Gabrielle Chung

The trend in business, especially for entrepreneurs, is innovation. New technology. Something that the world hasn’t seen before. Apple manages to create a new market with the iPad, but at the same time, disrupt its own market.  In the present, the iPad seems a bit of a hassle. It’s not good enough to double as a laptop, neither is it small enough to fit in your pocket nor is it easy on the eyes to read for long periods. Is it a jack of all trades and master of none? But the point is that the iPad is a disruptive innovation. For example,when personal computers first arrived they were so chunky and slow that people dismissed them as incapable. Usually an innovative product that is starting off is deemed “not good enough” until many readjustments and improvements. The iPad isn’t an obvious replacement for laptops; its first iterations don’t met the exacting standards for current consumers and it isn’t good enough for multitasking, photo manipulation, DJing, etc.. However, the iPad is disruptive to notebook computers in that the future holds great potential. Furthermore, Edmund Conway, a blogger who wrote “How the iPad will take over the world” has a good point:

The interesting thing in this case is that usually the company that does the disrupting is quite independent from the one that gets disrupted. In this case, Apple is disrupting itself, which is quite an achievement for a giant company.

CSR, which stands for Corporate Social Responsibility, is such a huge aspect of business these days. I read an article about Brad Mills, the chief executive officer of a local office-supply firm, who is conscientious of our environment and community. As part of a plan to reduce carbon output, he has purchased a $130 000 emission-free eStar delivery vehicle. Furthermore,  in order to help out the community, he works with a non-profit organization that hires and trains hard-to-employ locals, mainly with the Downtown Eastside. But aside from being a good corporate citizen, Mr. Mills is doing so much more for his business! CSR is a brilliant business tactic for small and medium firms that need to complete with bigger companies. Mr. Mills’s firm was able to land big customers such as the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympics!  Not only are customers demanding an outline of company’s social/environmental activities before they go with the firm,  CSR attracts eco conscious employers and businesses that are careful with their supply chain. I especially like the quote from John Stanton, who is the founder of the Running Room, another eco and socially conscious firm:

“If you look after the customer, they’ll look after you. Great companies are those that look at what they’re doing for themselves, their customers and their community – they create a triple win.”

Check out the article here

Tom Szaky is a 28 year old Canadian entrepreneur who is the founder of TerraCycle. His personal motto is that “there is no such thing as garbage,” and thus, created a company solely based on recycling. For example, TerraCycle makes backpacks from drink pouches, kites from skittle wrappers, and picture frames from bicycle chains. I couldn’t help but to think that this whole company is a brilliant idea! In fact, TerraCycle is the first of its kind and it is quickly gaining great popularity. This posting reminded me of brand positioning in class and the importance of being “first” in the market. Furthermore, TerraCycle just made its own category. The idea is appealing in so many levels, especially to the trend of being environmentally friendly. By assigning value to waste, instead of WasteManagement just moving garbage from a dumpster to a landfill, TerraCycle is in it for the long run. The company even encourages society to send in any recyclable items for a bit of cash and eventually wants to collect all non-recyclable items.

Read more at http://www.financialpost.com/entrepreneur/Recycling+dollars/3618756/story.html

and check out the TerraCycle website: http://www.terracycle.net/

I came across an interesting posting called NIMH batteries Held Hostage by Chevron-Texaco and I realized how big of an issue it really is. Currently plug in hybrids are forced to use lead-acid or lithium batteries even though the NIMH batteries last longer, drive an EV at 80mph for up to 120 miles, and have 1500 charges (150, 000 miles before they need replacement). The reason behind this is because GM purchased control of the patent, which was later bought by Chevron and Texaco, so no car companies can make hybrid vehicles without their permission. The frustrating part about this is that the NIMH went into production in 1997! That was 13 years ago and yet this technology cannot be used because of a “patent.” Car companies are only allowed to use NIMH batteries if they have consent from Chevron even though companies, like Toyota, already have the technology to make it. Therefore, Toyota can only produce plug in vehicles if they think of another battery technology or until the patent expires in 2014. And this is all because GM, Chevron, and Texaco want to continue making money from gasoline operated cars!

Read  more about it at http://fuel-efficient-vehicles.org/energy-news/?p=690