What you have learned about yourself in class (Comm 299-Career Fundamentals)
April 1st, 2011 • Uncategorized • No comments
In class I learned about my strengths and weaknesses as well as areas of business that I am interested in. Especially when I had my interview, I had a chance to see my weaknesses that I didn’t know before. I learned that I am good at expressing my interests however I need to work on my cAR sentences
Also just by doing my resume and my cover letter. Comm 299 is a vey valuable course that I would recommend to other students not just students in commerce but as well as students in all other faculties. It helps me to know myself better and I acquired all kinds of knowledge and skills that are related to business.
A lesson learned from someone else
March 25th, 2011 • Uncategorized • No comments
It wasn’t too long ago that I was still living a life of a high school kid, I wasn’t paying enough attention to anything that is academic related, until I got an email notifying me that $8,000 of my scholarship has been canceled. To be honest, I didn’t even know I had a scholarship in the first place and of course I didn’t know why it was canceled. I had absolutely no idea what happened and after I found out that a few months ago ubc sent me an email regarding how I am not meeting the requirements which I promised to meet for this scholarship. I was frustrated with myself and a friend of mine who also got the same scholarship told me that she was notified about this scholarship last year April which was before school started. I realized how little attention I pay towards my academic studying. And I learned from my friend that we need to keep track of things by ourselves and take responsibilities of our own actions as we are university students now and that no one would constantly be there reminding you all the things that needed to be done. In the real world, second chances are not always granted.
Fair Trade
November 30th, 2010 • Uncategorized • No comments
Learning about business ethics in class reminds me of Fair Trade. Fair trade ensures that people are paid a fair wage for their work and that their working conditions are safe. Fair trade producers also have access to funds for community projects and a guarantee that their work is not harming their environment.
Many of the people from developing countries are working all day but still they are unable to pay for their own living expenses because of their extremely low wages. and Fair trade stop this from happening.
Jamie Oliver and Fifteen
November 30th, 2010 • Uncategorized • No comments
In 2002, Jamie Oliver combined two ambitions: to open a top class restaurant and to give disadvantaged youngsters the chance to gain professional training that would set them up for an independent, inspired and productive life.
The video below tells us more about Fifteen
What Jamie Oliver\’s Restaurant Fifteen Is All About
I’m a fan of Jamie Oliver’s shows, I used to watch them everyday when I got back home from school and I didn’t consider Jamie Oliver and Fifteen as a social enterprise until we learned about it in class. Jamie Oliver was willing to take great risks, for example, in order to start this social enterprise, Jaime had to put up his house as collateral without telling his wife. Jamie is successful because Fifteen turned out to be such a well known global brand. According to Jamie : “I love that Fifteen is a real business, providing not only the place where young people get brilliant training, but also much of the cash to pay for that training. Fifteen truly is a social enterprise.” During the process of establishing Fifteen, they haven’t always got it right, but they didn’t give up. And without taking risks they won’t be able to make progress.
November 30th, 2010 • Uncategorized • No comments
By definition, an entrepreneur is a person who has possession of a new enterprise, venture or idea and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome and one example is Facebook. Facebook is founded by Mark Zuckerber, an entrepreneur and two of his fellow students from Harvard. Facebook allows people to keep in touch with each other, share photos and posts with friends as well as creating event pages for people to attend. Facebook is so successful that almost everyone is using it. Mark Zuckerber has built up a website that is valued at $15 billion and is considered among the list of the 400 richest people in America.
MIS and online shopping
November 30th, 2010 • Uncategorized • 5 comments
MIS stands for management information system. It is a system that provides information needed to manage organizations effectively. In class we learned about how companies use MIS to make them efficient.
Using MIS to advertise:
MIS is not just marketing, how do we make it a better business using MIS?
The answer is by using facebook/twitter as advertisements the company can attract new consumers
and by creating a social website for existing consumers to discuss issues can increase consumer loyalty.
How do we know effective is the ad?
by using Twitter the company can know exactly how many how many sales generated, or use printed coupons to count the number.
In addition, MIS also makes online shopping possible. The number of people who shop online has been increasing significantly. Examples of these include all kinds of clothing brands. The companies save money because by using MIS they are able to reduce its fixed costs as they don’t have do rent a space and hire employees to keep the shops running. The advantage for consumers is that they can buy things without stepping out the door, more importantly it allows the consumers to buy brands that they might not have in their countries since online shoppings are usually globally.
Social Entrepreneur -Craig Kielburger
November 27th, 2010 • Uncategorized • No comments
A social entrepreneur is one who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change.
