Category: Uncategorized

source: http://adage.com/article/global-news/facebook-find-ventures-china/228068/  *note: Please click on the link to visit the picture in its orginal site and actually click on the logos. The site will tell you the Chinese version of that service.  You’ll be surprised at what they have behind that thousand kilometer long government controlled cyberwall!

I was reading over Tony Liu’s post regarding how Tencent pursues a strategy of being a “copycat” since it develops numerous social media tools that is abnormally similar to services offered by other sites such as Twitter, WordPress, or MSN. As a result, Tony criticised this behaviour as “not ethically right”, which is an opinion that I support 200%. However, let’s remember that numerous social media services such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are banned in China. So, if you think about it, the only way that Chinese people can access any form of social media is by using the “pirated” services of state approved corporations like Tencent.  As a result, I believe this issue of the company being a “copycat” is a very interesting ethical dilemma since if we stop the firm from stealing the ideas of other companies; we would have complied with the ideas of business ethics, but at the same time, we would have deprived everyone in China access to very important communication service that is becoming more and more fundamental to life, which is not very ethical.  Hence, this issue has become another example of how the interests of the firm collide directly with the interests of society, which is one of the greatest struggles of the modern businessperson.

source: http://theleanstartup.com/principles

A very popular trend among entrepreneurs today is the “Lean Startup”, which is essentially a methodology for building a successful startup. One of the main characteristic that attracts me to this idea of building a “lean” startup instead of a traditional business is the methodology’s emphasis on using numerous ways to measure and test the success of a new firm’s product. Moreover, this idea stresses that companies should not only keep track of its assets, liabilities, or cash flow, but also the different things that they have learned about their products/services over time. This idea made a lot of sense to me since keeping track of the lessons a company learns can be used as a key tool for the firm to innovate and change their products/services so that it attracts more consumers. However, like any new thoughts or ideas, the Lean Startup has received its fair share of criticism. For example, there is a strong argument in the technology sector for the “fat startup”. But unlike the Lean Startup, which provides an encompassing guide on how to run a startup, this idea only focuses on the ways in which a starting company should allocate its resources. Nevertheless, I still believe that the “Lean Startup” is a very new idea that should be followed with caution since unlike traditional ideas, the results of following this methodology is not yet very visible.

Marketing Before Funding is a blog maintained by a soon-to-be Sauder graduate, Mike Abasov. The goal of this blog is to provide startups and small companies with simple yet effective tools and strategies to market themselves. One key characteristic that I enjoy about this blog is the fact that it teaches a lot of stuff that isn’t traditionally taught in schools. For example, most of the marketing strategies that are explained on his blog use different social media and web based tools, which differ from the traditionally tactics to marketing that business schools teach. However, at the same time, this blog applies a lot marketing principles such as value propositions and point of difference to these new tech savvy strategies. As a result, I believe this blog can be an excellent supplement to the different ideas that one can learn in school. Moreover, I enjoy the fact that it teaches startups to use marketing tactics that will allow them to actually sell their products and become self-sufficient instead of constantly relying for venture capital, which was one of the biggest issues in the Dot-Com Bubble. As a result, I believe this blog to be both innovative and extremely knowledgeable.

I don’t know about you, but traveling for me has always been about hotels, sample-sized bottles of body wash, and crappy tasting coffee. However, Airbnb, an e-commerce firm aims to change that ( If you don’t know how the company’s service works, go click on the video below). So far, by collecting a small percentage from all the transactions that happen on its site, analysts estimate that the firm’s revenue grew from $8.4 to $52.8 million in a year, which is quite expected as the total amount of rooms booked on Airbnb grew 500% in one year, as shown in the infographic below.

source: http://gigaom.com/2012/09/23/here-comes-everybody-why-airbnb-is-so-disruptive/

However, I believe this phenomenal growth will eventually slow down as several fundamental issues facing the firm’s service become more and more visible to users. For example, a little over a year ago, a woman reported that the people who booked her house on Airbnb completely vandalized and burglarized her residency. Although, the firm has compensated the lady and dealt with the situation, the lady nevertheless claims that she will now use “nice, safe” hotel rooms next time she travels. Furthermore, a user that attempted Airbnb’s service to book an apartment in New York, ended up (after much communication) discovering that the rooms she wanted were taken, even though the site still listed them as vacant. Hence, I believe these issues which can cause a variety of negative reactions from the customer from feelings of annoyance in the second example to trauma in the first.

Kevin Zhao recently wrote a post regarding Kiip, which is one of my favourite tech startups, (mainly because it is run by a Sauder Alumni, Brian Wong). The post provides a very detailed list of Kiip’s accomplishments including its ability to attract multimillion dollar investment funding and its list of distinguished customers (ex. P&G and American Apparel). Despite these amazing successes and my absolute adoration for this company, I believe that there are several issues that Kiip still must struggle with. For example, Kiip provides rewards to users based on their ability to reach certain achievements in certain apps. As a result, if the company makes the threshold to obtain a reward too high, people will eventually lose interest in obtaining that reward. Hence, Kiip enabled apps will begin to lose users. Although the Kiip platform is available on roughly 400 apps, the company fails to convince the developers of major apps, such as Angry Birds or Temple Run to integrate Kiip onto their games. As a result, the company’s service still lacks massive exposure. Furthermore, the software industry is an extremely new and innovative area. As a result, companies often develop ideas for products at the same time as each other. Therefore, I predict Kiip will have a lot of potential rivals that will have very similar services, which the firm must work hard to overcome.

