Author Archives: EmiHirano

There is common factor in what both United Nations and social enterprise pursue as their final goal- “making this world a better place”.
The United Nations consists of 193 countries (in 2011 July) and it is basically funded by the member nations. In other words, all the actions the United Nations is to take must happen under all the counties’ agreement, which restricts the actions taken by the United Nations in terms of time, issues to solve, and so on. It is hard for the United Nations to take part in small social improvement movements that focus on specific area, since it is funded by the member nations, and would rather focus on larger issues happening in today’s world. On the other hand, social enterprise can set a target on such smaller social movements. Moreover, the activities are less restricted since the funder is company itself, and it can do whatever the company believes it is beneficial for the company and the society.
In my personal opinion, Social enterprise exists in order to cover the work that cannot be completed by the United Nations. This does not mean either organization is better or not. The reason why one does not eliminate another is because both exist to pursue the same goal, but resolving the issues by setting different targets and taking different approaches.

I agree with Jessica Chen’s opinion that Abercrombie & Fitch should reconsider its business model. For the company, “Only cool people can wear Abercrombie & Fitch” concept has been the way to differentiate its product among the competitors.
In addition, an effort made by the company to establish a strong brand image and to protect it are both important factors for the company to survive and win the severe competition among apparel giants. Even so, belief held by Mike Jeffries, CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch for his brand may have been too extreme and offensive toward individual’s religion, gender, and appearance. In fact, his behavior has affected his own business in a negative manner. The graph below indicates the declining consumer perception for Abercrombie & Fitch in comparison with its competitors like H&M and American Eagle.

@HUFFPOST Business

Leaders in business and political scene are always exposed to public views. This is the same for any extreme thought made by such leaders. Depending on how views are taken by the public, such leader can easily gain or turn away supporters. Such “charisma” model may be a fit for selective industry, but not for clothing industry where public have so much buying power with so many substitutes. If the customers dislike any part of that company, they can just start buying identical products from different stores, and if this trend continues, the company may end up losing its customers bringing fatal results to its financial performance. The most important thing for Abercrombie & Fitch in order to sustain business in this industry is to improve its social image immediately by effectively applying governance to CEO’s risky behaviors.

@Buzzfeed

When I was reading the Harvard Business review, one article written by Ranjay Gulati, Charles Casto, Charlotte Krontiris, about the Fukushima disaster, which actually occurred at my home country Japan, caught my eyes. I have seen many media programs and read articles about this natural disaster and its impact to the nuclear plants in Fukushima, but this one was especially interesting because it focused on individual’s outstanding leadership skills who worked at the ‘daini’ (which means 2nd in Japanese) plant along with his team members in an effort to cool down the plant and to prevent further disaster. His leadership was based on 2 key skills.

• Sensemaking process– adaptive behavior in which understanding and experience shape each other (from the article)

• Establishing Shared Value with his team.

@Thewonderdigest

If I put myself in a similar situation where I have to work under extreme condition such as the Fukushima disaster, I would most likely evacuate immediately in order to protect myself. This was not the same for the team at the ‘daini’ plant. Team members trusted their leader, held tight and stayed there until the mission was accomplished.
This took place in a nuclear plant but I also think this is applicable in the business world. If the company has leaders who can approach and resolve issues with sensemaking process and build a team which can create shared values, such company is unlikely to fail easily in a tough business environment. It is interesting to note that lessons learned from a non-business incident have much relevance to what takes place in the business world.

@ReadWrite

Luna Zhang’s Blog introducing Nintendo’s new quality of life products got my attention since it contradicted with my expectation of a product introduced by Nintendo.
I think the market which Nintendo has chosen has some potential as people in any generation do desire to have a better quality of life. People will never stop seeking for better and easier way to improve their quality of life.

However, the question is will customers understand and accept such proposition made by Nintendo who is a new comer in the market? In addition, no one can estimate if long time clients and investors will allow such a new investment made in a field which absolutely has no relevance to its known video games.

Moreover, there are many people who carry smartphones nowadays. One can add various functions to the phone just by downloading applications. This is becoming the standard among consumers as it is more convenient and cost efficient. How will Nintendo compete with such smartphones?

It is hard to evaluate the value proposition and competitiveness of this new device since details are yet to be announced, but Nintendo should carefully assess the market and set its value proposition in accordance to such market trends in order to survive the intense competition.
Nintendo should appeal its history and current position as the leader in the game industry. By doing so, they can maintain the loyal customers while attracting new ones which will eventually result in increased revenue and profit for Nintendo.

According to the Forbes magazine, Starbucks is going through a transition in its customer segment and value proposition. Starbucks used to be known as the “third place” offering surrounding that allows individual to be separated from their usual atmosphere like home and work place and enjoy affordable luxury. However this has been changing recently as Starbucks have been expanding its client base to different type of client segments and by satisfying some factors mentioned in the article that promote the transition. It is becoming the “first place” from its current “third place” for many customers.

Article mentions that company has been running successfully so far, however by pushing this agenda too drastically, Starbucks’ current value proposition may no longer hold true for some clients and hence may push away its loyal customers.

Retail giant like Starbucks must constantly evolve in accordance to client needs and simultaneously build a strong business model to increase revenue, profit and share price. For this, the company may need to take a “creative” and “realistic” approach by offering conflicting value propositions at the same time for clients with different needs. Once observation is made, analysis is done and conclusion is drawn, company can focus its attention, strategy and resource at that time to evolve again.

