486G!

So first year is over, and I’d like to be the first one say “Hold the phone, still got exams!” As annoying as exams are, they exist and they are mandatory (for passing). However, for this post I have decided to ignore them for the sake of a summary of the years events, particularly the completion of the pilot class of 486G.

First of all, a few posts back I mentioned I created a survey, trying to seriously discover more about myself. Of course no one took me seriously. Without further adieu I present you with a uncensored opinion of what my friends think of the question  “What is the number one thing you think I’m good at?”:

Apparently, I'm best at these things.

If this survey has taught me anything, I think it’s taught me to take life a little easy. Even when being serious, there should always be a little room for some fooling around, or some form of stress relief. For example, I look back on this serious endeavour of mine and read “gettin down and dirty.” I laugh to myself and think “this is what I’m best at?” I guess everything in there holds some truth (minus the gay part, that holds no truth). Being a boss might very well relate to my leading abilities, being awesome might refer to my personality, and making short surveys could relate to…well, that probably relates to the fact I made a short survey. Anyways, what this has taught me so far is: I’m surrounded by people with a good sense of humour and they all like me enough to do my survey. This itself tells me I’m a pretty sociable guy who happens to get along with most people.

Anyways, this self discovery sort of adds to 486’s concept. Using what I know and what I learned, I had the ability to compare my skills and personality to all the different sectors of industry we covered. Although I do want to be a pilot, not an accountant, I believe there are some specializations which align with piloting. This course broadened my perceptive (Before I didn’t know what MIS or TLOG was). By broadening my perspective, it brought me one step closer to choosing my specialization and therefore another step closer to piloting.

Despite the dozens of assignments, and frequent activities accompanying this class, I thought it was a good experience. I sort of feel a sense of accomplishment now, having finished all the work (almost). This experiences I gained, the skills I learned, and the people I met through this class will be invaluable in the next 4 years. Thank you Mr. Cubbon and Mr. Kroeker

PS. Remember my Stock Experiment from a while back? I’m up 0.1%…Better than nothing I suppose. Way to go Google search analysts!!!

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A few weeks ago, we had a class discussion involving some guest speakers who discussed sustainability.

I found the discussion pretty interesting, despite being pretty familiar with the entire topic at hand.

What they discussed seemed pretty futuristic, more like concepts they expected the coming generation to consider. One standing moment was when she picked out the crayon drawing of a completely self sustaining house. Now I’m sure most would’ve imagined the future where desperation has driven us to such extreme means. However, sustainable architecture has already arrived.

Take Oberlin College’s Adam Jospesh Lewis Centre. This building is run entirely upon itself. The building uses conventional means to control its temperature, for example systematic opening and closing of blinds and windows. The building powers itself solely on its solar paneled roof, while conserving the energy it consumes using innovate wall building techniques. This building even treats its own sewage. By use of natural bacteria as well as a replicated wetlands environment, the AJLC treats its waste water and reintroduces it into their plumbing system. Despite being approved only for cleaning purposes, the reintroduction of former sewage water into a closed system is extraordinary.

Closer to home, we have Vancouver’s Nation Works Yard, or Greenworks, which earned a gold LEED certifacation. This building is said to consume only 34% of the energy consumed by conventional buildings.

So after measuring everybody’s individual carbon footprint. (Mine being 7tons due to air travel) One can see that implementing this new architectural concept would drastically slow the consumption of energy, thereby lowering your footprint.

As desperation increases, so will demand. Therefore in the coming future, I predict firms specializing or practicing this form of architecture will progress successfully into the future, whereas firms who lack in this form of expertise may fall at the way side. As an individual of the new generation, I know exactly which home that I’d rather live in. That home is a happy earth.

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As I discussed last post I’m having some trouble deciding where exactly I want to end up. As previously mentioned, piloting always seemed like the natural choice and there seemed to be only one possibility: flying planes was my dream job.

Anyways, in order to learn more about myself, I set up a survey. It’s titled “What is the number one thing I’m good at?” It’s purpose is to see if my skills align with flying. So far, in typical fashion of friends, I’m best at “drinking beer,” and “being a boss.” I have a few interesting traits including “cheering people up” proposed by two people, as well as “smiling with my eyes.” Now I’m not so sure what is meant by that last one, but it seems to me these aren’t what sort of skills I was hoping for. Not to say these are bad, at all.

Now compared with my skills as concluded by a Strengths Test quiz, my friend’s opinions seem on target. According to Strengths Quest, “I am an achiever willing to work long and hard who looks to the past to find solutions for the future. I also deal with each individual in a different manner according to their personality, which helps me form very close relationships where trust is unquestionable.” To cap this off, “I attempt to bring people together to avoid conflict.”

