Sienna wrote a blog named “The Convenience of Coffee” which I found extremely interesting. It is about Starbucks’ innovative new way of ordering your coffee off of an app on your cell phone. Basically, this app is the same as using a Starbucks gift card except you also write your order in the appropriate place and then the barista  scans the phone. Although I agree that this process is highly innovative, I do not believe this is a good strategy for Starbucks. People love their morning conversations with the friendly men and women making their coffee exactly the way they like it. The customers develop a bond with their usual baristas and enjoy the face to face interactions. Now, because of technology, there are limited opportunities for this kind of genuine contact between consumers and those supplying the desired product. This app could allow the staff at Starbucks to be less engaging because they deal with phones rather than people and in turn this disconnected way of working will be transferred to the customers who actually value their verbal interactions. After all, people do not just choose Starbucks for their coffee, but for the entire brand they have created which includes a welcoming environment maintained by amicable employees.

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From listening to Elaine’s lectures on how important a brand is to a business I was curious about the factors a company should take into account when trying to build a successful brand. I found an external blog called “6 Keys for Branding Success” that outlined the most important aspects in creating a brand. These factors are:

1) Define

2) Personalize

3) Business Name

4) Social Media

5) Creativity

6) Customer Support

I agree with all of these guidelines when talking about starting a small business. Especially creativity. A new business needs to stand out and be fearless and by being creative people will remember their brand. The most important thing I took away from this blog was that there is no magic formula or definite steps to take when starting a business or a brand. There is no one size fits all answer and entrepreneurs need to experiment and investigate into what actions will work best for each individual circumstance.

This video guides small businesses and entrepreneurs on how to build a brand and relates closely to the content from the external blog.

The terms “Eco-Friendly” and “Green” seem to be the boldest and largest words on a variety of products packaging now. These phrases pull shoppers in hoping to help them make the decision to choose the product because of its environmental practices. However, most people do not even realize that the packaging that is baring these words is completely unsustainable itself. And furthermore that the product inside may have a few environmentally friendly ingredients, but the majority are not. Companies lately are using these terms lure consumers in without actually practicing eco-friendly process or creating an entirely green product. The worst part of all this is, it’s working. This article gives examples of bottled water and a type of body wash. Each of which claim to be eco-friendly but when broken down they may have an element or two reflecting green initiatives. As consumers, we need to look past the label and do some digging in order to stop these companies from marketing sustainability without having actually made sustainable products and choices.

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Sustainability in business has always been an issue that I’ve been torn on. Often times I have felt that in order for a business to practice sustainability, or socially responsibility, it has to cost them money and detract from their profits. However, as I am being exposed to more cases, like this Levi’s article, my feelings that sustainability can be good for the world and the business are strengthening. Levi’s has created a new method of jean finishing that uses a fraction of the water that the older methods use. Also, a percentage of the cotton used in these jeans comes from farmers who are practicing sustainable methods of water conservation with their crops. At first I thought this would be a costly venture, and I was right, there are some extra costs. These costs, however, are offset by the fact that the Water<Less jeans are selling faster and at a comparable price to the jeans made with the traditional methods. I’m learning through articles like this that as a society we are demanding products that not only cater to our needs but also cater to the needs of our environment. This means that not only is practicing sustainability in business good for our world, it is also good for our bottom line.

Check out the Levi’s video called WATER<LESS 

I found the class on inventory fairly interesting and a little confusing. I found an article that articulated what causes excess inventory and why it is a hindrance to companies. The articles eight main causes of excess inventory were:

1)      Loss of sales fear

2)      Price deals

3)      Write-offs

4)      Lack of measures

5)      Limited inventory planning

6)      Supplier performance

7)      No process

8)      One approach fits all

A few of these causes surprised me. Firstly, I thought that making sure a company always had enough of the product to keep up with demand was a good thing but here it is described in number one as a fear. To go along with number one sometimes the businesses forecasts are too optimistic and by ordering the amount to keep the expected demand fulfilled they are actually acquiring excess inventory. I was also unaware that the unreliability of suppliers and their performance aid in creating excess inventory. This article enlightened me to the fact that excess inventory is not just about a company ordering more than they actually end up selling, there are some key factors that contribute to inventory piling up.

