Why would social enterprise still be necessary if the United Nations was fully funded? The truth is that Social Enterprise addresses issues in a very different manner than the United Nations does. The United Nations tends to look at an issue, such as the underdeveloped economies in third world countries, and to address it by going to very powerful and influential government organizations or companies, and seeing if they can alter policies and conditions in order to allow workers and entrepreneurs to do business with greater efficiency. While this approach is very important, it cannot create the desired economic advancement if the workers and entrepreneurs in these countries do not have the business skills to capitalize on opportunities and ideas. This is where social enterprise comes in to the equation and teaches local entrepreneurs how to build better businesses.

Social Enterprises such as the Arc Initiative do not go to the top of a socio-economic period and try to work down from there, but instead they go to the bottom and try to develop the skills of individual entrepreneurs in order to improve the economy as a whole. In order to build a successful business, people such as Fitih Tesfaye of Shega Shero Eatery in Ethiopia need to know basic business principles. If a significant number of people in these countries become educated on business principles, they will be able to share their business knowledge with others leading to flourishing local economies. When local economies flourish, so will national economies. We need organizations such as the UN  to create conditions that foster economic growth, but we also need social enterprise organizations to educate people on how to create that economic growth.

Source: http://kiecocenterorg.ipage.com/demo22/2013/07/07/social-enterprise-economic-challenges-in-central-indiana-and-the-missing-middle/

Sources: http://www.un.org/en/development/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-growth/going-global/in-a-crowded-market-ethiopian-entrepreneur-finds-a-sweet-way-to-stand-out/article17912688/

http://skollworldforum.org/about/what-is-social-entrepreneurship/  

http://www.sauder.ubc.ca/Global_Reach/ARC_Initiative

The Oil industry has long been one of the most successful and reliable industries in the world, but it is becoming apparent that this success is fleeting. In his blog, Amanjot Chahil commented on the difficult business decisions faced by oil giant Enbridge. Amanjot mentioned that the oil company must place the safety of their oil transportation and the rights of Aboriginals as some of their top priorities, but that this would compromise the speed and profitability of oil transportation for the company. Many oil companies like Enbridge are facing similar dilemmas all over the world. The harmful effects of the oil industry are becoming apparent and the profitability of oil production is going down. Alternatives to fossil fuels are already becoming plentiful. Renewable energy is becoming more efficient, attainable, and profitable every day. Electric vehicles are becoming more practical than gas-powered alternatives and may soon be as affordable.

This is the reason why The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a fund made possible by John D Rockefeller’s oil fortune, has recently decided to sell all investments in fossil fuels and reinvest in renewable energy. Not only did the fund take into consideration the negative effects that fossil fuels have on the environment, but also the fact that the industry is in decline while renewable energy is on the rise. Referring to John D. Rockefeller, the richest person in history due to oil investments, the manager of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Stephen Heintz stated “We are quite convinced that if he were alive today, as an astute businessman looking out to the future, he would be moving out of fossil fuels and investing in clean, renewable energy.”

Renewable energy is becoming more efficient and a safer alternative to oil and gas Source: http://www.sungevity.com/images/whygosolar/bkg_heyamerica.gif

Sources:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29310475

Guy Kawasaki has an interesting view on what it means to evangelize a product. His official title is the chief evangelist of Canva, an online graphic design service, and he has previously worked as the chief evangelist of Apple. In his blog Kawasaki explains how evangelism is different from sales or marketing.

The key point of product evangelism is that the product must be something that you are invested in and that can change the world. You do not evangelize something that you are indifferent about, but rather something that you truly care about. The products that can be evangelized are ones that create shared value by improving quality of life for customers and society. Evangelists keep the interests of others in mind and at heart rather than just their own interests.

Evangelizing a product or a company is extremely useful, because it leads to an emotional attachment of new customers to that company or product. These customers will undoubtably continue to purchase from the company and will evangelize the company to others. Guy Kawasaki obviously did a great job with Apple, seeing as everyone knows at least one person who cares passionately about Apple products and tries to convince others that they are superior. Successful evangelism will lead to additional marketing.

Source: http://blog.canva.com/art-evangelism/

Source: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2014/04/the-art-of-evangelism.html

Foodee Website Source: http://www.feedteck.com/startups/foodee/

Foodee, a Canadian Corporate Catering company, is completely changing the catering industry with their business model. Ryan Spong, the founder saw that most corporate catering companies were charging exorbitant prices for generic food. Instead of creating a new catering company that provides better food at lower prices, Spong decided to create a catering company that delivers food from top rated small local restaurants straight to the office.

