Article taken from: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/digital/innovation/a-lean-mean-entrepreneurial-spirit/article2241673/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=Home&utm_content=2241673

As seen in the article, April Glavine, a young and passionate founder of Lean Machin Healthy Vending Service Inc., achieved her success in her vending machinge world.

A successful entrepreneur should always have a passion in one’s mind. One has to be courageous, and ambitious, and has to have strong belief and right idea of what he/she is doing. April Galvine didn’t “dream small,” and although she might have faced many difficulties after she founded the company, she managed to overcome the hindrances, and now she’s here as a 31-year-old successful CEO of a venture company!

Joel Primus, the founder of NaKed Co.  and who gave us presentation in COMM101 class, had similar attitude as April Glavine towards his career and dream. Both of them had their own dream and didn’t hesitate to start their plans once they were set. This ambition and passion towards their dream, along with their creative ideas (innovation), made them successful in their career as business people.

Response to Haley Palmer’s posing at https://blogs.ubc.ca/hayleypalmer/2011/10/19/a-softdrink-in-disguise/

I totally agree with her on this idea. VItamin Water’s advertisement and their packaging are luring consumers with misleading infromation.

I remember Priya had been drinking this “vitamin” drink almost everyday because she thought it does give enough vitamin needed daily. I didn’t think at all that it was not healthy either. However, after we heard how much sugar it contains and how less nutrition it actually provides, we now don’t really drink it that often. (Of course I do drink it, as a “drink”, but now I am aware that it is not healthy at all)

This can also be another example showing the importance of effective marketing strategies. Indeed, Glaceau Water did succeed in foolinig most of the consumers at their first glance.

Response to Priya Painuly’s posting on Business Ethics: https://blogs.ubc.ca/ppainuly/2011/09/14/overworked-2/

I agree that it’s not soley the company’s reponsilbility if the workers did know about the work environment and still wanted to enter the company. I also agree that the society as a whole has become more cold-hearted that we are not that much surprised by this kind of news anymore. However, to the question “If people know about the situation (about the 38 suicide cases) then is it really that ethically wrong if people choose to come into the company despite knowing the circumstances?”,

I would answer yes.  It is very wrong in terms of business ehtics. People knowing about the poor work environment does not mean that the company can just abuse them. Maybe they had no other choice than going to that company. They knew the situation that was going on in the company, but would you choose to starve when work is right there waiting for you? Especially this was in China, not even a somewhat developed area as other cites. People have no choice and just go there to work knowing that they are going to suffer, but the company should not be taking it for granted and abuse them. It’s just even more cruel.

image taken from: http://dylannein.wordpress.com/

I’ve recently read a news about the following Olympus’ accounting scandal.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-09/olympus-scandal-means-japan-way-no-longer-excuse.html

I remember learning the case of Enron Scandal in highschool, and I think it is an important example of window dressing that companies must be aware of.

While all other competitors used traditional agent model for reporting revenues, Enron created its own model and reported the whole value of its trades as their revenue. The more competitive the market became, Enron inflated its revenues even more to impress the investors with good business performance. Enron also created many off-shore entities, which were used for avoidance of taxes. Arthur Anderson, the world’s top audit and accounting firm, made Enron’s financial statements look realistic and confusing enough to fool the investors and public. Its complex business model also helped stretch the limits of accounting, and the company used it to manage the revenues and modify their balance sheet to look good. However, the company had to perform more and more financial fraud to make false revenues while they were actually losing more money to do so.

Even now, there are many companies using window-dressing to raise their credit rankings or attract investors. However, we know from the case of Enron that window dressing can never be a perfect solution for companies’ finance. It might result in short-term profits, but in long run, it will actually lose more money just like Enron did. Then the company will eventually collapse and huge damage would be upon the investors. Hence, Enron is an important case that companies should study, so that none of them take the same step as Enron did.

I found this keyboard food tray very interesting and wanted to write about it. Nowadays as the economy develops and people get busy, more consumers seek for products that can make their life a little more convenient. And there are so many different ergonomic products that have been invented, or are being invented.

