Month: November 2011

I refer to Ivan Chan’s article ‘Moral Conscience of the swoosh’ where he describes the way in which Nike exploits cheap labor to manufacture their goods which brings me to a question, “how many of us really know how our favorite brands manufacture their products?”. More often than not, Nike advertisements do incorporate a sense of corporate social responsibility like cancer awareness. However, what is the point of that when they pay their workers wages less than minimum wage. Many people do not know that Nike is not the only sports equipment retailer that does that. That is why I do agree with Ivan because, all their marketing and advertising to present a socially responsible company goes down the drain when the true facts are revealed on how unethical their methods of production are. Therefore a better way to clean up their image as a company as well as become more socially responsible and ethical, they should revise their methods of production so that the people would truly appreciate the company for what it is.

I have recently come across a blog called ‘The Boss Ladies’ created by business and leading entrepreneurial women in and around Vancouver. A human resource related article, called “Creating a Workplace Play Policy” caught my attention. The article talks about how incorporating  some time for creativity in the working week might lead to an increase in productivity. It also discusses the trade -offs between sacrificing billable hours for innovation. The article also brings in factors such as employees do not necessarily work for money because they value job satisfaction above salary.

I personally feel this is an interesting blog and article because it gives insights from the bosses themselves on how to run the company. I agree with the article is stating that the bosses need to strike a balance between carrying out the tasks of  their job scope as well as giving them some time to be creative be innovative. Too much of either could result in a drop in productivity. The post also compares its human resource management to Google which is widely known to be ‘one of the best places to work at’. Therefore this blog not only gives us an insider scoop to human resource management but also capital investment and effective marketing strategies.

Link: (http://www.bcbusinessonline.ca/bcb/bc-blogs/boss-ladies/2011/05/06/creating-workplace-play-policy)

I refer to Dilraj’s blog post dated on October 10th, 2011. I agree with his views to a certain extent. Southwest airlines is in a industry which is very saturated with the abundance of many substitutes. Price is no longer a factor in air travel with many airlines offering competitive fares. I do understand that the airline has to follow certain regulations. However, by misinterpreting or misunderstanding the situation as mentioned in the article, would cause the public to view the airline to be discriminatory and racist. This might cause a PR nightmare as well as very bad publicity for the airline. Their sales might plunge due to the abundance of substitutes. The airline cannot afford that as rising costs such as jet fuel might cause the company to go in the red and eventually join the list of ‘now defunct airlines’ .  Therefore in conclusion, as reiterated by Dilraj, Southwest airlines should now focus on improving their image by improving their customer skills. They should also retrain their cabin and ground crew to improve their discernation skills to avoiding a similar situation again without compromising the safety of the flight.

Link: (https://blogs.ubc.ca/dilrajrahal/2011/10/10/muslim-woman-sues-southwest-airline/)

An article on the 17th of November 2011 caught my attention for its politically provocative images. The company United Colours of Benetton which is an Italian clothing retailer is no stranger to using shocking and eye opening ad campaigns. In their photos they made a contrast of various political and religious figures kiss to bring out the point of reconciliation and peace. Fortunately or unfortunately certain images from the ads were removed due to a uproar from the dignitaries themselves.

I personally feel that this is a good ad campaign as it does not comply to the more traditional ways of marketing. The company is fond of associating its brand image to creating a better world i.e. bringing about social awareness about issues such as AIDS and war. I do agree that the images is too liberal for my liking but it did get the attention and creating debates and discussion about the ad campaign itself which is a effective way of creating the social awareness the company wishes to incorporate. Besides the corporate social responsibility of the company, this campaign is an effective way for Benetton to market its products. People who can relate to their cause would buy their products even more now just to make a statement.

Link: (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2062423/Benetton-Unhate-advert-Pope-kissing-imam-withdrawn-Vatican-calls-disrespectful.html)

Mining is never associated with any form of environmental friendliness let alone environmental sustainability. However, this is what mining companies like Barrick Gold Corp are hoping to achieve. The article from the Globe and Mail dated on November 15th 2011 informs us that mining companies are now taking the initiative to go green by investing in clean power such as wind and solar energy. Although their intentions were good, it was mainly driven by the fact that they do not have to rely on the power grid and hence cut their power consumption costs and ease the load of the national power grids.

I personally feel that this is a good investment and a good step for the companies to take. This is because although the actual act of mining is far from being environmentally friendly, investing in renewable energy would definitely see a reduction in operation costs as well as more stability as prices of fossil fuels are volatile. Furthermore, this sets an example for larger scale raw mineral extraction companies to make an effort to reduce their carbon footprint. A environmentally conscious company also helps with the company image and might encourage further investment.

Link to Article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/miners-turn-to-renewable-energy-to-cut-costs/article2237420/

The company I chose to blog about for being entrepreneurial is Foursquare. It is a mobile application on smartphones that allow users to check into places, view the ratings of the place and also collect badges for frequenting these places. It not only benefits the users of the application but also the owners of the restaurants and bars etc as it allows them to keep track of their customer flow and who are their loyal customers and rewarding these loyal customers with coupons and discounts. More companies such as Gap are giving users an opportunity to get a discount if they ‘checked’ into a Gap store and the company can gather data as to how many people did patronize their store that day.

This company was born from innovation and now they have 4.5. million downloads of the application which distinguishes them other companies.  Furthermore according to Schumpeter’s View of Entrepreneurship, this company has successfully created a new form of organization; organization of how users keep track of their whereabouts. The company keeps on growing till this day and there are more than 1 million users to date and more people are realizing the applications full potential.

Links:

(http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2010/june/206722.html)

(http://www.mobilemarketingwatch.com/gap-uses-foursquare-for-unique-one-day-only-25-off-check-in-offer-8498/)