Foodee thrives by allowing restaurants to prepare orders in the slow hours of a business day and delivering the orders to businesses whenever they want them. The business model is beneficial to the restaurants, the catering companies, and the businesses. Companies can choose to order from a variety of different restaurants, which makes repeat ordering easy and exiting every time. Foodee will remember the dietary preferences of companies and pair them with restaurants that meet their needs. This gives Foodee a huge advantage in retaining customers. Foodee gives workers the ability to have food from amazing restaurants while staying in the office and having more time to work or bond as a team.

By combining efficiency and excellence, companies delivering catering from top restaurants may one day drive traditional catering companies out of business. Foodee has already disrupted the corporate catering market and Foodee’s new market may eventually displace this market.

Sources:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/starting-out/how-foodee-is-shaking-up-the-corporate-catering-industry/article21161624/

https://food.ee/

There was great anticipation surrounding October 9 as Tesla CEO Elon Musk ambiguously stated that Tesla would be “Unveiling The D” on that date. The October 9 announcement resulted in the unveiling of the revolutionary dual motor all wheel drive system, explained in Tesla’s Blog, that is to be implemented in Tesla’s Model S production cars.

Dual Wheel AWD Layout Source: http://somegadgetguy.com/2014/10/10/tesla-brings-auto-pilot-and-all-wheel-drive-to-the-model-s-electric-sedan/

This all wheel drive mechanism utilizes two separate motors in the front and rear wheels. The all wheel drive function gives cars dramatically improved safety and handling. The greatest achievement of the dual motor all wheel drive function is its ability to function more efficiently than its single motor counter part by precisely splitting power between the two engines. This is revolutionary because it shows progress that gas powered vehicles cannot and will never be able to achieve. Tesla is moving the electric car industry in a direction where it could completely take over gas-powered vehicles. Because of the efficiency of dual motor all wheel drive, all electric cars may someday be all wheel drive. The high performance model from Tesla can accelerate from 0-100 km/hr in 3.2 seconds and is only $120,000, a fraction of the price of comparable supercars. Through an ambitious and innovative business model, Tesla is not only increasing its share in the electric car market, but also dramatically increasing the size of the electric car market. With future innovations such as these, there will be no more advantages to a gas-powered car. Sources: http://www.teslamotors.com/blog-and-press-releases

Fish Lake British Columbia http://www.vancouversun.com/business/2035/mine+opponents+fight+survival/8880792/story.html

Taseko Mines Limited is currently suing the federal government of Canada for an unfair environmental assessment. The mining company has existing plans to build Prosperity Mine, a copper and gold mine, on the grounds that the Tsilhquot’in have recently declared a Tribal Park. The Tsilhquot’in are strongly opposed to the construction of any mine in the area, although the planned mining site is outside of the lands recently granted to the Tsilhquot’in Nation.

Taseko Mines is faced with a tough problem that can be viewed as a regulatory trend and a societal and cultural trend. I think that it is important for Taseko Mines to focus on the issue of building the proposed Prosperity Mines as a cultural trend that will affect their value propositions. Taseko could set itself apart from other mining companies while saving precious time and resources by recognizing the cultural significance of the area that the Tsilhquot’in Nation has declared a tribal park and abandoning the plans for Prosperity Mine. This will improve the company’s goodwill and will be remembered as a positive decision. After all, who says that Theodore Roosevelt should have used national park areas for mining operations? Taseko should focus instead on other projects that do not have as much resistance such as their current copper mining operation in Arizona.

Resources:

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/metro/Unilateral+park+declared+Tsilhqot+includes+Prosperity+mine/10192766/story.html

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/Mine+company+heads+Federal+Court+next+month+fight+rejection/10205019/story.html

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/taseko-mines-to-buy-curis-resources-for-arizona-copper-project/article20488680/

There was much uproar in the music community recently as Urban Outfitters announced that it sold the most vinyl records in the world. Many music enthusiasts are worried that local record stores, which have long been a center of the local music scene, will be pushed out of business by huge corporations such as Urban Outfitters.

I personally love record stores and how they support local artists, provide free performances, and introduce customers to a variety of genres and platforms of music. Cactus Music, near where I lived in Houston, Texas is one of my favorite places in the neighborhood. I do not think that the tremendous sales of Vinyl at Urban Outfitters will hurt local record stores, but instead I believe that it will improve business in record stores all over the world.

