Uber, the extremely popular ride share company has just began expanding into Canada. The company has already been creating waves of controversy and resistance in the US, but this has not seemed to stop them from expanding into Canada. However this has not been easy. There has been a lawsuit, or several, filed against Uber by taxi companies in Vancouver. They have been accused of “bypassing” many rules that other public transit cannot, and illegally operating. Many of the vehicles are not up to the safety standards for this industry and there have already been over a dozen cars, found by undercover inspector’s, that have been impounded. The drivers are not licensed to chauffeur, have unlicensed cars, are not necessarily insured, and are charging improper fares.

I found these articles very interesting for both points of view represented. Uber, in my opinion, needs better practice as to the licensing they require their drivers to have and regulations around them. It is not acceptable that the driver not have proof of insurance, and a chauffeur license is a very reasonable cost, considering they are bypassing so many other costs. However their fees should be totally separate and I believe they should be allowed to charge whatever they like. Uber’s business model revolves around putting microeconomics to the test, influencing both supply and demand through pricing schemes; this should be totally acceptable as both parties are agreeing to it. Overall I think Uber is a genius idea, but has flaws that should be addressed immediately.

Other Sources:

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/business/2014/03/uber-insurance-inline.jpg

https://www.uber.com/

Shaw and Rogers have come together to compete against netflix with their new online streaming service, Shomi. They have put together a collection similar to Netflix for $8.99 a month, in hopes of finding a way to stop Netflix’s dominance in this industry. They claim to have a better interface, better programs and overall a better product.

I found this strategy fairly weak. My first impression was simply “what’s the difference?“, that is between Shomi and Netflix. Netflix already dominates this market, and currently have a solid hold on the “top of the ladder”. Shomi is not a disruptive innovation by any means, with a higher price and similar content; pushing Netflix off the top might be a bit of a far fetched dream. Shomi claims to have better content, which is a personal opinion for each user. Sure, Netflix will lose costumers as they will no longer monopolize the market for online streaming, but I struggle to believe that Shomi will overtake Netflix; especially not within the first few years of it’s existence.

Other sources:

http://cdn.streamdaily.tv/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/shomi2.jpg

https://shomi.rogers.com/

https://www.shaw.ca/shomi/

Nestle has seemingly stepped up to the plate when it comes to shared value, leading the way on this new role for businesses. They have been hosting forums that assemble members of academia, industry, international institutions and civil society from around the world for a discussion and debate on the topic of creating shared value; they have even established a Creating Shared Value Prize for a innovative business or non-profit that addresses the issues of nutrition, water or rural development. 

I found this article interesting because of it’s relevance to what we’ve been learning. Nestle is one of the biggest coffee companies in the world and they have altered their whole business structure to create more shared value. What this shows is that they believe they will be more profitable, even though they will have larger costs, by using the shared value as a marketing tool. This demonstrates a shift in the consumer’s preferences and values. When a company this large shifts into a strategy involving shared value it is clear that change is on the way, and maybe soon companies without shared value will struggle to stay alive in their respective industries.

Other sources:

http://www.nestle-me.com/en/csv/creatingsharedvalueatnestle/publishingimages/csv_triangle_highres.jpg

http://www.nestle.com/csv/what-is-csv

http://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/36842-Full-2013-Nestl-in-Society-Creating-Shared-Value-and-Meeting-Our-Commitments-Report-Published

In Eric Floresca’s blog for ITBusiness.ca, he discusses a disruptive innovation that has disrupted innovation itself: the smartphone. He discusses the way smartphones have disrupted not just the phone industry, but several others as well. Two model industries for this phenomenon are those of mp3 players and point and shoot cameras; both are now incorporated into the technology behind the smartphone. The industries had to adapt to such changes, forcing them to innovate.

With so many people with such ease of access to smartphones, innovation has rapidly increased. Innovation, due to multi-use products like smartphones, has turned away from material innovation, and shifted towards software innovation and intangible commodities. I believe that ideas themselves have more potential to become a reality than ever before. Entire industries are becoming intangible, changing market behaviour and creating an interesting phenomenon from a value perspective. How is it that a company without revenue, and without any tangible product, can be valued at $3 billion? Let’s ask Snapchat. A revenue free, tech company who was offered $3 billion for their company by Facebook in the fall of 2013. This phenomenon is unlike any usual market behaviour and falls back on the idea of innovation itself changing. Value is changing, products are changing, markets are changing, and undoubtedly we are entering an era of mass technological innovation and ease of access.

Other sources:

http://www.justellus.com/assets/iphone-5-feature.png

http://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/disruptive_innovation.html