After reading the blog post from Eric, it took me awhile to re-think about why I am studying in Sauder and what I’ve learned so far.

As Eric mentioned in his blog, a lot of MBA graduates are competing to find a job or to enter a competitive industry like finance and accounting. As a first year Sauderite, I honestly have no idea yet where I am going for exactly. But after 3 month of COMM 101 lectures and reading all the interesting stories about successful entrepreneurship and alumni, I realize business is not just about trading real estate and stock market share. The most valuable experience I have learned from the class is to be able to analyze issues with insights that others don’t see. And as I’ve read through numerous articles about successful entrepreneurs, they always share the same personality – insightful, critical thinker, and good communicator.

Although after few months of formal business education, I clearly understand I am not yet ready to start up my own business which has been one of my dreams in life. But with all the lessons, at least it gives me a guideline and hopefully I can start my journey in entrepreneurship someday soon.

As companies seek for ways to maximize their profit, there is no doubt that it is necessary to take sustainability into account when making decisions.

McDonalds, one of the largest global fast food chains, has been  an extremely successful company because of its effective advertisements that draw the interests of a wide customer segment from kids, adults, to elderly. However, it’s been a concern in the society that the exposure of the advertisement of Happy Meal to kids  will promote the idea of unhealthy diet.

Nevertheless, in respect to McDonald’s sustainable strategies, the company recently teamed up with National Football League (NFL) to promote its Happy Meal menu. This strategy not only makes economic sense as it can definitely increase the revenue by attracting NFL viewers, but also address the previous issue as McDonalds aims to promote the image of fitness and sport instead of unhealthy lifestyle.

Sustainability is not just for McDonalds, but for any businesses that seek for success in the long term. For example, Claire’s blog post about the strategy that 7-11 took to achieve sustainability definitely demonstrates the uniform direction today that companies must take for success.

Gaming is indeed an essential entertainment for many individuals. With numerous launches of popular video games such as PS4, Battle Field 4, and GTA 5 that Allen mentioned in his blog post, it’s obvious that there exist a large demand and opportunity for growth in the gaming industry.

In this competitive market, there was one firm that not only dominated the gaming industry in Korea, but also successfully expanded into global markets including Asia, America, and Europe; without a doubt, it is Nexon. The key to the success of Nexon is its “Free to play” strategy. With Nexon’s point of difference, the company is able to build a wide customer segments as player can choose to play a large selection of games for free. There is no reason why one would not want to play for free as I was one of the royal customers as well.

Recently, video games’ popularity has increased significantly. For companies like Nexon, innovations like “mind controlled” games are inevitable in order to compete with major rivalry like Xbox and PlayStation. As customers are constantly looking for newest and most exciting gaming experience,  this innovation from NAIT is the new solution to succeed in this ever-growing industry.

Can you imagine printing anything you want with a 3D printer? Well, that’s no longer a fantasy.

In Bloomberg Businessweek’s video, it illustrate the creations that are possible with the newest 3D printing technology in a London international showcase. In addition to the fashion show accessories, movie figures and iron man suit, one of the most astonishing invention must be the world’s first 3D printed car that can actually drive on the road.

With the fact that 3D printer can be utilize in almost every industry around the globe, there will be a large demand in the future without a doubt. Another interesting insight mentioned in the video is the potential market in mass production industry. For example, the automobile manufacturing industry, which has a great potential in China, might change its direction of operation once 3D printing technology becomes more productive and cost efficient.

The new heated technology does not only provide entrepreneurship opportunities in the ever growing tech industry, but also show a potential rework in operation system of manufacturing businesses to help company reduce cost while increasing manufacturing productivity to maximize the profit of the business.

There is no doubt that technology has taken over people’s everyday life, especially internet.

With some simple ideas, Dropbox‘s CEO Drew Houston, as an entrepreneur,  was able to critically define the opportunities in technology industry and establish a business, Dropbox, to satisfy the enormous demand for data sharing around the globe. As high tech is becoming the main trend in today’s society, the IPOs for businesses like Dropbox and other social medias are expected to be highly popular and to start entering the stock market after Twitter’s IPO that was published recently.

With such a great potential in high tech  business, it might be one of the reasons why Snapchat, the coolest app that William mentioned in his blog post, declined the 3 billion offer from Facebook. In addition, another reason why Snapchat rejected Facebook’s offer is due to the unique product differentiation and potential increasing demand of Snapchat in the future.

After all, to become a successful entrepreneur like Houston does not require any fancy ideas and product. The key to success is simply the ability to identify the potential demand and to develop an effective yet efficient way to satisfy the demand.

Many people may want to work in famous companies like Yahoo, one of the largest online searching engine corporation; but is it still the same story if Yahoo decides to rank their employees on a bell curve?

