Jingyi Jia's Blog

In Yueyi’s blog “Sustainability in Nokia”, she talked about Nokia also focus on producing eco-friendly mobiles not only the quality of cell phones. She mentioned that both products and packaging of Nokia are renewable and 100% recyclable. I agree with her that sustainability of a firm can be a competitive advantage hence attracting consumers by their unique characteristic. Additionally, she also mentioned that companies with sustainability would survive longer in the market because they can easily get more attention from consumers.

However, despite the sustainable competitive advantage of Nokia, it actually has lots of problems now. The biggest problem is its Windows phones. Despite owning almost all Windows phone sales in the market, and making great phone hardware, Nokia is not even in the top 5 when it comes to smartphone sales. Fortunately, Nokia made a public pact with Microsoft and customers. If it makes Android devices, many would see it as a tragedy for Windows phones, potentially dragging down already weak sales of its entire line. Currently, Nokia survives in the competition with Windows phones, however, if it cannot find a way to encourage more manufacturers to stick with Windows phones, Nokia will again, stand on the burning platform. Therefore, apparently sustainability could not help Nokia increase its profits a lot.

Resource:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/nokia-windows-phone-problems/

I recently read a business blog online which talks about a new phone Xiaomi produced in China , a smartphone similar with Apple. The blog discussed that Xiaomi is often criticized for imitating Apple’s flashy product launches, but there is no doubt the strategy is paying off. The fact is that Xiaomi has eclipsed Apple’s smartphone sales inside the Chinese market.  Two years after launching its first phone, it accounts for five per cent of smartphone sales. Apple now has just 4.8 per cent, down from 9.1 per cent in 2012, according to market research firm Canalys. The reasons why Xiaomi is now so popular in Chinese market is firstly price difference from Apple. Xiaomi’s higher-end Mi-2S sells for $285 and obviously the price beat iPhone 5C($757) and Samsung($761). The second reason is that Xiaomi and Apple are vastly different firms. Xiaomi started life as a social networking site and there are no stores which cuts back on costs.

I totally agree with what the author said in the blog, Xiaomi apparently has a lot of advantages in Chinese market. However, it is still small. It has raised projected sales for 2013 to 20 million phones compared to Apple’s 37 million in the first quarter of 2013 alone. The CEO of Xiaomi realized the status quo but he still has Apples-sized ambition: In 2012, he told China Daily that although Apple is a success example, whereas, “if you are just imitating it, you can not overtake it.”

Blog link:

http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/09/26/chinas-apple-clone/

Taobao and Tmall, which are two main platforms of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., which is Chinese largest e-commerce company. On Nov 11th, known as Single’s Day in China, Taobao broke the one-day sales record by more than 80 percent for a full period of 24 hours. The online sales topped 35 billion yuan($5.75 billion), and they are from retailers of all sizes across the entire country.

The reason for this kind of “crazy” incident is due to promotions on internet and fueling demand on China’s biggest online shopping day the Single’s Day, a local twist on Valentines Day. Another reason is that as smartphones have become extremely widespread across the country, mobile commerce has started to play a very large role on this day. Last year, in the full 24 hour period of Single’s Day, the entire mobile commerce based income was $158 million, whereas, it has been beaten in this year. Alibaba is the owner of Taobao and now is in charge of creating what is now becoming the Chinese version of “Black Friday”. Taobao has done a very good job on promoting and becoming nationally renowned during recent years. Therefore, the marketing strategy of China’s Single’s Day wins such a huge success.

Resources:

http://www.qrcodepress.com/mobile-commerce-taobao-breaks-shopping-records/8524211/

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-11/alibaba-breaks-sales-record-on-china-singles-day-amid-discounts.html

I recently read a blog “Small is the New Big” written by Rui Wu, which talks about a currently popular communication app in China. In my opinion, I agree with what Rui said in the blog, the traditional media transmission method should be innovated in such a rapid developing internet society. Taking Wechat as a great example, it wins a big success in China now because this app successfully utilizes a concept “Micro-marketing” which is a new marketing concept using internet as an approach to achieve information exchange and transmission. Wechat provides communication function, daily information exchange and also private mobile bank to reach customers’ demand to the maximum limit.

I personally believe that besides maximizing firms’ profit, companies should also focus on the relationship between customers. Making improvement like innovation for their own products in order to satisfy customers’ precise demand is also crucial. Due to the unpredictable change of market, the flexible management and brand new forms of products are highly required. Therefore, corporations should give a higher concentration on how to gain a footing hence boosting profits.

Pike Place Fish Market is found in 1930, an open air fish market located in Seattle, Washington’s pike place market. It is well-known for their special tradition of fishmongers throwing fish purchased by customers before they are wrapped. The market is now a popular tourist destination in Seattle due to its their particular way of doing business and also their relaxed and cheerful working environment and culture.

The working environment and organizational culture of Pike Place Fish Market is well -developed, strong and positive. Employees in that market are really enjoying their work everyday and they do not have to follow certain rules and regulations while they are working because they are actually having a lot of fun. They also use the behavior which is “throwing fish” in the market as a ritual to attract customers and this activity enhances the strength of the whole culture. All members in the organization accept and share the core values and beliefs. This strong and positive organizational culture helps forming the great commitment to the group and the integration of the organization.

Additionally, this kind of culture in Pike Place Fish Market is maintained by the top management or the founders. Employees area actually socialized into the culture, and will be more easily socialized ti the extent that the employees’s values match those of the organization.

