“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” 

As cliche as the quote may sound, it outlines the value of social enterprise perfectly. Whereas the United Nations looks at the big picture, they are unable to help people and small businesses on a personal scale. This is where the Arc Initiative and social enterprise comes in — to build on United Nations’ efforts by reaching into the cracks that they miss.

As quoted by Uwonkunda, “donated money […] didn’t make a lasting impact.” Donations may last for a short while, providing people with shelter, food and water, but they won’t have the fundamental skills that will sustain them in the long run. The Arc Initiative and social enterprise help create shared value that benefit individuals, small businesses and the entire community. For example, microfinance in developing countries provide capital for entrepreneurs and small businesses who otherwise cannot access or afford a banking service. The Arc Initiative leads business skills workshops that teach entrepreneurs how to better manage their business, and in turn, better the economy of the local community. Social entrepreneurs generate social value by providing job training and work opportunities to those who need them. These actions cannot be made possible by the United Nations, which, despite being fully funded, cannot focus their time and resources on such small aspects of a country. 

Such are the impacts of social enterprise. By supporting people with creativity and potential, we are creating a much more independent and able society.

Works Cited:

“Upward Arc.” UBC News. N.p., 30 June 2014. Web. 11 Nov. 2014. <http://news.ubc.ca/2014/06/30/upward-arc/>.

“What Is Social Entrepreneurship?” Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. Web. 11 Nov. 2014. <http://skollworldforum.org/about/what-is-social-entrepreneurship/>.

Kroeker, Jeff. “Production Issues Threaten to Unravel High-end Fashion Label.” The Globe and Mail. 13 Sept. 2013. Web. 11 Nov. 2014. <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-growth/going-global/production-problems-nearly-unravel-high-end-fashion-label/article14286870/>.

Original Blog by Karim R. Lakhani

From vinyl records to online streaming, the development of technology has radically changed the way we appreciate music. Good news for us, music nowadays are extremely convenient and easily accessible, as we no longer require the use of heavy gramophones and CD players. Upstart companies like Pandora and Spotify leads the revolution by allowing its users to stream music directly on their phones without having to download any content. Unfortunately, this ease of distribution also meant a decreased market share and profit for major music distributors such as iTunes. The writer of this blog post labels this technological change in the music industry as “disruptive” and comments that the ease of distribution undermines the true value of music. Whereas I agree that music has great value in creating and sharing moments of significance, I do not think this technological revolution should be taken negatively. In fact, I think this technology offers a very unique value proposition and will allow for value creation for all parties — consumers, artists, and music distributors. 

For consumers, the benefits are countless. People will be able to gain access to a much more diverse genre of music at affordable costs, and be able to share them at the click of a button. The digitization decreased the cost of music production considerably, which enables many more talented artists to create and share their music on a global scale. Despite the lowered album sales, established artists and record companies can find new revenue streams readily available by offering their works on music streaming platforms such as Pandora. Not only will they profit, but they will also gain publicity from a much larger audience, especially when these streaming platforms host up to millions of users per day. Online music distributor iTunes stepped into the playing field by implementing a streaming platform of their own — the iTunes Radio — in September 2013 and has since become third in popularity, after Pandora and iHeartRadio. Other distributors will have to look for new ways to combat their competition if they hope to stay in the game, because this trend of music distribution is unlikely to slow down. 

As for Taylor Swift and her new album ‘1989’, bravo for standing up to Spotify by removing their permission to stream her album. But will her actions to protect artist music rights prove successful, or will it simply encourage piracy as the internet turns to other methods of getting what it wants?

Works Cited:

Lakhani, Karim R. “Taylor Swift and the Economics of Music as a Service.”Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business Review, 6 Nov. 2014. Web. 10 Nov. 2014. <https://hbr.org/2014/11/taylor-swift-and-the-economics-of-music-as-a-service>

Reed, Brad. “ITunes Radio Is Popular but Not Even Close to a ‘Pandora Killer'” BGR. N.p., 11 Mar. 2014. Web. 11 Nov. 2014. <http://bgr.com/2014/03/11/itunes-radio-vs-spotify-vs-pandora/>

Woods, Ben. “15 of the Best Music Streaming Platforms Online Today.”TNW Network All Stories RSS. N.p., 17 Jan. 2014. Web. 11 Nov. 2014. <http://thenextweb.com/apps/2014/01/17/15-best-music-streaming-services-which-is-the-best/>

Original Blog by Neilinder Saini

Crowdfunding is an emerging trend that helps entrepreneurs raise capital for their projects. For larger companies, however, these crowdfunding sites provide the perfect platform to conduct market research. Through these platforms, companies can collect valuable information about consumer demands, tastes and preferences, and forecast how well their product or service will perform once it launches. In his blogpost, Neil provided an example with Marvell Conductor Group Ltd., which started a campaign on Indiegogo to gain insight on the demand of their new product. The campaign not only helped Marvell collect the information, but it also helped them raise publicity for their product, as can be seen the number of backers who paid $599 to get the product before it launched in the market.

Recently, Chinese online giants have taken one step further launched crowdfunding sites for movies. Alibaba’s Yu Le Bao (Chinese for Entertainment Treasure) gained 240,000 users in just two days and since its launch have rolled out four major film projects. Baidu’s Baifa Youxi launched its first crowdfunded movie ‘The Golden Era’ after raising $2.93 from its platform. These companies emphasizes that “anyone can be a producer” and guarantee backers monetary earnings based on box office performance or investment earnings otherwise. I think this is a very innovative business model. Not only does it extend the use of these platforms as a marketing research tool, but people are much more inclined to actually watch these movies with the thought in mind that they are an investor themselves.

Works Cited:

Coonan, Clifford. “China’s Alibaba Launches Crowdfunding-Like Service for Film Investment – Hollywood Reporter.” The Hollywood Reporter. N.p., 1 Apr. 2014. Web. 9 Nov. 2014. <http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-s-alibaba-launches-crowdfunding-692910>.

Frater, Patrick. “China Online Giant Baidu Launches Film Funding Unit.”Variety. N.p., 22 Sept. 2014. Web. 09 Nov. 2014. <http://variety.com/2014/film/news/china-online-giant-baidu-launches-film-funding-unit-1201310689/>.

Team, Trefis. “Chinese Internet Firms Turn To Crowd-funding.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 10 Feb. 2014. Web. 09 Nov. 2014. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2014/10/02/chinese-internet-firms-turn-to-crowd-funding/>.