Felicia Chong's Blog

Having an organisational culture that promotes a cohesive company is important to a company’s productivity. One of the most memorable thing I have learnt in COMM 101 is that all aspects of business – be it marketing, finance or accounting – are interconnected. Therefore, it is important to maintain effective communication between different groups. However, there’s a lot more to it than I thought. A Harvard Business Review post by Heidi Grant Halvorson provided me with a new perspective on the importance of company cohesiveness. The word “together” According to Halvorson, humans…read more

Vicky’s blog post about Starbucks’ marketing strategy was something I could personally relate to. As a regular Starbucks customer, I remember the mild frustration I felt upon seeing my name being misspelled and the immediate delight I felt when my name was finally spelt right. Either way, the result of this name-spelling fiasco would be me sharing it with my friends through social media. In other words, we end up sharing our experiences with Starbucks without Starbucks even asking us to.  But more importantly, I agree with Vicky’s take on the impact…read more

Apart from maintaining global peace, the United Nations also acts as an international effort to eliminate important social issues through the Millennium Development Goals and disaster relief. However, the existing role of the UN as an international platform does not dispel the importance of social enterprises, even if it were fully funded. Social enterprises are businesses that innovate with the main goal of alleviating social problems. These companies are much smaller than the UN as they focus on specific communities in a specific industry rather than the world as a whole. However, its small scope and hands-on approach enables them…read more

I think the idea behind Evernote itself is very clever in that it utilizes the rapid increase in the use of laptops and tablets. However, as stated in Alita’s blog post, to remain on top of the game, Evernote must continually differentiate itself. The “right product” Evernote’s Context is a feature that provides users with new content from third-party resources based on what the users have typed. I agree with Alita’s point on the importance of Evernote developing a feature that not only differentiates itself from other note-taking platforms, but also focus on fulfilling a certain…read more

I find it upsetting that businesses are often viewed as merely profit-maximisers. While it isn’t completely wrong to assume that many firms practice Corporate Social Responsibility to improve brand image and gain profit, there are some that aim to create shared value. Shared value is a very interesting concept as it makes solving social problems an integral part to the way a business operates (in CSR, these two aspects are separated). A perfect example of this is Gap Inc.’s P.A.C.E (Personal Advancement and Career Enhancement) program. How does P.A.C.E create shared value? P.A.C.E involves providing women from third-world…read more

Creating value through convenience I’ve never actually tried shopping online because I dread the long and often unpredictable delivery times. Amazon’s introduction to the one-day delivery service creates value to society by eliminating this pain. Because e-commerce is still a fairly new industry, I feel that speed and convenience remains a key factor in attracting more consumers who were originally more inclined to purchase products directly from stores. This is especially applicable to a culture that highly values instant gratification. As of now, Amazon’s same-day shipping service gives it a competitive…read more

The First Nation chiefs’ demand to have BC Hydro‘s hydroelectric megaproject shut down is a prime example of how political and social factors can influence a business. In this case, firms specifically in British Columbia – an Indian land – such as BC Hydro must always take into account the preserving of the First Nations lifestyle, culture and environment when making important business decisions. They are an additional stakeholder to consider. The issue at hand affects BC Hydro negatively as it inhibits them from attaining their objective of protecting the…read more

In an attempt to attain an increase in sales and brand loyalty, Morrisons released a new “Match and More” card which “awards points equivalent to the difference in the price of items that are cheaper in supermarkets” which can then be converted into vouchers. This additional service gives Morrisons enables it to compete with supermarket brands that have been focusing on the cost leadership strategy: the discount chains. It also results in brand loyalty as customers will constantly return to accumulate points. Furthermore, this loyalty scheme may also act as…read more

Sources: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29011649 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/digital-media/11107575/Alibabas-IPO-is-testing-American-appetite-for-China.html Having raised $25bn in its share, Alibaba, plans to use these funds to further expand the business on an international scale. However, despite being China’s largest e-commerce company, other foreign investors and even CEO Jack Ma himself have predicted that immediate international expansion, specifically in the U.S would be challenging.   Through the Ishikawa diagram, one can deduce that a major cause to this problem is the environment in which Alibaba is placed. One would be the fact that Alibaba originates from China. It is not uncommon…read more

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/jan/17/o2-rivals-chargers-new-phones Friedman’s theory states that a corporation’s social responsibility lies within making as much money as possible while conforming to society’s ethical standards. However, is it ideal for a firm to go beyond regulations and taking voluntary measures to positively impact society? In 2013, O2 took the initiative to reduce electronic waste by selling their HTC One X+ without a charger. According to Friedman’s theory, such acts of social responsibility would incur a cost to the corporation’s stakeholders. In this case, the corporation would be spending its customers’ money; customers who…read more