Article taken from: BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15867107

Wang Zhongjun wanted to start an advertising company but since he did not have any capital, he and his brother decided to invest their funds to start the business off. He started with advertising and over the years, once he had established his advertising company, he expanded into the film industry. Now their business has grown and become a well recognized “Chinese blockbuster” company.

This reminds me of the entrepreneur, Joel Primus who spoke to us about his experiences on November 10, 2011. He went through a lot of obstacles to reach where he is now. He has started a company called NaKed.

Though Wang Zhongjun and Joel Primus have started very different types of companies in very different places (Wang Zhongjun in China and Joel Primus in Canada), there striking similarity between the two is that they really believe in the product they are selling. Both were rejected countless times but because they loved their product, they were slowly able to change the opinions of the rest of world to accept their product.

Response blog to: Jennifer Kao

I agree with Jennifer’s opinion over this matter. Although facebook is has a very innovative image, making a smart phone may not be a very good direction, especially since they had already tried it and it did not work out very well. She asked the question “Would You Buy Facebook’s Phone,” and I have to say, at this point, I would not.

Other than the lack of privacy matters, more importantly Facebook is not known for making smart phones; however there are other established companies that are solely known because of their smart phones. If Facebook does decide to really go into this field once more, it will take a significant amount of time and investment before customers start trusting their products.

Also, they risk, that by going into this area of expertise, they might face an identity crisis since they are going into something completely out of their niche.

Article taken from: Vancouver Sun http://www.vancouversun.com/business/technology/Amazon+launch+smartphone+2012+Citigroup/5733264/story.html

This article is about Amazon’s step into the mobile (smartphone) industry. Because of its great success in the creation of the Kindle, Amazon is thinking about introducing its own smartphone next year (2012).

It will differentiate its product by offering low prices for the smartphone however the smartphone will be a “mid-end” phone so the phone will not be updated with the latest phone technologies.

Amazon is joining Foxconn International Holdings Ltd to bring about the production of this smart phone.

I think there are definitely advantages to this new move from Amazon however there are clear risks with this decision as well.

Firstly, Amazon is well-known site and with their kindle being a great success, consumers will most likely trust Amazon with their next product. But, with that said, Amazon is not known for making smart phones. This could cause a lot of suspicions from the general consumer, especially when there are established smart phone companies already out there.

Furthermore since Amazon will be selling at low prices they will most likely be making a loss.

At the end of the day though, Amazon is an established corporation and because of this, it might be a risk worth taking because the losses won’t affect them that greatly since they have so many other products consumers happily purchase.

Article taken from: USA today:http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/story/2011-10-24/white-coke-cans-holidays/50896962

Coca Cola is turning its cans white to support the life of the polar bears through World Wildlife Funds. The article raises its concerns that their customers might get confused with the sudden change to white since Coca Cola has always been identified by its red cans and red caps on bottles.

However I feel that this is not an issue to be worried over. Moreover I feel that this will actually help them gain more customers by implanting the white cans and cap. This is because, though Coca Cola has many loyal customers, it is also losing a lot customers because of the health concerns around the product. By implementing this strategy, those customers might be more inclined to purchase Coca Colla because they will feel they are helping the wild life by doing so.

Additionally, it will give Coca Cola a new edge. The red cans and bottles have been around for a long time and perhaps a change for a while will give Coca Cola the attention it needs to attract new consumers.

Article taken from: Systematic http://www.systematic.com/about+systematic+website/news/latest+news/news+viewer?docid=2113

Systematic is a Danish IT firm and was recently came in 7^th place in “Best workplaces 2011.”

We saw from the commerce 101 class on November 1, 2011 (Class 16 – I think) how important it is to make sure your employees are happy in their workplace in order to run a successful firm. This article reminded me of that. Systematic employees are reported to be very happy in regards to their working environment because there is a “strong sense of community.” Additionally the company puts a lot of focus on training their employees which is enforced by their motto; “better to train people and risk them leaving than to do nothing and risk that they stay.” The employees of Systematic have strong bonds with each other because of their trust in one another.

The video we saw in class that day highlighted this point as well. In the video, the owner of the company was very determined to have a positive working environment. He did this by creating games that the employees would play together and one thing I found really touching was how his workspace was in the same place with the same amount of space as his employees. He was also a firm believer in training his employees, no matter how long they decided to stay for.

Article taken from: BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15336297

India has now advanced to identifying itself in the group of countries that use e-commerce. In the recent years, people, in India, have not only started buying their clothes and accessories online, but it has gone as far as buying grocery products through the internet.

