http://piximus.net/vehicles/advertising-war-between-car-brands#13

There are small “wars” going on here and there in the advertising world as companies try to appeal their point of differences to the consumers by directly referencing their competitors. One of the most notable battles going on after the Pepsi-Coca cola battle that each appealed respectively their youthfulness and classical images, are the battles between multiple car brands. It is no surprise that the car brands are referencing each other in advertisements as they exist in a fiercely competitive market where an edge in anything, whether it be engines, appearance, or name values, could directly affect the sales of that car.

In the article, there are different ads that each either promote their brands strong points such as winning the car of the year, or having the greatest appearance, engines, or ABSs, or degrading other brands, such as the picture show, in BMW and Audi each trying the show the deficiencies of the other cars

These advertisements can hardly be called “friendly competition” but it is still a healthy competition as the companies are each showing their points of differences for the customers in a funny attractive way

Prison Labour Relation to Business Ethics?

Prison labour could indeed be viewed as something unethical as one could argue that the businesses are “exploiting” these prison labourers rather than spending some more money to solve the unemployment problems that exist everywhere in the society these days.

But is this really as unethical as it seems to us on the surface? Well, the government apparently doesn’t think so as it is not doing anything to try and stop this from happening everywhere in the prisons. These “jobs” they say are the right type of activities that should be provided to the prisoners as they are going to help in rehabilitating these prisoners faster. Also, when these prisoners get back out to the society, they would finally have some skills to survive and get a job within the society, lowering their chance of going back in to criminal activities again for living.

It is true that this takes away the potential job field that could be available for those that are jobless right now and in need of the job, but a dilemma is posed. Would you rather leave no chance for the prisoners and save those that remain in the society? Or give a second chance to these prisoners.

http://www.businessinsider.com/luxury-brands-lose-millennial-interest-2012-10

Luxury brands have always been appealing to the current buying generation as it was seen as a product that would signify social importance, self confidence, or sheer beauty. As a result, Its brands were positioned with great Points of differences from other brands that lacked its glitter and “the feeling of luxuriousness”

This article however, is arguing that the new generation will not be as willing to buy these goods as the views toward these goods are now being changed to unnecessarily expensive products that generate no great utilities compared to its price.

The article suggests that the brands need to understand the changed attitudes of the new generation that it “needs to understand what money status and success means for them” and create new products, innovations, and ideas accordingly. The luxury brands cannot believe that staying where they are currently without repositioning and renovating their brands can lead to their success or even survival. Brands must consistently be willing to “let go of old ideas” that may be “unnecessary or even counterproductive” and constantly reposition themselves to fit into the constantly changing competitive market place that they are placed in

money can buy you happiness- Micheal Norton

“If you think money can’t buy you happiness, you’re not spending it right” says Micheal Norton on his ted talk. It is his belief through many of his researches that if money is spent towards other people, you will gain more happiness than spending in on yourself.

Micheal Norton, on pro-social money spending

His researches show that people who give are happier people, company work group that give to each other are more successful groups, and even sports teams that give to each other are the winning teams.

Being in a business school, we are all being trained to earn money, however in Comm 292 (Organizational Behaviour), we learn that money, and external motivator does not lead to job satisfaction, or achievement of the internal motivations that makes us happy.With this in mind, would it be possible, with regards to Micheal Norton’s researches, to make this external motivator (money) also an internal motivator, as an instrument that can grant us happiness if we were to give away the excess income that we earn?

article ” A sad state of bank industry ethics”

The article is based on a survey that was done by the SEC(Securities and Exchange Commission) on 500 senior employees within the financial industries of the US and the UK The survey showed some very discouraging numbers which suggested the extremely low level of business ethics present within the financial industry of these two countries.

SEC

Important parts of the survey showed that 30% of the people believed that the company’s compensation pressured them into illegal activities. Also, less than half of the employees believe that their companies have a strong ethical culture, while 16% of workers believe that they are pressured to perform illegal activities by their employers. This was largely due to the small amount of people (44%) that knew that their jobs were protected by the SEC once they “blew the whistle” on these illegal activities.

While people are afraid to “blow the whistle,” we can see there are numerous firms around us practicing unethical business policies and earning a lot of money in the process. While it is typically true that the final objective of the typical firm is to earn a lot of  money, does the end always justify the means?

