Monthly Archives: October 2014

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c7/HNIC_Logo.svg/1048px-HNIC_Logo.svg.png

From its television debut in 1952 until the end of the 2013-2014 NHL season, CBC had exclusive rights to Hockey Night in Canada, a hugely popular TV broadcast of 2 NHL games on Saturday night, often interspersed with segments, such as Don Cherry’s Coach’s Corner, that discussed various hockey related topics as well as the games being played.  HNIC was one of CBC’s most popular shows, until Rogers took over at the beginning of the most recent season.

This article discusses how CBC lost the rights to HNIC, coming to the conclusion that CBC was not aware of how the broadcasting market was changing and of the competition for the rights to HNIC.  For example, when CBC negotiated with the NHL for the broadcasting rights, they demanded the digital rights as well for the same price, but the NHL requested more money for them.  CBC did not adjust to this and as a result the NHL went to Rogers and BCE to negotiate.  Furthermore, even after the NHL moved on to negotiating with Rogers and BCE, the leaders of CBC did not regard them as serious competitors for HNIC, even though they were giving serious offers.  Overall, this article emphasizes the importance of being able to adapt to a rapidly changing landscape as not doing so can lead to major losses for the company.

Works Cited

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/hockey-night-in-canada-how-cbc-lost-it-all/article21072643/?page=2

http://reputationalcompliance.com/2012/06/20/the-road-to-downfall-the-most-common-unethical-business-practices/

While browsing my classmates’ blogs, I came upon this article by Raza Razi, in which he, while responding to another classmate, Farwah Ahmed’s blog, argues that social responsibility and ethical practices leads to increased profits, while unethical behaviors leads to a poor reputation and as a result reduced profits.

While I agree with this argument in specific situations, he gives an example where two competing companies sell soap and one company, Company Y, uses a cheaper ingredient to save money, but it is “not great for one’s skin and could cause skin irritation”.  He then postulates that this would lead to increased sales initially, but it would decrease over time as people noticed the quality decrease.

I have two issues with this example.  One, I do not believe this necessarily constitutes an ethical issue.  Companies are not socially irresponsible if they do not use the finest ingredients in their products and there is nothing inherently wrong with trying to reduce costs.   In addition, as long as they notify their customers that their product is not suitable for everyone’s skin, they are not necessarily responsible for any harm caused.  Furthermore, even if this is a issue of social responsibility, Company Y still made extra profit through acting unethically, which disagrees with Raza’s main argument.  Overall, while I believe that social responsibility is an important characteristic for companies to hold, it does not always lead to profit, and oftentimes, unethical choices directly lead to increased profits.

Works Cited

Can Ethical Practices Increase Profits? A Response to Farwah Ahmed’s Blog

https://blogs.ubc.ca/farwahahmed/2014/09/10/corporate-social-responsibility-beneficial-or-detrimental/

A visualization of the proposed dam

First Nations groups are united against Site C, BC Hydro’s planned $8 billion hydroelectric dam. Although Site C has been argued to be the province’s “best bet for wrestling with the thorny issues of need and cost” in regards to energy, BC’s many first nations groups believe that the land is rightfully theirs and so oppose the project. The dam would flood 83 kilometers of the Peace River Valley, destroying land used by many First Nations peoples and “[impairing] their rights to fish, hunt and use the area for ceremonial purposes.”

Connecting this to Porters five forces, this represents a barrier to entry. More specifically it is the government deterring entry as the BC government supports the First Nations Groups right to the land, thus impeding BC Hydro’s ability to create the dam and thus gain more influence in the energy market in BC.

Works Cited

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/First+Nation+chiefs+stage+Site+showdown/10215965/story.html

http://www.vancouversun.com/Site+best+option+energy+Hydro+hasn+proven+need+project+report+updated/9819949/story.html

http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/porter.shtml

Tesla’s Patent Wall before June 12

Currently, Tesla Motors holds over 600 patents, each one granting them exclusive license to profit off of each one or at least the ability to initiate lawsuits against others who use the patent.  However, on June 12, 2014, Tesla announced that they would no longer file lawsuits against anyone who uses their technology. This announcement was based on Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk’s belief that innovation should be encouraged and the best way to fuel innovation is to open up new technologies and ideas to as many people as possible.  More specifically, Musk hopes for increased research and production on electric vehicles as, “electric car programs (or programs for any vehicle that doesn’t burn hydrocarbons) at the major manufacturers are small to non-existent” and which increasing the number of electric cars produced in the market. Of course, this change in policy helps Tesla as well. By allowing other companies to use Tesla’s technology, it opens up Tesla’s infrastructure of superchargers to a larger market, making the company more money. Overall, Tesla departed from typical patent policies by opening their patents up to other companies.  This serves as an experiment to see if open-source technology can in fact lead to increased innovation in the electric car market.

Tesla’s Patent Wall after June 12

Works Cited: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/result.html?p=1&sort=relevance&srch=top&query_txt=an%2F%22tesla+motors%22&patents=on http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2014/07/17/rethinking-patent-enforcement-tesla-did-what/ http://gas2.org/2014/06/23/the-tesla-patent-wall-before-and-after/

The NFL is entering the fifth week of its seventeen-week season and so far the season has been marked by controversy as multiple high-profile players have been arrested for or accused of various cases of domestic violence and child abuse. The list of players involved in the scandals includes players such the Baltimore Ravens’ Ray Rice and the Minnesota Vikings 2012 MVP Adrian Peterson. So far, the league has dealt with the controversy terribly, highlighted by originally suspending Ray Rice only two games after he knocked out his fiancée in a casino elevator. The NFL later made his suspension permanent, but only after a video of the assault was released to the public where it generated significant controversy.

Anheuser-Busch takes a stand against the NFLs treatment of domestic abuse

The negative publicity has yet to translate to significant consequences for the NFL, but it may not last long as multiple companies are decrying the NFL. Multiple companies have pulled their sponsorship of the Vikings and Ravens and have requested that their ads not be shown during the games. Anheuser-Busch, which currently has a $1.2 billion deal with the NFL, released a statement expressing concern. While these demonstrations of frustration may not make a serious monetary impact on the NFL in the long run, ideally they will lead the NFL to take a serious stance against domestic violence and abuse.

Works Cited:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2014/09/24/nfl-sponsors-are-asking-to-shift-their-ads-away-from-ravens-and-vikings-report-says/

http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/nfl-sponsors-vikings-ravens-no-ads-092414

http://www.breakingnews.com/item/2014/09/16/anheuser-busch-inbev-releases-statement-on-the-nfl/