I found this blog the other day from BC Business website called, Reality Check, and since I’m thinking about going into real estates, the posts really intrigued me.

The blogger Leah Bach blogs about issues surrounding Vancouver real estate market. The reason I find her blogs interesting is because her insights deviate from the typical views on the market. She will not be afraid to go against the popular view, like when she states agents are not doing any sort of price fixing and thus are not the drive for the price of the market.Since her blogs are about the Vancouver market, I find a personal connection when I read the blogs and these connections help me analyze the situation more in-depth than if Bach was blogging about a different city. Bach keeps her post interesting and short to capture the readers attention and not bore them and I highly recommend her blog.

As a response to Cole Dickson’s article about McDonalds, it has inspired me to look at Starbucks and see why Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse chain in the world by listing out their Points of Difference.

• Starbucks offer free wifi
• Starbucks allows the consumer to create their drink
• Starbucks quality is consistent, you know what you are getting
• Starbucks wide range of coffee and beverages
• Starbucks creates a warming atmosphere
• Starbucks is known for their friendly service
• Starbucks promotes health conscious choices

After listing out the PODs, it easy to see why Starbucks is the biggest coffee chain in the world.

The recent lawsuits that Apple and Samsung each sued each other for is over and Apple came out on top. As a result of this lawsuit, what does this mean for Apple and Samsung now?

With the victory, Apple was successfully able to defend their patent. Being able to defend their intellectual property is a big win for apple, copycats now will have to think twice before selling a rectangular shaped object with rounded corners. This win gives them absolute monopolizing power over this shape.

As for Samsung, since their products are so alike to the iDevices(like every other smartphone in the world) its likely they will be forced to stop selling one of their current products, like their main competition to the iPhone 5, the Samsung Galaxy S3. Despite running on a different and more superior operating system, with Apples victorious lawsuit, as absurd as it would sound, would be taken out of the market. Ultimately, this decision will have the most impact on consumers, as now we have less choice when it comes to purchasing a smartphone. 

http://www.ibtimes.com/apple-vs-samsung-lawsuit-fallout-apple-wins-patent-rounded-rectangle-design-864600

After many complaints about the environmental impact that the Keystone XL extension would create, TransCanada was forced to reroute their pipeline.

The Keystone Pipeline is a pipeline system that would transport crude oil from the Athabasca oil sand regions in Alberta to multiple locations in the US. An extension was proposed September 2008, the Keystone XL. Soon after, landowners complained about the route of the extension and TransCanada altered the route of their pipeline. The funny thing is despite the small adjustments, the reroute is almost identical to original route.

Ben Gotschall, energy director for the advocacy group Bold Nebraska, explains the situation,”When you look at a map, when you know the landowners, [you see] they’ve avoided the landowners who’ve gone to the press, they’re just figuring out the easiest way to get their pipeline built.”

TransCanada on the surface appears to have fixed the problem to the average bystander, but to people involved in this pipeline or who has been following this project for the past few months would know that all they’ve done is gone around the problem.

http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20121015/nebraska-keystone-xl-pipeline-route-transcanada-ogallala-aquifer-holt-county-groundwater-oil-sands-dilbit

As an aspiring Entrepreneur, I found this blog about 17 key rules in finding success to becoming an entrepreneur to be very fascinating. 3 rules that stood out to me were:

1. Thinking and communicating with clarity and precision – Fuzzy language = Fuzzy thinking = Fuzzy results
2. Gather data through all your senses – don’t use just your mind
3. Finding humour – especially of oneself

I don’t agree with the first rule as thinking with clarity and precision implies that you would not be thinking outside the box. As a critical thinker, it is essential that you must think outside the box even if it means “fuzzy” thinking. The second rule is something I had never thought about but after careful thinking it easy to see why that would be important. If all your senses were impaired, there would be so many ideas and experience that you would miss. The third rule is the one I found the most surprising. I still do not understand the reason why one must find humour in order to become a successful entrepreneur. Maybe finding humour promotes creativity?

Today I came upon a fellow sauderites blog that I found to be very interesting. He talks about possibility of the Yuan, the Chinese currency, becoming the new reserve for investors as both the Euro and Dollar are under intense pressure. If the Chinese Yuan does end up becoming the preference for investors, this could change the political landscape of the United States, and even the World. As the Chinese become less dependent on USA as an export market, it will likely affect the US’s political position in the world.

As time passes, it becomes more and more apparent that the Chinese is slowly relying less on the US and growing into a powerful country of its own. And the Chinese Yuan becoming the main reserve currency would not help the US’s cause here. Eventually it will be US looking up to China instead of the other way around, its just a matter of time i presume. How many years do you think it will be before China becomes the most powerful country in the world? 10 years? 15? 30?

As I had previously talked about in one of my blogs, the New Orleans Hornets, a team owned by the NBA, is looking for potential buyers and with Vancouver, once a home to an NBA team, no new capital investments would be needed. We have the hoops, the floors and the arena. Would we not be the perfect city to be the next home for the Hornets? Unlikely

Why?

There are several reasons, one, former Vancouver Grizzlies did not want to play in Vancouver. If we can’t even get players willing to play for our team, how can we have a team. Two, a basketball team in Vancouver could jeopardize the hockey team, taking sponsors and ticket sales in expense of the Canucks. Third and most important reason is Vancouver is a hockey town. The tradition and culture here is hockey, the people of Vancouver literally live and breathe hockey. Although I would love a NBA team coming to Vancouver, I just don’t see it happening the near the future. Maybe in 20 years….a man can dream.

I have decided to do a response to Robert De Luca’s article about the new gaming console, Wii U.

Nintendo’s Wii U introduces the 8th generation of gaming consoles, succeeding the 7th generation of Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Sony’s Playstation 3 and Nintendo’s own Wii. In Robert’s article, he talks about how the Wii’s commercial success was largely due in part to their technological innovation of motion sensing controllers. When it comes to gaming, gamers value certain aspects of a home console, and for most gamers, on the top of this list is definitely not motion sensing controllers. Gamers value graphics and gameplay, most often as the two most important aspects in a home console, but this contradicts the recent trend because in the last generation although the technological capability of the PS3 and Xbox 360 were greater than the Wii, in terms of graphics and gameplay, the Wii was still able to sell more units. From this I concluded, that Nintendo has figured out what gamers ACTUALLY want and even though their technology is inferior to its counterparts, they understand what consumers want.

As for the Wii U, I am positive that Nintendo built this console with that mindet.

Two summers ago, David Stern, the commissioner of the NBA vetoed a trade that would have sent Chris Paul, a member of the New Orleans Hornets and a multiple time all star, to the Los Angeles Lakers.

In the history of the NBA, no trade has ever been vetoed directly by the commissioner and this is significant because it meant the NBA players were free to go wherever they wanted to play. Stern’s reason for vetoing the trade was as he explained it for “basketball reasons” but the truth was the League was trying to sell the Hornets, a club owned by the NBA and if they traded away Chris Paul, the club would lose tremendous value making it more difficult to sell and appeal to potential buyers.

As a longtime and die hard fan of the Lakers, news that one of the best players in the NBA were coming to your team and then to be vetoed felt like an axe to the head. Was it ethical for Stern to flex his powers and veto the trade?