In today’s day and age many people go online for almost anything. Shopping, Movies, News, Communications, etc.. But one facet of life that has remain in person has been Psst Secondary education. But in this day and age that might be changing. Resources like Khan Academy, Coursea, and Itunes University are changing the way be learn by offering many courses, taught in prominent universities for free.This raises an interesting question; Now that majority of courses offered at universities like Sauder are offered online, why should students pay tens of thousands of dollars when they can get it for free or at a much lower cost and what should business schools around the country do to protect themselves?

For the first part I believe students will continue to take the traditional route over the short to medium term until online education gains more traction and universities start offering the same degrees to students who take classes online and in person. Secondly I believe Universities should emphasize their alumni base, their recruitment opportunities, and their low acceptance rate to protect their brand prestige.

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/10/19/16-free-online-business-classes-that-are-actually-worth-your-time/

Boeing is set to start flying its newly announced Boeing 777X and this has some people uneasy as to how it will affect the company moving forward.

On one hand, its great new innovative product that reduces the single biggest cost for airliners; fuel, and help it compete with Airbus which is unveiling its own new aircraft in 2014. It will also allow customers to replace some of the aging 747’s they currently use and even help reduce CO2 and improve global warming.

On the other hand its creating a product thats is not only more expensive but also one that can potentially cannibalize its one 747 airplanes market. That could mean years and years of research and hundreds of millions of dollars down the drain. This is a decision Boeing must make after careful consideration.

IN the end I believe the company should continue on its quest to produce 777 even if it cannibalizes its current 747 market as its better for Boeing to make a product that cannibalizes its market share as opposed to a competitor making one.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-10/boeings-new-777x-could-make-the-largest-jumbo-jets-obsolete#p1

In 2011 a stock analyst shorted Sino Forest Corp and announced it was a “ponzi scheme”. Shortly after that the company’s stock declined sharply and the company announced bankruptcy. The main reason for its downfall was Accounting or rather lack there of.

Sino Forest was a Chinese company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Its main issue was that its accounting department misstated its assets as well as operational and its auditor Ernst & Young all missed both. investors lost billions and are suing the parent company to get it back.

These kind of moment show why its very important o have competent and ethical accountants as well as independent auditors whose work should be verified. Perhaps one way to combat failures in auditing would be to have 2 auditors and compare their work or have one auditor and send it to another auditor for verification. Although this might add extra cost to the company, if you ask the shareholders who lost billions in Sino Forest, they would tell you it would have been worth it.

http://www.classaction.ca/classaction-ca/master-page/actions/securities/current-actions/sino-forest-corp.aspx

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/the-law-page/auditors-sino-forest-settlement-stands-court-rules/article12835545/

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/03/20/judge-approves-ernst-young-settlement-for-sino-forest-shareholders/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/the-roots-of-the-sino-forest-mystery/article594111/?page=all

Although they introduced a gold version to maintain their market share as a premium product, the fact that they introduced 5C suggest Apple is trying to become a more affordable product. Although this may be commendable from an accounting perspective, it is a rather surprising move from a marketing point of view.

According to Ries and Trouts free product trap theorem, when a brand tries to hold on to multiple positions in a market, either its new product won’t do well or it will be at the expense of its old products. And although the fact that apple sold an estimated 9 million Iphone its opening weekend, the details tell a much different story.Out of the 9 million Iphones about 5-5.5 million were Iphone 5S while 3-3.5 million were Iphone 5 C’s.

Some can make the argument that Apple did the same thing with the Ipad mini and that seems to have worked. But the difference is that Apple advertised their product as the same thing just in a smaller size even producing the slogan “concentration and not reduction” of the full sized Ipad.

http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/ries-trout/positioning/

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304713704579092931680449134.html

The US federal government this month decided against tapering its $85 billion bond buying program. This decision surprised many analyst who had been expecting a reduction in purchase by the US Federal Reserve. The Fed explained that the economy wasn’t moving along as strongly as they hoped to warrant a reduction in asset purchase.

Despite its explanation, I believe the Fed was wrong not to begin tapering its asset purchase program. Since the recession in 2008, it has been buying assets in what is know as Quantitative Easing or QE to increase demand in consumption and the money supply in the economy. QE has worked in helping drive down unemployment and helped the stock market reach new heights. But two worrying issues remain.

The first is Inflation. Increasing the money supply in the economy by printing money artificially increases the prices for goods as people have more money to purchase the same number of goods. Since 2008 the Fed’s balance sheet has more than tripled to $3.6 trillion. This rise in supply of money hasn’t caused major inflation yet but sustaining it only increases the chances of higher inflation in the future.

The second major concern is QE’s long term effect. Like an addict experiencing withdrawal, even the mention of tapering in May caused stock markets to go lower and caused volatility. Although this is unavoidable as market participant start dealing with a lesser role by the Fed in the market, the longer the Fed continues QE, the more painful and volatile the market will be when the Fed eventually begins tapering.

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/09/18/fed-declines-to-taper-keeps-us85-billion-bond-buying-program-in-place/

Ethics can mean many things to many different people. But at its core, its doing something that is morally correct according to society we live in. Many different business do things that are ethically incorrect. One of them is false advertising. One company that recently got bad publicity for false advertising is Subway Sandwich Shop. In the United States, Subway runs a popular marketing campaign titled “5 Dollar Footlong”, where they have a deal for their Footlongs, priced at $5. The campaign has been popular and has helped the company grow over the last few years.

The main issue with the campaign is, well its false. After an Australian man measured a Subway sandwich he bought and tweeted a picture of it, the story went viral. Then 2 men from New Jersey visited 16 Subways in the area to see if the story was true. The results were similar, with every one of the sandwiches they bought falling short of the 12 inch mark.

This reminded me of a COMM 101 class where we talked about marketing meeting accounting. I can see the marketing executive talking to the accounting director about how they had come up with a great marketing slogan and how the low price combined with the marketing campaign would boost sales. Then the Accounting executive would respond back by stating without reducing the cost somehow, it wouldn’t be feasible.

Now it may or may not have happened that way. Only the executives at Subway know. But in the end, Subway should either sell what they are advertising or advertise what they are actually selling.What Subway did was ethically wrong. Just as important though, it was bad business practice as trust between buyer and seller is at the core of the free market economy we live in today.

Articles:

http://gretawire.foxnewsinsider.com/2013/01/23/footlong-sandwich-controversy-sparks-lawsuit-against-subway/

http://www.businessinsider.com/subway-footlong-11-inches-2013-1