I was interested in this article talking about successful entrepreneurs and Blake Mycoskie founder of TOMS’s shoes was mentioned in the article as one of them.
I was aware of TOMS slogan called “one for one,” which gives out shoes to a child in need for every purchase made, but never paid special attention to it until I learned about the Social Entrepreneur in one of my classes. I became interested in this new business field which directly and skillfully appeals to human conscience.

Let’s say there are 2 identical products where one is just a normal product and the other allows you to take part in a social movement that provides shoes for kids with basic needs. I believe majority would prefer the second choice because one can be a part of social movement by just purchasing a pair of favorite shoes. TOMS’s social media is carefully designed to make one want to be a part of the team. Such awareness building and sense of involvement and attachment will eventually end up raising customers’ trust and loyalty toward the company. Furthermore, the unique and appealing “one for one” business model can differentiate its products from others in order to attract more customers.

The lesson from this
It is the effort needed to attach clients with an unique concept in order to stick the client to its brand. TOMS, a social entrepreneur who induces clients to purchase favorite shoes and help those with needs at the same time is a great example of such efforts.

TOMS official website

Copyright: The Eco Report

First Nation chiefs to stage Site C showdown

B.C. Hydro is facing an opposition by the First Nation people to its $8 billion Site C project, which is to build a dam and 1,100-megawatt hydroelectric generating station on the Peace River in northeastern British Columbia. The former deputy Indian affairs minister Harry Swain claims that this project would put a huge impact on their fishing opportunities and practices for the First Nations representatives. The decision on the approval for this project is to be made on October 22nd by the federal government.

Personally, the land of First Nation should be respected, as it is said in the Canada’s highest court, “the Crown can only justify the infringing on Aboriginal title lands by demonstrating both compelling and substantial government objective and it must not be outweighed by adverse effects on the Aboriginal interest.” According to the article, this project does not satisfy most conditions mentioned above. As BC is considered as “Indian Land,” and people respect their traditional land, it would be more efficient to come up with smaller scale projects that have less effects on people and land, and meet the needs.

It is easy to destroy the nature and tradition to replace them with new technologies, however people have to realize that they are something that would hardly or never come back once we lose.

Copyright: The Tokyo organizing committee of the Olympic and Paralympic games

Tokyo, Japan is hosting the Olympics in 2020. According to the Japan Times News, Japanese Government is considering curb smoking by enforcing bun at the restaurant and similar public places before 2020 to engage in the free smoking policy by the International Olympics Committee. U.K and Russia who were the hosting countries of the Olympics for the last 2 games also had either banned or some kind of restriction for smoking.

However, there is a high possibility that this policy will face the resistance of Japan Tobacco Inc. (JPI) whose largest shareholder is the Finance Ministry of Japan. Also if the government has decided to apply this new policy, it would cause a huge decrease in the total tax revenue of the country, because the total tax revenue estimated by the ministry in the fiscal year ending in March 2015 is $456 billion and $8.4 billion of them; which is about 2% of the total revenue are from tobacco.

On the other hand, there is a shift in a preference to non-smoking in Japan. JTI announced that the number of smokers in Japan fell to 47% since 1965, when the last Olympics was held in Tokyo. The reason behind this may be the fact that about 7,000 people in the country die annually by smoking and the second hand smoke.

Although this decrease in the revenue may be a big damage for Japanese government, it is a good opportunity for the government to think what is more important between the health of the people or the money and how the future of the country should be as the hosting country of the Olympic games.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the CEO of Tesla as known as the company with its fully electronic luxury car line, Elon Musk said in the interview that there is a high possibility of fully autonomous electronic car with Teslas’s own autonomous driving technology being produced in next 5 to 6 years. In addition to this, Tesla is estimating to start beginning free cash flow in the 3^rd quarter of 2015. Mr. Musk says that he will be able to pay $5 millions for the planned giga-factory without any other borrowing. Clearly company is on the path toward the success.

The car with Tesla’s own autonomous technology and without significant competitors, the price is expected to be comparatively high. This raises a question, what is the demand for this car going to be? Would people be willing to pay that much of money for an autonomous car?

The question may be already answered looking at the demands for the previous models from Tesla. Mr. Musk says that the current demand for Model S with its price of $71,000 and up has not been a problem and there is even a waiting list for it.

Model S Copyright: Tesla Motors

It is interesting to see how this company is handling its value proposition pretty well and attracting many customers all over the world.

I believe everybody has heard a word sustainability at least once before.

UBC cares about sustainability, but so does the world.

Sustainability has been a new key word for the successful business.

According to Forbes, the companies in different field that invested in producing sustainable products have been successful in their businesses.

Patagonia… apparel

Encouraging customers to sign up to their Common Threads Initiative and commit buy only what they need. As a result of this campaign, they are opening additional stores and its revenues are expected to increase by 15% annually.

Copyright: patagonia

Samsung…electronic

The television with Samsung’s smart evolution technology can update software and add functionally into the existing television. No need to replace the old television with the new one. Successfully, the company has been keeping its position in the top TV brand on Interbrand’s 2013 best global brands list and the number eight brand overall.

Copyright: SAMSUNG

IKEA…furniture

IKEA ran a campaign encouraging selling the second hand furniture on Facebook base flea market. This campaign helped prevent wasting the resource that could be reused or recycled. Campaign end up successfully that all of the items sold out, and IKEA itself increased its sale for the new furniture.

Copyright: IKEA

Customers’ attentions are given to products with longer product lifecycles through improved quality, durability, and maintenance, including repair, upgrading, and reuse, according to Dr. Kim Cooper, and this is what all sustainability is about. These sustainable products would be a really good investment for the companies for the new business opportunity.