Ka Yan's Blog

This one will be contradicting Nicole Poon’s blog post. While most people were all serious in the room when Michael Hallat was giving us a glimpse on his business “Pirate Joe’s”, I couldn’t contain my laughter. My laughter wasn’t because of me making fun of him, but because of how incredible I thought he was. This fact maybe derived because of my culture, which goes back to my hometown, the Dominican Republic. Corruption is a real matter in my country, most people who are successful went against the “business ethics” at some point. In this case, I consider Hallat an unbelievably wise business man.

It’s evident that Canadians follow the line way more than most of us do, but reselling products of a company that is not established near your location at all, is not an unethical action. It is rather an opportunity. I would say that Mike Hallat’s business is instead a bridge that benefits Trader Joe’s. For some reason, after being sued several times, Mike Hallat’s Pirate Joe’s remains alive. What damages is the pirate bringing to society? none. Is he bringing  any benefits? yes, he’s satisfying Trader Joe’s fans needs.

McDonald’s, hasn’t introduced enough variety to keep its customer base. On the other hand, Burger King has been luring business way from McDonald’s by offering a more family-friendly variety of food, which was part of McDonald’s culture.

After reading Eeanne Lee’s blog post on Burger King’s new “Satisfries”, I can reassure that Burger King has been surpassing in the game by introducing not only new menu items, but healthy choices at the same time.  The new “Satisfries” have 30% less calories and 40% less fat. This fact satisfies some consumers’ needs by achieving the detail of being a company of fast food but also getting every time closer to being a health conscious company. By introducing the new  “Satisfries”, Burger King will definitely gain more market share. This could even turn to be a way of dominating the fast food market niche as they are widening their target segment with the new “Satisfries” and without any doubt, their upcoming varieties. I agree with Eeanne, in the sense that Burger King should have the product permanently. Burger King should keep on implementing more health conscious strategies, which would ultimately make the company more profitable.

Video: “Satisfries made me satisfied”

Merging Canada and the United States would fulfill each nation’s thirst: Canada would benefit from the technology and capital that the United States offer; United States would get natural resources, and higher living standards. Nevertheless, it is estimated that Canada would over contribute approximately $17 trillion, which equals the total U.S debt.

A Toronto Star poll asked Canadians if they would agree to a merger with the U.S if they each received $500,000. Not even a 38 percent agreed. Maybe Canadians go along the American’s stereotype, but it is evident that you just couldn’t pay Canadians to be Americans. The merger would solve each nation’s problems, but it is just nearly impossible. Canadian culture can’t compare to the American culture, Canadians are just way more humble and humane. The United States’ national debt  and racial issues would  just create chaos and damage Canada’s social and economic stability.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-13/canadians-you-couldnt-pay-us-to-be-americans#r=most popular

In April 2011 the South Korean Apple sued Samsung for plagiarizing the design of

its iPhone and iPad tablet phones. Samsung responded with a countersuit, accusing Apple of also violating its patents. According to Apple, consumers have bought more iPhone and iPad models if Samsung had not offered a similar aesthetic model and therefore South Korea claimed a compensation of U.S $2500 million in damages. Samsung fought providing internal documents to corroborate phone working on that design before Apple’s launch to the market. The case went to the U.S. courts in 2012 and a jury ended up giving Apple the right.

The South Korean company was ordered to pay compensation to its competitor to U.S $1,000 million, leading to this main comment, which is correct because Samsung’s popularity is based on the theft of Apple’s originality. After reading Badenhausen’s article, I can say that innovation just doesn’t go along with Samsung as they admitted, in other words, that their culture is based on a imitation strategy. Apple is constantly creating new technology, which makes them a real technology company.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2013/11/06/apple-dominates-list-of-the-worlds-most-valuable-brands/

Lululemon’s design strategy revolves around serving products for guests that size in between 2 and 12. Obviously, this doesn’t suit everyone. The retailer, famous for its $98 yoga pants, admitted that plus-size consumer is not one of their targets at the moment. Lululemon is conscious that the size range will limit their type of customers.

Facebook commenters accused Lululemon of shunning plus-size and discriminating against plus-size consumers. It should be considered that in order to become a more profitable company, Lululemon has to start focusing on producing plus-sizes. Many people start to exercise when they age and start gaining weight as their metabolism change. The retailer’s main products are for yoga, and many women as they age, fight stress and chronic conditions by doing yoga. Not only people start gaining weight but also heart diseases and blood pressure tend to become worse. Lululemon can be a victim of unsuitable reputation that might, in a future, even if they start offering plus sizes, not get profit from a certain target segment because of the customers’ view of the retailer as a discriminatory company.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/02/lululemon-plus-size-clothing_n_3696690.html

AMAZON, which became America’s biggest Internet retailer, used to go against collecting sales tax from its customers. On May 6th the Senate anticipated to approve a bill involving Internet wholesalers to collect sales tax due in other states. Politicians noticed that current law gives Amazon an unfair advantage. State governments reckon that tax avoidance by online retailers costs them approximately $11 billion a year.

