Should You Allow Your Employees to Nap While on the Job?

The great travel-rewards shakeup

Credit card reward system has always been an important marketing tool for banks to promote their credit cards. Recently, travel reward system is becoming a new hit. Canadian banks like TD and CIBC are now promoting this new revenue stream to attract new customers.

While different banks are imitating each other, they choose different approach among advertisement. For CIBC, they decide to advertise within their own channel– by directly communicate with their customers; while TD will taking mass-market advertising as their advertisement channel.

For me, choosing different advertisement channel is one kind of marketing strategy too. Since the product itself is easy to subside, different banks need to use different channels to increase their product uniqueness. Like Aeroplan, they decide to differ themselves from other advertisers by reaching their members “one on one”.

Although travel-reward program is getting great success in Canadian credit card market right now, I still believe Canadian banks need to stop imitate each other and come up with their unique credit card reward system. Using different advertising channel does not change the fact that those travel reward systems are identical. To gain greater success and attract more customer segment, banks need to come up with unique products. What I recommend banks to do is to do more market research and identify which direction they need to go to gain more loyal customers.

Heinz to close Ontario factory, trim 740 jobs

Heinz is closing one of its biggest plants in Canada located in Leamington Ontario. This action will cause almost 740 people losing their job.

The rising pressure for Canada manufacture plants is the biggest reason why Heinz take this action. The cost of manufacture product in Ontario is rising while making export is becoming expensive. To ensure future profit and maintain effectiveness for Heinz, top management team decides to shift production to places with more affordable labor and higher production.

In another way, almost 740 people will lose their job due to this action. Closing this plants will hurt Leamington badly since this plants has more than 100 years history and creating major job opportunity for this town.

This change is not only related to profit and productivity within Heinz company, it is also related to ethical issue created by Heinz. Because of the close down, former employers are facing challenging situation because their limited skills. Many of them need to go back to school in order to seek new jobs to support their families. Local government should not rely on Heinz to provide job opportunity, what they should do is to take over the responsibility and try to create job opportunity for unemployed workforce.

What local government can do is promoting policies that attracts more manufacture plants or firms. It creates job opportunities that solve the problem.

Tourism boom misses Canada

 

Hong Kong Luxury Property Prices Choked by Tightening

Luxury property prices in Hong Kong are the world highest due to government’s high stamp-duty and mortgage rules. Extra stamp duties and mortgage rules are progressive tax that require buyers to pay relatively high tax when they buy luxury properties. It strongly affect the market of property in Hong Kong– demand of those luxury houses is steadily decreasing.

The reason why Hong Kong government decided to double stamp-duty and mortgage rules is Chinese buyers. For a long time, Chinese buyers are the main force for luxury houses in Hong Kong. Government need to raise the prices to ensure the equilibrium inside the market. At the time Hong Kong government try to balance the market, parts of the demand is takes away.

In my personal opinion, luxury property market in Hong Kong will eventually gets to a balance. Decreasing of demand would lead to surplus within the market, which will eventually drop down the prices. Although Hong Kong government take actions to ensure the market is equilibrium, that approach is not perfect because Hong Kong citizens hurts at the same time. Instead of increasing tax, preventing Chinese buyers concur the market is a more reasonable approach.

BlackBerry

Only Throns

The share price of Blackberry have already fell by 16% for the past 2 years. It mainly has to do with bad decisions– there was no visible alternative strategy and no chief executive for the company. The boss of BlackBerry Heins launched a system which is described as “much-delayed” compared with iOS system and Android system. BlackBerry are recently hire a new chief executive John Chen to save the company’s future. Although Mr.Chen have experience as a leader of a software company, it is not sure if his software background are going to save BlackBerry’s future.

Smartphone market today is extremely competitive, creative ideas and clear decision making are basic requirements for a successful smartphone company. For BlackBerry, finding alternative strategy is necessary. Nokia is a great example, they sold their devise devision to Microsoft for better idea and boarder market. What BlackBerry needs is creative ideas that can bring it back to live.

According to Nydia Gunawan’s blog post, analysis claims that the best idea for Blackberry is taking the company private. I agree with this idea, but I don’t see it as the “best” option. Since smartphone market today is extremely creative and competitive, what Blackberry needs is not only a lifesaving company, but also lifesaving ideas.

For my recommendation, I suggest BlackBerry to collaborate with other famous companies, not only for better hardware quality, but also for better and newer ideas.