Source: http://thehubhalifax.ca/social-entrepreneurship-ceeds-fresh-ideas/

Before we begin, I’d really like to you read this article which defines a social enterprise in a simple and understandable way but if you are looking for a more formal and not as fun definition click here. As stated by my favourite afternoon professor, Robert Gateman, businesses essentially had one goal: to make a profit. Similarly, not-for-profit organizations also have one goal: to solve a major social issue. However, the social enterprise, as mentioned in the two links, combines both goals. Due to this combination, I believe social entrepreneurship is one of the most formidable tasks an entrepreneur can undertake since these two goals can often be at odds with each other. For example, if a social enterprise focuses too much on generating profits, the company will not be able to allocate enough resources to solve the social issues that it intended on doing in the first place and end up looking like the cartoon at the bottom. However, if it focuses too much on the dealing with the social issues, it will run out of resources very quickly. This problem can be especially threatening to social entrepreneurs since they often lack the funding and loans that are available to traditional businesses. Despite of these challenges, we can see numerous examples of social entrepreneurial success throughout the world from local companies like SaveOnMeats (see video) to international multimillion dollar establishments like Grameen Bank. As a result, to answer the question in the title, social enterprising is not an impossible task but it is definitely a challenge that should never be downplayed.

source: http://www.fashinvest.com/referly-to-receive-1-million-for-bringing-commerce-to-everyone/

In the last blog, I described NFC technology as a great tool for marketing, but this technology requires a lot of resources and will only work on a grand scale. Hence, it can only be implemented by oversized tech giants like Apple or Google. However, with the onslaught of social media causing people to communicate much more efficiently than ever before, a new marketing strategy known as affiliate marketing has emerged onto the internet. With Twitter followers in the thousands and Facebook friends in the hundreds, online networks are able to provide one person with the ability to broadcast information to a massive group of people within a few seconds. As a result, via affiliate marketing users that enjoy a product can easily promote it to hundreds or thousands of people simply by clicking no more than four icons. Due to the fact that this marketing strategy simply takes advantage of ordinary social media websites, small enterprises can use affiliate marketing to promote their products or services without spending large volumes cash in developing marketing strategies or new technology. For example, Refer.ly, a multimillion dollar startup, completely bases their revenue model on affiliate marketing. However, the biggest disadvantage of this marketing strategy can easily be turned into spam resulting in gruesome lawsuits.

source: http://www.businessinsider.com/whatever-happened-to-google-wallet-2012-4

I still remember in grade 4 when I saw my friend with a PalmPilot in class. I couldn’t believe that such as tiny piece of toy could contain so many features. Flash forward 9 years, mobile technology has made some astounding advances, such as the integration of Near Field Communication (NFC) in smartphones. One of the most powerful aspects of NFC is its ability to change the mobile ad industry. For example, thousands of people pass by shop numerous shops in a mall. Using NFC technology, developers can build an app that can display discount coupons from the stores onto a user’s mobile device every time the user passes by. Furthermore, after viewing the discount, one can easily redeem the offer and pay via their mobile devices with the help of NFC. Building such an advertising platform could open a new avenue of revenue for tech companies such as Apple through their new Passbook app and 430 million user credit card details. However, for now, the tech giant has decided opt out of this opportunity. Likewise, the app, Google Wallet, only has at most 100 000 users out of the millions of Android users worldwide. As a result, this lack of big competition opens the NFC market to a lot of emerging startups.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webvan

Developing a good value proposition isn’t easy. First, there’s two parts to consider: Point of Difference (POD) and the Point of Parity (POP). Developing a POP might be easy, but the POD can be a very difficult struggle for many firms. The POD needs to be innovative so that the firm can set itself apart from others in the industry. At the same time, it must be realistic so that it is achievable. Failure to achieve these two criteria might lead to the collapse of an entire firm. Take for example, Webvan, a chilling memory of the Dot Com Bubble. The firm’s main POD is its ability to deliver groceries to the customer’s door within 30 minutes of placing the order online. This is definitely a breakthrough that sets Webvan apart from every in other store in the grocery store industry since their service allows consumers to do their shopping online in the comfort of their homes. But in order to live up to this claim, Webvan needed to spend billions of dollars on building warehouses and an efficient transportation system that sent the company bankrupt with US$803 million in debt. Hence, a strong value proposition needs a POD that is both innovative and achievable.

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A manager at a Tim Horton’s shop in London, Ontario fired Nicole Lilliman, a cashier, for giving a $0.17 Timbit to a toddler. She claimed that the reason she did this was due to the fact that she wanted to satisfy the baby, who was pointing to the Timbits and making noises. The main ethical issue in this situation is the degree of compassion that a company should provide to its employees. For many companies, such as Tim Horton’s (TH), the number one goal is to make a profit. By giving away ONE free Timbit, TH only loses $0.17, but what happens when this situation sets precedence for other people to ask for free Timbits? Should TH now start handing out Timbits to every crying toddler that comes into the store? If yes, then TH will be losing a lot more than $0.17. Although by firing employees that endorse giving away free food effectively prevent issues like this from happening, TH should have been fairer to the cashier. Under the subtitle of “We are Fair and Ethical” in TH’s “Standards of Business Practice” document, the company claims that they treat co-workers with “fairness, compassion, and loyalty”. Personally, I think by firing that cashier, TH just violated their own ethical standards. Hence, to practice better business ethics, I think TH should have simply given the cashier a warning.

Full story here