After I learned about Arc Initiative, a social enterprise, and learned how this program has been making positive impact on the community in developing countries, such as South Africa, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Colombia, which desperately need financial support and most importantly need educational support, I have gained better understanding about that a social enterprise like Arc Initiative helps facilitate the sustainable development of the local entrepreneurs along with the local community’s economy through offering the local entrepreneurs business knowledge and toolkits rather than only offer them money like many other non-for-profit organizations such as United Nations did.

This innovative support from Arc Institute allows the local entrepreneurs to have the ability to utilize efficiently and effectively the skill-sets, business expertise, and the experiences they gained and to make a change from what they have learned than relying on financial support, the temporary, non-renewable resources.

My top takeaways from social enterprise such as Arc initiatives are that education is the key. What truly make a huge, long lasting, positive impact on the people who need support are practical skills, knowledge, and experiences rather than  only money because all these aspects empower the people to own the knowledge to create opportunities and to break the poverty for themselves and even for their community rather than relying on financial support, which can’t solve the underlying, fundamental problems (poverty, lack of education, lack of health/ social care) in developing countries.

Web References:

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

https://startanevolution.ubc.ca/projects/the-arc-initiative/

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

http://news.ubc.ca/2014/06/30/upward-arc/

http://www.louisianaweekly.com/education-the-key-to-breaking-the-cycle-of-poverty/

I looked back and started to think thoughtfully about how I was hooked by and fell into this “perfect” trap conducted by Neto Trade, an online international investment scam, which “claims” to provide its customers with a online trading platform and online trading assistance.

So I analyzed my experiences with this scam and connected them with its business model canvas.

Value Proposition:

Neto Trade made me(customers) believe that it was able to remove my pain(lack of money and lack of knowledge & experiences about market trading) and provide me with a major gain (earning millions of dollars and the knowledge + experiences about financial trading).

Customer Relationship:

Neto Trade offered me with absolutely customized assistance and services through its continuous emailing and phone calling, from which I started to believe that I actually had the potential and ability to trade successfully, and from which they had built a trust relationship with me before I realized this big scam.

Target Customer/ Customer Segment:

Obviously, people like me who are longing for money/profit; who has zero or little experience with online market trading, and who is eager to learn more about how to do online trading like a pro.

Revenue Stream: 

Neto Trade has a large revenue stream from all investments and deposits of its customers, who invest their money with the hope of earning a enormous amount of profits from the “reliable”, “profitable” and “educational” market trading platform.

Reflection:

Fortunate enough, I doubled checked the reputation and current news of this unethical company before I made the $500 deposit. As you can tell, there are thousands of complaints online that uncovered this big scam.

Indeed, Neto Trade did make a large amount of profit through its “dirty” means , but this should not be the way how companies make profit

Through this  experience, I have learned that as a customer, I have to invest my money more carefully and thoughtfully, and as a potential businessman, I will have to authentically solve the pain and create the gain for my customers as well as building an ethical reputation in order to meet the corporation social responsibility and sustainability.

Web References:

http://www.netotrade.com/

http://www.forexpeacearmy.com/forex-forum/scam-alerts-folder/28807-neto-trade-big-scam.html

http://forexbrokersonline.org/Netotrade-review/?src1=awennt&src2=b4s23pev_218_720277

https://blogs.ubc.ca/courseblogcl_ubc_comm_101_101_2014w1_44739-cl_ubc_comm_101_101_2014w1_44739_2045960_1/files/2014/04/businessmodelgeneration_preview.pdf

https://blogs.ubc.ca/courseblogcl_ubc_comm_101_101_2014w1_44739-cl_ubc_comm_101_101_2014w1_44739_2045960_1/files/2014/04/value_proposition_canvas.pdf

http://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/topics-domaines/other-autre/csr-rse.aspx?lang=eng

Recently Canada’s prime minister Steven Harper visited China and showed the openness and willingness of the Canadian government about the trade with China. 

Canadian prime minister Steven Harper and Chinese president Xi Jing Ping

As Chinese economy has been growing rapidly along with its investment opportunities over the past couple decades due to Chinese growing urbanization,  more investors started to realize Chinese enormous business opportunities and started to invest vastly in Chinese market. As a result, Chinese market has become extremely revenue attractive(market forces) and the number of its stakeholders has also increased rapidly. Even Canada government has realized and started to value the closer business ties with China regardless their different political ideologies.

One of the examples that reflects the tremendous opportunities in Chinese market is that the Canadian prime minister went to China and proved the openness of the Canadian government about trade with China. This encouraged the growth of the trade investment between these two big countries.

In my view, these close trade tie will not only create job opportunities in Canada, but also boost the country’s economy as more Canadian companies can trade actively and frequently with Chinese companies under the new economic negotiation.

