“I’m going to die on this treadmill…” is a very interesting blog made by Derek Halpern.   In the blog, Derek uses a treadmill as a metaphor to describe how entrepreneurship and businesses looks like, by a quote “if we get on a treadmill, you are going to get off first, or I am going to die”.  This means opening a business is like running on a treadmill, the longer you run, the more you want to give up.  As a result, you would be forcing yourself to actually stay on track by promoting on the product continuously.

This applies to the business.  At the beginning, a business idea may feel really new and interesting to the entrepreneur who would like to start a business.  However, as time goes, more stress are brought to the entrepreneur since not only the competition increases as the company expands, but he may face liquidity problems, high expenses, or increasing number of complaints from other customers.  As a result, the entrepreneurs could either get off a treadmill – shut down its business, or improve its business in crisis to becoming more successful and well-known day by day – not giving up.  To conclude, Derek Halpern’s advice is very helpful for every situation regardless of whether or not it is a business – Never give up.

External blog link:

http://socialtriggers.com/secret-to-success/

James’ Blog “Everyone Wants to Work for Google” advertises the main reason why the people who are looking for job should go and work for Google.  Not only does Google provides a good working environment for its employees, it also provide lots of benefits for workers like healthcare, free food, insurance etc.

This blog, same as what James does, reminds me about the previous business class that I attended.  During that class, my classmates and I went through a company named Zappos, which maintains a democratic, and similar living environment for the workers.  Even though this kind of living environment sounds not formal enough for a working space, it may actually boost the loyalty and the sense of belonging of the workers, thus making them to work more efficient and harder to be brought away by the other companies’ offers that provide them more salaries and/or benefits.

In my opinion, I think this type of leadership style and organizational culture is unique, and at the same time, displays the company owners’ and managers’ successfulness in operating the company and their magnificent strategy in making everyone happy, while being in the top of the market.

James’ Blog link:

Everyone Wants to Work for GOOGLE!

Recently, one of my Sauder friends – Jonathan Yuan did a blog post on Xiaomi.  He mentioned about the growing trend of more people using Xiaomi products, its unique selling point of having a cheap price while nicely functioned and nice-looking, and the trend of growing Xiaomi markets in a number of poor countries like India, Africa, Southeast Asia etc.

In the present, I am the owner of XiaoMi3 Phone, and I absolutely agree with what Jonathan says about Xiaomi.  While Xiaomi3 only costs around $309.99, IPhone6 doubles its price, which costs $749.00.  As a result, Xiaomi3 is a nice phone and a good deal, since it contains great functions of different types like HD camera and HD graphics, while has a cool looking.

In addition to what Jonathan said, the great business model of Xiaomi has also once made it dominate the Chinese smartphone market, and put pressure of other large Chinese smartphone manufacturing companies like ZTE and Huawei that forces them to manufacture high-end phones

To conclude, Xiaomi, the company that release its first smartphone in August 2011, is a very impressive company due to its great increase in popularity despite of it being a rookie in smartphone market.

Bibliography:

Kan, Michael. “China’s Xiaomi Targets Ten Markets in International Expansion.” PCWorld. N.p., 23 Apr. 2014. Web. 09 Nov. 2014. <http://www.pcworld.com/article/2147240/chinas-xiaomi-targets-ten-markets-in-international-expansion.html>.

Commented Blog Post from Jonathan Yuan:

China’s “Xiaomi” going global?

Due to the economic development of Canada, 43,000 jobs are created, which is comparably higher in comparison to the jobs created in year 2008.  The job increase is seen particularly in the manufacturing departments in Canada.  In the manufacturing department, 33,200 successfully found their jobs.  For adults aged between 15-24, around 12.6% of jobless rate is reported, which is greatly improved due to the fact that less youths started looking for new jobs to do after they have found one.

I would like to personally praise the Canadian Government in causing the decreased unemployment rate.  The typical reason why unemployment rate increases is because either businesses earn less money, or the cost of resources like labor has increased, thus forcing them to dismiss a decent number of labor. As a result, the best way to avoid the increase in unemployment rate is to maintain the value of money.  It is because as the value of money increases, the cost of labor would increase as well.  While as the value of money decreases, the companies will be more competitive as they are forced to increase the price, which causes less customers to buy its products.

