I’m not a good actor. I have never edited videos before. I have never dared to write a script.

This simple description of some of my ‘attributes’ may imply that when I first heard that one of our projects was a video, I wasn’r particularly thrilled.

After a couple of meetings and brainstorming sessions with my group, I was able to see that the task we were given was not as hard as I once thought. When some of my group mates mentioned they had previous experience with videos, I thought this would be a good idea for me to learn something new and develop a new skill. The first task we gave ourselves was to summarize all the previous assignments we did about our company (Electronic Arts), and that was inf act the hardest part since we had to narrow down, several pages of writing into 5 minutes of video.

Once that was done we needed to figure out a format. That is when I realized that a News report about EA could be a good and simple way to convey our message as it would allow us to give different views about about the company (Anchors, reporters, analysts…)

The turning point of the video was once we realized that our project was going to be peer evaluated. This came as a relief to me because I knew that since our class mates would be the ones evaluating our project we needed to use a different approach. In order to make our video interesting for someone our age, both language and images had to be adapted into fitting our own age group, which was not hard.

Overall I felt that the project was challenging but extremely beneficial when it was done and that peer evaluation’s made the project more entertaining.

This blog post is inspired in The Washington Post’s blog ‘The Switch’, written by Timothy B. Lee.

Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/12/01/amazon-wants-to-deliver-packages-in-30-minutes-with-drones/

When I first heard that Amazon was studying the possibility of using personal drones to deliver products within 30 minutes after the purchase I thought it was a bad joke. At most, it could have been a good advertising move to get technology enthusiasts engaged in the idea and the brand. Later, while I read through Timothy B. Lee’s blog I realized that Amazon’s CEO, Jeffrey P. Bezos, was not kidding and that the Federal Aviation Administration may in fact allow the use of private drones in American air space after 2015.

This revolutionary idea that Amazon may launch in the near future would not be just an incredible technological advance but it would mean so much in terms of distribution for the company. If you take into consideration that Amazon is became the largest online retailer by delivering their products on a 2 day system, reducing their delivery time to 30 minutes could mean a lot more. Although online shopping produces a lot more comfort to most customers, it has sometimes stopped me from making purchases simply because of my immediate need of a product.

If Amazon became successful with this new idea, they would expand their audiences as more people would opt to buy at amazon and get their product delivered faster than a pizza, instead of having to leave their houses in order to buy the new GTA for example.
These drones will definitely come in hand when I realize that I forgot to buy someone a birthday present while making my way to their birthday party…

Pic: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25180906

This post is a response of Mingchi Choo’s post: From Bad Publicity to Boycotts: Barilla’s Blunder

As I read through my classmate’s post, I began to ponder the same questions that she had brought up during the discussion of Guido Barilla’s statements – Just to recall, the CEO of the world’s largest pasta company openly stated that his product was intended for a ‘traditional’ Italian family rather than a homosexual one-.

Since Guido Barrilla is not the only CEO that has publicly ‘excluded’ several audiences from their company’s intended market (Abercrombie’s and Lululemon’s CEO’s both fit this criterion) I felt like giving my own opinion on what Mingchi asked in her own blog; “Is it more important for a company to stay true to its own values […], or should they focus on gaining the approval of the general public?”

I personally think that CEO’s, as well as any individual, should avoid making comments that can be seen as offensive as well as unethical. The reason behind my argument is not that his or her claims may affect the view of general public on the company, but the belief that people should remain respectful to others despite what they might believe. However, The role of a CEO is in fact different than of an ordinary individual since many of their remarks may escalate due to their public importance. This only increases the need for an ethical behavior and respect towards the others.

Guido Barilla should feel ashamed of his statements, not because of the impact this may have on his company or his image, but because of his unethical attitude as a person.

As of mid-October, I have partnered up with my cousin and a good friend in an attempt to make an old entrepreneurial dream of mine come true. The last push that made me finally put an old idea into practice was the class discussion we had with the owner of Great Dane’s Coffee, Andrew Mckee, a Sauder graduate that encouraged students to put whatever entrepreneurial idea they had into practice.

For a while I have thought about creating T-shirts with a design focused on the football rivalry existent in my hometown, Rio de Janeiro. After the discussion with Andrew I went straight to my cousin, who is a graphic designer, and began to explain my thoughts and come up with ideas of how we could make things work.

Although 296 was influential in encouraging me to get my start up going, it was also extremely important in shaping the way I thought about important aspects of a product. When we first began to talk about the pricing, for example, I would always refer back to the learning’s from my class to claim that in order to penetrate the market and attract new customers in the early stages of our company we must set a low price in order to lure them in. It was also really important to figure out what was our target market in order to be able to channel our distribution and increase its accuracy, and these concepts only became important to me after we covered in class and went over the need of these aspects.

My start up project was a great way to apply the concepts I learned in 296 into real life. It enforced the fact that the knowledge we are gaining is fundamental for a business to work.

As a result of extremely inefficient management over the past 2 decades, most of Brazil’s biggest clubs  are currently suffering from enormous debts that don’t seem to go away. When combining the three clubs with the highest debt (Flamengo, Botafogo and Fluminense) we get an astonishing figure of over 760 million dollars owed to the Brazilian Government. Although the economic boom of Brazil in the past five years has brought some beneficial investment into the major clubs in forms of advertisement and TV rights, it is not enough to fulfill the current hole in the clubs accounts. The new managements of the clubs through the use of the new football stadiums built for the 2014 world cup are attempting to create a new source of income into the club, customer loyalty.

The new arenas built for next years event provide the opportunity for the clubs to invest into building customer relations and developing membership programs. Since the new stadiums provide more comfort and recreational options to the public, the clubs are attempting to build the relationship between club and fan as a way of increasing their income.

