Jenny Zheng's Blog

After reading Kevin’s article titled “We’re Coming Home”, I was curious to find out whether Obama will really declare another war against some other country right after the Iraq-American War is over. As discussed in his article, Kevin believes an end to war leads to a decline in the industries that produce war equipment.

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However, the reason that the unemployment rate in the U.S. is rising so rapidly in the recent years is due to causes not related to war. According to this article, the main cause for unemployment in the U.S. is due to the wide spread concept of globalization. Multinational corporations are increasingly outsourcing their products from countries such as China, and India that can supply cheap labor. This causes thousands of American employees jobless and American factories to close down.

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In other words, even if Obama declares a war on another country with the goal of boosting the U.S. economy, this will prove to be ineffective in the long run. Even if the U.S. does not outsource any war products, this slight boost in employment will not compensate for the large downfall in the U.S. economy.

After reading Jennifer’s blog on an entrepreneur who revolutionized a student’s studying habits, I was interested in what specific entrepreneurial traits that allowed Mark Zuckerberg, the facebook founder, to be so successful.

According to one of the class readings on entrepreneurship, the four main characteristics of identifying an entrepreneur are: 1. substantial wealth creation, 2. rapid wealth creation, 3. high level risk taking, 4. substantial innovation.

As Jennifer mentioned, Mark Zuckerberg is ranked as the top 20s richest people on Forbes 400 with a personal wealth estimated to be around 17.5 billion. It is clear to see the Mark Zuckerberg’s company is doing substantially well, profiting an estimated $ 1 billion by the end of 2011.

In an interview with Mark Zuckerberg at Y Combinator’s Starup School in Palo Alto, California, he states “the only strategy guaranteed to fail is not taking risks”. Although in the beginning of creating Facebook, Mark feared Google will take over his team’s product, he continued doing what he is passionate of, which is building Facebook, the largest internet social network today.

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The concept of sustainability has been strongly reinforced in recent years as our environment have been severely abused due to increased pollution and unsustainable practices. Many businesses have adopted the environmentally-friendly concept of practicing sustainability in order to preserve our natural resources for the future generation.

Recently, the Honda Civic Natural Gas has won the 2012 Green Car of the Year award. Fueled by natural gas, the Civic Natural Gas offers greater fuel efficiency as the natural gas is a clean fuel that costs 30% less than gasoline.

As mentioned in Class 14, every company is striving to develop green technology. The use of natural gas in Honda Civic’s green car of the year is beneficial to the environment because natural gas is a much cleaner gas as opposed to the fossil fuel used in most cars today. Natural gas releases fewer emissions such as sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen oxides that may contribute to acid rain, global warming, and urban smog. With car companies competing to produce cars that emit the least pollution, consumers can enjoy their luxury goods while maintaining the environment’s natural resources.

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Established on April 1, 1976, Apple currently has 357 retail stores in 10 countries. As of 2011, Apple is considered the largest technology company in the world, making a revenue of 60 billion a year. With a very liquid cash flow, Apple creates substantial wealth, profiting billions a year as opposed to small business ventures that earn an income that replaces traditional employment.

In terms of speed of wealth creation, Apple has several lines including Macintosh line of computers, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. That being said, Apple generates tremendous amount of wealth over a short period of time with the iPhone alone making 39,989,000 in revenue a year. When Apple went public, it generated more capital than any IPO company and was such an instant success that it created more millionaires than any other company in history.

With five generations of the iPhone, the first generation of this smartphone was released in 2007. Just recently, Apple has released its fifth generation, the iPhone 4s which featured fast dual processor, higher resolution camera and a natural language voice control system. Just within four years, Apple has created five generations of its smartphone line.

According to this article, Coca-cola has recently launched an advertising campaign featuring polar bears. The drink’s initial red can will be replaced with snow white cans with the image of a bear and two cubs.

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The new image supposedly promotes environmental awareness by hoping to spark a fund-raising campaign in which Coca Cola will donate $4 million dollars to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

The WWF project not only protects the polar bear habitat, but also the native Inuit people with an estimated cost of $10 million. The new packaging is expected to last through February in 2012. In addition to the advertisements, Coca-Cola and WWF have launched an Arctic Home website where additional information regarding the project can be found. Coca-cola is also taking on a film with MacGillivray Freeman Films to produce a new IMAX movie called “To The Arctic 3D” in 2012.