Bibliography:

News, CBC. “Canada Adds 43,000 Jobs in October, Jobless Rate down to 6.5%.” CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 07 Nov. 2014. Web. 08 Nov. 2014. <http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-adds-43-000-jobs-in-october-jobless-rate-down-to-6-5-1.2827314>.

Recently, an outrage against Hong Kong Government is developed for a month due to the dissatisfaction of Hong Kong citizens towards the fake democracy that is shown by a small circle election of Hong Kong chief executive.  Thousands of Hong Kong people are occupying the busiest districts in Hong Kong like Causewaybay, Mongkok, and mainly the place where the Hong Kong Government department asides – Central.

Despite the fact that I support the Hong Kong Political Protest, the political protest has indeed brought a huge counter effect to the economics development and business operations in Hong Kong.  As the protest goes on, lots of the roads in districts like Admiralty, Wanchai and Mongkok are occupied to an extent where only one or none road is open for transportations.  As a result, constant traffic jams are happening.  My parents, who are living in Central, is severely and emotionally disturbed by the traffic jams in Wanchai.  The blockage of transportations also cause a great influence on the public transportation organizations, in which they earn much less due to forcefully reduced frequency of bus, and less people riding it.  The shops in Wanchai are receiving less revenue as well due to bad traffic.

Recently, Tim Cook, the well-known new CEO of Apple after Steve Job’s death, admitted that he is gay in his written-up passage.  He also mentioned that admitting himself of being gay would not affect or hinder him from doing any action, or even the reputation of the company.  This can be proved by what he said – All of his colleagues know that he is gay, but they still treat him the same way as usual.

After Tim Cook admitted that he is gay, not only did I admired his confidence in doing so (I don’t mean I am gay :P), I am still using Apple products as usual.  Sometimes, I personally think that admitting something that is considered “sensitive” and “unwelcoming” in public  by oneself is indeed a good and intelligent action.  This is related to the world of mass media.  According to my experience, mass media often over exaggerate on the news they found.  For example, for once they accused a celebrity of Taiwan of dating two women since he wants to provide happiness for women.  However, this is not the real reason why he dates 2 women. In conclusion, I would like to show great appreciation to Tim Cook.  The another point is, saying one’s unique feature would only do little or none effect to the company’s corporate image.

It was famous in 2008 that a bank called Lehman Brothers Inc. filed for bankruptcy at 1:45AM on September, 2008 after most of its clients left beforehand and lost tons of stocks. For me, this was indeed one of the largest events that happened in the history of every businesses, since it was rare to see such a large and competitive company went from a big castle to bits of sand.  The bankruptcy of Lehman significantly increased the unemployment rate from 5% to 10%, which was a very big leap.

Lehman was existed for about 150 years before it was filed, which simply indicates that a company which is stable, large and long-living can still bear the risk of being burned to pieces of ashes in a glimpse of eye, while it can also causes serious unemployment problems.

Citation:

“Fed Failed to See Lehman’s Fallout for Economy, Transcripts Show.”Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2014. <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-21/fed-failed-to-see-lehman-s-fallout-for-economy-transcripts-show.html>.

“Lehman Brothers Collection.” History of Lehman Brothers. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2014. <http://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/lehman/history.html>.

“Lehman folds with record $613 billion debt”. Marketwatch. September 15, 2005. Retrieved 2008-09-15.

It is clear hopes are gone from lots of Apple supporters after Steve Jobs died.  As an Apple fan myself, my hopes were gone for a while.  During that moment, Apple share prices were dropping.  However, not later when Tim Cook take over Steve Jobs for the throne of Apple Chief Executive Officer, he releases an idea that even Steve Jobs have not thought of before, which is an invention called IPhone 5C.

Unlike other types of IPhones, IPhone 5C contains different types of color, for example red, blue, green and yellow.  Even though its function is as same as the ones in IPhone 5S, it is produced with materials that is relatively cheaper.  As a result, it is sold a lot more cheaper.  While IPhone 5S is on sell for US$639 with 16GB of memory, IPhone 5C is on sell for US$469 with 8GB of memory, which is significantly cheaper.

IPhone 5C, in my opinion, is a unique way to extend its product life cycle from the declining stage.  In overall, this design is very creative.

