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.