Before I came to Canada, I preferred to do online shopping because things are much cheaper. When I got here, it turns out Canadian people love online merchants as well but for a different reason – to avoid the hassles of going to stores since shopping malls are usually located faraway from where they live.

As the blog on Canada Business Network mentions, more and more consumers shift spending from physical stores to online merchants, e-commerce sales in Canada has been increasing dramatically. The article also says E-commerce has changed the way retailers reach customers, which reminds me of the ”channel” and ”customer segment” in business canvas we learned in class. Today in most industries, no matter what customer segment they have, customers want to be reached in both physical and online stores. Because online shopping has a lot of advantages over physical stores. For customers, it saves a lot of time and overcomes geographical limitations while for sellers, it can gain new customers with simple search engine visibility.

 
Besides, although physical stores are still the mainstream way of consumption, ecommerce has become more and more important in the whole market. According to the blog, retail e-commerce sales grew at over five times the pace of the overall growth in retail trade in 2012.Thus, sellers should focuses on their online channel to attract potential consumers as well as established ones.

If  the United Nations was fully funded why would we need the Arc or social enterprise？

United Nations is an intergovernmental organization whose goal is to promote international co-operation. As the question above indicates, if it were fully funded, it would still need social enterprise such as the ARC initiative. Because being fully funded does not mean it is capable of anything. UN is definitely one of the most influential organizations around the world, but it cannot be able to help everyone in every country. Even if it could help everyone, it were impossible to run such a giant organization in good order. Therefore, social enterprises seem more efficient and approachable than UN in terms of helping people with daily problems.

UN mainly focuses on solving problems between nations and nations, so it cannot cover everyone’s needs. By contrast, a social enterprise’s power may be limited and small, but it is more possible for them to take responsibilities of helping every single person .For example, the ARC initiative, which consists of students in the Sauder School of Business, can help the locals in Africa learn business skills and knowledge .It might be seemingly less useful compared with those organizations which help solve hunger and poverty, but it will increase awareness of business among people in developing countries. Thus, social enterprise is crucial for UN in order to transform the global society to a better one.

Although an increasingly impatient social sector sees innovation as the holy grail of progress and the key element in providing aggressive top-line growth, it is not always a good thing. As an innovative product meets customers’ new requirements ,it could cause unexpected outcomes .According to what I read on QUARTZ ,laundry detergent pods have become a consumer favorite, thanks to their convenience (no scooping, no pouring, no measuring).However, their colorful packaging could be mistaken for candy or teething toys by children and become a poison hazard for them.

I learned about sustainable and disruptive innovations in class 14 , the examples given in both the prep and class have brought positive changes in efficiency, productivity, quality, competitiveness and some other perspectives. No one can deny that detergent pods have made laundry more convenient and easier but we still cannot call them a successful innovation since they have caused dangers to children instead of positive social changes. In this case, firms should consider carefully the possible outcomes their new product may cause before launching it. Or their innovation may ruin their reputation and brand image as well as doing harm to the society like what laundry detergent pods did. However, I personally think the idea of detergent pods is really a good one, firm would better change their packaging instead of getting them off shelves.

Recently ,DHL , the global market leader in the logistics and transportation industry , is proud to celebrate 4 awards received by the DHL Express Canada team at the 2014 Customer Service Staff Appreciation Gala and Awards.

The company employs a highly talented workforce, and draws upon the expertise of their employees to deliver outstanding performance. Its employees work as being expected, providing the best possible service to customers across Canada and beyond. Similar to what Zappo has been doing to maintain a high-quality customer service, DHL also has launched several programs. One is called Insanely Customer Centric program, this company-wide program focuses on staff training and support, process and systems improvements which aim to not only offer short term customer service gains, but will make it easier to respond to customers’ changing needs in the future. DHL also deploys a new workforce management tool controlled by DHL skilled professionals, which raises customer satisfaction and reduce registered complaints as well as earns the team a ‘Center of Excellence’ designation within the DHL network.

From both Zappo and DHL, I have learned how important customer service is for a company to become successful. To achieve that, passion and dedication of employees are not enough, a even more decisive factor is using feasible strategies such as programs aiming to meet customers’ requirements.