It is a thought-provoking question that “If  the United Nations was fully funded why would we need the Arc or social enterprise?”.My answer is that our society need social enterprise and program like Arc to grow and thrive in a more sustainable and efficient way.

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I’m greatly touched and inspired by the stories of Salem Kassahun and Fitih Tesfaye,and genuinely appreciate the active contribution our Sauder alumi made in Africa. I’m especially impressed with the case of Salem’s Ethiopia, a craft boutique in Addis Ababa,which not only aims to make profits but manages to increase the income and living standard of local women.With the help of Arc,she finally successfully expanded her business and employed more impoverished women.

When those entrepreneurs are faced with obstacles in expanding or surviving in business due to the lack of professional knowledge,Arc is there to help.Arc offers finance and marketing workshop,and helps people track down the issues and resolve the problems.By sharing business ideas or simply engaging in the workshop,African businessman and businesswomen get income-generating ideas and are able to rethink their entire business models and revise them systematically.

In the future,I’m eager to join Arc and apply what I’ve learned in Sauder in to real business world to help better social enterprise in African.

Undoubtedly,social entrepreneurs have shared value and characteristics.They are ambitious,passionate,determined.More importantly,they are willing to make the society progressively better with strategic ideas.

Link:

 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-growth/day-to-day/can-fair-trade-boutique-expand-without-alienating-customers/article4405520/

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In response to Michael’s blog,he relates to the organizational culture of Starbucks and how Starbucks transforms the rules within the company and promotes a happier and more comfortable working conditions for employees.

As Michael has mentioned,Starbucks allows for  greater self expression of workers,provides them with free snacks for every shift,and creates a more relaxed and inclusive working environment.This is of great significance in business world because it shapes the image of Starbucks as a responsible company who treats its employees in the best possible way and offers satisfactory service to consumers.

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It reminds me of the similar case of Zappos we discussed in class 19.Organizational culture is undoubtedly the shared value and belief within a company and affects the way we make decisions and overcome obstacles.The core value of both company’s organizational culture is “happiness”.Zappos encourages positive team spirit,gives free medical and dental care to employees,and tries best to give  every worker a sense of belongings.Those rules benefit the whole company in a long run.Firstly,job satisfaction of employees increases and the turnover rate goes down.Also,a positive impression of consumers does help in boosting sales because one of the factors consumers will consider when they are purchasing is organization culture.Last but not least,positive organizational culture can serve as  sustainable competitive advantage.

Link:

https://blogs.ubc.ca/michaelsky/

http://humanresources.about.com/od/organizationalculture/a/how-zappos-reinforces-its-company-culture.htm

In  Jingwen’s blog,she relates to a latest brand crisis of a well-known shampoo called Bawang.Bawang shampoo previously had a considerably large consumer base.The product contains traditional Chinese medicine,which is indeed beneficial for consumers’ hair and sounds especially attractive for those customers with special preferences.However,it was reported that Bawang shampoo product overuse Carcinogens,posing a threat to consumers’health.Everything changed since then.

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As Jingwen has mentioned in her blog,consumers turn to other products even after the news have been proved fake.She proposed that a company should communicate with its consumers effectively and efficiently to maintain the company image in case of emergency.

This reminds me of how important it is to establish and stabilize corporate image.The competition over market shares is essentially “a battle of mind”①.Obviously,consumers tend to buy a brand that pops up in their mind first.For example,Coco Cola,a leader in soft drink industry,has many followers simply because it is the first company to launch cola product rather than the better quality.

Bawang was once successful because its accurate positioning strategy.It is the first company to combine traditional Chinese medicine with shampoo and appeal to a environmentally-friendly way to attend to your hair.However,the reason it failed is due to the failure of maintaining the image.Overall,positioning is a secret weapon and the first step towards a company’s success.

