Thoughts – W.Z.

– respond to ‘If  the United Nations was fully funded why would we need the Arc or social enterprise?’

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Poverty in developing countries was once dealt with fund raising done by United Nations, but due to the emergence of more poverty and the inefficiency of funds, this method is no longer useful. What really helps is a group of organizations called ‘social enterprises’, which aim at creating opportunities for hopeless people, and thus solve global problems, whereas generating profits (money) is not the ultimate goal. The Arc Initiative, which can be considered as a social enterprise, is consist of a group of people, who ‘seeks to build a bridge that facilitates a genuine two-way exchange of knowledge and business skills’. Until now, the Arc Initiative has successfully helped a lot of small businesses that were faced with challenges.

Social enterprises, such as the Arc, are more effective in helping small businesses than fund does. This is because when the United Nations offer small businesses with funds, it only helps them in the short run, because they don’t really know how to manage and then generate more money from the funds they are given. However, things are different when it comes to the Arc. What the Arc does is actually teaching small-business entrepreneurs useful business skills, so that they can make good use of the funds. In this way, they can succeed not only in the short run, but in the long run instead.

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Nathaniel Koloc’s blog, Let Employees Choose When, Where, and How to Work, reminds me of the idea, Human Resource Management, which we learned in class 19. In Nathaniel’s blog, he indicates that both employees and company itself can benefit from giving employees the chance of deciding when, where, and how they want to work, and he includes some data to support this as well. I totally appreciate this idea.

Both class notes and this blog are more focused on the benefits that the companies get from implementing this idea. This blog actually makes me think deeper into the reason why productivity of workers increases after they are offered the freedom of choice:

Basically, this policy shows the employers’ respect and appreciation to the employees, thus the employees have more sense of self-satisfaction when they work, and this can actually contribute to the efficiency of their work. Besides, more freedom also means more responsibilities over the tasks they are assigned, and it is very likely that they finish the work exceed expectations.

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While reading classmates’ blogs, ShangYu (Angela) Liu’s blog about ‘Windowless Airplanes’ really catches my attention. In her blog, she talks about the idea of an innovative airplane that is ‘windowless’, and relates this idea to the concept of sustainability that we learned in class. I agree with her that this innovation is socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable, and thus beneficial to all of us. In addition to this, windowless airplane also reminds me of PEST – external macro-economic factors that can affect business.

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In my point of view, this is an excellent example where technology affects business in the positive aspect. This is because technological developments give airplanes this chance of being ‘thinner, more lightweight, and stronger’ as mentioned in the article. Besides, the screen, which is used to displace the windows of the airplanes, uses the technology called ‘OLED’, and organic materials are used in this technology. This is another reason why windowless airplanes can be considered as environmental friendly, since organic materials contribute to the reduction of the emission of carbon dioxide, and they can be recycled after being used.

In the case of windowless airplanes, and according to PEST, technology has a positive impact on the industry.

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In Sofia Bautista’s blog about in-store and online shopping, she relates these two kinds of shopping to the idea of ‘disruptive innovation’. ‘Disruptive innovation‘ is the idea that new entrants in an industry gradually take the place of those already-exist competitors. In Sofia’s blog, she states that ‘there is still much value in shopping in-stores’, and thus in-stores shopping cannot be easily displaced by online shopping. I agree with her.

Online shopping, as a product of the rapidly developing internet, does provide consumers with a lot of convenience. However, in-stores shopping is still irreplaceable for some reasons: for example, there is still a big portion of consumers who concern about the safety of online shopping, and in-store shopping with friends or family is always a good way of enhancing relationships, etc.

Besides, for a disruptive innovator to successfully displace an already-exist competitor, it’s necessary that the already-exist one ‘opens the door to’ disruptive innovators, but as we all know, retailers didn’t give online shopping this chance. And the only difference between online and in-store shopping is the indoor shopping and delivery service. Thus, these two kinds of shopping are not in conflict; they can both exist without displacing one another.

Recently, people in Vancouver, BC are more actively involved in the idea called ‘home exchange’, and BC has became the province where home exchange was the most popular in Canada, because of the perfect skiing site and natural scenery (snowbirds) here in Whistler, BC.

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The article mentions that Home Exchange‘s ‘target segment’ in BC is ski, and this reminds me of the idea of positioning in marketplace. In my point of view, the reason for Home Exchange’s success is that it correctly positions itself in the crowded market of house swapping:

In comparison with Airbnb, Home Exchange positions itself as ‘more trustful’. Customers of Airbnb take part in home exchange activities primarily because of the money they can get from renting out their houses. Sometimes renters even lock parts of their houses just because they don’t trust their ‘tenants’. While in Home Exchange, people do exchange their houses, thus they have trust in each other, which makes home exchanging experiences more realistic.

In comparison with Craigslist, Home Exchange positions itself as providing ‘better global customer support services’ and ‘more flexibility in choices’. This is because customers can get constant inflow of inquiries on Home Exchange website, and this is what Craigslist cannot provide.

Canadian government has long controlled the aboriginal peoples through The Indian Act since 1876. Also, there have always been contradictions and divergences of views between them. In this blog, I’m going to introduce one contradiction, which is related to BC Hydro, between the federal government and the First Nations people. In this case, the opposition from the First Nations can be considered as an external force that has an effect on the company’s business plan.

