Angelina Li

According to the blog from Schumpeter written by V.v.B., PPR, the French luxury conglomerate, bought Brioni, an Italian fashion brand on November 8^th by paying €350m ($484m). Brioni makes decent suits, and even some of its suits are worn by Obama and Putin. PPR bought Brioni recently, because it tries to transform the company from a “luxury-cum-retail empire” into a “luxury group with a sports and lifestyle arm.” The deal seems like a win-win situation for both companies, but Italy’s minister of finance and economy, Giulio Tremonti, criticized French for its acquisitiveness.

Personally, the deal between PPR and Brioni might be good for both sides; however, the take over by companies from other counties could affect Italy’s economy indirectly, especially when Italy’s government is in danger of collapse. European countries are supposed to help each other based on reciprocity instead of market. Therefore, in this case, the term business ethics is involved in the process of trading between companies. PPR should consider Italy’s economic dilemma when it wants to buy Italian companies. Although PPR may earn a large amount of money from the take over, it is better to think a little bit more about another side before the final decision.

Blog: http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2011/11/ppr-buys-brioni

In Sharon Shi’s blog, she talks about a social issue that Walmart hired child laborers to reduce its costs for making products. And after exposing the scandal, Walmart did not give a positive response to the public. Instead, it closed those factories which were condemned.

Sharon states that Walmart’s action is unconscious, and it not only hampered children’s education, but also pushed children to work in an unhealthy condition.

I hold the same thoughts with Sharon. Although child laborers are cheap and it might help Walmart cut down its prices, its participation of using child laborers made an adverse image to the society. In addition, Walmart’s decision and attitudes towards this sensitive issue may become contagious so that small companies are going to follow what it did in order to compete with each other. Walmart’s strategy for decreasing prices is incorrect, because it does not consider any side effects that it might cause to its children laborers. As a big company, it is its mission to take some social responsibility, and I can surely say that Walmart is going to pay more prices for its action which results in a huge negative effect to the whole society.

In Lisa Wong’s Blog, she talks about BHGRE (Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate). It is an innovative company from old New Jersey, and it moves its brand to Canada for putting home searches into social media platforms.

Lisa thinks that it is pretty risky for BHGRE to establish its company worldwide, but this decision might help it to expend its business in the real estate industry.

I strongly agree with Lisa’s opinion. The company has to take high risks when it wants to move the company from one area into a new area which is far from its original place. Before changing the location of BHGRE, the company should make a thorough survey to make sure what its business volume will be in the new area. Because it is moving its business to Canada due to this blog, BHGRE has to take any risks that it will burden in the future. On the other hand, the company will raise its revenues quickly once it seizes good opportunities and fully exploits its advantage which is to offer customers social media to sell houses. In a word, the winner in the market will be the one which is willing to take risks all the time.

Article:

https://blogs.ubc.ca/llisawong/2011/10/08/tweet-me-that-house/

Apple Company is a blockbuster in Electronics Industry. It is definitely entrepreneurial according to its farsighted entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial features. 21-year-old Steve Jobs and 26-year-old Wozniak worked together to construct personal computers, and they even took risks selling van to finance their company without knowing any future success of their products. Fortunately, the products attracted many customers, but competition was still coming with it. In order to outstand from other companies, Apple introduced the Macintosh, which became the first computer with a graphic interface. Later, Jobs was focusing on iMac, iPod and iTunes. Apple currently has 14,800 employees and grosses over $17 billion in revenues.

Steve Jobs was the CEO of Apple Company, and his perfectionism made Apple to be unique, chic, user-friendly, and powerful in the market. Apple can be regarded as an entrepreneurial company, because it always produces new products at certain periods so that old customers will always want to update products they have already bought and potential customers are also attracted to buy its new products. Additionally, Apple, as a relatively new company, generates revenues even faster than some other bigger companies. There is a huge risk when a company launches new products to the market, but Apple is always willing to be the risk-taker and seizing every opportunity that it has.

Sources:

1.http://www.evancarmichael.com/Famous-Entrepreneurs/568/On-The-Job-The-Launch-Of-Apple.html

2.http://www.quickmba.com/entre/definition/

Activists gathered around at the outside of a southern Ontario Tim Hortons outlet to protest discrimination against a lesbian couple by the restaurant’s manager on Thursday. Riley Duckworth said she was told and menaced to leave the restaurant in Blenheim, Ont. in September when she was kissing with her girlfriend Patricia Pattenden in public. The incident made some people furious in Canada and members from Occupy Timmies (a Facebook group supports LGBT Rights). The customer who stated his discomfort to the manager said that he did not ask the manager to let the couple leave the restaurant, and the manager then apologized for his misunderstanding.

The event provokes disagreement intensively in Canada, because it involves the issue of business ethics. As a famous public restaurant in Canada, Tim Hortons has a high reputation and popularity among patrons; however, the manager’s behavior towards its customer actually causes degradation of its own images. The success of a company not only includes its managerial system, but also its business ethics. The managerial system is a surface step for every company to operate, but the non-economic business ethics is a deeper issue which can help a company to lead the market and maximize profits.