Link

Positioning—- What the customers think exceeds what the true is

http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/ries-trout/positioning/(①）

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In class 18,we heard fantastic presentations delivered by three alumni who started up their own business after graduating from Sauder. From my point of view,the most impressive idea is from Tangoo,a new and creative app served for social purposes.I checked the Tangoo blog after class,and I found it pretty successful and attractive in terms of delivering their value proposition

Tangoo clearly knows what their customer segment is and how to catch their attention.One way they figure out is to differentiate from others by humanizing blog.Targeting at consumers who are seeking for a perfect place for dating or hanging out with friends or family,designers successfully narrow the distance between the target customers by creating a casual atmosphere with less formal pictures of people laughing and enjoying dinner as well as the breath-taking view.They also showcase customers some behind-the-scenes glimpse of their team and share their inspiring stories.

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With the logo of “Tangoo,your pocket concierge”,Tangoo’s value proposition is clearly defined as providing useful information and recommendations in a fast and simple way to ensure that the social night is perfect and entertaining.Tangoo is a hands-on app that is innovative and convenient to check the destination information at any time,which greatly fulfills the need of modern people trying to save time.

Recently,I began to use the app myself and found it pretty useful and convenient.I believe the future of Tangoo is undoubtedly promising.

Link

https://blog.tangoo.ca/

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Recent years have witnessed a tremendous success of k-pop industry.The total revenue of three dominant k-pop companies,SM entertainment,YG,and JYP amounted to a record of approximately $155,889,608 in the first half of 2013.In comparison to the approximate $102,815,053.60 in 2012.The company managers not only make money through the release of albums,but also find touring and merchandise sales even more profitable.

Through strict selection process,long training time,and professional appearance management,k-pop stars swept across Asia,Europe and North America and become household names.Rain,a leading k-pop singer in Korea, was recognized as the most influential person of the year by Time magazine.Also,music band Big Bang reached the top 10 album chart on US iTunes.

(Photo credit:google image)

However,behind the prosperity of k-pop industry is the cruel and unethical treatment to idols.Little care is given to the safety and health of the idols.They are forced to perform nonstop and work as hard as possible in order to survive the fierce competition and remain popular in the market.Despite the excessive exposure and overload,idols are still required to sing and dance on stage during illness and injuries.Krystal,a member of f(x) in SM entertainment company was reported fainting immediately after performance due to over-time working.Besides,Idols get little shares from the revenue they earned at the expense of health after recoup of managers.Once exposed by the media,k-pop company is blamed by the public and some fans even propose to resist on purchasing albums produced by SM entertainment.

From my point of view,k-pop company should take triple bottom line into consideration and create shared value between company and idols.Enough attention should be given to the health of idols by extending rest time and offering physical examinations.Also,increasing the earnings of idols to give them more incentives to make more profit for the company.This enhances the reputation of company and does good in attracting more fans.

http://sophiayulessonbuilder.wordpress.com/

http://www.allkpop.com/article/2013/08/earnings-of-sm-yg-and-jyp-for-the-first-half-of-2013-revealed

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13760064

The First Nation declared a site of abundant mineral property to be its territory and strongly stands against the mining exploitation of mining industry firms.This results in conflicts between development and preservation,resulting in a tremendous impact on business decisions.

Traditionally,it is fairly common for a mining company to acquire the license from the authority and exploit mineral resources in a large scale to earn great deal of profit regardless of the natives’ culture and life styles.However,the business decision needs to be changed accordingly considering the protest and opposition of the First Nation people.Those companies are no longer allowed to enter the territory of the First Nation,let alone the exploitation of the resources.Additionally,mining companies are forced to transform their ways of development and adopt a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly way in terms of resources exploitation.①

It is of great importance of mining industry managers to catch up with the cultural trend and be respectful of local cultural heritage.To be more specific,mining company holders should negotiate and cooperate with the First Nation people to establish a long term partnership to achieve a win-win situation by providing with working opportunities for local people and exploit the environment without interrupting their previous life styles.To achieve this,more advanced technology should be introduced to mining industry to make a profit in a more efficient and sustainable way.

Source
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/metro/Unilateral+park+declared+Tsilhqot+includes+Prosperity+mine/10192766/story.html
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/First+Nation+chiefs+stage+Site+showdown/10215965/story.html

China is acknowledged as a country with a large population and huge market potential.In terms of movies,China has become the largest international market around the world,which draw attentions from many famous movie directors and managers.

