In recent years McDonald’s has really put a lot of effort into promoting their newer drinks menu. Their newer drinks menu included a variety of fancy coffee drinks and smoothies. McDonald’s wants to be able to compete more with companies like Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts by appealing more to their target markets. Is a drinks menu really something McDonald’s should be using up so much of its time and energy on? In this article it said it’s not a good idea for McDonald’s. McDonald’s will always be more known more for its food and Starbucks for its drinks. Other fast-food chains have been trying to promote more food products because they know that’s what they do best and what their customers want. It’s interesting that McDonalds is trying to compete more with the fast drink industry but I don’t think they should be putting a majority of their advertising into their new drinks menu. It may be bringing some new customers that would have been going to Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts but at the same time I think article is right in say McDonalds would be more successful if it focused on its food more than its drinks.

Link to article

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/why-mcdonald-caffeine-problem-hurting-business-174048367.html

Citation

Santoli, Michael. “Why McDonald’s Caffeine Problem Is Hurting Its Business.” Yahoo Finance. Yahoo, 11 Nov. 2013. Web. 16 Nov. 2013.

Craig Ross grew up in a rough part of Cape Town and at one point in his life worked as a drug dealer and gang member. But after going through rehab and putting that old lifestyle behind him he has managed to become a very successful entrepreneur. Craig Ross is the innovations manager of a company called RLABS which was actually started in Cape Flats where he he grew up. Since his time at RLABS in 2007 he has been able to start two global tech companies. Something that really stood out to me in this article was when he says dealing drugs was his first sort of work as an entrepreneur crediting it for his knowledge of supply and demand. Through his work as a drug dealer he also learned how to be more innovative and to deal with different profiting tools. While he doesn’t promote drug dealing it is interesting that he still sees his work as an entrepreneur today as something that can be related to his past. I really respect him for wanting to see change in his community and through his new line of work he is trying to implement that.

Link to article

http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/from-drug-dealer-to-global-social-entrepreneur-craig-ross-shares-his-story/32418/

Citation

Douglas, Kate. “From Drug Dealer to Global Social Entrepreneur: Craig Ross Shares His Story.” How We Made It In Africa Insight into Business in Africa RSS. DHL, 13 Nov. 2013. Web. 16 Nov. 2013.

Snapchat recently denied what would have been Facebook’s most expensive acquisition ever. It was reported that Facebook was willing to buy Snapchat for 3 billion dollars and even that wasn’t enough to buy out the company. Snapchat’s CEO, Evan Spiegel, wants to see how his company’s value will continue to grow before he makes any deals. 3 billion dollars is a lot of money and how certain can you be that your company’s success and value will continue to grow over time? Evan Spiegel has all the right reasons to think his company’s value will increase though. Snapchat’s users are growing in numbers and being active so he would have no reason to doubt his company’s success.  Earlier this year Facebook offered Snapchat 1 billion dollars and now they were offering 3 billion. If Snapchat’s user numbers continue to grow there’s no telling of what kind of offers they might receive next. I think it was a good move for Snapchat to deny Facebook’s offer because as their number of users continues to grow it is clear the amount of money Facebook is willing to offer as well as other companies will grow with it.

Link to Article

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/13/snapchat-facebook-buyout-offer-rejected

Citation

Rushe, Dominic. “Snapchat Rejects $3bn Facebook Buyout.” The Guardian. The Guardian, 13 Nov. 2013. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.

Booster Juice CEO, Dale Wishewan, was just named the 2013 Prairies EY Entrepreneur of the year.  Booster Juice is a smoothie chain that provides smoothies with quick service. Essentially fast food but with smoothies being their central theme.  Dale Wishewan has been able to turn his quick service smoothy business into a successful international brand. What really stood out to me in this article was that before starting up Booster Juice Dale Wishewan had no prior experience in franchising, or work experience in the food industry. Even with his lack of experience in those fields he managed to start a successful supply chain that also runs on an international level. It was interesting reading this article after attending our class on innovation and leadership because I could relate what we had learned in class to a real life example. Just like we were put in a situation to act as entrepreneurs and create something that was missing from the world, Dale Wishewan did with the idea of starting a quick service smoothy chain like booster juice. Entrepreneurs need to be creative and be willing to act on that creativity just as Dale Wishewan did with Booster Juice.

Link to article

http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Booster+Juice+named+entrepreneur+year/9052425/story.html

Citation

Toneguzzi, Mario. “Calgary Herald.” Www.calgaryherald.com. Calgary Herald, 13 Oct. 2013. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.