FoodCycle is a social enterprise community found in 2008 which aims to reduce food waste and poverty. The community merges volunteers, unused kitchen space and surplus food with people who need a meal in the United Kingdom. They actually train volunteers and hold the online donation to make sure no food is wasted, and then create tasty, nutritious meals for people at a risk of food poverty and social isolation.

The network of FoodCycle with over 1,000 volunteers now operate in 15 locations across the UK. Their mission is combined by two programs that contain surplus food and the energy of volunteers from different walks of life to create delicious and healthy three-course meals for people in the community. One of the programs is Hub Programme which contains 16 hubs in UK. FoodCycle hubs are local projects with trained volunteers cooking in spare kitchen space for homeless people, older people, low income families, the long-term unemplyeed, etc. The other program is the community cafe called Pie in the Sky Community Cafe. The cafe promotes healthy eating in the community and support volunteers to gain skiils and confidence for gaining employment.

Relating to social enterprise, FoodCycle is a community which benefits people who suffer food poverty, social isolation and unemployment and let them feel warm and welcome whoever they are.

Link: http://foodcycle.org.uk/

A news published on recently on September 24th reported that there is an offer to take Blackberry private meanwhile the uncertainty is still exsiting. Later on Monday, BlackBerry said it has signed a letter of intent from a Canadian insurance and investment company, to pay shareholders $9 a share in cash taking the company private.

Blackberrys defined smartphones in June 2008, at that time the comoany had a stock market value of $83 billion. However, the buyout offer is a powerful symbol of the phone maker’s decline. Unfortunately, Blackberry reported a quarterly loss of nearly $1 billion due largely to the failure of the Blackberry 10 phones that were supposed to revive the company. The analyst from Morningstar also said there is no value for the Blackberry 10 ecosystem. Consequently, Blackberry is now considering quitting the handset business.

To deal with this bad condition, Blackberry may now consider planing to expand the company’s software business. And the plan is about a relatively new software that helps firms and corporations to control employees’ mobile devices including iPhones and Andriod-based phones. Nevertheless, at the same time Blackberry is facing strong competitors in this area such as Microsoft and Facebook. It has to make some efforts to expand the market thus saving the situation which is being taken over.

Article:

http://cn.nytimes.com/business/20130924/c24blackberry/en-us/

Twitter Inc., announced its IPO details on October 4th racing toward the largest Silicon Valley IPO since Facebook Inc.’s 2012 coming out party. However Twitter reveals big losses over the past three years behind behind rip-roaring revenue growth.

In the first public disclosure of of financial figures, Twitter reported that revenue almost trippled to $316.9 million US in 2012. In the first half of 2013, it posted revenue of $253.6 million but had a loss of $69.3 million. Also, according to Reuters’ calculation, Twitter only managed average revenue per user in the second quarter of 2013 of 64 cents compared to Facebook’s roughly $1.60.

However, the analysts at Pivotal Research Group said the losses are “non-issue”, but the point is how long the revenue Twitter gains from advertisers will last. The big losses ahead of Twitter’s IPO has triggered the attention from all fields, and one thing that warned Twitter should be attentive is that it was heavily reliant on advertising revenue. More than 87 percent of its revenue came from advertising in the half of 2013 according to the report. Consequently, that causes investors to keep cautious about Twitter’s IPO prospect. At the same time, following Twitter’s IPO progress, these issues will eventually become unavoidable major problems for their future development.

Article:

http://www.bnn.ca/News/2013/10/4/Twitter-reveals-rip-roaring-growth-big-losses-ahead-of-IPO.aspx

Korean Air is known as its quite good inflight service but not very satisfying flight safety. As one of the big promotions of Korean Air, the inflight service does deserve its reputation. Firstly the cabin staff. They are friendly, keep the smile on their face and keep customers watered throughout the flight. Additionally the food, it is tasty and they provide the diverse choices for different groups of people. Last one is the room, the seat pitch in economy is amongst the best(34”) so it is quite roomy. Also, for the international flights, the cabin is fully equipped including a TV hanging on the back of every seat. The TV provides different language options, and diverse types of movies and music.

Nevertheless, safety of Korean Air has been a serious cencern for many years. The dismal safety record has triggered the sharp critcism, and the flight is suffering a steady increase in the number of safty-related incidents and accidents. Consequetly, Korean Air is trying to fix the issue and has launched a $200 million program to improve safety. They are trying their best to achieve absolute safety for their customers although it will be a long way.

Article:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB933090613281869060-search.html

In a report published recently, Apple was involved in it manufacture stands accused of labor violations. China Labor Watch decried Apple supplier Jabil Circuit for a wide range of ethical and legal labor violations at its factory in Wuxi, China. The charges are hiring discrimination, overcrowding, poor training, mandatory overtime which includes three times in excess of legal limits and the withholding of overtime pay.

For Apple, which has faced a number of reports of worker abuse in the supply chain in recent years, these accusations can be indicated as the reflections of Apple’s unethical behaviors. The Apple worker-abuse issue is not the only one that’s related to business ethnics, however, in attempt to make more profits, a number of firms or corporations would employ some ethical means such as producing goods with poor products, ignoring the rights of employees, deceptive advertising,etc.

My view on this issue is that the firm like Apple should absolutely consider ans assess the cost of choosing the ethical management and try to eradicate the business with unethical ones. Sometimes these actions may lessen their profits, but managing a firm by an ethical way can make sure a good start of a company. Additionally, business ethnics is also a necessary element to create a conducive and joyful workplace which helps corporations to attain their goals.

Link:

http://allthingsd.com/20130905/apple-investigating-worker-abuse-charges-at-iphone-c-supplier/