Joanna Lai’s article on Sears’ crisis prompted me to perform some research of my own.

Source: smartcanuck.ca

Canadian Business’ article  can be summarized into a list of Sears’ threats. These  include:

• Major American retail stores moving across the border, such as JCPenney and Target.
• Canadian retailers expanding their target market and changing business strategies. The Bay, for example, is going through a major transformation in order to sell more upscale items.
• Retail stores offering equal if not better customer service that Sears had boasted in the past.

A threat to all large department stores are “niche retailers who can offer the same products at better prices or with more knowledgeable staff, and who might carry stronger brand recognition.” (Castaldo, “Sears Canada can’t afford to stand still”)

Weaknesses in the company currently include:

• Lacking a “fresh” image.
• Not fulfilling the reputation for quality customer service, a result of cutting employees.

Source: MPC Newspapers

From here, Sears has a few options:

1. “[d]ownsize and focus on just a few product areas” (ibid.)
2. Undergo a rigorous transformation.

The latter option is more likely. Strengthening customer service and determining a target customer will allow Sears to thrive is this competitive retail industry.

Source: 1stwebdesigner.com

It’s almost a surprise to find a business nowadays that doesn’t maintain a presence on Facebook, Twittor or LinkedIn. But how effective are these social media tools to companies in the first place? Do they serve a purpose other than to gain awareness about the company? Anthony J. Bradley and Mark P. McDonald’s post in the Harvard Business Review blog network recommends that social media break free of its marketing role.

Bradley and McDonald’s main point is that currently, social media is mostly used as a marketing tool. While it raises awareness for the company, this ‘tool’ is not being used to its full potential. Social media can do much more, such as mass collaboration, The two say that “[w]e need to determine how to apply [social media] in order to do things that were previously impossible or prohibitively expensive.”

In a different online article, a few exemplars are mentioned: H&R Block, Skittles, Starbucks, and Comcast. These companies use social media in ways that actually make an impact on business strategies, in forms such as mass collaborations, forums and discussions.

Source: Wisdump

Two business topics covered in class meet in a short report from The New York Times (reprinted in The Globe and Mail on October 26, 2011) on a business called Eco-Conceirge NYC: sustainability and entrepreneurship.

Eco-concierges makes it easier for the busy to adopt a greener lifestyle. Source: Peter DaSilva for The New York Times

Eco-Concierge NYC describes itself as a “personal environmental concierge.” The year-old business, run by President Letitia Burrell and based in Manhattan, runs errands and books appointments for people concerned about their ecological footprint but are often too busy to incorporate sustainability into their lifestyles. Eco-Concierge NYC “tries to make it easy for people to rid their homes of toxins, hire sustainable-cuisine chefs and find organic dry cleaners.”

Eco-Concierge NYC is truly the brainchild of entrepreneurial dreams. The idea of a personal environmental concierge is extremely innovative and risky. There are only about 5-6 similar services in the USA, and business relies on long-term customers. However, the small market offers the opportunity for current players to quickly and firmly establish leadership in this specific niche market. And with the latest trend towards “greener living”, personal environmental concierge businesses will no doubt flourish in North America for the years to come.

Update on November 14, 2011: Eco-Concierge NYC’s website is not available.

Youtube Video: What is Eco-Concierge?

Big City Cupcakes is struggling with legal issues currently but that does not make its success story any less phenomenal.

Source: Big City Cupcakes

QuickMBA’s criteria for entrepreneurship include amount of wealth creation, speed of wealth creation, risk of venture, and innovation.

Risk is evident. When the first Big City Cupcakes store opened in Kelowna in 2008 by Lisa Larue and partners, cupcakes were certainly not the most popular urban snacks. Larue, far more confident in her grandmother’s cupcakes than those from a Californian bakery praised by Oprah Winfrey, decided to test the waters of the Canadian market. In an interview with Entrepreneurial Women, Larue says that “[t]here are always doubts when you’re modelling [a business] after something you’ve seen in the United States… Canada is an entirely different market.”

Taking the risk paid off. Each Big City Cupcakes franchise averages $300,000 – $600,000 in annual revenue, and the company was self-financed and debt-free for several months. (Watters) Larue structured the business to minimize overhead costs of individual branches while still delivering freshness. Instead of opening 5 branches in the first year, the initial goal, 13 were opened.

In Watters’ article in Entrepreneurial Women, “Lisa attributes their rapid expansion to the support of their franchisees, corporate partners and cupcake fans.”

Source: Entrepreneurial Women

A Globe and Mail article on November 2, 2011 reports that the flood in Thailand in early October has generated a 400 death toll, closed 10 000 factories, and put 660,000 jobs at risk. Honda Motor Co. Ltd. is one of the many affected after the natural disaster.

A flooded Honda dealership in Thailand. Source: CarNewsWeek.com

Honda was far from recovering after the Japanese earthquake and tsunami earlier on this year before facing another catastrophe a few weeks ago. The slowing export of car parts from Honda’s factories in Asia has put assembly lines in North America on hold.

Thailand is the Southeast Asian epicenter for manufacturing car parts for Japanese car makers.

To avoid a similar disruption to international supply chains in the future, Honda should consider diversify the location of manufacturing plants and be particularly careful choosing to develop factories in regions as volatile as Thailand, where natural disasters such as tsunamis, typhoons and floods are likely to hit every few years.

The same applies to all international companies that depend heavily on its supply chains. Perhaps an emergency fund or a greater variety of manufacturing locations will keep companies afloat in the midst of disasters such as the 2011 flood in Thailand.

How Thai floods are affecting international supply chains. Source: The Globe and Mail

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

The Globe and Mail article on Thursday, September 29 on Reebok’s misrepresentative marketing of their EasyTone and RunTone footwear caught my eye. Nadia Niky summarizes the article in her BComm blog here.

But this topic instigated thoughts on other outrageous actions other products claim to do. The original newspaper article mentions Nivea’s My Silhouette skin care line that supposedly “reduces the size of certain body parts.” Federal  Trade Commission has already taken action, and a notice has even been put on Nivea’s website here.

What other crazy, hard-to-believe and extremely deceiving product claims are also out there? I’ve heard of:

•  $140 LiLash eyelash enhancing serum, which claims to lengthen and thicken one’s eyelashes;
• organic cigarettes;
• Danone’s immunity-enhancing yogurt;
• Lululemon’s Vitasea line, claiming to have health advantages from the seaweed in the fabric.

The Globe and Mail’s article ends on a hopeful note: “‘We take all allegations seriously… If consumers feel a company is engaging in misrepresentation, we’d certainly encourage them to let us know.'”

I think there should be more commissions set up to properly evaluate claims before companies can market such products. The FTC is optimistic, but seems to rely too much on consumers’ initiatives.