Through learning the topic “People, Culture and Team” in the class, I was especially impressed with the CEO of Zappos, Tony Hsieh. He was the man that created the miracle of the company. Under his successful leadership, Zappos has grown sales from $1.6 million to $840 million in just seven years by focusing on excellent customer service and delivering the science of happiness in the company.

I always believe that Tony is full of knowledge and has the abilities to apply the theory in the real life. The academic life in Harvard University gave him more opportunities to realize his dreams. When I was reading his article, a sentence grabbed my attention immediately; “I just liked working for Zappos.” He is such amazing and unbelievable that he can make almost everyone want to be there, even though the low wages. He built the open and honest relationships with communication, built a positive team and family spirit, pursued growth and learning in the company. All of his core values helped him understand what customers and employees want to say. Tony’s story shows that company’s culture and service decide its potential development in the future. It’s not about the money; it’s about the culture and responsibility.

Exterbal blog: http://www.crunchbase.com/person/tony-hsieh

Recently, I read Amna’s blog about the success of Snapchat. I think what he wrote is only part of the reasons why the new start-up company, Snapchat, can earn such a great numbers of users. He said that Snapchat’s gain in popularity among teenagers is mainly because there are no advertisements in its apps and also they protect the users’ privacy unlike other social media websites.

I think that his analysis is right, but it does not include all the reasons that they can quickly become popular. The other reason is that Snapchat company is the first one that conceives this idea and then immediately make it possible in real world. Offering quick photo and video sharing in texts is not a hard work, but no one can start doing it. So when Snapchat creates this new technology, it quickly impresses the users and then become successful. Another good point in Amna’s analysis is that he pointed out how Snapchat will develop and earn profits without advertising in the future. It satisfies my curiosity on one hand. On the other hand, he still not forget to analyze this new method if it can make it more profitable.

Amna Masud’s Blog:

https://blogs.ubc.ca/amnamasud/2013/11/12/lean-start-up-snapchat/

The famous Canadian brand Lululemon recently gave a response to the public about their qualities of new designed yoga pants, “Frankly, some women’s bodies just don’t work for it.” As a company, it is not the customers’ faults that they cannot work for the yoga pants. It is the company’s own problem that the products did not work for the consumers.

Recently, I read Ka Yan’s blog about this news. She believes that even though Lululemon start doing plus sizes yoga pants in the future, they still cannot get profit because of the consumers’ view of the discriminatory company. To large extent, I agree with her opinion. Customers that were once loyal to Lululemon before will get angry with their disrespect of middle-aged, fat people and then they will tell their friends and family members about this story. After a few time, a large number of consumers will shift to look other brands to satisfy their needs. This behavior of Lululemon is definitely hurting its brand image which means that it may largely reduce their sales because of negative effects.

Ka Yan’s blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/kayanyang/2013/10/26/lululemon-discriminating-against-certain-body-types/