https://blogs.ubc.ca/alicexwo/2013/11/17/googling-the-google-culture/

After attending the class on organizational culture within the workplace and learning about Zappos innovative stance on what the workplace should be like, I have become quite interested in the different types of organizational culture that occurs in different workplaces.

While reading through Alice Wo’s blog posts I noticed a post on this very topic. She took the concepts we learned in class and applied them in an analysis of Google’s organizational culture. As Alice mentioned Google places a huge value on creating a comfortable, unique, and diverse workplace, similar to Zappos.

Personally I believe that this is an ingenious way to organize the workplace as it allows the employees not only to be passionate about the work that they are doing, but also to enjoy coming to work, ultimately resulting in a higher quality of work.

Diet Coke is currently the no. 2 soda in States, but it is now under great scrutiny. People are having growing concerns regarding the safety of the product because of the artificial sweeteners contained within the drink. Coke knows that this is a huge issue and in response they initiating ads promoting the safety of aspartame in particular.

I have now posted a few blogs based on business ethics and this is because it is something that really is important to me. It is clear that artificial sweeteners do in fact have adverse health risks and it is also clear that Coke is not concerned with the safety of their customers. Just like many other companies Coke has no regard for the health of their consumers, all they care about is making a profit. In fact if Coke cared about the safety of their customers they wouldn’t have a product to begin with. However, it could be argued that the responsibility is placed on the consumer, not the producer.

http://globalnews.ca/news/902807/coke-exec-diet-coke-under-pressure/

Ikea has just announced that it will purchasing a 20-turbine wind farm in Alberta. The farm is expected to generate 161 gigawatt hours (GWh) each year, which is double the amount of energy currently consumed by Ikea.

The reason that Ikea has made this purchase is so that the company can reach its ultimate goal of being energy independent by the year 2020. Today’s society places a high value on environmental sustainability, and having such a lofty goal in regards to becoming energy efficient, not only takes a strain off of our planet but it also strengthens the relationship that Ikea has with its customers. By actively making an effort to reduce its energy consumption Ikea is reinforcing its value proposition and ultimately attracting more consumers to its brand.

Ikea’s newest purchase is just another addition to its 157 wind turbines worldwide and  over 500,000 solar panels on its buildings in nine countries.

http://lethbridgeherald.com/news/local-news/2013/11/ikea-purchases-area-wind-farm/

I recently watched the film “Blackfish” which gave insight into the life of the killer whale, ‘Tilikum.’ The whale has been connected to the death of three humans to date and has since started performing again with trainers. The whale is known to be dangerous and yet SeaWorld continued and continues to use Tilikum to breed and to perform.

This came across as very interesting to me as it doesn’t really make sense that SeaWorld would continue to put both the whales safety and the trainers safety at risk. It then came to me that the reason SeaWorld would continue with such activities is because of profit. SeaWorld is a business and its purpose is to create profit. I can assume that Tilikum is a huge attraction to their park as he is currently the largest whale in captivity.

After watching the film and doing some further research, our class on business ethics came back to me. I noticed that SeaWorld  has been conducting itself in a way that is unethical; it is putting the safety of its employees at risk in order to create a larger profit. In addition, it has kept its employees in the dark regarding the true nature of Tilikum and the horrific events associated with the whale. Given the negligent practices of SeaWorld it is quite clear that it is not considered with operating in an ethical manner.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/killer-whale-tilikum-makes-big-splash-seaworld-13/story?id=13254217

https://blogs.ubc.ca/jonathonconlon/2013/11/04/starbucks-debuts-teavana-bar-and-its-a-doozy/

I came across Jonathon’s blog post and it sparked my interest. Jonathon makes a valid point when discussing Starbucks attempt to differentiate itself from its competitors while at the same time expanding into a new market. Jonathon also mentions Starbucks’ strong sense of brand loyalty and how the addition to their franchise will effectively increase profit as a result.

While the topics discussed are true, I personally believe that this expansion is useless for the company. I would not travel to a separate location to buy a cup of tea if I could get practically the same product at a closer, more convenient  location. That being said, the tea houses will have a much larger variety of tea and tea related products, and while this idea may not be my cup of tea I am clearly not in the targeted demographic.

