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The closure of twinkies will  lead to a large 2 billion dollar worth gap in the market for another large scale cake/bread company to swoop in and start exploiting. Since an iconic food is in its final stages, consumers will want it more than ever because of the products  scarcity and because of the products trendiness (lots of media attention). Twinkies are likely to be hoarded, and then later sold at a much higher price, but not everyone will be able to afford such a high price, thus a new company can start producing the cream filled delights and sell at a cheaper price. If another company did start producing twinkie-esque goods, it will be interesting to see how much of a factor brand loyalty played in the $2,000,000,000 sales.

Bibliography

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20364595

Photo retrieved from: http://grassrootgourmet.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/twinkie.jpg

I read an article about globalization, which is a topic that we haven’t studied in depth in comm101, however it is essential to the business world today. 2.7 million US jobs have been lost to China alone in the past decade as a result of economic globalization and trade liberalization. Companies usually shift their manufacturing operations  overseas to less economically developed countries because of the lower cost of labor, less tax and fewer government regulations, which allows them to keep the cost of production to a minimum, and therefore keep the profit margins high. Although globalization sounds like a good phenomenon, what it actually does is lead to in the host countries is exploitation of workers, depletion of natural resources, environmental damage, LEDC economy’s dependency on Multinational Companies. Globalization also leads to the interdependency of economies, which can result in crisises like the world financial crisis in 2008, which was a result of the American banking crisis; or the food crisis in 2008, which was a result of series of global events, such as: the high price of oil, drought in Australia, Chinese people becoming wealthierand thus eating more meat, increased price of fertilizer, etc.

Bibliography

http://www.americanmanufacturing.org/blog/new-report-27-million-us-jobs-lost-over-last-decade-due-growing-trade-deficit-china

Photo retrieved from:

http://www.globalsherpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/globalization-hands-pic.jpg

I read a blog which advises  small businesses on various topics; it encouraged small businesses to do a SWOT analysis. I believe that the SWOT analysis is a very useful tool, because it helps you clearly organize your ideas. It also helps you view things in a different light, for example, you might not have been able to differentiate between a “threat” and “weakness”. Moving on from SWOTs, small businesses should utilize as many tool as possible, from Porter’s FIve Forces to the fishbone model, because all these tools are so simple to utilize, and they all give such useful information pertaining to a whole host of topics. As we saw in the social enterprise video, a seminar was held for small business owners in South Africa, and eve though the tools seemed basic, the business owners thought that the tools very extremely helpful. These simple tools influenced the way people did business, for example: the woman who graphs green and red columns (revenue and costs) at the end of each month, in order to gage her profitability situation better.

Bibliography

http://sme-blog.com/sme-blog/why-your-small-business-needs-a-swot

Photo retrieved from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0b/SWOT_en.svg/220px-SWOT_en.svg.png

The subject of  the external blog was entrepreneurship, which made me think back to the 2 guest speakers from last week. Entrepreneurship is a difficult topic to write about, because it is very easy to just say: “identify an unexploited market”, but extremely difficult to actually spot a gap that someone else has missed. My reflections on the topic are that you don’t need to conjure up the next generation of smart phones or cars in order to be a successful entrepreneur, sometimes the gaps in the market are much simpler and less sophisticated, like that Ethiopian woman from the social enterprise lecture, who just sold milk. Thinking of that woman makes me think that being an entrepreneur doesn’t always equate to a tremendous amount of risk and capital.

Bibliography

http://www.smallbusinessbc.ca/post/inventing-101-taking-idea-your-head-and-putting-it-your-hands

Photo retrieved from: http://trabzongg.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Inspired-Entrepreneurship2.jpg

Response to: http://www.smallbusinessbc.ca/post/social-biz-a-refresher-how-use-social-media-build-your-business-brand

The external blog post discusses the basics of how to use social media effectively in our modern age to promote businesses. I believe that evolving marketing strategies is extremely important, as it keeps businesses relevant and up to date. Advertising through social media is extremely beneficial for small businesses, because they can use social media websites for no cost and potentially reach such a large audience. In the past, social media websites might have been considered too unsophisticated or amateur looking, but there is an increasing trend in big companies’ advertisements, which encourage people to carry out things like:: “like our page on facebook”. The number of likes constitutes how popular a brand is. There is also an increasing trend of there being hashtags at the bottom of the screen during tv shows, which is usually a question posed to the audience and the aim is for people to tweet about it, and thus make it appear in the twitter trends, and then more people would see the hashtag and develop awareness about the tv show. I think that this blog post is relevant to comm 101, because comm101 is a testament to evolving to the trends of the Twenty-First Century through pulsepress and blogs.

Just consider the instagram account of a small start bakery…

Bibliography

http://www.smallbusinessbc.ca/post/social-biz-a-refresher-how-use-social-media-build-your-business-brand

Photo received from:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-hHJYryUBm7M/UFfTzE2k_bI/AAAAAAAAn7Y/a7c27Cjj41U/pumpkin-cookies-chocolate-chips%252015.jpg

I read an article pertaining to employees’ level of engagement in companies which implement sustainability initiatives. The article placed a strong emphasis on employees’ need to play a part in the sustainability programs, employees now consider solely working for a ‘green’ company inefficient.

