Sauder Student's Blog

The triple bottom line was used as a basis to create Jessica Alba’s LA based startup company, known as “The Honest Company” which aims to sell non-toxic, eco friendly, and affordable products for babies.  Realizing the lack of non-toxic baby products Alba decided to make a difference for her baby, and other children.

All of their products are environmentally friendly, and the suppliers have to comply with their human rights, and environmental standards.  This is a point of difference for the Honest Company; for Alba’s company it is fundamental to be “green and honest”.  The Honest Company is able to donate a portion of their sales to Baby2Baby, which provides necessary baby products to inner city families.  The company is continuing to donate for other social purposes, making a difference for families who can’t afford to provide their babies quality products, an admirable deed.

It is essential for this small company to be for-profit because they are aiming to sell at a mass level to expand their target market. Encouraging customer’s to follow their philosophy requires them to offer their products in a mix of stores, which they have recently done by expanding into Costco and smaller boutiques.

Remember when your mom would tell you to finish all your food because it’s unfair to the children starving in Africa? Well being a part of the kids who wouldn’t leave anything on my plate thinking it would make a difference, social entrepreneurship seems like the yellow-brick road for me. Can making a positive change be a career now?

Social Entrepreneurship programs are now being implemented at universities across Canada, and students are not taking this opportunity for granted. Using their business knowledge and passion for change they are able to make a difference by tackling societal challenges through business practices, community involvement and volunteerism. One example of students immersing themselves in this culture is with Arc Initiative. They use the bright minds of business students, alumni, and entrepreneurs in developing countries to make long-term economic betterment for local communities by helping the entrepreneurs gain business management skills and leadership capacity. It is important that we share our knowledge and skills because a simple SWOT analysis or Porter’s 5 Forces can teach a determined entrepreneur in Ethiopia create an effective business plan, which will benefit not only the entrepreneur and their family, but also the entire village.

As a Lululemon fanatic, the scandal about Chip Wilson’s comment on the quality of Lululemon pants has caught my attention. He stated, “They don’t work for some women’s bodies… It’s really about the rubbing through the thighs, how much pressure is there… and how much they use it”. This comment sparked outrage from women.

Unfortunately I have to disagree with Michelle Sieklucki, although his comment may have been forward, he was just being honest.  Lululemon has a wide customer segment that uses their products for a multitude of purposes, but their products are focused on customers looking for stylish, athletic wear. Their new fabric Luon, is built to be extremely stretchy, cottony soft, and sweat wicking, but that does not necessarily mean that it won’t pill. Having thicker thighs just means there will be more friction with the fabric enabling the pilling, this can happen with any other pants! Women with thinner thighs can have Lululemon pants that pill because they may be overusing them. Are women being oversensitive about his comment, I believe so, aren’t we suppose to embrace our curves? Its time to buy a new pair if they are pilling ladies, don’t blame Chip.

Nicole Chan described call centers as an example of the increasing globalization in our society. Businesses are able to minimize their cost in production and services by building factories, call centers, etc. in countries where the wages and equipment are decreased in comparison to developed countries. This outsourcing creates efficient companies, and jobs for people in other countries who may need it to be able to provide their families the bare necessities.

 Looking at outsourcing externally it can look flawless, but in reality some of these companies are taking advantage of the cheap costs of production and services. After travelling to Nepal, and touring a call center in Kathmandu I can say it was the exact opposite of the working environment at Zappos. They were working in conditions that would be illegal here in Canada, and making the bare minimum.

I see globalization as a great tool if it is done ethically. Companies should implement their organizational culture to every aspect of their business, regardless if one branch might be 10,000 kilometers away. Zappos devoted their entire business to focus on customer service; acting as a unit, everyone in the business shares the same values for the company.

 Higher education online is beginning to become more popular within the student body in universities; 2U has taken advantage of this growing market. This online school aims to revolutionize higher education by creating world-class online education experiences in association with leading universities.

One of their employees was faced in a situation where he had to choose between his education and a possible career, without the option to have flexible online schooling he was forced to put his dreams on pause to finish school. Through 2U students are able to take high quality online classes for real college credit, this can enable students to pursue their other plans.

There is one issue though, how are students suppose to start networking? Having personal contacts is vital for a business student; learning in a classroom allows us to discover how to work with different types of people, how to present ideas, opinions, and findings professionally. In the end what will your degree be worth if you have completed a degree completely online? A degree is immeasurable because student’s diverse experiences throughout their years of study make the degree. Attending school online will take away the opportunity to make some of these influential experiences.

