Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, has recently set sights to become more sustainable. How, might you ask, will this company that differentiates itself in the market with “everyday low prices,” be able to maintain low prices while encouraging sustainability? The company plans to do this by incorporating sustainability into their productivity loop.

Walmart’s productivity loop.

Jeff Rice, Walmart’s Director of Sustainability describes sustainability at Walmart as follows:

Jeff Rice, Walmart’s Director of Sustainability.

“Price and sustainability really go hand in hand. Becoming a more sustainable business will make you a more efficient business. It absolutely supports everyday low prices.”

I believe that in general, all consumers want to buy greener, more sustainable products, however they do not want to pay for higher prices. Price competitiveness hinders a company’s ability to promote sustainability through their products and/or services while maintaining high profit margins. The resulting increase in prices discourages many companies from becoming more sustainable, especially for small companies or companies that differentiate itself with low costs. It will be interesting to see how Walmart plans to incorporate a sustainability strategy without sacrificing their low prices. If successful, Walmart can make a huge impact on the world by being an active contributor in sustainability.

After reading case 3 on Red Bull, I found it so interesting how Red Bull used sponsorships and multimedia platforms as a form of marketing to customers. Previously, I had never heard of content marketing which I think is a more effective way to market to people. Consumers have adapted to the many traditional forms of marketing; from commercials to print ads, consumers have tuned it all out. For example, DVR has become so common in households so that people can skip through commercials. It seems as though many companies are rethinking how to market to a society where ignoring advertisements have become a habitual practice. In the article “Coke Revamps WebSite to Tell Its Story” by Stuart Elliott, it discusses how Coca-Cola plans to give their website a makeover. In a subjective manner, Coca-Cola plans to tell a story and offer articles on entertainment, the environment, health, interviews, video clips etc. It is important that companies constantly adjust their marketing strategy in order to keep up with fast-changing societies. The way in which these companies approach marketing deepens the value proposition of the company and gives customers something to talk about in connection to the brand.

In class,  we analyzed the trend of Apple’s stock prices in the last year noting that its stock prices increased by 50%. We also discussed how Google earnings missed expectations October which caused shares to decrease by 11% as investor’s confidence in the company’s future cash flow decreased. This made me wonder if the stock prices of Apple decreased when Steve Jobs resigned as CEO in August 2011. Did investors have less confidence in Apple due to the resignation of its innovative leader?

The article “Apple stock drops as Steve Jobs resigns chief executive role” by Graeme Wearden, reports that a 3% fall in Apple stock wipes $10 billion off the company’s value, as investors fret over a future without its visionary leader. Contrary to this, Michael Gartenberg, research director at Gartner, makes a valid point saying, “while this marks the end of an era for Apple, it’s important to remember that there’s more to Apple than any one person.” Its interesting to see that Job’s resignation would have such an impact on stock prices. Apple consists of a massive team, not just one individual, that drives innovation at Apple. Do investors not have faith in the rest of the team? This shows that fear of change and uncertainty consistently encourages one to act impulsively, even in the realm of finances.

An interesting way to define social entrepreneurship.

After learning that a social entrepreneur is someone who uses business skills to create and manage a business with the objective to solve a social problem, I began to wonder about the inner workings of a social enterprise. Nicola Brookes in her blog “What Defines a Social Entrepreneur?” talks about Jamie Oliver who created a social enterprise called Fifteen, a chain of restaurants that trains young people to become qualified chefs through an Apprentice Program.

Brookes mentions that the profits of the restaurants goes back into the community. However, this makes me wonder if social entrepreneurs take any profits for him or herself and if they do, do they advertise it? Its probable that social entrepreneurs use the objective of societal change as a point of difference that attracts sympathetic consumers to their product or service, thus being the driving force of profits. Similarly, should people of non-profit organizations, such as charities, be paid out of the pockets of generous donators? I find it interesting to think about this and relate it to different social enterprises and non-profit organizations. I think people often do not ask these questions because they feel wrongful to doubt the intentions of a person who is working to make a change.

Employees are a company’s most valuable asset. Without employees, companies are unable to carry out their business. There would be no one managing, no one to manage, and there will be no products or services being created and therefore no profit. In class, we discussed why employees are not included on the balance sheet under assets of a company. Since people are not legally owned by the company, they cannot be an asset, unlike a piece of equipment for example. In the article “Are you an asset to your company?” by John W. Schoen, he points out the same reasoning as we did in class: a company does not own its employees even if they are bound by a legal contract.

I think it would be hard to establish a standard way of accounting for an employee under assets.  Assigning a value to different individuals will be challenging. What makes one individual more valuable than the next? Would you depreciate people on the balance sheet as a person ages like you would with other fixed assets? With these questions in mind, I don’t think there will ever be a standard way to measure employees simply because how different people are.