One thing I found really interesting and at the same time not very surprising was that instead of paying by credit card for the purchases done online, India has adopted a cash on delivery payment method. Since I originally come from India, I can understand why this is done. The whole e-commerce aspect is still quite new to India and like any other new invention, this one will take some time to earn people’s trust before being able to purchase online through a credit card works.

The advancement to e-commerce is definitely a step up however it does have its disadvantages. There are many small markets run by the poor people and the usage of e-commerce could very possibly hinder their income, especially if food is also bought online. However, there is still time before that happens since only about 65 million people in India log onto the web.

Response blog to: Bonnie Zhou

After coming across Bonnie’s article over the discovery of the harmful ingredient called DEHP in Taiwanese food products, it got me thinking over a similar situation that took place in one of the Indian products. There is this Indian sweet called Kaju barfi in India and since I was a child, I loved eating it. I was shocked to find out, after eating it for well over 15 years of my life that the product contained lead poisoning.

I, like Bonnie, got very conscious over any food item I bought in India because of this. However, I realized that I was lucky that I had the liberty to be picky  over what items I bought but the financially deprived people of India do not have this leisure and often have to eat whatever they can find. The only cheap products they can find mostly are unfortunately products with harmful ingredients.

It is almost revolting to know that people are still producing goods with harmful substances. I feel like it is the responsibilities of people like us, who have the option to just avoid these products altogether, to help out the ones that don’t have the same chance.

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Article taken from: One Man’s Blog: http://onemansblog.com/2010/02/01/steve-jobs-outstanding-stanford-commencement-speech-from-2005/

Entrepreneur Steve Jobs gave a commencement speech in Stanford in the year 2005. I had read it a while ago when I was still in high school but I found it again a couple days ago and now, being a business student in UBC, I found myself closely reading every single word he said.

Steve Jobs dropped out of university after 6 months into freshman year. He got by with collecting coke bottles and trying to get free meals whenever possible. He went through a series of obstacles, some of them being fired from his own company, Apple, then advancing as an entrepreneur by creating Pixar and NEXT, before finally settling down when he started working with apple again.

I went to a presentation given by the IB club in UBC where a new entrepreneur spoke to us about his experiences. He is still on his journey to establishing his company. I remember, while he was talking about what his business is about (I cannot quite remember what exactly he talked about), I felt quite unconvinced as a potential customer about his work. However, after this class I looked back and realized that he is just doing what he loves. He had said that his whole life, he wanted to be an entrepreneur. He had already been rejected quite a few times from different sponsors and still, he was fighting for his product because he truly believes in its success.

Article taken from: BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15137948

So Denmark is implementing a “fat tax” now? Why am I not surprised?

I moved to Denmark when I was 5 years old and lived there for almost 14 years before moving here for university this year. Denmark has very high taxes but the system there is very different other countries. When the Danish people were asked to vote if they wanted to lower the taxes (but then that would naturally mean cutting down on funds for public schools and medical care), they said NO. Foreigners always find taxes in Denmark TOO high but Danish people are perfectly happy with them.

I am somewhat undecided on my opinion over this matter however, in some ways this “fat tax” might be taking it a bit too far. Yes, I definitely see the advantages and its implementation could have very positive effects, but won’t its negative effect on the poor people be greater than its advantages? The article also mentioned that Danes might just start shipping these “fat products” from abroad.

Although one could argue that there is not much poverty in Denmark which in turn is because of the high taxes that the government uses to help support those in need.

I guess we will just have to wait out and see. Maybe Denmark will surprise us with positive results.

Oh Denmark, I miss you!

Whenever I read articles such as the following (http://www.clb.org.hk/en/node/100253) I sometimes feel torn in my opinion of the matter. So, this article, in short is about workers being overworked in a multinational company called Huawei, in Shenzhen, China. The situation is upsetting because the company has, so far, had up to 38 suicide cases and many other workers go through depression because of the workload.

38 suicide cases are a lot. But, despite knowing these figures and the fact that the company is known for its tough work load and depression cases, uncountable people still apply to that company for a job. If people know about the situation (about the 38 suicide cases) then is it really that ethically wrong if people choose to come into the company despite knowing the circumstances?

This article brings into light the responsibilities of the company leaders towards their employers. Employers complaining about being overworked has been an issue in many companies throughout the world and when it comes to the extent of suicide, then it really makes you wonder where the ethics and basic human rights have disappeared to. Rather than enforcing a positive, lively working environment, the employers are being treated as robots.

The most shocking part of the article was when right after a suicide incident in Huawei, the workers just continued to eat lunch as if nothing new happened because to them, it really was nothing new.