This lines up almost PERFECTLY with the role of a pilot in my opinion. Great, I’ve got the skills (theoretically). Where to now? Back to the drawing board.

Still the question begs, how will I know I like what I’m getting into, or how would anyone for that matter? This is the question that has plagued me since Grade 10 planning. And only a few lucky ones know the answer.

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Where's this Tomcat headed?

As many of my peers can attest, the purpose of gaining admission and spending at least another 4 years in the school system is to prepare yourself for a career in the real world. In the Sauder School of Business, there exist aspiring financiers and accountants and a whole array of students looking to ‘make it’ one day.

After watching a great speech on www.TED.com, I thought, I have no passion in any business discipline, and I bet a ton of other kids don’t either. Yet they all dream of counting numbers and the paychecks that accompany that.

In fact, atypical of the average business student, my dream is becoming a pilot.

It all started when I was a kid I guess, first plane trip at 5 months, flown at least once or twice a year since. I remember reading a catalogue of all the planes in WW2, and picking my favourites. And I remember describing my ‘what I want to be when I grow up’ in French class in grade 5; subconsciously or not, this was the moment I knew I wanted to fly planes.

Favourite Propeller Aircraft

My interest was prodded by video games, and some tv shows, especially one call JAG, if you’ve ever seen it. Even a job aptitude test  in Grade 10 recommended becoming a pilot! I was hooked! Anyways to cut to the point, it’s been a long time coming, and something I’ve always wanted to do. Now for the university part of my life.

Enter confusion and uncertainty.

How on earth do I actually know I’ll like it? Maybe the idea of flying is appealing, but what does the pilot actually do? Especially nowadays with computers becoming more and more competent. Is it really my passion, or is the perception what I’m passionate about?

I’ve started talking to some people, trying to get a foot in the door of the aviation industry, just to see what it’s like. First off I’ve already talked to another Sauder student, Azwin Lam, and he explained to me the process of ‘earning your wings’, as well as introducing me to another one of his contacts. Secondly, I’m planning to contact the Canadian Federal Pilots Association with hopes of attaining membership as well as attending meetings. Thirdly if piloting is right for me, and I have no real idea how to do this, I need to figure out which path is the best: Military training, or Flight School. Both have their ups and downs, both are stepping stones to where I want to be.

I try not to think of the ‘what if?’ If piloting is not for me, then I truly have no direction, which is a very scary thought.

Favourite Helicopter

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While flipping through the channels on evening, I quickly flashed by the business network, and for some unknown reason I was instantly reminded of an activity my grade 12 business class had done. In our class we had each created our own stock portfolios on the Globe and Mail’s GlobeInvestor to observe the effects of the recession and to gain some insight on what to keep an eye out for when deciding whether to invest in a company or not.

Well, as the year progressed, we as a class monitored our own portfolios through the familiar ups and downs of 2008 and 2009. And to this day I check up on them, for example since inception, my portfolio is up 17% today. However promising that sounds, one girl in my grade 12 business class outperformed me , and the entire class, without so much as looking at any of her companies information.

This friend of mine simply did what many of us do daily. She asked Google. I believe the exact search words were “Promising Stocks.” Her query provided a number of investment advisors blogging on their top stock picks and she simply scanned the ranks searching for an overlap of advice; a stock which had been recommended by at least 2 advisors.

One of her results was a penny stock, distributed by a mining company under the name of Celtic Minerals. Now many of us have seen internet get-rich-fast pop up ads claiming investment advice and promising penny stocks which guarantee 200%,300%, or even 400%, returns on investment, all for absolutely free, the only condition being giving your credit card number so these advisors could promptly commit credit card fraud and steal your money. Well instead of 200%,300%, or even 400%, Celtic Minerals managed to provide a generous return of…. 750%!!!

Now that you have multiplied your investment by 7 and a half, you should go fire your stock broker, buy a nice desk chair and scan Google for investment advice. But then  again… Celtic minerals could have been a one in a million opportunity only exploitable with proper timing.

This is the purpose of my experiment.

A week ago, I mock invested $200,000 in 20 different companies, all recommended by Google’s finest. My goals:1.) discover if stock brokers are a waste of money, 2.) if it’s viable to live off Google’s advice for a living, and 3.) see just how much luck this girl really has.

So far, in 10 days it has returned a remarkable -2.4% on my investments. However, only time will tell whether or not the Celtic Minerals event is repeatable.

