Marlene Habib probes into the world of birthday party planning services in an article in The Globe and Mail on October 19, 2011.

Habib recognizes the growing potential in this relatively small industry by stating a variety of opportunities specific to the present, reminiscent of a SWOT analysis. The article then goes on to briefly describe a variety of small businesses which cater to coming-of-age children and pre-teens.

Source: The Munchkin Music Factory (2011)

Opportunities include:

• More parents feel pressured to organize more extravagant birthday parties (40%, based on a study conducted with 500 parents).
• More and more parents face time-constraints of organizing parties.

Reality shows such as MTV’s “My Super Sweet Sixteen” follow a teenager’s journey to throwing an excessive coming-of-age party. These shows add to the growing demand for unique party plans.

Habib’s compilation of innovative party planning companies include an Ottawa-based reptile zoo, a “pop-star” recording studio for pre-teens, a martial arts studio in Moncton, and a children’s cooking school in North Vancouver.

Source: Diamond Martial Arts (2011)

Some interesting statistics:

54.9% choose to host their child’s birthday party at home.
20.7% go to activity centres designed for birthdays.
69.5% organize the party into games.
25.6% hire an entertainer.

Source: ParentCanada.com (May 2010)

ParentsCanada.com, May 2010

Those who have ever been on a cruise before may affirm how fun those few days at sea are.

Source: UNEP.org

But the daily paper publications, piles of plates used for meals, substantial amount of electricity used every day and other factors made me feel extremely uncomfortable about my own vacation in 2008. After reading the following The Telegraph’s report on the unsustainable practices of cruise ships, I was more than uncomfortable.

• ~712 kg of CO2 per kilometre
• Generally 1,000-3,000 passengers per cruise
• Carbon footprint of cruise passenger 36 times greater than a Eurostar passenger and 3 times greater than plane passenger.
• ~3.5 kg of waste daily/passenger (compared with the usual 0.8 kg)

In addition, cruises “bring limited economic benefit to local communities and small businesses.” (ResponsibleTravel.com)

Vacation cruising is still a relatively young business. It became popular just over the last decade, and it’s going to take time for social, environmental and corporate responsibility to climb priority list. When the days comes, however, I believe it is going to become a huge marketing strategy for cruise lines; a similar story is of hotels nowadays promoting environmental campaigns. Hopefully companies such as Carnival and Royal Caribbean will take advantage of tree-hugging vacationers like me soon.

Source: Andy Newman/Carnival Cruise Lines

A cup of Tim Horton’s French Vanilla coffee in hand today sparked an interest on Tim Horton’s plans to go global, briefly mentioned during one of my first COMM101 classes.

Picture taken 10/2010

I supported Tim Horton’s plan during that class. Canada’s fast-food coffee mecca has an incredible potential for success in the international breakfast/snack market. Global News reports on Tim Horton’s global aspirations here.

These were the points I made:

• Easy market to dominate – not necessarily uncompetitive, but very there are very few cafes which share a similar menu to Tim Horton’s.
• Novelty of a “Western franchise” – I cannot support this with data, but certainly with first-hand experience in bustling Starbucks and similar franchises in urban cities such as Beijing.
• Price – cheap. Period.
• Excellent reputation in Canada so far.
• Convenient.
• A balanced mixture of conventional and unique products, i.e. TimBits.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A_Tim_Horton%27s_in_NYC.jpg

However, the article makes a good point on how to approach the global market: “‘[The CEO] said its international growth strategy will be tempered by the knowledge that huge markets like India and China are ‘littered with people who jumped in too quickly.’” In other words, Tim Horton’s needs to analyze their setting before establishing branches overseas to minimize risks.

“People get rich off drought as it means very rapid procurement, people can cut corners and favoured contractors can make a profit.”

http://www.sfexaminer.com/files/b21d8a66fa15140ef20e6a706700895f_0.jpg

The above are the words of John Githongo, “a well known anti-corruption activist who heads the Inuka Kenya Trust campaign group.” He contributed to BBC News’ article on the food crisis in Kenya here.

Corruption in aid agencies and government is stalling aid to the Horn of Africa, where a drought hit since early July 2011. An article by Huffington Post reports: “[Kenyan] spokesman Alfred Mutua said [in early September] that legislators also raided a fund for emergencies to reimburse themselves for taxes on their $10,000 a month salaries.”

“‘This is a governance drought. It is a situation caused by the failure of the government to plan,’ said John Githongo.'”

NDTV’s commentary also affirms this fact: “Critics say Kenya’s coalition government is partly to blame for the grain shortfall because of poor planning and high-level corruption involving the import, storage and sale of maize.”

The day business or governance are not so intimately intertwined in Africa will be the day when natural events, such as drought, do not devastate the entire population.

http://iovotopli.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/corruption.jpg