jenniferlin

Internet in the planes is already available on many flights in the United States at the moment. Telecommunication Company, such as Gogo, has contracted with Delta, Virgin and Air Canada airlines for a several years. AT&T, a giant telecom cooperation, ranking the second largest mobile-carrier, has revealed that it will stop offering 4G-LTE wireless internet service on commercial flights and is going to invest money on somewhere else. I believe there is a reason for them to quit such profitable industry, so I applied the skills I learned in class and set up a SWOT diagram.

There is definitely strength within the company since AT&T has a strong brand name as well as obtaining an extraordinary reputation. However, its rivalry Gogo is a specialist in providing in-flight Wi-Fi service. Gogo has claimed that “their internet will be faster than AT&T’s proposed solutions”. And there is a very good opportunity for AT&T to develop a new market in British airways. (Although in-flight connectivity is widely operating in the US, there is no British carrier offering such service yet.) This situation attracts AT&T Company and believing that investing money on this international business will benefit them more.

What is an arc? And what is the social enterprise aiming for? How do these two work differently from the United Nations?

According to Arc initiative, the program has claimed to help students from Sauder School of Business to experience leadership in different workshops in communities like South Africa, Ethiopia, Columbia and Rwanda; meanwhile, the internship is going to improve the standard of living of local people by building sustainable businesses, such as investing small-to-medium enterprises in these poor countries. The Arc not only bridges the poor to a better quality of life, but also teaches the students what they could do to create a better future with their learned skills and knowledge for those people who are thriving to live. The same kind of idea also implies in social entrepreneurs, who are society’s agents that handle the major issues in the society. By introducing innovative disruptors, the social entrepreneur does the real act rather than talking over the plans or solutions for certain problems. On the other hand, the United Nations has less passion about tackling the social issues. It takes longer time for the UN to institute a new plan, and furthermore, it requires more effort of doing so. Overall, I think the arc initiative program is an awesome opportunity for students to apply their skills they learn in class and it breaks the traditional way of helping the countries in poverty. (Like in the UN, they have rigid systems of passing certain plans; however, the social enterprise is like a kick-starter, one can start at anytime  and anywhere.)

Netflix (NFLX), the world’s largest video service company, originally from America, is now offering TV shows and movies in six different European countries. (Started from September, 2014) It is now the second-large Internet source in the U.K; however, its biggest rivalry, Amazon, which operates instant videos, maintains its superiority due to an earlier entry to the European market. I totally agree with Lucas Shaw, who wrote about Netflix in his business blog.

According to an income statement reported by CEO Reed Hastings last year, the international revenue went up to 85 percent while they were expecting a maximum of 80 percent. The American style of shows has somehow flushed the domestic film production industry and causes the homegrown movies hard to make profit. However, that situation seems not a big problem for French domestic film producing. A regulation made by French government has clearly informed that every media operating companies has to invest the local film production as well as TV channels to keep homegrown production running. I think this rule not only guarantees a positive growth for domestic film producing but also stimulates the massive investment from international companies. The government establishes a “tariff” on the games and makes sure that the cash doesn’t flow out of the country easily.

In Minnie Liu’s blog, she introduced the concept of “social responsibility and profit maximization can blend seamlessly into one procedure in the business world” through the idea of shared value. In the example that she raised upon on a commitment of the solution to Ebola outbreak, the continuously increase in stock price indicates a huge global demand of such vaccine and in accordance with a fulfillment of ethical duty, the US drug maker J&J has ensured that a safe vaccine will be launched in January 2015.

I agree with Minnie’s point of view, but furthermore, I think the company successfully    brings itself into the stage of a secure business competition. According to Porter’s generic strategies, the company is targeting on a broad market with a large buyer power. (Basically, J&J monopolizes the market with the latest potential vaccine.) J&J has access to leading scientific research and has only two rivalries at the moment. Since their company is the only operation of three that is invested with 200 million dollars, therefore threat of substitutes would not be a problem for distracting the research team and on the contrary, it enhances the research with a credible patent in return. And as a result, the expectation of such vaccine will transfer from the social value to the boost in stock value. Johnson and Johnson is a great demonstration of a shared value in terms of business development through social responsibility.

