After successful years of being on top of the competition of the mobile phone industry, Blackberry Ltd has posted its biggest quarterly loss of a whopping 965 million dollars. After reading the article on Blackberry’s fall, I saw connections to the company’s decline and business topics studied in class.

One of the main reasons that Blackberry remained relevant throughout the competition between smartphones was because of its physical keyboard which appealed to businessmen not wanting to write extended emails on touchscreens. If Blackberry Ltd had done a SWOT chart and successfully acknowledged that one of their greatest strengths were their physical keyboards, the quarterly fall may have been prevented. Speaking of the SWOT chart, Blackberry Ltd has correctly assessed the opportunity section and went after the unexplored market of touchscreens. However, by doing so they abandoned their strength which was the physical keyboards. Not only that, they entered the market of touchscreens in 2013 when its main competition, Apple Inc, entered the market in 2007 and has been dominating in it. Blackberry Ltd had failed to assess its company appropriately through tools such as the SWOT which resulted in its downfall.

References:

Silcoff, S. (2013, September 27). Inside the fall of BlackBerry: How the smartphone inventor failed to adapt . Retrieved from The Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/the-inside-story-of-why-blackberry-is-failing/article14563602/?page=8

Picture: RIM. (Photographer). [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://agbeat.com/gadgets/smartphones-gadgets/blackberry-z10/

When the town in northern Alberta, Fort McMurray, is mentioned in a conversation, it is almost certain that the image of the oil sands will come to mind as it is often referred to as the heart of Alberta’s oil production.

However, when looking at the tar sands with the topic of business ethics in mind, the heart of Alberta’s oil production does not seem too pleasing and famous Canadian singer/songwriter Neil Young agrees.

Neil Young has recently told the media that the town of Fort McMurray looks like “Hiroshima” when he visited the place. He also continued his criticism by stating that “People are dying of cancer because of this (the oil sands). All the First Nations people up there are threatened by this.”

Although Young has used the extreme imagery  of comparing the tar sands to the nuclear aftermath of Hiroshima, the ethics of the oil companies in Fort McMurray should very well be questioned. At what point is producing oil too much for the environment and the people of Fort McMurray and everyone near? Fort McMurray helps the Albertan economy and of course the wealthy oil companies abundantly but is it really worth the harm that people are going through?

Hopefully a criticism by a beloved Canadian celebrity may spark a discussion of business ethics within Fort McMurray.

Picture: Avelar, T. (Photographer). [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://www.theprovince.com/sports/Neil Young slams Keystone likens Fort McMurray Hiroshima/8895505/story.html

References:

Babad, M. (2013, September 10). The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from The Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/top-business-stories/neil-young-on-oil-sands-fort-mcmurray-looks-like-hiroshima/article14213233/