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Though it may appear Coca Cola is helping to spread environmental awareness, I personally believe this is merely a marketing strategy to increase sales. By forming an alliance with the WWF, Coca-Cola takes on an eco-friendly image through their featured polar bears which have been named as “one of the greatest mascots of all time” by Madison Avenue Advertising Executive.

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Although Apple’s profit has increased by 54%, the company’s launch of the iphone4s has fallen short of expectation. In the first quarter of its sales, it is reported that sales of iphones, ipad, and macbooks have jumped 21 percent since last year. However, after announcing the fourth quarter results on Tuesday, company’s shares have dropped 7 percent. With a 16% drop from the third quarter of iphone sales, Apple blame rumors of the release of a new iphone in the fall.

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Although iphone sales have been lower than estimated, the new CEO, Tim Cook, said he was confident that Apple would set an ‘all time record’ in the holiday quarter. With Android having a 43.4% of worldwide smartphone market share, Apple is still thriving in the mobile industry with a 18.2% market share. Even though the circulation of the launch of a new iphone caused many consumers to wait for the newer version, I believe these rumors will not be in effect in the long run. In addition, with increasing growth rate of the macbooks and ipads, Apple’s stock market shares will not be significantly influenced by its mobile phone line.

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As discussed in a previous lecture, Tim Hortons is planning to expand its chain by establishing shops in new foreign markets such as Dubai. After weighing the cost and benefits of this strategic plan, it was concluded that this was a profitable investment because the modern Middle Eastern City of Dubai will expose Tim Hortons to tourists in numerous countries. In fact, according to Tim Hortons’ CEO, Paul House, the new location in Dubai represents “the first true export of the brand”.

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Tim Hortons’ opening in Dubai created an online buzz among homesick Canadians. Loyal Canadian customers waited in long lines for a taste of the store’s trademark, the “double double”. In addition, with millions of tourists in Dubai each year, the populated city will help Tim Hortons attract consumers from countries such as Russia, the store’s next target.

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Despite successful investment in a foreign market, Paul House has no intention of globalizing the brand in the coming year. Announced earlier, House plans to focus on building a stronger brand image in the U.S. market. As one of the first major chains to open up locations on university campuses, the CEO hopes to implement this strategy on universities located in America.

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Bank of America and several other American banks such as J.P Morgan Chase & Co announced a monthly debit fee in late September. The new five dollar monthly fee will be effective for all debit card purchases in the coming year. Due to new regulation costs established by the government, banks are seeking out for alternative ways to minimize their loss. The new regulation is estimated to cause a 6.6 billion loss in revenue a year for banks in America.

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With the U.S. economy heading towards another recession, this new expense will only pave the path to many future protests. In addition, this is an extremely poor time for banks to charge an additional fee that was once free of charge. Aside from a growing unemployment rate, consumers will now be even more reluctant to spend their income. Once this fee is in effect, many customers will simply cut off their debit cards and resort to purchasing with cash or credit cards. Other bank companies will take advantage of this opportunity to advertise on their fee-free debit cards. In the end, Bank of America will lose its customers as consumers will switch to other substitutes.

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In Christopher S. Rugaber’s blog, he mentions that with the previous recession taking place almost two and a half years ago, U.S. citizens’ fear another recession may take place due to high rates of unemployment. To ease off fears of a new recession, the economy has added 103,000 jobs as of September.

However, this is still not enough to compensate for the high employment rate in the U.S. Currently, 14 million Americans still remain unemployed, with an additional 9.3 million working as part time but would rather work full time.Since unemployment leads to a lowered household income, consumers are less inclined to spending money.

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After reading his blog and doing some research, I believe the loss of jobs nationwide is mainly due to a shortage of cash flow in the economy. With high taxes placed on companies, jobs are cut in order to counterbalance the costs. However, with large American corporations such as Wal-Mart making billions in revenue a year, higher tax rates should apply. Once a sufficient flow of money is in circulation, the recovering economy will in turn stimulate job opportunities.