Oasis Business Blog

While the United Nations (UN) is a towering structure that has lead to general improvements in society, it has not brought about the revolutionary changes that social enterprises cultivate within developing nations.

I was a fervid Model United Nations competitor during high-school. Having attended several conferences, I realized that each representative represents a multitude of stakeholders and the UN itself is mandated to additional stakeholders. For example, UN’s Economic and Social Council’s website states:

“ECOSOC engages a wide variety of stakeholders – policymakers, parliamentarians, academics, …(the list goes on)”

It should be no surprise that most of the people who represent their nations are politicians, not innovators, not social entrepreneurs.

A Social enterprise seeks to better the people and planet while generating profit.

In no way am I trying to discredit the value of the UN; I am, however, trying to make the point that the UN and social enterprises are fundamentally different. Social enterprises focus on improvements in humans and the environment, for example the Arc Initiative. The Arc Initiative helps develop business management skills and leadership capacity; it seeks to empower the people so they are self-sustaining; it seeks immediate action to create future change.

Even if the UN was fully funded, injecting a surge of temporary support will not solve the problems of third world nations, but maybe if a fully funded UN and social enterprises worked together, magic could happen.

After reading the article “Why IBM Gives Top Employees a Month to Do Service Abroad” from Harvard Business Review, an external blog, I want to tie together two topics examined separately in COMM 101: social responsibility and corporate culture.

As discussed in class, creating shared value is key to many modern businesses and IBM’s initiate has logged more than 17 million hours in total and created immense social value.

IBM volunteering log in 2011.

At the same time, IBM believes that their skill-based volunteerism increases employee retention and builds skills in the workforce, which are both key factors in maintaing a sustainable competitive advantage – a trait of corporate culture.

But how exactly does it all tie in?

Having volunteered extensively during high school, I believe volunteering gives us a bigger picture of the world. From arranging canned goods for the homeless to helping out at the retirement homes, these acts that don’t ask for anything in return is fundamental to one of IBM’s core values: personal responsibility. By driving in a sense of duty into employees through encouraging volunteerism, IBM reinforces their corporate culture, which ultimately creates sustainable advantage, while generating social value for the community.

Recently, I stumbled upon fellow classmate Dominique Cai’s “Android One Low Cost Smartphone” blogpost in which she explains the new low-end smartphone introduced by Google.

Android One – 120 Dollars

Google phones, while still lacking behind Samsung’s and Apple’s in market share, is  trying to “establishing its name in the developing world” as Dominique wrote.

While I agree this is a strong move from Google as Apple and Samsung have few successful models in the low end market, there are other competitors from overseas that can pose a great threat to Google’s new Android One.

Just this summer, while I was back in China, I bought a temporary smartphone online for 369 Rmb, which is roughly 60 dollars. It has similar operating systems, processing capacity as that of the Android One while being half its price.

TCL P306C – 60 Dollars

How is that possible?

One explanation is that many Chinese retail websites actually lose profit through selling phones. The website I directed to, www.jd.com, is a large online retailer in China known for selling certain phone models at well below store retail prices. In exchange, it has amassed a huge inventory turnover rate that has driven many other online appliance retailers out of the market.

Instead of conventional marketing, JingDong uses the resources that would have been devoted to advertisement to instead drive down costs of certain phone models to attract customers.

Tangoo’s logo, which is a reference to tango.

Today, multiple Sauder alumni came to share their experience of starting their own company. The one that caught my attention the most was Tangoo, an application that suggests restaurants and events based on the users’ moods.

After reading an article on The Huffington Post about Tangoo, I’ve formulated some of my own suggestions and thoughts about it.

For starters, my main criticism is that the application almost seems too simple; while the main function demonstrated in class worked smoothly and stylishly, there should be auxiliary products that directly support the goal of Tangoo, which is to improve the way people socialize.

Ordering on the fly

One idea I had was a “pre-pay” system where people can charge a certain amount of money into their Tangoo account. While traveling to a restaurant, customers can pre-order dishes that fall within their charged amount. Customers can pay through their Tangoo balance or any normal method and withdraw remaining balances any time. If a customer fails to show up, then penalties will be deducted. Essentially, this creates value for Tangoo users because they can save time while eating out.

In addition, Tangoo also gains value because it can now track loyal consumers who eat at specific restaurants which is very useful information that can be sold or further developed upon.