Leah Eichler‘s blog talks about how the world is going to change due to developing automation and information technology. In her blog, she first talks about in the future, everything could be automatic that the car will automatically drive you to the working place and coffees will be ready for you when you want it. This leads people to imaging a world that is robotic. Furthermore, a world of automation may not be entertaining.

Leah Eichler’s blog reminds me of how technologies have changed the world. For example, phones are at first used to call someone whenever necessary. When smartphones are released, people finds that the phone makes life easier  that they can chat with friends on the phone anywhere anytime. However, this new technology also brings a negative impact that people talk face to face less in daily life. Imaging a group of friends having dinner together and when one of them starts using his phone, others will take out their phone and there will be silence on the dining table.  Thus, automation and new information system could be harmful for our real life.

As Lan Li mentioned in her blog, more and more information from Facebook appears in many sites associated with Facebook without the users’ awareness. I agree that losing customers’ privacy to make profit is unethical. Online privacy is a very hard to manage that posts updated by an individual could be found online easily. In fact, hacking is common in an online system.

In general, everything you put online could be hacked or seen by someone else. If someone really wants to find out what person you are and what you do in your life, they can look at your Facebook or any other online social applications. Although you can set your information to be private on Facebook, other people can still find out your information from your friends’ Facebook. Thus, even if you do not post anything about yourself online, your friends may. In my opinion, there is not really an online privacy and people should be aware to post important information.

I  agree to what Nan Xi Zhao talked about creating a great organization culture. She mentioned what we learned in class that encouraging employees is the essential. I agree that people who have true passion for their job will help the firm to grow.

Employees who work for the firm must at least love their firm. Thus, they put more effort into the firm and hoping their firm to grow. Employers should gives employees a feeling that the firm is not just a working place, it is also employers’ home. Employers and Employees’ relationship is really important that a good relationship will lead to growth of the firm. For example, people who work in Zappos are passionate to their company and work happily. Their work is more efficient and they are willing to go to work. Employees’ willingness to work is also essential for the company. Ways to success for a company are knowing what customers want, knowing what employees want and fulfill their needs.

Recently, Sony released its SmartWatch 2, but it didn’t get much attention as Samsung’s Galaxy Gear. SmartWatches allows people to check notifications without pulling out the phone from the pocket. This new technology is convenient, but there are only a few people using it as most people believes the SmartWatch is not essential for them.

In the market, SmartWatch was out for a long period, but not a lot of people are interested in buying one. Indeed, SmartWatch still have a series of problems. For example, for Sony’s SmartWatch 2, customers needs wireless headphone in order to answer the phone call. For Samsung’s Galaxy Gear, it has a microphone on the watch, but when it is used in a noisy place, it is hard to hear and talk. For companies selling SmartWatch, they need to hear what customers wants to have a good start. A lean start-up is recommended that the company needs to hear more from customers, not simply managing the product.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/gadgets-and-gear/gadgets/review-what-is-sonys-smartwatch-good-for/article15444507/

http://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/sony-releases-200-android-phone-compatible-smartwatch-1.1497877

Snapchat is an app launched in September 2011 and grows significantly around the world. This app allows people to chat by sending photos and the photo sent will be erased after a few seconds. People can decide how long they want their friends to see the photo and there will be no chatting records on the app. In fact, according to Snapchat’s founder, Evan Spiegel, seven million British people may be snapchatting since the app was released. This app becomes popular and Facebook would like to buy it for 3 billion dollars. However, Snapchat rejected it.

In this case, Snapchat is just a starting company and its future cannot be estimated. It could be worth more than 3 billion dollar or it could fail after a few years. In my opinion, Snapchat might worth more than what Facebook offered because this is a brand new system in our society. This system may have some bugs such as people could use other devices to record the photo received before it is automatically deleted. However, these problems can be solved or being ignored that most users will just enjoy the fun process of sharing photos other than recording every photo they received.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/snapchat-rejects-facebook-s-3b-buyout-offer-report-1.2426180

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24925932

November 11 is Chinese Singles’ day. Taobao and Tmall, the main Chinese online retailing platform offered massive sales in this special day. According to the weibo of Tmall, they made 30 billion yuan during Singles’ Day and exceeded last year’s sale, 19 billion within 13 hours. It also beats U.S.’s Cyper Monday sale within 9 hours. This record shows offering massive discounts on specific date can increase sales. In addition, the big sales of Tmall attracts more customers.

