Joanna's Comm101 Blog

As we approach the end of the semester, I just want to thank my professors, Paul and Jeff, my TA, Lilian, and all my classmates for the wonderful COMM101 experience. I have definitely learned so much about the different aspects of business that I did not expect from just one course. Through this course, I have gained sufficient knowledge about myself. Let me elaborate through a personal SWOT Analysis:

My Strengths
Listening and Understanding.

My Weaknesses
Procrastination and Laziness.

My Opportunities
BComm and Extracurriculars.

My Threats
Commerce Students and more commerce students.

~
Goodbye COMM101! I’ll miss you!

After viewing Oscar’s reflection on the guest entrepreneurs in our class, I thought he raised very interesting points. As Oscar stated, Janice, the CEO of Energy-aware, fully supports starting businesses with friends due to the advantage of building a trusting foundation. Yet he disagrees with this concept because he believes that ” it is impossible to treat the same person completely differently in a workplace environment and in a social environment”. Here, he argues that partnerships derived from friendships will most definitely turn sour. This may be true in some cases, but perhaps this assumption is debatable.

Although individuals generally enjoy detaching their work and social environment, some prefer this unity.  There are  successful businesses that originated from lifelong friends, such as “Ben & Jerry’s”, an international multi-million dollar ice cream company. Here, these childhood friends worked together to transform a small ice cream shop to a global brand. In my perspective, I believe a generalized negative bias should not be placed on friends that become potential business partners. Effective communication and positive attitudes are all personal choices. Therefore, it is a choice to remain friends or become enemies when entering the business world.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_%26_Jerry’s

After reading Saewon’s blog post about choosing between power and money, it gave me the opportunity to reflect on my personal choice. In his opinion, money represents success which ultimately purchases power. Indeed this may be true in certain cases, but I believe there is an alternative. I clearly remember there was one more choice on the list: “other”.

Rather vague compared to money and power, I believe the category, “other”, fits me the best. Yes, money and power can offer tangible wealth and success, but to what degree of fulfillment can money and power give? Until I become the wealthiest person on earth or until I become the CEO of a large business? To me, I believing finding a meaningful purpose and fulfilling it is the most important aspect in defining my future. My top priority is to respect and love what I do, even if no money or power is involved. Sometimes, but often forgotten, wealth and success can be measured in a different way.

These entrepreneurs knew exactly what every human had in common: each person had an interest. As a result, these innovative individuals created the website, “Pinterest”. This is a website composed of a plethora of images under diverse categories such as food, fashion, fun, and more. Every user is given a board where they can take those images and virtually pin them on to. Seems so simple right? Yet, this simple creation became a product that consumers love.

Pinterest satisfies Schumpeter’s View of Entrepreneurship by promoting innovation as a website that is completely unique and engaging.  Being the first to “organize and share all the beautiful things…on the web”, this opens the doors to a new market that loves technology. Apart from this, Pinterest estimated website worth is approximately $52 million dollars, which clearly sets it apart from small businesses. Although the risk of this venture was high, its originality excelled, causing Pinterest to be the new interest for entrepreneurial success.

Sources:
http://www.google.ca/search?gcx=w&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=pinterest.ciom

http://www.worthofweb.com/website-value/pinterest.com

Thanks to Guy Kawasaki, impractical people can now gain practical knowledge. This blog, called “How to Change the World“, contains attracting qualities that entices readers’ interests. Kawaski acknowledges the major need in each person’s life, a career. Therefore, this blog is designed to address diverse careers, hoping to offer assistance and new knowledge  to all readers. To rank its effectiveness, I have identified certain strengths and weaknesses of this blog.

Strengths: 
– Amusing titles that captivates audience’s attention
– Context is extremely informative and witty
– Involves humour and respectable personal opinions
– Includes a wide range of business categories (e.g. entrepreneurship, marketing, management)

Weaknesses
– Bland Layout
– Inconsistency of blog posts

Overall, the strengths of this blog outweigh the weaknesses. Kawaski’s  posts aim to teach the readers a specific objective and this gives the audience anticipation of successfully acquiring new knowledge. This causes Kawaski to love writing, and the audience to love reading!

Source: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/#axzz1eVXO6w6s

During discussion, we were asked to share our personal opinions about the Occupy Wall Street movement. I believe this protest is definitely absurd and foolish. In my opinion, the protestors are under biased impressions where they emphasize their disadvantages which distort the situation. These protestors believe that raising taxes for only the wealthy is reasonably valid to improve the country’s economy. Yet, they also defend their views of prohibiting a tax increase for everybody.

