Social Entrepreneurship, it is not just about money, it is about ideas.

In response to the question: “If the United Nations was fully funded why would we need the Arc or social enterprise?”

Picture from: http://pamlawhorne.com/

While I am doing research about social entrepreneurs, a woman named Pam Lawhorne’s blog Don’t Just Teach Attraction Marketing… I Built My Business With It! caught my eyes. Apart from being the owner of Empower U, she is also an online business mentor that gives advices on marketing strategies for online companies to earn profit. Although she literally went broke and was indebted in 2006, she soon recovered from this strike and decided to share her experience by providing online suggestion to those new start-ups. Therefore, ambitious and resourceful entrepreneurs can make contribution to the society while fully deploy their talents and ideas.

When I participated in the model UN three years before, I gained some knowledge about how UN actually works. Ranging from human right to world health, issues around the world and corresponding solutions were proposed and selected by the committee, which are formed by us in this case. In spite of its endeavor, the issues we discussed were very broad because it involved the whole world. That is also why we need other social enterprises or organizations (like Arc) to handle more detailed issues.

To sum up, social entrepreneurship is not just about money, it is about ideas that are ample enough to meet people’s needs and solve their issues. No matter how well funded the UN is, the united effort of UN and the social enterprises is definitely stronger than UN working alone, because there will more ideas coming up and more smart people working in different areas to help people with different needs.

References:

Pam LawhorneI (2014) Don’t Just Teach Attraction Marketing… I Built My Business With It! [online]. Available at: http://pamlawhorne.com/ [Accessed 09 November 2014]

current news story

UBC Tuition Rise, is it fair or not? (Re: Greger Allan’s blog)

Picture from: the Ubyssey Around 400 people attended the sit-in.

Picture from: the Ubyssey
Around 400 students attended the sit-in.

In Greger Allan’s blog The Price of an Education, he presented his support of raising tuition on international students mainly because one Ivy league university costs higher but provides same quality, and because university needs funds to enhance its academic facility.

As an international student myself, I believe my voice represents most international students’ opinion.

Certainly, universities need to raise funds to maintain and improve its academic quality, but the question is how? Although there is no doubt that increasing tuition is the safest and fastest way, there are also many other ways to achieve that goal too.

Just like how a company raises funds by love money from friends and family, crowd-fund, or IPO as Alibaba just did, UBC can establish an endowment to raise money from successful alumni (build monuments with alumni’s names on it while decorating the campus), or open other study programs with excellent facilities and job opportunities that charges additional fees.

Even if tuition is set to increase, who should bear the burden? Greger said international students are “not on the ground to complain”, but if that is true, then why did UBC give the international students a right to protest? I believe that is because we are stakeholders of the university’s decisions so they would like to hear our voices.

In a word, there is no doubt that universities should protect local’s interests, but not at the expense of the international students. This will make our already tough life even tougher, and may deter some excellent international students from going to UBC due to its increasingly exorbitant tuition.

Reference:

The price of an education (09 November,2014) Available at:https://blogs.ubc.ca/gregorallan/2014/11/09/the-price-of-an-education/ Accessed 10 November, 2014]

Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility, a magic to a company. (Re: Bogdan’s blog)

The facade of R.H.Thomas Deluxe Grill, a photo from: www.rthomasdeluxegrill.net

In one of my classmate Bogdan’s blog How social responsibility helped in the creation of a successful restaurant, he elaborated on how R.H.Thomas Deluxe Grill’s founder Richard Thomas’s social responsibility brings the company a huge success, which I firmly agree with. Nonetheless, I also found it a fabulous example of how CRS contributes to a sustaining innovation.

An innovation can be two-fold: disruptive or sustaining, which I got confused in the class but figure out now. One typical example of a disruptive innovation is E-commerce, which makes a breakthrough in the way people purchase things, from in-store shopping to more convenient online shopping.

R.H.Thomas Deluxe Grill Logo, a picture from: www.peachfullychic.com

Nonetheless, Richard Thomas’s idea is not a disruptive idea because it doesn’t transform the basis of competition in the market or almost replace the original industry-fast food industry still exists. Instead, it is an improvement on the current product and services.

