A business topic that hasn’t been covered thus far in our Comm 101 class is Real Estate. The Vancouver real estate market is surely one of the most interesting housing markets in North America. Several articles have recently been released as the Metro Vancouver real estate market slows down, with both sales and average prices decreasing.

Vancouver has continuously been ranked one of the most desirable places to live in the world with high scores in areas such as health care, education, culture and environment. However, according to the Vancouver Sun, the city loses points for a “lack of quality housing”. The heart of BC has been in the Top 3 Most Livable Cities in the world for years, but unfortunately most livable does not necessarily imply most easily livable. Vancouver’s housing prices have been decreasing but still nearly double or even triple real estate levels in all other Canadian provinces. The national average cost of housing is $361,516 while Vancouver’s average sits at $726,089 according to a CBC post. This information is startling when taking into account that in statistics from February 2012, the average national hourly wage was $25.53 and BC’s wage was $23.77. Living in the most desirable city is certainly not easy as BC citizens make less than national average but must pay over double for housing. It’s interesting that the cause of all of this is mostly foreign investment in the city, causing prices to increase.

source: http://vreaa.wordpress.com/tag/banks/

Sources:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/08/15/most-livable-cities-top-ten-economist.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/interactives/housing-canada/

http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2012/02/14/vancouver-great-city-if-you-can-afford-it/

http://o.canada.com/2012/04/06/why-is-vancouver-real-estate-so-expensive/

Today, in our Comm 101 class we met two entrepreneurs that both graduated from Sauder. This was definitely an eye opening experience for me as I had never seen any tangible “proof” or example of what might become of me after graduating. It was certainly motivational to imagine myself in their shoes. It really provoked me to start thinking seriously about my future!

The presenter that really caught my attention was Wade Larson. He co-founded a comapny called UrtheCast (pronounced “earth cast”). It is a company that will distribute the operational software for the first publicly accessibly HD Cameras to be installed on the International Space Station. The UrtheCast service will be accessible online and will allow users to access the two UrtheCast cameras from their homes to examine places or events. They plan to connect social media and news providers to their services as well and are currently looking to expand into both of these growing markets.

I really believe that this project is a plausible one. I can see UrtheCast being features of social media platforms as well as on phone applications, just as aforementioned. I will definitely be looking out for the company’s growth, and look forward to using their services once they are in place!

The site’s blog and its twitter are great means of keeping track of the company’s progress! http://www.urthecast.com/blog/home/ , https://twitter.com/UrtheCast

I wish Wade and his team good luck! 

Sources:

http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/design-engineering/news/urthecast-and-mda-to-pioneer-hd-earth-video-from-space-56318

As Hurricane Sandy continues to tear up the east coast of the United States, many people are wondering how it will affect NYC and the business base that exists there. It can be assumed that the storm’s aftermath will affect east coast businesses for weeks, if not months.

A blog thread on Huffington Post has owners of local companies posting about the effects of the hurricane on their businesses thus far. Most have suffered power outages and had to close down certain locations due to flooding.

This, however, illustrates merely how the businesses on the east coast are suffering the likes of Sandy. It is important to understand that many companies that lie far from the hurricane’s reach are also suffering its wrath. Closed air traffic and cancellations on cargo operations in the region have put gaps in many external companies’ supply chains as products that pass through New York on their way to their destination, have been halted.

Sandy served not only as a reminder of changing climatic patterns, but the impact of those patterns on business.

Hurricane Sandy photographed from space

Sources:

http://www.logisticsmgmt.com/view/nations_supply_chains_disrupted_by_hurricane_sandy/3pl

http://www.theferrarigroup.com/supply-chain-matters/2012/10/31/supply-chain-matters-update-two-effects-of-hurricane-sandy-on-the-u-s-northeast/

I recently read a post on the Harvard Business Review Blog about Etsy, an online shopping website that sells vintage handmade products. The website has over 800,000 active sellers and a 15 million-person marketplace across 150 countries. Etsy’s gross merchandise sales reached $525 million last year. The company’s CEO, however, was not entirely pleased with how far the company has come. In fact, he is committed to taking Etsy beyond the profit-making entity that it was, by using the power of business for social and environmental change. With topics like social entrepreneurship discussed in class, it was interesting to see such a large business bridge the gap between profit and social change. Having used the website numerous times for personal use, it was interesting to discover that my actions online can been part of more than just a financial transaction. The Etsy team has proposed numerous ideas and they are on their way to becoming more sustainable and community-oriented! I look forward to their success!

I found that other posts on this  blog were relatable and easy to read. I would recommend this blog to others because it comes from a reliable business source and the posts are interesting and engaging!

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/11/etsys_hackathon_for_good.html