In addition, the new economic policy for both Canada and China allows Canadian businesses to get easier access to Chinese market as they can trade with Chinese without the extra currency conversion to US dollar first before to yuan.

I think this is one of the example how a change in macro environment, specifically in this scenario the political and economic factor, can affect economy and businesses significantly.

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/07/invest_china.asp?rp=i

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/stephen-harper-raises-religious-freedom-concerns-with-china-1.2827647

http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/china/overview

https://web.stanford.edu/class/cee320/CEE320B/Seto.pdf

http://business.financialpost.com/2014/11/07/stephen-harper-courts-alibabas-jack-ma-opens-4-trades-office-in-visit-to-china-that-so-far-is-all-business/

Alibaba: To make it easy to do business anywhere

Alibaba, the world’s largest and the most valuable e-commerce corporation, initially raised $21.8 billion IPO at the New york stock exchange. I learned from Comm 101 that this phenomenon shows how well-known and famous Alibaba has already been before its IPO.

This aroused my curiosity: what made Alibaba such a successful and influential e-commerce corporation in the world?

After I did my research on Alibaba, a couple of the most impressive aspects about this company is its founder Jack Ma, who is one of the most prestigious, powerful and richest entrepreneur in China and even worldwide, and the corporate culture that he created for his employees and for Alibaba.

Personally I really appreciate the organizational culture that Jack Ma created for Alibaba and for his employees. Similar to Zappos generous and fair treatment to all its employees, all the staff  in Alibaba are also treated equally as family members in the big Alibaba family unity. All of them have the rights to express their genuine opinions and to criticize the company, different departments, and even the executive board (in a authentic and respectful manner) through an internal communication platform. I believe this transparent measure of criticizing is one crucial reason why the company can grow so rapidly as Alibaba is so open to diverse criticisms and so acceptant of new ideas and good advice.  I believe that Alibaba’s culture make its employees feel more comfortable and confident to express their personal opinions which result in an engaging workforce environment and more innovative ideas.

Alibaba’s annual mass wedding

Another example that reflects Alibaba’s organizational culture is Jack Ma conducting a mass wedding ceremony every May for his employees. This annual custom shows how much a leader cares about its employees like his own family. Although Alibaba earned negative gross profit from doing this for its employees every year, the trusting bond that was built overtime between employees and the company through the company’s different people-orientated policies can really have an immensely positive impact on the performance of the employees in the long run.

I believe that Alibaba’s corporate culture shows Jack Ma’s caring to all his employees, who, as a result, become more willing and motivated to dedicate themselves to the development of the company.

Through the example of Alibaba, I have gained a deeper understanding that a strong and people-orientated organizational culture is also an essential component for a business to succeed and flourish.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/22/us-alibaba-ipo-value-idUSKCN0HH0A620140922

http://www.forbes.com/profile/jack-ma/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/hengshao/2014/05/13/a-peek-inside-alibabas-corporate-culture/

http://online.thatsmags.com/post/jack-ma-officiates-bizarre-alibaba-mass-wedding

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational_culture

http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/corporate-culture

UBC Student Vote for Action Against Tuition and Residence Hikes

After I had read a few other UBC students blogs in regards to the most recent controversy – increase in tuition fee and housing costs, I raised the following questions.

– How ironic is that the University of British Colombia offered 17 tuition waivers for domestic students under special circumstances while proposing a 10% increase in tuition for international students and 20% increase in housing costs for the majority of students?

– How many international students, who are longing for high quality education, are struggling with their financial issues and are unable to afford to attend post-secondary?

– Is UBC one of the institutes, who don’t care about students’ voice and claim their decisions that are all for the sake of the students?

#I AM A STUDENT I HAVE THE RIGHT TO GET EDUCATION

I believe that we students should have the rights to decide whether or not the university’s proposal/decision is beneficial for ourselves, and we students have the rights to say “No” to the university’s unpopular decisions. After all, we students are the customers who pay a large amount of money for the services, the education provided by the supplier, the university.

By analogy, in my opinion, UBC is acting as a monopoly, who has the market power to set whatever price they like to maximize their profits, knowing that there are always students/customers who are willing to pay regardless of how ridiculous the new price is.

Indeed, from a business point of view, maximizing profits is the key. However as a public post-secondary institution, whose responsibility is to provide education opportunities for all students over the world, the University of British Columbia should also have a strong sense of social responsibility, should as well as take international students’ voice and sake into solid consideration.

“Education and affordable housing is a right, not a privilege”.  —  Ivan Leonce

Without education, what would the world be like?