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Coco Chanel is an entrepreneur because her ventures processed four key points that distinguished her from not solely being a small business owner. These four differences are:

1)      Amount of Wealth Created

2)      Speed of Wealth Created

3)      Risk

4)      Innovation

For Chanel, the amount of wealth she created and speed of which she created that wealth are connected. She is the epitome of a “rags to riches” success story. Coco Chanel may not have made several million dollars as the definition for amount of wealth created states, however, at the time of her rapid success, her profits were of entrepreneurial standards. Also, not only did Coco make money, and rise from a poor seamstress to a famed fashion designer, she made her wealth in an extremely short time frame. After four years of being in business, Chanel was able to fully reimburse her investor, Chapel, all of the capital he had given her to start two boutiques. As with the first two points, risk and innovation are also connected in Chanel’s case. Her major risk was being innovative. Coco made clothes based on her own love of non-traditional, menswear inspired, women’s apparel. This was risky because cultural norms were very important in her early designing era. She was innovative because she was the first designer to liberate women from the constraints of corsets and satin dresses. Coco Chanel continued to take risks all through her career and she will forever be known as not only a strong female role model, but an iconic entrepreneur as well.

Information on Coco Chanel taken from this article

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This week I found an article named Five Surefire Ways to Reach the Youth Market that contained five tips on how to market to us Generation Y’ers. They are:

1)      Be Edgy

2)      Provide Valuable Content and Information

3)      Have a Social Mission

4)      Connect With Their Parents

5)      Co-Create With Your Customers

Individually, these tactics used to market to our generation work for specific reasons. Tip 1 is effective because Generation Y’ers are on a constant mission to obtain the edgiest and most innovative products. If products are marketed in a new and edgy way there is a connection made by assuming the product will have these characteristics. Tip 2 reflects the fact that we are responsible for making our own purchasing choices and want to feel educated about our options. Having a social mission is a successful tactic because Generation Y’ers are passionate about world issues because of how much we are, and have been exposed to. Linking a mission to a product allows us to feel like our decisions are making a difference. No matter how much we may despise Tip 4, we Generation Y’ers rely on our parents for our purchasing decisions and often our purchasing power is heavily affected by them. Lastly, using a marketing tactic of allowing us to cooperatively aid in the creation of products is an extremely effective way to get Generation Y’ers interested and committed to their product. I believe these tips are successful because they are the ones we do not instantly distinguish as the traditional marketing styles of companies focusing on the Generation Y’ers. They aren’t over simplified or generic and we appreciate them not underestimating our power as consumers or knowledge of quick fix marketing schemes.

This video from the Globe and Mail highlights tip number three on on the list which is having a social mission to connect to the Generation Y’ers

In class five a lot of emphasis was placed on teams and their importance and benefits. I specifically related to the points on how each member of the team contributes both their strengths and weaknesses when they join. I have played Team BC Ringette for over six years and have gotten to learn a lot about how to play on a team and work with others. The fact that we were all good at different aspects of the game is what made us strong and successful. Where one person lacked in something like shooting, another would make up for it with her strength in goal scoring. For teams in classes or in organizations I feel they carry the same philosophy of relying on those around you to utilize your strengths and support your weaknesses with their own areas of expertise.

Dr. Tina Seelig, the Executive Director for the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, articulates in this video that the key to being on a team is not just to make yourself succesful, but to make your team members successful as well.

Jeff Li has a really interesting article up on his Business Ethics Blog. https://blogs.ubc.ca/jeff0408/2011/09/14/just-be-yourself/.

I went to the article and I found myself thinking “I know people like this Drama Diva character”. I think it is necessary to investigate articles like this because in the work place we, as both employees or bosses, need to be able to work with a variety of people. Even though we may not like all of the extra curricular effort we need to put into people like drama divas, in the end it will make all parties involved and the company more successful. This article and Jeff’s points on it also relate very closely to our Organizational Behavior class which can help us learn techniques on how to not only deal with difficult co-workers but also how to encourage them to change. Hopefully the drama diva will pick up on the flaws in their behavior on their own. There are always going to be those colleagues that we have a hard time working with or understanding, however, in the long run, it will be beneficial to learn how to work with them effectively.

In this clip from “The Devil Wears Prada”, Meryl Streep plays the ultimate office diva.

While looking for an write-up pertaining to business ethics I found an article on the story of a certain New York State Attorney General. Eliot Spitzer, a former Governor of New York, is famous for perusing individuals involved in unethical and dishonest business practices. “Corporate white-collar crime” was his target and in many cases he succeeded in having the wrong doings highlighted and supplemented for by the guilty parties involved. As I looked into Spitzer further, however, I found a few indiscretions. For someone whose mission it was to “force out bad apples”, I was surprised to find out that his own Attorney General campaign was funded by a controversial loan from his father. Another unsettling fact was that his resignation as governor was prompted by a prostitution scandal.  At first I thought that Spitzer was promoting and enforcing the ethical issue of honest business practices by uncovering and prosecuting the shady deals of the financial services industry. However, after looking into his background and reading contrasting opinions I am no longer sure if his motives were pure or if they were focused on his own personal profit.

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