Citation:

“Select an 8GB IPhone 5c.” IPhone 5c. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Oct. 2014. <http://store.apple.com/ca/buy-iphone/iphone5c>.

Recently, the stock market in Canada reported a dramatic rise in the Tesla Motor shares, which is currently US$250.  It is 5 times higher than its shares in 10 months before (US$50).  Clearly, the new electric car manufacturing company is a lot more valuable in the present.  However, it does face a very intense competition due to its ‘newness’.  The General Motors Company, which is a large electric car company and has a lot more experience compared to Tesla Motor, has a market cap of US$53.39 billion that is much higher than Tesla Motors’ US$34.8 billion.

Facing the intense competition, Tesla Motor however shows off its talent in electric car manufacturing.  According to an international Customer Report, it is the No. 1 car.  Jake Fisher, the director of auto testing, said “Tesla Model S is the best car I have seen.”.  It was also named as the “Motor Trend Car of the Year” by a electric car website called “Motor Trend”.

Tesla, founded in year 2003 by a group of engineers, does not retreat from the market of electric car despite huge competition, but instead strives to improve and receives various rewards.  In my opinion, the spirit of Tesla is what makes tesla long-live-able.

Citation:

“About Tesla.” Tesla Motors. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Sept. 2014. <http://www.teslamotors.com/about>.

Ebner, David. “Tesla Model S Is like a Rocket to the Future.” The Globe and Mail. N.p., 15 May 2014. Web. 13 Sept. 2014. <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-drive/reviews/new-cars/tesla-model-s-is-like-a-rocket-to-the-future/article18665798/>.

“TSLA Competitors | Tesla Motors, Inc. Stock.” Yahoo! Finance. N.p., 12 Sept. 2014. Web. 13 Sept. 2014. <http://finance.yahoo.com/q/co?s=TSLA+Competitors>.

Woods, Jim. “Electric Cars and the 3 Biggest Speed Bumps for Tesla.”InvestorPlace RSS. N.p., 29 July 2014. Web. 13 Sept. 2014. <http://investorplace.com/2014/07/electric-vehicles-vs-tesla-electric-cars/#.VBKZTWSwJGk>.

Foxconn, which is a company well-known for producing apple products, have been reported infamously by lots of popular news media like BBC, CTV etc for behaving cruelly and inhumanely towards its workers.  To me, this issue was really threatening since 13 workers suicided in a factory in 2010, which was quite a large number.  It is even more shocking when I have once paid attention to the working hours of workers in Foxconn.  According to WSJ.D news, Foxconn was criticized by news media because it did not reach the legal hour limit in China as reported in July 1st 2013, as the minimum working hours requirement in Foxconn was 36 hours more than the maximum legal hour limit.

In terms of ethical behavior, it is clear that Foxconn has severely violated the ethical code of conduct.  Not only did Foxconn violated the law by exceeding the maximum legal hour limit, but its working hour requirements is also extremely potential of causing lots of psychological damage to the workers.  To a further extent, Apple has also demonstrated its unethical behavior by buying products made from the hands of children of 13 years old that are filled with sweat and blood.  However, at the same time, the principles of economics tend to remind all the people to focus on ‘self-interest’.  As a result, this sounds quite inevitable to me considering that Apple need lots of wealth and manpower hired with least costs possible to compete with other big companies like Microsoft, Google etc.  Even though the contradiction between ethics and self-interest can be huge, Apple and Foxconn may consider discussing about shrinking the working hours of Foxconn workers to avoid criticisms from other pressure groups.

Citations:

“Foxconn Admits Labour Violation.” BBC News. N.p., 10 Oct. 2013. Web. 11 Sept. 2014. <http://www.bbc.com/news/business-24486684>.

Luk, Lorraine. “Foxconn Still Exceeds Working Hours.” Digits RSS. N.p., 12 Dec. 2013. Web. 11 Sept. 2014. <http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/12/12/fla-says-foxconn-still-exceeds-working-hours/>.

Pomfret, James, and Chyen Yee Lee. “Foxconn Working Conditions Still Harsh In China, Say Activists.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 31 May 2012. Web. 11 Sept. 2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/31/foxconn-working-conditions_n_1558415.html>.