Fresh and Easy Buzz’s blogspot blog on Homeplus provides an amazing example of how innovative ideas combined with technology can translate into a great deal of gain for both companies and consumers.

A few years ago, the South Korean grocery outlet Homeplus was the second largest grocery retailer in Korea. Trailing behind E-Mart, the largest grocery retailer in Korea, Homeplus could not close the gap between itself and its chief rival through conventional means chiefly due to the fact that E-Mart’s grocery outlets outnumbered Homeplus stores 7:5.

A few year later, Homeplus has now overtaken E-Mart as the premier grocery outlet company in South Korea through the use of an experimental method of selling groceries online using QR code labelled shopping centers in subway stations.

By utilizing these quick and on-the-go methods of shopping combined with the fact that Koreans are the fourteenth hardest working people in the world and therefore despise wasting time shopping for groceries, Homeplus was able to secure a portion of the grocery market that had previously been unexplored.

Sometimes its not the best business plan or product that decides the success of the business. It can be as simple as one idea that can determine the difference between first and second.

There seems to be a recurring theme among many of the successful entrepreneurs in the 21st century. From Zuckerburg to Dorsey, many entrepreneurs have made millions creating computer software or SMS for the internet.

Drew Houston’s company Dropbox is such an example of 21st century IT success. Dropbox utilizes cloud technology to store data on servers and allows its users to synchronize their data from one electronic device to another.

Dropbox utilizes a freemium subscription plan, allowing a small portion of its services to be used for free (which provides the company word of mouth advertising), while providing a monthly subscription based service at several prices for different storage options.

The Dropbox app was released in 2008 and is now valued at more than 1 billion dollars. Like many IT based companies, the risk associated with the business was high due to the start up costs, saturated market, numerous competition and just the sheer nature of the programming business.

The innovative method of data storage and transfer has led to an explosive growth for Dropbox. While the business venture was risky, the risks paid off as Dropbox has now become one of the leaders of IT entrepreneurship.

Steven Shergill’s blog on Denmark’s implementation of the fat tax really opened my eyes to a creative, innovative way  the government can control the behaviors of its citizens while at the same time generating much needed revenue.

Some declare that the fat tax won’t affect the purchase of fatty foods, but economics begs to differ.

While the hypothesis that individuals who crave cake will buy said item at a slightly increased costs is some what true, the opportunity cost of eating cake has now increase and therefore people will substitute away from these goods into a cheaper alternative.

Personally, I agree with Steven’s recommendation of Americans adopting this tax. About 33.8% of Americans adults and 17% of children are obese. With the financial debt that America’s incurred, it could help the nation’s rate of debt recovery by implementing “fat taxes.”

The American government also has the option to help end obesity by subsidizing healthier food options. While this would inhibit any kind of debt recovery, it gives the government a way to tackle a legitimate social issue that is plaguing America.

This tax could make a healthier and richer America.