From being number one in the smartphone industry to being an endangered phone company, could this be Blackberry’s chance to win back customers? Adding to what Jia Yi Liu discussed in her blog about Blackberry Ltd ‘s new release of BBM as an app, I think that this is a great opportunity for Blackberry to improve.

Hours after the release my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram’s news feed were filled with BBM contacts. Blackberry Ltd was on the way to rock bottom but this new marketing strategy could potentially save the company.  I agree with Jia questioning if customers will purchase the Blackberry device. By raising brand awareness they may be winning the interest of some consumers, but I don’t believe this is enough for people to make the change back to Blackberry from their Iphone or Android. These 160 character messages use up a phones data instead of as a SMS, a point of parity of many similar services like WhatsApp, and WeChat.

BBM is not something new and innovative; although Blackberry is trying, I believe that if they want to be successful they have to try something that is completely out of the box, and groundbreaking.

Low budget airline companies have made it their main objective to fly passengers at low rates. Making it cheap for travellers to fly also means they have to cut down on a lot of costs involved with the business.

There are expenses that the companies can do nothing about, like the fuel and materials for the aircrafts. Instead, they cut down the luxuries that you would get on a more expensive flight. Employing less workers, not providing food, cutting down on space for passengers are a few examples of how these companies have reduced their costs. Keeping their flying distances short is a way of saving money.

Recently Easy Jet has further decreased their onboard bag size to accommodate everyone’s belongings. Will squeezing in a few more bags and body benefit them?

By providing the bare minimum for customers, they have an opportunity to sell upgrades, which a passenger on other major airlines would have had for no additional costs. These small upgrades, for example priority seating, add revenue to their company. This allows for a bigger range in audience too, perhaps people want a cheap flight but are still willing to pay a little extra to get a few amenities.

Companies in the stock markets have taken some severe beatings, could the answer essentially be to go Private? A prime example is Blackberry, who has seen its stock market value to drop to about $6 billion dollars.

It is a constant test to be in a public company. Providing long-term shareholders their demands, and dealing with fast-money traders, activist investors and opportunists, requires immense amount of money, time, and energy. Could it be the fantasy of making big bucks in the initial public offering the reason why these companies take the leap?

Rewards of being in a public company can be massive, but the complexities with managing everyone can result in a decline in the stock markets. Private businesses allow more time for creating a long-term future that will benefit future stakeholders.

If Blackberry was to go private they could improve their business strategy and in the future come back into the public sector prosperous. There are many thriving private companies, for example Toys ‘R’ Us and Fidelity Investments. This new perspective can change the diminishing public companies to become successful privately owned corporations.

The dynamos of social media have been in an ongoing war to outshine each other, but what really is their strategy?

Each company started with a simple concept for their users, for example Vine’s main purpose is to share short, looped videos. The issue is that as new social media apps surface, with innovative ideas, everyone wants to incorporate the “next best thing” into their brand. When Vine emerged, Instagram decided to integrate videos into their news feed.

Social media enthusiasts use different apps for assorted purposes; one simply does not go on Pinterest to chat with people. By separating the companies, people unmistakably knew what they were getting at each site.

Competing with Facebook, Instagram, and others,Twitter started to loose money. With recent modifications to its service, Twitter has left people confused and dazed. It is still a top contender but could change be the reason for this fall in users?

Gene Muster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray says, “The future of social media is not going to be a winner-takes-all scenario. No service can be all things to all people.” Keeping a clear brand proposition simplifies trying to surpass one another, and leaves consumers satisfied.

 Halliburton has faced accusations of corruption, overcharging, and unsafe conduct, yet they are still successful. When Halliburton was contracted to provide soldiers food, showers, and other necessities in Iraq they decided to save money while billing the government unnecessary amounts.  Their ties with the former vice president and former CEO, Dick Cheney, landed them this job. Halliburton’s employees noticed this unethical behavior but nothing was initiated to change their conduct because they simply didn’t care. The fact that this occurred to profit financially from the lack of quality services to the soldier is extremely dishonest and disrespectful. Another example of Halliburton’s extreme behavior was when the BP oil spill occurred, the company decided not to comment on the safety issues with placing 6 pillars instead of 21. Instead of recognizing their mistake, Halliburton destroyed the critical evidence. The only punishment they received after creating an environmental disaster was a fine of $200,000 and three years probation. In my opinion their immoral actions didn’t cost them nearly enough considering the damage they have done to the environment. The fact that they destroyed evidence should be a red flag that this company doesn’t practice operating in a professional and ethical manner.