The latest news in the Smartphone industry that I couldn’t ignore is the fall in the market share that BlackBerry Ltd has faced. Due to high competition that exists in the Smartphone industry and the rapid changes that occur due to technological improvements, companies within that industry need to be cutting edge and their R&D departments must always try innovative thinking.  BlackBerry didn’t manage to accomplish either of these.

According to market research firm ABI research, BlackBerry smartphone business is in free fall with market share of less than 2% in the third quarter of 2013.

The fall in the market share of the company is linked with the Porter’s five force Analysis (competitor analysis) that we learned in class. The theory, gives managers some insight of the degree of competition. Blackberry, despite being in a very competitive industry, ignored the rapid growth and development of the other firms (major competitors Apple, Samsung). The company didn’t recognize that consumers’ tastes and preferences were changing. Changes in the operational system didn’t occur within Blackberry when a new model was introduced. All these factors led to the decline of the once major smartphone producer.

Source:

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/09/24/four-things-blackberry-could-have-done-to-compete-in-the-smartphone-wars/

http://bgr.com/2013/10/30/blackberry-market-share-q3-2013

photo source:

http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/17/2712775/rim-blackberry-10-long-road-developers

http://bgr.com/2013/10/30/blackberry-market-share-q3-2013

Being ethical is not as easy as it sounds. To follow moral and ethical principles may not be in line or in favor of a company’s stakeholders.   The needs of the global community may not align with the goals of a for-profit organization.   A great example that shows that the world is not ready for switching entirely to being ethical is what had happened to Chiquita Brands, an American firm which is one of the world’s biggest suppliers of bananas and other fruits.

Chiquita chose not to use  fuel from Canadian tar sands in their ships and trucks.  They said that the extraction of the oil is made with no respect to the environment. This action resulted in Chiquita being  boycotted by the Ethical Oil organization. Chiquita was the only company that took this step, even though they had acted unethically by paying protection money to Colombian paramilitary forces surrounding its plantations –  they have now admitted to this infraction.  Once again the company’s decision had negative consequences. The company had to face American and Colombian lawsuits.

I believe that in order to be able to progress more companies should act as Chiquita – they paid a price for ethical business and proved that being ethical is not easy and in many cases can be an expensive process but in the end its worth doing.

Sources:

http://www.economist.com/node/21551500 http://www.buzzle.com/articles/grants-for-starting-a-green-business.html

http://www.chiquita.com/The-Chiquita-Difference/Ethics-Codes-of-Conduct.aspx

photo source:

 http://business.financialpost.com/2011/12/16/oil-sands-embroiled-in-banana-wars/

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