Most consumers have a negative impression of the idea “sustainability” ; however, Modern Green, a Beijing-based developer, has successfully sold the idea to Vancouver local consumers by constructing accordingly to the principles of sustainability in both materials and designs while maintaining principles of comfortable and luxurious living.  When their first residential project, Yu homes, went to market, Colliers International reported as having one of Metro Vancouver’s most recent high profile launches.  The objective of this project is to establish the company’s first residential outside of China and Australia and develop some 10 million square metres of luxury “green” buildings.  The project began in Vancouver, more specifically the Westbrook Village neighborhood at the University of B.C as the managing director of Modern Green Development Canada, Robbie Zhang, states “We heard the mayor’s 2020 target to make Vancouver one of the most green cities in the world,” This project worked in collaboration with the UBC’s Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability since the centre’s mission was “to accelerate sustainability [and] to find solutions to the challenges of urban development faster and more effectively than ever before”.  The question then comes to, will this project attract developers to consider incorporating sustainability in their projects?

Walmart, being one of the world’s largest retailers, incorporates with Facebook to interact with customers directly with their local store online. The company’s market is targeted to low-middle-income shoppers on tight budgets and the social network service will inform customers about local products, rollbacks (additional savings) and in-store events. Walmart seeks Facebook to perk up sales growth because Facebook is becoming the top seller of display advertising in the US and have more than half of active adult users following brands. Research firm Emarketer expects $4.27 billion in revenue this year (a double from 2010) in result of 800 million Facebook users.  In my opinion, I wonder if it the expected revenue is a little over optimistic.  The company is already well known to consumers and by relying on Facebook, it will only make consumers more aware of Walmart’s sales and events which does not exactly ensure to improve customer loyalty.

Netflix Incorporation has currently made an unwise financial decision by increasing subscribers’ fees. This plan has consequently caused a loss of a million users and a decrease in the quarter earnings. Piper Jaffrey analyst Michael Olson states that the reduction of subscribers is expected when there is a change in price, but the rate of reduction is happening faster than predicted. He also proposes another major challenge Netflix is faced with: the attraction of streaming videos.  The company has a limited amount of content to offer to consumers and also does not have digital rights to many movies available on DVD.  I was once a Netflix user but when the price increased, it discouraged me to continue subscribing because the site did not have much to choose from and did not have many new movies either.  I greatly recommend Netflix to consider a strategic plan and act fast before the company becomes seriously endangered.

Ikea constructs a strong reputation of a good employer and solid corporate citizen; however, recent ethnical complains from workers have raised Ikea’s brand image to question. Full-time employees in Danville feel racially discriminated because of difference in benefits and working community. The Danville employees resent the unpredictable work hours and high pressure atmosphere while labors in Swedwood, Sweden, receive a minimum wage of about $19 an hour, and an additional government-mandated five weeks of paid vacation. Six of Danville employees have filed discrimination complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission hoping to seek for equality and fight for their rights and the company responses by settling the discrimination complaints through mediation. I do agree with Ellen Ruppel Shell, the author of the book “Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture.”, suggestion about global competitions as a reason to seek out for low-cost sources of production and Ikea is no exception, only that the company is burnishing the image very well.  With this negatively in the news, it does make consumers question about Ikea’s reputation.

Canada’s job market may appear solid, but in fact it is continuing to face economic turmoil as hiring rate expects to slow. Companies have reacted to this volatile environment by trimming budgets and implementing a hiring freeze. The unemployment rates, especially in the finance, insurance, real-estate and leasing sector, have descended down to 7.1 percent (lowest since December 2008). In the financial service, employment is reducing drastically in the real estate and finance industry. Benjamin Tal, CIBC economist, explains the sensitive relationship of real estate to market fluctuations. From his analysis, he predicts a slow housing market slowdown in the next six months, which would eventually level off the pricings of houses and immediately affect job rates. Surprisingly from all the unemployment rates, the youth’s remains at 14 percent, the highest of any demographic group.