What You See is What You Get?

This direction please! I think I’m going somewhere!

This seems to be my last blog entry for Comm 486G aka Comm 101. How do I feel as of this moment? Not yet relieved because I have not started stuyding for my exams, but I can say that I have underestimated this course.

In all honesty, I signed up for this because I wanted to drop my other elective, psychology 100. I found out shortly after that I could not do such thing with a 6-credit course. I remained on the class list anyways and decided to wait until next year to take political science.

What as this course done for me?

As a teaser to this class’s last assignment, I would say that  taking a course on a very brief introduction to  fundamentals of business has taught me that I am not obligated to become a business person… in the sense that I don’t have to go to board room meetings, wear frumpy suits, and make small talk. The knowledge that I have learned to consult a business plan, analyze a SWOT analysis, read and identify the significance of a Balanced Scorecard has only strengthened my ability to think.

What resonates with me the most would be the class with Naim Merchant. I have other options! It also reminded me of why I applied to Sauder in the first place. I never had intentions to become filthy rich. I just wanted to be educated and have the right set of skills to make improvements to various social areas.

I suppose the “business” aspect of this entry would be to remember that business is not about climbing the corporate ladder in four inch heels. It’s about having compassion for one another and using those honed skills to improve the greater good of man-kind.

Tags: No Comments.

A name is very important whether it be a job title or one’s real name. It differentiates one person or thing from another and creates an echoeing impression if the job is done effectively and tastefully. Cars are very fine examples of this concept.

 A Mercedes-Benz can be recognized as fashionable, status-uplifting, and undoubtedly attractive. What is desired also comes with a hefty price, but how far would a supplier go to recreate that want with a cost that “regulars” can afford?

The Daewoo Chairman is a prime example of a car that plays up the features of a luxury car… except the question is why isn’t it attracting the same attention as its inspiration?

The Daewoo Chairman and the 2010Mercedes-Benz E-Guard look pratically identical, but aside from the hype that is created in Korea, the Chairman cannot compare to the physical and mental comfort a Benz can provide.

If I were to disuise the Chairman with the Mercedes-Benz logo, imagine the money that I could make! Despite the engineering of this Korean model, it seems as though it cannot be as world-class it hopes to be.

So what is it about a name? Since it seems that the Chairman will never quite reach the status that it hopes to acquire, maybe it should learn to position itself with what it’s got: The Next Best Thing to  a World-Class Car.

Tags: No Comments.

“Don’t have any money? Turn to N.I.N.A.”

The subprime mortage crisis is a crisis that I’m sure everyone literate and familiar with some aspects of the economy would know, but do most people understand why that crisis came to be?

Being a business student for almost a school year now, I can honestly say I cannot fully discuss the matter confidently because there are too many complicated factors just like the matter itself. The situation first began with no problems. It was just an “ordinary housing bubble”. The guidelines to receiving a mortgage were strict and tight to filter only the qualified people, but as there were more demand in owning properties, the guidelines we began to loosen.

Why would the banks allow that? It is all about decision making and prioritizing what is more important. Because the banks were selling the mortgages to Wall Street, they essentially did not feel that they would be in great danger if they reduced the restrictions on qualifications. But how far did they go? Up until the point where only a credited score was needed to verify one’s eligibilty.

Is this a plan gone wrong? I say it was all based upon poor decision-making…along with a little bit of greed, and poor futuristic outlook. Business is heavily based on decisions and being able to make good ones is an asset to have. Of course the American banks fail to possess that asset and in return lost everyone else’s assets.

Of course there are three players in this crisis: the buyers, the banks, and Wall Street. Imagine how it would be if each player took a moment to evaluate their own decisions and then thought about the other two players. What a difference that would be.

*N.I.N.A is an abbreviation for No Income No Assets

Tags: No Comments.

   After calculating my carbon foot print and seeing my results, I am relieved to know that my current score is not that awful. My report praised me for already taking the necessary steps in working towards a low-carbon lifestyle, but there is always room for improvement.

  The chart above categorizes where I emit the most carbon. I was surprised at how much carbon impact there was on food than the other sections. What does that say about my eating habits? I had selected light meat as my option, yet there are so many other ways to improve. My personal plan that the site issued me encouraged on shopping for food locally and eating organically.

It makes sense to be so concerned about minimizing the level of carbon in the air, but not everyone is aware of changing immediately. The future may look distant and…in the future, but again tomorrow is just a day away. Supporting sustainability and practicing the necessary steps indivually, no one will have to worry about drastic changes when the consequences are too near.