What interest me the most about this situation in Brazil was the way in which the clubs are trying to encourage fans to become members.

In the upcoming game for the Brazilian cup final between Flamengo x Atletico-PR, the minimum price a customer will be able to pay is about U$ 105 which for the Brazilian society is extremely high, considering that it represents about 1/3 of the minimum wage. However, fans with memberships with the club, that are up to date with their monthly payments will be given the opportunity to pay U$ 32 for their tickets.

Although at first glance this may seem like a bad call for the clubs (since they are not gaining as much per match if the number of members grow), the fact that in order to be a member you must pay monthly fees, the club will be able to create a stable source of income and decrease the horrendous debt they currently have.

Source Pic: http://www.caughtoffside.com/2011/11/14/gremio-2-2-palmeiras-campeonato-brasileiro-highlights-video/

According to the UN, the use of tobacco leads to an average of 6 million deaths worldwide every year. As soon as I came across this astonishing statistic I began to wonder if the continuous use of tobacco was solely a response to an addiction or if there were any other factors that contributed to it.

It is interesting to think that a simple ‘Coke’ or ‘Snickers’ advertisement can make you crave the product so badly, which made me draw the conclusion that a tobacco-related commercial can drive an addict crazy. But if cigarettes are responsible for millions of deaths a year, where do tobacco companies stand on moral and ethical values when advertising their product to one of their main target audience, young people. The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan has publicly stated that the tobacco industry is generally aggressive when trying to advertise and lead young adults and teenagers to consume cigarettes.

The UN has publicly claimed that regulations on tobacco advertisement are one of the most efficient measures of reducing the use of the substance. Tobacco commercials are one of the main reasons why young adults get dragged into the consumption of cigarettes.

From a logical point of view, I can rationalize the arguments made by the tobacco industry that they should be free to advertise and market their product just like other industries such as the alcohol industry. However, when your product becomes responsible for the deaths of 6 million people a year, ethical and moral values should be addressed before any profit seeking action.

Top Ten Dead Movie Star Cigarette Advertisements

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http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=45383&Cr=Tobacco&Cr1=#.UkNfzqzNlFJ

George’s approach to the launch of Apple’s new phone release is quite courageous considering the dominant reputation that was built by Apple in the recent years. It is not questionable that under Steve Jobs command the creators of the world’s most popular gadgets have revolutionized its market but as George stated, in the coming future they may stop being such a dominant force in their market. Since the referenced post was published, Apple released a new gadget that emphasizes the point George is trying to make. The Ipad mini, similarly to the Iphone 5 does not offer the consumer any innovation, which differentiated Apple from the competition. The point made by George that the new gadgets Apple recently put out in the market do not differentiate enough from the previous seems to be repeating itself and as he claimed, it may be crucial for the future of Apple in an industry filled with strong competitors that are constantly releasing new innovative products. Samsung, HTC, Nokia and Microsoft are just some examples of the competition that Apple faces and should encourage them to re-think their strategy, otherwise their shares may keep on dropping.

Although this post is not directly related to any specific news or a current business event, it is in fact extremely important for my interpretation of the business career and my own future. After reading the post ‘I would rather have an army knife’ written by my classmate Clement Lau, I began to question myself in the same way he did; why did I choose to study commerce?

Unlike others I do not know exactly what I want to do, but instead of stressing about my future choices I have realized through out the past months that having a Bcom can be extremely helpful in an infinite number of areas. Similarly to Clement, the lectures and readings we were exposed to in the past months have allowed me to see how significant is the role of a ‘business man’ in fashion (Eg Zara’s uniqueness), social participation (Eg social entrepreneurship), technology (Eg Cell phone market) and even Government (Eg EU crisis). The potential that one person with a business degree has is what encourages me to understand better how business’ actually work so in the future I can connect my Bcom with my personal interests.

Browsing through the WEB i found a very interesting article on SmartPlanet, more specifically on Jennifer Riggins’ blog. The economic crisis that took over the world in the past years was extremely damaging to southern European countries, one of them being Spain. Although the biggest country in the Iberian Peninsula is currently under enormous debt and growing unemployment, the housing market is in very good shape.

What interested me the most about Jennifer Riggin’s post was the fact that despite the chaotic environment and financial difficulties that Spain is going through the housing market is still in very good shape. The main reasons for this success are aspects of the country that no financial turmoil can take away. The constantly good weather and the Spanish culture of respect for the elderly has encouraged many people from Asia and northern Europe to choose Spain as a place to live.

Reading this post we can see that opportunities for business can be found everywhere! In Spain, where people lack jobs and the country lacks capital to support any financial involvement, there is still a market for people like Graham Hunt, “[a] real estate agent and owner of one of the very first Spanish property website”.

Luciani Gomes, a Brazilian journalist, has published in the BBC an article about the growth of entrepreneurs in Brazil since 2002. According to her, the desire to avoid what regular jobs have to offer is diminishing at a fast pace, specially for the youth. “the number of young Brazilians aged between 18 and 24 who took a chance at becoming an entrepreneur rose by 74%”

For many people becoming a successful entrepreneur is a dream. The benefits of running your own business are many but in order to become successful in this area you must go through a lot of difficulties, because starting something from scratch is harder than it seems. Luciani Gomes’ article was extremely encouraging to me since I have recently started my Business studies and wish to go back home to Brazil one day. Finding out the growing popularity of Brazilian’s willing to become entrepreneur’s is very promising to me. This growth allows me to think that in the future I might be able to use my Bcom in a place that is already used to the way in which entrepreneurs build their way up.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18143355