouldn’t write the old habits off.

URL: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/technology/Social+media+shifting+consumer+habits+erode+greeting/7357407/story.html

The use of cards and the widely-known definition of “card” has changed drastically through the years. Much like this blog entry and the many to come, a revolutionary concoction of ideas will arise from changing ways.

http://www.dailybarometer.com/news/how-banks-make-money-off-of-credit-cards-1.2872867#.UFFpsKTyZXd

In striving for convenience, the use of credit cards has served as a popular method of transaction, but has the convenience overshadowed the proper ethic of the regular consumer? Following the trend of credit card users, there are often blunders from the periodic payment system. In this wake, fees left and right have mystically surrounded the entire system. Whether the payment schedule is closely followed or not, banks have successfully played advocate to the mystical force surrounding the system.

“the nine largest credit card issuers earned a combined profit of about $3.85 billion in 2010 from a total of more than 1 billion issued cards.”

True, late fees will always exist, and other extraneous fees (such as compensation packages from banks), but is it ethical that the bank and credit card companies be gaining such profits from gaffes made by their customers? The ethical issue lies within a relatively new concept in the credit card system where hidden profits are used to the benefit of credit card companies.

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