I believe the core value of the Arc or social enterprise should be taken in consideration when answering the question why we would need them if the United Nations was fully funded. Bill Drayton, Ashoka once said “Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or
teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry.” Donations from non-profits and the UN cannot make a lasting effect in the poor and backward countries, as Arielle mentioned in the article, while practical and modern business skills offered by the Arc or social enterprise can add value to people’s daily life and create economic profit.

In addition, I think the Arc or social enterprise are offering win-win solutions while what the UN do is a unidirectional aid. By participating the Arc or social enterprise, the involvers are either making profits or accumulating experiences related to their careers. Furthermore, the relationship between the students/ social entrepreneurs and the people who receive help with their businesses isn’t an unequal benefactor-dependent relationship. The relationship is reciprocal because they are creating shared values and assuming joint responsibility.

Therefore, the role that the Arc and social enterprise play is irreplaceable and significant.

Inspired by the video on Zappo’s customer service department in class, I am curious how workplace can influence employees’ attitudes and behaviors. After reading a blog post by Sally Augustin, I got a general idea of an engaging workplace and its effects on employees’ work.

In the article, the idea of “chipmunk test” especially impressed me. In general, work environments are made open to increase work related collaboration. However, Sally pointed out that privacy and comfort should be considered into the layout of workplace as “humans are comfortable in the sorts of protected seats”, just like chipmunks in their comfy nest. It is recommended to “tuck small meeting spaces into alcoves off hallways or floors of workspaces” in the blog. Personally, I agree with this statement. To complement my opinion, the isolated and protected meeting place shown in the picture above is preferred to an open and stark one.

I believe that in a rather comfortable and relaxed meeting place, more innovative ideas can be generated. Actually, I think that it is more likely to spawn great ideas during a casual and smooth conversation than during an intense and formal meeting.Therefore, I think this post is valuable and worth thinking about.

Extracting from Neysa Fernanda’s post concerning Apple Pay’s sustainability, I am convinced that Apple should reconsider its value proposition. Meanwhile, I am also interested in the subtle battle between Apple Pay and some of the biggest retailers in the US, who are going to launch their own online payment system using a mobile device.

By doing some more research about CurrentC, I found that it would outweigh Apple Pay in some ways, especially in saving transaction fees for the retailers. In order to win this upcoming battle, I think Apple should take these recommendations:

• Utilize Apple’s Brand Influence & Implant Apple Pay in People’s Daily Life

The concept of mobile payments has been around for some time. However, this method wasn’t that popular until Apple started to offer its own mobile payment, who has a solid customer base. Just like iMessage, iTunes and iCloud, Apple should get people used to their products and services thus creating customer loyalty before the launching of CurrentC.

• Build Points of Difference

Inevitably, CurrentC will be a disruptive innovation as it will be really cheap for retailers. Apple should, consequently, producing more sophisticated services to ensure its market share. For example, fingerprint passwords is an appealing idea considering the safety issues.

In a word, Apple Pay should industriously prepare to face the challenging from CurrentC.

Considering the rising real estate prices in Vancouver, Calen recommended “some sort of screening process for the legitimacy of the buyer” in his blog post. Despite this constructive recommendation, I personally believe that the pros and cons should be considered thoroughly in the long run.

• Analyzing Using A Demand-Supply Curve

Using the tool of economics, I drew a diagram of the possible tendency of supply and demand, based on both facts and assumptions. The demand curve has been shifted out due to the influx of Asian investors. Since the supply is constant, which means the number of estates is unchangeable in a short period of time, the price will rise dramatically from P1 to P2. However, considering the effect of time, the supply will be more elastic, which means more estate will be built in the long run in response to the increasing demand. Consequently, the price will drop to P3, somewhere between P1 and P2.

• Development in Real Estate Industry

Although the money flow from the Asian investors jacked up the house prices, it accelerated the development of the real estate industry in Vancouver. In the meanwhile, more tax revenue was generated by the trading of luxury houses.

Therefore, I think there is no need worrying too much about the rising house prices in Vancouver.

According to the article, Target is closing as many stores as it has opened last year. Despite the data breach problem, Target together with other big-box retailers are facing troubles that shoppers turn to smaller stores and e-commerce sites.

Nowadays, people change their way of shopping. In the past, the consumer said,”I would like to feel the products before I buy them.” However, people would rather read the reviews and the rates online to decide whether to buy the products or not. It is not only because of the rapid development in e-commerce sites but also due to the accessibility of the Internet.

Although many big-box retailers such as Target and Walmart also has their own online stores, I can’t see the outstanding differences between these websites and Amazon. My recommendation is that big-box retailers should offer free shipping on every order. The costs are affordable due to their widespread warehouses. What’s more, the days of inventory can be shortened by incenting online shopping with free shipping. In a word, it’s a profitable and competitive strategy.

Best Buy turns the watering holes to be the showrooms of their new 4K TVs, which they believe will “plant the seed for a possible sale — and a lucrative one at that”. Despite the stagnant TV market, Best Buy think these Ultrahigh-definition TVs will be a “game changer” due to its innovation.

• Great Marketing Strategy

From my point of view, the strategy of hitting the bars to pitch sales can be categorized as a “Focus Strategy”, as it concentrates on the sport fans gathering in the bars and their products are unique with their high-edge technology.  Also, it is also a strategy with rather low costs that Best Buy can probably exchange their free 4K TVS with the bar showroom rentals in the watering holes. In addition, it tries to educate the potential consumers about what 4K or UHD stands for, which also saves money in publicity of the new products.