In order to target more consumers in the crowded marketplace, a company needs to get into the minds of their customers and evaluate the position that it desires to achieve in the market force. The significance of value proposition and the ways of playing the role is essential for a company’s success in the future. For example, an outdoor supplies company has recently sectioned its store into a brand new concept. The mountain equipment co-op (aka MEC) lately puts effort in re-setting the platform of the original company. They renamed the brand, designed a new logo as well as a campaign that was inspired and motivated by the consumers.

By noticing the trend among young generations, MEC started to re-frame the idea of remaining healthy lifestyle; instead of targeting in a general preference of the public, the organizers decided to focus on maintaining a relevant interest of young people from different cultures. For instance, MEC gives consumers a wide range of urban scenes, a varied selection of outdoor categories and provides cyclists with different seasons’ accessories.

The reason that why this company would have succeeded in re-labeling its brand and exploited a new path to the market is because of the correct strategy they are using towards the company. The CEO clearly identifies the company’s competitive advantage and disadvantage, and by blending the strategy of value proposition into the practice of the company, I believe that the outcome would not be disappointed at any point.

A hydroelectric megaproject, which is worth 8 billion dollars, has been rejected by the first nation people in Canada a month ago. The construction of the land will be able to operate a dam as well as 1100-megawatt generating station; however, the dam will flood the farmland and wildlife habitat on the Peace River Valley, and the flood will eventually cause a great loss for the local fisherman. The first nation representatives clearly see the threats to their society, and further the case has been brought up to the Canadian Supreme Court.

The aboriginal groups are claiming for their rights of using the land for ceremonial purposes and stressing on the fact that all the families who live by the valley are counting on fishing as their primary income stream. So if the dam is built, many local will lose in their total income revenues. By facing the benefits and losses, Canadian government is struggling on agreeing with the operation. Since the province needs new energy and new capacity to maintain the power of electricity that is offered for the people in town, therefore a huge generating station is imperative to be built. But the external impacts on doing so are local people losing their jobs in fishery; daily cultural practices on field are impeditive, and later on continuing in disputing the case in the court. I think the government needs to come up with new ideas to satisfy both sides; maybe a smaller projects in area of wind or geothermal would be practical for generating electricity on aboriginals’ land and avoid the unnecessary lost. Therefore, the first nation can change an organization’s business direction as well as influence the companies/government before they make decisions.

In Hong Kong, a peaceful march led by student groups had planned to launch a “civil disobedience” campaign as a part of the Occupy Central movement on Friday October 1^st, which is Chinese national holiday. However, this normal protest was knocked down by the surprising force of Hong Kong Police. The militaristic armed forces enraged the local residents to join the students and fought against the police. By facing this escalating situation of occupying the central of Hong Kong, the regional government had warned the protestors and used tear gases to shock them away. This unbearable action caused a standoff between China and Hong Kong and it seems that the “bridge” that they have been building for 20 years is very fragile at the moment. (The bridge here refers to the promise that was given to Hong Kong: One country, two systems; proposed b一Xiaoping Deng)

As Vivian has mentioned in her blog, Hong Kong’s protestors are claiming for a healthier economic environment as well as a just government; however, what they are protesting now will cause an obstruction for the current operation of the market. Hong Kong, as one of the top three premier financial centers, an investment destination for all kinds of companies, can have no rest to maintain its high-profile global image. Since the students and residents have already occupied the central of Hong Kong, most banks and stores were closed and stocks in the market were dropping dramatically. This very negative side of Hong Kong is presenting the world with not only turbulence in the public but also hesitations among the investors. Because now they are not sure about the future of Hong Kong so the next step of placing their money in the companies is not certain.