Loving to eat and being creative are two pretty common traits that you could find in most people. But how often do you hear of people using both these traits to create a successful business? When Jesse Schwarz was only 14 years old he took his love for chocolate chip cookies and creativity and began to start making his own cookies. Jesse now has a marketing degree from John Molson School of Business and has taken the skills he obtained to market his new cookie business Yo’Dough. Not knowing about how Yo’Dough’s success would end up he decided to fund the project himself without any outside funding so he would have room to pursue other projects if things did not work out. This meant it was entirely up to Schwarz to promote his brand. He used catchy packaging, social media, and talked to other popular businesses to help promote Yo’Dough. Yo’Dough now gets sold in retail stores and even delivered to peoples doorsteps throughout Canada. It is incredible that Jesse Schwarz was able to take something as simple as making cookies, get a little creative and with the right marketing skills turn it into a successful business with customers nationwide.

Link to Article- http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/your-business/Entrepreneurs+Cookie+business+oven/9008265/story.html

Work Cited- Scanzano, Alysa. “Montreal Gazette.” Www.montrealgazette.com. The Gazette, 07 Oct. 2013. Web. 07 Oct. 2013.

Small businesses are taking advantage of the popularity of digital media and social media usage to help promote their companies. But it is important for small businesses to pick the right social networking websites to invest time and money into if they want it to benefit them in the long run. Examples of small businesses that have each used different websites to promote their products are We Rub You’s Korean BBQ Sauces, Bhkati Chai, and Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese. These three businesses have successfully used websites such as Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter to promote their products. It’s important for these small businesses to find the right website that works for promoting their business because they don’t have as much room for failure as larger businesses. But when small businesses find the right website that is most visited by their target market it has shown to be very beneficial to their companies. It is hard to say whether or not it is a smart business tactic for these businesses to rely on social media because as we read in one of the class readings about Facebook it said most people visiting these popular websites don’t want to be bothered with advertisements.

Link to article- http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2013/10/06/smart-small-business-digital-tools/2922423/

Work Cited– Petrecca, Laura. “Digital Tools Play Big Role in Small Business Growth.” USA Today. Gannett, 07 Oct. 2013. Web. 07 Oct. 2013.

Apple was just named the world’s best brand, beating out Coke the former leader. Coke actually sank down two spots and is now ranked as the third best brand in the world by Interbrand; an international brand consulting firm. It is not a surprise that Apple would be ranked so close to the top or be the number one brand in the world. With such a loyal customer base it allows them to both grow and continue to be successful. Factors that were considered when ranking companies were financial results, purchasing behavior of customers, and customer loyalty. Apple faces constant competition from companies such Google, Microsoft, and especially Samsung. Right now all of these companies produce products that can serve as substitutes to Apple’s popular products. But with such a variety of popular products that all have a strong customer loyalty Apple continues to be on top even with all of its competition. Samsung seems to be the biggest competitor with Apple at the moment but as long as Apple continues to focus on its international market it should be able to maintain its spot as the number one most popular brand.

Link to article- http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/apple-surpasses-coke-as-world-s-best-brand-1.1873259

Citation- CBC News. “Apple Surpasses Coke as World’s Best Brand.” CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 30 Sept. 2013. Web. 30 Sept. 2013.

Walmart is one of the worlds largest private employers and a very successful company. With such a wide variety of things a shopper can buy and at such low prices it’s no surprise that a company like Walmart is so successful. But despite the undeniable success of Walmart there are still many ethical issues within the company. One of these issues being the amount of money Walmart chooses to pay most of their employees. Walmart employs around 2 million workers in America and of those 2 million workers a majority of them get paid around $8.81 an hour. For these nearly 2 million employees earning $8.81 they have some of the lowest work wages in America. Why would such a successful company pay its workers so little money? If less money gets spent on paying employees it could mean more money for those higher up in the company and more for the company itself. Both are great things and I’m sure there’s many other ways Walmart benefits from from paying its workers so little, but I don’t think they are treating their workers fairly. Sure not every employee can be paid a high amount but when a majority of full time workers can barely meet an annual living fee of $25,000 a year it is a sign that Walmart should pay there employees better.

Link to article: http://guardianlv.com/2013/09/walmart-exposed-over-employee-pay-and-discrimination/

Work Cited: Cystal, Ervin. “Walmart Exposed over Employee Pay and Discrimination.” Las Vegas Guardian Express. N.p., 8 Sept. 2013. Web. 11 Sept. 2013.

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