• The worthy reference of this strategy

Undoubtedly, the idea of moving the showrooms outside the stores to other places that are closer to potential customers is brilliant and is of great significance to the market popularization. Instead of merely staying in the stores and promoting the products to the customers walking in, businesses should break model conventions and actively approaches their potential customers who otherwise will not step into the stores.

( photo taken from this site)

According to the The Vancouver Sun’s article, BC hydro’s 8-billion Site C hydroelectric megaproject is urged to be rejected by the government since first nation argues that “flooding valley would impair their rights to fish, hunt and use the area for ceremonial purposes”.

• Apply the “PESTLE analysis

In terms of political and legal conditions, Cite C will definitely face more obstacles in the long-term due to its interest of conflict with first nations whose rights are protected by the government. To build the business canvas of BC hydro, the “Key Resources” and “Revenue Stream” have to consider the effect of imparity of the first nations. Despite the guaranteed buyer power due to the increasing electricity demand in BC, the supplier power ought to be more emphasized to carry out this hydroelectric project.

• Other Costs

Besides fixed costs and variable costs, the other costs should be thought over carefully in this situation. To be more precise, the opportunity cost, which is nevertheless an unreal cost, must not be ignored when analysing this business plan. The second best choice to do with the valley located in the area of first nation may be exploited to tourism potential that can make profits and protecting the original environment and lives of first nations in the meantime.

Personally, I think more alternatives such as “wind, solar and geothermal power” mentioned in the article should be considered by the government and BC hydro in order to reach a harmonious agreement.

(image taken from this site)

According to the article by Chuck Jones, Apple’s share of the smartphone market in differently countries around the world has simultaneously fallen over the past three years. In this post, I will try to analyse the internal and external factors which cause this decreasing share.

• Internal

Despite the continuous release of new products, Apple’s product features recently didn’t seem to satisfy the customers’ expectation as they used to. In another word, lack of unprecedented innovation deprived iPhone’s attractiveness to the customers. Furthermore, the reports of bent iPhone6 also worried the potential customers. To make things worse, iPhone 6 will not be available in China where a lot of “iFans” anticipated for a long time until October 17^th. Nevertheless the hunger marketing strategy had been well received in China over the past years, the late release in China will definitely disappoint the customers in China and prevent some of them from waiting for it.

• External

Undoubtedly, the increasing competitiveness of the Android rivals like Samsung and Huawei have inevitably threatened market share of iPhone. With more reasonable prices and guaranteed quality, iPhone is no longer the only and the best choice to the smartphone customers.

• Recommendation

Considering the positioning of a leader, I recommend Apple to embrace the changes in the market. To obtain more share in the Asian market, they should do more researches about the different customer segments in Asia to figure out their requests such as reasonable prices and customized functions, rather than “just increasing the screen sizes and changing the colours.”

In conclusion, Apple should make more efforts to reverse its market share losses in not only China and Japan but countries all over the world.

( image taken from this site )

Some beer brewers in the U.S. recently side with EPA to finalize a proposal for new guidelines which clarifies the water bodies under its jurisdiction. However, some farmers insist on the opposite because they think the new regulations will bring about new costly permits.

• Conflict of interests of different stakeholders

As the ingredient suppliers and producers in the beer industry, both brewers and farmers are the stakeholders of the business. From my point of view, the reason why they hold different opinions over the water regulation is that they both pursue their own interests. In other word, concern for lack of clean water to generate quality beer outweighs the brewers’ concern for environmental protection. This is a counterexample to the Stakeholder Theory that it’s really difficult to maximize every stakeholder’s profit simultaneously.

• Envision the future

Since the proposal is supported by not only beer brewers but also environmentalist, I personally suspect it will be finalized in the future. As a result, the farmers will probably spend more effort and money filtering the agricultural waste water. The brewers, in the meanwhile, will inevitably be charged more. Eventually, the farmers and the brews will split the increasing costs together, which means shoulder the social responsibility together.

According to the opinions of Milton Friedman, business ethics is just rhetoric, and the only responsibility of business is to increase profit. I definitely do not agree on his statements, and believe that the value of business ethics is to produce a win-win situation to the enterprise and the society.

Personally, I am convinced that the Stakeholder Theory should be adapted to the management of every corporation regardless of its size and industry. Since the corporation is an integration of personal and social relationships, it should take the combined social responsibility of its employees and employers, holding up a baseline of business ethics to benefit the stakeholders and the society. In addition, I don’t agree that the amount spent on responding social problems will decrease the income of the companies or the wages of employers. Rather, it may enhance the reputation, and eventually promote the sales of the products or services as people are now aware of the contribution of the business besides paying taxes to society.

In practice, most of the corporations around the world have considered business ethics as a dispensable value guide and theoretical resource. For example, the food and drink companies are taking the issue seriously as an article of CNN mentioned. They tried to benefit the stakeholders by “looking into transparency, women’s rights, farmers’ rights and land, water and climate sustainability” (Kottasova, Ivana). I believe that the attention paid to the business ethics like Oxfam’s “Behind the Brands” scorecard will be increasing as the society develops.