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Today I realized something extraordinary. As I relaxed during a lazy morning, I decided to take a look around my room. The first thing I glanced at was my iPod, the second, my German textbook laying spread eagle upon my desk. This is when I stopped looking

It struck me at that exact moment, that I had actually paid more for my German textbook than I had for my iPod. I thought, how can this marvelous wonder of technology be out-priced by one over 500 years old? I begun to look around the room. Printer-$80, cheaper. Microwave-$120, cheaper. Paint ball gun-$150, cheaper.  Electric shaver- $160, cheaper. I was hit with an odd realization that the only things more expensive than a simple textbook in my room were my skis, my iPhone, and the laptop I currently type upon.

So this is where all my money has really gone this year, not beverages, or food. Not even concert tickets. My single greatest expense lies idly on a shelf for the greater part of its lifetime.

Getting down to the basics, we can more or less assume textbooks are absolutely worthless. First of all, they have a useful life expectancy equal to the length of time you spent in that certain class, or in other words 4-8 months. Secondly, they are full of errors, hard to read, out of date, impossible to understand, and don’t offer any profound insights. Thirdly, you can never buy used ones because publishers produce new editions every other year! It’s an insulting spit into every university students’ face when a publisher releases a new edition, and the student can’t use it because the order of 2 chapters were switched.

Despite fierce competition, this is perhaps the easiest industry in existence to make money: limitless demand, little to no labour, volume of sales very easy to predict, essentially no capital required, less an industrial printer. This industry is even relatively recession proof. In other words a lazy and greedy conglomeration of so called academic authors and eager publishers.

In my research on this topic, I came across another blog which mentioned marketer and author Seth Godin’s opinion on the text book industry. I can’t agree more with him saying  “[The textbook] industry deserves to die.”

Further in my research, I came across a post mentioning a new site I have never heard of before. www.flatworldknowledge.com.  This site provides electronic copies of textbooks to teachers and students alike, and is formatted under an open source system where teachers can edit the book as they like.

I can imagine this being very popular in the near future, all it needs is a little word of mouth, a larger variety of books, and time to knock down the textbook industry.

This site is my new go to spot every semester. I’ve got $1300 worth of textbooks laying on my shelf, yet I lock up my $900 laptop. This twisted fact needs to be changed.

Here is the blog I mentioned earlier: http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/2009/06/seth-on-why-the-textbook-industry-deserves-to-die.html

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Confusion and disorientation wreak havoc among the millions of it’s early victims,  millions more look on in terror as the approaching wave mercilessly and inevitably crashes towards them. Early forecasts say the catastrophe is irreversible.

Welcome to Facebook 2.0….Again.

For those of you who have already experienced the latest transformation of Facebook, my sincerest apologies. For those, such as I, who haven’t, brace yourselves.

From all indications, it has met with fierce opposition when confronted with its users, but as with previous encounters, the change strolls by with a whiff of arrogance and no shortage of disregard for it’s users.

Its seems almost stupid to think that a firm would disregard and ignore thier own customers, yet it can almost be interpreted this is Facebook’s strategy!

Facebook even hosts its own, user operated, opposition group “We Hate The New Facebook, so STOP CHANGING IT!!!,” as if it were to acknowledge their users, only to lift their nose, turn around and waddle off.

As the juggernaut of the social networking world, it is easy to see how Facebook can get away with their behavior, but ignoring your customers is not the most intelligent path to success, as showcased by the collapse of the once mighty American auto industry for example.

All it takes is one trendy competitor, with time for transferring users on their hands, and Facebook issuing possibly yet another change, to steal the current juggernaut’s thunder. Think Toyota and Honda’s compact hybrids cutting down GM and Chrysler’s massive SUVs.

The fact Facebook needs to realize, is that it needs to consider user feedback more extensively when considering another change, not just assuming users will abide. The golden age of Facebook will not last forever, sooner or later it will be overcome, and with their current policy, this will happen sooner rather than later.

Tags:   change · customer feedback · facebook · new facebookNo Comments.

The first images conjured up when one thinks of fashion are wafer thin models, strutting over the catwalk sporting the newest, most expensive, and often strange concepts presented by the fashion elite.

The company in focus, however, has changed the world of fashion and made it accessible to many of its devout followers. Zara has revolutionized the way we shop through it’s fast acting retail strategy, and by doing so has profited where others, like HBC, have failed.

Zara’s avid fashion analysts, affordable assembly methods, and responsive business structure allow it to quickly adapt to shifting trends in the industry while maintaining affordable prices. This opens the company up to the vast market of the everyday common person, and nearly unrelenting demand as long as trends keep changing.

