Category Archives: COMM 101

In reference to my peer William Huang’s blog, many people think the impact of Pokémon Go is gradually faded. However, recently, the tourism in Tohoku quake zones in Japan is aided by a rare Pokémon, Lapras. According to The Japan Times, Niantic Inc. is now holding an event which they spawn a rare Pokémon in Pokémon Go in the coastline areas which was affected by the tsunami in March 2011. Niantic believes that it could help to attract more tourists to the Tohoku regions after the Fukushima incident has happened. It is estimated that the presence of Lapras can help growing the local economy since it is really difficult for players to obtain Lapras. Furthermore, Pokémon go players who live outside Japan may like to travel to Japan for the event. 

However, the event is controversial. Niantic announced that the event will last until 23 Nov 2016. Many players said on tweeter that it only benefits the students who have more free time or players who are really into Pokémon Go. For a lot of players in Japan, they do not have much time to participate in this event. As far as I am concerned, I think it is only a short term solution to boost the tourism in Tohoku regions. After the event finishes, the number of tourists would still decrease. Another point of view from the public is that some people think Niantic shouldn’t only be doing this for Tohoku regions. Their point is that Niantic should hold similar event for other areas which was also seriously affected by natural disasters.

Why is Niantic doing this? According to Forbes, in addition to being a “for a good cause” event, Niantic is also testing the idea of very targeted spawns and if people would like it. Niantic has been doing spawns in four different global regions yet this very specific spawns of Pokémon in a very specific region is something new. According to Pokémon Go blog’s post, from the original commercial of Pokémon Go, we can tell the future strategy of Niantic would be identical. It showed groups of people gathering in Times Square attempting to catch a rare Pokémon, Mewtwo. Therefore, the event in Tohoku areas might just be a start. It is not difficult to imagine that Niantic would use the identical way of increasing the spawning rate of a rare Pokémon in a specific region. Still, it would only work if the place of Pokémon Go stays at the top in the players’ minds. In order to do so, Niantic should look for some alternative strategies to steady its position in the market.

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“Why not make the work easier and more interesting so that people do not have to sweat? The Toyota style is not to create results by working hard. It is a system that says there is no limit to people’s creativity. People don’t go to Toyota to “work”, they go there to “think””- Taiichi Ohno, co-creator of The Toyota Production System.

Toyota is not only well-known as a car manufacturer but also famous in terms of a business that applies sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Even though Toyota has continued to face challenges, it still tries to keep up its founding principle: “Contributing to society by making automobiles”. According to Toyota, it has been actively engaging in social contribution activities in order to support all around sustainable development. For instance, Toyota has provided traffic safety programs as well as other programs ranging from reforestation to environmental education in terms of environment, and many other activities.

What is the Toyota way to a sustainable growth? Susan Thomas has introduced the idea of the Toyota way in her article, “Toyota has very strong set of values – called the Toyota Way – which guides it in everything it does. The Toyota Way is based on two pillars: respect for people and continuous improvement.”. Patricia Pineda, group vice president of Hispanic business strategy for Toyota Motor North America, explains the model in the article. With the two key pillars in mind, the employees are encouraged to demonstrate respect for people but use the power of teamwork, to make decisions as if the customer is standing next to you and embrace the responsibilities of citizenship wherever you do business. Furthermore, Toyota has a tree metaphor which represents its global vision and its goal to a sustainable growth. With the Toyota principles being the roots, the branches lead to the 12 tenets that represents the “fruits” of the tree as well as Toyota’s key tenets. It gives not only customers, but also investors, and stakeholders a clear view of what the role of Toyota is going to be in the future.

Also, Toyota expands the tree metaphor to illustrate the way how it will achieve sustainability in the future in its annual sustainable management report. It successfully demonstrates the idea that no matter how the business environment changes, it will still create values for society through the “Toyota Way”. It is impressive for me how a business can develop such a sustainable way of management. As far as I am concerned, CSR and sustainability are important to a firm and that they are meant not only to secure a firm’s future in an efficient as well as environmental friendly way but also to contribute to the society.