Web References:

http://www.hercampus.com/school/ubc/ubc-ams-agm-amongst-other-acronyms

http://news.ubc.ca/2014/10/29/overcoming-the-past-seeing-a-new-future/

https://consultations.students.ubc.ca/consultations/international-student-tuition-consultation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_British_Columbia

http://thetalon.ca/ivan-leonces-teach-in-speech-thats-not-consultation-thats-notice/

Both Alibaba and Amazon are the leading companies in the e-commerce world, and I believe that both of them are two of the most disruptive innovators in the business world. When comparing and contrasting these two e-commerce giants, I recalled the concept of point of parity and point of difference.

PoP:

Both Alibaba and Amazon are e-commerce corporations who “focus on helping people buy a vast variety of products at low prices without stepping into a store, and who are “dominant players” in their home markets. They “disrupted” and reformed the traditional way of selling and purchasing good to totally online operation; meanwhile they offer their  customers with such low prices(cost leadership strategy) for almost every commodity.

PoD:

As operating an “open marketplace”, Alibaba is serving as the “e-middle man” who connects buyers with sellers, who are not just small business but also branded manufacturers online. As a result, Alibaba does not sell to its customer directly and doesn’t not need any warehouses, which heavily reduces its fixed costs for having neither inventory nor renting a warehouse.

As operating an “managed marketplace”, Amazon distributes its own products; manufactures its own brands of electronic devices, having a strong supply chain and a strong control over its customers experiences. I believe that Amazon is an example of the vertical integration business model.

Finally, I believe that the differences between the different cultures and political situations in China and United States, Alibaba and Amazon’s home markets, are the key factors that caused these two e-commerce disruptive innovators to have differentiated approaches and policies on operating and promoting the companies. In order for Alibaba and Amazon to continue expanding themselves in their home markets and even gain popularity in each other’s home markets, they would need to have more understanding about the different cultures, regulations and different needs of the target audience in different markets.  Additionally, they need to become even more disruptively innovative in order to stay in the super competitive e-commerce market and to win the “battle” in the coming years.

There is always a need for more disruptive innovation in the market!

Web References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alibaba_Group

http://www.alibaba.com/?uptime=20120813&ptsid=1012000013366643&crea=21430693387&plac=&netw=g&device=c&ptscode=0110101010010001

http://www.amazon.ca/?tag=hydcaabkg-20&hvadid=26166271066&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13396615586843361227&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_7na9ri0ehg_e

http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2014/09/22/alibaba-vs-amazon-who-will-win-the-global-e-commerce-war/

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/22/us-alibaba-ipo-value-idUSKCN0HH0A620140922

http://www.segmentationstudyguide.com/understanding-perceptual-maps/points-of-difference-pod/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Points-of-parity/points-of-difference

http://www.claytonchristensen.com/key-concepts/

After read one of my classmates Keegan’ s blog about the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak and its effect, and after did some research regarding to this topic, I agree that Ebola crisis has affected the stock market to change rapidly for relevant companies; however what I see even more interesting is how a change in one factor of the macro environment in three West African countires can have an immense impact on the quality of life of all West African people and the present(and even future) economy of West Africa as a whole.

Although only three West African countries, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, are mostly affected by the Ebola outbreak, the entire West Africa is suffering from the threat of Ebola epidemic, poor health condition, and the recession of its economy.

West African people are having a really hard time. They have a poor health care system to treat the thousands of infected people efficiently and effectively. They need the aid of other developed country such as United States, who can provide them higher quality of health care technology and services. They are “trapped” in the epidemic outbreak regions due to the new “travel restriction” and “special travel precaution” imposed by the United States; which make it even more difficult for them to move/travel to other “safer” countries outside of West Africa.

West Africa’s economy is also having a really hard time. Internally, the GDP in those three outbreak countries dropped significantly due to less job opportunities and significant decrease in exporting domestic good, whereas the Inflation rate is raising rapidly, as more domestic people fear of food shortage. Externally, despite the fact that the Ebola epidemic broke out only in three countries, many international companies still retreated from the entire West Africa market, and many firms in other parts of the world started to reject trading with/purchasing goods from West African companies.

The Ebola incidence have taught me the significance of macro environment and its trend, and how they can impact both life and economy of one region, one nation or even the world as a whole significantly.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/keegantaberner/2014/10/01/ebola-case-reported-in-us-ebola-related-stocks-jump/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_virus_epidemic_in_West_Africa

http://www.inc.com/oscar-raymundo/how-the-ebola-epidemic-could-affect-global-business-travel.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11145266/What-chocolate-prices-tell-us-about-the-spread-of-Ebola.html

http://www.worldbank.org/en/region/afr/publication/ebola-economic-analysis-ebola-long-term-economic-impact-could-be-devastating

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/11132801/World-Bank-warns-of-economic-imperative-to-respond-rapidly-to-Ebola.html