Month: November 2014

“If  the United Nations was fully funded why would we need the Arc or social enterprise?”

The mission and doctrine of the United Nations is in essence facilitating international cooperation in areas such as security, economic trade, global crises, and humanitarian issues. It in itself represents the guiding hand of a cohort of nations, assisting and addressing global issues should they arise. Thus, if this body was fully funded, with “fully” defined as the level of financing to the point where all of the organization’s objectives can be met, then I think that humanitarian issues would be solved to a degree, and global crises would be addressed immediately.

So to address the question of the necessity of the Arc or social enterprise, I believe that there would still be a need for both. A fully funded UN could execute solutions to humanitarian problems, but it wouldn’t be able to provide the specific development that the Arc provides. Moreover, with regards to the fact that the UN is only invested in areas where there is obvious need, I think that social enterprise can still result in a betterment of society; with respect to Freeman’s stakeholder theory, the actions that the UN performs only affect those in third-world countries, but I think that social enterprise also yield some form of impact in developed countries too.

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UN gives them the resources, but things like arc give the people the know-how to use it effectively.

Back in September, one of the most anticipated events was the release of Alibaba’s long awaited IPO; prior to its release, critics, skeptics, and analysts pored over the details and various possibilities of how the security would behave once the company became public. To date, the company’s decision to go public has proven every bit as successful as promised.

This success is not unfounded. One of the ways in which analysts value securities is by their corporate structure in relation to company comparables, and according to Stephanie, Alibaba has set itself apart in operations. She discusses how Alibaba’s unique philosophy of not holding inventory, by acting as the medium connecting supplier with consumer, has streamlined processes, allowing it to lower costs of production and mitigate depreciation and inefficiencies.

However, operations isn’t the only area where Alibaba separates itself. Their business model is one where customers are prioritized above employees and shareholders. I find it fascinating that despite being a company of enormous scale, Alibaba’s business model continues to be a point of difference, rather than a point of parity in the online retailing industry. I predict that, with regards to Alibaba’s quick rise to prominence, that the company is quietly setting the industry trend in terms of operational and inventory management.

Alibaba just recently passed a comparable, Walmart, in terms of size of market capitalization. They also use two completely different business models. I guess we know which one’s working better.

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It emerged twenty years ago, experienced mass consumerization ten years ago, and today, is one of the hallmarks of the internet’s information-sharing capabilities. What was initially seen as a clever way to transfer information has now become the consumer’s preferred method for accessing live entertainment. In the digital realm, video and music streaming have taken the reins in their respective industries, usurping their traditional counterparts of movie theatres and hard copy music.

After reading the blogs of Jason and Sharon, both of whom delved into the topic of music streaming, I must conclude that there seems to be one overwhelming consensus; even with the huge market potential that online streaming presents, the market’s grossly diverse consumer base makes it difficult for any firm’s value proposition to encompass a sizeable portion of said market. Thus, as Shannon mentions, the possibility of a defined leader emerging within the industry is slight.

However, as Adele’s manager states in Billboard magazine’s article, “streaming is the future,” with internet streaming expected to become ubiquitous in five or so years. If music streaming does indeed become widely adopted by the majorty of internet users, then I think that a firm may be able to grab a sizeable portion of the market purely because of the sheer volume of consumers the internet represents.

Whether that happens or not remains to be seen, but for now, the battle for a grasp on the music streaming industry continues.

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When a certain firm is described as disruptive, lean, and agile, and when their culture is said to be innovative and proactive, the typical firm that usually comes to mind is a start-up. This comes with the notion that entrepreneurs and new-business owners are always looking for improvement, where stakes are low, and the company is always about delivering a product to the consumer. But that was so ten years ago.

Today, those same aforementioned corporate qualities and cultures are no longer solely attributed to start-ups, but are slowly becoming an all-too common theme for large, established corporations. According to an article by Forbes, this trend is alive and well, and has taken even the most established business ethos by storm. It mentions how blue-chip companies such as IBM, Unilever, and LG Electronics have all revamped business practices within their respective divisions in order to operate in a more agile manner, effectively creating innovative business solutions.

This new mentality of large companies adopting a start-up mentality really intrigues me. I think that through this cultural pivot in business practice, we’ll start to see more firms acting with quicker, more-streamlined processes. Furthermore, it’s fascinating to consider how the emergence of this mentality today will affect the corporate structures of tomorrow. It seems highly plausible to me that the obsolescent, cumbersome stigma of large businesses will soon become an afterthought to a new hybrid form of company culture and process.

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