Sources : http://www.americanbanker.com/magazine/122_9/bank-industrys-sad-state-of-ethics-1051880-1.html

(Russian Vodka Drinkers get New Year Headache)

Russians took a huge hit as the price of their booze doubled in an attempt by the government to lessen the alcohol dependence by its citizens. The question posed within the class regarding this situation was the following : Will this have a negative effect on the companies, or could it be an opportunity for the vodka companies?

Of course, the vodka industry will take a hit; it is without doubt that as an elastic good that is not a necessity, the more expansive the vodka gets, the less people will buy it. This however, could pose as an opportunity, even with its unfortunate circumstances, for the Vodka companies as they could update their status to differentiate themselves from the others with some careful marketing as a premium alcohol, not some cheap alcohol that anyone may drink at anytime. It is ,of course, a long shot, but an opportunity is there for the taking

Vodka sales prevented at night in Russia
http://rbth.ru/articles/2011/10/26/nation_prepares_for_double_vodka_13643.html

(BYOB rule)

A new rule, allowing customers to Bring their own booze to the restaurant and drink it there with the payment of a corkage fee was introduced. We considered within class; if we were restaurant owners, would this be a good rule, or a bad rule??

I personally thought the BYOB was a good rule if I was a restaurant owner as there is nothing to lose. When providing alcohol to the customers, the provider was getting the price of the alcohol and the corkage fee. Now, if the customers were to bring the alcohol, the provider doesn’t need to pay for the alcohol in the first place, and whereas they might be earning a little less money, that, I believe, could certainly be covered through the increased amount of people taking on the corkage fee by bringing their own alcohol, due to the relief in price. The rule is also flexible as  it is said that those of the higher quality restaurants can charge a higher corkage fee to maintain the luxurious atmosphere while those of the cheaper variety may charge as small a fee as 5 dollars.

Now, the only thing that was a question mark was, would the restaurants be held accountable for the alcohols that they corkaged? If that is the case than surely this BYOB rule cannot be a positive one for the restaurant owners; there would be too much things to take care of. It might also be that this rule would encourage drinking for the people that might have otherwise just had a glass or two.

Sand Storm gold “montly stock”
http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/lcddata.html?ticker=sand&fq=D&ezd=1M&index=3

Nolan Watson, the CEO of Sandstorm Gold, explained his company to be one that provides upfront cash to the miners and in return, gets a percent of production at a fixed price, and in turn, earns money by selling it at an increased price. As the interviewer at Fox business stated adequately, Sandstorm is a “bank for miners.”

The SPDR gold trust in the other hand, is defined in its website as a “means of participating in a gold bullion market without the physical delivery of gold” (http://www.spdrgoldshares.com/sites/us/) Therefore making it a manager of the gold that people buy off their stocks..

GLD SPDR montly stock
http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/lcddata.html?ticker=gld

As Nolan Watson mentioned the SPDR GLD stock is only profitable if The gold price is going up, while in SAND, there doesn’t need to be an outstanding increase in gold price in order for an increase on the bottom line,since, a steady flow of money will follow as more gold is mined.  In the current situation where gold price continues to climb, it would seem a smarter idea to invest into GLD straight away rather than invest in SAND, which would still make quite some profit should the gold prices stay up.. However, once the gold price starts to stablize, it might be a better idea to invest in SAND as a fixed flow of gold income will still flow into that company contrary to GLD which will not profit much as long as the gold price doesn’t climb.

As this is my first post, I will begin with a quick introduction,

My name is Jim, I was born on April 4th 1994 in Seoul, Korea… Other than my little time here from Grade 4-5 to study English, I stayed and studied until grade 10 in Seoul… Afterwards, I came to Canada to study in Coquitlam, before coming in to Sauder at UBC

Fresh out of high school last winter, I decided that I deserved a good rest and so, for 8 months, I have been casually distancing myself from anything related to school.

Now here I was, suddenly thrust into the university life, getting through most of the first lecture classes half dreaming, and half awake… That is, until comm 101 and its camera   with the ability to potentially display my huge face up on the front of the class.

All throughout my life, I have been shy to speak up in front of the class, and now, with the addition of a face zoom-in camera and a mic, I had to say, I was intimidated…

while I know it will take a while, quite probably a long while, it is my hope that one day I will get used to this intimidating setting, and be able to speak into the mic confidently

cheers 🙂