There’s No Good Excuse to Not Go Green

Posted on November 17, 2012 by fredericho

If you asked the average homeowner why their home isn’t solar powered or why they don’t drive a hybrid, the answer would be obvious. Money doesn’t grow on trees. Many make environmentally harmful choices and justify their actions by claiming they don’t have the budget to buy green. While this may be true for the aforementioned cases of hybrid cars and solar panels, there many environmentally friendly purchases which actually save money!

1. Weather stripping is the process of sealing off tiny air ways around a home in order to prevent cold air from entering. This can be done by professionals or even by yourself with the right materials.

2. Non-toxic cleaning agents can easily be made with common household items. Not only are these recipes effective and all-natural, they are also very affordable! It’s possible to make everything from all-purpose deodorizers to wooden floor cleaners with kitchen basics such as vinegar and lemon juice.

3. Save! Whether it’s turning the lights off when you leave a room or switching to a low-flow shower head, it’s easy to go green and save money without much of a burden.

If choosing the environmentally-friendly alternative is also saving you money, what are you waiting for? Click here to find more money saving green tips!

Picture Source: Energy.gov

Facebook: Ad-Supported Social Media or Creepy Information Trawler?

Posted on November 3, 2012 by fredericho

To the 1.01 billion active users of Facebook, the website is a place to keep in touch with friends, share photos, and play games. To advertisers and marketers, however, Facebook is a massive management information system – an opportunity to collect information, preferences, and opinions from millions of users. How much of this happens with user consent, though?

Facebook has changed (read loosened) its privacy policies many times over the past years. In fact, the website no longer uses a privacy policy but instead prefers to refer to their user agreement as a data-use policy. The scandals don’t end there, however. Just over two years ago, Facebook’s implementation of the “Places” feature sparked controversy when the application’s default setting tracked the mobile location of users.

One of Facebook’s data centers, where all user information is stored

Although users are beginning to be much more conscious about privacy on Facebook , they cannot stop the company from recording and storing almost everything they have ever shared, including private messages. This, coupled with very recent proof of the company selling personal information to third parties, will have users thinking twice before posting anything on Facebook.

Picture Source: Facebook

RE: Target – New Entrant to the Canadian Market

Posted on October 28, 2012 by fredericho

This is a response to Derek Kwan’s blog post about Target’s expansion into Canada, which can be found here.

In his post, Derek suggests that Target’s expansion to Canada will succeed and that the chain will be a threat to stores like Wal-Mart, Sears, and Old Navy. However, one important thing to note is that Target is the new entrant to a competitive market where the major competitors have already established a very strong foundation. Target, on the other hand, might experience many issues through their expansion.

Target will be opening 125 locations spread throughout Canada.

Supply chains might be more difficult to handle due to the added barriers of transportation, taxes, and tariffs. Average Canadian Target store sizes are also only 30% of the size of their American counterparts. Furthermore, moving to Canada will mean that Target must adapt to different consumer behaviour and responses. Whatever strategies served them well in the United States might not work as well in a different country.

If Target’s Canadian venture does fail, it wouldn’t be the first company to cross the 49th parallel only to be forced to withdraw within a few years. Canadian restaurant chain Tim Hortons experienced just this with their attempts to expand into Boston, Massachusetts. The franchise closed down thirty-six New England locations that it had opened after losing $4.4 million in one year.

As you can see from the advertisement above, Target loves Canada. The only question now is: will Canada love Target back?

Picture Sources: O Canada | Ontario Move

Corporate Organizational Culture vs. Secondary Schools

Posted on October 24, 2012 by fredericho

Discussing corporate organizational culture in class this week made me realize that, while they are very different things, many parallels can be drawn between corporations and secondary schools. In particular, I realized how organizational culture plays an enormous role in both of these establishments.

For example, I would relate the fun, social, and team-oriented organizational culture of shoe company Zappos with the Ideal Mini School program offered by the Vancouver School Board. Like Zappos, the culture of Ideal Mini emphasizes cooperative interaction. The CEO of Zappos works at a cubicle like any of his employees, essentially eliminating hierarchical levels so as to better communicate with his employees. The teachers of Ideal Mini use a different approach with a similar affect – they are always on a first-name basis with their students and aim to be friends and mentors.

On the other end of the spectrum, I would associate a large 2,400 student school such as Burnaby North with a much larger company with a less prominent, interactive, and unique organizational culture. The mass of students and larger class sizes at a school like Burnaby North are much like the mass of employees and large department sizes.

Having attended a Mini School myself, I truly understand the benefits of having a close-knit group and a focused organizational culture. At the same time, however, I do realize it might not be feasible for such a model to be the standard secondary school system. What would you prefer from a school? What would you prefer from a workplace? Would your answer to these two questions be different?

Is secondary research from online sources worth a company’s money?

Posted on October 2, 2012 by fredericho

There are many “Get Paid To…” initiatives on the web nowadays. There are even entire websites such as Lockerz, SwagBucks, and TreasureTroopers, which are dedicated to providing “offers” with varying reward incentives. These offers range from completing surveys, signing up for newsletters, and clicking advertisements in return for cash, credit, or a chance at a big prize. And how do websites such as TreasureTroopers make money? They’re paid by advertisers for their advertisements and marketing firms for their survey information.