Similar to David Cohen’s idea of coming up with a great startup idea, which is to “look at what’s bugging you”. Driven by his strong social responsibility, “the pure entrepreneur” Richard Thomas found flaws in his existing business and thought up an innovative idea that benefits customers. His initiative adds a new, healthier type of food that continues to be served now.

In short, CSR not only plays a role in better operating the company, it helps build up a company with great innovation as well.

References:

Bogdan Proskurnia (November,7,2014) How social responsibility helped in the creation of a successful restaurant. [online]. Available at:https://blogs.ubc.ca/nadgobp/2014/11/07/how-social-responsibility-helped-in-the-creation-of-a-successful-restaurant/ [Accessed 08, November 2014]

Corporate Social Responsibility, Organization culture

Haidilao, a place of love, trust and respect.

Picture from: 365jia.cn

Last week, while watching the video about the Zappos’ company, its novel organizational culture kept reminding me of the other Chinese restaurant, which is “Haidilao”, a legendary hotpot chain restaurant in China.

As learned from Com 101, an organizational culture is “a pattern of shared values, beliefs, and assumptions considered to be the appropriate way to think and act within an organization.” Haidilao’s company culture is best demonstrated by its three core values: “equality, effort, and expansion”. In accordance to its unique corporate culture, Haidilao creates following novel human resource policies and practices.

First, it employs a large number of people from underdeveloped suburban areas and also graduates since 2006. This initiative helps the poor and students to get a job, where their abilities can be fully applied because being nice and friendly does not require a high level of education or work experience, which are what these two groups of people lack of.

picture from: goods.jc001.cn

Once workers are hired, a general coach is given to equip them with basic knowledge or common sense, followed by a more specific and personalized one-one-one training to cultivate workers’ skills and explore their full potential. To motivate employees to perform better, the company decides to give “salary” to its workers parents. That is, the better its workers do, the larger amount of money will their parents receive. To improve its working conditions, the company gives its workers great employee welfare like dormitories with free cleaning, and it empowers all of its employees to make decisions.

All of these distinguish Haidilao from other normal restaurants. To make it more clear, Haidilao has a horizontal organizational culture, while others have vertical ones. Zhang Yong, the founder of Haidilao, once said that in a normal company, the company-founder is the only owner and employees work for the owner; but here in Haidilao, everyone is the owner of the company and everyone works for their own companies. Obviously, Haidilao’s commitment to build a family-like environment creates a sense of belonging for its workers, which reinforces employees’ loyalty and their work enthusiasm.

Picture from Class 17 slides: PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT AND BTM

Long story short, Haidilao’s corporate culture is the pivot that leads to its special HR management, which can also be called as a disruptive innovation because it works totally different from other hierarchical companies. This whole distinct human resource management explains why its customer service is always so high quality and considerate, and also shows companies high social responsibility (in helping weak group people).

References:

Case study: The Haidilao Company(04 November, 2011)[online]. Available at: https://hbr.org/product/the-haidilao-company/an/TU0021-PDF-ENG [Accessed 09 November 2014]

Corporate Social Responsibility

CSR, more than just what it is.

A photo in Starbuck at UBC bookstore “For every bottle of Ethos water you buy, Starbucks will donate 10 cents to supports humanitarian programs in coffee-growing communities, providing clean, safe water to those in need.”

Although some companies take CSR as an obstacle that hinder the company from gaining huge profit, successful companies carry out CSR while earns profit from it. On Forbes, Microsoft is ranked as one of the top 10 CSR companies, followed by Sony, BMW, Apple, etc. All these companies earn “big bucks”, which enables them to further improve their CSR reputation. Therefore, it is not hard to deduce that companies that have higher CSR normally earns more as well.

Starbuck logo from wannadrinkcoffee.blogspot.com

Take Starbuck for example, it was listed as one of the 50 companies with best social responsibility reputation and has achieved a great success in business. One day, while queuing up in Starbucks, I noticed that there is a basket with bottle waters and a sigh saying that “for every 1 bottle water you buy here, we will donate 10 cents to humanitarian programs in coffee-growing communities” In this way, consumers will feel that they are not only buying a bottle water but also making some contributions to the society. So why not? Especially when the price is reasonable, people may buy a bottle water except just a cup of coffee. Therefore, Starbucks promotes its CSR while gaining extra revenue.

