Based on a blog post by Logan Lan, about the pair up between Scribd and Netflix for offering monthly subscription for books, not movies…

This is a recipe for disaster!

Why would you charge a flat rate for an endless amount of books that you can read? That’s not how books go for me. I read them one by one, and at a moderate pace. It’s not like T.V., where you can binge season after season. I also find myself anticipating release dates for good books, and going to the store to buy it on the day it releases. It’s a reliable way to get what you want immediately.

What doesn’t work about this for me is that although a lot of readers are switching to eBooks, the consumer base just isn’t big enough to fill up the projected demand for this project. Most people who read novels with e-books own a Kindle, Kobo, or some sort of online reader.

How are they gonna connect this device to Netflix? The answer is simple: It’s impossible.

Readers aren’t going to waste their time with such a foreign new concept. They have books to read on their e-reader.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/loganlan/2013/10/08/first-the-movies-then-the-books/ 

Woah. Ever seen a burger look more perfect than that?

Perfect on the eyes… terrible on the stomach. These little burgers can pack up a hell load of calories, and on top of that… do you know how they’re made and what they’re made of? Probably not. But listen to this, major fast-food chains are starting to modify their recipes in order to be more health-conscious.

Subway, Dunkin’ Donuts, and McDonald’s have all been looking at ways to make healthier menu options. Cutting down on salt, replacing sodium with mushroom powder… why are corporations doing this?

Is it the attractiveness that it gives to customers? Or is there another reason?

In my opinion, these corporations are not doing this as a responsibility to the public. They’re completely fine with producing what they’re producing… if so many people didn’t object to it.

As time goes on, more and more people becoming more health-conscious. Calories this, calories that. Obesity is a big issue in the States… to the cause of corporations who changes our diet to consist mainly of meat.

This worked to their advantage… until now. Now that the demand is for ‘seemingly’ healthier food, that’s where the companies will go. And not for the benefit of society…

source: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-14/2014-outlook-fast-food-chains-inch-toward-healthiness#r=hpt-ls

We all know that Walmart is a successful company. But what you may not know is its amazing culture, and how it keeps it so strong and consistent.

Culture is one of the most important things about a company. Forget the stock price. Forget the product. Forget the business plan. If a company has a strong and positive culture that matches the company’s products and company… it will be successful. And without a consistent culture (maybe as a result of mergers), things won’t go so well.

Culture presents norms to employees. Have you ever gone into a job wondering ‘what’s normal’ and ‘what’s not’? Well guess what? You’re trying to define the norms of the job. If you didn’t know what was normal and what wasn’t… you’d do a pretty bad job.

Now what Walmart does is  set up rituals, intensive training programs, routines, and strong norms. The company also empowers its employees: you don’t just work for the company, you own the company. Innovation, simplicity, and consideration have all been things that Walmart does to treat their employees well.

What can we get from this?

Evidently, it’s not just about the outside relationships with customers. You have to love yourself too.

source: http://www.globalbusinessmobiletalent.com/story.asp?sid=1239 

It’s probably been a long time since you felt like you watched something that really hit you in the gut, or that you felt the need to share. But here’s one advertisement that really touched me. And it’s from Google. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the video here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHGDN9-oFJE

This video shows the reunion of two childhood friends in India who were separated due to the partition of India. Years later, through the power of the internet (namely Google), the grand-children of these two friends reunite them.

It’s a powerful ad, and shows what exactly Google does for us in our everyday lives. But it can also do some pretty amazing things as well. Not just tell you how to get to the hair salon.

Unexpectedly, Google hasn’t just brought the value of convenience to it’s customers. It has also brought the value of connection which is strongly presented in this ad. I would highly recommend any person to take a look at this ad. It’s touching, isn’t trying to sell you something blatantly, and shows that we can actually be thankful to corporations for the value that they give us in our lives.

LoL, League, or League of Legends is something you might have heard before. Currently a massively popular online multiplayer game with an international tournament,  a giant customer base, and more… you really can’t argue when someone says LoL is a success.

This is a response to Zheran Xie’s ‘The Success of League of Legends’ blog post.

One of its rivals, is DotA 2. Both games, are spiritual successors to the game ‘Defense of the Ancients’. However,  they both are very different, from a business perspective.

Let us take a look at the companies that own the games.

Riot Games (League of Legends): A small company that hires many former employees from other companies that have created MOBA games. Their sole project is League of Legends.

Valve (DotA 2): Again, a small company, but the difference this time is that this company develops other online games, and created the most successful online distributing platform for games, called Steam.

In my opinion, DotA 2 has a good shot in the long run for being more successful than League of Legends. They are already massively successful; DotA 2 championships were held in Seattle this year, merchandise was widely sought for despite their high prices, and their customer base is although very public with their opinions, is very loyal. What contributes to this factor is that many of their customers played DotA 1 for many years, and were offered Beta versions of DotA 2 in order to transfer their loyalty to the new game.

Original post: https://blogs.ubc.ca/zheranxie/2013/10/07/the-success-of-league-of-legends/

When one speaks of entrepreneurship, you may not think of teenage girls trading items to strangers on a social media like Facebook. But believe it or not, this is a thing.

There are hundreds and thousands of Facebook accounts that are run by young (or adult) females who purchase their items of choice from online suppliers, ship them to their residence and sell them to customers in their local area. Plushies, clothes, makeup, you name it. This is a hot trend that is hitting not only Canada, but certainly other countries as well.

The owners will post pictures of their products on their Facebook albums, along with proofs to show their credibility, and advertise their products. They’ll start networking by adding other local stores in their area, and little by little, the customers start flowing in. When customers want an item, they arrange a ‘facetrade’ with the owner, where they meet at a designated location in the city. Usually, it’s often an awkward exchange.

Sounds crazy? Maybe it is.

But these women do make a profit, and these products are in demand. They’re taking a social media platform to a whole new level, and innovating, and being their own entrepreneurs.

source: myself.

Valve Software. DotA, Half-Life, Portal, Counter-Strike, Steam… these names may or may not ring a bell to you, depending on if your hobbies include online gaming. If not, do not fret. The focus of this article, is the company structure. Not the structure of the games.

Asides from massive market share that this company holds in electronic gaming sales, there’s another special thing about this company.

There are no bosses!

No one supervises you. You are assigned to work on a project, and you’re responsible for it, along with other people. A structure like this truly promotes the essence of gaming: creativity and imagination.

But there are problems with decentralization. First off, a bad hire can end up in very bad mistakes until this person is fired. Second, mistakes in general go unchecked until the very end. It is often inefficient, but Valve believes that by hiring the right people, this kind of structure can work.

Maybe their great growth is a proof of this, because this flat organization has been raking in sales despite their irregularities. Fans love them: they listen to their customers, they tweak things according to need, and they adapt.

This isn’t a strategy that works for every company though, but it seems to be working for a video-game developing company like Valve.

source: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-04-27/why-there-are-no-bosses-at-valve