Ryan's Blog

We have learned a lot about business plans in class and the importance of having one to strategically and thoroughly plan out each and every step to take on an entrepreneurial venture. This method is more secure and will definitely allow you to account for things that you wouldn’t have thought about if you acted too impulsively. However, I stumbled on this article on why getting a product ready, firing it into the market and then plan afterwards, could potentially be better in some ways than traditionally method. The article emphasizes that the market is so unpredictable and even if we feel that we can predict trends, we will never completely understand what will happen. With this being said, it may be crucial, especially in the technology market, to first place the product and adjust from there. Besides, an entrepreneur could also suffer from what’s stated in the article as analysis paralysis where he or she is prepared but stuck on aiming to a point where they will never execute their venture. In my opinion, this is a really subjective topic and the decision should be made based on the urgency of the product or service to its demand in the market. If the product needs to be placed in the market quickly, then the Ready, Fire and Aim approach seems more viable, however if the urgency is not present, a standard Ready, Aim and Fire, seems more logical.

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Having shopped at Zara multiple times in Canada as well as Hong Kong, it was interesting to see how their business model worked in the class covering Supply Chain Management. Unlike other producers, Zara had a fast fashion business model of a short supply chain as opposed to a long supply chain. The difference is that most producers manufacture their products from China and have them shipped out, while Zara has their products sourced from Spain, Portugal and Morocco. This increases the relative costs Zara must pay as opposed to manufacturing in China, but allows Zara to watch global trends and react to them when necessary. I found this to be a very interesting strategy because it directly reflects upon myself as a consumer. The prices of Zara in North America and Hong Kong are relatively similar and marketed as a mid to high cost brand, as stated in this article, the prices should be slightly cheaper in Europe because of the shipping costs Zara must pay to import their brand into the North American and Asian Market. This is probably the reason for the slightly higher pricing. The company also rarely has large sales and I believe this is due to the ability of the company to transition into new trends without having to retain stocks from previous seasons, allowing them to not have to liquidate their products at any point in time.

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After the class on Corporate Social Responsibility, I realized that a companies productivity could potentially be decreased if they implemented sustainable practices. Companies could either be really efficient, but damage the environment, or they could be really sustainable, but slightly lack productivity when compared to less sustainable companies. Upon looking at more news articles however, I found that MGM Resorts International Properties was awarded the Highest Green Keys Meetings rating. Awarded by Green Key Global, this designation shows the highest form of sustainability displayed by MGM’s four resorts. With exceptional methods, these designated MGM resorts have state of the art technology that make the company more sustainable. This method has even been stated to improve the productivity of the company as opposed to popular belief of how it could affect the quality MGM brings. The world seems to be on a transition into more sustainable management of a company and care not only about the productivity and revenues of the company, but the betterment of the world. With technological improvements coming at a high rate, companies are gaining new inventions to help their company not only become more cost efficient, but also reduce the effects of their carbon footprint all together.

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After having a class on entrepreneurship, guest speaker Amielle Lake’s company Tagga seemed very interesting because it was something that was more related to the current advancement in technology. This company seemed to tie in with the things learned in the MIS and BTM class where the company is attempting to implement mobile marketing as a new form of technology due to the uprise in the smartphone industry. I found that Lake entered the market at a good time because the opportunities were bountiful because smartphones were just being introduced in 2008. Although the competition is fierce in this market, Tagga has been able to snag some big names such as Adidas, Lindt chocolate and Redbull which has made me feel like the company is on a successful route. On another note, I thought that it was really motivating to listen to the founder speak for the company herself and show the hardships that can come along in starting up a business. I was surprised to hear that she had stepped down from the CEO position to move to the CRO position, this made me realize that she wanted the better of the company as opposed to a better title for herself. The drive to sustain her dream company has inspired even more to pursue an entrepreneurial path in the future.

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Data representation has been fairly direct and simple over the last decade, but a new form of data representation is on the rise. Infographics can turn those boring data spreadsheets and statistics into creative and appealing displays that catch the attention of the reader and make it more memorable and unique. The cost of the most basic uses of websites to make Infographics are currently free and can provide you with graphics to display data in a never before seen way. Popular free websites such as Visual.ly have provided users an insight into this fascinating advancement in information display. This can be strongly related to the class discussing MIS and BTM. It shows a strong shift in IT and signifies that companies may soon need to start following this trend before their outdated representations of data result in other companies being able to take over because they’re more responsive and adaptive. If the companies are able to experiment with this new technology before it matures, it may provide them with a competitive advantage of uniqueness in the rapidly changing world of technology. All in all, this new innovation opens up a more artistic approach in data representation.

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