One of the most common ways is to hire some Chinese stars to play roles in the movie.In this way,producers can successfully attract a large proportions of movie fans who don’t care about the plot and quality of the movie to buy their tickets just for the performances of their idols.However,it is criticized because some movie producers launch “Chinese special version” of poor quality and production regardless of the feelings of audiences in China just for the short-term profit.Although it did work at first,but later audiences refuse to be tricked by businessman and the reputation and box office earnings of Hollywood movies drop to a great extend.To secure the position in Chinese market,Hollywood producers learn to adjust their way of making movies and cooperate with the authority to introduce more various and high-quality movies into China to cater the different needs of movie lovers.

To seek for long-term profit,it is of great significance to establish a strong and loyal relationship with consumers,and one of the requirement is being honest and not make money by cheating on consumers.When it comes to movie,it is not necessity but a spirit product that can enhance the quality of one’s life.To further fulfill the need of consumers,producers are bound to produce more types of extraordinary movies to expand market shares.

Starbucks is undoubtedly one of the most valuable brands around the world.Is is recognized as a fashion ,a casual life style,and it is extremely popular among young generations.In a business canvas,value propositions of a company are acknowledged as “get the job done”,and my analyses of Starbucks are as follows.

Firstly,Starbucks can meet the shared basic need of consumers,which is to refresh them in the early morning or late evening in order to work more effectively and efficiently.Also,to cater the varying needs of different consumer segments,the diversity of products is the ultimate solutions.Starbucks provides with various coffee and other food and drinks including latte,cappuccino,hot chocolate and cakes.Also,it will launch new flavor of Frappuccino to attract more consumers.In terms of the accessibility,Starbucks has coffee shops spreading almost around every busy streets and malls,which make it extremely convenient for consumers to grab a drink after a long exhausted day.Most importantly,Starbucks has established a loyal relationship with consumers by shaping itself as a leading and fashionable brand.Youngsters tend to follow their peers,which means if a person of a group propose to buy a drink in Starbucks,the rest of them will generally follow the shoes even they are not thirsty or tired at all.

In a word,a company can only expand and be a leader in a certain area by knowing exactly what consumers need and fulfilling the specific needs of consumer.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-berkshire-29012713

In recent years, it is not uncommon to see that some companies tend to make short-term profit at the cost of the whole environment. Pollution and waste are two obvious examples. By pouring effluent directly into the sea or lakes, a company may save millions of dollars which should have been spent to construct environment protection system. In terms of business ethics, those firms fail to obey the social rules and increase profit in a legal and justified way because they take law and morality for granted and focus merely on their own interest. As far as I am concerned, companies are not necessarily responsible to contribute to improving the environment, but they should at least bear in mind that the bottom line is not to pollute and damage the ecological environment for the sake of their own good. Maximizing the profit is a jointly goal of all existing corporations but it is not an excuse for destroying the environment. Also, a waste of resources such as water and trees is unforgivable. For one thing, those resources are public property, which is shared by the society as a whole. For another, the wasting phenomenon means the company doesn’t take its social responsibility and fails to use those resources to the fullest. To tackle the problems, corporations are expected make some changes such as introducing new technology to prevent these problems from happening again.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-12970105
This article raises a controversial opinion that the rise of feminism stands in the way of male career promotion. Is it true? Personally, I can’ totally agree with him because men and women undoubtedly share the same right and it is not a woman’s fault if a men fails to find a job. I believe that a company should be responsible to provide man and women with equal chance and respect to succeed in the business working place. For so long, women are deprived of the right of receiving higher education and forced to do poor-paid job just because of the prejudice that women are less capable of fulfilling the task than man. However, the truth is that in most fields including finance, marketing, accounting and so on, female workers can have the work done perfectly as male employees or even better. To say that does not necessarily mean that a company should hire a woman without any condition with a pure purpose of promoting gender equality. It is not the gender that matters. In other words, a company with business ethics will set rules to create an equal working environment for man and women alike and at the same time not base its talent selection on gender only.