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BC Hydro’s Site C Project aims at generating enough electricity for 450,000 households a year by using hydro power. From my perspective, this project is definitely beneficial. According to Information Sheet – Need and Alternatives, here are some advantages of this dam:

1. Cite C is the best option over all of its alternatives (financially, technically, environmentally, and economically)
2. Large capacity
3. Cheaper
4. Environmental friendly
5. GDP growth

However, First Nations people want to stop this project, because the dam may destroy their fishing and hunting sites. If we link this situation to PESTLE Analysis, then the oppositions from the First Nations would be the Legal and Environment conditions that affect BC Hydro’s business plan. First Nations stop BC Hydro from launching this project, as a result, it decreases the income of the company.

Avis is a well-known American car rental company, which was created in 1948. It gives service to many countries around the world, except Sierra Leone in Africa. The cars that Avis rents are of various brands.

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In contrast, Flash Vehicle Rentals is a newly emerging car rental company, with only 2 years history. It operates only in Sierra Leone, and only provides Toyota cars.

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As The Economist: The heart of the motor indicates – running car rental business in poor and unstable countries, such as Sierra Leone, is not easy. The reasons are:

1. Sierra Leone does not have access to unleaded petrol
2. Compared to others, Sierra Leone is a country of lacked services

One reason for Flash Vehicle Rental’s success is that it is the first and only car rental company in Sierra Leone, so it doesn’t have any competitor. Secondly, Sierra Leone is a country with mines, so automobiles are needed for transportation. Besides, Flash Vehicle Rentals provide comprehensive and efficient breakdown services. Finally, it is easier for a newly emerged, small-scaled company, such as Flash Vehicle Rentals, to be successful in Sierra Leone than for a worldwide company, such as Avis. This is because Sierra Leone is poor, unstable, and rugged, as a result, extra effort is needed here than in other countries around the world. Flash Vehicle Rentals is relatively narrow and focused than Avis, so it’s easier for Flash Vehicle Rentals to do the job.

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Toronto’s subway system is not merely for transportation, but it can also be considered as an economic activity. Subway system is especially practical and economical where land is expensive. According to Lawrence Solomon, the benefits of a subway system are:

1. Citizens can have larger surface land area
2. When traffic is busy on the surface, subway is a great way of traveling
3. Underground retail stores emerged as the subway system developed, and these stores really make subway system profitable.

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However, I noticed that Vancouver only has Skytrain, instead of subways. According to Amanda Briney and Yahoo Answers, the reasons are:

–       Vancouver is close to ocean and rivers, such as the Fraser River

–       Part of Vancouver is actually on hills, such as Burnaby

–       Vancouver usually has earthquakes that are too small to be sensed by humans, but are serious enough to cause unstable ground

–       It costs more to build subways than to build Skytrains

Unlike Toronto, maybe Vancouver cannot build a subway system that goes through and around the whole city, but Vancouver can at least build subways at some parts of the city. This would be beneficial to Vancouver’s economy.

Jell-O is one of many brands under Kraft, which was created at the end of the 19^th century. It was once very popular among consumers.source of image

Recently, sales began to fall continuously. Thus, Kraft tried to reposition Jell-O, in order to promote sales. Jell-O’s old target audiences were adults, who tried to lose weight by reducing carbohydrate intake; but now their new target is “food for fun”. Unfortunately, the repositioning fails.

In my opinion, Jell-O’s new position is not effective. As I mentioned above, the new position of Jell-O is “food for fun”, but the problem that caused declining sales was not that the products were not fun enough. According to Candice Choi’s “Jell-O can’t stop slippery sales slide”, the real problems are:

1. Consumers nowadays focus more on the nutritional value and natural ingredients of the product. However, in consumers’ impression, Jell-O produces fun jelly with eye-catching colors, which implies that the jelly is made of artificial chemical ingredients.source of image
2. Nowadays, fewer people eat desserts after dinner, because desserts are time-consuming. As a result, disserts are replaced by snacks. But in consumers’ impressions, Jell-O only sells different kinds of desserts.

I suggest Jell-O publishing advertisements on the topic of natural ingredients and nutritional value of the product. However, consumers may not want to buy Jell-O products based on their impression of the brand. Thus, to break through consumers’ stereotype of the brand, voucher could be used to attract consumers.

http://www.economist.com/node/21551498

Should companies try to maximize their profits at any cost?

What factors make a company successful?

Should companies abuse their employees in order to satisfy the customers’ demand?

Producing the goods on time without controlling working hours may bring short-term profits to the companies, but is this really a foresighted way to make business successful?

In February 2012, Fair Labour Association checked APPLE’s factories in China, and the result was less than satisfactory, which meant that workers’ abusage existed in those factories. Not only APPLE, but also other big, global firms (such as Nike) have this phenomenon.

Here is the problem, on the one hand, we know from old experiences that reputation is really important to international companies, because a well-known brand can easily be destroyed by unfavourable rumours, but on the other it seems that the customers nowadays are not affected by these rumours very much (for example, people continued to buy APPLE’s iPhones and iPads without being influenced by all the rumours about APPLE’s abusage of Chinese workers). Besides, associations like FLA (Fair Labour Association) try to avoid abusage because they want to protect workers’ rights, however, in some situations, in which the workers are migrants who want to save as much money as they can, workers collaborate with their employers to cheat the associations.

Thus, the question is, to what extent should companies pay attention to the workers’ working conditions?