Monthly Archives: November 2014

The Importance of the Arc in the Intergovernmental World of the United Nations

With 2015 just around the corner, where have we reached exactly in accomplishing the eight ambitious Millennium Development Goals? Undoubtedly, progress has been made. The efforts of the United Nations are anything but futile. Then, is there a need for organizations like the Arc and social enterprise? Unquestionably.

The United Nation’s foreign aid program, along with its urging of countries to donate at least 0.7% of their GNIs, is effective in times of catastrophes such as natural disasters. Unfortunately, in terms of self-sustainability, this aid actually hinders the long-term prosperity of poor nations. This is explained through examples set in Rwanda and Kenya in the short video below:

This is where the Arc and social enterprise come in..

Image Source: www.mbanogmat.com

While the United Nations gives a man a fish, feeds him for a day but consequently, harms the local sunrise fishing industries, organizations such as the Arc revolutionize the local fishing industry by culminating the spirit of entrepreneurship. The Arc doesn’t directly help these individuals. It teaches them the tools to help themselves and thus, fosters self-sustainability. The Arc is different from charity. It operates on the principles of social entrepreneurship. Hence, in my opinion, it solves a different purpose than the United Nations. While the UN is more capable of handling short-run issues, social enterprise focuses on the long-run development of impoverished nations and individuals. These two spheres do not compete. They are ancillary, in nature.

RE: “Recession and Expansion..” by Elaine Au: What Must BlackBerry Do?

Elaine successfully analyzes in her blog that BlackBerry is in a trough, that is, it’s sales have been continuously declining. Her blog post immediately drew my attention as over the summer, I investigated the reason for the BlackBerry’s decline in my home country, India. Along with that, I found out the reaction of customers in India, in specific, my home city, Jaipur. Using the tools learnt in COMM 101 and on the internet, I have come up with the following analysis:

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It is evident from the Porter’s Five Forces analysis that the smartphone market it extremely competitive. In this market, customers perceive BlackBerry’s as cowboy products, that is, they are overpriced. The reason for this is, in my opinion, the company’s past complacent attitude as they have been left in the dust by more innovative companies such as Samsung and Apple. Thus, it is recommended that:

  • the company prices its smartphones more competitively in the short run to attract customers;
  • the company should focus on the mid-range smartphones and pivot its value propositions and marketing techniques accordingly: the premium market is saturated by the iPhone, Galaxy S5, HTC One, etc., while the low income market may brand BlackBerrys as inferior smartphones;
  • the company must invest in Research and Development to avoid complacency in the future.

Using these recommendations, BlackBerry can find its own unique position on the market ladder, and hence, regain its lost market share.