In the article, it stated that companies which implement strong sustainability programs have “55% better morale, 43% more efficient businesses processes, 43% stronger public image, and 38% better employee loyalty”. Looking at these statistics, I questioned whether any potential job applicant would rather be employed by a company with strong Corporate Social Responsibility programs over a company which provides better remuneration but has no or very weak Corporate Social Responsibility programs. However, what I concluded was that making this decision isn’t that difficult anymore because of the widespread CSR initiatives implemented in all industries in this era in which its fashionable to be sustainable. A whole range of diverse companies implement CSR initiatives, from  Starbucks to Goldman Sachs, the only decision job applicants have to make is whether they actually want to be a part of the sustainability program, or just work for a company which appears to have  some sort of sustainibility program.

Bibliography

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/07/business/global-office-csr-volunteer/index.html

Photograph retrieved from: http://sustainabilityninja.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/feature-images/government-industry-sustainability.jpg

After reading  Mathew Chan’s post -“The Iphone 5: Behing the Scenes”– I was interested in the amount of power trade unions had in China, especially since it’s a relevant to the trade union strikes taking place at UBC. I assumed that there were no trade unions in China, or they had non-existent or negligible power, as I usually hear about chinese workers being exploited in the media. I was surprised to find out that the laws protecting trade unions in China are actually better than most countries. In China, 25 worker signatures constitute a trade union, and the employer must pay 2% of the payroll to the union, whilst employees pay 0.5%¹. Unions such as the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) actually have enough power to take on huge corporations like Walmart. However, the trade unions still aren’t widespread enough considering China’s huge job sectors, and they must grow in order for the majority of employees to be represented. I think that the expansion of trade unions in countries where workers are known to be exploited (China, India, Vietnam, etc) will be great for more international trade and globalization, as the people of the host countries will actually benefit.

Reference:

¹http://www.socialistproject.ca/relay/relay21_unions.pdf

Mathen Chan’s Blog
https://blogs.ubc.ca/matthewchan1/2012/10/07/the-iphone-5-behind-the-scenes/#content

Picture

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/var/news/storage/images/world/china-drives-to-boost-trade-union-role/1577715-1-eng-GB/China-drives-to-boost-trade-union-role_large.jpg

I found Claire Choi’s recent blog- “Seeking the right timing for Twitter IPO”  to be very interesting and relevant. I believe that twitter’s main “Point of Difference” is the fact that it has created a platform in which ordinary people can interact with famous celebrities, along with their friends of course. I think that this celebrity interaction feature has really been a boon to the social networking website. I agree with Claire, twitter should not have an IPO anytime soon, this is because I think that many investors will be hesitant and unwilling to buy shares of another social networking website, in fear of another over -valuation of the stocks, and rapid decline of the stock’s value. I think that this over-valuation fear will apply to most websites looking to go public in the near future, as investor’s will look to put their money on ‘safe bets’ in an already poor economy.

Reference:

http://www.socialbrite.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/twitter-logo.jpg

Seeking the right timing for Twitter IPO

Neuromarketing ‘provides unique insight into the consumer’s unconscious responses to advertising’. Nueromarketing is measured  through MRI, changes in the skin temperature and Electroencephalography (EEG). Electroencephalography measures brain activity.

Nueromarketing is more accurate than focus groups or interviews, as an individual’s level of engagement to an advertisement can be analyzed through their brain activity. There are no barriers to effective research that you might find in a focus group, for example: people in focus groups might not give their honest opinion, as they might prefer to conform to whatever the rest of the group considers to be the norm, or an individual has the inability to express his/herself properly, however, when an individual’s brain activity is being monitored, they don’t have to be honest or be able to express themselves, since the scientific equipment carries out all the research needed.

Reference:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/10/05/neuro.marketing/index.html

In the 1970s, the Nigerian government began forcing native people – such as the Ikiyan people – off their land for little or often no compensation, in order for oil companies to extract oil. One of these oil companies was Chevron, who’s dirty dealing with the Nigerian police and military were later exposed. Chevron Nigeria were paying off police and military officers amounts much higher than government salaries as an incentive to keep natives at bay. The expulsion of the natives wasn’t the height of their unethical behavior: in 1999 the Ikiyan people came to negotiate with the soldiers, and were attacked, which lead to the death of 62 natives, including children. Clearly this is a breach of ethics on Chevron’s part, not only did they ignore the land ownership rights of the native people, they also failed to provide suitable or any compensation to the natives, and furthermore not only supplied the means (funding, helicopters, boats, etc.) but also supervised the execution of the Ikiyan people.

 
Reference:

“Bowoto v. Chevron: How Chevron Pays, Houses, Transports, Schedules, and Directs the Nigerian Police and Military”

<http://ccrjustice.org/learn-more/faqs/bowoto-v.-chevron%3A-how-chevron-pays,-houses,-transports,-schedules,-and-directs-nige>