Best Buy said its sales rose by 4-6% in states where Amazon started to collect tax. Smaller retailers, such as Blue Nile and EBay stated that having to collect tax could greatly harm their businesses.

Technology has created a broader way of thinking than taxation has embraced. If the Marketplace Fairness Act passes, online retailers’ profit will be affected as it would mean an increase in cost for their customers. Forcing retailers to collect tax from customers will make it harder for small businesses to grow into bigger businesses. Small businesses already find it hard to comply with America’s myriad local rules.

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21577071-online-retailers-may-soon-have-collect-sales-tax-amazon-oddly-gloating-tax

No, it doesn’t deal with any murder intended case. It is about China and its stereotype of producing fake and cheap products. A woman was sitting in front of her computer drying her hair when unexpectedly, the chair exploded. Thick iron springs and scattered screws were sent to her lower body. The woman’s intestines and vagina were pierced by a steel rod.  Apparently, there has already been several similar cases such as in 2008 when a chair exploded and hit the ceiling and in 2009 when a exploding chair killed a 14-year old boy.

Chinese manufacturers lower their cost by filling the chairs with pressured air, which was likely the cause of the explosion. It is almost impossible to control the massive amount of suppliers’ quality at the time of production. Yet, the government can implement strategies to supervise the suppliers. Sudden human protection teams can pop up to strictly check the processes taken to produce a certain a product. If the supplier fails to pass certain requirements, the company should be fine in the first warning and in the second, it should be shut down. The Chinese government has to create a sense of fear in the suppliers.

http://business.asiaone.com/news/woman-badly-injured-exploding-computer-chair

Europe is well known for having a massive population of smokers. Anti-tobacco laws are going to be taken in order to put young people off smoking. Euro MPs have banned cigarette flavorings and packs of 10 cigarettes because they are considered popular among young smokers. Fourteen EU states already have packs of 20 as a minimum while UK and Italy still have packs of 10 as a minimum. Annually, almost 700,000 Europeans lives are taken away due to smoking-related illnesses.

Prohibition is not the best solution. Banned products will definitely be available in the black market. The strategies are meant to make cigarettes less appealing. Real smokers don’t really mind about packaging and if the desired flavor is unavailable, they will stick to another flavor. Most people have smoking as a necessity, as something part of their daily lives.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24439474

Most of the 400,000 Pentagon staff sent home within the US government shutdown have been ordered to return to work even as the impasse over the federal budget between Republicans and Democrats entered its sixth day on October 7, 2013. The shutdown has left federal employees on unpaid leave. Both sides have now voted to approve back-pay for the 800,000 federal workers sent home without salaries but there is still no sign of any measure to raise the nation’s $16.7 trillion debt ceiling. Congress must act by October 17 in order to avoid a debt default by the US government. United States’ economy will crash because they will run out of cash on that day for the first time in US history.

The two parties, Republicans and Democrats, have come together to take away the people’s liberties. It is almost evident that the USA’s democracy is turning into an anarchy. It’s a way for the government to steal the wealth of the country. As a consequence, China’s interests and the global economy will be severely hurt as well.

http://www.businessworld.in/news/economy/us/pentagon-to-return-to-work-us-shutdown-drags-on/1104226/page-1.html

Blackberry is attempting to diminish its extreme losses by cutting off 4,500 jobs which equals to 40% of its workforce. The company anticipated a loss of around 995 million dollars for its second-quarter earnings reports next week. The losses were essentially attributed to the unsuccessful sales of its new  Z10 model smartphone. Only 2.7 million Z10 phones out of 6.8 million had shipped. Blackberry’s incapability of following today’s necessities and wants has made itself sailed down a cliff.

Its marketing techniques, which ultimately targets business men, has failed to drive the company into stable profitability. One of the methods of recovery would be reducing the Z10’s price, about a 20%, to resume its sales. It is a better idea to gain less profit from a product than having a complete loss. Hence, the phone’s sales would be directed to a different customer segment, and there would be a higher chance for Blackberry to ship more of its Z10s. Blackberry should instead cut off only 25% of its job, and invest the other 15% in hiring advisors that specialize in innovation.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323808204579083250005557232