Elyssa’s blog talks about how Jimmy Kimmel was able to get people to think the iPhone 4s was actually the new iPhone 5. I thought this was an excellent demonstration of brand power and loyalty, and the effect that expectations can have on a product. In this case the power of marketing has a lot to do with the response to the new iPhone. It was people’s expectations for a faster and more innovative iPhone and their extreme trust in Apple having superior products that let them believe it was the new iPhone. This blog made me consider why I have purchased Apple products over the years and whether the marketing could have impacted my decision as well. I found a similar exampleof brand loyalty between Coke and Pepsi. On average most people would say they preferred the taste of Coke.

A meme depicting customer’s loyalty to Coke.

However when a blind taste test was conducted between the two products with consumers unaware which cola they were drinking 57% preferred Pepsi. This shows that knowing which cola they were drinking affected the taste, similar to the way knowing or thinking it was the iPhone 5 made it faster and lighter.

Image retrieved from the Ecards website.

Over the past few years China’s economic growth rate has been extreme. So much so that people are starting to question the legitimacy of it all. There is growing concern that the slowing of the economic growth may lead to an altogether crash. This concern stems from facts that “imports in August actually fell, by 2.6% year on year” and “businesses accustomed to two digit GDP expansion” have been reduced to one digit. It is suspicious that despite reporting exceptional economic growth China’s electrical use did not grow commensurate with the growth in the economy, given that so much of their economic growth is based on manufacturing. The skepticism towards the legitimacy and accuracy of the data only fuels this concern. I think this is an issue that should be looked into by future investors who potentially plan on expanding to China. From a business standpoint it is important to know everything about what your investing in before investing, especially the economy your investment will be a part of. Here is a link to The Economist article that expands on this topic.

This August the Canadian Government eliminated nearly 3000 reviews which were meant to assess the environmental damage that industrial projects could have. The aim of the changes was to speed up the evaluation process, but seems to be neglecting the fact that the purpose of these reviews is to ensure that the projects are not causing severe environmental damage.This concerns business because omitting the reviews altogether is extremely beneficial for all major corporations involved in these projects. Specifically, the oil and fossil fuel companies will benefit, since 678 of the cancelled reviews were fossil fuel projects and 248 were pipeline projects. This is a stark demonstration of how difficult it is to balance efficiency and profit, with safety and social wellbeing, and the role the government plays in maintaining that balance.

I found these articles especially interesting because 638 of the projects were in Saskatchewan, which is where I’m from. “Saskatchewan is the 2nd largest oil producer in Canada”, behind only Alberta. In Saskatchewan “3,528 oil wells [were] drilled in 2011, representing a 29-per-cent over the figure for 2010”. This growth was, I would assume, slowed only by obstacles such as environmental assessments. In my opinion the real reasoning behind disregarding these assessments was not to improve overall efficiency but to improve efficiency for fossil fuel and oil production. Coincidentally this simultaneously increases the efficiency of the money being transferred into corporate pockets. Links to articles where I found the data listed above and that expand on this topic are below.

Article 1

Article 2

Article 3

Dyncorp corporation is a private company specializing in armed forces, aviation and security. They are regularly hired by the US government for peacekeeping, drug eradication or diplomat protection in a variety of countries including Haiti, Afghanistan, Colombia, Bosnia, ect. Their website would make them out to be heroes however if you look deeper into the corporation it becomes clear that they have gravely abused their authority multiple times. One instance of this abuse occurred when they were hired by the U.S to assist the war on drugs in Colombia. They were hired to eradicate all illicit crops. Instead of discovering what areas were populated they sprayed toxic herbicide everywhere resulting in deaths and illnesses. My guess to why they didn’t chart the populated areas is that they were too lazy to follow protocol. For this reason and many others I do not think millitary should be privatized. It should be run solely by the government which would at least remove some profit motive out of the business of killing. It would simultaneously make it easier to ensure that regulations and protocols are being followed. Here is a link to the suit filed and here is the official Dyncorp Website.

Dyncorp is also accused of being involved in the sex trade.

Image was retrieved from: http://blogs.longwood.edu/humantrafficking/2012/03/03/the-whistleblower/

Walmart has also been accused of unfair treatment of their employees.

Walmart has been involved in numerous scandals over the years. One example took place when Walmart decided to establish new locations in Mexico. In 2005 a former executive revealed that Walmart de Mexico had used bribery in order to dominate the markets, specifically to obtain the permits needed to build new stores. The allegations were investigated, however in the end the decision was made not to pursue the case. The question here is (like with Walmart’s many other allegations) whether they are actually innocent of these charges, or whether money makes a company untouchable and ethics unimportant. I think the above is one small example of how a large, billion dollar company can easily use money to make itself exempt from laws, making business ethics insignificant. You can read more on this link.

Image was retrieved from: http://business.time.com/2012/04/23/how-big-a-deal-is-wal-marts-mexico-bribery-scandal/

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