Recently the topic of social enterprise came up in class. One of the main examples of a social enterprise that we were provided with was Save on Meats, a Vancouver based business on the Downtown Eastside. Save on Meats is defined as an invaluable asset for  the City of Vancouver as it provides jobs for many people who struggle with employment barriers. Save on meats helps the community in which it operates not only by providing people with jobs, but also providing a meal service for 450+ people every day.

Save on Meats is a business that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in the social well being of the people on the DTES. It is not a business that is purely concerned with maximizing profit, and therefore it is in fact a social enterprise.

Throughout my life I have always been conscious about the less fortunate and I believe that starting a social enterprise would be a fantastic way to better the lives of the those who aren’t as lucky as us.

http://saveonmeats.ca/big-decision/

A $3.3-billion federal contract was awarded to  Vancouver Shipyards to build ten new non-combat vessels for the Canadian Coast Guard. This project is in addition to seven other non-combat vessels that were planned to be built after the Shipyard was granted $8-million.

This new contract will effectively bring up to 1,000 new skilled trades jobs to Vancouver, including welding, pipe fitting, electrical, and mechanical.

Currently there is approximately 150 workers in Vancouver Shipyard’s workforce, and this number is expected to grow to 1,000 in the next couple of years. With that many workers, as many as three ships could be worked on at the same time. It is expected that the shipbuilders will make about $47 an hour.

The new contract is not only a good thing for Vancouver Shipyard’s but it will also be an asset to the city itself, as the surge of new jobs will ultimately boost the local economy.

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/billion+contract+Coast+Guard+ships+will+bring+jobs+Vancouver+Shipyards/9006862/story.html

Developers in Toronto are proposing a new type of housing in the form of micro condominiums. These homes will be approximately 300 square feet, and will start at a price of around $200,000.

The developers, Urban Capital and Malibu, realize that this type of housing may not be appealing to everyone, however they believe that there is a niche market that they can appeal to. The housing size has been steadily decreasing in major cities in order to keep up with increasing construction and and land costs. This type of housing is obviously not ideal in small towns across Canada, but in major cities such as Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal, it isn’t a terrible idea, but personally, I wouldn’t be sold on it. The price per square foot comes out to be about $750, and that is quite high. As I mentioned previously, the market for ‘micro-condos’ is a niche market. The challenge that these developers face is marketing their idea. If they are successful in their marketing schemes, their condos will mimic the success of similar designs in other major cities across the world such as, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and New York.

http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/will-micro-condos-take-off-in-canada-1.1485624

The other day in class we discussed the possible internal opinions regarding the Iphone and Ipod. The argument was whether the Ipod would eventually be rendered obsolete to the Iphone. It was an interesting topic of conversation: Why would someone buy an Ipod and an Iphone? I don’t think they would. Why spend the extra money when you could just buy the Iphone to begin with? One students argument was that a parent may first buy an Ipod for their child, before an Iphone, so that they could test out the technology without having all of the power of an Iphone. I think that if that were the case a family wouldn’t want to spend money on both devices when they are so similar. The Ipod will eventually be phased out. The demand for a device that simply plays music is indeed obsolete to a device that can do almost anything (the Iphone) . The Iphone is basically an Ipod that can make phone calls, draw maps, and create recipes. I think that as the sales of the Ipod continue to fall that Apple should seek an alternative revenue stream. It should adapt to the market and create something entirely new, or continue to improve the designs that they already have in place.

http://ipod.about.com/od/decidingwhichipodtobuy/tp/Top-7-Differences-Betwen-The-Iphone-4-And-Ipod-Touch.htm

 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/28/business/worldbusiness/28iht-mattel.4.7289869.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Mattel Inc. was hit with a devastating blow in 2007 when it learned that many of its factories in China were producing products with paint that had dangerous levels of lead. Originally the company thought that it was an isolated issue; “a single failure, from a single vendor who made a big mistake.”(3) Soon it realized that this was in fact not the issue, and that it was a wide spread crisis. Some of Mattel’s trusted producers had apparently opted for a cheaper paint outside of Mattel’s approved list of paint suppliers. This decision by the vendors ultimately resulted in a very unfortunate situation for Mattel.

The negative impacts that this ordeal had on Mattel definitely tarnished its reputation as one of the top toy companies in the world. However, if they did not publically announce this safety issue and had kept it away from the public it would have been an unethical and immoral decision. Despite the fact that this calamity had a huge negative impact on the company, it had a moral obligation to protect its stakeholders and spend capital to revaluate the safety of all Mattel products.