Additionally, by doing this, it positions its product in a higher level, that is, not only a bottle of water but also a part of funds to be donated, and will impress it s customers with its highly socially-conscious brand image. Hence, If deployed efficiently, the CSR can be a bliss rather than a hassle.

References:

The 10 Companies With the Best CSR Reputations (2014) Available at: http://www.forbes.com/pictures/efkk45mmlm/no-6-daimler-mercedes-benz/ [Accessed 10 November, 2014]

Recycling & Reducing Waste. Available at: http://www.starbucks.ca/responsibility/environment/recycling [Accessed 10 November, 2014]

Uncategorized

Government’s decision, short-term benefit or long-term?

“First nation” is a modern way of saying deprecated term “Indians” referring to indigenous people of Americans in Canada. For this group of people, a statute called the Indian Act was created aiming to assimilate them at first, though some of its provisions seek to protect the right of the native. That’s probably why the native don’t want to let go protections like tax exemptions while admitting its paternalism.

The Indian Act in 1876 empowered the government to keep tabs on everything about the aboriginal: their “status, land, resources, wills, education, band administration” and so forth. Unexpectedly, some issues occurred during the implementation of the first nation protection, when the government’s project conflict with first nation’s interest. For example, the BC Hydro’s $8-billion Site C hydroelectric mega project is intended to explore enery resources like wind, solar and geothermal power. However, it might harm the local’s interest by interfering in their outdoor activities like fishing, hunting or holding ceremonies. (Background: The Indian Act)

According to the Canada’s highest court, the Crown can ratify encroaching Aboriginal title lands only if there is a substantial goal. The bottom line is that no matter how profitable it might be, the project should never sacrifice Aboriginal’s interest for broader interest.

Nonetheless, while considering the PESTLE, including political, economic, social and technological, legal and environmental factors, the lifelong benefit behind the temporary loss should not be neglected. Specifically In this case, it involves almost every factor in PESTLE, mainly about political, social, and environmental elements. Although Hydro’s Site C hydroelectric project does require some political adjustment, and does need to consider the need of first nation, and does have potential to harms the ecosystem, people may need to make some concession for bigger profit. After all, these projects are thought up to provide better facility for their daily life. Therefore, moderate compromise is necessary so that numerous great resources can be made full use of and first nation’s quality of life can be improved in the long run.

References:

Isabelle Montpetit (May 30, 2011) Background: The Indian Act[online]. Available from: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/background-the-indian-act-1.1056988 [Accessed 06 October 2014]

Peter O’Neil (September 18, 2014) First Nation chiefs to stage Site C showdown [online]. Available from: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/First+Nation+chiefs+stage+Site+showdown/10215965/story.html#ixzz3FRVccimF[Accessed 06 October 2014]

Uncategorized

iPHONE 6 Vs SONY Z3, Which one to choose?

This September, Sony unveiled its fancy SONY Xperia Z3. Sony has long followed the Focus Strategy according to Porter’s Generic Strategies (which aims at product uniqueness and has narrow market segment), and now when competing with other giant companies in electronic industry, Sony sticks to its strategy.

One common complaint of IPhone is its battery capacity. But here in Sony, Apple’s weakness is perfectly solved. “As with the Z1, Sony’s focus is on extended battery life. Without battery saving features the Z3 lasted two and a half days of use” (Sony Xperia Z3 compact review: best small Android phone and iPhone 6 competitor) ” As it is praised in the Guardian, the Sony Xperia Z3 is “the company’s smaller flagship smartphone with a powerful process and camera, but battery life to last over two days of heavy usage.”(Sony Xperia Z3 compact review: best small Android phone and iPhone 6 competitor)

By emphasizing its point of differences, Sony successfully intrigues the public by its 20.7-megapixel high-resolution camera, waterproof design and ability to remote PlayStation 4 games. Nonetheless, its point of parity with iPhone 6 is also to its advantage. Both being high-end electronic products, SONY Xperia Z3 costs around ¥760, which is nearly ¥100 lower than iPhone 6.

