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.

In this article ,there is a shocking fact that  more than 70% of the global population that is food insecure are the very people we rely on to produce about 70% of the world’s food supply.Star Bucks and Keurig Green Mountain are addressing hunger and poverty in their suppliers’ communities while also delivering value for their companies.They provides the smallholder producers in key coffee-growing regions with loan programs, technology transfer, market access and professional training to make them more effective and sustainable.

Creating shared value is literally a double winning. Because not only it meets societal needs but also helps firms create a good brand image among the public as well as increase their competitiveness. The two companies help fight hunger and support smallholder producers by choosing them as suppliers. Meanwhile, the natural high-quality coffee beans will make their products more satisfying in return and the cost of building factories and purchasing raw materials will also be much lower compared with that in big cities .Besides, they will become a precedent and inspire other companies to understand and address other social needs in their supply chain and markets to deliver both social and economic values, which will help evolve our common understanding of the corporation in the future.

New Gold Inc,a mining company,has signed an agreement to share mine-revenue with two Indian bands and BC provincial government. Based on PEST analysis we learned in class,New Gold is effected by a political factor.Because of the terms on Government of Canada ,the Government is committed to providing meaningful opportunities to first nations,which means it may be supposed to cooperate with them.To this end,New Gold,as a multinational company ,ought to do as what the govern says and supports those aboriginal people.External industry force also has an impact on it according to Business Model Environment since first nations become its supplier which provide land.

Not everything related to policies is bad.No one can deny it is a fair deal that the  company pays taxation for its mining operations on the aboriginal people’s territory.As for  the govern,it acts as a go-between and guarantees the equity of this trade.Besides,about 25% of the mining workforce is Aboriginal,which solves both the recruitment and employment problems.New Gold might be seemingly influenced by a political factor,but it also brings an opportunity.The firm can mine in those resourceful territories and earn a large amount of profit as well as establishing its reputation and giving a morally good impression to the public.Therefore,the agreement is indeed a double-win.

I read Haotian Zhang’s blog and learned the good news that Muji,the Japanese retailer,is going to open its first store in Canada this November.It already has stores around the world but most of them are located in Asian countries,a few are in Europe and America.Muji means ”no brand” and it offers a wide variety of household items which are simple-designed and of good quality.Though it has gained a good reputation and a large number of loyal consumers in Asia, it only plans to open 7 or 8 Canadian stores over the next 5 years.

As Haotian says in his blog that the reason why Muji expands so carefully is to avoid risks.It is a smart move because North America now only contributes a little more than 1% to its revenue ,which means it has not yet become a influential brand in North American market.Not mention it does not even have a store in Canada,taking it slow seems to be a safe and reasonable way.Besides,I learned the Urgency/Importance grid in class 4.By using it,expansion in Canada will be defined as important but not urgent.It takes time for a new brand to earn fame in a local market thus there is no need to hurry.When it reaches the certain level, Muji could accelerate.

As the release of Iphone 6, Apple becomes the focus of public again.Meanwhile,its competitor,Blackberry also published its all-new model:Blackberry Passport,which has not drawn much attention but it is a good start to change its market segment.

My peer Serinda Kong mentioned in her blog that Passport shows Blackberry begins to target professionals because it is not able to compete with Apple in terms of recreational smartphones.According to what I learned in class 8,Blackberry is changing its segmentation and the design of Passport has a lot of points of difference.It has a square screen instead of the most common rectangular one and any touch functions can be finished by its keyboard.All those key features can help professional people work and communicate more efficiently.Therefore,for people who do not need to watch videos or play games,the functional Iphone 6 seems unnecessary as well as expensive.By contrast,Blackyberry will appear to be a better choice.

In the class 8 prep video,the speaker gives an example of Toyota,saying it can never be the number one safe car maker for consumers so it focuses on hybrid cars.The same is true with all the companies which are struggling with the threat of their powerful rivals.As for it is hard to change those loyal customers’ minds, why not reposition an appropriate customer segment?A market segment which suits them better will also be relatively less competitive and more potential.

We learned Porter’s generic strategies in class 7.Are the strategies suitable for every firm?How to decide which one to operate?Recently,Air France announced it plans to build its low cost airline ,which is strongly opposed by the pilots.Because the company fails to pay the same salaries to pilots who work in the new airline.In this case,Air France intends to impose a cost leadership strategy but it is not a wise choice.

Pilots insist they won’t take lower pay to work for a new Air France budget airline

Choosing any strategy is risky ,so the company has to do positioning before they make a decision.In terms of a low cost strategy,access to capital and resources is necessary as well as the efficiency of production.Obviously,Air France did not give careful consideration ,which leads  its incapability of coping with its striking employees and providing the same contract to every pilot. In my opinion,cost leadership strategy is actually even more tricky than differentiation strategy.Because the company who chooses to differentiate can focus on  innovation and technology in order to attract customers,it seems more technical and the purpose is much clearer.While firms who wants to cut prices to profit more has more things to consider like its capacity,pricing and the competition is more fierce because their competitors can make a low price as well.Therefore, how to have an absolute advantage in prices without lossing will be a big question for those companies.

CCTV,the biggest and most authoritative Chinese broadcaster ,attacked Apple company because of its unfair warranty policies,which caused a sensation in China.According to the article on The Economist,there are two parties involved in business ethics.

One is definitely Apple ,Chinese consumers do not have the same terms as the consumers in other countries.This is literally a discrimination and violates the principle of equal treatment.The other is Apple’s commercial rivals.Although Apple did do something unethical ,it was really exaggerated.Not only did CCTV exposed Apple but also a lot of celebrities posted comments about it on Weibo almost at the same time .It seemed that Apple suddenly became the public’s target and there might be some conspiracy.One possibility is that some rival firms like domestic cellphone companies planned this in order to push Apple out of Chinese cellphone market  because Apple is too threatening.In this case,they played a dirty trick and wanted to benefit from Apple’s misfortune ,which is totally against business ethics.

Companies who disobey business ethics may benefit in the short run but it won’t last long because no company can afford to behave immorally.Once what they have done is revealed,it is hard for their reputation to regain and a bad brand image will leave in consumers’ minds.We all know how important a good brand image is for a company.Therefore, firms should focuses on its strategy and technology instead of achieving their ambition by an unethical way.