As Yahoo announced to adapt the new way to review employees’ performance, it may not affect consumers immediately, but it certainly shapes the future of the company. The impact of the employee evaluation system, whether it is positive or negative, will be significant because “people are the organization”.  For some, it might be a positive motivation to strive for higher rankings while others will be forced to work hard to stay in the job under organization’s coercive power. Although it can possibly increase overall performance, the influence on organizational culture caused by potential job dissatisfaction may not be visible in short term.

At the same time, Microsoft, which has been quite successful with its current performance evaluation system, is heading opposite direction as Yahoo where the company is getting rid of the rating and ranking system to promote the atmosphere of team work, collaboration, growth and development within the organization.

Is one method better than the other? Only time can tell.

Link1
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-01/advertising-dont-spend-more-to-get-less#r=nav-f-column
Link2
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/retailers-location-based-advertising-target-consumers-100007995–finance.html

“What is an effective way to advertise?” is definitely one of the most challenging questions for many companies. It is really interesting to see how companies, such as Doritos, approach marketing by spending huge budget on commercial during Super Bowl, where the cost for a 30 second ad can go as high as $3.8 million, while others, such as Sears, can simply attract customers’ attention by introducing discounts through wireless  and social network. If we analyze both methods of marketing campaign by comparing the reputation of the company and the effectiveness of advertisements, both factors can be very powerful. However, what makes the a company differ than the others is the targeted customers. During Super Bowl, the value of the enormous cost on commercial is the exposure of the brand and company to the public with more than 100 million viewers. On the other hand, some retailers and restaurants utilize mobile and social network to effectively “attract” customers interests and motives even though the amount of exposure to public can be limited. There is no right or wrong way of marketing, it simply proves there is always an unique approach that makes a company stand out among all the competitions.

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Link = http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/chipotle-founder-completely-disses-former-195828922.html

As the founder of Chipotle, a former subsidiary of McDonald in 1998, Steve Ells has to disagree with the value proposition of McDonald, the largest worldwide fast food chain. After McDonald gave up making burrito and focusing on fries and burgers in 2006, Ells understands there is one thing that Chipotle is able to provide to customers which McDonald cannot  ̶  the quality. For Chipotle, its value proposition (or brand positioning) is “to customers who are looking for culinary indulgence, Chipotle is the most ideal restaurant that provides exceptional quality food that are made with 100% natural ingredient.” The value that Chipotle brings to the table explains why the restaurant has had 1,500 locations and is still continuously expanding. In contrast to the system of McDonald, starting from 2000, Chipotle started serving 100% natural pork, chicken, beef, zero trans fat oil, and organic black beans instead of dozens of frozen patties. Ells deeply believes that this production model is what customers are truly looking for; and this is also the only way to be able to attract customer’s loyalty and expand the company in this competitive food industry.

There is also a video of insight into Chipotle’s value
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUtnas5ScSE

Link = http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-27/forget-tvs-dot-sharp-sees-a-future-in-strawberry-farming

In the rapid growing electronic industry today, there is a company, Sharp, that decides to take a different path and utilize its strength in technology on agricultural development. Sharp is a well-known company in television industries that launched an experiment at Dubai in July where berries are grown under control with high technology. Why is there a shift from the technology industry to the agricultural market? One of the most reasonable explanation is the points of difference of Sharp. The farming industry, strawberries in this case, is competitive in the way that different farmers share the same point of parity on the productions of quality agricultural goods such as strawberries from Japan. Nevertheless, Sharp’s point of difference is the factor that brings potentials to the company as it helps Sharp to stand out among all the competitors. For examples, despite the undesirable weather for growing berries, Sharp can overcome the barrier by technology control that not only ensures the quality of the products but also decreases the cost; therefore, Sharp  is able to offer rare farm productions that are uncommon in deserted area while keeping the selling price comparative low to the export goods from foreign competition like Japan.

Have you ever thought of how secure you privacy is on Facebook? Undoubtedly, the privacy of Facebook has been a controversial issue for the past few years; thus, the Federal Trade Commission (F.T.C.) announced on Wednesday to investigate whether the social network’s new policy, regarding the ethical aspect of Facebook, violates the regulations that protect users right and privacy. On the other hand, Facebook’s new policy made it clear that the system requires user’s consent and permission to use their personal information which essentially illustrates the business ethic that Facebook is trying to maintain. Without a doubt, by ensuring users’ privacy, Facebook are not only able to gain a better reputation in its ethical policy, but also to obtain more trust and support from customers essentially. If we interpret this incident with SWOT analysis, we can understand more about what impact an ethical decision of Facebook can make. The issue of privacy has definitely been a weakness in the way that it is a flaw in the company’s structure; also, it has a great chance to be a threat to the company if Facebook users decide to use other social networks like Twitter just because other sites have a better security system. However, once the new regulations apply, privacy will turn from a weakness to a strength; people are likely to use the site more often which subsequently provides opportunities of expanding advertising and marketing through Facebook.

Link > http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/technology/personaltech/ftc-looking-into-facebook-privacy-policy.html?ref=business