Taobao is an online retailing under Alibaba Group and it then changes its name to Tianmao Mall to sell branded goods. In 21th century, many people choose to shop online instead of shopping in a real mall. Tmall provides this online retailing platform and offers sales on some special dates, such as Singles’ Day. It has a very organized IT system that sellers can get feedback from customers online to improve. I believe Tmall will continue to increase its sales online, but still it will not replace the real shopping mall as some people still prefer shopping with the actual product in front of them.

http://www.weibo.com/tmall?is_search=0&visible=0&is_tag=0&profile_ftype=1&page=2#feedtop

http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/1353890/singles-day-discounts-prompt-online-shoppers-spend-30-billion

When people talks about aircraft, the most familiar aircraft might be Boeing due to its long history and good performance. However, in the recent years, many problems exist on Boeing’s aircraft, such as overheat battery of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner¹. This causes Boeing to lose buyers that recently Japan Airlines chose to buy aircraft from Airbus. In fact, Japan Airlines has been purchasing aircraft from Boeing for a long decades. However, the problems of Boeing aircraft decreased the customer and increased the cost of Japan Airline. Thus, Japan Airline made a deal to buy 31 Airbus A350 wide-body jets  from Airbus².  

In order for a brand to hold its position in a competitive market, it has to have its unique value proposition. For a aircraft industry, the main goal is to provide a safe aircraft. In this case, Boeing provided the light-weighted Boeing 787 Dreamliner, initially to save cost for airlines, but series of problems results in a higher cost. In such competitive market, any negative information of a company will cause the company lose customers and suppliers, even for the company that has been cooperating for a long period of time.

1 http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/boeing-787-dreamliner-woes-continue-as-polish-airline-flight-diverted-due-to-faulty-antenna/2013/09/29/e1f3c4e0-294e-11e3-b141-298f46539716_story.html

2 http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/boeing-787-dreamliner-woes-continue-as-polish-airline-flight-diverted-due-to-faulty-antenna/2013/09/29/e1f3c4e0-294e-11e3-b141-298f46539716_story.html

3 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/08/business/international/jal-orders-9-5-billion-worth-of-airbus-jets.html

Ford, as one of the biggest automaker company in the world, is investing $700 million in Oakville in Ontario. This investment marks a significant change for Ford that it secures the current employees in Ontario and makes Ford more competitive in Canada.  As the auto industry takes a big role in Ontario economy, the investment in auto company will  lower the unemployment rate in Ontario. Not only this investment is benefit for Ford, it also benefits the town, Oakville. Indeed, the town will be developed that there could be more jobs created for the people in Oakville. In addition, Ontario and the federal government also provide around $70 million each toward the investment in which auto industry is going grow in Ontario. 

 
Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/ford-investing-700-million-in-its-oakville-ont-plant-1.1461293#ixzz2h6YRO7db

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/ford-gets-boost-from-ontario-ottawa/article14327941/

In September 12^th, 2013, Twitter released a tweet at 2 PM saying, “We’ve confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO. This tweet does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale.”¹

Indeed, Twitter is going public which may or may not gain profit for the company. On one hand, twitter gets the most mobile users which can help the company increase the number of advertiser and its revenue is growing year by year. On the other hand, twitter has zero profit since 2006 despite its increasing revenue. The uncertainty of online advertising market also exists that the advertisers are not fixed. In addition, Twitter concerns spam accounts that could result in a lower stock price.

Although risks and concerns exist, Twitter could earn profit through IPO because it has a strong reputation over the public. In fact, according to the video² from the news, a penny stock which has the same symbol with Twitter “went from penny to five cents” when it is released on October 4^th. This shows that many people would like to buy Twitter’s stock and thus it is a worthy management decision to let Twitter go public.

1 http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/twitter-announces-ipo-in-a-tweet-1.1704547

2 http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/twitter-ipo-details-raise-questions-over-financials-bots-1.1912936

As a resident in Marpole, Vancouver, I saw many “STOP MARPOLE REZONING” law signs around my home. These law signs has been out on the street since August due to a Marpole rezoning plan by City of Vancouver.

According to the news article, “Marpole residents up in arms over rezoning”, residents in Marpole gathered in the Marpole community centre and picked up the law signs to protest Marpole rezoning. Although rezoning provides more living places and increases the density of Marpole, the new rezoning plan is going to “increase the density […] by as much as 50 per cent”. Thus, as residents, we will face the problems such as increasing property taxes, more cars on the road, more noises on the street, and becoming crowded.

In this case, the City of Vancouver, should be aware of the stakeholder theory that they have to make decisions that benefits not only the city, but also the residents in Marpole.  Indeed, most of the residents in Marpole do not agree to have such big change for Marpole over the next 30 years. Therefore, some residents decided to encourage as many other residents to go to City Hall and let the City hear our voices before they approve the Marpole Plan. In this way, the City and the residents may come to a solution that benefits each other.