So as an individual commitment, I will continue what I am doing now along with the transition to better ways of buying and producing my food because, at the end of the day, sustainability only exists if I am able to live a healthy life  myself to be able to make global changes.

Tags: No Comments.

   Quite recently while cleaning my room I stumbled upon an old box of crayons. I looked at this box face down, but immediately knew that it was a Crayola crayon box. Why? It had the undeniably familiar design of green and yellow that every child growing up on North America would know well. Besides being the 18th most recognized scent  amongst American adults, Crayola has also established a strong hold on its image that no other can really compare.

So what is it that makes Crayola such a household name and a market of its own? The branding of this product in many ways can  be called impeccable. The consistent look of the box and its colours has been a key feature in keeping this product timeless, yet its ability to create more colours and adapt to the sensitivity of the changing culture has been the other factor in keeping this brand modern as well. Because Crayola has been able to maintain that fresh green and yellow look that resonates with every generation, no other competitor can intervene and create another line that can quite capture the same amount of loyalty cultivated from childhood sentiments and creativity.

The brilliant branding and marketing might be the explanation to Crayola’s massive success, but, to me, those crayons were brilliant because they were my building blocks of learning that possessed a splash of lively colour that made me want to come back for more.

Tags: No Comments.

The Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010 is finally here and is bringing a surge of patriotism into the hearts of every Canadian. But is that surge strong enough to resuscitate  our economy? According to the Vancouver Sun, we are expected to see an improvement in the economy, but in terms of our provincial revenues, it is going to be lagging behind for another four years.

As many controversies  there are about the presence of the Olympics, everyone should just accept the fact that it has arrived. Vancouver has so much to offer in terms of tourism and that’s what should be taken advantage of right now. Forget about trying to strategically manoeuvre the economy. It will eventually find its way back to potential GDP. All we can do now as consumers and educated citizens is market our beautiful city. We’ve got mountains, lakes, beaches. It is rainy in the morning, and sunny in the afternoon. No more talks about economics. Everyone is so concerned about making safe decisions or being pessimistic that they forget about the beauty of this project.

Olympics+eager spectators+curious tourists+fabulous marketing+optimism= future tourists and business+an unbelievable experience in Canadian history.

The outcome of the economy and the results that are to entail mirror that of a math equation too. It does not matter how you approach it because there is only one definite answer. The Olympics are here and the games are beginning. The art of business and its components can only predict so much until time takes over. So I say enjoy the events and have some faith.

Tags: No Comments.

  I tweet around 3-4 times a day just because I want to update my followers  to what I am doing. It’s not that exciting and sometimes it’s as mundane as what I am eating. If I knew that  it was going to help me line up jobs, I might just start tweeting something intellectual.

An idea so absurd might just be the next primary job hiring process. One interesting tweet equals one new job? For Hal Thomas, it was the perfect opportunity to honed his tweeting skills and score himself a job with BFG Communications, a marketing company. He utilized the 140 characters to say something short and sweet, to include a link to a mock magazine cover of himself and another link to his blog. So a hint of wit, a snapshot of some graphics, and a whole lot of personality was what made Thomas stand out from all the other tweets. This was his tweet:

@BFGCom @SloaneKelley It seems that BFG’s future could be looking bright! http://twitpic.com/ggkrf More info at http://bit.ly/2aziWg.

I’m familiar with social media shamelessly promoting fast food chains to raising awareness about aids, but am I ready to accept the fact that something so meticulous like hiring a new member to a team can be accomplished in fewer words than it takes me to order a coffee? I guess the world has taken so many short cuts that this shouldn’t have been seen as that big of a shock. BFG Communications should almost be commended for being so clever using this new tactic in hiring employees. They’ve gotten exposure from trying this new method, and have helped twitter get a little bit more interesting. Such clever execution, but then after all, they are a marketing company…

Tags: No Comments.

My dad decided to make dinner table conversation the other day. It started off about soy sauce, but it was anything but tasty. He had read somewhere that a manufacturing company in China called Hongshuai Soy Sauce was developing a type of soy sauce with alternative ingredients. What was the alternative ingredient? Human hair. I decided to look up any articles corresponding to this story and came to realize that what my dad told me was right! The reason why to use human hair was because it possesses amino acid which is a substance commonly found in soy sauce. But that was just the tip of the unappetizing ice berg. It was revealed that the hair was collected from local salons, barbershops, and hospitals and furthermore, other disgusting waste such as used cotton swabs, used menstrual cycle pads, used siringe, and condoms were incoorporated into that pool of raw materials.

