Month: November 2012

After reading Christina Kwan’s blog post regarding Sustainability and watching the video that comes with it, I realized that the idea of sustainability is heavily reliant on the economic theory that people have unlimited wants in a world with limited resources. As a member of the Richmond Green Ambassador team, I am no stranger to the topic of sustainability. What I did not realize is the economic and business behind sustainability. My personal theory is that as society progresses technologically, and the population grows, there will be a greater inequality of wealth throughout the world due to the growing number of free-market economies. My reasoning behind this is simple: Newer technology require more resources, but the earth has a limited amount of resources and cannot cope with the demand for more resources. I think the video Christina found was very engaging and entertaining; as is her blog post. To sum it all up, I would like to bring up an old cliche used quite frequently in business that can describe my take on effect of  disregarding sustainability: It is that no matter how much we try to change, “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer”.

If you haven’t already, read Christina Kwan’s blog post here!

In response to Ryan Ho’s blog, I found it very interesting that there are analysts who support this argument. Before reading this post, I could not imagine myself entering a product into market without having tested the waters. But come to think about it, there many companies who have succeeded in putting out a product without listening to the market. One of the best examples of this is the social media site Facebook and CEO Mark Zuckerburg. Evident by the movie “The Social Network” tech guru Mark Zuckerburg did not put much thought into releasing his site Facebook, and it’s predecessor, Facemash. In a sense, one of the reasons Mark Zuckerburg could afford not to second guess his decision is that websites like Facebook and Facemash have minimal startup costs. Personally, after reading the article, I am still uncomfortable about the thought of releasing a product without much market research, unless there are minimal costs, or mostly sunk costs related to the business. Nevertheless, the article has given me a different view on how some companies are pushing new products.

Read more on what Ryan has to say on:

Ready, Fire, then Aim

It is clear that what Jeff said on Thursday afternoon was reflective of today’s population. Students of Sauder in this decade have been raised up by their parents and by society into believing that in order to be an acceptable member of society, one must do do noble deeds. Now, when we combine the desire to be good samaritans, with the desire to make money, we get good-hearted entrepreneurs also known as Social entrepreneurs.

What is often misunderstood is that what we call Social Enterprises in business, is not the same as Non-Profit Organizations. What is clear from the article is that the main difference lies in the fact that Social Entrepreneurs can make both social and economical benefits. This is what is so appealing about being a social entrepreneur.

With today’s economy, entrepreneurs are having trouble finding the money to start up their company, which may be another driving factor for young business students to go into the social enterprises. Being a social entrepreneur opens many options to finding the financial backing needed to start a business. One of the many options open solely to social enterprises is receiving grants from credit unions such as what Save-On-Meats did with VanCity. Other mediums of finding the needed capital are also covered through the use of past examples here.(The article covers many examples of how successful social entrepreneurs are finding the capital they need.) It seems that social enterprises are starting to be more commonly found in the market, and since their aim is to help society as a whole, many people, including prospective investors are excited to help social enterprises reach their true potential.

Do consumers make choices based on how environmental a company is?

This seems to be a question that is always under debate.  On one hand, there are companies such as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company that have heavily invested in sustainable companies. While on the other hand, there are companies such as Fiji Water who disregard the excessive packaging of their products. Personally, I tend to make purchases based on the first criteria. I feel that the utility I get from knowing that I am doing my part to help the environment outweighs the small price cut.

Another issue in the topic of sustainability is whether consumers look past what they see on the shelf and doing a life cycle assessment. This means that consumers need to look at the whole lifecycle of a product in order to fully understand how environmentally sustainable one product is over another.

Although there is no definite conclusion as to whether or not having an eco-friendly processes will increase the value of a company, there is a definitely a consumer niche who try to look for the most sustainable product from of the market.

P.S. If you’re interested, there is a book out there called “Why Shrink-wrap a Cucumber” that publishes their finding in their life cycle assessment of large companies such as Coca-Cola and Walmart. Despite the awkwardly named tittle, there is an explanation for the tittle and it is a very nice read.

Young, Martha. “The Business Value of Sustainability Initiatives – First Data Corporation.” Triple Pundit RSS. First Data TM, 14 Nov. 2012. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/11/business-value-sustainability-initiatives-first-data-corporation/>.

The presidential election has officially concluded after the too-tight-to-call voting in Florida. The democrat’s win can be attributed to several factors with the analysis of big data being the most interesting. The interesting aspect of this election is that although both parties utilized heavy IT artillery, the republican race was solely reliant on their use of big data while the democrats had a strong foundation that was made better by the use of big data. It is important to note that the republicans had a more advanced technological aspect, yet their planning, and execution were pitiful together with their strategy. Interestingly enough, a man by the name of Nate Silver, an analysts and former poker player was able to predict the outcome of all 50 states with 100% accuracy solely with the use of big data. This was similar to the 2008 outcome in which he predicted 49 of 50 states using the same formula. These two examples of use of big data outside the business world show the ever evolving state of technology and how important it truly is to be “ahead of the game” in this field. There truly is no substitute for an innovative and proprietary product no one else can copy.

Hurwitz, Judith. “The Making of a (Big Data) President.” Business Week. Bloomberg, 14 Nov. 2012. Web. 14 Nov. 2012. <http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-14/the-making-of-a-big-data-president>.

We all have our reasons to be at Sauder. Some are here to be an accountant, some are here to be a stock broker but we can’t deny a majority of us, aspire to be an entrepreneur.With the speeches by Eric Carlson and Amielle Lake, I got to thinking about various ways to be a quick billionaire like Mark Zuckerberg. Yet Vancouver Sun’s recent article on the topic of Entrepreneurship has led me to believe that I am on the wrong track. I believe that it’s true when they say that a majority of young inexperienced business school students try “to build cool technology, get a bunch of users, get funding and then figure out a model.” It seems bizarre to think that cool technology is not the way to go but it seems as if the Ms.Lake would agree. Throughout her speech she has mentioned several times that when she was coming up with the idea of Tagga, she had to listen to the demand of the market and re-evaluate the direction of the company. With that in mind I realized that the one thing an aspiring entrepreneur like me needs to have is the sense of realism. Although it is possible to solve a consumer need as well as Facebook, the more realistic and logical way to start a business is to take as much data as is available and analyze it until you are positive that your company is taking a step towards that one direction.

Bury / Sprouter, Erin. “The Vancouver Sun.” Www.vancouversun.com. Vancouver Sun, 30 Oct. 2012. Web. 14 Nov. 2012. <http://www.vancouversun.com/business/sprouter/MyCityLives pivots create business solution/7470830/story.html>.