Article：http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Facebook+group+protests+lesbians+banishment+from+Hortons+southern+Ontario/5609627/story.html

Volkswagen is struggling to dominate auto market worldwide; however, it is currently facing some problems both from Suzuki and Porsche. Volkswagen and Suzuki have blamed each other for breaching their “comprehensive partnership” since 2009. At the same time, VW has some trouble taking over Porsche. Last month it just gave up to merge Porsche into its company as a result of various lawsuits. On the other hand, VW is planning to step forward and expand its market of lorries through cooperating with an European maker, Scania.

Volkswagen is trying hard to become the world-largest car company, but the market nowadays is extremely competitive. VW can only move ahead than GM and Toyota when it works and gains more advanced technologies from its companions. I think Suzuki issue is a tough obstacle for VW to deal with, because Suzuki is its important partner which can help to improve its sales volume and advancement. Besides, the idea of growing its profits by entering lorry market is a promising plan as a result of market diversity; VW might win the market from a totally new area which other car companies have not involved so far.

Article: http://www.economist.com/node/21532502

Yahoo Company dominates online news, finance, and sports. Although it has had a lot of users, Yahoo sites still reflects its shortage of innovation. Yahoo built audience through collecting news from other sources, such as US weekly, and The New York Times; therefore, Yahoo executives suggest making original reporting, and covering special events like exclusive online video programs. In addition, Yahoo is now working on personalizing its site in order to attract more users. Collecting news from other sources made it hard to establish a creative way to deliver things through table computers and smartphones so that Yahoo does not have “a voice” to entice people.

Yahoo has been a successful company so far, but it always does things in the same way compared with other sites. Apparently, innovation is a biggest problem for Yahoo to conquer. Currently, Yahoo has realized its weakness and started working on it. However, the market is highly competitive. Yahoo has to make unique apps that other companies have not found. Moreover, Yahoo might create a feeling of priority to catch customers’ interests and develop customer loyalty.

Article: http://www.cnbc.com/id/44770932

There was a three-day outage which happened this week so that thousands of Blackberry users could not access Internet and check emails. The outage this time affected the world’s 70 millions Blackberry customers. Some people even have shifted to iPhone. Research in Motion says, “The system has been processing a vast backlog of detailed messages.” At the same time, CEOs of the company said they have not intended to compensate customers, although they would like to do that. The article states that this problem will not cause a big loss of corporate and government clients, because Blackberry occupies successful commercial settings.

Obviously, it is not the first time that Blackberry customers have experienced its outage. I do not think Blackberry will still make profits as many as it used to if the same problem continues. Blackberry will easily lose its market in the super competitive phone market due to close substitutes like iPhone, and HTC. The current condition shows that Blackberry might become another NOKIA and soon trendier smart phones will overshadow its differentiation strategy. Although companies do not want to give it up, Blackberry might frustrate them and finally push companies to leave its market.

Article：http://www.cnbc.com/id/44914502

Article: http://www.fastcompany.com/1785668/obscura-digital-brings-its-creative-magic-to-health-care?partner=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+fastcompany%2Fheadlines+%28Fast+Company+Headlines%29

Obscura Digital is famous for its visual displays, such as a high projection on Coca-Cola’s headquarters, and CO2 Cube in Copenhagen. Now it is going to dig the health care industry. Obscura Digital wants to start its business by using LED technology to help people find kiosk in hospitals. Also, facial recognition stuff may join to lead patients to their rooms. Moreover, its work for Coca-Cola headquarters might be used to make a visual wall so that a hospital’s images could be improved. The same thing can be used to create different visual environments in patient rooms, like beach, and a child.

Obscura Digital is a company which has perfect marketing, finance, and strategies. It always knows what it intends to do with its technology and how to enlarge its range among different areas. The success of Obscura Digital is not an incident, it possesses advanced technology, it holds unique ideas, and it creates high-quality products. In digital area, there are not too many companies like them to do the same business, because it requires high requirements and creative motive. All these reasons above become the current success of Obscura Digital. Its distinction means that there are few substitutes for customers to choose and more chances for it to control the market.

Article: http://www.cnbc.com/id/44791483/

The new business of carshare is becoming more and more popular to attract customers who want to use cars in the short term recently. Because of its low price, many people choose to enter that business to rent cars instead of buying it. General Motors has started to cooperate with a carsharing service which is RelayRides. It provides its services withinSan FranciscoandBoston, and customers pay money according to time, type of car, and miles. The cost of renting a car in RelayRides is possibly to be as little as $5/hour or as much as $55/day.

Obviously, GM is a car company with great sensibility. Its strong business group is able to sense what customers might need, and come up with new strategies in order to draw people’s attention. GM is a company which has already had an impressive image in customers’ minds so that it could be more confident when it starts to run a relatively new car service like car rental. In addition, it is using low price to earn more potential buyers, which is going to be its significant strength in a long run.