MARINA STRAUSS AND AND STEVE LADURANTAYE

From Friday’s Globe and Mail

Published Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011 4:54PM EST

Last updated Friday, Nov. 25, 2011 1:42AM EST

When Thanksgivings come, so do Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Retailers of the United States are preparing to offer steep discounts for certain items in their inventory to spur the shopping frenzy that prolongs over the weekend. This year, U.S. sales are expected to rise 2.8 percent from 2010, but it is below last year’s increase by 2.4 percent. Nevertheless, this will be a good opportunity for U.S. economy to kick off for holiday season as the consumer spending came to a standstill in a slowing economy.

The race for deals comes all too sweet for Canadian above the border. As a student with limited budget, I am also looking forward to purchasing an electronic gadget from online websites. It is expected that Canadian retailers will lose about one of every shoppers to U.S. Black Friday-Cyber Monday discounts. As a response, Canadian businesses like Wal-Mart Canada Corp and Lululemon Athletica Inc. are trying to come up with their own Black Friday deals that would enable them to retain customers’ exodus to south of the border or to computers. This is beneficial to consumers. I think businesses must take cautious approach to the occasion as bargain-hunting can be short-lived. Once the weekend is over, the sales could sink until Christmas.

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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/black-friday-sweeps-north/article2248092/

JEREMY TOROBIN

From Friday’s Globe and Mail

Published Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011 11:37AM EST

Last updated Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011 10:31PM EST

With global economy plummeting amid fears of double dip, Canadian economy struggles to find balance. While the inflation rate continues to surge, households are experiencing difficulties in dealing with unusually high energy and food costs. The weak job market makes it difficult for workers to demand pay raises, decreasing real value of their wages and further contribute to freezing consumer spending.

Average weekly earnings are high in Alberta and Saskatchewan; powered by global potash and oil market. Other drivers of economy include retail and construction sectors as well. On the other hand, Ontario, the former manufacturing powerhouse of Canadian economy, is losing ground against jurisdictions all over North America in term of per capita economic output. The decline in factory sector caused the employment rate to fall to the lowest on record. Ontario is indicative of sagging consumer spending which accounts for half of Canada’s economy. Consequently, Canada is being divided into have and have-not regions. It is imperative for the government to address 7.3 per cent unemployment rate and find balance between these regions.

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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/canadian-paycheques-failing-to-keep-pace-with-cost-of-living/article2247551/

By John Connors on January 7, 2010 at 3:57pm in Asides, Bell Mobility News, Mobile News, Various News

The ultimate purpose of the investment for many companies is to improve their brands’ awareness in the market share, but some people primarily take notice and give attention to the amount of money Bell invested for exclusive right in 2010 Olympic. The general public might think the investment is dumbfounded; however, the outstanding work done by Bell through the Olympic in Vancouver, was the one of the successful sponsorship right in the history of the business. Bell built strong customer base in west coast with gained trustworthiness and profit by proving their advantage in the industry of the mobile technology. Therefore, after the 2010 Olympic, Bell, an Ontario base company, challenged the west coast and was a huge success. Also they skyrocketed their quarterly profit and were able to open many branches. Whatever the process may have been, they accomplished fruitfully. Conversely, the company’s upward tendency in the future is unpredictable. It is recommended that Bell should donate more money into the social corporation responsible in order to keep their customer base and to carry out their excellent image. With these information Bell is able to constantly increase their stocks and profit.

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http://www.bce.ca/en/aboutbce/olympics/index.php

http://mobilesyrup.com/2010/01/07/bell-ice-cube-perfectly-set-up-to-promote-products-during-the-vancouver-olympics/

Price of fuels is constantly rising all over the world. Since a lot of people need cars especially to go to their work place, concerns about the price of gas increases as time goes by. However there is a way to handle this problem. Instead of travelling to offices to work every day, people can work in their houses for three days and work in their offices for two days. This can lower the peoples’ fuel bill by 60% of the original amount they usually pay in a week. Most businesses would benefit as well since they don’t have to spend money by providing tools such as electrical devices, desks, chairs and so on. Big funds or companies take an advantage by considering this alternative way to lessen their additional consume for devices for their workers as well as decreasing use of money for gas price by reducing traveling to work places. In my opinion the idea of reducing days to go to the workplace can directly decrease consuming gas as well as being beneficial to companies by decreasing costs of buying additional devices.

(184 words)

http://sme-blog.com/cloud-computing/60-lower-fuel-costs-for-small-business-employees

In Canada and the U.S., this holiday season, Coca-Cola has made the radical switch from its classic red cans to white cans which feature polar bears. Nicole wrote about this decision a few days ago, talking about how this move relates to corporate social responsibility and marketing.