Let’s take a look at this from a strictly profit- generating view. Of course this is genius! This is mundane waste that nobody wants turned into cold hard cash. All the accountants are doing are just monitoring the assets and equity as they go up. Everything is on Cloud Nine until the law comes to burst the bubble. I am all for innovation and profit maximizing tactics, but this story just angers me…and pokes at my curiosity in ways that I don’t want it to venture into. Who comes up with ideas like this and who knew hair could be turned into edible condiments? The bigger question is: who in their right mind would follow through with this evil plan?  

 The techinicians of the company admitted that they would not personally eat this soy sauce because there are plenty of bacteria and micro organisms crawling about. Not knowing what this mysterious alternative ingredient was, the Chinese consumers latched on to the fact that this soy sauce was substantially lower priced compared to the competitors and didn’t taste all that different.

Again, ethics comes into play. Is it ethical to put the consumers’ health at risk to make a quick buck? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. My curiosity: Does the Chinese government really care about such a scandal? With an uncontrolled population number already, can this be seen as a silent weapon to reduce a couple of million here and there? Horrible thought, but how far is it from the truth..?

Tags: No Comments.

The world of retail is not as glamorous as consumers believe it to be. The many steps and procedures that need to be taken in order to produce the final product, which is that piece of garment that consumers get to examine and try on before calling it theirs, are carried out in strategic manner to ensure quality, quantity, and profitability.

  In terms of profitability, I wonder sometimes how some companies manage to do that with their bottom-low prices and extra discount on top. Being a victim of the retail world, a sales associate, I ring in a day’s worth of sales and calculate the UPT, and other fancy acronyms to justify if the company is on top of their game or not. Comparing the store that I work at to Zara, I do see some similar tactics used such as keeping inventory of potential hot items low, the same floor layout for sister branches to keep that familiarity amongst customers, and immediate sales on slow items. But when items that originally cost $60 get marked down to $10 in such a short time period, it amazes me how this company is still around and is able to be one of the strongest, affordable retail chains around. This store mimics Zara often, considering that it is situated literally two shops away, but the customer loyalty seems to be pretty volatile as soons as Zara declares its mega-sales.

Tags: No Comments.

An infamous contradictory of the “social responsibility of business” would have to be the Tyco scandal that occurred in 2002. Tyco, a widely known manufacturing company of products ranging from health care products to electronics, was shocked to discover that former CEO, Dennis Kozlowski, was stealing millions of dollars from the company for his own personal use. With great craftsmanship within the field of deception, Kozlowski along with the Chief Legal Officer, Mark Belnick, and CFO, Mark Swartz worked together to provide each other ambiguous loans while falsifying the records to hide the traces.

 This incident was estimated to be a loss of $600 million for Tyco.

Deception, fraud, and clearly no ounce of respect for the company were continuing themes for these executives’ behaviours. Were they not paid enough initially? Was there a heart-wrenching tale of injustice behind their actions? How is it ethical to go ahead and betray every ounce of trust and confidence that someone has instilled upon you? Do these men not feel the wrath of their conscience throbbing within and screaming with guilt and shame?

It boggles my mind to know that Kozlowski was the top paid executive at Tyco, yet he wanted more. It seems that his greed had no limit and when the easy money became tangible, all sense of values, morals, beliefs was silence. This situation is not a matter of trying to cut corners for the company to get ahead, but rather well trust leaders destroying the company from within. At least with the former suggestion I can try to understand the pressures, reasoning and need for the leader to take his team to the next level.

The main ethical issue here is how much power is too much power? How does one segregate the power to govern and make decisions that are honourable from flirting with that voice that says it’s okay to have a moment of weakness? Tyco’s CEO, CFO, and the Chief Legal Officer were probably all honourable men at some point in their reign in the company, but through the budding temptation and the process of discovering the type of power that they each possessed: referent, information, and legitimate,  all ethical decision-making  was silenced.

  “Only people can have responsibilities.” That claim was sadly mistaken for this unfortunate incident. The greed within these men’s eyes prevailed and the social responsibility that they had to upkeep was discarded.

 For Tyco, their leaders didn’t “stay within the rules of the game”. Instead, they were performing a marionette puppet show filled with lies and shame. It is hard to believe that the CEO, Dennis Kozlowski, was once praised for being one of the best managers around.

http://www.lawyershop.com/practice-areas/criminal-law/white-collar-crimes/securities-fraud/lawsuits/tyco/

Tags: No Comments.