However, there is concern that this business model will wear out as Zaras consumer base grows older, and richer, and moves onto an older “look” when compared to Zara’s young and hip image. The fear is, the aging consumer will look for pricier, better quality items from convenient department stores, rather than spend the time to find the better deal.

Although this might be true, A whole new wave of lower income consumers are rising through the years (AKA teenagers), and like the previous generation, they enjoy the cheap prices enjoyed by Zara and similar chains. From personal experience and knowledge, the market for Zara, H & M, and the like is far from endangered. These companies merely need to continue what they do best, not only to survive, but to thrive.

Tags:   fashion · fast fashion · supply chain · zaraNo Comments.

Cool Sporting Event that Happens in BC between 2009 and 2011

As many local Vancouver residents already know, the revered atheltic company, Lululemon, is under fire for it’s advertising tactics.

Lululemon Athletica has recently launged a line of clothing titled “Cool Sporting Event That Takes Place in British Columbia Between 2009 & 2011 Edition.” Although this tactic is full of wit, completely within the limits of the law, and typical of the company’s trendy image, many feel this marketing strategy is an unfair surprise to many of the companies who paid VANOC millions of dollars for sponsorship privileges, and unfair to the Canadian atheletes who recieve funding from the sale of official Olympic clothing.

As Bill Cooper, the director of commercial rights management for the Olympics, states “We expected better sportsmanship from a local Canadian company than to produce a clothing line that attempts to profit from the Games but doesn’t support the Games or the success of the Canadian Olympic team.”

However, there may be a reasonable cause for Lululemon’s tactics, even if it is somewhat subtle.

VANOC has long been under fire for it’s attitude towards east Vancouver, especially for it’s eagerness to hide and polish up the area without providing any direct help to those suffering there.

The new athlete vilage at False Creek had been discussed as a location for new affordable housing, but instead VANOC opted for high end condos that could be resold for a profit after the games.

Lululemon has always had a reputation for a culture based on well being and far-eastern philosophy, perhaps this marketing strategy is driven by a morally based ulterior motive.

Needless to say, if Lululemon doesn’t support VANOC’s policies, why contribute to it? However, this is all speculation that began while driving past a Lululemon outlet, and carries no real grounds except for opinion. But, in anysense, it’s not harmful to do some thinking

Tags:   Downtown eastside · Lululemon · marketing · OlympicsNo Comments.

http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/06/18/jantzi-macleans-50-most-socially-responsible-corporations/43/

Now here is a real, breathing, money making, and socially responsible corporation.  Suncor Energy Inc. makes money, and stays competitive by practicing traditional energy harvesting methods (mainly the harvest of the Albertan oil sands). Additionally, Suncor’s has a strong reputation as an ecologically focused organization, however, this green giant is not afraid to make a profit.

As recently as November, Suncor recorded a 14% rise in net income, $929 million (Cdn.), and Suncor actually legitimately contributes to helping not only the environment, but also the impoverished native community. And, converse to Friedman’s ideas about illegitimate social responsibility, it’s not afraid to hide it’s intents on making a profit.

How can this be viewed as environmentally friendly?

Suncor’s primary focus are the Albertan oil sands, and oil fields abroad, however, their focus in the environmental comes from a mixture of traditional energy combined with cutting edge clean energy. They currently produce 200 million litres of ethanol (corn fuel), and are currently involved in a wind turbine operation which produces 147 megawatts.  No small amount when one realizes that is more power than the average Boeing 747’s power consumption, and just below the peak power consumption of a Nimitz class aircraft carrier.

Suncor also seems to gain from hiring untapped talent from Canada’s Aboriginal community. By doing so, they help bring money to the impoverished native communities, and in turn, find environmentally conscious and talented workers, free of competition among hiring employers.

While Friedman argues that a socially responsible corporation spends their money at the cost of the employee, likening it to a tax on the employee’s salary of which they have no choice but to abide by, one could also argue that the strong reputation of a company which is socially responsible would attract like minded employees who are willing to sacrifice a small amount of pay for the company’s social beliefs.

As for the shareholders, they too are aware of a company’s beliefs, and should expect the company to focus on it’s social endeavors.  Furthermore, in today’s world, shareholders should be encouraging their companies to become more socially aware, and especially more environmentally aware as the wave of social activism sweeps the minds of the public and carries on to the markets.

There is profit to be made being socially responsible, whether or not it is ethical to pursue such social values purely for profit is another issue. As for now, Suncor is one company which defies Friedman’s arguments that social responsibility is merely a guise which strips the unwilling employee of his or her money.

Tags:   milton friedman · social responsibility · suncorNo Comments.