Now that we’re further into the holiday season, it is interesting to look at how Coca-Cola is doing. It is in the midst of its Arctic Home campaign, and it has launched a QR campaign which supports the Arctic Home campaign. Using QRs will tap into the popularity of smartphones.

In the U.S., 7-Eleven is partnering with Coca-Cola to support Arctic Home. They are offering a gaming app in which points can also be earned through codes on Coca-Cola cans and Slurpees.

These are good decisions which strengthen the Arctic Home campaign through technology and collaboration.

Meanwhile, in the U.K., Coca-Cola’s holiday truck has just begun travelling around the country. And, Coca-Cola Singapore was recently commended for being green. These moves show that although Coca-Cola has different geographical tactics, it has a cohesive brand strategy for the holidays and in regards to being green.

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http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/1167430/1/.html

 https://blogs.ubc.ca/nicoledee/2011/11/01/coca-cola-far-from-bearish-in-regards-to-the-value-of-sustainability/

Wal-Mart is known as the huge business industry thatis distributed across North America and many parts of Europe and Asia. According to Aanshu, Wal-Mart had their biggest business failure when they tried to compete in the retail business in Germany. The reason being is that Wal-mart misunderstood the cultural of Germany. A similar event occurred in South Korea, Wal-mart was not able to compete with Korean brand market’s sale prices as well as to provide the customers with higher quality products. Despite these problems faced by Wal-mart they were still making a net profit of $7.6 billion in 2006 which is an additional 25% from previous year.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/28/business/worldbusiness/28iht-walmart.2325266.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/28/business/worldbusiness/28iht-walmart.2325266.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/02/business/main1860028.shtml

https://blogs.ubc.ca/aanshu/2011/09/28/walmarts-dismissal-from-the-german-market/

Can Apple be Apple without Steve Jobs?

            Steve Jobs’ resigning could have been a deathblow to Apple. Simply put, managing the company without Steve Jobs was one of the threats to the Apple corporation and finally the company’s vague fear crystallized into a reality. Throughout the history of Apple, the company’s stock prices greatly decreased in value when they showed Jobs the door; however, as soon as Jobs returned, everything completely reversed. From Jobs’ such stellar performance, the company’s share price has increased nearly 17 times in just 14 years. Unfortunately, the innovative C.E.O, Steve Jobs no longer exists, so a lot of Apple‘s fans are wondering about how Apple would overcome this difficulty. Actually, the vacant position of Jobs is already apparent; Apple released the iphone4s instead of the iphone5 and dissatisfied the people who were looking forward to the iphone5. On the day of his death, Apple‘s stock decreased up to 5% while the rival company Samsung, had a 3% increase. From a few comments on Jobs’ death, people believe that Apple can’t be Apple without Jobs, and even some people mentioned that they will stop buying Apple products. To overcome this risky situation, Apple needs to be flexible and adaptable to the changes that will occur.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15202484

A Challenge to Conventional Wisdom on Small Business and Jobs

Robb Mandelbaum’s article: “He argues that small businesses really don’t employ the majority of Americans, and that they don’t create the majority of new jobs”. It could be true, because small businesses don’t employee the majority of US citizens. For instance, a company like Apple or Wal-Mart or a fast-food restaurant has tons of employed people. However, the major fact that Bernstein neglects is that a vital economy, and the jobs that inevitably result, is driven by productivity. It is productivity (more output value for less money and time) that raises the living standards for everyone in a society. Productivity improvement leads to progress. And when you compare small business productivity to mega corporation productivity, it doesn’t look very good. Lots of people in those big corporations spend all day long, doing non-productive things. That is not good for productivity rates, GDP growth, or “societal progress”. It’s amazing how many political economists believe that our goal should be to fill as many cubicles as possible with warm bodies and start giving these bodies money regardless of the value they produce for society! Our goal should be to have as many people as possible doing useful things that other people in society value.

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http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/24/a-challenge-to-conventional-wisdom-on-small-business-and-jobs/?ref=smallbusiness

Julie Tappero’s article, “In business, ethics really DO matter”, takes a look at the basics of business ethics. She delves into the significance of business ethics, explaining why its crucial to develop ethical behavior in the workplace.

Without integrity, transparency, and a proper code of conduct, companies will find themselves facing discontented employees. If managers or other individuals in positions of leadership adopt shady conduct, it trickles down to the employees, who then feel no motivation to respect business ethics.

One particular passage that pointed this out was: “Ethical behavior needs to be modeled by the company’s leadership. As children look to their parents to see how they are to behave, so do our employees look to us.”

Tappero’s article reflects the importance of how a C.E.O. or managers’ actions and sense of conduct affects the “moral compass” of the company. In order to promote transparency, honest communication, and fairness, one must begin at the top.

(156 Words)

http://kpbj.com/headlines/human_resources/2011-09-03/in_business_ethics_really_do_matter