But is information gathered from an individual wishing to quickly finish a survey for a quick buck reliable? Will someone really be affected by an advertisement they watch as a part of an offer on one of these websites? Should firms take this information seriously when considering choices for company growth?

An interesting point to note is that websites like TreasureTroopers often receive complaints regarding unaccredited offers. Get Paid To websites also often have hidden catches in the fine print – customers may not be able to claim their cash until they accumulate a certain of credit. Some are even known scams, claiming that completing offers will enter one into a draw for a non-existent prize. What can companies expect when using information compiled through such methods? Garbage in, garbage out.

Picture Source: Home Paid Jobs

Would you chose $1000 today or $1013 in a year?

Posted on September 25, 2012 by fredericho

In class today, we discussed the time value of money. Rob started off with an activity where all of us had to chose between $1000 today or $1200 paid in one year’s time. I was one of the few people who pointed at the $1200. I chose it because I remembered reading somewhere that inflation was at about 3% per year, meaning that I would have chosen any value above $1030 that was paid in a year.

After doing a bit of research, it turns out I hadn’t remembered too incorrectly. The average inflation rate in Canada over the last 97 years was 3.2%. The percentage is calculated after the end of each month and the current inflation rate as of August 2012 is 1.2%. Therefore, holding all other factors constant, shouldn’t the class have chosen any in-a-year offer over $1012?

What interested me the most was that the inflation rate was broken down into individual inflation/deflation rates of certain goods and services. For example, energy prices went up by 0.8% whereas natural gas prices fell by 13.8%. From this data alone, am I allowed to assume that natural gas probably does not account for a majority of energy in Canada? I’m not sure, but it’s good food for thought!

Picture Source: Trading Economics

What’s your personal value proposition?

Posted on September 20, 2012 by fredericho

This post is a response to Bill Barnett’s “Build Your Own Value Proposition” blog post on the Harvard Business Review Blog Network.

In class this week, we learned about value propositions and worked with the “to blank, our blank, is blank, that blank” format. However, we labeled value propositions as something that companies use in marketing. This is why reading Barnett’s blog post was mind blowing. Value proposition statements aren’t only useful to companies; they can be used on a personal level by someone applying for a position. Barnett gives the example of an individual Steve who applies for a manufacturing executive position.

Now, excuse me as I go off on a slight tangent, but this blog post really made me think back to the Sauder Student’s Workshop to Success on Imagine Day. Ann Stone, a marketing professor, was our speaker and what she had to say to us students was truly entertaining. One remark which she made that stuck with me was this: “Every day, you are all marketing yourselves.”

You don’t have to be a marketing major to be marketing yourself. At a networking event for PwC or KPMG, an aspiring accountant isn’t going to be auditing – they’re going to be marketing themselves!

So now that you think about it, what is your personal value proposition?

RE: The Northern Gateway Pipeline – A Great Debate

Posted on September 18, 2012 by fredericho

This post is a response to Matthew Chan’s post on the proposed Enbridge pipeline, which can be found here.

The proposed pipeline would pump oil all the way from Alberta, through the interior of British Columbia, to Kitimat Bay. The chance of an oil spill occurring somewhere along this route is quite probable and the impact such a spill on the environment would be immense. But what is even worse is the risk of an oil spill along Kitimat Bay. The Douglas Channel is a very dangerous waterway filled with many little islands. In fact, just six years ago, the BC Ferry’s Queen of the North vessel capsized after a collision that occurred exactly where Enbridge’s tankers would travel if the pipeline were to be built. Enbridge is aware of this risk and is actively trying to hide it.

The “Great Debate”, as Matthew calls it, is nothing short of that name. The clash of business and politics is heating up and conflicts have become quite nasty. This summer, an Enbridge official made several sexist and anti-BC remarks in a (now publicized) e-mail (full article here).

For Enbridge, it all comes down to the problem of business ethics. Perhaps they should reevaluate their plans and consider the views of the strongly opposing stakeholders.

Picture Source: Davidsuzuki.org

“Monsanto should not have to vouch for the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible.”

Posted on September 9, 2012 by fredericho

— Phil Angell, Monsanto’s Director of Corporate Communications

This quote was published in the October 25, 1998 issue of the New York Times. As horrifying as these words may seem, they are merely the tip of the iceberg.

Monsanto is an American multinational corporation in the field of agricultural bio-engineering (click here for more information). With an $11.822 billion revenue in 2011, Monsanto has a strong grasp on the agriculture worldwide.

A Google search for “Monsanto” provides the auto-complete suggestion “Monsanto evil”. How did Monsanto develop such a reputation? There are a few major reasons:

1) Monsanto does not test their genetically modified (GM) food for long term health effects (click here for more information).

2) Not only does Monsanto not guarantee the safety of their product (some of which have proven to be harmful) – they openly and irresponsibly admit they care only about maximizing profits.

3) Monsanto uses their patents to bully smaller businesses. GM seeds are often scattered by Monsanto’s transportation trucks and contaminate the crops of smaller farms. Monsanto then takes legal action against said farms (click here for more information).

Monsanto claims that their technology prevents rising crop prices and starvation. They market themselves as a need, when they are possibly a threat! Should we be gambling with the long-term effects of GMOs? Should the government implement anti-GMO policies?

Picture Sources: Google | Eco Watch | Site Maker

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