Ironically, these protestors were surveyed and the information states that 52% have participated in a political movement before, 98% say they would participate in civil disobedience to reach goals, and 31% agree to violence when achieving a target. I believe these set of statistics seemingly represents certain types of individuals who carry a narrow perspective in decision making and problem solving.

If the government abides to these citizens’ protests, this action will negatively reinforce these individuals to keep protesting for any rights to attain their goals. Therefore, I highly doubt a positive response will be given by the government of supporting this movement. In that sense, this movement is a waste of time, energy, and money.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204479504576637082965745362.html

When DVD sales plummet, the studios of Warner Bros’ and Sony have decided to take action. They are well aware that most consumers have strayed from purchasing discs due to other alternatives such as conveniently renting movies from Netflix Inc. for excellent prices. As a result, the studios have decided to implement a new creation: the “digital locker” service.

This service specializes in storing movies on remote servers so that consumers can transport and watch the movies wherever they go. This flexible convenience aims to entice the ones who prefer paying one price to gain ownership for unlimited viewings of a single movie wherever, whenever.

However, the competition between the “digital locker” and renting a movie is extremely high. Both services provide high quality movie entertainment for their consumers. Yet, their key point of difference is that the “digital locker” offers permanent ownership to movies, whereas renting offers temporary. Will this crucial point of difference lead to the success of the “digital locker”? This coming holiday season will soon reveal.

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/tech-news/as-dvd-sales-die-hollywood-puts-its-faith-in-the-cloud/article2196633/

The once notorious clothing department store seems to be facing one of its greatest challenges yet. According to internal sources, this company needs to improve and advance their marketing, displays, and strategies in order to advance in today’s market.

At the moment, no course of action seems to be effective in the company. The mental image the store gives to consumers is summed up in one word: clutter. The multi-page catalogues are uninteresting, inefficient, and extremely costly. In addition to those factors, external forces are aggressively attacking Sears. Companies such as Target and the Bay are competitive alternatives that comparatively cater to either affordability or quality.

With all these factors in mind, Sears is in great danger. Improvements and change need to happen. A new image must emerge. Sears need to do this soon, before time runs out.

A brand is created. Now what? Often, businesses suffer from marketing their brands to the public. However, the hit-reality TV show, “Pawn Stars” masters these techniques, causing an average of four million viewers for each episode. What did they do and how do they do it?

“Pawn Stars” follows the owners’ everyday business at the ‘Gold & Silver Pawn Shop’. Initially, this pawn shop was a discrete destination for gamblers to sell their belongings for quick cash. However, with strategic thinking, the owners are reaching the store’s true potential through television, websites, branded merchandise, Facebook games, and copies of the show’s episodes to gain maximal profits. Indeed, these are effective ways to promote and represent the brand. Yet, can these methods be applied to average small businesses?

In the article, these branding tips from the “Pawn Stars” are purposely highlighted to help other businesses grow their brands. However, realistically, small businesses and the ‘Gold & Silver Pawn Shop’ have a sparse commonality. This pawn shop clearly has an advantage over other businesses due to mass media exposure. In this sense, their ways of promotion may not apply to everyday normal businesses, but only certain ones with similar settings.

Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/220308?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+entrepreneur%2Flatest+%28Entrepreneur+Update%29&utm_content=FeedBurner

This year, Android and Apple have been fighting for the top spot in the technological world. With advanced phones and tablets setting its territory for the society’s needs, the increasingly competitive match is on. As discussed in the article, both brands have their vulnerabilities, and it is up to the consumers to weigh out these differences.

Android’s Weaknesses:
–          “Ecosystem chaos”: Open sources cause confusion.
–          “Inconsistent experiences”: Varying hardware vendors create different Android devices.

Apple’s Weaknesses:
–          “Software inflexibility”: Apple’s way is the only way.
–          “Productivity limitations”: Consuming information is more efficient than producing.
–          “Fewer hardware choices”: Limits the choices to only storage and connectivity.

With their individual weaknesses, how well will they produce in the technological market? In my opinion, considering Apple has emerged its products first, they will have the ultimate advantage in gaining recognition and reassurance from consumers. As for Android, it is quickly climbing up the competitive ladder to gain its name as the next alternative, possibly the better alternative. As consumers, we may fall into biased choices, persuasive gains, and popular trends. Ultimately, Android and Apple’s success is in hands of the consumers.

Source: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/android-vs-apple-the-2011-cage-match/43682