Craig Kielburger is a globally well-known Canadian activist who founded internationally renowned campaigns including Free The Children and Me to We to help aid children living in poverty. Craig Kielburger recognized at a young age a problem with child labour in countries all over the world. As a result, he decided to take action in an attempt to help solve this worldwide issue. He attempts to transform everyday consumers into people who can make a change in the world through his concerts, speeches and books.
Craig Kielburger’s Me to We campaign is an example of a social enterprise that donates half its annual profits to Free The Children by selling commodities such as organic, fair-trade clothing. What makes Craig such a successful social entrepreneur is his unrelenting urge to encourage volunteers to join his cause and to hopefully together as a united force take on this global issue.
Ryan’s Bill Targets Value of China’s Currency, Creates Jobs, Spur Investment
October 3rd, 2010 • Uncategorized • No comments
Many people think that China’s currency is undervalued. U.S. is saying that China should re-value its currency because at the current currency rate, China is able to produce and sell its exports to U.S. at a very low price. This harms the domestic producers of U.S., China is able to do that because they have relative lower prices of goods compared to the U.S. due to cheap labour and other production costs. In addition, China manipulated its currency rate to ensure its exports are competitive in foreign markets. As a result unemployment occurs in the U.S. because companies are forced to close down. “We have seen over the course of the last several years and longer a lot of artificially cheap products coming in and putting our citizens out of work,” said U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan”
If the currency of China is revalued, it will create jobs in the U.S. as well as attract more people to invest in its markets (This would reduce the U.S. deficit). On the other hand China will be worse off as its exports will become relative less attractive to the consumers as prices have gone up.
The revaluation of China’s currency helps to reduce U.S.’s deficit. However we should know this is not the only way. The U.S. government can put tariffs on imports from China or provide subsidy to local producers.
http://business-journal.com/ryans-bill-targets-value-of-chinas-currency-creates-jobs-spur-investmen-p17589-1.htm
Eco products!
October 3rd, 2010 • Uncategorized • No comments
“The Body Shop was one of the first beauty companies to recognise sustainability and to commit itself to fair trade and these ideas drive the business with passion. Believing every woman has the right to feel fabulous, The Body Shop products are made with love of life and respect for the world we live in, in a spirit of individuality.”
http://www.eco-asia.info/content/b-the-body-shop
We practiced using the swot analysis in class and in this post I’m going to do the same thing for The Body Shop.
Strengths:
The company produces its product ethically. First of all it is well known that The Body Shop is against animal testing, this is one strength because many people believe that animals have the same right as humans and so those people are more likely to purchase products of The Body Shop rather than other brands of beauty products. The Body Shop also supports community trade, they “Believing in buying the highest quality natural ingredients and handcrafted products, from the best people, for a fair price.”
Weaknesses:
The last point mentioned above it’s a strength of The Body Shop, however, at the same time it could also be a weakness. Having fair trade gives the company a good reputation to its consumers but it also increases its production costs. When the production cost is higher it suggests that either the profit is less or the price of the product is higher. Lower profit is not good as the company would want to maximize the profit to increase its revenue and higher price is bad because when prices are higher, its product automatically becomes less attractive to its consumers.
Opportunities:
People tend to start caring about their environment and surroundings as their living standard becomes higher. And this is happening in most of the developing countries, e.g. China and India. Therefore, it would probably be a good idea for The Body Shop to enter their markets in the future.
Threats:
Other brands selling similar products such as L’ OCCITANE are also producing eco products. If L’ OCCITANE is doing it successfully and is able to set its products at lower prices. The consumers of The Body Shop might start to buy L’ OCCITANE’s products.
Teamwork
October 3rd, 2010 • Uncategorized • No comments
We learned about the importance of team work in class.
A team is “a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.”
“At the Louis Vuitton factory in Ducey, France, all employees work in problem-sloving teams, with each team focusing on one product at a time. Team members are encouraged to suggest improvements in manufacturing work methods and processes, as well as product quality. When a team was asked to make a test run on prototype of a new handbag, team members discovered that decorative studs were causing the bag’s zipper to bunch up. The team alerted managers, who had technicians move the studs away from the zipper, which solved the problem.”
-from organizational behaviour
The sum is better than its parts. An individual can be good enough by himself however when few individuals are put into a team it’s better than just good. In business we focus on productivity and efficiency and teams allow us to be more productive and efficient. However, it is challenging when there is conflict, when team members don’t agree on the same thing. This problem can actually be an advantage because the process of negotiating allows to team to conclude with a best solution.