As for Size, with its 4.6 inch screen and a 720p resolution, Sony Z3 is highly lauded as being “that were a good balance between being pocketable and powerful. ” (Sony Xperia Z3 Compact Review: Android’s Alternative To The iPhone 6 ) The guardian also verdicts the Sony Z3 as “the best small Android smartphone available”, while iPhone has an amazingly large group of Apple fans that prop up its sales

So who sales better? The answer is we will see. But no matter who is the best, customers are always the winners! Because we get better products at a more fair price as a result of this competition!

References:

Evan Spence (September 27, 2014) Sony Xperia Z3 Compact Review: Android’s Alternative To The iPhone 6 [online]. Available from:http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2014/09/27/xperia-z3-compact-android-replacement-iphone-6/ [Accessed 05 October 2014]

News (October 1, 2014)Sony Xperia Z3 and Z3 Compact: Australian price, details and hands-on [online]. Available from: http://www.news.com.au/technology/gadgets/sony-xperia-z3-and-z3-compact-australian-price-details-and-handson/story-fn6vihic-1227076087476 [Accessed 05 October 2014]

Samuel Gibbs (October 3, 2014) Sony Xperia Z3 compact review: best small Android phone and iPhone 6 competitor [online]. Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/03/sony-xperia-z3-compact-review-best-small-android-phone-and-iphone-6-competitor [Accessed 05 October 2014]

Youtube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHPWFw9NSiE

Uncategorized

Walmart’s Free Pickup Grocery- No more tiresome shopping, just bring your car!

This October, Walmart launched its Pickup Grocery service which is a “free service, allows customers to place their orders online any time from two hours to three weeks in advance.” (Walmart’s Drive-Through Grocery Concept Is A Head Scratcher)

As it was commented on Forbes, this service may attract some commuters who have a car and happen to pass through the store, but this service won’t work for those average homemakers and shoppers. They may enjoy the shopping experience and may live too close to the shop to drive a car. Besides, daily food like meats and vegetables are perishable, and most people will prefer pick up their own on the site.

Nonetheless, every cloud has a silver lining. Walmart is racking its brain to create new things to enlarge its consumer segment, while keeping its main strategy as providing low cost and a broad range of goods, called leadership strategy based on Porter’s generic strategies. Doubtlessly, this innovation provides great service for potential consumer groups, including business commuters who own a car. Besides, as Carol Spieckerman, CEO of new market builders, said: “Shopping eats up time and can be a major inconvenience for parents with small children and the elderly and infirm.” Therefore, for these people, the drive-through service can be a pain-reliever.(Walmart’s Drive-Through Grocery Concept Is A Head Scratcher)

On the other hand, for others who love online shopping, this service can be a gain creator. They can compare and contrast a variety of good while sitting comfortably at home instead of rushing in the market. By this way, Walmart intrigues its consumer to its digital platform and familiarize them with how this works. The company can therefore “gather more information on its customers’ searching and shopping habits as they place orders online.”(Walmart’s Drive-Through Grocery Concept Is A Head Scratcher)

Consumers normally buy products to get the job done, and the company’s job is to find out this ”job to be done”. In this case, Walmart successfully provide considerate services for busy business people, for parents with small children and the elderly and infirm. This innovation add a large part in its value proposition canvas by enlarging its products & services and its customer segment, and thereby will increase its sale volume. More importantly, another “ulterior motive” behind this maybe a shift to online shopping. The next possible move of Walmart maybe to provide door-to-door service globally (in fact, it has now, but only free in Canada), and there is high chance that it can be to be the first biggest supermarket that provide online goods delivery worldwide, just like Amazon do in goods. (Walmart’s Drive-Through Grocery Concept Is A Head Scratcher)

References:

Geroge Anderson (October02,2014) Walmart’s Drive-Through Grocery Concept Is A Head Scratcher [online]. Available from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/retailwire/2014/10/02/walmarts-drive-through-grocery-concept-is-a-head-scratcher/ [Accessed 05 October 2014]

Uncategorized

From Canada to The World: Tim Hortons and Burger King go hand-in-hand

From Yahoo’s acquisition of MessageMe to Facebook’s merge with What’s App, merge and acquisition between companies happened all the time. Currently in food industry, Burger King bought Tim Hortons at $12.5-billion which aroused controversy. Some pessimists have posed their concerns about “change in ownership will somehow make Tim Hortons alter Timmy’s experience” and therefore lead to reduction in sales volume.(Burger King will turn Tim Hortons into ‘iconic global brand,’ Miles Nadal says)

