PrestonWong | Preston Wong's Blog

”If the United Nations was fully funded why would we need the Arc or social enterprise”?

The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization that is committed to maintaining international safety and security, global peace and bettering the living standards and human rights. The UN’s sole purpose is to promote international collaboration and develop friendly relations across the world with other nations. Being responsible of such a wide spectrum of social issues makes it difficult for the United Nations to focus on a single pivotal issue. The problems the United Nations target are on a world-wide scale and their services are needed around the globe. This is…read more

Blog Maverick

One aspect that intrigues me most about a blog is the writer’s confidence in expressing his/her opinions. Having a strong opinion and standing by it is what captures my interest and this blog does all of the above. And the man behind the blog? The one and only Mark Cuban. Mark Cuban, the chairman of HDNet and the owner of NBA team Dallas Mavericks, is known to have those qualities. As one of the most successful sports businessman, he has strong opinions and he is definitely not afraid to voice…read more

Comment: Stella Cho’s Blog “Cable Television: The New Old-Timer”

Netflix’s model as a rent-at-home DVD service is the prime example of a disruptive innovator. Its DVD-by-mail model devastated the video rental business and pioneered the push of an industry juggernaut, Blockbuster, into bankruptcy. Therefore I found myself agreeing to a lot of the points made in Stella Cho’s entry regarding Netflix as a disruptive innovator. By paying a monthly fee of $7.99, the consumer has access to a catalog that consists of thousands of television shows and movies. Netflix is a disruptive innovator to video rental businesses and a…read more

The New Age of Marketing

Believe it or not, newspaper ads are no longer the ideal marketing and campaigning strategy in the 21st century. All jokes aside, digital marketing has become the most effective way to create a relationship with the consumer. With the frequent use of social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube by people of all ages around the world, Canadian advertisers have finally pushed advertisements onto Instagram, a photo-sharing service owned by Facebook Inc. Ads have appeared on Instagram in the United States, Britain, and Australia for the past year. This…read more

Basketball Is More Than Just A Game

Television money continues to slither into sports as the National Basketball Association recently signed a new television broadcasting deal upwards of $22.5 billion. Walt Disney Co’s ESPN and Time Warner Inc’s Turner Broadcasting System both renew their broadcasting agreement with the NBA, starting with the 2016-2017 season. This nine year deal will be more than double either annual payments to the NBA. This agreement emphasizes the significance of sports in the television industry. Even with the uprising of live streaming, recordings on DVRs, and streaming services like Netflix, this deal…read more

“Dam” Flooding

BC Hydro’s $8-billion Site C hydroelectric mega project may be put on hold after all. The $8-billion project consists of a dam and 1,100-megawatt hydroelectric generating station on the Peace River located in northeastern British Columbia. The dam would flood 83 kilometers of the Pear River Valley from Fort St. John to Hudson’s Hope. The impact is devastating to the First Nations but the utility giant attempts to de-emphasize the damage its going to cause. The flooding would destroy farmland and wildlife habitat and affect thousands of people. But as…read more

Two Hewlett-Packard’s?

The Silicon Valley tech. giant Hewlett-Packard has struggled the past decade. HP has been overshadowed by Apple Inc’s $596-billion and Microsoft Corp’s $380-billion market values compared to HP’s miniscule $66-billion. The world’s top PC maker by shipments has already been taken over by Lenovo, an aggressive Chinese PC maker. HP has failed to adapt to the new era of mobile and online computing, therefore the company has decided to split into two separate companies. The technology pioneer plans to separate its computer and printer businesses from its corporate hardware and…read more

Comment: Stella Cho’s Blog “Gender Equality in Business”

Stella Cho’s post on gender equality in business has grabbed my attention on a serious issue that occurs in the real world. I applaud Emma Watson for her brilliant speech as it is one of the most male inclusive gender equality speech ever given. It saddens me to see that something this vital and frequent has to be relatable and delivered by a celebrity to get noticed. Watson does not try to take this opportunity to further and grow her popularity but instead expose some light on these serious issues….read more

Is One Man’s “Name” Worth $350 Million?

The reigning NBA Most Valuable Player and Oklahoma City Thunder forward, Kevin Durant, recently signed a 10-year deal with Nike worth $300 million following his 7-year, $60 million agreement. But including the retirement package and other benefits, the new deal could be north of $350 million for over 20 years. Durant’s John Hancock did not come easily though. Under Armor threatened Nike by making an offer that foiled Nike’s initial $200 million offer. Nike is ten times the size of Under Armor – as such the bidding war was not…read more

Has Facebook Gone Too Far?

Experiments on human beings require informed consent. Studies performed by universities, pharmaceutical and biotech companies must all give detailed information to the participants about the risks and results (both expected and potential) of the study before they conduct their research. Unfortunately, Facebook begs to differ. Facebook published the results of their experiment on the manipulation of Facebook users’ emotional content via the news feed in a scientific journal. Four months after the experiment in 2012, Facebook added the possibility in its data use agreement. By revealing this controversial experiment to…read more