Cactus Music. Houston, Texas http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/2011/08/top_10_live_performances_at_ca.php

Many vinyl purchases at Urban Outfitters originate from customers who are buying clothes but see the record section and are intrigued by the idea of owning vinyl. Listening to music on vinyl records is an investment and leads to additional purchases. Many Customers who first buy vinyl at Urban Outfitters will later buy vinyl at their local record stores.  By increasing the size of the vinyl record market, Urban Outfitters will actually increase business at local record stores.

Sources:

http://time.com/money/3430117/urban-outfitters-record-sales-hipster/

Apple continues to redefine technology with the development of new products and software. Apple is hoping to help redefine the relationship between fashion and functionality with the new Apple Watch, and some of the potential innovations are surprising.

One of the most surprising roles that the Apple Watch could play is a key role in the energy efficiency movement. Apple has already unveiled HomeKit, an app that can control the energy usage of items in the house such as lights, and televisions. BMW has already developed an app that can check the charge of a BMW electric vehicle and unlock the vehicle remotely. Other third party companies are developing similar apps.

BMW i app http://www.bmw.nl/nl/modellen/bmw-i/i3/showroom/connectiviteit.html

In her blog, Yee Ting Fok (https://blogs.ubc.ca/tinafok818/) mentioned that one of the reasons that electric cars were becoming so prevalent was the development of more efficient battery storage. Tesla has been a forerunner in developing efficient batteries that have the potential to not only power a car, but also to eventually power a home. Brendan Lancaster (https://blogs.ubc.ca/blancaster/) discussed the advantages of Tesla becoming open sourced and the fast progress that will result. As companies such as Tesla develop efficient energy storage, energy from renewable energy sources will be able to be accessed when necessary and saved when unnecessary.

With the development of the Apple Watch and massively powerful batteries from companies such as Tesla, consumers should eventually be able to control a home energy storage device from a small display on their wrist. Through acting as an accessible control interface for third party devices, the Apple Watch will help facilitate the proliferation of renewable energy.

Resources:

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/09/28/the-apple-watch-could-change-how-you-use-energy.aspx

The global economy is constantly becoming more intertwined as huge companies from one nation buy out companies from other nations. Through these interactions, suddenly the workers and managers in one country and their incomes are interconnected with workers and in a completely different nation. One example of this situation is the Volkswagon group. Volkswagon, a German company, owns the British company Bentley, the Italian company Lamborghini, and a handful of other companies such as Audi and Bugatti. Recently the Russian beverage giant Oasis purchased the American Pabst Brewing Co. for upwards of $700 Million.

Photo Credit: http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Politics/pages-2/Obamas-beer-choice-blasted-by-GOP-Scrape-TV-The-World-on-your-side.html

Pabst Brewing Co. is well known for its Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. This beer is marketed as being an authentic and iconic American beer. Pabst’s Blue Ribbon’s marketing strategy has been extremely successful recently. The company was purchased in 2010 by Dean Metropoulos for around $250 million and is being sold 4 years later for a markup of greater than 180%.

While many are disappointed that a brand so inherently American is being sold to a Russian company, this purchase demonstrates the dramatic improvement in global economic interactions over the past few decades. Russia, which was part of a gigantic command economy only 25 years ago, now is the headquarters of companies such as Oasis that state that they are exited about working with a brand that “represents individualism, egalitarianism and freedom of expression – all the things that make this country (The United States) great.” Hopefully the success of companies such as Oasis is able to help inspire the leaders of Russia to develop an economy that fosters the development and growth of new businesses.

Source: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/09/18/pabst-is-said-to-near-a-sale/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/northern-gateway-and-trans-mountain-how-two-pipeline-projects-compare/article16087416/

This article discusses the impact of the proposed construction of the Northern Gateway pipeline and the proposed expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, both traveling from Alberta to the west coast of Canada in British Columbia. These pipelines would be extremely influential in increasing Canadian resources in foreign markets and would give a boost to Canada’s economy.

Many people, such as economist Milton Friedman, would argue that the only duty a business has is its duty to its shareholders. In this particular case the duty of the business would be to build the pipeline, leading to the expansion of the business and presumably the satisfaction of shareholders.

A business, however, has much more to consider than just its shareholders. A business has to consider all of its stakeholders including its customers, suppliers, employers, and community. The actions that a business takes, affects all of these parties. Through building the pipelines that reach to the coast of British Columbia, once absent oil tanker traffic and the potential for oil spills will plague areas such as Vancouver and the surrounding islands. In order to make an ethical decision, the oil companies must consider the desires of the communities of cities such as Vancouver as well as Native groups like the Haida Gwaii who have adamantly expressed opposition to the plan.

The construction of the pipeline would not only be an ethical mistake by harming the environment and the affected communities, but would also hurt the companies by damaging precious goodwill.