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How many of you hope to merge your hobbies with work life, which you are passionate for? I believe a lot of people do. As the emerging enterprise, UBREW, expands and opens its new store in Manchester, UK, this “home-made beer cram school” not only turns hobbies into businesses but also bring the quality of home-made beer to a new extent. UBREW is the first open brewery that offers membership for customers to get access to the equipment and lessons on brewing beer without needing to invest in expensive equipment. Also, it provides a decent taproom for those who are only looking for a drink of home-made beer.

Why is this rising company becoming more and more popular? Financial Times interprets the reason why UBREW becomes so popular is that it offers home-made beer lovers who want to brew/customize their own beer a wonderful place to fulfill their dreams. In other words, UBREW specifies its consumer segment and tries to make its services the best. Also, it follows the trend which home-made beer is getting popular that people would not only have a taste of it but also consider to make a living with it. “We’re helping businesses to succeed, will they all succeed? Most likely not, some may discover that they’re not very good at beer, not very good at brewing. We’re there to help them scale, and help them discover before investing 200k of their own money.” The co-founder of UBREW, Matthew Denham said.

According the report by IB Times, in order to install the massive 800-litre brewing machine, UBREW had been negotiating with EU for over 11 months. However, once the deal is passed, there are over 15 firms/clients willing to pay 500 pounds per month to take the initiative to use the machine right away. Moreover, before UBREW officially started its business, it had successfully raised 12000 pounds in 42 days through Crowdfunder. From the result, it is not hard to tell how confident the investors are. I would say UBREW is moving towards a big success because it has a clear customer segment and value proposition. It is at this point where the home-brew beer has a certain popularity yet UBREW is creating more value from it.

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Before Apple has launched its latest products in this September, a lot of people are already looking forward to obtaining the new iPhone and all the other new products, wondering how innovative the products are going to be. iPhone 7 features dual cameras, water resistance, stereo speaker and the design of dropping the 3.5mm headphone jack which leads to a debate. However, it doesn’t seem to have much innovation in the new iPhone. By looking at these decisions made by Apple, it has started to change its business strategy. Apple is now transitioning from creating new products with a distinct design and features to creating its own ecosystem that consumers in this case are not really beneficial because it is difficult for them to escape from Apple. Based on the article, iPhone 7 is like an incremental improvement over the iPhone 6. Therefore, we do see improvement in iPhone 7 yet there is not much innovation. By doing this, Apple is able to strengthen the ecosystem that it forms and it allows the other products from Apple to catch up. For instance, iWatch 2 is much more innovative then its former version. Apple’s goal is now changing from simply creating a new product to making its products collaborate and combine with each other.

According to my peer Xin Wang’s blog post, I agree with the notion that the public might argue that removing the headphone jack wasn’t a beneficial move for both consumers and Apple. It truly is hard to see the benefit to the consumers. On the other hand, Beats, the headphone company which Apple owns, actually benefits a lot. As the number one Bluetooth headphone company that controls over a quarter of the Bluetooth headphone market according to NPD figures, Beats certainly has the advantage in terms of the launch of iPhone 7. “Some people have asked why we would remove the analog headphone jack from the iPhone,” Phil Schiller, Apple’s marketing chief said, “It really comes down to one word: courage. The courage to move on to do something new that betters all of us.” Is Apple making the right choice? The time will tell if Apple really makes a good business decision.

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Volkswagen (VW) was once the number one car producer in the world at the end of 2015 until the emission scandal, which has cast a shadow on its business. ‘Defeat devices’, which cheated on the vehicle emission tests by manipulating the information from emissions, were found in over 482,000 VW vehicles in the US alone according to an investigation done by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

However, why does it matter? An analysis by The Guardian shows that those VW vehicles in the US would have released between 10,392 and 41,571 tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx), which is a toxic gas, in the air each year, while the testing result shows that those vehicles would only emit 1,039 tons with the defeat devices. NOx not only leads to ozone pollution but also contributes to fine particulate matter pollution that can affect human health seriously.

As a result, Volkswagen’s stock price fell to about a third of the total pre scandal value and the cost of the scandal is so high that it is yet to be estimated. Moreover, the negative impacts on brand reputation, customer loyalty, and investor confidence will really challenge VW in the future.

From the story of VW, it teaches us a lesson about how businesses should bring not only business ethics but also corporate social responsibility into consideration. Based on the article, “Research shows that business value is created when social responsibility and sustainability are embedded in the company’s culture and core business strategies.” Without these values, a company can never benefit itself or society in the long run.

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