Monthly Archives: November 2014

The Importance of Social Entrepreneurship

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Source of image: cnm.tcd.ie

Social entrepreneurship is needed in our world. There are many unfair things happening that we could not see or could not hear, but they are happening. Food shortage, disaster, disorder, poverty and so on. They are happening right now, in somewhere very close to us but also very far from us. Every person in the world has the responsibility to care about people in all of those third-world countries. In order to achieve the aim of developing happiness and kindness of the whole of mankind, as we are living in a globalized society now.

I am very glad that Sauder school of business shows their concerns. Arc Initiative provides a wonderful platform for us young students to learn about social entrepreneurship and take the opportunity to get involved in action. I believe that improvements on education skills of citizens can make big changes the country, thus it is good that Sauder actually brings those business skills to those countries. Uwonkunda’s story is inspiring and I think that she is doing this not only for contributing to her own country, also to increase people’s incentives and attract their attention. It’s important to let people realize how important and meaningful the social entrepreneurship is. It is every entrepreneur’s responsibility to put efforts in solving the social problems in the world besides making profit.

Young Designer’s Own Business

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Nicole Bridger’s story gives me a lot of inspiration. After graduated with a fashion design degree, she already had a clear plan to set up her own fashion brand – “Nicole Bridger Designs”. The business has a fine value proposition and a clear customer segment. She opens up the store in Vancouver where is her hometown. Through setting up factory and organizing the workforce, Bridger’s business went well.

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Source of image: fslocal.com

It’s always hard to start a business and also takes a long time to finance the enough capital. Instead of becoming a designer hired by big company for life, Nicole Bridger takes courage to pursue her career on her own. It reminds me the time when I was choosing my major. I am very interested in film production but I don’t know if I can make a living from it. Therefore, I chose to study making money instead of pursuing my hobby in university. I think certain specialized skills are not necessarily needed to start a business, for example, you don’t have to be a film director if you want to start up a film company. Sometimes, business skills are more required. But Bridger overcomes this problem, she knows exactly what she is doing for her business. Also, her experience in the industry provides huge benefits. Most importantly, her passion for fashion design and her belief that “making positive changes” encourage her to put all the efforts in her career. I wish her all the best in her business.

Nintendo’s Diversification Strategy – Is It Too Risky?

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Xinyue talks about Nintendo’s expansion through diversifying by making “quality of life” products in her blog post. She says that “Nintendo made a strong and solid start”. After reading the news, I think Nintendo introduces a good concept including the five “non”s campaign which provides a clear idea to the potential customers. Nintendo has shown that at least they had done their market research and had plans for investments, as well as some reliable partners such as Resmed. Overall, Nintendo does have a “solid start” and preparations for their Quality of Life to be launched.

However, diversification is still a risky strategy. It means entering a new market. The news states it’s not that Nintendo has no experience at all, but I believe many people are still unsure if product will be successful. After all, Nintendo is still a game company. Its success in game industry has made this impression unshakable in the hearts of customers. I predict that once Quality of Life is launched, most of people who buy it will be Nintendo’s loyal customers just like Xinyue, not the ones who are really interested in life healthy products. It takes time for people to accept a new product from a company that they are not familiar. Anyway, I hope Nintendo’s efforts will make their Quality of Life successful, though it’s going to be a big challenge.

The Power of Social Media to Business

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UBC professor Alfred Hermida, as an experienced specialist in journalism, shares his views about the importance of social media and how should we use it better in this article.

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Source of image: castabigger.com

I agree that “human beings are social animals…obsessed with each other.” My parents always scold me for being addicted to my phone. The fact is that I am communicating with my friend online. It’s not that people love using their phone, but love socializing with others. Social media has brought enormous benefits to many small businesses, such as millions of mobile apps. This new technology which is a part of our lives now definitely can be used by business to improve the performance. It plays a very important role in marketing, as maybe the most direct and convenient way to build relationship with customers. Through several platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and so on, business can also advertise and show off what their business is about. These are actually very common in the recent years.

I also agree with professor Hermida’s point that “we must learn to be reflective instead of just reacting on social media”. Some businesses act differently in reality than online, for example, an online false adverting. They should treat social media seriously. Business must be consistent whether online or in reality in order to maintain their reputation to customers.

Do Young People Really Need to Learn to Invest in Stocks?

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Source of image: timeinc.net

Mr. Chris Umiastowski wrote an interesting article about drop in Netflix’s stocks which happened recently. He claims Netflix could still be “the dominant subscription service for original and licensed TV programming around the world”. However, I am interested by his point that parents should teach kids to think about long-term investments in stocks. He considers them as “young investors who may utilize tax shelter and generates a long-term market-average 9-per-cent return”.

He uses Netflix as the example relates to the young people who are most familiar with technology trends, which I agree. He also shows his support in this stock crash and believes Netflix’s future remains bright. Based on my understanding, he might be disappointed about the current investors who do not consider Netflix’s long-term performance and think that young investors would think in a different way. It makes sense but do young people really need to learn to invest for now? I don’t think so. Why don’t they use this money going to university and learn other skills? Besides, a large quantity of their money comes from parents. It is not that easy to make profit, thus it is very likely for being wasted.

I think whether young people should invest or not, might mainly depends on their own interest and passion. They do not need to be rush, as they may want to have their own savings instead of putting it into the stock market.