Imagine you are a busy office man or woman, and it is not very easy to have breakfast at home. Instead, you often eat toast and coffee as you start working at your office. While you are eating, you must be very careful not to drop any piece of bread or coffee drop on your keyboard. And if you become careless enough and hit the mug on the desk, you will spill the coffee and ruin the whole work you have been working on!

Maybe no one would want to buy this tray 10 years ago, but people nowadays value things differently from people in the past (i.e. more health-conscious), and there are new markets arising, for example, organic foods and ergonomic products. As a business person, you must keep your eyes open to the change in people’s(consumers) behavior, always look for what they want, and be able to apply it to your products, or services.

image taken from: http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/keyboard_food_tray.php

image from: http://www.everydaymoney.ca/2010/04/subway-starbucks-giving-away-free-coffee-this-month.html 

Article taken from: http://www.voteforus.com/starbucksmarketingstrategy.html

Would anyone think about why a cup of Starbucks coffee is that expensive while they are drinking it? In the advertisements of specialty coffee shops, they always emphasize the good quality of the coffee bean they use. However, the cost of coffee bean does not really decide the cost of a double cappuccino at specialty coffee shops, as most of the cost is spent for other reasons. One big part of the cost was the labor costs at the coffee shop, and another big part is the amount expended in shop rent, marketing and general administration. And many of us do know it, but not many of us think we are over-charged or it’s not worth the price, because otherwise, there would have been no customers left for Starbucks. Indeed, Starbucks was so good at their marketing strategies, succeeding to make consumers think their products as a luxury, something different from the coffee you might get at Place Vanier dining hall.

image from:  http://articlesofinterest-kelley.blogspot.com/2010/11/republican-victory-in-us-could-speed.html

Article from: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/MK05Dg01.html

The negotiations for FTA(Free Trade Agreement) between South Korea and the United States first started in 2006; however, five years later now in Korea, there is still debate going on whether it should sign it or not. Why is FTA such a controversial issue then?

FTA can benefit a nation’s economy in many ways if it goes well, but we should always consider the risks and disadvantages we might face in the future. Risks include many things, but currently for Korea is mainly concerned that there would be higher dependency on America’s economy, and it could cause underdevelopment of Korean domestic industries. Once FTA takes effect, American farm products will occupy Korean grocery market, and there would be less people consuming those expensive local agricultural products. But what happens if their price suddenly goes up in the future? It’s totally possible, and as many people know, it’s very hard to change back once FTA takes effect. Also, there are many terms on the contract that sounds very adventageous to the United States. In any contract between a stronger nation and a relatively weaker nation, there are always problems arising. That’s what happened to Mexico, and many other countries that signed.

It’s not that we don’t want to sign a free trade agreement with the states at all. But think about it. Will you really want to make decision so quick? When you know that the effect is going to last at least tens of years, and there are many terms that are not in favor of your country, you know there are so many risks that might be brought to your economy in the future, and you cannot make any further change once the contract is signed?

The following is link to the article “In Afghan Kilns, a Cycle of Debt and Servitude” by Michael Kamber.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/world/asia/16kiln.html?pagewanted=1&ref=childlabor

This article shows the labor problems in Afghanistan, where people are suffering from the endless cycle of slavery labor.

While reading this article, I was reminded of the child labor problems within the plantations in Africa. The thing is that many ethnical problems regarding businesses, especially the ones related to labors, usually take places in poor regions or nations with not really well-organized system, such as some parts of China, Philippines and African countries.

Hence we can see that government intervention is needed to solve issues related to business ethnics. Moral management is important. It is important for companies to make ethnically right decisions themselves rather than only focusing on HOW TO MAKE MORE MONEY. However, as we all know, the very first purpose of business is to make profits. As we all read in the assigned article, “The social responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits,” those businessmen might not always be considering moral values when making decisions. That is why we sometimes need government intervention, even though we live in a democratic and capitalistic society, where we are supposed to be given choices to decide on our own.

The Afghan workers in the article did not choose to work at those kilns on their own, but they had to borrow money and go to work, since they had no other choice. Now the owners are saying that they didn’t force the workers to come to work. If the government was able to support the poor people in anyway, they would not have gotten into this terrible cycle of labor.

Therefore, in my point of view the government should be involved in solving business ethnical issues, whether by helping the individual citizens or taking parts in companies’ decision-making process.