Posts by Janna Chi:
Dec
2
After the social entreprenurship class, I am interested in doing volunteer work and helping others. When I went online and search for relevant information, I found a report about a national organization, the Canadian Social Entrepreneurship Foundation, and its recent cooperation with a SFU club. Even though the program has just been launched, it sounded very promising. In UBC, there is a simliar group called entrepreneurship@UBC Fund. Yet, UBC’s Fund combined the normal entrepreneurship with social entrepreneurship. This way, people may get confused and may not pay attention to the club. As we learned in class, branding is really important. I suggest that they can separate the two and establish individual clubs in order to run them more successfully.
The cooperation news – http://business.sfu.ca/news/post.php?id=2116
entrepreneurship@UBC Fund – http://www.uilo.ubc.ca/entrepreneurship/entrepreneurshipatubc.html
BC has lots of successful entrepreneurs. In class, the profs always teach us about ethical. Therefore, when a businessman has talents in using limited sources and money to achieve his goal, he should always contribute the society by using his talent to help others.
The SFU program provides successful social entrepreneurs mentors to guide the young people to achieve their goals. I wonder if UBC can provide a simliar opportunities for students to do such meaningful activities. =)
Oct
12
Today, we discussed if companies should concern about environmental issues. I personally think enviromentally friendly is not against the profit of a company but can actually help the company in some ways. Take the water company, Bonaqua in Hong Kong as an example, they successfully built up its green image. They emphaised that they use less plastic on the water bottle which is environmentally friendly. In addition, because of less used in plactic, the cost of production will decrease which will increase in profit. The company also hired a few popular singers to promote this product. With less plastic , poeple can easily squeeze the water bottle into a smaller volume. This way, the water bottle will save the recycle space up to 86%. For my observation, the strong competitor for the water market, Watson is now weaken after Bonaqua change the company image into postive and green.
https://www.bonaqua.com.hk/bwoV2/webui/home/index2.aspx (Feel free to check out the website of bonaqua.)
In Vancouver, we also have Nestle which provide environmentally friendly product, the natural spring water. It says on the label of the water bottle, ”smaller cap = less plastic”. If people who are environmentally friendly, then they will eventually support these products. That is the reason why I support the idea of business concerning about enviroment issue.
Oct
12
Has anyone heard of Playbook? If you did the econ mid term, then I can guarantee that you did. After the econ mid term, I went on the internet and searched for Playbook. The Playbook is a new stragtegy for RIM, the company behind blackberry. Since Apple is encroaching on RIMs smart phone market, RIM is now fighting back with its new product, playbook in Apple’s dominating tablet market. It sets the product in a right segment with an attractive name. Even thougth Playbook is not the first successful product for the market, it is competitive. RIM’s acquisition of the software company, QNX, puts some new technology in Playbook, which makes it more competitive to Ipad. For example, flash web sites now works on the PlayBook; it also supports the creation of applications in both Flash and Adobe Air, etc. RIM is trying to build on its brand loyalty and to expand into related markets. Now, the product, Playbook is changing the image of RIM which is professional and functional, into cooler and hipper looking. Therefore, it is trying to attract the market of trendy and image conscious young people. This way, if Playbook is successful in the future, RIM can use the advantage to influence the smart phone market.
http://www.calliflower.com/2010/09/29/rims-new-strategy-playbook/
Oct
9
The video played in class talks about how powerful social media is which reminds me of Dave Carroll’s case.
In spring 2008, Dave Carroll was going to Omaha, by way of Chicago. Just after landing at O’Hare airport, he discovered that his guitar was being heaved around. So he immediately complained to the flight attendents, but got an indifferent response. After arrival in Nebraska, he found his guitar was smashed, then he had to spend $1200 to repair it. Worse, the airline,United refused to pay him back from the damage of his guitar. That made Carroll angry and composed a song telling others what United airline did him.
This song became very popular on youtube, around 461 people commented on it, while most of the comments are maligning the airline. I think people’s reaction to the song gave pressure to United and that’s why United contacted Carroll directly to make things right.
I believe the image and reputation of United airline suffered after Carroll’s song published. Everything has two sides; in this case, Carroll got his money back, which he deserved; this represent the positive side . Yet, the revenge to United Airlines by discrediting its reputation shows the negative side of social media. It proves how powerful social media is, and not only by statistics, but an actual life story.
If you want to read the whole story, you can go to Carroll’s website:
http://www.davecarrollmusic.com/ubg/
Sep
29
I bet most of our classmates have played Wii or even own one. Apart from fun, it also revived its company name – Nintendo. Before Wii came out, people may think that Nintendo is an old brand name which has lost in the gaming market to Xbox and Sony. Wii changed it picture of the market. Everyone thinks that Wii looks cool and is innovative. Once Wii came out, lots of non gamer female friends bought one. They said the Wii-mote looks cool, just sitting on a display stand. Of course, they also think that it is fun when we are playing Wii together. It can push our party to the highest point. One of the special feature about Wii is that it supports four players’ play which is often not possible on other consoles. In addition, there’s report saying that some hospitals want to use Wii to help elderly patients and those who can’t perform physical exercises. Also, to many people who doesnt like to do exercise, it is a good way to keep fit.
Nintendo put itself in a good position because instead of targeting at the small and highly competitive segment of the market, it had the vision to create its own segment. Its segment not only contain gamer or young people, but everyone including elderly. There successful marketing strategy revived the brand name.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_32/b4045401.htm
My Wii =)
Sep
16
After reading the article ”China Shifts Away From Low-Cost Factories”, I found that business ethics is becoming more of a concern. It is unethical to pay factory workers 90 cents per hour. The government is finally governing the wage rates! However, this leads to an increase in cost. Therefore, companies are looking for different ways to relieve this situation by making their own brand or moving their companies to other lower-wage countries like Vietnam. Nowadays, businesses are highly competitive in every industry. Due to this problem, I would assume that companies are unable to increase the prices of their product because by raising prices there is a risk of losing customers.
As a consumer wanting to conserve my savings, this article strikes me as good change. With this new concept of higher wage factory workers, I wouldn’t mind paying a little more! Additionally, if I were an employee in China, I would be grateful that China is undergoing a big improvement. With an income increases, poor living standards can be overcome. From another angle, China’s economy will be stimulated by the increased wages because when I earn more, I would obviously spend more.
Factory worker in China
Feel free to read the article yourself~
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/business/global/16factory.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=business