In Maair Ali’s blog “Politics and Businesses,” he gives a great example of how governments can greatly effect how a business operates. Ali says that “businesses are hugely impacted by the political scenario in the country or market.” To add to his statement, politics and the government are also hugely impacted by businesses that operate in their country. Take for example the article “Businesses threaten to withdraw investment if Government does not go green enough” in The Telegraph. This British newspaper explains how seven major British electricity and nuclear technology firms threaten to back out in future investments with the government if the government doesn’t change its environmental agenda. What’s at stake? Hundreds of million pounds of investment as well as thousands of jobs in the UK. It is evident the extent in which businesses have power over the government and the economy. Since businesses and politics are so dependent on one another, both parties need to see the importance of compromising. One day it could be the business threatening the government and the next it could be the other way around which is why they must be strategically work with the other party to fulfill their own agendas.

ICBC, a big bully?

My uncle recently told me about how he took someone to court over a car accident. A few years ago, when my uncle was hit by another car, the other driver admitted that he was at fault but later gave a false statement of events to ICBC. In response to the conflicting stories, ICBC declared they were both at fault and would have to individually pay for their own damages.

On Bronson Jones & Company LLP’s website, it explains ICBC adjusters’ main purpose which is “assigning blame and minimizing claims costs.” In my uncle’s case, ICBC refused to re-examine both cars for better evidence in order to assign fault to someone as it would save them money for having to assess the cars and to pay for the damages of the innocent party. In addition, ICBC provided a lawyer for the accused but did not provide one for my uncle. This example questions ICBC’s ethics. Since ICBC represents both parties in an accident, they are always in a conflict of interest however they must use their discretion to handle the dilemma. Though there is not a clear solution, ICBC should act in fairness instead focusing on cost-minizming goals.

The evolution of Blackberry.

In Tony Wanless’ blog, The Insider, he discusses the future prospects of RIM saying that “RIM should dump its phone business.” Wanless thinks that RIM should switch their focus from making innovative smartphones to improving their security of data exchange platform. It is an interesting and bold statement that he is making because when people, myself included, think of RIM, we associate that with Blackberrys. When Wanless suggests that ditching the smartphone market and concentrating on a “platform for ultra secure data transmission”  will help salvage the company, we wonder how this would improve RIM as a company.

What Wanless is talking about is rethinking and reevaluating the companies point of parity and their point of difference. The only way RIM will be successful is by having a distinct point of difference. Since their smartphones cannot offer an advantage over other smartphones, it must find another point of difference. In RIM’s case, that would be creating the ultra secure data platform the Wanless discusses. With that in mind, RIM can build their brand around their point of difference which will set them apart from their competitors.

BC seeks ‘fair share’ in new Gateway pipeline deal

In recent news, Premier Christy Clark  is demanding a “fair share” of revenues from the proposed pipelines that would run from Alberta through to British Columbia’s west coast. The purpose of these pipelines is to be able to target the international oil market. However, this is a problem for Alberta as its oil sands are land locked which makes it difficult for them to export petroleum products. Though the proposed pipelines will help the Canadian economy, it also poses a threat to the environment of British Columbia, something that residents are concerned about.

The Trans Mountain Pipeline would run through my neighbourhood of North Burnaby. Therefore, I personally oppose both projects despite the potential benefits and revenues that will result of these them. When local BC residents were surveyed by the Living Ocean Society, only “29.7 per cent said more money from Gateway would make them more likely to support the project” (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/opposition-to-trans-mountain-pipeline-nearing-northern-gateway-levels/article4551051/).

Think about if an increase in revenue would persuade you to support the project. What if its close to your home? Would your mind set change?

Aftermath of the Inlet Drive oil spill in North Burnaby (2007).

The article I read on the internet discussed whether or not profiting from prison labour is ethical or unethical. There are several ethical issues posed by this article. We must consider that when companies hire convicts, they are paying them at a much lower wage than minimum wage. Can we say that this is a form of exploitation? Since employers know that convicts are in need of money, would this be taking advantage of the situation for profits sake?

We must also consider competing companies who choose not to employ convicts, perhaps for ethical reason. It is much harder for these companies to compete as they are at a disadvantage due to higher labour costs. In addition to these issues, convicts also occupy jobs that would otherwise be available for law-aiding citizens. However, we cannot say this is unfair because companies have a choice as to who to employ. For example, companies often take advantage of cheap labour overseas the same way they would with prisoners. I think that people find employing prisoners more unethical because they have contributed negatively to society and therefore do not deserve a job over a law-aiding citizen.