However, Tim Hortons CEO Marc Caira have told CBC that they are not intended to “have the two chains sell each others products”, and there will be no interaction between the two restaurants. Other than that, the analysis of Miles Nadal, a famous advertiser in Canada, may reassure them even more. He claimed that “the deal is a complementary one with benefits for both sides.” Burger King will promote Tim Hortons brand to the world by co-branded restaurants, while Burger King can boost the variety of its fare and therefore increase its competency with the help of Tim Hortons. (Burger King will turn Tim Hortons into ‘iconic global brand,’ Miles Nadal says).

Furthermore, statistic supports for the advantage of combination are also convincing. Released as part of “disclosure obligations for the debt financing”, same-store sales for the nine-week period went far beyond analysts’ expectations, which were up 3.6% in Canada and 7% in the U.S. (Tim Hortons’ U.S. sales could outstrip early estimates)

In a nutshell, Tim Horton’s merging with Burger king is a win-win solution for both companies. This wise move will double their consumer group, and enhance their popularity. Anyway, it is time for Tim Horton’s to go global, and for Burger King to provide something other than just burger. The success of this acquisition is highly expected, and we may probably see McDonald, KFC, and Burger King&Tim Hortons keep abreast of each other in the near future.

References:

Hollie Shaw (September 15, 2014)Tim Hortons’ U.S. sales could outstrip early estimates [online]. Available from: http://business.financialpost.com/2014/09/15/tim-hortons-u-s-sales-could-outstrip-early-estimates/?__federated=1 [Accessed 04 October 2014]

Kristine Owram (August 30, 2014)Burger King will turn Tim Hortons into ‘iconic global brand,’ Miles Nadal says [online]. Available from:http://business.financialpost.com/2014/08/30/burger-king-will-turn-tim-hortons-into-iconic-global-brand-miles-nadal-says/ [Accessed 04 October 2014]

Pete Evans (August 26, 2014)Tim Hortons, Burger King agree to merger deal [online]. Available from: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/tim-hortons-burger-king-agree-to-merger-deal-1.2746948 [Accessed 04 October 2014]

Homework

Life of babies are in danger?!

Here is the article that I would like to comment on:

Every year, about 130 million babies are born as UNICEF article said in 2012. A tremoudous number of them are fed by milk powder, while only a small group of them drink breast milk. It is obvious how important the milk powder is, as their only food and source of nutrition when they are still babies. However, for some reason, some company keep producing poisonous powder which jeopardizes a lot of babies’ lives.

Economists often say that “profit is the main incentive of action.” Basically some companies use pernicious chemical to save cost, while totally neglecting the fundamental business ethic. They are actually killing their future descendants by poisons produced by themselves!

The sad history in 2008 is still alarming, when six babies died from tainted milk powder in China. That is probably why China has stopped importing of milk powders from New Zealand and Australia due to the bacteria that causes botulism in products, as it is said in the article above. With proper supervision, I believe this kind of violation of business ethic will gradually be reduced and regulated.

Even if the profit a company earn is a big deal, companies should never sacrifice its stakeholder’s (including consumers,employers, board of director, shareholder,etc) interest for that so-called profit. Take the “poisonous milk powder” produced by Sanlu Group for example, what did the Sanlu Group end up with? Bandruptcy and terrible reputation, unemployment of workers and so on. More importantly, this company will always be taken as the culprit who harmed or took away thousands of innocent babies’ lives!

As Milton Friedman stated:”the only social responsibility of business is to earn profits while following the law and basic ethical customs.” As people’s sense of business ethics are enhanced, hopefully there will not be any Sanlu Group or Fonterra Group any more. As long as every company has and obeys the basic business ethic, our future children’s life won’t be a concern.

Reference:

Emma Lacey-Bordeaux (August 5, 2013) China halts import of New Zealand milk powder because of botulism bacteria [online]. Available from: http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/04/world/asia/china-botulism-milk-powder/ [Accessed 10 September 2014]

Photos: