As holiday approaches, everyone is preparing to shop for cheap affordable quality items, either for themselves or as gifs for others. Therefore, online shopping provides a very viable option for consumers, as it is quick and convenient. With this convenience, consumers may easily fall into the trap of cyber thieves. Where they set up fake shopping sites where goods are relatively cheaper then other sites, thus gaining consumers banking information.

 This has made the police force determined to close down these fake shopping websites, and plans on enforcing touch sentences on cyber criminals to reduce the amount of fraud websites. Moreover, the police E-Crime unit had indicated that it took similar actions in 2010 closing down more then 1800 websites.

Therefore it is important for consumers to recognize and have precautions in dealing with these situations. First of all, it is important for consumers to only shop at legitimate sites and be wary of sites where prices are offered way below the original prices. And possibly reserving a credit card for online shopping. Lastly, consumers should be even more sensitive as holiday season approaches, as this is the time period where cyber crimes are at its peak.

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Recently I have found one of my fellow classmate, Tiffany Tsao’s blogpost rather intriguing, titling “Sorry Flash, You Just Didn’t Get a Bite of that Apple” where she discusses the implications of the recent announcement Adobe Flash made addressing that it will now stop developing flash for mobile devices. This most likely has to due with “the banning of Flash on the iPhone” as Tiffany states. Therefore i like to add on to this view point of the impact Apple, IPhone brings and the implications for us consumers.

First of all, no doubt that Adobe’s decision of not supporting flash anymore on mobile devices is hugely impacted by growing amount of IPhone users. But what does this mean for other smart phone users in the market? First of all, the ending of this era is most likely a rebirth for Adobe and a good news for us consumers. Why? Because many smart phone users have had problems with browsing media coded for flash, and more importantly, this step of Adobe moving away from Flash, indicates its ready to embark on to the new technology – HTML5 – a universal standard for displaying media on web. Which means us, consumers are now able to view the same media from any platforms. Which is a win win situation for us consumers, and Adobe Flash itself.

“Shoemaker Puma attempts to quantify environmental impact of its business” by Chris MacDonald, blogger for the Canadian Business website. Discusses the step Puma has taken to make its Environmental Profit & Loss Account  (E P&L) more transparent to the public. Puma has conducted the information by attempting to quantify different numbers of units (such as greenhouse gas emission and other pollutions made) by making them all in dollar forms, showing the pollution and impact Puma makes on the environment, therefore calculating what its environmental bottom line would be. Although theres one big problem with this analysis, as Chris points out. As how do you quantify the price of a loss of a species? Or of what value would you place on the price people are willing to spend on a beautiful scenery?

I found this article fascinating, as it pin-points the fact that they’re major flaws with the calculations economists make on analyzing the data’s, by always quantifying intangible values into numerical numbers. As a business student i understand the reason of doing so is for the sake of a easier calculation, but this also shows that not everything has its maximum price, as everyone has different values on different things.

Although Puma’s attempt on making its Environmental Profit & Loss Account  (E P&L) more transparent may be yet perfect, but it is certainly heading towards the right direction of a more “Green” brand, therefore improving its brand image. Moreover, showing Puma being more aware and taking on a better role of the Corporate Social Responsibility it has to offer to the society.

David Stern, Commissioner of NBA

After already postponing weeks of the NBA regular season due to the negotiation over the new agreement of how the profit should be distributed between the players and the league. Just, a couple of days ago, the league offered another version of the deal, offering a 50-50 division basketball-related-income and a 72 game season beginning on 15 December. But yet again, the deal was turned down by the players association, where they demanded they would only accept a 51% split for them of the basketball-related income. Moreover, after turning down the offer, the player association has decided to file this anti-trust action against the league, as they believe the channel for collective bargaining process has completely broke down.

Derek Fisher, Head of NBA Player Association. Expressing the recent disappointment of the deal during press conference.

Although both parties have the right to pursuit its best interest during the bargaining process, but one key issue has been neglected, the fans of NBA. By postponing, and possibly cancelling the rest of the season, the brand image of NBA as a organization, and the high amounts of substitutes. This is a huge concern for the NBA, as fans of NBA may feel annoyed by this bargaining process, not only is there a loss in profit, the popularity/ fans may decrease if the bargaining process continues to fail. All in all, so far the bargaining seems to be a lose-lose situation for both parties.

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Ingvar Kamprad is a prime example of an entrepreneurial business man. As he considered a new approach to buyers, offering affordable pricing and groundbreaking ways of presenting the products. Not only does he presents a place to shop for furniture, but the “home” atmosphere he presents its furnitures, revolutionizes the industry. Ingvar Kamprad brought his entrepreneurial nature into the business, his innovation and ideas of opening stores all over the world with the same “Swedish Style”, including developing countries shows his strong personality of being a risk-taker. Moreover, as an entrepreneur, he organized and designed productions through his ways, and was the major ground stone in the success of the company, by establishing a division of  labour to promote specialization and efficiency.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/03/pf/move_your_money_day/

According to the article, the momentum of customers moving their savings from the “big” banks of America has been incredibly phenomena, and was reasoned to counteract the unfair charges on new debit card fees. Resulting in at least 650,000 consumers to join the credit unions since Sept. 29, thats about 500% of an increase in savings. This is caused as these banks are known for having fewer and/or lower bank account fees, Moreover, more consumers are expected to join the movement.

Furthermore, although the major banks in America has already cancelled the new fee’s charged on debit cards due to the mass uproar, but the movement hasn’t seem to have stopped, as consumers are still demanding more from their banks. Furthermore, experts expect of other fee’s to be introduced later on in the future. Finally, This shows the lack of detailed planning of the introduction of the fee, as the economy is still suffering from the major economy recession, consumers could be quite price sensitive, and moreover, resulting in a negative brand image and losing of a loyal consumer base, leading to a decrease in the profit of the banks.

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Recently Google has updated its search engine for better search results for users. The update is designed to work out whether a person wants up-to-date results or historical data. Major US firms has said this update of the alterations of the core algorithm would make a difference of about 35% of searches. Moreover, this update has been seen as an major update for the Google search engine, as to make search results more relevant for users and sets apart Google from its competitors. Such as Microsoft’s Bing search engine which put more emphasis on social search.

But as this may be a major challenge for Google, as to determine whether users want more up-to-date informations or historical datas, criticisms has made towards this update. As it may result in a negative impact on the company, effecting more then 35% of the searchers online. Furthermore, introducing the “freshness” idea to the searches people make, may in terms decrease the relevance of the searches and increase spam.

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  Recently i have scrolled through one of my classmate, Nick Parkhaev’s blogpost, “Should we treat Millionaires differently?” regarding the tax system the United States plans to implement on Millionaires, 5.6% surtax to help the governments financial deficit. Nick states that this is “discriminatory as its not ethical to take more money away from people who have earned it” and resulting “millionaires hiring accountants to help avoid the tax, and discourage people from making more money since they know they will give it up through taxes”.

Although i agree 100% with what Nick is stating, but i believe there isn’t a “best” tax system, there is only a more efficient tax system. But as Nick stated, this would demotivate them, also it would result in a deadweight loss, therefore this is a less efficient tax system. Furthermore, i believe the reason behind the implementation of this new tax system may be more of a political purpose, as this causes the illusion of that the government is being more fair by taxing the rich, therefore winning more middle/lower class votes, as the global economy is still undergoing a recession.

Steve Jobs

Anticipation for the new “Iphone” from the media and customers has been buzzing for more then months was finally settled down and revealed by the new CEO, Tim Cook who’s replacing the legendary tech genius, Steve Jobs. Despite the overall less “astonishing” performance by Cook, and disappointment from the press of the appearance of the “Iphone 4S” rather then whats been buzzing on the media about “Iphone 5”. Apple has still successfully brought up the “hype” to persuade consumers to purchase the product by introducing the “Siri” function, which is much like a personal assistant built inside the phone.

Apple, IPhone4

Therefore presenting an overwhelming and historical breaking sales numbers of the new “Iphone 4S” with more then 4 millions iphones sold in less then 3 days, which is an astonishing 135% increase in sales compared to the previous Iphone. The dramatic increase of the sales is benefited from the availability and Strategic alliance. As three major U.S. wireless carries are able to carry the Iphone 4S on the opening day, the numbers are therefore more rationalized.

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In this article, Nike Inc., the world’s biggest sneaker and sportswear maker, admits it found falsified documents, underage workers and unpaid wages at suppliers in China.

The article talks in depth about how Nike treats the employees in a unfair fashion. To minimize cost and maximize profit, by employing underage child labour, and takes advantage of the low minimum wage set by the chinese government, also the lack of safety precautions in the factory. Despite being one of the most profitable sportswear company on the market, it does not satisfy its corporate social responsibility as a multinational company.

http://www.lilith-ezine.com/articles/fashion/Nike-Sweatshops-in-China.html

This article therefore addresses the possible underlining damages it could impact the brand image of Nike’s. resulting in a negative impression on customers. Moreover, Nike should try to have a striker policies on suppliers as China is Nike’s largest single-sourcing country, with some 180 manufacturers and about 210,000 employees.

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