Iris Gu'blog

I agree with James Lau that Peter’s blogs are always so funny and the titles are catchy. While it is true that it’s risky when a business tries something new but just as James mentioned, this is what businesses suppose to do. So I think adding guacamole in their buegers is a good idea. Peter mentioned one of its failed attempts Mcpizza, but McDonalds also has McCafé, which is a successful example and win many consumers.

From the video provided by James, we can see that McDonalds in Denver Colorado want to add guacamole in their burgers and sandwiches, which appeals to the native people’s tastes. To my mind, fast food brands like McDonalds and KFC are not just selling their classic burgers but trying to change themselves and add some local elements in their menus wherever they go. For example, in Canada, McDonalds has poutine in its menu. In India, almost all of the chicken is made spicy. In China, KFC serves soya milk, rice bowl and even youtiao(a traditional Chinese breakfast food). All these changes don’t confuse consumers but attract them more.

（KFC soya milk）

Also, keeping the position unchanged doesn’t mean make no changes at all. McDonalds still positions itself as fast food, but in a more healthy way. As we know, guacamole is a nutritious food beneficial to people. Adding this instead of the high-calories sauce in burgers is more suitable to people’s pursuit of both healthy and fast food today. Personally, I am looking forward to its change of becoming more healthy.

（KFC rice bowl）

resource：

http://blogs.ubc.ca/petermilobar/2014/09/30/holy-guacamole/

http://blogs.ubc.ca/jameslau/2014/11/07/re-holy-guacamole-by-peter-milobar/

http://www.kfc.co.in/menuchicken.php

http://www.kfc.com.cn/kfccda/index.aspx

Today is 11.11,Rememberance Day in Canada. Because the number 11.11 indicates always be alone, it’s regarded as the Singles’ Day in China. During these years, this day also has become Online Shopping Carnival. Being single had nothing to do with shopping online originally, but now shopping online in Double Eleven has become something necessary for most of the young single people, and, because of the good discount, it attracts customers of all ages. Double Eleven has already become the biggest national online shopping carnival.I have taken part in this event for few years and I almost look on it as a normal thing.However,When I browsed classmates’ blogs, Husan’s blog inspired me that I can use what I have learned to analyze the reason behind it.

(11.11 Shopping Carnival)

last year, in Double Eleven，Tmall and Taobao（the biggest online shopping platform in china，belongs to Alibaba）recorded sales of $5.75 billion, while this year’s sale is even more amazing, $9.3 billion in only one day!

(Jack Ma,Chairman of the Board of Alibaba)

The reason behind this enthusiasm is, first of all, online retailers know about the consumer psychology very well. Being single makes many young people,the major consumers of online retailers, feel depressed more or less. Online retailers keep strengthening the relation between being single and shopping online and telling the young that being alone can’t stop them from enjoying life by shopping online. Also, shopping helps people feel relaxed and happy according to some scientific researches, helping them feel less depressed temporarily of being single.

Also, online retailers know about the trend of selling during every year. November was always sales-off season for online retailers because there are no big festivals in November like October 1(Chinese National Day) and Christmas. Actually after the whole October many consumers have need for shopping again and they want to buy clothes for the coming winter but Christmas hasn’t come yet. So it won’t be more attractive when “sale off 50%” shines on the webpage for customers. What’s more, near the end of one year, many sellers have a clearance. Because of all these reasons, Double Eleven becomes a hit.

Resource:

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29999289

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2546425/Feeling-sad-Then-hit-shops-really-works-Buying-makes-people-three-times-happier.html

First of all, social enterprise is not targeting at earning profit but at environmental and human well-being. So this means social enterprise not only requires enough funds but also needs strong social responsibility.

Even if the UN are funded enough and it can afford all the events beneficial to the society, the value it creates, in my opinion, is less than the value created by some social enterprises. For one thing, UN is supposed to benefit the society while social enterprises volunteer to do so. For another, during this procedure, the social entrepreneurs create social value, for example, by creating job opportunities to local people and decrease the unemployment rate, and they realizes his/her individual ambition and runs way from the tiring job without creativity like what Ms. Tesfaye did. However，the UN doesn’t create individual value.

Also, from what Arielle Uwonkunda mentioned (Non-profits that have donated money to Rwanda following the war but didn’t make a lasting impact) we can see that, many local entrepreneurs do not have enough knowledge to run a business well, which is more important than those start-up money for them. So such workshops and lessons provided by Arc are necessary for these local entrepreneurs.

Resorces:

Information provided in Class 20 Prep.

When I went to Grouse Mountain about a month ago. Danone had a food truck at the foot of the mountain and served its Oiko yogurt for free! This incidence made me more interested in learning about Danone, who is always regarded as a successful sustainable company.

In terms of the social measures from the Triple Bottom Line, Danone is always able to find out the weaknesses and drawbacks of its suppliers and consumers and the needs of the mass market, and turn it into the business opportunity. For example,it started a project to produce and sell nutritious yogurt produced by local small farms to children suffering from malnutrition in Bogra Bangladesh in a quite low price—10 cents each! Also,two of its objectives are to”help farmers to compete” and  “make the farmers proud”,Danone shows its respect and gratitude to key partners,which is beneficial for them to achieve joint interests.

In terms of the environmental measures,Danone has “Nature” program includng reducing environmental impact and improving milk quality.It is always looking for alternative feed for cows to reduce the methane emissions.Danone takes a positive attitude towards its own problems and tries to change them because if it doesn’t, these problems may destroy it eventually.

Danone’s success in sustainability is the reason that it can be one of the best world brands.As the founder,Antoine Riboud declared,”A company’s responsibility does not end at the door to the factory or the office.”The larger the company becomes,the more responsible it should be.Danone’s excellent achievement in social responsilibity reminds me of the “2008 Chinese milk scandal”.Such a strong cotrast tells us, there is still a long way for many chinese companies to grow into a really responsible and reliable company.They should study the example of Danone,not be anxious to get instant benefits in a immoral and illegal way but have a long-term vision and develop in a sustainable way.

resource:

1.http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2011/12/27/danones-recipe-sustainable-innovation?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+greenbuzz+%28GreenBiz%29

2. https://www.google.ca/search?q=oiko&biw=1366&bih=640&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=H8ZfVImiAsffoATS0oLACg&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ#facrc=_&imgdii=_X57S9isPztgoM%3A%3Bd6YEkPo5IUWpSM%3B_X57S9isPztgoM%3A&imgrc=_X57S9isPztgoM%253A%3BN2SC_ORrZaY1VM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.danone.ca%252Fsites%252Fdefault%252Ffiles%252Fnew_look_EN.png%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.danone.ca%252Fen%252Fproducts%252Foikos%3B1290%3B390