Picture:

http://mashable.com/2014/07/01/hong-kong-democracy-rally/

The Apple Company has just debuted its brand new phone models, iPhone6 and iPhone6 plus 5 days ago. The popularity of such cool phones also attracted lots of trend followers in China. They are willing to buy those phones no matter how expensive they are. Dealers in China took the advantage of purchasing IPhones abroad, for example in the United States, where they could buy the phones ahead of the releasing time in Hong Kong and brought them back with them on the plane. And when they arrived home, they could then resell the phones in grey market at a much higher price in Mainland China because there was no other place that sold Iphone6.In another words, they had a competitive advantage for the moment. However, the supplies flood from Hong Kong to mainland market lowered the expectation of growth in price; and what is worse, the price of a resold IPhone6 went down.

Some Hong Kong people came to Mainland China with two or three iPhone6s and hawked them on the street. Since they had a lower cost of stocking these phones, they were more likely to offer a lower price to their clients. These individual resellers from Hong Kong provided a more competitive price than most “shops” in Mainland China offered, and thus they resold them more quickly than the resellers from local did. And making and losing the money all depends on the time these days; according to an interview to a reseller, he said, “the price is dropping way too fast, and while the phones were on the plane, each phone is falling 2000 RMB.” This is definitely a big lost for the vendors who are counting on earning money from reselling these phones in grey market in China.

Picture:

http://www.gottabemobile.com/2014/09/24/iphone-6-vs-galaxy-note-3-bend-test-reveals-clear-winner/

Alibaba’s BABA share was priced at the 68 dollars apiece which exceeded the expected range of 60-66 dollars apiece on Thursday (Sept.9^th) and closed the week at 93.89 a share on the New York Stock Exchange. The unexpected growth of up to 38 percent of its initial offering public price overwhelms the market. But why such a company can strike the stock market with its significant growth? And why could such a company have that growth?

 Alibaba, the very first international website in China created by Yun Ma has gone public and hit the bell in New York Stock Exchange two weeks ago. Although it has a very short operating history, the company really succeeds in online businesses with a remarkable trading volume of approximately 170 billion dollars annually. For example, one of its businesses Taobao, similarly to E-bay, has become the most popular shopping site in China. It commits to provide consumers with diverse and affordable sections of products while promising the protection of secure transactions. The shopping website breakthroughs the old view of Chinese online services and opens a new era of Chinese online market. According to Alexa statistics, Taobao is one of the highest in the rank of 20 popular sites around the world. In order to bring convenience to the customers, Alibaba also create a third-party online payment platform called Alipay. (which is also similar to PayPal.) This online payment reduces the risk of online shopping deals by offering clients with confirmation of the purchased goods before the transaction goes through. The company also cooperates with some high-profile organizations such as visa, Master card and Union pay. The partnership really gives credit to the consumers when they decide to shop on such website.

I think the reason why Alibaba can have such a good result is because it has blended the way of doing businesses culturally and globally. Yun Ma, the current CEO of Alibaba takes the advantage of the huge demand of such online service in accord with the large population in China and realizes that some already successful systems in other countries can also be improved and used in China. He models the way of E-bay selling their products and establishes his own shopping sites. He not only learns from the good side of a system but also identifies the defective parts and makes progresses upon it.

Picture:

http://slant.investorplace.com/2013/10/yhoo-yahoo-stock-alibaba-ipo-marissa-mayer/

Do you know that approximately 443,000 people die from smoking or secondhand smoke exposure every year (from 2000-2004) in the United States? (According to the data on CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) If that number is not appealing to you, now imagine everyday 1,200 people die from smoking cigarettes and a third of them are very young adults just like you and me. Is this question serious enough to warn us to be away from cigarettes and to ring the bell of social responsibility of business among the individual proprietors and corporate executives (that Milton Friedman has discussed in the book Corporate Ethics and Corporate Governance)?