A new global brand emerged as the first spot on October 2nd 2013: Apple. Apple’s reputation has been skyrocketing these past couple of years with its highly popular electronics such as Macbooks and iPhones. Apple was able to maintain stable proportions of both laptop and phone markets, and position themselves as one of the most global company. In this day and age, where there are so many competitors in each industry. This is quite a feat, beating Google and Microsoft in terms of brand value. Although many companies tend to find difficulty in finding the “right spot” for brand positioning, Apple shows no signs of any difficulty. In fact, in phone market, Apple was able to outshine its perhaps biggest competitor, Samsung, as seen in my peer’s blog post. Also, this external blog on Fortunes illustrates the reasons behind Apple’s success, raising brand strength as one of the factors.

Nanji, A. (2013 , October 2). Most valuable global brands: Apple, google, and coca-cola. Retrieved from http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2013/11768/most-valuable-global-brands-apple-google-and-coca-cola

This article discusses the accounting fraud that had been just scandalized on September of 2013. A former Singapore banker is held guilty for causing the accounting fraud of $1.7 billion for Olympus Corporation, the company in Japan known for its great camera products. Many companies have already been reported of accounting scandal such as Xerox and AOL, but now it is Olympus who is pleaded guilty. Considering the fact that Japanese economy was on decline for the last few years (refer to this link), it may be no surprise for some that Olympus is now associated with the idea of accounting fraud. In fact, as the quote from my peer’s post goes, “Don’t be surprised when the next big news is related to accounting fraud.” Although the reality remains that accounting fraud has occurred in Olympus, other businessmen must not take this issue as another company’s “business”.

This external website lists some of the big companies that faced corporate scandals. You would be surprised that you will notice many of the companies’ names listed on this website. Would you add Olympus Scandal onto this list?

Vaughan, B. (2013, September 18). Ex-banker pleads guilty in olympus accounting fraud. Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/18/us-olympus-banker-plea-idUSBRE98H0YE20130918